Cricked neck

   Woke up this morning with a stiff neck on one side, probably slept the wrong way on it last night or I may have done it shaking the beer barrel about during cleaning. It wouldn't be the first time I've hurt myself cleaning the beer barrel but usually its the shoulders or chest, I really shouldn't put so much water in there and try and shake it about.

   Bottling the beer took a lot longer than I had planned, it always does so I don't know why I never take that into account. I did manage to finish off the 2 inch check cross band on the inkle loom but didn't start another one, I will today though. 
    I didn't manage to get anything else done apart from a little designing for a clothespin/peg bag but even that was slow going. I'm getting distracted with cable designs for it instead of working on the overall design. I have it all worked out in my head now, just need to get it on paper now.

   Nothing else to write really so I hope you all have a great day, take care folks.  

Bottling beer and determining the strength.

   Not a big post today as I'm bottling my beer. Its really simple to do but always takes me a couple of hours. Had a quick taste test and its seems pretty good at this stage, does get better with age. Will bottle about 20+ pints and put the rest in a pressure barrel. 4.5% isn't my strongest but is a little stronger than I normally brew, prefer to drink for taste not to see if I can split my head open.

There are 2 calculations to determine the strength as long as you have a hydrometer.

ABV= OG - FG / .00738

Original gravity minus final gravity divided by .00738
e.g

• O.G 1.036 -
• F.G 1.003
•  =  4.5 % (once rounded up/down)

Or

• OG - FG * 131
• .036 - .003 = .04 x 131 = 4.5

using the wiki numbers, it would be multiplied by 135 instead of 131.

Using 135 instead of 131 I think takes into account the priming sugars.

    Will be back tomorrow posting about knitting again, I'm also playing with the layout of the blog and stuff . It may appear broken at times but don't worry I've not fallen into the bucket of homebrew.

bbq & rain, a typical English post.

Well that didn't go according to plan. It went dull and started drizzling on and off but I really did want a bbq. Decided to put the chimney on the large chimera, the things cast iron and nearly 6 feet tall. Don't cook with it all that often as it can be a pain and hot, darn hot,but it is good for cooking in when its drizzling because the foods covered.Its great for fires too, will burn wood and coal. Took the winter bags off it to put the chimney on and it smelled funny, no not funny more a gross smell. I season it with lard to help keep the rain from rusting it, even tho its covered most of the time. My little dinky chimera is out in the rain all year round and apart from the feet there's no rust on it at all, so it does work. I don't cook in the small chimera but do burn it a lot and occasionally boil water on the chimney.

So the inside of the large chimera is somewhat mouldy, and smelly. Probably not a safe eating environment. Started a nice big fire going in it and put some of my newspaper bricks on. Should burn nice and hot for a couple of hours and kill everything. Will clean it tomorrow, fun and joy.

Did my burgers on my wagner cast iron pan in the kitchen, tastes fine but just isn't the same really. Still, its nice eating and watching a roaring fire while having a pint of home brew lager. This batch has turned out very well. I've had alot of trouble making a decent tasting lager. Bitters and ales are fine but the lagers can be tricky because of the temperature.

Haven't got much knitting done, managed 4 rows. Not sure I'll be able to knit anymore later, I might be too mellowed from the lager.

Hope the weathers better for you folks, have a great rest of the weekend.