Labels

I've finally gotten round to indexing my blog. So now if you want to view all posts on a particular topic, just select the appropriate label. I've broken the posts down into the following :-

• Beer
• Bikes
• Cheese
• Food
• Life
• Music
• Running
• Skating
• Travel
• Work

Which isn't a bad selection of things to be writing about. Life is good :). Was in two minds about splitting out 'Beer' and 'Brewing' but can always do that later if need be.

Most posts are linked to a couple of labels - this one is linked to them all so you can have a starting point. Have fun!

Barefoot loop

For the last 6 weeks or so I've been slowly (very slowly) extending the length of my barefoot run. Up until now I've been doing an 'out & back' route but last night I finally reached a distance which would allow me to run around the block - a mental milestone* as it feels like you're actually getting somewhere

It's funny how long it takes - 10 minutes or so of warming up, 10 minutes wandering around outside waving my phone in the air waiting for a GPS signal, run for almost 5 minutes, stretch for another 15. But nontheless, I now consider myself enough of a barefoot runner to post this

*Actually 'milestone' is a bit of a misnomer as the loop is only 0.75km long. 'Half-milestone' is probably more appropriate.

Catching up with a few beers

Because I've been away a bit recently the brewing has been neglected, so yesterday I took advantage of the wet weather and spent an afternoon of beer-related fettling.

First off I bottled the 'Saison am' that's been sitting in secondaries completing it's fermentation for a few weeks. This just needs labelling and then I'll leave it to sit for a few weeks.

It's a sign of how keyboard-orientated I've become that writing less than 30 labels leaves my hand cramping 

Next I racked off the 'Saison Du Noir', which finished it's primary fermentation last week and has been patiently sitting in the fermentor. This was an experimental recipe with darker malts and as you can see it looks very different to my usual pale brews - in fact it's pretty much a porter (which was accidental) but brewed with Saison yeast (which was not).

Despite it's dark appearance it's also a lot weaker than my regular beers. Most of the time I brew using a 'partial mash' method where I extract sugars from grains (the 'mash') and then supplement this with the addition of pale malt extract, but for this one I reduced the amount of malt extracts. Unfortunately the mash didn't seem to be very efficient which will leave me with an understrength beer (about 3%). I thought long and hard about adding extra sugars in some form but eventually decided to leave it, and the result is fairly 'thin' tasting and doesn't match it's looks. We'll see how it turns out after a week or so in secondary and then a couple of weeks in the bottle.

That left me with an empty fermentor with a 'yeast cake' of Saison yeast in the bottom

Normally I'd either wash this away or scoop it out into sterile bottles and store it in the fridge. But the rain was unrelenting so I thought I'd make another beer and pitch it directly onto the yeast, which saves a lot of faffing around.

My initial ginger beer was almost gone and had been very refreshing in the heat, although it has been fermented to dryness which some people thought it a little 'thin' and sharp (don't worry Miff, Rach & Gordy -  I've still got bottles for your professional opinions). So I thought I'd expand on that recipe and combine two different summer beer styles. Initially I peeled 1.2kg of ginger, which because the ginger was superbly fresh gave me just over a kilo of clean root (missus).  

I blended this and added in 2 lemons, 2 limes, 6 cloves and some cinnamon bark. But this time instead of a kg of raw sugar I added 1/2 kg of pale malt extract and 1/2 kg of wheat malt extract (along with 1kg of brown sugar and 1/2 kg of lactose)

I boiled this up for 1 hr and added 2 chopped and partially deseeded birdseye chillies 10 minutes from the end. Then after cooling and straining I poured it directly onto the yeast cake. You could almost hear the yeast gnashing it's teeth and salivating in anticipation, and a few hours later the whole thing (wrapped up in a towel for warmth) was bubbling away nicely.

Bit of a one-dimensional photo - I'll leave you to add the once-every-five-seconds bubble of the fermentor and the all-pervading smell of ginger. 

Views

Don't want to accuse the client I'm with at the minute of being out in the sticks, but this is the view outside their office...

just a little hotel

I'm in Sydney again, this time out in 'the hills' area. Staying in Baulkham Hills, working in Rouse Hill. It's a small and intimate hotel..
The hard bit will be not exploiting the time difference and sending spoilers about the reality TV show we're both sadly addicted to back to Liz. I can't believe they served that up!

Aural crack

Die Antwoord are a rap / rave band from South Africa who released their first album '$0$' as a free download a couple of years ago using a pc computer. They became an overnight internet sensation and this year have taken it to the next level with a new album Ten$ion and it's accompanying single 'I Fink U Freeky'.

I'm not sure whether the band is a high-art meets low-brow project, an extended joke at the expense of it's fans, a cynical attempt to boost their sales through the addition of an unnecessary shock factor a la Marilyn Manson or just a bunch of musicians pushing their boundaries and following their muse down whatever twisted alleyways it chooses to lead them. Either way it's music that reaches inside your brain, grabs your frontal cortex and doesn't ever stop shouting into your inner year.

The clip below probably isn't safe for work and definately isn't something to watch with kids around. It's probably also worth skipping if you don't like 90's styled rave, rap, bad language, bad haircuts, bad tattoos, rats, snakes, gangster posturing or South African accents. If anyone is left, welcome to your new internal soundtrack.....

Go on Marin - just one more listen.....
   

Birthday weekend

It was my birthday last week, which is why we were down at Burleigh Heads for a long weekend. We had a hotel by the ocean, so the balcony was a great place to open presents

 and have birthday 'cake'

 The Burleigh Surf Pro was on and on Saturday the crowds weren't too bad so it was easy to get a clear site of the action

Although we found the time to head over to Currumbin beach (and their surf life saving club) for a change of scene

 

The next morning we got up early to beat the heat and went for a walk around the Burliegh Heads headland. The final of the surf competition was that day, so we sat and watched some of the finest surfers in the world freesurfing as a warm up.

 Oh and a guy on a long board stealing some waves too.

Burleigh Heads is around 15km south of 'the Matrix' (or Surfers Paradise as some call it) and you can see it looming in the distance, but the vibe in the town is still calm and relaxed

 The headland itself is a small clump of local rainforest split by a couple of tarmac paths

with some stunning viewpoints - Looking south to Currumbin beach below. It was weird - all the people we passed walking up from here were older couples, families or people struggling to draw breath. Everyone that passed us from the Burleigh side was young, fit, toned and athletic. I wonder if they have a residency test? 

 There were some stand up paddleboarders enjoying the early morning waves rolling into the river mouth

 although the serenity was probably broken by the guys in a boat jumping the same waves

 Back at Burliegh the surf competition wrapped up with Julian Wilson winning, Josh Kerr second and local legend (and ex-world champ) Mick Fanning third

 Julian seemed pretty stoked, with a cool trophy and a cooler $15,000 cheque

 It's weird for anyone from the UK to think of surfing as being a popular spectator sport, apart from the obvious joys of watching idiots wade out into near freezing Welsh waters on a rainy Easter weekend and complete for blown out 2' waves in the rain. Over here it's much higher profile, and it's funny watching these guys get mobbed by ranks of muscular tattoo'd fit-looking blokes queuing up for autographs like kids at a Justin Bieber concert

The next day we sadly had to go home, but we broke the journey with a game of putt-putt (aka 'crazy golf') on a jungle course

I took this photo from the safest place on the course - the hole

Not actually true, Liz potted 4 holes in one and I was lucky to scrape victory. It was fun though - they even had real life lizards in the holes

After that we checked out a sand sculpture competition - the theme was piracy

and then sadly it was time to head home. Great weekend though - thanks to all who sent presents & best wishes!