Recent content by Owly055

This wasn't beer........... I quit brewing almost 2 years ago and quit drinking entirely about a year ago... My body doesn't like alcohol anymore for some reason. I was so incredibly lucky I find it hard to believe. Not just that it didn't do "serious" harm, but that my insurance was still...

I've never been involved in a "bottle grenade" before. This evening I got to experience one up close and personal. The bottle was a 1L EzCap bottle, a bottle rated with a burst pressure of over 100 PSI. It must have been a defective bottle. I've used these for years, and normally the seal...

I recently discovered that my well water was contaminated with bacteria of some kind..... in the "usual" and unpleasant way. The persistent intestinal problem clued me in to bad water. It's been a regular problem during the irrigation season of a couple months each year. I'll treat the well...

I quit brewing quite awhile ago, and went on a fasting program to lose weight, bring blood pressure down and stimulate autophagy for general health. I've entirely given up drinking....though I'm not an extremist. In spite of a lifetime of drinking, I've always been able to walk away from it or...

Nitro infusers are something of a mystery. For nitro covfefe, they often have a high dollar widget that adds nitrogen inline at up to 25%. How these are designed to meter properly is a bit of a mystery. I presume that the pressure of the nitrogen and the covfefe must be equal, and it is a...

Awhile back my neighbor's wife gave me a can of "coffee beer" or some such thing..... No resemblance to beer, it was just alcoholic creamed coffee, and asked me if I could "brew" that. I laughed after tasting it, and explained that there was no "brewing" involved except brewing coffee. The...

I have evolved what I call a "power breakfast" over the last month or two. Needless to say it is not my exclusive breakfast. I absolutely refuse to eat the junk from the "garbage isle" as I call it in the grocery store, and probably haven't bought a box of such junk except bran flakes for...

I'm no longer brewing beer, though I brew other things including vinegar, some wine, some things we are not allowed to discuss here, as well as kombucha and kefir. I also work closely with a neighbor in his brewing, having gotten him started a number of years ago. Recently I was delighted...

Since I quit brewing beer, I've done numerous projects. I make cheese, bought a kamodo grill, and am using it for grilling and smoking. I bought an Omega 900 auger type juicer to get more and broader based nutrition, as I've never eaten enough veggies. Also a dehydrator, (LEM brand) which...

I've altered my program slightly after doing some more reading on spore forming bacteria like botulinum. The CDC stuff claims that it cannot be detected by appearance or smell, etc etc.... Essentially more scare tactic than complete truth. It can produce toxins at dangerous levels before it...

2 years ago I set out to develop a way to preserve meat in as fresh state without refrigeration. The idea was to be able to package steaks in a food saver bag so that they could be reheated to medium rare temp and eaten months later. The original process involved first searing the steak with...

The "Electric Coolaid Acid Test" was this morning.......... I opened both jams........ the same batch, one frozen the other "cooked" at Sous Vide temp. The sous vide jam cooked 7 hours before I pulled it out as I was delayed........... I don't think that made a significant difference, but it...

I completed the project today, and put the "sous vide jam"...... I don't think the word "cooked" applies when the temp is 135F...... but where do you draw the line? The Sigmunds Voss Kavik yeast I used in my continuous brew experiment tolerated temps only slightly below this. To me "cooking"...

130 is not a "cooking" temp...... I'm not concerned about "correctness", only with results. Today I will be trying the process. The proof is in the pudding. Remember, I'm the local iconoclast...... who smashes convention at every opportunity. 135 for four hours is far different than...

Yes... the scoby will get thicker with each batch. Often times the first go has just a thin film.......