I like this time at night on HBT

[DrunkleJon]

You're supposed to stop cutting before it starts to hurt. Glad that you are healing up. I bet your saw was a mess too

Fixed that for you.

 

[LabRatBrewer]

For my rice wine:

 

[CreamyGoodness]

OK I am back kind of. I had a little issue with a chain saw and my knee awhile ago and pretty much have spent a life time it seems on the couch trying to get to where I could walk again.

But the heavens parted and the Dr in perhaps a moment of stupidity said I could take the iron maiden of a brace off my knee and walk some with crutches. Well he did not say how much to walk so I have been cutting trees again:rockin:

I would post a photo of my knee in the hospital but I have no clue how to get it out of Gmail and post it here. Suffice it to say I cut tendons and the muscle along with the long bone in your thigh. Took some 200 stitches inside the wound to put me together again.

By the way I can now say that cutting a tree or cutting flesh I will choose a tree any day... Yup trees are much more fun to cut :fro:

Welcome back, Varmint. I think its safe to call you our resident cautionary tale .

 

[Dan]

Wow Varmitman! Glad to hear you're okay and back in action. I think there is a part of me that lives through your adventures. Maybe not this one.

PP, I made the orange marmalade again but this time removed most of the pith from the skin and orange and doubled the sugar - I also sliced the peel as thin as possible and gently boiled them with a teaspoon of baking soda for about 20 minutes before adding the meat of the orange. That made all the difference in the world. (I had to wiki kumquat! Had no idea what they are )

 

[brewingmeister]

varnitman this wasn't you was it?

 

[passedpawn]

varnitman this wasn't you was it?

I LOL'ed!

 

[Dan]

varnitman this wasn't you was it?

One thing I know about myself is I always make the topic of any post I submit self centered.-See? I'm not proud of that but I don't stop it.

Brewingmeister, that pic hit a chord with me. It strikes home.

My uncle Arty's (80 yo) career was tree-trimming, mowing grass along the interstate and stuff like that. One time at a Sunday family get together my uncle told my dad the big maple on the west side of our house needed trimming.

A few weeks later (it was uncle Arty's weekend) my uncle shows up with his company's big truck and wood chipper. He carried a chainsaw the size of hedgepost.

Long story short, my uncle climbed the tree, strapped himself to the trunk and started cutting it back. I don't know the method of what gets cut first or last or where to pick what branch. I just remember Uncle Arty way up in the air leaning back into his harness, his back straight as a board - he exuded confidence! That big old maple got cut back.

There is a painting somewhere, maybe my dad painted it.. actually I'm sure it was Dad. A painting very similar to the pic Brewingmeister posted, the tree wasn't as big but the man cutting it was. My uncle Arty, of course.

Varmitman, cheers to you for sharing your adventures, and for bringing back some of my own fond memories.

Stay safe V-man. And if you can't do that? Just don't get dead on us our friend! Please.

 

[LabRatBrewer]

For my banana wine. Lol it almost looks like it belongs in that other forum.

 

[Dan]

Hey all,

21,548 and 4.3. Nice numbers.

I want to apologize for my last post. My mom passed away 14 and a half years ago today after an heroic 5 year battle with cancer. She was 61. This time of year always gets me reminiscing about family more than usual and I get weirder than usual..

Enough said...

I don't think it's correct to say homebrewing is just about making beer. A tasty home brew created by your own effort is likely the product of desire, learning, effort, and patience.


The two numbers above you might find useful if you use propane to brew.

21,548 is BTUs available from a pound of propane.
4.2 lbs is how much propane weighs per gallon. (based, I'm sure on a standard day, I doubt variances are significant for homebrewing)

Real simple math.

16.6lb is "tare weight" of an empty propane 5 gallon/20lb capacity tank - The standard grill tank that can be traded at HomeDepot and such.

Tanks are not filled to their full capacity because of safety factors, expansion, abuse, whatever.. They just sell to the public a jug of propane with some safety measures. Not anything we can do about that. It's a given a 5 gallon tank is somewhere around 4.5-8 gallons of propane..

A five gallon tank, safety measures or not, will last quite a long time. But how long? Who wants to run out of gas during a brew session.. I know with 100% certainty I can say NOBODY!!

So what do you do to curtail that? The easiest thing is to have a spare CO2 bottle always on hand. I suppose, depending on who you talk to, Going Electric is a better answer. Believe me, I love electricity but I don't have the confidence to expose water and electricity.. That's my bad...I know the guys who do it are doing this safe.. I just don't quite trust myself..Thats all..


Getting back to what I was saying.. Real simple
Weigh you propane tank (less tare weight) and multiply it by BTUs available per pound 21,548. That will give the BTUs available from the tank. Then divide that number by the BTUs or your burner.

Something like this

13.5 pounds of propane X 21,548BTU =290,000 (total heat available)
Total heat available divide the max burner BTU
ex.. 290,000 / 50,000hr=5.8 hours..

Okay, I suck at showing math. If I'm wrong. I truly hope somebody here will correct me. I'd rather be shown wrong than be foolishly spreading bad info...

 

[brewingmeister]

Those numbers would be easier to swallow if I didn't pay 5+ bucks a gal for propane fills last week.

 

[Dan]

Those numbers would be easier to swallow if I didn't pay 5+ bucks a gal for propane fills last week.

Brewingmeister, I'm not quite sure what to say. I moved to Hawaii and the only two things I can say that is good about living here, well maybe three things.. not in significance order (however read between the lines) Beautiful sunny weather, my wife, I can now buy propane per the gallon. In the mainland a tank of propane whether I went from empty to full or almost full to full.. They always charged for five gallons.. Here in Hawaii they only charge for what they put in the tank.

I'm not sure if that makes up for living here. I miss the mainland, even if I have to pay more for propane

 

[brewingmeister]

The place I go to charges for what they put in so I rarely take a bone dry tank to be filled. However this last fill was over 2x more expensive per lb than the previous time...and I had to wait over 2 months for his tank to be filled. Makes me wonder if my 90 min boils are worth it.

 

[Dan]

The place I go to charges for what they put in so I rarely take a bone dry tank to be filled. However this last fill was over 2x more expensive per lb than the previous time...and I had to wait over 2 months for his tank to be filled. Makes me wonder if my 90 min boils are worth it.

I'm not quite sure I follow.

 

[Dan]

Brewingmeister,


What????

 

[brewingmeister]

Where did I lose you? The fact that propane prices more than doubled in the last 2-3 months or that I've never exchanged a tank?

 

[Dan]

Both.. sorry.

Maybe the prices would go down if you didn't exchange. But if you live in a place like I did.. They don't cater to us. That sucks

 

[Dan]

There is a place I sometimes go
There are few on here that do know
Maybe today or tomorrow
The day will come
In that no sorrow

G'night, LRB.

 

[passedpawn]

good nite Dan!

 

[Jaybird]

Dan, Dan...Dan is the man!

That is all....

Cheers
Jay

 

[passedpawn]

Not sure if anyone is still up. Late nite in the passedpawn offices. Chillax, with Kaskade, for your late nite soundtrack.

 

[passedpawn]

Not sure if anyone is still up. Late nite in the passedpawn offices. Chillax, with Kaskade, for your late nite soundtrack.

 

[LabRatBrewer]

I like that one, PP

 

[passedpawn]

Late at night like this I'm either listening to Lord of the Rings station on Pandora, or Groove Armada. I think that song came up on Groove Armada.

I was just reading today's paper regarding Hamas and Israel. What a terrible place to live. It must be a culture of fear and war there.

 

[Dan]

PP, I like the sound of the music you play. My ears just don't pick up the words very well. I spent many years around jet noise but for the most part always thought I protected my hearing. Pretty sure I'm just getting older and have to admit , my ears aren't as sharp as i'd like to believe they are.

 

[passedpawn]

PP, I like the sound of the music you play. My ears just don't pick up the words very well. I spent many years around jet noise but for the most part always thought I protected my hearing. Pretty sure I'm just getting older and have to admit , my ears aren't as sharp as i'd like to believe they are.

Might be old age pal. I think I have that too.

 

[LabRatBrewer]

Last one for now. This is for my "Talk to Me Goose" (Island Clone). I was hoping he'd be holding a fighter helmet. Maybe I'll have that added. (These are all done by Fivrr.com).

 

[Dan]

LRB, that is pretty cool. I love that you stick to the LabRatBrewer theme. May I ask a question? Where did that idea come from? It's you now, heck, I think of LRB and your avatar pops into my head. haha.

 

[LabRatBrewer]

LRB, that is pretty cool. I love that you stick to the LabRatBrewer theme. May I ask a question? Where did that idea come from? It's you now, heck, I think of LRB and your avatar pops into my head. haha.

When I started brewing in 1986, I had a dot matrix printer and the only clip art I had was of a rat. So that's where LabRat started. Years later a talented friend drew our label below. Our "club" meets once a year at SoCal Homebrew Fest, and once a year in October. Also, we have various "infestations" whenever members are in the same town.

 

[Dan]

A while back I mentioned I had resurrected a rotary push lawnmower from bulk waste heaven. I used it to cut the lawn for a while and eventually tore the thing apart for the wheels. Actually, I kept nearly all of the pieces except the blade apparatus. I should have kept that too.

A fleeting thought went through my head when I looked at the height and diameter of that blade - it would fit nicely inside the immersion chiller I use to use for my 15g keggle. If I cleaned the blade (maybe had it sandblasted) I could probably rig it to spin the blade inside the IC which sits inside the keggle.

No doubt whirl pooling is a good method to help pass hot wort across the cool coils of an IC and also create a small vortex to push sediment towards the bottom of the boil kettle.

I was thinking the thing could be hand cranked. Electric is cool but I guess I've always had a notion; it's lame, but that's me - My brewery will never totally depend on electricity. Makes it portable. I do have a pump but can brew without it.

Not to go off on a tangent, but why not? This is posted on a DR thread.

Have you ever wanted to go camping with your brewery? Wait, maybe that came out wrong.. I don't want to snuggle in a sleeping bag with my boil kettle. But, I wouldn't mind heading out for a weekend to some camp grounds (the ones where you can drive to, and have showers) and set up my brewery.

A weekend of cool fresh air, brewing, BBQing, great food, (I'd eat with my hands) good cigars, and to copy a word PP used recently - chillaxing..

 

[Dan]

When I started brewing in 1986, I had a dot matrix printer and the only clip art I had was of a rat. So that's where LabRat started. Years later a talented friend drew our label below. Our "club" meets once a year at SoCal Homebrew Fest, and once a year in October. Also, we have various "infestations" whenever members are in the same town.

LRB, that is very cool. Man! I should have infested back when I lived in CA. My son and me, he lives fairly close to you.

Should-of, could-of , would-of.

Story of my life.