no airlock what can i do?

[krazydave]

I've been in the IT field for about 9 years myself, got laid off back in late 2009 and still can't find crap for a replacement. Interviewed more times than I care to count, and have applied for thousands of jobs at this point.

It's a brutal job market right now, got me considering opening up a LHBS instead of going back to IT.

 

[Golddiggie]

@krazydave, that does suck... I've usually been able to land a new job within 1-5 months of ending the previous one, since getting into IT... I wish I had taken the job I was offered about a year ago in Iowa. I also wish I had gone with the job about 1-1/2 to 2 hours drive from where I live (commute would be brutal, but the money was sweet)... Instead I took a 'perm' job that lasted all of three weeks. So, if I had taken the long drive contract job, ~1 month ago (set to run at least 6 months) I'd be working and making sick money. Basically, almost what I made at my previous job, for a year, in 6 months. Hind site is always 20/20...

Not sure if I'll get the job I'm interviewing for tomorrow, but we'll see. I'm trying to stay away from end point support, so I have to weed out those recruiters... Plus the ones that you can barely understand on the phone (would you like a slushy with that burrito?).

Facebook was all hot 'n heavy for me last year too... Just didn't work out for me to get out there for an interview. They have stupid restrictions on the expenses for someone to get out there (they pay, but they cap how much it will be. Basically making it so that I'd have $0 for any food or transport to the office from the hotel.)...

 

[krazydave]

Yeah, I haven't had such a hard time in the past finding work either. The problem where I live is that I'm about 30 miles from Los Angeles, but for a commute it's 2+ hours in traffic, and that's where 80% of the jobs pop up for the recruiters. I did my 6 years of commuting 2+ hours, I'm DONE with that!

To complicate things even further, my wife just gave birth to our first daughter on January 7th. So since then, I've been playing Mr. Mom. "220, 221, whatever it takes!"

Good luck with your interview though!
Oh, and by the way... I have the camera in your avatar. That's my biggest hobby, probably above brewing.

 

[Gordzilla]

what about just adding a jar of Maraschino cherries that would give it a nice red color and alot of flavor

 

[Golddiggie]

what about just adding a jar of Maraschino cherries that would give it a nice red color and alot of flavor

Dude, you just made me throw up in my mouth...

I have GOOD dried cherries on hand for use... Not cheap either (about $5.50 for a 6oz package)... Mariani brand... Yeah, I know, I paid more in the store than I could have gotten them for online... But I probably made out better since there was no shipping cost involved.

 

[Gordzilla]

haha, now that i think of the taste those cherries are nasty i like your option better, come this summer im gonna have to venture up north to the cherry farms and getsome fresh picked cherries to use

 

[Golddiggie]

If you can get enough of them (at a good rate) then you could make a fresh cherry mead, or wine... Another no heat process... :rockin:

If you can't get enough for a batch of wine, or mead, then you could save them and use them in a beer at some point. Could come out tasty if you get some good ones.

Man, I really hope I get a new place soon, so that I can expand my fermentations. Thinking of all that I could do come later in summer, or early fall...

I do plan on picking up one package of the dried cherries every time I go to the grocery store. That way I'll have enough if I want to do something really big with them. Of course, when the fresh ones are available, I'll probably use those in another melomel. Will need to start it as soon as good ones are in the grocery stores, or farmer's markets. Might even freeze some if it looks like I won't be able to get them long enough. Probably make sure they're good and ripe (i.e. really GOOD) before using/freezing them...

 

[Gordzilla]

if i get this job tomorrow ill be moving out soon gonna get an apartment or small house with two bedrooms one to sleep in one to keep my fermentations in....and yes we have u-pick cherry farms you pick all the cherries you want and pay by the pound

 

[Golddiggie]

Planning pretty much the same thing here... Hope to have access to a basement in the next place, for aging... Will be looking for a 2-3 bedroom place.. One for me, one for my technology (and bottle conditioning/carbonating) and one for fermenting... OR, I'll look for a large enough kitchen with either a pantry, or decent sized closet that I can use for my primaries/fermenters.

Once I get into the next place, I'll hunt around for farms and such. I know there has to be some that are close enough. Or there has to be farmers markets that will have them at good rates.

 

[schia]

I've been in the IT field for about 9 years myself, got laid off back in late 2009 and still can't find crap for a replacement. Interviewed more times than I care to count, and have applied for thousands of jobs at this point.

It's a brutal job market right now, got me considering opening up a LHBS instead of going back to IT.

ever though of moving out to EU or Asia perhaps?

 

[krazydave]

Not with a newborn, I haven't...

 

[Gordzilla]

two things to report

1st--i got the job start monday
2nd-made the haaaard lemonade OG cam in @ 1.098

 

[krazydave]

Congrats! On both items! hah

 

[Golddiggie]

Excellent to hear... I'm still on the job hunt... Might be working a contract soon, that's a decent drive away, but the money could be there. Had my interview from today shifted (waiting for the new day/time) but not too concerned there. Have at least three or four other hot prospects...

BTW, how much lemonade (what kind) and honey did you use?

 

[Gordzilla]

6 cans of minute maid pink lemonade concentrate it was onsale at the grocery store for .79cents, and the honey was some 100% pure honey cant remember the brand but they were 3.50/2lbs so i used 2 of them. I got my Ph levels to 3.3 and used levin EC-1118 yeast with 1.5tsp of DAP, the temp of the mixture when i pitched the yeast was 71 i also preped the yeast before hand warming it up....and i can already hear the batch in the spare bedroom bubbling gotta go check on it

-edit wasnt the lemonade it was my bigfoot clone still blowing bubbles after 9days

 

[Golddiggie]

NICE... I'm going to adjust my OG then... I used the same number of cans (same brand and type too) and 4# of store brand hone in my batch. I messed up the start since I didn't get the honey into solution, so I couldn't get an OG... It's since all mixed in, and the stuff has calmed down a lot.

I went with the other yeast, but EC-1118 is a solid choice (I was use that as my typical mead yeast)... You WILL have yeast left over for carbonation.

If both of our batches go dry, we'll be at 13.3% ABV... Most excellent...

You put a blow-off tube in the carboy, right? Or are you using a bucket? If you have a tube installed, give it a shake tomorrow afternoon... Try every 12-24 hours (if you can do 12 hours, great, but at least every 24 roughly)...

 

[Gordzilla]

im using a 6gal bucket with an airlock on it right now. I filled the bucket to aroudn 2.5 gallons then took some hot water put them into the honey jars shook the hell out of them then added to the bucket then topped it off, that way i got all the honey out of the jars. It tasted really good when i did my gravity readings if this turns out good im gonna go to sams club and buy a really big jar of honey i can see honey becoming the expensive party of this creation. I had planned on adding another can of lemonade in a week or 2. Do you think instead of using priming sugar before bottling i could just add 1 more can of lemonade as a primer? So in total 8 total cans of lemonade

 

[Golddiggie]

With the yeast you selected, you could... It will ferment to a higher ABV, of course...

Not sure if I would want to use an entire can to prime with... Depending on what you use for bottles at least... If you go with some that can handle high pressure levels, then go for it. Belgians come to mind. Champagne bottles too. I'd just be sure to put the cork cages on both types, so that you don't have projectiles flying around. I would also probably put the boxes of bottles inside plastic bins, just in case things got messy...

In the bucket you won't be able to see it foam up... Unless you go mead style, pull the lid off, whisk it up and then cover again... Probably don't need to do that... Will be interesting to see how your batch progresses...

There's now, officially, three of us (at least) making hard lemonade right now. :rockin:

 

[Gordzilla]

i was gonna use the carboy but i need to get something to clean it out better, its pretty clean right now but i wanna make sure i get everything out of it before using it again....better idea to prime for bottling, we have a big jar of pink lemonade powder in the pantry maybe ill just take like 3oz of that and treat it like priming sugar...hell maybe ill throw 1/2cup into the fermenter now

 

[Golddiggie]

GO NUTS!! Although without knowing how much sugar is in that mix, it will be hard to prime with it (just figuring out how much)...

Look at the can from the lemonade, it has how much sugar per serving there... I believe it's 26g, and 8 servings per container. So, that's 208g of sugar. That comes out to 7.33oz of sugar in the can (over half of the can is basically sugar)... So, I would probably mix one can up really well, then pour about half of it into the mix. Let it ferment out, and then prime with the balance. If you want to use a bit more than half to prime with, so it's closer to 4oz of sugar (equal), I don't see an issue... I probably wouldn't use the entire can at one shot though...

 

[Gordzilla]

thinking what ill do is 2 weeks from now ill dump 1.5cans of lemonade into the fermenter save the other .5 for priming

 

[Golddiggie]

You'll be pushing into the 15.5-16.x% range at that point...

I need to see how high 71B can go for ABV tolerance. I know it's listed as 14%, so I'll see if it will end right in that range, or if it could go higher. That will determine how I prime my batch...

BTW, You might want to figure your priming about for the batch size (3 gallons, not 5, right)... So you won't need as much sugar to prime as high.

 

[Gordzilla]

true forgot it was 3 gallons but i have a couple weeks to figure this out....on another note i have active fermentation already 1bubble every 10-15sec right now....OMG this is awesome

 

[Golddiggie]

Give it a few more hours... The airlock might look like it's got epilepsy... :rockin:

 

[Gordzilla]

hopefully it doesnt start doing that for another 3-4hours out in the garage brewing a fat tire clone