I checked up ont the oaked ale and it registered 7.4 brix, which should mean somewhere in the 14 range for the gravity. I'm racking it today on some french oak chips. The beer tastes mighty fine, by the way. It will be a shame if the oak doesn't compliment the beer.

I'm also going to look into my c. 18th century porter today. I need three pounds of victory malt, 3 pounds brown malt, 3 pounds 2-row, 1 pound 6-row and one pound of flaked barley. There is, of course, a real tempatation to add some crystal malts because crystal malt tastes great and would be a really nice complement to the other flavors in this beer. Too bad: I'm doing a thing here. I think I'm going to bitter it with magnum or northern brewer.

"Never Use Progress Hops" tastes much more like a fermentation flaw than it used to--I think the hops aren't as much to blame as I thought.


I think I've figured out the design of my SIMR. I need elbow-joint needle valve Male and Female end, a 1/4" hose barb for that fits the female end, 6' of 1/4" I.D. silicone tubing and ~2' of 1/4" diamter copper pipe. I can get everything locally except the silicone tube; it's on order from McMaster Carr. I'm also going to have to figure out a tap to make a threaded hole of the right size and threading. This looks complicated and annoying. I think I'll need a drill bit too, and probably a hand tap-handle for the tap bit.