Where I am today

[gaza the instructor]

Crop failures seem to be a sign of the times due to abnormal weather

And I think a lot of it is exaggerated and made worse by the media BB.
Remember bog rolls in the pandemic and fuel!! Made short by media
panic spreading. A good friend is a garage manager and tells me the average
car has about a quarter of a tank full as normal, but in the shortage this
became three quarters, therefore shortages, can't deliver fast enough.
About sixteen years ago the Orange harvest failed due to cold weather, the
price of juice trebled in a month. The following year back to normal
harvest, but the price never dropped. Fuel dropped in price during the
pandemic to 99p per litre because or supply and demand, but went up very
quickly I think because of a lack of tax.
I think we are all treated like idiots in this country, don't say anything just work
hard and pay tax to feed the unemployed and give all the freeloaders some beer
money, I call it "The Mushroom Theory" or "Keep 'em in the dark and feed on
bullshit".

By the way I have some(quite a lot) of bog rolls going cheap??

[Icefever]

A big + 1 with you on the above Gaza.

Ice.

[buffalobob]

That's what the media does best Gazza. Newspapers are full of half truths and are not worth buying. We, the general public are treated like morons, as long as we work hard to keep one percent of the population in luxury it's ok. There are endless natural disasters, some have to pay the price, others make wads of cash from inflated pricing etc. It's always been the same but more obvious nowadays.

[gaza the instructor]

As I say BB "The Mushroom Principle "!!
You can add ULEZ into that!! I live 200meters inside the zone, in fact the main
road I turn into is Bridge Rd, which is not. This is to allow lorries to turn around
safely at the roundabout without going into the zone, turn left I am in the zone
for 100mtres, then not. I am confused and I live here.
Well if you pay £12.50 it doesn't matter, so that makes it a tax, doesn't it?
They will pay, so nothing will change!

[Mash]

The trouble is it ain't going to get any better any time soon.

[gaza the instructor]

And they are just getting started.

[WelshGin]

Wondering upon the world. Within the factory complex I work we have Ukrainians, Russians and ex Hong Kong people all working together, the common reason they are here? War, fear of war, persecution, hate. They get on with each other learn each other's and our language.

And yet as ever and always war.

Today I listened to a Rumanian telling a joke about a Moldovian, I heard my English neighbour tell the same joke about an Irish man years ago. Are Moldovians and Irish related? Definitely, ........we all are. Shame I can remember the joke but others cannot remember the horror of war.

[buffalobob]

Still a bit breathless after watching the sensational bike racing yesterday, it had it all, edge of your seat stuff.
October the second already, pheasants became fair game yesterday which happens to be my favourite. Spotted a nice cocktail bird by the side of the road last week in prime condition. Saw another this morning but it wasn't in prime condition being only two millimetres thick. 15 million bread every year and not one of them born with a sense of self preservation. Great for me though, my new catty is almost done, just need some flat bands and it will be stashed in my glove compartment or in my pocket, ready for action.

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[buffalobob]

Should be cock bird and not cocktail bird predictive text is so annoying

[WelshGin]

There are cocktail birds. Gaza would know this as they would probably have been by the roadside as he passed in his posh motors, I believe there intention is that you 'pick em up' not shoot them with a catapult. Not that they could avoid the shot though, high heel shoes and short tight skirts make them more suitable for lying down rather than running.

I didn't assume it was a typo, I just couldn't determine why you needed the catapult, ...but now you have explained.....

[gaza the instructor]

Catapults are very useful tools. Squirrels were nesting in one of my chimneys.
I say were it was a bit like Hungry Hippos you know heads popping up and down.

[buffalobob]

WG, I know about cocktail birds . Gazza you should have got Mash on the job, he would have shot them out of your chimney with their drey too. Catties are good for discouraging all sorts of vermin, those with two legs as well but you know that already Gazza .

[gaza the instructor]

Do you mean the lesser spotted marching powder seller WG

[buffalobob]

Yeah, that's the fella, the one with a hole in his windscreen

[WelshGin]

Arrow hole or 3/8 th ball bearing? Negligible difference really, my wooden footed shafts are 11/16th diameter, so perhpes a bit bigger. And, maybe the hardened steel bullet nosed 200Gr pile might add a few thou to the overall size. And, thinking about it the 3 fletchings each about 20mm perpendicular to the shaft, might indeed increase the hole size.

My bear bow releases an arrow at approximately 325fps, the overall arrow weight is close to an ounce, approx 30 grams, about 400 grains. If a field arrow hit your arm you wouldn't feel it because your arm would have been ripped off at the shoulder and would no longer be connected to your body to be able to convey the pain, however the nervous trauma and loss of blood would leave you in the same state as many French soldiers at Crecy.

I don't believe a windscreen would have offered much protection. And, if I was pissed I would have used a shaft with a broad head, three barbed (the flat ones, two planes tend to 'sail' and effect the trajectory) and left an approximately 25mm hole. And, there is literally no coming back from there, you cannot say sorry, my mistake, didn't mean it. Because, the arrow will not come out the way it went in, you have to complete the job and push it out the other side. Bugger really.

Better you carry on playing with the catapults.

[MooseMan]

It is late, and I am a little pished.
Why not borrow from the old site a popular topic..,...

What I Did Today

Post by YHB » Sat Mar 02, 2013 1:57 pm
Why not write a couple of lines about what you did today.

Today I did two 24 litre strip runs.
I made another batch of Peat reek, my method.
I had a Clarinet lesson.
Not really true the last line, but here I welcome all to mention something significant in their day.

Robert.

Thought I'd reply to the very first post in this topic.

What did I do today...

Got home from work, straight out to the still and powered up to start a 1.5 run that I put into the boiler last night before bed as prep.

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5 gal of stripped low wines and as much as I could get out of 5 gal of a cereal wash.

It's running now, lovely and creamy/oily tasting from the oats but with a solid corn and wheat flavour right through it.

I'll use a gallon of the hot backset at the end of the run, to start another ferment on the partly spent cereal, adding more corn and oats to give it a refresh, and a couple kilos of sugar.
Already saved some of the yeast bed to get it going again.

[Mash]

If I am not mistaken (that is T piece with a blank cap, where the cold finger goes? ) that is a still I loosely fancied building. They sound really useful.
@stilldave I still have the keg

Anyhow. I am bottling 50l of beer today. Some tasting will be necessary. So I thought I would post early.

[MooseMan]

If I am not mistaken (that is T piece with a blank cap, where the cold finger goes? ) that is a still I loosely fancied building. They sound really useful.
@stilldave I still have the keg

Anyhow. I am bottling 50l of beer today. Some tasting will be necessary. So I thought I would post early.

Yes Mash, totally correct.
I reconfigure all of these parts at the top of a packed column when I run it as a CCVM setup, so the T has a short open spool on top, with a copper reflux condenser in.

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Like this

[Mash]

They look (in theory) very easy to use, providing you have accurate water flow. Do you pump or use tap pressure?

And also save the "is it there yet" time for a reflux to stabilise.

[MooseMan]

They look (in theory) very easy to use, providing you have accurate water flow. Do you pump or use tap pressure?

And also save the "is it there yet" time for a reflux to stabilise.

CCVM is very easy to run, stupid simple, you could say, once you have done a couple of runs to get a feel for it.

Get up to temp, pull the fores at mega slow drip while the column stabilises, then lift the RC to pull heads a bit faster, as soon as heads are out lift a bit more to get to the sweet spot output wise (1.6l/hr at 95% for mine) and it stays there until it's done!

When output slows, tails are imminent and VERY stinky!

I use both mains water, valved to control flow, and a 12v pump run off my solar system, depending what mood I'm in. Both do well but with a pump and reservoir, the water gets hot by the end of the run.

[buffalobob]

100% with mooseman, CCVM's rule. Easy to make/build compared to a boka and like the man said once you've run it a few times (and made notes) you're sorted. Go for a 3 inch column tho, if you build a 2 incher you will probably be upgrading after a while because they are slow .

[buffalobob]

Hey, Mooseman get your column camouflaged mate, some nosey fecker will see it over your gate and put 2 and 2 together and turn up with an empty glass

[MooseMan]

Hey, Mooseman get your column camouflaged mate, some nosey fecker will see it over your gate and put 2 and 2 together and turn up with an empty glass

I hear you Bob and where your coming from, but in my street I'm the crazy beer brewing, cider making, science guy who's always making something odd, so I'm not too concerned about people seeing the metalwork and it's a high gate at the end of a long drive. Plus the fact that my dog goes supernova if anyone gets within 20ft if the house!

[buffalobob]

A nod is as good as a wink Moose

[buffalobob]

While we're on the subject of ccvm rigs I was wondering what method do you lot employ to raise and lower your reflux condensers? I've seen some inventive ways to manage this task.

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This is what I use, it's just a bit of thin ss that sits on top of the column with notches cut out for the twisted copper wire to sit in. It works well but I have to climb a step ladder to adjust it which is getting to be a pain now I'm old and knackered so I'm thinking it's time for an upgrade