Where I am today

[gaza the instructor]

Wow what a day
. Sunburnt, pissed, happy we batted all day and Ben Stokes
really is as big as he looks on the tv.
Mum looked after the weather for us and all finished with a
bottle of Cider and curry, which I managed to throw half of
down my new Cricket shirt.

[buffalobob]

Thanks everyone for the imput. In future I'll make sure it's higher % . This is all still new to me but I'm learning all the time .. Thankfully I have no off flavours it's a very nice drink...I'm enjoying it right now, cheers everyone

[Mash]

The grapes are underway in the fermenter. I enjoy the routine of visiting them 4 maybe 4 times a day to fettle.

[Easydrinker]

I think that fettling is an obvious follow on to fermenting.
I am sure that many forums would delete me from their membership, it they knew how much I fettled.

Robert.

[Mash]

Ooo you can't beat a bit of fettling

[Curmudgeon]

Your Mum will be laughing at your curry shirt that she doesn't have to wash

[gaza the instructor]

She sure would Mr Cand she would say throw it and
buy another with the money I left you.

[Easydrinker]

Today, my instructer let me believe that I was actually flying the helicopter over my own homestead.
Maybe I was.
If I wasn't, It was still very cool!
And has left me feeling a litle rejuvinated from the humdrum.

Robert.

[Mash]

Are you going for a ppl(h)?

[Easydrinker]

Only if the Premium Bonds pay for it.
155 hours of flying time is costly!
It may become second nature, the three major controls, like driving a car, but I would need hours more time to even feel comfortable.
I now understand why a chartered helo flight has a max. flying time of 4 hours, with a single pilot.

Robert,

[Mash]

155 hours blimey. Its only (was) 40 hours for Fixed wing.

I do like the adage that sport flying in the UK is just a very expensive way to drink coffee

[EchoSevenNine]

I planned on taking up paragliding until I realised there was a maximum weight of 16 stone... Booooo!

[Easydrinker]

18 stone in a helo,

While drinking my coffee, I watched a guy on test, doing his engine fail ,fall from the sky, at 2000 ft/ minute.
Use some air, before landing.
Quite impressive.
I think he passed that one.
He walked away. Actually, he flew away to land on the parking place.

Robert.

[EchoSevenNine]

I'm beat then, I'm 18.5.

[Jennysgin]

First rum wash is ready to be stripped! That's my afternoon sorted

[Easydrinker]

Not too many testers tomorrow Jenny!
I am getting terribly lazy, I have a neutral still run to do, and a beer mash to start.
But the weather has been too good.
Tomorrow may be different.
Woops, today now, must go to bed.

Robert.

[Swedish Pride]

spent more hours than I should have grinding up a 20kg bag of mixed corn.
What a joke that is in itself, mixed corn. some core mixed in with wheat and barley is a better description, never getting that again.

had to pull out the old corona mill, never mill much any more and this reminded me of why. sucked big time.
Corn is hard to crack, as is wheat, so batteries went flat quick, then the screw gun kept slipping on the bar driving the mill so had to square it of.

in the end i had to crack it twice to get it to the right size without killing myself and the hand drill, hoping it wont make a great drop as I don't want to have to do it again.

[Mash]

I have to agree. Crushing is not for me. Even with conditioning.

Mixed corn must be the worse though...

[Easydrinker]

Sounds like hard work Swedish.
Thankfully I am done with the sack of grain that I forgot to order crushed.
I burnt out a stick blender grinding it down.
Mashing the resultant flour was laborious.
I double check my grain arrives crushed these days.

Robert.

[Swedish Pride]

I'm with ya. pre crushed is better.
Just about to get 35kg of crushed malt for myself, I have to get some reward for doing all that hard work with the mill

[Easydrinker]

I can understand that there may be some that think milling your own grain is the best.
And in an ideal world, or even end of the world scenario it may be.
However, here and now, you have HBS willing to crush it for you, FOC.
With gear that you could only dream of buying.
What was the question?

Robert.

[Swedish Pride]

milling comes in to its own if you are :
1 buying grain from the feedshop, needs to be grinded up smaller as theirs is cracked at best
2 malting your own stuff, needs cracking after you dried it
3 buying malt in bulk and only doing small batches, enzymes looses its conversion power if left cracked for long and possibly flavour is affected too.
4 got a glutton for punishment and/or doing pennants

[Mash]

1. Yeah. 1.2mm is enough. But too fine can be trouble.

2. Yeah. Not tried that yet.

3. Nope. Sorry. Myth not fact. Stored correctly I have proved it to 18 months. A sack is 5 or 6 brews. If you cannot get through 1 sack per year, it's probably pointless being your own?

4. Defo. With you on that one.. See point two.

[Easydrinker]

With the Swede on 1, 2 and 4.
With mash on all 5 points.
Sorry, was that a typo?
Just trying to join in and make friends.
Failing miserably.

Robert.

[Swedish Pride]

fair call, never had cracked malt go more than a month here before I mashed it so was using book knowledge on that one.

I wish I knew that before just buying a 25 sack on uncracked peated malt. plan is to add about 5kg per 25kg mash so will last a while.
I'm forever surprising myself with going against my own advice