ZORE Watchdog And ZORE X

The more I look at the ZORE Indiegogo campaign the more I am drawn to the product. The only issue is the price of admission. I think for a parent this would be much better than a single gun safe for a semi-automatic handgun. It would alert you if the gun was touched and would allow you to have a teachable moment with whomever fat fingered the firearm. I’m so tempted to sign up for the campaign to try out the product, but as I said, it is not an inexpensive proposition.

If they would get a .380 variant and figure something out for a revolver (.38/.357) they would pretty much have all the bases covered. Take a look and post up your thoughts.

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Brexit Thoughts

For today’s post I wanted to say something about Brexit which has been on my mind the last few days but could not find a way to relate them to firearms and fermentation so I figured I’d mention that in the opening and that would be good enough to make it a topic for the blog. 😉

Anyway my comment is really geared toward the British voter. Several have been on camera saying they would have voted IN if they had to do it over again. I hope they understand this was not a practice ballot, this was a vote for them to leave the EU. Google has reported the next day one of the most popular searches in the UK was “What is the EU.” It has been the perception for years that anyone with a British accent is thought to be smarter than the average American. Now we know that is not the case, they are as stupid as the rest of the world. People need to vote and when voting need to know they do not get a do-over.

While some are celebrating this as a victory, I think this will play out as the dumbest and most costly move Brits have made in a very long time. It will take quite a bit of work to navigate the full exit from the EU and in the meantime the uncertainty will weaken their position and economy. Time will tell if it was the right move, but for the moment the British people I’ve seen interviewed are not especially happy with the outcome and that includes those who voted OUT.

Reducing Water Use When Homebrewing

I recently saw someone post when they store their Corny kegs they fill with water and sanitizer. That waste of water got me thinking about all the ways over the years I have cut water use when brewing. We all know brewing uses almost 2X the amount of water as the batch size. So if you are making a 10 gallon batch you will use almost 20 in the process. The best thing one can do is devise methods to reduce water use wherever possible.

Take the person filling the keg with sanitizer. Just reduce the amount to a pint and shake the keg for a few minutes to keep the sanitizer in contact and then let it ride. Automatically we just saved 4.875 gallons of water. If you have a particular favorite I don’t mention, feel free to comment below. Any new idea to save water is a good one.

-Use sanitizer sparingly and shake/rotate the items being sanitized to achieve contact using as little sanitizer as possible as opposed to filling the vessel and dumping out a large volume after you are done.

-Use rainbarrel collection water to initially chill the wort and use the output from that to initially clean dirty brewing equipment. While the water is not bacteria clean, it will be very hot initially and can get the spooge off equipment.

-Use final wort chill water to do the final cleaning of any equipment.

-Setup a pump in a 5 gallon bucked and recirculate to the chiller and use ice for the final chilling using as little water as needed to achieve the temp drop.

-Use manual cleaning techniques as opposed to chemical to clean. Scrubbing can be done with very little water while soaking takes a larger volume to achieve the same result.

-If you have leftover brew water which was not used for the session, chill it in the fridge and drink it. Since you haven’t used it there is no reason to take that filtered water and dump it out.

-After mashing and collecting the wort, allow the mash to continue to drain. Collect that very low gravity wort and use it to water plants once it cools.

There are just a few ideas, most of them having to do with chilling, but one might give you an idea on how to save water on brew day. I know I take my chiller output into dirty kegs and equipment for cleaning. The water is nice and hot and it is water that would be going down the drain otherwise. Anything you can do to save water is a good thing!

A Poll: Why I Blame The NRA For Every Illegal Use Of Firearms

After reading several newspapers this morning and some of the comments sent in by readers I thought it might be useful to create a post for those who blame the NRA for every shooting so they can select which option actually was the catalyst for laying that blame. Please select the option which best applies to you and elaborate on the response or feel free to add your own in the comments:

– I have repeatedly heard about it on television and in print media so it must be true.

– An elected official said it or released a statement about it so it must be true.

– I saw a meme on social media so it must be true.

– A friend told me so it must be true.

– I watch comedy news shows which said it so it must be true.

– I don’t like the people from the NRA I see interviewed so it must be true.

– I blindly follow everything without checking facts.

The NRA is comprised of 5 million people who only care about one single issue, firearms. While everyone else is concerned about a myriad of issues both social and political the members of the NRA bind together to fight anti-gun legislation. What the NRA does not oppose is legislation which would stop terrorism and illegal activity in order to pass that type of legislation you must not take away the rights of legal gun owners.

Why Be A BJCP Judge

As I prepare this morning to judge a few rounds at competition I started thinking about why I decided to become a beer judge. I’m sure everyone else has their own motivations, but for me I was fairly new to homebrewing, had joined a homebrew club a short while before, and was acting as a steward on a flight of Belgian beers. At the time I knew little about beer styles, just that I loved most of them. I had made a Belgian Witbier and the style guidelines had been revised and I was unsure what category to enter. I chose correctly with some guidance, but was confused about the whole thing so when they sat me as a steward I did not realize my Belgian Witbier was going to be in the flight. This beer was a kit from Grape and Granary in Akron, Ohio and it was a darn nice beer. The judges on the flight were experienced and soon after one of them earned a Master ranking. As the flight progressed they came to the Belgian Witbiers and I started to sweat. I was not supposed to be sitting there while they judged my beer and certainly not supposed to interact with them. For that reason I kept my trap shut. There were four Wits in the comp and mine, the extract batch, scored a respectable 37 and bested the other three. As it turned out my beer was fourth in the flight and while it did not win a ribbon it stood up to the competition and I was a proud papa. I also knew I wanted to learn how to do what they just did and that set me on the path to become a BJCP judge. When I judged at the next competition I was placed with a Master level judge and even though it was my first competition as a judge I knew I would be taking the BJCP exam as soon as I could. I did and my results were good enough to earn a Certified ranking, but in hindsight I needed more training. A few years later I took the full legacy exam again and earned National. After a few more years I took the taste and earned a Master level taste score. Hopefully someday I’ll take the written yet again and get the points I need to be a Master judge, currently I need to up my written score by a point or two to achieve that, but with the recent style guideline update I need to spend time with the new styles.

Find your reason to be the BJCP Judge and take the online and taste exam. You will be glad you did!

2016 Beer Drinker Of The Year Applications

Apparently the applications for Beer Drinker Of The Year has been disappointing in number and there may be some doubt as to the future of the competition. I know earlier this year the submissions were few but mighty, but they have not increased much over time. They are asking for more submissions so if you are so inclined the entry information is on this page.

No matter what, cast your vote daily for this resume. You will be glad you did!

Vote using the QR code or click the code to go to the website and vote!

Anheuser Busch America Is Illegal In NC

Apparently AB forgot to register America in North Carolina. That makes it
illegally distributed if you see it out and about in the state. Thanks to Top Fermented for figuring this out, check out their blog post on the topic!

AR-15 Stupidity

So I’m on Facebook and happen across the meme below posted by a friend who blasts pro-gun memes more often then Kellogg’s makes a corn flake. I don’t mind their frequent postings, but I often ignore them because they are so frequent. I did note one comment someone made (which I edited for language) which is so asinine it shows the level of stupidity gun owners are up against.

I don’t care what its acronym stands for. If it fires more than one bullet at a time or at long range we don’t need it as a personal weapon. Lets not start f*@#ng about with terms here.

So this rocket scientist wants to get rid of all firearms which fire more than one bullet at a time. If it is from a single barrel then he would be for getting rid of exactly no firearms. If he means multiple barrels then he really is looking at a handful of firearms, mostly oddities, with the exception of double barrel shotguns. I am confident if he were taken to task he would give and say, “No, shotguns are ok, Biden said so.”

As far as long range, we first need to define what that means. I would think most people would call a football field long range, but golfers probably don’t start to sweat until the 200 yard mark so let’s choose that. Now let’s figure out how many criminal shootings happen in the US at a distance of 200 yards or more. I’m gonna take a gamble and put the number at zero. I’ll bet if we move it in to 100 yards the number of criminal shootings per years is still zero. If we keep tightening it up we may find a point where a handful occur, but I’ll still bet at 100 feet the number could be counted on one hand. Shootings happen up close and personal, typically withing 25 feet or less and generally with a handgun.

This person does not even have enough education on the topic to make a semi-valid point. They don’t even realize how stupid their comments are and cannot verbalize what they want to see happen. I’d much rather have someone tell me they are against firearms than to come up with asinine statements like the one above and then to try to drop the mic by saying they don’t need to learn the terms. This person was basically saying I don’t know anything about it, but I am against it. Better to be quiet and thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt!

Rodenbach Alexander 2016

When a friend alerted me to the fact Rodenbach Alexander was back I started giggling like a school girl. I first found the beer in a beer store in the Buffalo, NY are sitting on the shelf by itself around 2001 and did not know what I had actually found. Let’s give a little history of the beer. It was first brewed in 1986 and was discontinued in 2000, a few years after Palm had purchased Rodenbach (1998). The bottle I found in 2001 was one of the rare bottles still sitting on the shelf. I took it home and enjoyed it immensely and have spent years trying to find another. I once was in Cumming, GA and there were at least 8-10 bottles in the cold case of the bar and I begged and pleaded for them to sell me a few (or all), but they would not allow them to be sold out the door. I’ll bet a few are still lurking there waiting my return.

Recently while at the AHA Convention in Baltimore a friend mentioned they had Rodenbach Alexander in bottles at a local tap room. I figured it was long lost bottles and so off I went in search of one of my favorites. Turns out the beer was released in 2016 for the 30th anniversary and of course we had to have one. Rodenbach Alexander is a blend of 2/3 Rodenbach blended with 1/3 young ale macerated with cherries. It is only 5.6% ABV, but the flavor is so amazing it will blow your mind. If you see a 750ml bottle of it be sure to pick one up. I know I have not run into it yet, but once I do I will snag every bottle I see. BTW, the bottle I shared in Baltimore was crazy beautiful!