Month: April 2010

Contributed by: filbert Thursday, April 29 2010 @ 01:10 PM CST

I got the 60-pound ribbon anyway. Snookums likes my ribbons.

It’s green. I like it better than pink, anyway.

Contributed by: filbert Wednesday, April 21 2010 @ 09:15 PM CST

So I whipped up three batches of beer. Two of them are the same thing:

Filbert’s Light (10 gallons)
3.3 lbs Munton’s American Style Lager Beer malt/hops extract
Yeast (came with the Munton’s)
2 lbs sugar
2 gallons tap water, 3 gallons distilled water (in batch #1)
5 gallons distilled water (in batch #2)
Initial specific gravity: 1.032

I went a little wild with the next one:

Filbert’s Cascade Amber Dark
3.3 lbs Briess CBW Traditional Dark malt extract
3.3 lbs Briess CBW Sparkling amber malt
1 lb sugar
3/4 oz. Cascade hop pellets
1 tsp. Irish Moss (clarifier)
1/2 oz. Cascade hop pellets (finishing)
Vierka Dark Munich yeast
5 gallons distilled water
Initial specific gravity: 1.020 (which I really have a hard time believing . . . the wort was sweet, much sweeter IMHO than the Filbert’s Light above. It was a bit on the warm side when I took the hydrometer reading, which can cause it to be low.)

This guy, I’m just going to leave alone until June 1 or June 2–that’s nine weeks–before bottling. We’ll see. If I test it and it’s still sweet, I’ll have to figure something out.

Anyway, I bottled up batch #1 of Filbert’s Light tonight.

Here’s my home brewery, hard at work. The two batches of Filbert’s Light in front of course, the batch of the Cascade Amber Dark behind the bottles.

Here’s what a glass of fresh Filbert’s Light looks like.

Contributed by: filbert Saturday, April 17 2010 @ 11:55 AM CST

I do have to comment that in my experience, Tea Parties are just slightly more controversial than, say, state or county fairs. People who fear or loathe Tea Parties simply don’t know what they’re talking about–or they have a political agenda of their own they’re pushing.

Two well-tanned white supremacists spotted in the crowd

Another white supremacist

The crowd at 5:20 p.m. The main event started at 6 pm.

Oh, yes, there were many signs . . .

I was especially amused by the “government as a dependent” sign

And yeah, you knew a sign like this was coming, didn’t you? After all of the “A village in Texas is missing its idiot” stuff? Turnabout is fair play, is it not? Unless you’re a standard glass-jaw, dish-it-out-but-can’t-take-it Democrat, that is.

6:00 pm crowd

7:00 pm crowd

8:20 pm crowd. The event had been going on at this point for nearly five and a half hours.

I would guess total attendance was around 10,000, with a peak attendance at any one time of maybe 6,000. People were coming and going pretty constantly. Several people I talked to dropped by for a little while, then had to go on to make supper, go to other meetings, or otherwise get on with their lives.

Contributed by: filbert Saturday, April 17 2010 @ 11:43 AM CST

Here’s the first of two posts of pictures from the event:

The ball park’s concourse, about 4 pm.

The feared gun lobby . . .

Domestic terrorists (who may never have heard of Godwin’s Law[*1] )

Probably not a professional sign-making operation

NBC Action News SkyTracker!!!

The next generation properly appreciates all that big government has done for him so far . . .

Barry Hood

The Poli Tics definition–an oldie but a goodie . . .

The question many of us have had for quite a while . . .

Contributed by: filbert Thursday, April 15 2010 @ 05:43 AM CST

Better late than never, yes? Here’s some pictures from the Women’s Final Four in San Antonio: