Sep 5, 2006

One down

Just finished my first week of classes, kinda.

Actually, yesterday's classes are being replaced tomorrow, which I'll miss along with everything else until 9/14. So far I've had Physical Planning - Waterfront (wed. night), Intro to Housing (thurs. night), Urban Data Analysis (tues. afternoon) and Intro to GIS (tues. night). The missing link is Intro to Transportation Planning (mon. morning).

So that's what my next three and a half months looks like. Except for the next week. Maybe I'll come back at ya with some kotowaza action when we return.

Cheers!

Sep 3, 2006

What's brewing? 9/3/06

We racked the saison to the secondary last Thursday (8/31), even though activity in the primary was still evident. Specific gravity was 1.014, and the lactic acid was contributing a pronounced, but not offensive, sourness. Color was a light amber. Should be an interesting beer.

I had attempted to reculture the Saison Dupont yeast, but it was showing no signs of cooperating. I've read that Dupont yeast not only prefers warmer climes, but will actually go dormant when temps drop below 78F or so. So maybe last week's cool spell was to blame. Anyway, I went ahead and threw it into the secondary in hopes that the existing yeast would kick-start the Dupont. Whether this succeeded or not we may never know, but several days later there is still some slow bubbling in the airlock.

Bottling will have to wait until after we return from Japan on the 13th, but perhaps that's for the best.