06 November 2016
20 January 2016
Adventures in All-Grain: Episode 3 - Citra Otter
For this SMASH I used 2lb Maris Otter, .5oz total of citra, and half the pack of US-05.
Using Beersmith, I tweaked the recipe until I had it in the realm of an American Pale Ale. What follows is my brew day of the "Citra Otter." (See what I did there?)
- Realizing the mistake I made in the previous post, I started with about 1.5 gal of water figuring for absorption and evaporation and got it up to 162° F.
- Mashed 2lb of malt for 60 minutes. Turned off the heating element and the mash stabilized at 152° F. Dipped to 150° after about 40 min so I kicked the burner back on low and kept it between 152 and 155.
- Pulled the grains and set them on a strainer to drain over the pot. Kicked the burner to max. *Checked the wort level and it was just at 1 gallon so I did my make shift sparge.
- Nuked some distilled water to 160° and rinsed the grains slowly while bringing the wort to a boil and the level up to 1.5 gal.
- Boil achieved and started the timer for 60 minutes. Time for hops!
- 40 min: 0.15 oz Citra
- 15 min: 0.15 oz Citra
- 05 min: 0.20 oz Citra
- After 60 min it was into the ice bath to cool down to 72° F
- Into the fermenter with half a pack of US-05 and into the closet (which is a steady 66° this time of year)
Some notes. While the style matches an APA (according to beersmith) the color is barely in the realm. I think that's due to it being a SMASH as maris otter isn't a very dark malt. I'm doing a
single stage of fermentation so it won't be super clear but hopefully it turns out well.
This one should be a bit hoppier than the Amarillo but it will be interesting to compare side by side the hops only difference.
Started to see activity in the fermenter after a few hours and by the next morning it was bubbling nicely. This one got going a bit quicker than the Amarillo. Wondering if it is due to the hops as that is the only noted difference.
I've decided I will come back with a side by side comparison post with pics and maybe a video.
Adventures in All-Grain: Episode 2 - Amarillo Otter
So this was technically my first batch of all-grain, though I did 2 batches at once, this was started about 30min before the other. These brewing entries will mostly be a place for me to keep my notes but hopefully someone else finds them handy or interesting...or at least entertaining.
Since this was my first foray into all-grain, I decided, I'd go with a SMASH (single malt and single hop) to keep it simple and start to understand the unique properties of different grains and hops. So off I went to my local home brew supplier.
Since I don't have the space and equipment for lagering, I decided an ale of some sort would be best. So I picked up some safale US-05, 4lb of Maris Otter malt, a pack of amarillo hops, and a pack of citra hops.
For this SMASH I used 2lb Maris Otter, .5oz total of amarillo, and half the pack of US-05.
Using Beersmith, I tweaked the recipe until I had it in the realm of an American Pale Ale. What follows is my brew day of the "Amarillo Otter." (See what I did there?)
- I started with about 1.25 gal of water figuring for absorption and evaporation (I was a bit off, but more on that later*) and got it up to 162° F.
- Mashed 2lb of malt for 60 minutes. Instead of turning off the heating element, i set it to low. Oops. Temp got a little high on me (180°F) but got it back down to 160°F
- Pulled the grains and set them on a strainer to drain over the pot. Kicked the burner to max. *Checked the wort level and it was low so I thought I would do a make shift sparge.
- Nuked some distilled water to 160° and rinsed the grains slowly while bringing the wort to a boil and the level up to 1.5 gal.
- Boil achieved and started the timer for 60 minutes. Time for hops!
- 50 min: 0.20 oz Amarillo
- 20 min: 0.20 oz Amarillo
- 05 min: 0.10 oz Amarillo
- After 60 min it was into the ice bath to cool down to 70° F
- Into the fermenter with half a pack of US-05 and into the closet (which is a steady 66° this time of year)
Some notes. While the style matches an APA (according to beersmith) the color is barely in the realm. I think that's due to it being a SMASH as maris otter isn't a very dark malt. I'm doing a single stage of fermentation so it won't be super clear but hopefully it turns out well.
Started to see activity in the fermenter after a few hours and by the next morning it was bubbling nicely. Will have to come back with some tasting notes in the future.
Adventures in All-Grain: Episode 1 - Dual 1-Gallon BIAB
There are 2 main types of home brewing: extract, and all-grain. To keep things simple, let's just say the former is the "easier" of the two. With all-grain, there are extra steps that have basically been done for you with extract brewing. Sure it's easier, but it limits you in the components you want to use. Either use one of the limited numbers of extracts, or experiment with unlimited different profiles of mixed grains however you see fit.
Some will tell you one way is better than the other, but honestly it is a matter of preference. I have always been drawn to extract because of its simplicity. I don't need complicated 3 vessel setup with an HLT, a mash tun, multiple burners, pumps, etc (though it would be fun to build!) I'm also not good enough to be making 5 gallons or more at a time. Maybe one day...but not now. For now I just want to learn more and small 1-2 gallon batches are perfect for me.
Then I stumbled upon BIAB. What is it? Well it is when you brew, in a bag. Sounds silly, but after reading and researching it all made sense. With all-grain you need a reservoir of hot water, another vessel to mash in, and another to boil in. BIAB takes that concept and says:
"Well...you need the boil kettle so we can't ditch that. What if we use that as our only vessel?"
"Go home BIAB! You're drunk!" said his all-grain friends. "It can't be done!"
"Hear me out," BIAB says "we'll take this big, fine mesh bag, and line the boil kettle with it, then heat up the water. Then add the grains to that. Mash as usual. and when done, instead of transferring from one pot to another, we just take out the bag of grain! On a basic level...it's kind of the exact same thing!"
Soooo....I attempted my first "all-grain" batches. and with BIAB I was able to do 2, 1 gallon batches at the same time. From the first drop of water to the fermenter, it was a total of 4.5 hours. I'll post individual follow ups about each batch.
10 January 2016
Digital Signage Project (or How I learned to embrace the AppleTV) - Part 2
Ok, so it's been a while. And I should start with this: as much as I tried to embrace the apple tv for signage, after a few meetings with the client I relized that it just wasn't going to work out as the only solution.
The project mentioned in the previous post went great. While I was designing the solution, I thought: "what if they don't want to do separate screens? What if they want to do something more involved or play live video on the fly?"
I decided to add a MacMini, not only as the brains of the system, but also to serve as the main component of content for the system. And I am glad I did. Here is a short video of one of the completed video walls: Video Wall on Instagram
Here's a list of the components in workflow order to give you an idea of how it's all put together:
The project mentioned in the previous post went great. While I was designing the solution, I thought: "what if they don't want to do separate screens? What if they want to do something more involved or play live video on the fly?"
I decided to add a MacMini, not only as the brains of the system, but also to serve as the main component of content for the system. And I am glad I did. Here is a short video of one of the completed video walls: Video Wall on Instagram
Here's a list of the components in workflow order to give you an idea of how it's all put together:
- Mac Mini
- 2 3rd generation Apple TVs
- 4x4 KanexPro Matrix switcher
- This gives us the ability to select any input and push it to any output, including a local monitor in the workroom.
- 2 - Gefen HD Video Wall Controller
- This distributes and scales the 1080p signal across a 2x2 panel of displays
- KanexPro HDMI over Cat6 Extenders
- 8 RCA LED displays.
This gives us 2 of the video walls you see in the link above.
Now the tricky part was getting content to load and run automatically, especially since I found out that the content creators would seldom be on-site to push new content.
Of course there are cloud based signage services with licensing agreements, software, metric tracking, etc. But this is a small local business, looking for something that displays their messages with no need for extra features.
So, once everything was running and displaying correctly I needed a way to manage it all autonomously. This needed to be able to startup, check for new content, load it, and reboot after a power failure with little to no interaction by the user. And I knew of just the thing.
Google Drive to the rescue!
I used automator and some basic apple-scripting to write code that was triggered any time there was a change to a specific folder as well as periodically throughout the day and it worked like a champ!
New content loaded? Reload the show from the content folder.
Old file deleted? Reload the show from the content folder.
File changed name? Well, you get it right?
Now when this content changes, the script kills VLC (did I mention I'm using VLC as the player...because I am, and it's perfect!) reloads the new, changed, deleted content, then reloads and starts the playlist from all files in the folder. VLC is set to run fullscreen above everything else and run the entire folder in alphabetical order on repeat, for eternity. This makes for simple organization.
The MacMini can reboot itself after a power failure so that was no problem.
All that was left to do was hand over the google drive account to the IT crew at the venue and they doled out permissions to whoever needed them.
It has been over a year and the only call I have ever gotten was for some paperwork they had lost about warranty information (which I thankfully keep a backup of.) Apparently, some non-video wall equipment had been added to the rack as well as the A/C in the room shut off. A few of the video extenders over heated and died. I am happy to say that as far as I know, they have been replaced and the A/C has been turned back on in that room.
They can now push different content to 2 separate AppleTV's or 1 ATV and the Mac, or just one device and show mirrored or different content on both video walls!
Now it's time for another project...
08 October 2014
Digital Signage Project (or How I learned to embrace the AppleTV) - Part 1
I was recently asked by a local business to come up with a digital signage solution that would be easy to use, not require a server/IT staff, and most importantly...inexpensive with no monthly subscription/service fees.
Now, I have been out of the digital signage game for a little over a year now and thought this would be a fun project just to keep my mind sharp.
If you have ever looked into digital signage for a small business, you'll know that the requirements of this project are difficult to meet. Everyone wants to get you started and then keep you paying monthly for service contracts and hosting. My biggest pet peeve with service contracts is that you pay thousands of dollars for these things (I'm looking at you Cisco!) only to have them ship you a new $150 linux based player when an old one dies. And they only support your server through the .x updates, never into the newer version.
-- Cisco rant over.
What about the companies charging for storage/bandwidth? That's fair right?
Yes, but it's not really needed for small businesses. Businesses using large amounts of bandwidth need to pay for that, but Tom's Coffee Shop in Po'dunk, TX can' afford to shell out $150 - $200/mo just to show people the daily special.
This is where the AppleTV comes in. It's cheap. Easy to use, and has a little built-in feature that makes it the perfect candidate for our solution. But we will get to that in part 2.
Now, I have been out of the digital signage game for a little over a year now and thought this would be a fun project just to keep my mind sharp.
If you have ever looked into digital signage for a small business, you'll know that the requirements of this project are difficult to meet. Everyone wants to get you started and then keep you paying monthly for service contracts and hosting. My biggest pet peeve with service contracts is that you pay thousands of dollars for these things (I'm looking at you Cisco!) only to have them ship you a new $150 linux based player when an old one dies. And they only support your server through the .x updates, never into the newer version.
-- Cisco rant over.
What about the companies charging for storage/bandwidth? That's fair right?
Yes, but it's not really needed for small businesses. Businesses using large amounts of bandwidth need to pay for that, but Tom's Coffee Shop in Po'dunk, TX can' afford to shell out $150 - $200/mo just to show people the daily special.
This is where the AppleTV comes in. It's cheap. Easy to use, and has a little built-in feature that makes it the perfect candidate for our solution. But we will get to that in part 2.
03 January 2013
Weasley/Granger wedding
So I was digging through some old keepsakes and came across a few items from Ron and Hermoine's wedding. I know what you're thinking, "I didn't know Jon knew any wizards." Well, it was more of a friend of a friend thing, but the Weasley's are every bit as nice a family as you'd expect.
Above is the front of the invitation (I think Ginny drew it) which I think is great, but my favorite memory was Harry, stammering his way through the Best Man's speech. When the reception was over I was helping clean up and found Harry's speech. Figured it was time to share it with the world.
I've transcribed it so it's a bit easier to read. Enjoy:
"I'm not really one for making speeches so bear with me:
Ron, we've been through some crazy stuff haven't we?! I remember how we would stay up late in the Griffyndor common room, playing wizards chess until our fingers bled. And do you remember the time you almost died in the devils snare?! Thankfully you've learned to relax by now!
You have been there for me through thick and thin. Even when we fought, I always knew you had my back. There is no one in the world I would be more proud to have as a best friend.
Hermione, where do I begin?
From the moment you popped your frizzy-haired head into our train car I knew you were special. Maybe it's the way you carried yourself, or the way you were sooo good at telling us exactly what we were doing wrong! "You shouldn't be in there!" "It's levi-OH-sa, not levio-SAH" ...
I'm only kidding of course. Had it not been for Hermione, Ron and I would have been dead on several occasions, and he-who-must-not-be-named would have probably already killed everyone in this room. And don't get me started on how much gold she saved me by always fixing my glasses!
You have grown into a beautiful, intelligent, strong woman…and falling in love with Ron just helps prove how opposites really do attract!
So, here's to Ron and Hermione! Through the good and bad you have both been there for me and I know you will do the same for each other."
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