Abbreviated Update
on Nov 21, 2009 in /liff/ A miscellany. Life has had too much happening to have blogged it all in detail. I may get around to telling some of it in more detail, but, like all other Good Intentions, don't hold your breath.Last week was a trip down to Cape Town to chat with all...

RIP OB PhD
on Nov 14, 2009 in /liff/ OB 1999-2009...

Drought Finally Official
on Nov 5, 2009 in /earthstuff/ Finally our region has been officially declared a Drought Disaster Area, and the Provincial Gov is pumping in emergency funds for "emergency projects such as drilling of boreholes/treatment of effluent water etc."A couple of weeks ago the local Muni...

Tragedy Tamarillo
on Oct 27, 2009 in /braamekraal/ The sad remains of our newest Tamarillo/Tree Tomato after strong winds yesterday. I was so looking forward to propagating this one, as it is a new strain -- much taller than the other strain we already have, and bearing much larger fruit.In other, be...

Wort Happens
on Oct 20, 2009 in /homebrew/ Adrian commented rather extensively on my First Brew with the new rig, and, rather than just reply privately or in an additional comment (where it'll just be lost in the noise), I thought I'd reply more fully here.Adrian wrote:Your low extraction mig...

Spring Planting
on Oct 11, 2009 in /research/ Planted out yesterday: Chiles - 9 or 10 varieties. Some of them only one or two plants each. This is something that's been puzzling me for a while: Many of the seeds I acquire from the North show very poor germination. I wondered whether this was due...

First Wort
on Oct 8, 2009 in /homebrew/ Ran the new rig through its first complete brew today. A delight! Everything went very smoothly, with only minor hiccups.The mashtun's heat-retention was probably the biggest question of the day. Happy to report that it's brilliant. Less than 1º tem...

Malting: First Attempt
on Oct 5, 2009 in /research/ A few days ago, I decided to try my hand at malting barley. Why not jump in at the deep end? I'll go straight for a Crystal Malt. After all, Pale Malt is easy enough to obtain; it's the specialised malts that are more difficult to get hold of.I bough...

Malting
on Oct 1, 2009 in /research/ I'm fed up with the useless South African internet/mail-order homebrew suppliers. Essentially there are only 3, and they're all pretty useless in my experience. Orders fail to pitch up for months. Ingredients that I'm  told are in stock, myster...

Brewery - Part 3
on Sep 26, 2009 in /homebrew/ Testing the RigFinally, having plumbed together all the pipework and gas-lines, added electrical wiring for the pump and a light, modified the stand to accommodate a taller-than-planned gas-burner, jacketed the 3 vessels, it's time to test the bits a...