Category: hobby

  • thanks

    Oh yay. Two batches of beer going at the same time: a Belgian abbey on the left and a stout on the right. The abbey is Batch #6, the slow-starter I was fretting over for two days until I finally got fermentation kickstarted by giving it a warm bath. Now it’s got a heating pad… Read.

  • bubbly batch

    Same batch, eight hours later: I kept thinking about the head of kreusen building on top of the wort as I was trying to read myself to sleep last night. Finally, I gave up, got out of bed and stuck the blow-off tube down the neck of the carboy. Good thing I did, because the… Read.

  • LIFE!

    LIFE, DO YOU HEAR ME! GIVE MY CREATION … LIIIIIFE! Last time I used this particular strain of yeast it took a little more than twenty-four hours for fermentation to kick in. This time it took almost fifty-four, and I had to baby it. I thought it might be too cold in the basement for… Read.

  • book snack

    The only fit snack while reading is the olive in a martini. — P.J. O’Rourke Read.

  • Batch #6

    , , , ,

    Batch #6 is brewed and put to bed. Now to wait for the good part. Read.

  • eye roll

    My Darling B has leveled a challenge: She believes that, if I were to tell anybody how many typewriters I own, I would get an eye-roll from practically everyone. Well, here is a group shot of every typewriter I own: On the far left: A Smith-Corona Silent, one of the first typewriters I bought from… Read.

  • Batch #5

    Bottling Day! This is Batch #5, which I had hoped would be a less-hoppy beer than any of my previous brews — “less hoppy” meaning “a beer that My Darling B would drink.” I cut the amount of hops in half so the brew wouldn’t taste nearly as bitter as the previous batches, not counting… Read.

  • delivery

    There was a package waiting on the front stoop yesterday evening. “That looks too big to be the thing I ordered,” My Darling B said when she spotted it as we pulled into the driveway. “Did you order something?” “Maybe.” Looking sideways at me she asked, “Is it a typewriter?” Pause. “Maybe.” Rolling her eyes,… Read.

  • naked

    , , ,

    And now, because there will never be too much porn on teh intarwebs, here’s a photo of an Olivetti Studio 44 without any clothes on: I had to take it apart because it was so dirty that little bits and pieces of dirt were falling out of it every time I moved it. Also, the… Read.

  • screw loose

    Tim brought his typewriter over after a screw fell out. He figured I could fix it because I have a few typewriters and I sometimes take them apart, not because I can fix them but because it’s an itch I’ve got to scratch. Typewriter innards are mesmerizing. I totally get why surgeons like to cut… Read.

photo of the author and the author's best friend