Brew Town - Part 2

This time we brewed at steven's house and made 2 kinds of beer, A dirty blonde and a pale ale.

our intern Jonni B

The spent grains, gross

So the whole day was a disaster, and I mean whole day, it went from 2pm to 10pm.  We were using the wort chiller coil with bob squeezing it onto the sink faucet and I guess water was accumulating and dripping down the pipes through the building down to the second floor onto the guy's computer below.  He came with force and fury pounding on the door and we had to stop using the wort chiller.  Which is a bummer because it cools stuff down in like 20 minutes and we had to just let it cool down via the air which is bad, very bad.  Because for the 3 hours that its sitting out it is possibly getting contaminated 

Nabe at Kimie and Stevers

outside the annual American Illustration party with Richard Borge and his famous vermillion beetle.

Siphoned the settled cider into a secondary fermenter to get rid of the dead yeast and other gunk

said gunk

Friday, November 10th.  The last harvest.  They said the temperature would dip below freezing finally.  I bought all the stuff to make a little greenhouse the probably could have extended the growing season another month but insane projects and an impending trip to Korea left me with no time to build it.

upper west side life

The day before our month long Korea trip i went to AAA to get an international drivers permit because there would be a lot of driving between Seoul and Wonju.  Visa photo from 2008 is a bonus for you viewer.  Enjoy.

the garden the day we left for Korea.  Looks like that one cold night wasn't enough to kill the greens.  Too bad, could have gotten another month of veggies.  What a great first season it was.  It exceeded my expectations.  Looking forward to more next year.

Brew Town - Part 1

I'm working away staring at my screen all day all day all day then BOOM! I look up and see this out the window so we ran upstairs to soak it in.

Steven's buddy Taka was visiting from Tokyo so he had to show him a good time so they went to an 80s and 90s themed holloween party at littlefield.  It was full of young people.  Bob got into the spirit and dressed up like this, not pictured are the skin tight acid washed jeans.

not pictured, the Did I Do That steve urkel t-shirt steven begrudgingly bought

That's our steven

we were waiting in line for a while and said screw this lets just go to Lucky Saloon 13 across the street and drink.  

we looked across the street and the line was gone so we decided to go to the party after all (Jen and I are too old to be going to parties at midnight).  These are their costume finalists.  We didn't plan on doing anything so we didn't even have costumes on.  We looked like Narcs so I guess we could say we were dressed like that.

We boiled 4.5 gallons of cider to kill off any unwanted wild yeast and bacteria.  I was looking at craigslist for weeks for a free extra brewing vessel since we were planning on making multiple batches and found a guy that was giving away an entire kit for free so i hustled over there and got it and it even included a wort chiller ($100 value!) coil that you run cold water through and it cools down the wart and spits it out the other side as hot water.  We don't have a sink that accepts a garden hose thread attachment so bob had to stand there with plastic wrap, his hand pressure, and sheer will power to make it work, and work awesomely it did.

the three testicles = the three dumb@$$es.

4.5 gallons of hard cider hopefully.  It's two months later now and its been conditioning in the closet this whole time.  Cider is more like wine they say and gets better with age.  We'll see.....

still harvesting greens

so it finally started getting cold and our pilot light on the furnace wouldn't stay lit after trying everything for weeks short of replacing the thermocouple (my final diagnosis).  I could have done it but this seems like dangerous stuff so we called multiple professionals who wouldn't even come do it and we finally found one.  It turned out the thermocouple was broken and they replaced it and now we have heat.

we saw Warpaint on broadway.  Inspiring set designs and costumes 

there are still new tomato flowers coming out!

an ad for Stranger Things on Netflix masquerading as a real ad.  The show is so popular they can do this

we saw M. Butterfly starring Clive Owen on broadway.  More inspiring sets and lighting.

Cider Town

Went to the parents house to pick some apples and make some cider with the goal of making hard cider. 

they think the apple trees they have in the side yard are North Spies.  They aren't great for eating like an apple but tart apples make the best cider and pies.

At Lain's Cider Mill getting our apples pressed

the home brewing craze has made it here as well.  Although the Lain's say they have been making their own hard cider forever I don't remember them selling hard cider making kits until i saw it this year.

our haul, 9 gallons

this pumpkin still sits on our floor uncarved.  Once again we failed

a journey into the forest to find fall ikebana materials.

dad's yellow maple

mom's tactile contradiction of thorns and smooth round berries

my surrealist nightmare

Jen's minimalist maple

Dad made smoked cheese!  Mozzarella, Gouda, and Cheddar and it's good stuff.  Oh and pulled pork

addiction

I found a tick on my upper thigh when we got back to NYC that night.  I was wearing long pants and shirts so I don't know how he got there.  I went to the doctor and got tick antibiotics.

october 23rd and still harvesting swiss chard.