It’s been a good weekend.  That’s because it included both beer and radio.

Today I brewed solo.  Most of my brewing lately has been with Josh Nelson, sometimes including others as well.  That’s certainly the best way.  But today I just relaxed and got into it.  I had an early start, the kitty demanded that I get up at the crack of dawn (she doesn’t comprehend Sunday).  Things went very well and I hit or exceeded all my numbers.

Today I brewed a lager that almost wants to be an APA that is firmly hopped.  13 lbs of Rahr 2-row malt, 2 lbs of Munich, 1 lb of Honey Malt.  I got the shroud perfected on the mill and was able to crush the grain solo without a problem.  1.051 going into the kettle for 7.75 gallons.  After 30 minutes of boiling I added an oz of Pacific Jade, a nicely citrusy hop from New Zealand with 13% alpha acids.  After another 30 minutes I put in another oz of Saaz with another oz of that at flameout.

This is the first time I’ve reused yeast.  The Pilsner Of The Thundergod that Josh and I brewed last week was ready for secondary so I saved the cake from that.  That started as a S-23 dry yeast and had gently fermented for the week.  I was surprised that within two hours of pitching that reused cake into this new brew I had very active fermentation.  Now it’s about five hours in and the air lock is going like mad and it looks like it will blow off in the morning.  Impressive for a lager yeast working at 58 degrees!

On the Amateur Radio front, Josh had run my coax into the house for me last weekend.  This weekend I finished that project by running it into the bookshelves in the library and, along with cleaning most of the shelves, installed my radio.  I have mostly listened (which I recommend to all and is really what the hobby is about).  Copied a lot of SSTV on 20 meters including good quality pics from Belgium and Uruguay.  PSK-31 was also good with stations from Colombia booming in.  Pretty good considering the bands kinda suck this weekend.  10 Meters has been good on USB voice in the morning.

That is all.