My last post got me thinking about ways to get started without a trip to the homebrew supply shop. I came up with a recipe that uses readily-available ingredients and common household items. I’m still quite the novice, so if someone with more experience happens to read this, please share your comments.
MacGyver Mead (melomel, actually)
Supplies
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Ingredients
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Procedure after the jump.
I picked up some commercial mead at my local market yesterday. A 750mL bottle cost $11.99. When I ran the numbers, I found the same quantity can be made at home for $1.39. As an added bonus, the end product comes with the pride of knowing I crafted it myself.
I already had most of what I needed. If you’re starting from scratch, a modest investment is required …
Startup Costs – Equipment and Supplies
| 1 gallon glass jug | $4.25 |
| #6 stopper – drilled | $0.70 |
| Fermentation lock | $1.10 |
| Plastic tubing | $3.95 |
| Auto siphon | $8.25 |
| Funnel (with strainer) | $4.75 |
| Capper | $11.95 |
| Equipment Total | $34.95 |
| Sanitizer (Star San) | $8.25 |
| Caps | $2.25 |
| Gypsum | $0.80 |
| Acid Blend | $1.20 |
| Yeast Nutrient | $1.50 |
| Irish Moss | $1.00 |
| Supplies Total | $15.00 |
Actually, not all of this stuff is completely necessary. You can use household bleach as a sanitizer, for example. Raisins can be substituted for yeast nutrient. A simple racking cane is cheaper than an auto siphon, and you can make an airlock with plastic tubing and a jar of water.
You’ll also need:
Once you’ve cleared the entry barrier, mead is cheap:
Ingredient Costs (per 1-gallon batch)
| Honey (3 pounds) | $6.21 |
| Yeast (Lalvin EC-1118) | $0.75 |
| Ingredients Total | $6.96 |
One gallon makes about five 750mL bottles. Including equipment, supplies and ingredients, your first batch will cost $11.38 per bottle. After that, it’s about $1.39 for 750mL.
Your local homebrew supply shop can help you get started.
On Sunday, I made my first foray into honey wine with a 1-gallon batch of Pineapple Melomel. I scaled down Papazian’s Traditional Mead recipe and added an entire fresh pineapple (sliced). In hindsight, I probably should have left out the acid blend, since I was adding an acidic fruit. The pineapple was very sweet, though, so there’s plenty of room for hope.
Up next is a 5-gallon batch of sparkling raspberry ginger mead.
Our home theater has 7 remotes: DVD, TV, Cable Box, AV Receiver, Netflix Player, AV Switch and Apple TV. Up until yesterday, they all sat on the coffee table in one big pile of clutter. Simple tasks like turning on the TV required 3 separate remotes. Even watching TV was a juggling act, because volume controls were separate from the cable box remote.
Some of these remotes are programmable, but none of them is truly universal. This one is:
We invested some of our economic stimulus payment in the Logitech Harmony One advanced universal remote. It showed up yesterday. After about an hour of setup, the pile of individual remotes was relocated to a drawer. All that’s left is the Harmony One and its cradle.
When you pick it up, the remote’s touch screen turns on and presents a list of activities: Watch TV, Watch DVD, Watch Netflix, Watch Apple TV. Press “Watch TV”, and it turns on the TV, sets the input to Component 1, turns on the AV receiver, sets the input to DTV/Cable, and turns on the cable box. The volume controls are configured for the AV receiver, and everything else talks to the cable box.
Press “Watch Netflix”, and it sets the AV receiver to “DVD”, turns on the AV switch, sets the AV switch to input 3, and wakes the Roku Netflix Player. The volume controls do what they’re supposed to, and everything else talks to the Roku like you would expect.
So far, my only complaint is that the configuration software is total garbage. Every task must be completed through a setup wizard. Making small adjustments requires way more work than it should. It’s obnoxious. Fortunately, you only have to do it once.
Overall, a good purchase. Less mess, more ease of use.
Cheryl and I were in the audience for tonight’s live broadcast of A Prairie Home Companion. We’re not the most dedicated of listeners, but we jumped at the opportunity to see the show in person. We weren’t disappointed. It was a fun evening and a memorable experience.
One of the things that struck me was how laid back the production was. The show is heard by 4 million listeners on 380 radio stations. I expected more announcements and audience cues. We were told nothing – not even to turn off our cell phones.
If you’ve heard the radio show and seen the movie, the live performance is not unlike what you might expect. Garrison Keillor arrived on stage a few minutes before airtime to warm up the audience, and then, without much ado, the broadcast began. And from there, what you heard was what we saw, except it’s a whole different experience in person.
We really enjoyed ourselves — it was a great show.
It’s hard to believe Tim Russert is gone. He was more than a journalist. He was a fixture and an institution. The political universe will be forever deprived by his absence.
Most Netflix subscribers are familiar with their “Watch Instantly” feature. It allows unlimited access to a growing library of movies and TV shows, streamed over the Internet at no additional charge. This is stupefyingly awesome, except for two limitations: (1) no one really likes watching movies on a computer, and (2) it requires Windows (we use Macs). The Roku Netflix Player addresses both of these problems. Ours arrived today.
This compact set-top-box plugs into your TV (composite, component or HDMI), and uses your wired or wireless network to stream video directly from your “Instant” queue to your living room. It requires a high speed Internet connection and an Unlimited Netflix account. It’s easy to setup and even easier to use. Video quality is outstanding, with no noticeable difference from DVD quality.
The price tag, just $100, makes it damn near irresistible. If you’re getting your money’s worth out of your Netflix subscription, the Roku Player is well worth the investment.
Edit: Two hours later, and the gadget buzz has already worn off. I’m getting an error: “Unable to connect to Netflix”. Are they having trouble accommodating the influx of new users, or is something broken? Is this a sign of things to come? I’ll be seriously bummed if it is.
Another Edit: It’s working fine now.
DD-WRT is third-party firmware for popular wireless routers. It adds features not typically included in the manufacturer’s firmware, including XLink Kai support, WDS, advanced QoS, transmit power control, virtual wireless interfaces, remote logging, hotspot support, and VPN and VoIP capabilities.
I installed DD-WRT on my Linksys WRT54G (rev 2.0) on Sunday. It was a completely painless process involving the “Firmware Upgrade” feature in the web interface. I stepped from the Mini release to Standard, and reset to default settings between updates to be safe. I was able to revert to the Linksys firmware just as easily.
Thus far, the only problem I have encountered is with the overclocking feature. When I tried bumping the clock speed up a notch, the router stopped responding. Power cycling didn’t help, but I was able to restore the default settings by simply holding down the reset button for about 30 seconds.
The average consumer has no need for DD-WRT. If you require advanced features on a tight budget, or if you just like to tinker with your network, it’s absolutely fantastic.
My second 5-gallon batch is under way. I started with Things Beer’s Williamston Wheat recipe, and added 7 pounds of frozen tart cherries following Papazian’s procedure from his “Cherries in the Snow” recipe (p.216).
I broke my hydrometer tonight. I was a little careless while cleaning it, and the glass shattered in my hand. Oops.
