Racking the whiskey beer

Holy Shit ya'll, that smelled amazing.  I transferred my beer to the secondary fermenter and added the oak barrel chips to the secondary fermenter.  The oak barrel chips have to be boiled in a small amount of water for about 5 minutes before being added, and man did that smell good.  My entire apartment smelled amazing. 

Upon checking the beer when I openned up the first fermenter it definately did have a much more vigorus fermentation than what I usually see.  The specific gravity reading was a waste of time for me because I totally forgot what its initial reading was and never wrote it down.

I am going to let the whole thing sit for another 3 weeks, the longer it sits the stronger the whiskey flavor will be, before bottelling.

The in kit instructions kept using the word Racking or Rack in reference to this step in thebrewing process and even though this is my 20th gallon of home brew so far this year and probably almost my 100th gallon over all, I still had no idea what Racking meant.  So I looked it up in The Joy Of Home Brewing.  Racking is nothing more then the process of transferring beer from one container to another.  It seems kind of stupid that, that process has it own name but for how often, no less than 3 times per brew, that is done I guess it makes sense to condense that idea down to one word.  I still don't understand why the word is Racking when Pouring, or heaven forbid Transfering would have been just as good a word and made more sense.

Woodchuck love!!!

Hard Cider is amazing and the only commercially availible brand is Woodchuck.  I have been a fan of Woodchuck Amber since before I considered my self a beer drinker.  I love the taste.  I love even more that they are explanding the flavors offered to more then just Amber. 

While I still like their Granny Smith flavor it is not a favorite.  I, just this weekend, tried Crisp for the first time as I went out to Clevland OH for a Dave Matthews Band concert.  I have got to say I loved it, but I drank 4 bottles out of a six pack along with like 5 cans of Lienehugle's Summer Shandy and didn't even get a buzz.  (The lack of any kind of buzz was even more upsetting when you consider that I had not eaten much of anything up to the point I was drinking and tailgating in the parking field before the concert.)

So I loved the flavor of Woodchuck Crisp, but I would recommend to anyone to mix it with a shot of vodka or you will never get there.  (There being drunk.)

As for my own desire to make hard cider.  I still need to buy two glass carboy's that are up to the challenge.  I also have 4 months still to go before fresh apple cider really becomes availible.  There is an apple cider mill about 7 miles away from my apartment.

 

From Blossom Music Center Chuyhoga Falls OH last night

Would you like to be cut, ripped, or put on a better gun show then Charlton Heston

So I am not going to hide it anymore.  I am fat.

I want to get in shape but everything in men's fitness anymore is about getting ripped, or cut, or developing guns.  Why isn't there just a men's fitness program for losing 30 pounds and being healthier.  I know that is probably a super gay way of looking at it, cause no straight guy really obsesses, outwardly, about just wanting to lose weight. 

But these damn macho guys are screwing up with the fitness scene for the rest of us sensible guys that just want to be healthier.  We don't all want our veins to be popping out of our arms and it really turns me off to the fitness programs that promote themselves like that.  Why isn't there something sensible, cheap, and easy to follow that we can follow that just makes the to lose weight and bring your physical fitness level in to balance.