Author Archives: Patrick

On Hopbacks

By Patrick | Published: February 3, 2007

A hopback allows you to hop your brew just before cooling it. The advantages here are, of course, the ability to add hop flavor, without adding bitterness. This is a somewhat similar result to dry-hopping.

I decided to build a hopback when I bought a plate chiller. I was dissatisfied with my immersion chiller, which I felt took to long to cool the wort. So, I bought a plate chiller, which is a smaller version of what the big breweries use. Basically, you have cold water running between copper plates counterflow to your wort.

When I was doing some research about plate chillers, I found that it was good to put a hopback in the line before them, after your brew kettle. This will keep the hop solids and hot break from clogging the plate chiller.

I found a couple of websites explaining how to make a hop back, so I read them , got some ideas, and then made my own. Here are my notes on how I made mine.

Posted in homebrewing/beer | Tagged , | 2 Comments

My First All-Grain Homebrew

By Patrick | Published: June 30, 2006

So, I just made my first all-grain brew a few days ago. Needless to say, I wasn't really sure how to do it, so here is what I did. Maybe it will help you out. I learned most of the information here from the guy at the Modern Homebrew Emporium in Cambridge, and Homebrewing Guide by Dave Miller. I am describing the step-mashing process, which is one of a few different popular methods. If you've tried one of the other methods, I'd love to hear about it.

This process will add a few hours on to your brew time, and really make it into an all-day activity, but it will give you much more control and satisfaction over the end product. And, anyway, you don't brew your own beer because it's easy, right?

I am assuming that you know how to do a basic extract-based brew, so I will just focus on the mashing process. After that point, it is the same process, except that you will have to boil more liquid. If you have a pot big enough to hold your whole batch, then you are all set. However, you may have to split your batch into two pots, like I did.

Posted in homebrewing/beer | Tagged , | 2 Comments

How to Keep Your Homebrew Cool in the Summer

By Patrick | Published: June 30, 2006

One of the hardest parts about homebrewing in the summer is keeping your brew cool during the fermentation and conditioning stages. If your brew gets too warm, the yeast will produce off flavors, which can include grapefruit-like sourness and bannana flavors, and can also produce more fusel alcohols, which cause massive headaches the next morning. Usually, to combat this, homebrewers will make darker beers, with more complex flavors so that the off-flavors won't be so noticable. However, often in the summer you will want to drink something light, like a pilsner. You probably don't want something dark and heavy like a porter or stout on a hot summer day.

The ideal temperature depends on the yeast that you are using, but 68 - 70 degrees Farenheit is usually a good target. This can be easily accomplished if you are lucky enought to have a central air-conditioning system that keeps your house at a constant temperature. Another really great way to control the temperature is with an old refridgerator. You can modify the thermostat to keep the interior at whatever temperature you like. This is really ideal, since it even makes it possible to make lagers, which need even lower temperatures.

Posted in homebrewing/beer | Tagged , | 1 Comment

been busy…

By Patrick | Published: June 15, 2006
I haven't had much time for my side projects lately, which means no blog entries. School has been very busy, but here's a preview of what's to come:

  • CPAN module to interface with the Lemur information retrieval system. One of my school projects involves writing a search engine using Lemur as a backend. So, I wrote a Perl module to parse the results. After the project is handed in, I will submit it to CPAN.
  • Update to my utility for plotting multiple points on Google Maps. The Google Maps API has just been updated, including geocoding support. Hopefully this will make the geocoding much faster.
  • Revamped Frisbee site. The new site is going to be written in Ruby on Rails, with a real database in the back end. It will feature RSS feeds, and I'd like to incorporate some AJAX functionality.

That's all for now, but check back soon!

-PK
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Plot multiple locations on Google Maps

By Patrick | Published: May 1, 2006

gmaps.kaeding.name :: Plot multiple locations on Google Maps

I just made a few improvements to the mapping script. For example, now it will center at the average of the points, instead of on the first point. There is still a lot of room for improvement, though, so I hope to put some more time into it in the next few days/weeks. Also, notice the URL has changed.

Technorati tags:

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Posted in gmaps.kaeding.name | Tagged , , | 5 Comments

So, this is my new blog

By Patrick | Published: April 17, 2006

So, this is my new blog. More will come soon, when I finish finals, and have more time. Or, maybe I will decide to take a break from studying for a little bit to clear my mind. In any case, check back soon.

-PK

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Plot multiple locations on Google Maps

By Patrick | Published: April 17, 2006

Plot multiple locations on Google Maps

Hey all

A few days ago, I had two appointments downtown in the financial district on the same day. I wasn't sure how close they were to each other, so I got the idea to look them up on google maps. However, I soon found out that you cannot plot more than one location on google maps at a time. (Well, that's not completely true, since you could plot one point, and then get directions from there to the other place. But then what would you do if you needed to plot three places?)

So, I decided to see if I could hack something together using the Google Maps API. The result is at: http://gmaps.kaeding.name

It isn't pretty, nor is it perfect, but hey, it works (at least when the addresses are accepted by the geocoder).

You enter as many addresses as you want, one per line. Then the script sends those strings through geocoder.us to get latitude and longitude. (The Google Maps API only allows you to plot points using latitude and longitude, not by supplying an address). Sometimes, geocoder.us will come back with more than one possible address for a single string. So, the next page asks you to confirm the addresses. The final page displays the map.

Posted in gmaps.kaeding.name | Tagged , | 21 Comments