G'day everyone, from another Indian Summer's day in the highlands down under (the beginning of March officially starts autumn here).

Plenty of the amber fluid, plus a few spirited mixes in the evening, were also had here yesterday Steve (basically because it was the 12th anniversary of my missus' passing), but all being chemically additive free and made by myself I woke up feeling very good this morning.

Our local craft brew joint just across the river here Gary now has a Cellar Door operating 3 days a week (Friday to Sunday), but he keeps asking us real beer drinkers why we don't come over for a try and we keep telling him that while he keeps providing expensive beers adulterated with fruit flavours he'll just have to do without us. He's tried my homebrewed lager as well as the lager that I drink at the pub so he should know that he needs to provide a proper unadulterated beer at a more reasonable price as well as providing a courtesy bus/taxi or a footbridge across the river to get us to even think about making the journey (it's only 500m as the crow flies from here, but it's 1.5kms via road and no footbridge at all).

Well it looks like I'll be sweating my guts out in the next day or 2 in my brewroom to get my next spirit wash processed as this Indian Summer is expected to last until the weekend. :-(

[edit] The mercury here just hit 30C.

Cheers.

G'day everyone, from another hot day in the highlands down under.

After enjoying several beers with a few mates (while watching 2 bushfires to the north of us) I now have my brewroom ready for a hot, sweaty and uncomfortable day tomorrow processing the spirit wash I put down 11 days ago. Hopefully this hot weather will be gone by next week when the 2nd lot is ready to do.

Anyhow, it's now time to think about a feed before I do anything else.

Cheers.

G'morning everyone, from what will be another hot day in the highlands down under.

Well I just turned the heat on in my brewroom for an uncomfortable day in there, but the rewards will be worth it, but hopefully I'll get a quarter of it done before it starts to get really warm.

Cheers.

Recognition at last. Clitheroe's Bowland Beer Hall scoops tasty award

Clitheroe's Bowland Beer Hall has raised a glass after scooping an award for its craft beer. The Bowland Beer Hall award is for UK’s Best Independent Craft Beer Rural Bar or Pub and recognises the businesses talent for supplying the best beer in the UK at the SIBA Business Awards.
Warren Bennett, managing director at Bowland Brewery, collected the award along with the Bowland Brewery team. He said: "We are absolutely delighted with the award. Being recognised by our peers in the industry for the excellence both of the beer and the beer hall makes us all very proud.
"With 42 hand-pulls on the bar Bowland Beer Hall is a ‘temple to beer’ that attracts beer enthusiasts from near and far. Winning this award can only help us reach an even wider audience in the future.”
Neil Walker, SIBA Business Awards judges chairman, said: "These really are the top craft beer businesses around, with those crowned overall winners at BeerX UK set to be acknowledged as the very best of the best."

G'morning everyone, from what will hopefully be last taste of summer in the highlands down under.

Well after 2 days in my brewroom I got my stocks of spirits back up and the floor finally mopped so I can do that all over again next week just so I'll have some more spirits in reserve.

Even under less than ideal conditions a good yeast will do better than a mediocre under good conditions, 3 litres more this time over using the less than ideal one used in the last lot.

Anyhow, I better go and do a quick trip into town for another month's worth of pills.

Cheers.

Well it was sunny when I left on my pill run, but on returning home we're into a full overcast (and hopefully that rain won't be far away).

It might be a bit early, but I'll go for a slow walk up the hill for a slightly early LLB.

Cheers.

G'day everyone, from a smokey day in the highlands down under,

I'm just having my 1st quick beer break while I await the heat cycle to get going again in the brewroom as I'm making Holy Water today.

We have 2 bushfires going near here (1 to the east and 1 to the north) and no matter which way the breeze goes it's just dragging the smoke across us here from 1 or the other.

Thankfully the clouds are starting to build up and we'll get that promised rain latter in the day, but it can't come soon enough.

Cheers.

G'day Wiggo
i hoe you you have a Good day,
Best Wishes,
. . . byron.

Bartender! A Glenn Craig Scotch, neat.

And a final Toast to Linda Polgar. Taken from us much too early. Only 48... God bless us all.


TL

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TimeLord04
Have TARDIS, will travel...
Come along K-9!
Join Calm Chaos

I misspelled GlenCraig before...

Here is what I was after: GlenCraig Scotch - 30 Yrs. Old.


TL

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TimeLord04
Have TARDIS, will travel...
Come along K-9!
Join Calm Chaos

G'Day everyone, from a cool, overcast and windy day (with the odd bit of lite drizzle thrown in now and again) in the highlands down under.

Hi Byron, all has been well there I hope.

Hi TL, if you can't find that bar keep then it's best to serve yourself. ;-)

I've been a bit busy lately with a few projects around the house here ATM (seeing that the weather is much cooler) and the biggest in progress is separating the house's front and rear stormwater into 2x 90mm outlets out front instead of sharing just a single 90mm outlet (my house is just far too big for that and the reason why the front gutter kept overflowing). Yesterday saw me cutting out the kerb to take the extra pipe and digging a trench across my front yard alongside the original pipe (my right shoulder is really feeling that today I can tell you). Today I cut off and shortened the front downpipe, capped off the original connection, did a few fitting repairs and then with 2 short pieces of pipe and 3 elbows I glued together a modified section to join the front downpipe with its new stormwater outlet pipe down in the trench (yes I know that the trench may fill with water now, but the ground is so dry and hard anyway that it won't hurt).

Tomorrow is suppose to be wet here (or at least damp) so that should give my shoulder a chance to get a bit better before the final sprint to dig the 4.5m across the nature strip (that'll be some more very hard going without some moisture), glue 2 lengths of 90mm pipe in, then get that nature strip section "trip free" again ASAP, concrete back in the section kerb around the new pipe and then I'll see how my shoulder and back are doing as to whether the front yard can wait for another day or not.

Anyhow I'm now going to get another beer and do a bit of relaxing while planning another project out (and trying to remember where I put my roll of "Firery's tape" after my big shed clean up so that I can cordon off that section of nature strip while the other job is being done).

Cheers.

G'Day Wiggo,
and
G'Day everyone,

have great day everyone,
Best Wishes,
. . . byron.

Back at ya.

Will have a beer now.

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With each crime and every kindness we birth our future.

G'Day everyone, from a sunny, but not too warm, start in the highlands down under.

Well I'm finally sitting down and relaxing over a beer after finally completing that stormwater job of mine at the front of my house.

Now I just have to get 2 lengths of 50mm gal. RHS and make an awning over both back doors of the house (I have enough other materials on hand to complete that job) and then I'll be able to reroute another down pipe on the southern side of the house and a trench gutter overflow down the southern side of the house and out to the front. That will leave just 2 rear down pipes left to share that original stormwater pipe and then I shouldn't have to worry about overflowing gutters on the house anymore.

Unless that is we get some extremely heavy rain, though that type of rain is very rare around these parts, but it did happen 2yrs ago which is why this project is finally being done (and the weather is being good, though dry, but the ground is so dry that its almost like rock).

Anyhow, my glass needs refilling.

Cheers.

G'Day Wiggo sounds like you could use some rain :)

G'morning everyone, from a cool and damp start in the highlands down under.

You're not wrong Byron, but I got that job done just in time as we've had 7mm of rain here this morning (@ 9am) and it's getting heavier.

I'm also now prepared for a big drop in the temp here tonight with our expected low being just 4C.

Anyhow, seeing as there's still 90mins to go until Beer O'clock, I better go and get and get myself another coffee.

Cheers.

G'morning everyone, from a bright start in the highlands down under, but that's not expected to last.

Yesterday I decided to pull 2 old PC's apart, clean them thoroughly out, modify 1 case and swap their guts about. I got 1 back together yesterday afternoon and I just finished putting the 2nd back together this morning. Now I'll have to find something else to keep me busy for the next 3hrs until Beer O'clock gets here.

Cheers.

How to make mead in Slav countries.
Davai. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9aj1UTchuo

G'day everyone, from another productive morning in the yard in the highlands down under.

Well yesterday I decided that the yard and garden needed a tidy up so the new Ryobi line trimmer/brush cutter/path edger got all the edges around here looking sharp again (recent rain had made things decide to grow again) and then I was thinking that the last time a prune was done around here was 2 winters ago and that was with a chainsaw.

So after a couple of beers the 2-stroke hedge trimmer (that I havn't use in around 4yrs) got fired up (3rd pull) and I started to attack the wisteria that grows over the carport right next to my driveway entrance. From ground level I got the driveway 50% wider before more beer was needed.

This morning I attacked the ladder work on the wisteria and revealed a carport (so hopefully people can now see my driveway and not park across it), I also got a few bushes shaped back into their garden bed borders and removed some pesky privet, but I couldn't resist hitting up 5 small bushes in the backyard before taking a beer break (which I'm on right now).

Once I've cooled down and rested over a few beers there's just the climbing rosette to do, that will just leave the crepe myrtles and crab apple to do in July to have everything up to date for a change.

Anyhow, it's time for a refill.

Cheers.

G'morning everyone, from an overcast Sunday in the highlands down under.

After a busy morning of cleaning up and taking the trailer for a tip run it was far too early for a beer when I got back so I decided to be a pirate instead.

Cheers.