View allAll Photos Tagged hydrometer
Due to a warm and humid summer, most of the vine leaves are still green.
Since a while I was waiting for the first colours to come.
Finally, first leaves are turning red.
Many of the green grapes are harvested - but the blue ones for the red wine still hanging on the vine in the "Kaiserstuhl" region to get some mor "Oechsle" for the "Spätburgunder" (Pinot noir, Pinot nero).
The small grape cluster is typical for the 'Spätburgunder'.
Oechsle Scale is a hydrometer scale measuring the density of grape must, which is an indication of grape ripeness and sugar content used in wine-making.
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Aufgrund des warmen und feuchten Sommers sind die meisten Weinblätter noch grün.
Seit einer Weile warte ich sehnlichst darauf, dass sich die ersten Bätter bunt färben. Endlich sind die ersten Farben da, jedoch nur an wenigen Weinstöcken.
Die Weinlese für die grünen Trauben ist fast abgeschlossen, jedoch hängen noch die blauen Trauben am Kaiserstuhl für den "Spätburgunder Rotwein", die Winzer warten evtl. auf mehr Oechsle.
Die kleineren Traubenbüschel sind typisch für den Spätburgunder.
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I wish you a lovely week ahead, dear friends :-)
We test the sugar content (brix) of the must everyday using a hydrometer, starting at about 24 brix. After about 10 days, it gets down to zero and it's time to press the must.
( 359 of 365 )
For any of you out there that are finding the day a bit on the heavy side and are feeling under pressure !!
Plus I have got a barometer ( including thermometer & hydrometer ) and it is a good excuse for a shot sort of related to the time of year .
And a good excuse for Tres Hombres -----------
ODC-Believe
Here, in Upstate, NY where I live, we have just experienced the driest October in 150 years. I believe that having one of these Hydrometers is essential to keep an eye on the moisture in the soil. I won't add more water since the leaves are all gone off the plant. It should be fine, but I will check it again later just to make sure!
A gold trader's kit. A thermometer, hydrometer and weights for accurately assaying the gold.
This is currently on display at the Moruya museum, NSW Australia. The area around Moruya was the scene of a gold rush in the middle of the 19th century. Modern metal detectors are the basis for a popular hobby in the area to this day!
DSC05879
Maple syrup
"Maple syrup production is centered in northeastern North America, and is commonly associated with Quebec in Canada; however, given the correct weather conditions, it can be made wherever maple trees grow. Usually, the maple species used are the sugar maple (Acer saccharum) and the black maple (Acer nigrum), because of a high sugar content in the sap of roughly two percent. A maple syrup production farm is called a "sugar bush" or "the sugarwoods". Sap is often boiled in a "sugar house" (also known as a "sugar shack" or cabane à sucre), a building which is louvered at the top to vent the steam from the boiling sap.
Canada makes more than 80 percent of the world's maple syrup, producing about 26.5 million litres in 2005. The vast majority of this comes from Quebec: the province is by far the world's largest producer, with about 75 percent of the world production (24.66 million litres in 2005).[3] Production in Quebec is controlled through a supply-management system, with producers receiving quota allotments from the Fédération des producteurs acéricoles du Québec. The province also maintains it own "strategic reserves" of maple syrup, which reached its highest point in 2004, when it totalled 60 million pounds, or 17.03 million litres.
The provinces of Ontario, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and British Columbia produce smaller amounts. The province of Manitoba produces maple syrup using the sap of the Manitoba maple tree (Acer negundo, also known as the "box-elder"). Manitoba maple syrup has a slightly different flavor than sugar-maple syrup; because it contains less sugar and the sap flows more slowly, the Manitoba maple tree's yield is usually less than half that of a similar-sized maple tree.
Vermont is the biggest U.S. producer, with 920 thousand US gallons (3,500,000 l) in 2009, followed by Maine with 395 thousand US gallons (1,500,000 l) and New York with 362 thousand US gallons (1,370,000 l). Wisconsin, Ohio, New Hampshire, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and Connecticut all produced marketable quantities of maple syrup of less than 120 thousand US gallons (450,000 l) each in 2009.
Traditionally, maple syrup was harvested by tapping a maple tree through the bark and into the wood, then letting the sap run into a bucket, which required daily collecting; less labour-intensive methods such as the use of continuous plastic pipelines have since superseded this, in all but cottage-scale production.Production is concentrated in February, March, and April, depending on local weather conditions. Freezing nights and warm days are needed to induce sap flows. The change in temperature from above to below freezing causes water uptake from the soil, and temperatures above freezing cause a stem pressure to develop, which, along with gravity, causes sap to flow out of tapholes or other wounds in the stem or branches. To collect the sap, holes are bored into the maple trees and tubes (taps, spouts, spiles) are inserted. Sap flows through the spouts into buckets or into plastic tubing. Modern use of plastic tubing with a partial vacuum has enabled increased production. A hole must be drilled in a new location each year, as the old hole will produce sap for only one season due to the natural healing process of the tree, called walling-off. Walling-off may also occur if the hole is drilled too early in the season, before daytime temperatures are above freezing. Holes also need not be plugged at the end of the season for this same reason.
Maple sap is collected from the buckets and taken to the sugar house; if plastic tubing and pipelines are used, then the pipelines are arranged so that the sap will flow by gravity into the sugar house, or if that is not possible, into holding tanks from which the sap is pumped or transported by tanker truck to the sugar house.
It takes approximately 40 litres (10 gal) of sap to be boiled down to 1 litre (1 quart) of syrup. A mature sugar maple produces about 40 litres of sap during the 4- to 6-week sugaring season. Trees are not tapped until they have a diameter of 25 cm (10 in) at chest-height and the tree is at least 40 years old. If the tree is more than 45 centimetres (18 in) it can be tapped twice on opposite sides. It is recommended that the drilled tap hole have a width of 8 mm (⅓ in) and a depth of 25 to 40 mm (1.0 to 1.6 in). During cooking, the sap is fed automatically by pipe from a storage tank to a long and narrow ridged pan called the evaporator. The evaporator is usually divided into two sections, the front pan and the back pan.
As the sap boils, the water evaporates; it becomes denser and sweeter. As the density of the sap increases, it works its way from the rear of the back evaporator pan to the front evaporator pan. The syrup is boiled until it reaches the correct density of maple syrup, 1333 kg/m3. The proper density of at least 66% sugar is reached when the boiling sap reached a temperature of 219 °F (104 °C). The density is tested with a hydrometer. If the density is too low the syrup will not be sweet enough and the syrup will spoil. If the density is too high the syrup will crystallize in bottles. When the syrup has reached the proper density, it is drawn off, filtered and bottled while hot." wikipedia.org
Dragonfly, according to scientists, is the fastest insect on earth and can develop a speed of up to 97 kilometers per hour. Their legs and jaws in their mouths make them excellent hunters. The name Dragonfly comes from the Latin libella meaning "hydrometer", or "hydrostat". Dragonflies only have wings for the last 3-4 weeks of their lives. They are not dangerous to humans, as they do not bite and do not have stingers.
Their eyes are amazing. They are very large and can see 360 degrees. They can fly in all directions. Front, back, up, down. They can also fly with their body touching the water! The hunting skills of the dragonfly are amazing. It manages to kill 95% of its targets, which ranks it higher on the list of "predators", above the lion and great white shark.
Great women in Science History
Who was Hypatia?!
HYPATIA
Biography of a scientist and a symbol.
Hypatia (370-415 A.D.) lived in Alexandria (Egypt) in the 4th century. For fifteen centuries she was the only woman scientist in history and even today her fame comes second only to that of Marie Curie. She is the only woman to appear in books concerning the history of mathematics and astronomy, although she is mentioned more for the romanticism of her life and death than for other reasons.
Hypatia became the symbol of the end of ancient science because mathematics, physics and astronomy progressed very little after her death. She lived in a period during which the Roman Empire was converting to Christianity and the sciences were considered heretical. She was educated by her father, Teone, mathematician and astronomer, who wanted her to become 'a perfect human being' in an age when women were often considered to be less than human!
Hypatia travelled to Athens and Rome where she made an impression for her intelligence and beauty. On returning to Alexandria she taught mathematics, philosophy, astronomy and mechanics and her house became a centre of intellectual activity. Unfortunately, none of her documents (mostly in the form of textbooks for students) have been preserved intact although it appears that part of her work was incorporated into the works of Teone.
The most important part of her work is to be found in the 13 VOLUMI DI COMMENTO ALL’”ARITMETICA” by Diofanto, considered to be the father of algebra. She also wrote a dissertation in 8 volumes on the 'Coniche di Apollonio' (by Apollonius of Perga, 3rd century, text which introduced epicycles and differentials to explain the orbits of planets). She was also interested in the study of conicals and wrote a dissertation on Euclides and Tolomeus. The 'Corpus Astronomico', a collection of tables concerning the heavenly bodies, is also attributed to Hypatia.
Hypatia was also interested in mechanics and technology: she designed scientific instruments, among which a flat astrolabe, an instrument to measure the level of water and an apparatus for its distillation and a brass hydrometer to calculate the density of liquids.
She was a pagan, a follower of a form of Neoplatonism that was more tolerant towards mathematics, and as such she was considered an heretic by the Christians. Persecution against Neoplatonists and Jews began in 412 a.D. when Cyrillus became patriarch of Alexandria. Hypatia refused to convert and to renounce to her ideas and in March 415 her life ended tragically in violence at the hands of a rampaging mob of Christian fanatics, who killed her for her “pagan” beliefs, some say at the instigation of St. Cyril of Alexandria.
Her death marked the end of neoplatonic teaching in Alexandria and throughout the Empire.
Although this outrageous crime has made Hypatia a powerful symbol of intellectual freedom and feminist aspiration to this day, it makes clear that the important intellectual contributions of her life’s work should not be overshadowed by her tragic death.
This is the astonishing life of Hypatia, famed throughout the Mediterranean world, a beauty and a genius, yet for 17 centuries ignored by history. As the Roman Empire fights for its life and emerging Christianity fights for our souls, Hypatia is the last great voice of reason. A woman of sublime intelligence, Hypatia ranks above not only all women, but all men. Hypatia dazzled the world with her brilliance, was courted by men of every persuasion and was considered the leading philosopher and mathematician of her age...yet her mathematics, her inventions, the very story of her life in all its epic and dramatic intensity, has gone untold.
Grandi donne nella Storia della Scienza
Chi era Ipazia?!
IPAZIA
Ipazia fu martire della libertà di pensiero e fulgido esempio dell’emancipazione femminile.
Ipazia (Alessandria d'Egitto, 370 – 415 d.C.), astronoma, matematica e filosofa, erede della scuola alessandrina, fu fatta massacrare dal vescovo Cirillo per mettere a tacere la sua sete di sapere e la sua libertà di pensiero. Antesignana della scienza sperimentale, studiò e realizzò l'astrolabio, l'idroscopio, il planisfero e l'aerometro. Nell'anno dedicato all'astronomia è legittimo chiedersi come potrebbe essere il mondo oggi e con quanti secoli di anticipo avremmo conseguito le conquiste moderne, se persone come Ipazia fossero state lasciate libere di esprimersi e di agire.
"Ad Alessandria d'Egitto, c'era una donna chiamata Ipazia, figlia del matematico Teone; madre natura la dotò, oltre della sua straordinaria intelligenza, di una incomparabile e incantevole bellezza, ottenne tantissimi successi nella letteratura e nella scienza da superare di gran lunga tutti i filosofi del suo tempo. Provenendo dalla scuola di Platone e di Plotino, lei spiegò i principi della filosofia ai suoi uditori, molti dei quali venivano da lontano per ascoltare le sue lezioni.
Facendo conto sulla padronanza di sé e sulla facilità di modi che aveva acquisito in conseguenza dello sviluppo della sua mente, non raramente apparve in pubblico o davanti ai magistrati.
Né lei si sentì confusa nell'andare ad una riunione di uomini. Tutti gli uomini, tenendo conto della sua dignità straordinaria e della sua virtù, l'ammiravano di più.
Fu vittima della gelosia politica che a quel tempo prevaleva, ma anche dell’ottusità religiosa dei cristiani dell’epoca che vedevano in lei, in quanto donna e per di più pagana, un essere inferiore e non degna di dedicarsi allo studio e alle Scienze.
Dopo la morte del vescovo Teofilo, la cattedra vescovile fu occupata, nel 412, da suo nipote Cirillo, di idee fondamentaliste, specie contro i novaziani e i giudei, che venne subito in urto col prefetto di quel tempo, il romano Oreste, amico di Ipazia e un tempo suo discepolo.
Cirillo, che mal sopportava la predicazione pagana di Ipazia, divenuta ad Alessandria la rappresentante più qualificata della filosofia ellenica, si convinse che l'ostacolo maggiore alla risoluzione della controversia fosse proprio lei.
Così egli istigò il gruppo fanatico di monaci cristiani detti parabolani ed eremiti della Tebaide, guidati da Pietro il Lettore, a togliere di mezzo Ipazia.
Dei sicari del vescovo Cirillo la aggredirono per strada e la scarnificarono con conchiglie affilate. I suoi resti furono dati alle fiamme nel Cinerone, dove veniva bruciata la spazzatura. E quel giorno i monaci esultarono con le parole di S. Agostino, per il quale la donna è solo 'immondizia'. 'Una macchia indelebile' nella storia del cristianesimo, così definì il suo assassinio lo storico Edward Gibbon. Era l'anno 415, il IV dell'episcopato di Cirillo.
Gli assassini rimasero impuniti. Oreste il prefetto chiese un'inchiesta; Costantinopoli non poté non concederla, e mandò ad Alessandria un tale Edesio, il quale non fece nulla, poiché si lasciò corrompere da Cirillo.
Oreste ottenne soltanto dei provvedimenti per arginare l'ingerenza politica dei vescovi nei poteri civili. Cirillo in seguito verrà addirittura santificato come esempio di sicura ortodossia.
Fu Damascio, filosofo neoplatonico (480/prima metà del sec.VI a.C.), quinto successore di Proclo nello scolarcato dell'Accademia, che per primo, nella Vita di Isidoro, incolpò Cirillo del delitto, arrivando addirittura a dire che prima di ucciderla le strapparono gli occhi dalle orbite, perchè aveva osato guardare e studiare il cielo e gli astri.
Nella Storia ecclesiastica dell'ariano Filostorgio, nato circa il 368 d.C. e dunque contemporaneo dei fatti narrati, si arriva a sostenere che l'assassinio non era opera di una amorfa folla fanatica, ma di quel clero cristiano che, ad Alessandria in modo particolare, voleva spadroneggiare su tutti.
Ipazia viene ricordata, ancora oggi, come la prima matematica della storia, anzi, fu la sola matematica per più di un millennio: per trovarne altre, da Maria Agnesi a Sophie Germain, bisognerà attendere il Settecento.
Ipazia era anche musicologa, medico e bravissima docente. Ad Alessandria d'Egitto insegnò nella celebre biblioteca fino a quando questo “tempio” del sapere antico fu distrutto dalle fiamme.
Secondo Mario Luzi, che a lei ha dedicato il poemetto “Il libro di Ipazia”, il suo è tra i 'nomi luminosi' della storia del mondo. Ma prima di Luzi, avevano scritto di lei Voltaire, Diderot, Leopardi, Proust, Pascal, Calvino. Eppure in Italia è tuttora sconosciuta.
Buon 8 marzo, a tutte le donne
A quelle che non hanno il dono di un sorriso
A quelle che non hanno una carezza sulla pelle
A quelle che non conoscono la dolcezza
A quelle che in silenzio subiscono la violenza.
A quelle che non possono sciogliersi i capelli al vento
Buon 8 marzo, a tutte le donne
A quelle che abbracciano con amore
A quelle che illuminano l’anima
A quelle che parlano dentro oltre lo sguardo
A quelle che sorridono con i colori dell’arcobaleno
A tutte quelle che danno energia alla libertà della vita
Michele Luongo
Happy Women's Day!
In the 1800's Britain boasted the largest and most powerful navy, enabling a small island nation to build a huge empire. Rum and gin were staples on-board Royal Navy ships.
Today, computerised warfare has dramatically reduced onboard liquor consumption but it remains common to see brands of rum and gin labelled "Navy Strength".
Before 1816, there was no accurate way to measure the strength of a spirit, so pursers in the British navy (then known as pussers) would test the alcoholic strength of their rum ration by using a rule-of-thumb method: a few grains of gunpowder were added to pure rum and the mixture heated by concentrating the heat of the sun's rays through a magnifying glass. If the mixture just ignited it was proof. Too weak and it would fail to light. If it was overproof then it would go up with a bang. Ensuring the high strength of the alcohol not only protected the navy from being overcharged for watered-down rum, but it also ensured rum-soaked gunpowder remained explosive. This was crucial as casks of rum and gunpowder were stored in close proximity, so should stormy seas or extremes of battle cause one or more of the many casks of rum on board to spill their contents and drench nearby gunpowder, then, as the rum was overproof its fire-power would be unaffected.
In 1816, proof become more closely defined when Bartholomew Sikes invented an accurate hydrometer, which measured 100 proof at just over 57% alcohol by volume (57.142857% to be exact). Sikes' new scale was adopted in law in 1818.
Sorry I'm MIA these days. Now that the Spring season is here (and it's an early Spring this year), I'm back working at RONA's seasonal department on the weekends. RONA is a Canadian competitor to Home Depot and Lowe's. Been working there part-time since 2002. I'm also at Meg's a day a week to look after Gavin while Meg volunteers in Tyler's classroom. Will be down even more next week and the week after while I mark grade 10 literacy tests for the Province of Ontario. From then on, I'll be posting once or twice a week until at least September...unless I win LottoMax or Lotto 649, at which point I'll be buying a Hasselblad H3DII-31 to take on my trip to Space with Sir Richard Branson.
A few weeks ago, Karen and I took Meg, Tyler and Gavin to the sugar bush at Mountsberg Conservation Area. Maple syrup production was underway.
From: Inside Halton.com
Head to Mountsberg Conservation Area's sugar bush to see historical and modern methods of tapping, collecting and boiling sap to make maple syrup. Take in a maple candy making session or travel on a horse-drawn ride through the bush. Finish off your visit with a stop at the Pancake Pavilion for a plate of flapjacks covered in pure maple syrup. This program is available weekends only from March 6 to April 5, but is available daily during March Break.
Adults $6.50, Seniors $5.50, Children 5-14 $4.50, Children 4 and under free.
Additional links dealing with Mountsberg's Maple Towne
www.theparentlink.ca/familyandkidsevents/view.php?s=100&a...
www.examiner.com/x-35155-Toronto-Tourism-Examiner~y2010m3...
From "Maple Syrup", Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maple_syrup
Traditionally, maple syrup was harvested by tapping a maple tree through the bark and into the wood, then letting the sap run into a bucket, which required daily collecting; less labour-intensive methods such as the use of continuous plastic pipelines have since superseded this, in all but cottage-scale production.
Production is concentrated in February, March, and April, depending on local weather conditions. Freezing nights and warm days are needed to induce sap flows. The change in temperature from above to below freezing causes water uptake from the soil, and temperatures above freezing cause a stem pressure to develop, which, along with gravity, causes sap to flow out of tapholes or other wounds in the stem or branches. To collect the sap, holes are bored into the maple trees and tubes (taps, spouts, spiles) are inserted. Sap flows through the spouts into buckets or into plastic tubing. Modern use of plastic tubing with a partial vacuum has enabled increased production. A hole must be drilled in a new location each year, as the old hole will produce sap for only one season due to the natural healing process of the tree, called walling-off. Walling-off may also occur if the hole is drilled too early in the season, before daytime temperatures are above freezing. Holes also need not be plugged at the end of the season for this same reason. Maple sap is collected from the buckets and taken to the sugar house; if plastic tubing and pipelines are used, then the pipelines are arranged so that the sap will flow by gravity into the sugar house, or if that is not possible, into holding tanks from which the sap is pumped or transported by tanker truck to the sugar house.
It takes approximately 40 litres (10 gal) of sap to be boiled down to 1 litre (1 quart) of syrup. A mature sugar maple produces about 40 litres of sap during the 4- to 6-week sugaring season. Trees are not tapped until they have a diameter of 25 cm (10 in) at chest-height and the tree is at least 40 years old. If the tree is more than 45 centimetres (18 in) it can be tapped twice on opposite sides. It is recommended that the drilled tap hole have a width of 8 mm (⅓ in) and a depth of 25 to 40 mm (1.0 to 1.6 in). During cooking, the sap is fed automatically by pipe from a storage tank to a long and narrow ridged pan called the evaporator. The evaporator is usually divided into two sections, the front pan and the back pan. As the sap boils, the water evaporates; it becomes denser and sweeter. As the density of the sap increases, it works its way from the rear of the back evaporator pan to the front evaporator pan. The syrup is boiled until it reaches the correct density of maple syrup, 1333 kg/m3.[citation needed] The proper density of at least 66% sugar is reached when the boiling sap reached a temperature of 219 °F (104 °C). The density is tested with a hydrometer. If the density is too low the syrup will not be sweet enough and the syrup will spoil. If the density is too high the syrup will crystallize in bottles. When the syrup has reached the proper density, it is drawn off, filtered and bottled while hot.
It's an antique wine thief or rather a cidre thief. People used it to test their cidre. Nowadays wine thiefs are usually made from plastic and big enough to drop a hydrometer inside of them.
Imperial Oatmeal Stout brewed on 29MAY is ready for the bottle.
OG - 1.087
FG - 1.021
ABV - 8.8%
Should be good to go for the Holiday's
I love how the camera (two cameras ago for me) chose to focus on the bucket located bottom right rather than the human taking up the rest of the frame. Ah the days before face detection. We’ll tell our grandkids about it, but in those stories we’ll be running barefoot in the snow from flame breathing dinosaurs (uphill and on the way to school of course).
Still life of some chemistry glassware.
This was photographed with a Ricoh Diacord L using a Rondo closeup lens. The film is Kodak T-Max 400 developed in Rodinal 1:50.
This is a pretty small water change, usually they involve 10 times that many buckets and many more cuts and tears.
Change is often a difficult thing for people, but photography is about change. Changes in technology, or more importantly, changes in yourself. Many people start their photography journey learning the technical side of their camera system rather than the characteristics of a good photo. Sometimes this leads to frustration and a negative experience, the worst kind of change. It’s one of the many reasons cell phone photography is so popular, a focus on the photo not the technology. Bob Ryan talks about taking great photos in his book (2017): The Master Photographer – the journey from good to great. You can see the chart from his book in this publication on page 106, exhibit 4.4 ( eprints.glos.ac.uk/8200/1/8200-Bob-Ryan-PhD-Thesis-Intuit... ). He floats the idea that impact, creativity, and narrative are the most important. The other, more technical, things sink to the bottom.
In 1937 veils were the new fad. Some were so elaborate that the ladies could barely see through them. The magazine shows the build up in Nazi Germany...that the USA was almost treating with irrelavancy. Desk sets still included blotters to soak up excess ink from fountain pens. The desk set and calendar had decorative Art Deco designs. The 1923 pencil (given to Mom on her graduation from HS) had a marbleized green body. Deco Hydrometer. Enjoy.
Things are a bit busy at this end of the season. Summer has hung on, and hung on. Ramadan has been and gone; Easter is just around the corner. So too is the first frost. Now's the time for getting in the harvest and putting away the tools.
That rush is why all you'll get on this April Fools Day is a few harmless pranks, and this quick snapshot. These are just some of the tools headed into storage.
On the left is my refractomer. It's calibrated to measure the wt% of dissolved sugar. For me, it's the piece of gear that extends the discussion about apple picking time. For any apple, it's the lift test first: has the abscission zone weakened? Then are the seeds changing from white through shades of brown. I don't use the iodine test; instead, I reach for the refractomer.
Next to it is one of my alcohol hydrometers. I could use it to measure the sugar in apple juice too. But that requires a bigger sample and cloudiness in the juice makes the scale difficult to read. Instead of bending light, it measures the specific gravity of the liquid: apple or grape juice, beer wort, whatever. The dissolved sugar makes the Sp.Gr. higher so when it is fermented out to alcohol the Sp.Gr. is lower. That's when I reach for a hydrometer — to determine the end point of fermentation. There's nothing worse than your cider exploding!
Out of curiosity, I also check the pH of my apple juice. Too low and the cider will be sour — so-called pig whistle cider. There's nothing fancy about my method — universal indicator paper is good enough.
This year's ripening season was weirdly early. It means I lost fruit I hadn't bothered to monitor because, on paper, it was too soon. That, and the hail storms messed up the apple yield. Typically there'd be so many apples and three distinct periods of ripening that I'd rack the two earliest batches to rest, then blend them back later before adding priming sugar and maybe a boosting shot of yeast to get the bottle fermentation I mostly use. Yes, I do some dry still varietal cider, or semi-sweet. But they're a lot of bother with multiple handling steps and for semi-sweet either the notion of chemical stabilisation or pasteurisation to prevent a secondary fermentation. Mostly, I can't be bothered. This year, I don't have to worry. There was so little fruit, high pH and high sugar, all at once, that the blending happened with the scratter and press. So instead of racking, decanting, blending and all the rest, this years cider has gone straight from the fermenter to the bottles with — touch wood — enough live yeast remaining to consume the priming sugar and carbonate the cider.
Righto, now back to work. Jack Frost is on his way!
Spile Drip
TAPPING THE TREE:
The flow of sap is highly dependent upon weather conditions. Flow does not begin until after a time of hard freeze, followed by several sunny days with temperatures in the 40s. The peak flow occurs early in the sugaring season when it freezes at night and is bright and sunny the next day with the temperature in the 40s. The flow will stop when daytime temperatures do not go above freezing, or when night temperatures do not go below freezing. The flow usually lasts roughly three to four weeks. While it flows, collect daily the sap, preferably late afternoon. If the trees are tapped too soon and flow does not begin, it is possible that the holes will seal over and subsequent flow is inhabited significantly.
The names have been changed to protect the innocent, the unaware and people who helped me out along the way.
After my mother passed away my father remarried and our combined families moved a few blocks away to this home. I was 7 years old at the time and I found the house fascinating.
The house was built in 1900 and used as a boarding house for the Chicago Great Western railroad. Throughout the history of the home, the front porch had been used as a general store and even a restaurant. My aunt can remember going here for a cheeseburger during her lunch time at school. On June 13th 1930 (Friday the 13th) the top 2 floors were blown off during a tornado that destroyed a large part of Randolph
There were 2 large garages on the property, you couldn't park a car in them because they were built to accommodate Model T's and Model A's and were way too narrow to park a modern car in. My parents rarely used the garages
What I loved most about the house was the 3rd floor attic. When I was 9 years old I decided that I was going to make the attic mine. You had to walk up another set of stairs to get to the attic. The attic was an entire third floor with 8 windows, completely floored, had an 8 foot celling and was furnished with electricity.
The first thing I had to do was clean out all the junk from the attic. Luckily for me, one of my chores was to take the garbage out to the edge of the street every Thursday morning. So every Thursday morning I would get up before my brothers and sisters ( my parents had already left for work) and add an extra bag or two from the attic to the weekly trash haul. All the extra window frames and doors that I found were put out in the one garage ( I cant believe I didn't break my neck trying to get those down the two flights of stairs)
As a kid I considered myself a pretty good scrounger, I could always get my hands on everything I wanted. Garage sales were my big thing. I ended up getting a bean bag, a small card table with a couple of chairs and eventually a small tv. I ended up usually catching dad at the local tavern after he ended up with a couple of beers in him. This was the typical conversation!
Me: Hey Dad, Can I get $5?
Dad: What do you need $5 for?
Me: School project ( It would the be middle of July, What school?)
Dad: Sure, Here you go
If I couldn't squeeze a few bucks out of Dad, I would end up bartering for different items. I offered to mow my neighbors lawn for the TV that I got my hands on. The reason I got the TV is because my step mom didn't want me watching the Benny Hill Show. I don't know why but I always loved that show, it used to come on at 10:30pm on CBS WCCO on Saturday nights
When I wasn't out screwing around with my friends, I was always reading. I would read everything I could get my hands on. I would read encyclopedias, dictionaries and cartoon books. My books of choice however were cookbooks, If I wasn't checking them out of the school library I would get them from the libraries in Cannon Falls or Northfield. My parents used to get groceries in either of those 2 towns and I would tag along in the box of the pickup truck. They would drop me off at the library while they shopped. I would always read upstairs in the attic because whenever my brothers or sisters were at home they would have the music cranked on hi and it drove me nuts.
When I was 12 years old I checked out a book at the Cannon Falls library on winemaking (Who rents out a winemaking book to a 12 year old?) After reading through that book I wanted to make fruit wines. So I went up to the grain elevator that was a half a block up the hill and copied off about 20 pages of that book. Here's how this conversation started:
Me: Hey Tom! (Name Changed) Can I use your copy machine?
Tom: Hey Scotty, go ahead. What are you copying?
Me: Some pages for a school science project. Tom do you have any odd jobs that I can do around here?
Tom: Sure do! I need somebody to do some sweeping and cleaning up. I also need somebody to crawl into the molasses tanker and clean it out with a garden hose in between loads I'll pay you $1.50 an hour
Me: Sounds great!
My step mom was pissed! That first day I came home I was coated in molasses and soaking wet. I had to climb on top of the tanker and crawl in through the sections to clean out anything that remained inside. The income from this job supplied the necessary equipment I needed to produce wine
From the ages of 12-16 I always had wine fermenting up in the attic. When my parents would drop me off at the library in Cannon Falls, they would drive away and I would high tail it to the hardware store less than a block away to get my supplies like an airlock and a hydrometer. Naturally when asked what I was going to do with what I was buying, I went with the old standby..It's for a school project. I would stuff everything into my backpack and my parents were none the wiser.
I would get my sugar and yeast from the small local store in town, the fruit like rhubarb or apples usually came from neighbors or unsuspecting relatives. The carboy I used to ferment the wine in came from a cousin who knew what I was up to. I asked him for a carboy because I knew he made wines and beers. We'll call him "Eduardo"
Me: Do you have a extra carboy I can have
Eduardo: Why are you making booze?
Me: Nope, school project
Eduardo: Bullshit, you're making booze, aren't you?
Me: Just wine
Eduardo: I'll give you the carboy but you have to give me what you make, you're too young to be drinking all of that wine. But i'll let you have a pint mason jar of each batch of wine you make.
Me: Deal
How none of this ever made it back to my parents amazes me to this day. I ended up moving out of the house at 19. I'm not sure if the house is still lived in but it has run down into a pretty serious state of disrepair.
Designer: Pang Ka (庞卡)
1978, May
From childhood they love science
Cong xiao ai kexue (从小爱科学)
Call nr.: BG E12/84 (IISH collection)
The pictures also depict the seasons: Spring and Summer.
More? See: chineseposters.net
History of beer
Beer may have been known in Neolithic Europe as far back as 3000 BC, and was mainly brewed on a domestic scale.
Beer produced before the Industrial Revolution continued to be made and sold on a domestic scale, although by the 7th century AD beer was also being produced and sold by European monasteries. During the Industrial Revolution, the production of beer moved from artisanal manufacture to industrial manufacture, and domestic manufacture ceased to be significant by the end of the 19th century.The development of hydrometers and thermometers changed brewing by allowing the brewer more control of the process, and greater knowledge of the results.
Today, the brewing industry is a global business, consisting of several dominant multinational companies and many thousands of smaller producers ranging from brewpubs to regional breweries. More than 133 billion liters (35 billion gallons) are sold per year—producing total global revenues of $294.5 billion (£147.7 billion) in 2006. : wikipedia
My glass of beer in dine in home:)
Thank you to balancing your life, work; play; relax; reward; give and take..etc:)
The Twaddell scale is a hydrometer scale for reporting the measured specific gravity of a liquid relative to water. On this scale, a specific gravity of 1.000 is reported as 0, and 2.000 reports as 200. Concentrated sulphuric acid with a specific gravity of 1.8 has a Twaddell scale measurement of 160 (as per the linear relationship between readings and sp. gravity). The Twaddell scale is only used for liquids with specific gravity greater than water. The scale was used in the British dye and bleach manufacturing industries. While the Baumé scale was adopted throughout England, the Twaddell scale was used in England and Scotland. The scale is named after the scientific instrument manufacturer W. Twaddell of Glasgow, who first developed hydrometers on this scale at the start of the 19th century.
Converting between Twaddell scale and specific gravity
let a = any degree of Twaddell's Hydrometer, x = specific gravity in relation to water taken at 1.000
x = 0.005 a + 1 {\displaystyle x=0.005a+1} {\displaystyle x=0.005a+1}
a = x − 1 0.005 {\displaystyle a={\frac {x-1}{0.005}}} {\displaystyle a={\frac {x-1}{0.005}}}
Information from Wikipedia
Sunday, March 27, 2016, Hertfordshire, UK - After 22 of fermentation (yes, three weeks) it was time to bottle our "Big Baller IPA." But in light of how long it took to ferment, perhaps we should call it "Long Drop IPA" instead! At the end of fermentation, the refractometer reading was 10.0 Brix - a Specific Gravity of 1.0577. But, post-fermentation, the Hydrometer is a more accurate instrument, and it recorded a Final Gravity of 1.020. Given the Original Gravity of 1.071, that gives us an alcohol by volume of 6.69%. We ended up with 18.0 litres of beer at 18.2°C and primed with 130 grams of dextrose. This was a little above the recommended 125.8 grams recommended for 2.5 vol of CO2. I bottled 55 x 330ml bottles. Despite the long fermentation and forgetting to add Carrageenan to the last ten minutes of the boil, this seems to be a lovely brew, and I think the water treatment paid off. We'll know in two weeks' time :-)
On the long march (1 hour) to Museo Anahuacall we passed a new 7 storey condo on Av. Pacifico waiting for the hydro meter installation - click, click.
My son and his wife make wine at home. Today, I watched as they initialized a new batch. I borrowed the hydrometer to use as a prop, after John measured the specific gravity of the mixture. I used my cell phone for the photo while facing the kitchen window.
HSS, Flickr friends! I'll let you know how the wine turns out.
Staff Sgt. Mario Shanks, the 379th Expeditionary Logistics Readiness Squadron fuels laboratory NCO in charge, checks fuel density with a hydrometer at Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar, Feb. 14, 2017. Shanks conducted an American Petroleum Institute specific gravity test on a sample of fuel to determine the density of the fuel which helps them track how much is used. (U.S. Air Force photo/Senior Airman Miles Wilson)
My maple syrup production is almost over for this year and it has been one of the best I've ever had. From 9 taps in 5 trees I have harvested 51+ gallons (830 cups) of sap and produced 1.94 gallons of syrup. I was able to get the taps in to harvest the super sweet early sap which really helped in the sap to syrup ratio. Yes, I still have the spiles out but the sap run is very slow.
I probably will pull them late next week.
Grade II listed. 18th century building. An early 19th century fine timber shopfront was added, with order of Corinthian columns and flat, bow window. No 43 is now united with No 45.
The doors have an anthemion (or palmette) motif, a design resembling the fan-shaped leaves of a palm tree.
One time occupant was Joseph Long, mathematical, optical and hydrometer instrument maker. he was at these premises from 1885 to 1936.
This beautiful shopfront is next to the Wren church St. Margaret Pattens.
This is now a cafe and painted dark blue, it's not attractive. The first time that I saw this shopfront it was painted dark green & looked stunning.
Sunday, March 27, 2016, Hertfordshire, UK - After 22 of fermentation (yes, three weeks) it was time to bottle our "Big Baller IPA." But in light of how long it took to ferment, perhaps we should call it "Long Drop IPA" instead! At the end of fermentation, the refractometer reading was 10.0 Brix - a Specific Gravity of 1.0577. But, post-fermentation, the Hydrometer is a more accurate instrument, and it recorded a Final Gravity of 1.020. Given the Original Gravity of 1.071, that gives us an alcohol by volume of 6.69%. We ended up with 18.0 litres of beer at 18.2°C and primed with 130 grams of dextrose. This was a little above the recommended 125.8 grams recommended for 2.5 vol of CO2. I bottled 55 x 330ml bottles. Despite the long fermentation and forgetting to add Carrageenan to the last ten minutes of the boil, this seems to be a lovely brew, and I think the water treatment paid off. We'll know in two weeks' time :-)
Used chewing gum covers the brick walls ,pipes and hydro meters down Post Alley in Seattle, Washington.
US Grade AA Light Amber (Fancy)
A light amber colored syrup with a mild flavor, usually made from the first brief flows of the season. Considered the highest grade.
US Grade A Medium Amber
Medium amber color and pronounced maple flavor. A good general usage syrup delicate enough to be used with subtle flavors but is generally used as a table syrup.
US Grade A Dark Amber
Deep color with a flavor likened to caramel. Some find it a bit too strong in flavor for general usage but it can be used like Medium Amber grade.
US Grade B
Very dark amber, less sweet with a robust, molasses-like flavor recommended primarily for baking. This is the least expensive variety. Also known as Grade C in Vermont.