Archive for January 2011
Top 5 best selling stock images
Posted on: January 29, 2011
Here is my all-time top-5 run-down… (I’ve had a massive stock break, not uploaded anything in about 2 years! *which also means I’ve been brewing for 2 years!)
This shows which my consistent sellers are at the main stock sites. (Grunge ahoy!)
iStockphoto
In at number one is ‘Black Photocopy background Texture’ selling 164 times, 5093 and earning $268.68
At number two is ‘Coffee Cup coaster ring stains’ selling 119 times, 4092 views and earning $119.06
At number three is ‘CT Scan Skull Slices’ selling 116 times, 25345 views and earning $59.52
At number four is ‘Acorns from an Oak tree’ selling 111 times, 4388 views and earning $131.53
At number five is ‘Paper Airplane’ selling 97 times, 5494 views, and earning $177.12
Dreamstime
In at number one is ‘Canvas texture Element’ selling 49 times, 1900 vies and earning $60.32
At number two is ‘Cup Stains Set’ selling 48 times, 2138 views and earning $58.92
At number three is ‘Photocopy Texture Element’ selling 39 times, 2150 views and earning $80.29
At number four is ‘Paper Airplane’ selling 35 times, 54239 views and earning $59.89
At number five is ‘Cup Stains set’ selling 33 times, 1342 views and earning $41.13
I’d do Shutterstock & Fotolia too but they don’t give image specific stats, I could do Fotolia sales and views but it doesn’t show the image earnings.
You can sort by ‘downloads’ at my Fotolia Portfolio to see the current sales & view stats and see the most popular downloads from my Shutterstock Portfolio.
TT Landlord mkII – I really wasn’t going to brew today… but I smacked the Wyeast 1469 yesterday with thoughts of building a bit bigger starter, then thought sod it as the pack states its a Pitchings worth, the pack is well swollen now.
I wanted to use Fuggles in the finish with Bobek but don’t have any to hand so Challenger it is!
Fermentables:
Pale Malt – 81%
Munich Malt – 10.4%
Crystal Malt – 6.2%
Flaked Oats – 2.4%
Hops:
Bobek @ 60 mins – 33g
Challenger @ 60 mins – 23g
East Kent Golding @ 10 mins – 26g
Bobek @ 0 mins – 21g
Challenger @ 0 mins – 22g
Final Volume: 23 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.043
Final Gravity: 1.010
Alcohol Content: 4.2% ABV
Total Liquor: 32.5 Litres
Mash Liquor: 10.4 Litres
Mash Efficiency: 80 %
Bitterness: 36 EBU
Colour: 20 EBC
Updates & Photos on Twitter and a duplicate of the pics here from my phone.
The Malts:
Mash @ 68c for 1 hour:
Hops weighed out:
First Wort Hops:
Just less than 10mins to boil:
The West Yorkshire yeast:
1045 or there abouts:
🙂 No fuss brewday, yeast pitched at 21-22c
*Bottled 5th Feb ’11 with 1/2 Tsp sugar per bottle, no priming for the Cornie just hit with 30psi
AG#47 – Bramling Cross IPA
Posted on: January 16, 2011
Bramling Cross IPA – I wasn’t actually planning to brew today, so I started late after throwing this recipe together. Its serving two functions; 1. I want to smell &taste Blackcurrant in an IPA from the Bramling Cross Hops; 2. It uses up a selection of Hops from the Freezer and pretty much depletes my base malt stocks.
I’d have preferred to have more Bramling Cross in the 80c steep but hopefully it will be adequate to give some of the characteristics I’m after.
Fermentables:
Lager Malt – 50%
Wheat Malt – 35%
Flaked Oats – 10%
Crystal Wheat Malt – 5%
Hops:
WGV @ 60 mins – 35g – (First Wort Hop)
Pilot @ 60 mins – 45g – (First Wort Hop)
First Gold @ 15 mins – 28g
Bramling Cross @ 0 mins – 39g – (80c Steep for 20mins)
Final Volume: 21 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.056
Final Gravity: 1.013
Alcohol Content: 5.6% ABV
Total Liquor: 31.2 Litres
Mash Liquor: 12.3 Litres
Mash Efficiency: 80 %
Bitterness: 68 EBU
Colour: 17 EBC
Mashed at 66c and lost 2c of 60min period, achieving 86% Mash efficiency.
Boiled for 60minutes, old Lager yeast added as nutrient and Protafloc tablet added for the last 20mins.
Yeast is Safale us-05 pitched at 20c, dry sprinkled.
First Wort Hops in the copper:
80c Steep hops in along with the cooler:
Must be 1054 with a couple of divisions in the meniscus, Refractometer said 14.2 Brix (1055), so about a point lower than Target:
Pretty Seedy these hops:
My first IPA type thing with Bramling Cross Hops back in April ’09
*Bottled 29th Jan ’11 with 50g white sugar primings
Bottling your Homebrew
Posted on: January 12, 2011
Bottling – this is my bottling procedure, I use StarSan to sanitise mostly and fully bleach my bottles every few brews, I’ve based this on a 23Litre (5 British Gallons) batch of beer for the priming sugar.
- Clean and Sanitise all your bottles (plus 1 plastic coke-type bottle).
- Give your Bottling bucket a good clean and sanitise along with the Tap from both sides.
- Sanitise a length of tube that connects to your Fermenter tap (Remember to give your Fermenter Tap a good sanitise externally) also Sanitise your Bottling stick.
- Sanitise a Jug and a Teaspoon, add about 65g of sugar to 100ml of boiled water which you just boiled in the microwave, dissolve the sugar stirring with the teaspoon, re-heat to boiling in the microwave and set to one side until you are ready to transfer your beer to the bottling bucket.
- With your Fermenter on the worktop, attach your sanitised plastic tube to your sanitised fermenter-Tap, the other end of the tube wants to reach the bottom of your Bottling bucket on the floor.
- Tip your dissolved sugar into your bottling bucket.
- Open the fermenter tap and let the beer run out, try and whirlpool the beer so that the sugar gets well mixed with the beer without any splashing or making bubbles (we need to keep oxygen out of the beer as much as possible).
- You might have to tip your fermenter slightly to get the last bit out, if you get a little yeast pulled through don’t worry about it.
- Turn off your fermenter tap and pull the tube off it, with the tube still in the beer, give it a gentle swirl to ensure the priming sugars are well mixed.
- Now put your Bottling bucket on the worktop and attach your bottling stick.
- Pull up a chair, a beer, your sanitised bottles, and throw an old towel or something on the floor to catch spills.
- Fill your bottles until the brim, when you pull the stick out they are left with just the right amount of empty space.
- DON’T FORGET TO SANITISE YOUR CROWN CAPS!
- Cap Bottles, Wives are handy about now and a little production line gets the job done in a few mins, mark up your bottles so you know what is in them.
- Store your somewhere warm for 1-2 weeks to condition (*Top Tip* You can give your plastic Coke bottle a squeeze from time to time to check on the carbonation process).
- Store your conditioned beer cool for the rest of its maturation.
Phlegm – A Belgian Style beer made with Whitelabs WLP550 and another brew using up odd bits and bag ends.
‘Phlegm’ Flemish, Belgian, Dutch, Flanders etc
Fermentables:
Lager Malt – 45.2%
Vienna Malt – 15.1%
Pale Malt – 14%
Golden Naked Oats – 10.9%
Aromatic Malt – 4.3%
Muscovardo Candy Light – 3.8%
Sugar,Belgian Candy Light – 3.8%
Cara Red – 3%
Hops:
Liberty @ 60 mins – 60g
Bobek @ 60 mins – 50g
Bobek @ 10 mins – 10g
Liberty @ 0 mins – 40g
Final Volume: 23 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.071 – Actually got 1066 according to the Refractometer
Final Gravity: 1.013
Alcohol Content: 7.6% ABV
Total Liquor: 36.4 Litres
Mash Liquor: 15.3 Litres
Mash Efficiency: 80 %
Bitterness: 41 EBU
Colour: 52 EBC
First Wort Hops:
Wort running to copper:
Light Home made candy sugar:
Flame-out liberty hops, 20min steep:
Its really 1066, a few points low, I was expecting it low as the Naked Golden Oats were not crushed just blitzed in a blender for a while:
Wort running to fermenter@ 18c:
Dregs of my starter WLP550, hopefully it will get going pretty soon:
*Bottled 19th Jan ’11 with 85g of White Sugar, hit its target FG
Probably Due To Network Congestion 