Delinquent blogging
Good times in the last few weeks but so busy. Always fun to see friends and family but feeling woefully behind on my blog. I am going to just post some pictures and captions and leave it at that knowing that the next couple months will be busy but should find me on more planes with some time to catch up here and get some posts complete.
Time for some brewing. Added a march pump to my homebrew sculpture which has allowed me to continuously recirculate my mash but I am still missing my target OG. Still needs some work but looks good for now.
I have also picked up a ton of grain and hops so no more trips to the store for awhile, think I have 8 batches worth of ingredients at home…..
Hung out at e Common table before heading to Adip’s to work on the fence, great spring time work outdoors.
Still working on the car. Transmission is complete engine in process and paint scraped ,just need to find a painter and get the interior completed.
Little draft refrigerator update
Great times but no medals this year at Bluebonnet BrewOff can’t wait until Brew Riot
Corvair and Corv8
Spent some time puttering around with my Dad in his garage and realized I had not posted any photos of what caused my obsession with old cars. When I was a teenager my Dad and I rebuilt a 1964 Corvair. The little red convertible has been a pleasure to drive ever since, although it only gets about 1000 miles a year and still requires quite a bit of maintenance. The time rebuilding it why I am now working on my 912. The hard top Corv8 has been Dad’s project for the last few years and one day I will convince him to drive it further than down the block, looks good in the garage at least.
The 64 and 65 together
Interior of the Corv8, Dad’s 65 Monza converted from rear engine to mid, with a small block in the back seat.
Custom enclosure around the small block along with the plaque dedicating the car to Dad’s best friend who past away before his time.
Interior of the 64
South Austin Brewing Company Grand Opening – New Austin #CraftBeer
I am always trying to find and support new local breweries when I heard about the South Austin Brewing Company grand opening I had to go. Friday night headed out to see Bravomax at the Freeman in Deep Ellum then had to get up for an early run prior to the drive down to Austin for the opening. Having attended the Jester King and Circle Brewing openings in 2011 I agreed with SABC twitter suggestion to come early for the opening. South Austin Brewing Company is just off of 35 a few miles south of downtown so it will be a short trip once they have regular tours and seeing their love of music I bet this place will be worth the visit. I snapped a few pictures below and will keep an eye out for this new Texas local.
Glad I made it in before the brewery was packed
See they are ready to self distribute since Texas makes it hard for small brewers with our strict three tier system.
Band in the brewery made for a rocking afternoon
This was the line about 1:30 before the crowd arrived. The line was twice this long when I left at 3:30
Obligatory picture of me wishing I was toasting my own brewery opening
Porsche update – Transmission out and paint progress
Another couple weeks have passed with almost 200 hours of work from a number of friends. We have made great progress but still behind schedule. Since I pulled the engine some time ago but never posted I included a couple pictures of that and the transmission. In a later post I will include some detail on the engine rebuild but am starting to have concerns that the machinist that is completing the block is not making the progress I need to finish by July.
Tough Mudder Texas Gulf Coast
Traveled to Edna Texas this past weekend to run in my second Tough Mudder. The event was fun and challenging. I ran the Tough Mudder in Austin last January and the main difference is that they seem to be getting more commercial and probably more safe as well. Even losing some of the edge and risk the obstacles were still very hard. My sister was able to get some photos but the course was not laid out well for spectators.
I was still feeling pretty good at the 11 mile mark dispute the mangled toes.
All this for the beer and head band….
Good technique
Bad technique
Success and here’s to registering for Tough Mudder Dallas coming up in at the end of March.
Hueco Tanks and Carlsbad Caverns
Have been quite busy the last few weekends got in a ski trip to Pagosa Springs with my sister, all the way out to West Texas for some hiking and climbing, and completed the Tough Mudder Gulf Coast yesterday. Ready to commit to a weekend at home for some projects and to get some brewing done. Below are some pictures and comments on last weekends trip out west. The West Texas desert is a beautiful and amazing place to visit.
Started at Carlsbad Caverns after the overnight drive from Dallas. January is not peak season so the caverns were not busy and allowed us a small tour group for Left Hand Cave and then a quick uninterrupted jaunt around the Big Room. Being 800 feet underground is pretty amazing and seeing all the formations from the last few millennia is so impressive.
We started with a tour by lamp light in Left Hand Cave
Just before experiencing absolute darkness I snapped this photo of our groups lanterns.
And of course the rock formations
After seeing the caverns and determining that the Carlsbad saloon only sells Root Beer and not the real thing we headed off to the Hueco Tanks with a brief stop for lunch in the Guadalupe Mountains state park. Headed off through the west Texas desert we did have quite a scare since the only gas station for 100+ miles had closed since the last trip. We stopped at the boulder patrol station and were informed that they could only help us if we actually ran out of gas, but did confirm this happened on this stretch of road a few times a day. Drove the truck with the gas gauge buried far below E for about 20 miles and coasted in on fumes but still made it.
The Hueco Tanks are a wonderful 700 acre desert controlled access park with great scenery and some of the best climbing and bouldering in Texas. Get there early and camp if you do not have reservations since they only allow ten unreserved passes per day during high season. We were assured we would land some by sitting in front of the rangers station starting before 6 am. The hiking and climbing was amazing, check it out.
After the day the sunset over the desert was amazing as always.
Paint Part 1
Spending a few hours stripping off the paint proved to be a challenging exercise. Went through two gallons of inexpensive stripper, both purchased for $20, one from Walmart and one from Autozone. Will need to find a better quality stripper for the final round.
After the second over all application, it became apparent that the work is pure elbow grease and will just require more time. For the next round I decided to pull a Tom Sawyer and invite some friends to help by luring them with steaks and home brew.
Progress
