The Steamtug Blog

The World’s greatest footy match, and I was there to see it! My mate Charles is a member of the prestigious Melbourne Cricket club, where the grudge match of the year was to be played on Friday night, and he had tickets for the game! So how could I say no to see the old foes, Geelong and Hawthorn face off again. Hawthorn had not beaten Geelong in the last 8 times they have played, but with Geelong down a little on form, and Hawthorn starring enough to be called the favourites to win the grand final later in the year, it was shaping up to be the payback game for Geelong. (continue reading…)

Hanging around on the bottom of swimming pools is becoming a normal thing for me in my role as president of the Geelong Underwater Hockey club. You never know who you might meet down there in the murky depths while holding your breath! (continue reading…)

Mitch took me in his plane to the historic port of Echuca at the weekend. It’s about 4 hours driver from home, but only 1 hour by plane! We got back just in time to meet my old mate that I worked with in Nigeria, and again in Russia, who was visiting from England! (continue reading…)

After the visit of the Queen Mary 2 a couple of weeks ago, I have been monitoring her where abouts on the web, and was watching the “Bridge webcam”. Now is it only me, or is it the same picture of endless ocean stretching before her? (Who would know?) So I thought after all the adventures of Adaqua recently, that I should do one for her! (continue reading…)

I’m about ready to give up all grain brewing after the disaster last week. I wanted to make a Russian Imperial Stout, a recipe that’s been on my mind for months now. It is very heavy with a huge grain bill, 500 gms molassis, 500 gms raw sugar, 250 grams chocolate. The mash went badly. I do it in the esky as I have given up on step mashing. It’s so much quicker and easier and gives the same result. But the rinsing sparge stuck and no matter what I did it wasn’t going to clear. So I tipped it out and found dry grain in the bottom (damn!) OK, fixed that problem. The final volume was supposed to be 21 litres and abv 8.8% but after sparging I ended up with 35 litres because the kilo of roasted barley would not let the wort run clear. (Maybe if I put through 50 litres? ha ha…) Then I could not get the temp high enough to boiler away such a volume and my aux heater, the old blow lamp played up burning my fingers etc. I put in raw hops flowers wet, so used some pellet and the remainder multiplied by 5 in weight. Then they would not come out of the brew kettle because they constantly blocked the outlet! Aaaarrrggghhhh!!!! Then the brew in the fermenter from last time that was going to be bottle while doing this gave a couple of bubbles so I decided that even though it had been stable, it looked like it was not ready, so no fermenter! I had to use another water container that was a bit smaller. The whole think took more than 7 hours, and I was drinking my pale ale the whole time, so when I was finished at 11pm I was too pissed to remember if I had put the yeast in as I had no recollection. Hmnmmm! I found the empty yeast packet on the floor next day, so it must be in there. Then the temp the next day and over the weekend went to 38 degrees,  far too hot for stable fermentation, and the little fermenter overflowed and put Krusen all over the incubator floor. It will probably end up the best beer I have made by fluke. (Actually it tastes alright going into the bottles….)

I have been so busy lately, that I have not had time to update my adventures. There has been the underwater hockey tournament, a BBQ in a sewerage plant, getting the water tanks installed in my yacht, and beer at Uncle Dave’s place. (continue reading…)

Since returning from Bathurst, I’ve been like a lizard drinking (flat out) trying to catch up on the beer production before the Christmas thirst hits. Combining this with a new job, organising an underwater hockey tournament and helping John get his yacht seaworthy, you could say I’ve been under the pump! (continue reading…)

Despite the cold and wet weather, this year’s Bathurst race was a close and exciting finish! We made the annual pilgrimage to the top of Mt Panorama, setting up our camp site among all the other die-hard race fans who were preparing for the beer, baked beans, burping, BBQ’s and the high octane action! (continue reading…)

This week I have steamed up the street in a traction engine, then cruised down the river in my new dinghy, all in an exciting week as the atmosphere in old Geelong town peaks before the mighty cats meet Collingwood’s magpies in the greatest footy game of the year, the Grand Final. But firstly, here is this weeks rant! (continue reading…)