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Beer for those that can't find a kit to their liking

Last week, Evan decided to follow through with his idea for brewing the biggest (most alcoholic) beer he possibly could, and ingredients were ordered:
12 lbs of amber liquid malt extract
2 lbs of light dry malt extract
2 lbs of Belgian candi sugar
3 oz Yakima Magnum hops
1 package Alcotec 48 Hour Turbo Super Yeast

The key ingredient being that yeast - the package claims it can generate 14% alcohol in 48 hours, or 20% alcohol in 5 days. It's not even really meant for beer. I'm fairly certain the whole batch is going to taste terrible. :-P

The real excitement came the next morning, when I was walking down the hallway and smelled beer. Walk in, the carboy is foaming quite rapidly.

Even worse, I look up and see this.

The massive fermentation popped the stopper/airlock out of the carboy, and stuff went everywhere. It was on every wall in the room. It continued to foam all day, and I'd estimate that perhaps 30% of the beer was lost, it was amazing.

So, we'll see how this batch turns out. I'm expecting the worst, so anything that's not terrible will be a pleasant surprise!

Decisions decisions...

A while back I was putting together a birthday wishlist at the request of friends and family, and on that list were two golf bags. Two, because both appeared to be excellent bags, but I couldn't decide which one I'd rather have. I thought that perhaps I might get lucky and get one, and the decision would be made for me.

But no, I'm in the fortunate situation of receiving both golf bags, and now the ball is back in my court. :-P

(fwiw, I'm looking for a cart bag because I use golfnow.com for most of my golf, and all of those courses include carts. I'll keep my current bag for any time I know I'll walk.)

First up is the Titleist SC75 cart bag. This one is nearly perfect in every way - lots of big pockets, a big lined valuables pocket, a big insulated drink pocket, and it's just a good-looking bag. The biggest downside for me is the 14-way club divider, which apparently is a standard feature now on every cart bag.

Second up is the . Proper 6-way club divider, four big pockets on the ends, looks great, and I've been liking Bridgestone's stuff lately. The downside here is that until the bag showed up at my door, I had never actually seen one in person, so it was really an unknown.

First I did what any good golf nerd would do, and put my clubs in each bag to see how they'd fit and look.


This is where I noticed that the Bridgestone was just a bit shorter than the Titleist. It's certainly easier to throw clubs in the Bridgestone, but I think they're actually displayed a little better in the Titleist. Two big downsides to the Titleist showed up though, that I didn't expect. Due to the narrow slot for each club, the shaft protector on the 3-wood's headcover either has to be tucked in to the slot, or it bunches up at the top. Also, the bag is actually so tall that my putter doesn't touch the bottom, which just feels weird to me. :-P

In operation, just due to the material and design, the Bridgestone feels a lot more solid. Comparing the handles, for example:


The Bridgestone is big and solid, while the Titleist is smaller and has some give to it. I'm sure this is just due to the fact that they were shooting for lightweight cart bag, perhaps one that could be carried occasionally. Honestly, the S74 is a more comparable bag to the Bridgestone, but I didn't really like the way that one looked. :-P

One feature on the Titleist bothered me a big more than expected, and that's the shoulder strap.

For a bag that will only be used on carts, it makes perfect sense to have it there, and it even tucks away nicely in its own pouch. When you do have to carry the bag though, it's upside-down and feels kind of weird. So I can't really get over the non-traditional placement.

Pocket-wise, it's pretty much a wash between the two. The Titleist has big accessible pockets on each side of the bag, plus the previously-mentioned larger valuables/insulated pockets. The Bridgestone has fairly worthless pockets on two sides (the sides with the big Bridgestone name), as they're pretty tight and flat. The pockets on the ends though are gigantic. The biggest one can easily hold a pair of shoes and probably two jackets, without even looking full. The valuables pocket is on the same end, and it's pretty big as well. On the other end are two more really big pockets for balls, tees, whatever. I think the pockets will work out better than I initially expected.

All that said, I'm going to go with the Bridgestone bag, and probably return the other one for a 585.H. :-D

More Evo-related

Jay helped me set the alignment before the event, and adjusting it pre- and post-event isn't quite as bad as I thought it would be, even though I have to adjust both camber and toe. Currently running -3.5° camber with 1/4" toe out for autocross, and I have to say, it looks pretty good. ;-)

Some pics I took from the first time mounting up the wheels and tires (at 11:30 the night before an autox, of course).

Evo autocross update

First autocross in the Evo was last weekend, and it was less than spectacular. Kumho SPT's are far from the tire of choice apparently. I started out inadvertently running with too little pressure, and perhaps the best word to describe them was "floppy." Any time the car had to move in something other than a straight line, they caused me problems.

For Time Only runs I raised the pressure and they felt better...but I didn't go any faster. Great. All in all, it wasn't particularly fun.

After finally receiving my new wheels and tires, I went to the Tucson event yesterday, and wow, what a difference. The car turned in a whole lot quicker, there was more grip, everything was great. I can't wait to drive it again.

The Tucson event itself was a lot of fun - low turnout meant only two run groups and five runs each, with pay-per-run fun runs at the end. First car out was around 9:15, and I was packed up and ready to head home by 11:30. Except for a little first gear turnaround, the course itself was a lot of fun, with three slaloms heading out and another three heading back. Even had a fast straight finish.

A productive weekend

Seemingly the entire weekend was spent on car-related stuff, and lots got done. Clint and Brad came over on Saturday, and the previous statement about spring compressors held true to an even greater extent.

First up was the task of putting the stock shocks, springs, intake, and exhaust manifold back on the car. Intake and manifold were pretty straightforward, and removal of each shock/spring takes about 4 minutes. Then the spring compressor fun began.

Basically, we couldn't compress the stock spring without the compressors slipping to one side, and just trying to compress the first one took a solid hour. Final solution? Buy another set of spring compressors, and just put so many of them on that they can't slip enough to create a problem! :-P After that, everything went pretty smoothly.

So now I have the car back at stock ride height, and man, it's not fun at all any more. Turn-in is slow, it rolls all over the place, and ride height feels like that of a small SUV. :-\

After that, we attempted to put my new camber plates in the Evo. The instructions were entirely in Japanese, so they were of no use. The stock strut assembly came out easily, and the whole process went pretty smoothly, except for a couple little spacers that seem to have a place to go.

So both plates go in, I shove the struts all the way in to max out the camber, tighten things up, and go for a test drive.

"Clunk clunk clunk"

Fantastic, it's making noise, and I'm running out of time. I had to leave by 5:20 or so to make it to a softball tournament, and the car work isn't complete.

Fortunately Brad and Clint come through, and offer to stick around and fix it for me. As it turns out, those spacers were needed underneath the top mounting bolt, as otherwise the bolt runs out of threads before it's all the way down. I drove the car when I came home, and it felt great. Now off for an alignment this week, wait for my wheels and tires to come in this week, and I'll be ready for this Saturday's autocross.

Sunday I spent plenty of time cleaning up the Integra parts I removed so they can go up for sale, and cleaning up the garage in general from the previous day's activities. Evan also came over to put a new fuel filter in his Camaro, which made the garage smell all kinds of fumey.

Finally, I went to two different Costcos today, including one I had never been to before (near Val Vista and the 202). :-D