Hercules Double IPA

An occasional series in which I ramble about what beer I'm drinking. It's not a review section because there are many many blogs which review beer better than me. I'm currently drinking Hercules Double IPA and a hoppy monster it is. On drinking it I immediately wanted food as it's so hoppy. I think it would go with gorgonzola cheese melted onto brown bread.

Wedding Crafts

I've been neglecting my blog a bit of late. Even neglecting brewing and knitting a bit as well. I'm still working away on my stripy socks and my Tempting jumper though they have stalled a bit since I left them at my parents house by mistake.
My excuse is I'm preparing to head off to get married next week. But I couldn't get married without some craftiness going into the whole thing. So I made some mead which is a traditional honeymoon drink. It won't be quite ready to drink for the month after the wedding but it's the principle of the thing that counts. I'm also knitting myself a wedding garter in some blue 4ply cotton. It's very pretty and lacy and it'll be nice to wear something I made myself on the day.

Mead Update

Ah Mead, the drink where you can really say, nothing added but time. My two demi-johns of mead have just about finished fermenting now. So now they will go on to the next step of being aged in the secondary. I don't think I'll move the mead until three weeks time when I get back from holidays. No point in rushing things.

I got a great mead book called The Compleat Meadmaker by Ken Schramm. It's a beginners book that takes you through all aspects of mead making. I should really have had this book before I made the mead as there are one or two things I might have done differently. But that's what the next batch is for. It's a well arranged book with chapters on equipment, a great chapter on honey and then chapters on all the additions you can make to mead like fruit and spices. There aren't so many recipes in this one but there is so much information that you will be well able to invent your own. Highly recommended as a general mead book.

Crochet Coral

I think that The Crochet Coral Reef could be one of the coolest things in existence. It follows on from what is probably my favourite scientific paper of all time: Crocheting the hyperbolic plane where Daina Taimiða proves that one can make a mathematically correct model of a hyperbolic plane through the medium of crochet. The reef combines art, math, recycling, environmental awareness, crafting, self generating forms, emergence all of which are things I like. So therefore it is the coolest thing ever. I've decided to make my bit of hyperbolic crochet to donate to the reef.