In The Shed Today

[RuddyCrazy]

SWMBO mentioned to me a couple of months ago that a local shop had metal detectors for a reasonable price, but as my birthday came around I had trouble starting my hilux so we went and bought one of those 1000amp 12 volt starter gizmos and soon found it wouldn't start the hilux. So it went into SWMBO's car and WAAAAA :angry-banghead: :angry-banghead: :angry-banghead: my birthday present ended up in SWBMO's car and no metal dectector for me :violence-smack: :violence-smack: :violence-smack: .

Anyway with Fathers day coming around I decided to use afterpay and got my metal detector, in the morning I did some research and found the minelab 44 was the same as the 66 where the 66 just had better software for the mobile phone and had the same 10" coil as the 44. So went into the shop only to find they had one 66 left, I asked at the counter when they were getting more 44's in only to be told there isn't any left in SA and the 66 you have here is only one of three left in the state :scared-eek: So went and setup afterpay on my mobile and walked away with the minelab 66.

This morning it was time to go for walk on the farm to buzz the ground looking for gold and finally found a what I thought was a good hit but the detector was sounding in a real deep tone and the nail icon was going off it tit's. :laughing-rolling: Found some old iron and the signal kept going so I kept digging and found what more than likely is a 1800's butterfly valve. A round cast iron disk with a rod on the base and ontop another rode with a hole thru it.. Well so much for finding gold in that paddock as hillgrove had been thru it several times, so had a go in the paddock close to the house where I know they didn't test and soon enough got a signal where it is the one you want :laughing-rolling: Dug down about a foot and came to a fractured rock, the dectector was going off it's tits so grabbed a few rocks and took them upto my shed where I crushed them. Put the detector on and got a signal so panned and put the detector back on getting a positive signal on every pan.

Ok it's only powdered gold and as they say in the mining game 5 grams a tonne is considered a viable mine and with todays take it going to take quite a few more rocks before I have to buy the acid and setup the forge for melting the gold after the chemical process is done. I have made a 6" jaw crusher which still needs finishing and I thinking of designing up a hammer mill as a dual purpose machine. One for doing the final crush on the rocks then put in another screen and crush the malted barley and corn. :laughing-rolling:

Yesterday I did the spirit run on the strawberry ferment and theres noway one can compare this to the G-string dropper as it's a brandy and with just under 3 litres @ 65% I put 19 grams of toasted/charred french oak which came off my 2.2kg domino and I have to say I do think this domino is the ducks nuts as it is fully toasted and 3mm wide domino's are only a hammer and chisel away :happy-partydance:

Cheers Bryan

[RC Al]

:laughing-rolling: on the nail

If you haven't already, try this series Detectorists
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4082744/

[wynnum1]

There was a famous court case about gold and saying that the gold was taken from their property and from what i can remember if you have found gold do not have to tell where it was found .Searching for gold would be a good activity if on government payment as just need to keep or trade .
If can get nitric acid can get recycle the gold from computers and old jewellery and even phone SIM..

[RuddyCrazy]

Went out this morning for a play with the detector in the front paddock and found a stirng of old shotgun shells then came across a signal in a line, looked over the fence and saw yep thats the phone cable so followed the signal noting the path back to the house. Atleast I know now where the cable is and after cutting it once theres noway I'm doing it again as the first cut cost over $400 :angry-banghead: :angry-banghead: :angry-banghead:

Buzzed a huge quartz rock and kept getting a signal but that one can wait as I'll need a jack hammer to break it as the rock probably weighs more than a tonne :laughing-rolling: found a few small rocks and one about 20kg's that sings when the detector is close and as I'm stood down from work tomorrow I'll get back on to finishing that jaw crusher.

Cheers Bryan

[crow]

If they ever pull the wall down and let ya across there's gold for the finding round here.

[Wellsy]

You just need to be careful bryan1 if you come into vic as you need a prospectors licence and many many areas still have mining overlays which means any gold found in that area belongs to the owner of the overlay. My home is in such a area so if I found any gold on it I would need to get a miners/prospectors licence and sayi found it in a non overlay area.

[wynnum1]

You just need to be careful bryan1 if you come into vic as you need a prospectors licence and many many areas still have mining overlays which means any gold found in that area belongs to the owner of the overlay. My home is in such a area so if I found any gold on it I would need to get a miners/prospectors licence and sayi found it in a non overlay area.

If you find any gold on your home do not tell anyone.

[Wellsy]

First person not to tell is the missus lol.

[Wellsy]

What a great day :)
My new baby turned up yesterday arvo so spent all morning washing and putting it together.
Even managed to get a bwko wash started today, next job will be to hunt for some glass jars :), nutrigrain wash is almost done, read 1.0 to day.
Will get a cask of wine today and run a sacrificial run tomorrow all in readiness for an official run on Thursday.

[Beerswimmer]

Wifey just ordered a 100L milk can boiler for my birthday :romance-kisscheek:

[bluc]

Awesome for both of you welsy and beerswimmer :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[Wellsy]

Just stripped another 9 litres of BWKO low wines today,I can’t believe how fast this ferments in second, third generations. Hoping for nine more litres on Sunday but then it is back to work for me and stripping runs will slow up. A couple more weeks and I will be looking down the barrel of my first spirit run. If I time it right I should have something close to drinkable for Christmas.
Got to love lazy days in the shed. A few tunes and a couple of stubbies who needs to go away to enjoy days off.
If the missus complains about me drinking I simply say I am saving money as the more I drink the fewer glass jars I have to buy :laughing-rolling:

[dans.brew]

A couple more weeks and I will be looking down the barrel of my first spirit run. If I time it right I should have something close to drinkable for Christmas.

This stuff def gets better with age and on oak, but it is also very drinkable off the still. :handgestures-thumbupleft:
If your wanting to speed up the aging process with a bottle or 2 just for chrissy read nuclear aging
Tried this a few years back and was a bit dubious at the time but it does help speed things up.

[Wellsy]

I might try the Nuc option.
I even managed to get an oak plank from a winery today. I will plane it tomorrow to remove the wine layer on it. I could not believe it he uses them to hang in the wine when they are stored in stainless vats when he does not have enough oak barrels to put them in. Much the same as we hang dominoes in our spirits to help them age.

[dans.brew]

I might try the Nuc option.
I even managed to get an oak plank from a winery today. I will plane it tomorrow to remove the wine layer on it.

Ive got oak staves there with the wine layer, ive left it on to add something.. that layer should be full of flavours.

[Wellsy]

Flavours and colour mate, I thought I might avoid my very first batch turning out red lol

[dans.brew]

Flavours and colour mate, I thought I might avoid my very first batch turning out red lol

You dont want a nice rich red colour... but it does look good. :laughing-rolling:

[Wellsy]

Perhaps I do want a red colour after all I changed the colour of my hydrometer to make it work better lol

[RuddyCrazy]

Well since I'm getting 1/2 a dozen of 5 litre glass demi's for aging :happy-partydance: :happy-partydance: :happy-partydance: bugger buying malt when I can make my own :laughing-rolling:

So today finally found a use for the SS tray I've had sitting outside for a few years and thats a malting tray for barely and other grain. It's 620 x620mmx100mm high and it's got a 2" drain on one side. I had a few fluro covers so decided to cut and shut them for a new lid for the tray. Went and harassed SWMBO for a decent sheet to use and got one after haggling that i'd cut some firewood :laughing-rolling:

Got 2kg's of barely soaking and i'll see if it can handle more but that will do for the first batch, now with these fluro covers being a fresnel lense by putting the tray by my sliding doors in my shed it will get full sun everyday which should warm em up nicely promoting rapid growth of the grains.

I siliconed up the the cover and got some weights on the join as the fluro covers were 580mm and my malting tray is 620mm :angry-banghead: so just cut a 100mm section of the cover and glued it in with the silicon.

Tomorow morning I'll put the barley in and see how the the 2kg's go and if I can fit more in next batch.

Cheers Bryan

[wynnum1]

Well since I'm getting 1/2 a dozen of 5 litre glass demi's for aging :happy-partydance: :happy-partydance: :happy-partydance: bugger buying malt when I can make my own :laughing-rolling:

So today finally found a use for the SS tray I've had sitting outside for a few years and thats a malting tray for barely and other grain. It's 620 x620mmx100mm high and it's got a 2" drain on one side. I had a few fluro covers so decided to cut and shut them for a new lid for the tray. Went and harassed SWMBO for a decent sheet to use and got one after haggling that i'd cut some firewood :laughing-rolling:

Got 2kg's of barely soaking and i'll see if it can handle more but that will do for the first batch, now with these fluro covers being a fresnel lense by putting the tray by my sliding doors in my shed it will get full sun everyday which should warm em up nicely promoting rapid growth of the grains.

I siliconed up the the cover and got some weights on the join as the fluro covers were 580mm and my malting tray is 620mm :angry-banghead: so just cut a 100mm section of the cover and glued it in with the silicon.

Tomorow morning I'll put the barley in and see how the the 2kg's go and if I can fit more in next batch.

Cheers Bryan

Malting barley i think you need to go a lot bigger as a couple of kg is not going to get you very far .The other thing to look at is there a way to pearl the barley as the price of the grain goes up substantially and can ferment the pearl barley.The most important thing in germination is temperature and it does create its own heat .