home brewing

2016 in Review: Looking back (Part 1)

December 29, 2016

And like a flash, 2016 will soon be in the books.

It’s been a strange year, it seems. I can’t complain personally as, for the most part, it was pretty good. I had the opportunity to do a lot of different things, which is always nice. I saw many different things, and traveled a bit. I took photos and met people.

I’m breaking up the posts a little differently this year as I haven’t received the blogging report from Jetpack yet. Hopefully that isn’t discontinued as I always like that. So today will be the first part of looking back at 2016.

There was a lot of baseball and travel in 2016, that’s for sure!

Just like it’s been in recent years, though, the year seemed to fly by. I can almost remember the calendar turning to 2016, and here we are knocking on the door of 2017. I try more than ever to not wish for things to come faster as it’s nice to see things come slower and build up. If you wish too hard for things to come fast, then they do and everything passes you by.

Personally, it was a pretty good year. I find myself in better financial shape than I was at the beginning and I’ve paid off a few smaller credit cards and bills. I had the ability to travel some and got to visit places I’ve never been. I traded in my car for a new one and it’s been nice to have switched to automatic. I haven’t been sick (knock on wood) for a prolonged period and, for the most part, I feel fulfilled professionally.

There was, of course, baseball and a lot of it. I tried to maintain other hobbies as well, though some took a backseat to others. I’ve seen Cameron as much as I can, and family remains near and dear to me. Hopefully we can all get closer and closer.

My 2016 wasn’t bad. And in this post and the next one, I will talk about the different parts of it. First, though, it’s time to look back at the goals I set and see how I did. The goals were from a post (https://hoohaa.com/?p=9869) from January 2016.

Let’s see how I did. Were there successes? Failures? A push? Let’s take a look.

Geocaching (pretty much a push)

Remember, when I say fail — it’s not necessarily a fail, rather I didn’t reach the level I was aiming for. I think as long as you do something toward a goal, it’s a work in progress. My goals, too, are pretty open-ended, so it allows me some wiggle room.

I have not had many caching adventures this year.

Such as with geocaching.

This goal had several tiers, so let’s see if I got to any of the levels. Part of this was an epic fail, but there were good things, too.

Average a cache per day — Not even close. I’ve found 138 caches this year, which is by far the fewest in a year since I started in 2008.
Add another state (or more) to my list — I added North Carolina, Kentucky, and California to my totals.
Place 10 new caches (not including events) — Close. I have six caches in my name, and I placed three others for a geocaching challenge. So I’ll count that as nine. I definitely would like to place more and I think once the spring comes, I’ll work on fixing some of my current ones and placing a few new ones.
Host at least 5 events — Though I had plans of doing one each month in my head, that didn’t happen. Still, I hosted eight events, including a CITO event. It was an overall good year for events!

In the end, it means I should find more caches. But I am not a fan of caching solo as it takes away some of the social aspect. So we’ll see how 2016 goes.

Home brewing (fail)

It seems each year this is a goal and each year, it’s a fail.

I just don’t dedicate enough time to this hobby and I really do have fun with it.

My goal was at least three beers. I didn’t get there. I need to sit down and do a few smaller batches, test, and see what happens.

I still have several ideas — I just need to follow through on them.

Blogging (success)

This has to be a success. There’s no way around it, even if it was a struggle at times.

Like geocaching, this was a tiered goal. Let’s take a look.

Write a new “about” page — I tweaked it a little, but didn’t write or design a new one.
Post at least 250 times — I’ll have done every day by the end of the year, so yes.
Have a minimum of 12 posts every month — Done.
Take part in a few other challenges, to keep things fresh: I might have, but honestly… I don’t recall. I know there were some I was looking to take part in.

Blogging is a lot of fun and I’ll dial it back a bit in 2017 as the everyday aspect was tough, but I will continue blogging and enjoy it. It’s been a part of my life for a long time and I don’t see any reason to stop!

Board games (fail)

This is a hobby I’ve done for a few years and I will be setting goals with it again for 2017, but this year was a little up and down. I didn’t go to my regular game group as much (baseball played a major part in this) and didn’t go to the local game store as much

I haven’t played as many games as I’d like, so hopefully that will change in 2017!

Hopefully, that can change in 2017.

The board game hobby, especially the more “Euro” or strategy style games are booming. My personal collection is quite large and there’s a lot there I need to and want to play. Again, this was a tiered goal, so let’s look:

Play 225 times — I was at about 120 this year, so not so much the goal.
Play 100 different games — I played a lot of different games, but not near the 100.
Go to a game convention — I went to ConnCon in March.

I will continue to play games and I have a lot of games that have a solo variant. That’s a hint of how the goal for 2017 will be somewhat shaped. I will go to at least ConnCon again this year and I have my eye on maybe another convention to add to it in the summer. Games really are a lot of fun — especially when you get away from the mass produced ones like Monopoly.

We’ll see how the goals for next year go, but this one I would call a fail for 2016.

Day Zero Project (fail)

This is a fail as I know I didn’t cross off 25 other things this year, even though it should have been easy to do so.

I have a ton of the options that are blog-based that I could have posted this year, but I just never sat down to do it. It’s a shame, too, as it likely would have made the blog post a day thing a lot easier.

This version of my Day Zero ends in 2017, so it will soon enough be a thing of the past.

Travel (success)

This is definitely a success. I had the chance to see many places. Mainly this was during baseball trips, but there were a lot of side things. I visited ballparks and places I’ve never been. I traveled solo and with friends. I saw the Pacific Ocean for the first time

That being said, I didn’t get to the minimum of five New York State parks, I didn’t get to Montreal this year, but I’m looking at it in 2017. I think the travel parts of my year went very well and something I am grateful to have been able to do.

Overall

I guess with my goals, I did some and didn’t get to others. The beauty of goals like this are ones I set for myself with the idea of knowing I’d probably do parts and maybe not others. I like to do a lot of things, that’s for sure, and a lot of times I will be in a situation where I don’t remember full goals — just some.

Part 2 of my looking back post will follow and I’ll go a little more in-depth with the year.

How did your goals/resolutions for 2016 go?

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog@gmail.com. Also, please “Like” A ‘lil HooHaa on Facebook! You can also follow me on Twitter @softball29!

2016: Looking ahead

January 17, 2016

It’s that time of the year where I take a look ahead.

I am not a huge person for New Year’s resolutions. I think they are goofy and people tend to make them and never follow through.

Think about it — how many people do you think said they wanted to go to the gym more often? And how many do you think have already quit?

Exactly.

Instead, I try and make some goals each year and post them here. I’ve done OK with them the past few years, so we’ll see how this year goes.

Do I know I need to get into better shape, lose weight and things like that? Absolutely. My health is something I need to work on, but that’s not a resolution or a goal — that’s changing things in life and sticking with it.

Instead, these goals will focus more on things I’d like to do this year. We’ll see how it goes.

Geocaching

This goal is always on my list because it’s something I want to keep doing, but the biggest issue becomes time and finding people who are interested in going.

There’s always geocaching goals!

This past year was decent, to a point. I was a few caches short of averaging a cache find per day, but I did a bunch of travels to events and such. I don’t think I’ll be doing any major caching trips (though one event is possible), but there are a few things I’d like to do.

Average a cache per day (so, I’ll need 366 this year)
Add another state (or more) to my list
Place 10 new caches (not including events)
Host at least 5 events

I think this is a doable thing, so I’ll look forward to going at it. I only have one cache find so far in 2016, so I need to get going!

Home brewing

A total fail in 2015, I need to change this in 2016. And to do that, I already have purchased some interesting kits. I just need to get going on them and go through the process.

So my goal for 2016? Brew at least three beers. I’d like to think I could do more, but I want to make sure I at least get three done. Considering I do the smaller batches (one gallon), I should be able to pull it off.

I have some fun ideas for names and such, too, so we’ll see how it goes.

Just three beers. I’m hoping if I do those three, I’ll get the itch for it again and do several more.

Blogging

This is always on here as it makes sense, being this is a blog and all. So what king of things would I like to do this year for my blog?

Write a new “about” page
Post at least 250 times
Have a minimum of 12 posts every month (and avoid my “lags”)
Take part in or run a few other challenges, to keep things fresh.

I truly love blogging. And one thing I’d like to do is definitely get more back into the community aspect of things. I fall off on that sometimes, so I’m going to try and keep that up. That’s not a goal, per say, but part of the bigger picture of blogging. I am happy with how the blog is going and I look forward to keeping it updated for 2016 and beyond.

Board games

This is a new one to the yearly goals, and one I’m glad to have added because of how fun this hobby is.

Board gaming is becoming quite the hobby and the games are well beyond what many of us knew as kids.

Over the past few years, I’ve gotten into board gaming. It’s a lot of fun and the difference in games is amazing. My personal collection has grown, too, which is pretty sweet. So I need to make this part of my goals. But I can’t just say I want to play games, else that wouldn’t make sense. So in 2016, I’d like to:

Play 225 times (I played 181 in 2015)
Play 100 different games
Go to a game convention

The board gaming hobby is definitely a growing thing, and I’m glad to be involved in it. It’s a lot of fun, especially once one looks past things like Monopoly being the holy grail of board games. There’s a lot of amazing things out there, that’s for sure.

There are other things I’d like to accomplish, but I know might be tough this year. So I’m going to leave this new addition a little more simple to start. In future years, I’ll build it up.

Day Zero Project

I didn’t do much with this at all in 2015, which is really too bad. It doesn’t end until 2017, so I still have time (though the odds of me completing it are not good), but I’d like to cross off 25 items in 2016.

Obviously, I’d like to check off more than that, but I think that’s a good goal. Some of them, as I look at it, just won’t be done by the end. Those are for a variety of reasons, be it having the time, or the funds etc. But I still think, if I put my mind to it, I can get several of these done and chip away at the list.

Let’s see how 2016 goes for the Day Zero Project.

Travel

I’m going to scale back on this goal this year. By travel, it just means getting out and seeing some places. It might be day trips or overnight trips, but I want to see things.

So this could be covered in my baseball trips, or planned trips etc.

One definite part of this goal is getting out and seeing a minimum of five New York State parks. They are wonderful places and worth checking out. Hopefully, I’ll hit more. But I’ll leave it at five to start.

There are some obvious other things I’d like to do (Montreal, Maine etc.), but we’ll see how things go. The base goal here is to get out, see things, and take some photos of my travels.

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With 2015 in the books, there are my goals for the upcoming year. We’ll see how I do with them. If I can remain focused, I’m sure I can make a good run at them all. Come next January, I’ll see how I did with these. I hope everybody else has a great 2016 and accomplishes all they would like to get done!

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!

It’s time to start up again

September 22, 2015

It’s been a while since I’ve brewed any beers.

I miss doing it, too. The process is fun. The outcome is usually fun. I enjoy seeing people try my beer and finding out if they like it or not.

But I’ve gotten away from it. And I need to get back into it.

I have several kits to work on getting done. And then I have to find some recipes of grain that I have bought in the past.

I need to get back into brewing again!

Here’s my hope – said grain hasn’t gone bad. I can always pick up some new hops if I need to. We’ll see how it goes, right?

But I also want to mess around. For example, I picked up – at some point – three kits for a wheat beer. I got them at a cheap price and such, but I don’t want to brew three of the same one. So what should I do?

I was thinking of making one of them a blueberry/honey wheat … how’s that sound?

Maybe I can put some maple syrup in the other one. A maple wheat? Hmmm. Or, the fall is coming. Maybe some apples and cinnamon?

I also have a few stout mixes. I need to work on those. I’ve long wanted to do a blueberry stout. God that sounds good.

So it’s time for me to start peeking around and getting back into it. Getting some brews going. I think, eventually, it would be fun to graduate to a 5-gallon brew. The only issue there is I really need to make a beer that I’d like. I have some ideas, so we’ll see how that goes. I might get into a point where I do both 5-gallon and 1-gallon … and save the 5-gallon for times when I know a larger quantity would be good.

So if any of you are brewers … have any tips for adding fruit? I’ve done it once or twice and it was OK, but I want to make sure you get the hint of it. Any other tips as I get back into the brewing world?

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog@gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!

2015: Looking ahead

January 4, 2015

Another year is in the books. Now, it’s time to look ahead.

I’m not one who is big on resolutions. Instead, I like to make goals and work toward them. I don’t do the weight loss thing, or exercise, or this or that like many do. I’ve found when I do that, I’ll go to a gym for a while and then fizzle out. I know I need to do all of the above and I’ve been working on that. But that’s because it’s for my health, not some silly resolution.

So, as I’ve done here for the past few years, I like to come up with a few goals I can aim for. These goals run a gamut of different things, so it’s always fun to see how far I get with each of them.

Let’s face it — I don’t always succeed, but I’m always pushing to attempt to succeed.

So, here, I present to you my annual list of goals. We’ll see how it all goes and by the end of the year, hopefully I am talking about how I succeeded in doing all of these. Some of these were done last year, so I am tweaking them slightly as they were ones I didn’t think I fully succeeded on in 2014.

1. Photography

This is easily the biggest goal I have this year.

Last year, I got away from taking pictures with my DSLR. I purchased a new one right before Christmas, so I am going to be working on using it a lot more. Further, part of my current Day Zero Project has a lot of photo-based things, so I want to work on those. Add in the monthly photo blogging challenge and other challenges and I want to use it a lot more.

My new camera needs a workout this year.

On top of that, next December will be the 10th year I have done an annual photo book. I have big plans for that and I want to go back to how it was when I first started that yearly tradition, which means stepping away from the iPhone as the main camera.

That being said, I won’t be leaving the iPhone completely. I love Instagram and the social part of it, so I am going to work on finding a good balance.

One part of this will go hand-in-hand with one of my other goals — travel. I want to visit more state parks in New York, which should give me many chances for photos (as well as geocaches), so it should be fun in that regard.

2. Geocaching

I didn’t find many geocaches in 2014.

In fact, it was the lowest total I’ve had since starting in March 2008. In 2014, I finished with 221 finds — an average of 0.6 per day.

I need to get into caching way more again!

Not good!

I say not good because it means I didn’t get out as much. Geocaching, for me, is a game that is fun because it gives me something to do outdoors and it gives me an excuse to go see and do some things. It’s also a nice way to get some exercise with walking and such.

So this part of my goal is several parts. The things I’d like to do include:

Reach 4,000 finds (I need 205)
Place at least 15 or so geocaches
Host 5 or more events
Average at least one find per day for the year
Add another state or country to my totals (hopefully more than one)

Some of this will require some travel. I have other geocaching goals with my Day Zero Project, so if I can do some of each, it will be a good thing. I also want to do more photos with geocaching, but I basically want to do more photos with everything, so that shouldn’t be so surprising!

Honestly one other thing I’d like to make sure I do is geocache with somebody I’ve only known through the internet — such as through blogging or Twitter. I have always wanted to do that for some reason, so 2015 seems like a good time for that.

Travel

My travel in 2014 was a tad limited, mainly because of the Summer of Baseball. An anticipated trip to Montreal (haven’t been there since 2009) never materialized and a few other places I was hoping to go didn’t happen.

So this year seems like a good one to try and take advantage of it.

Outside of Montreal, I’m not sure where else I’d like to go. But it could be a weekend getaway in New York, or a three-day geocaching road trip. It could be for some baseball, or for some brewery tours. It doesn’t have to be a 10-day European getaway (though that would rock), but something different would be nice. Maybe a extended weekend to Vegas? That would give some great photo ops and I am sure geocaching, too.

Part of travel, too, is meeting people. Maybe I’ll figure a way to set up a few geocaching events. Or I’ll look to play some disc golf. Or … anything. I want to expand some things when it comes to travel. It’s all about people.

I know I’ll get to places this year, and hopefully it will be ones where I can see things, do more and meet some people.

Better my blog

A repeat from last year, but I think this year I am ready to actually do this a bit more.

There are several aspects of blogging I am putting here that I feel will better this blog, as well as make it better overall for me. I want to expand blogging-wise, and I don’t necessarily mean by getting thousands of readers per day (though I could dig that).

Blogging to me, still, is about the community and having a place to express myself through writing. Whether it’s a feature, or a journalistic-style post, or something going on in my world, it’s my little place on the web. I don’t get advertising or anything like that, it’s just me.

But I do love visiting other blogs and talking with other bloggers. I learn as I read and peek around at other ones. I get inspiration and I’m always amazed by the talent and ability of other bloggers.

So, with that in mind, here are a few things I’d like to do this year with blogging:

Tweak my design a little (new header, maybe color scheme, maybe some other small changes)
Blog a tad more often and keep up with comments and such
Have, at a minimum, 250 posts for the year
Take part in a few challenges, as well as continue the Photo Blogging Challenge throughout 2015

Blogging is a fantastic community and a great activity. I don’t plan on making money through it, so I need to keep it on a personal level and continue to enjoy writing. Hopefully, it won’t change and I will enjoy tweaking and learning a bit more about the look of the blog.

Day Zero Project

This is a simple goal.

My current Day Zero Project goes through April 28, 2017. But I still need to be working to actually get 101 things done by then. The goal this year is to complete, at a minimum, 25 of those items. I’d also like to have several of them be in the “working on” stages.

I truly don’t know if I’ll get through the full list of 101 by the deadline. Some of the goals aren’t easy and might not be able to be done in time. But it keeps me reaching for something. As much as I would love to finish the whole list, if I can get through 75 percent of the items, I would easily consider it a victory.

Home brewing

I’m adding a sixth this year. And, much like the last one, this one is going to be somewhat simple.

I need to brew more!

I just want to brew more.

In 2013, the only beers I brewed were in December. I am hoping to do it much more often this year. I have ideas and thoughts for beers, so I need to see them through. I have some kits I still want to put together, and a few I want to order. Eventually, I want to work into three-gallon batches, and maybe the bigger, 5-gallon batches. Though, honestly, I like the smaller ones because it’s much easier to get through them if they are ones you don’t like!

The whole process is a lot of fun, so I look forward to doing several brews. For the purposes of a goal on here, I’ll say I’d like to brew a minimum of five beers, though I’d be shocked if I didn’t do at least double that.

There you have my 2015 goals. There are other things I hope to accomplish (such as playing disc golf more, learning more about the board game world that I’ve been getting into etc.), but these are the goals I hope to focus on. Come next January, we’ll see how I did. Until then, I hope you all have a great new year and follow any goals you are hoping to accomplish throughout 2015!

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!

Next up in the brew list…

May 15, 2013

I have two more beers bottled. Now it’s time to wait it out.

One of them — the White House Honey Porter — is one I’ve really been waiting to try. That will reach the two-week mark tomorrow and I plan on getting one in the fridge quickly. That one is named ObamaBrew and has an ABV of 6%.

The newest — Blueberry Red Ale — fermenting.

Then there’s the Chocolate Maple Porter (named Giddy Up — ABV 5.6%), which will reach the one-week mark this weekend. I let that one go a little longer in the fermenter, so hopefully it comes out well.

This past Sunday, I brewed another beer. This one is interesting and I’m truly excited about it.

The recipe was from the Brooklyn Brew Shop’s book (which is set for one-gallon batches, something I fully appreciate!) and it’s a blackberry red ale (not yet named). Alas, I decided to substitute blueberries for blackberries.

Yum.

Well, in theory.

I’m a fan of blueberry beers and when I started brewing, one of my goals was to brew a good blueberry ale. So I’m looking forward to seeing how this comes out.

But I’ll be waiting at least another three weeks!

This one was also my second all-grain recipe and first where I didn’t use a kit. I thought it went well, but I truly decided I need to learn more about brewing in a bag. Though I’m happy I’ve done things in the progression I have, I’ve also realized when doing a one-gallon batch, going through every step is tedious.

So if I can make it a little easier, I’d like to do that.

Brewing in a bag seems to be that way. Basically, it helps you skip a little bit of time with the sparging and all, if I am reading it all right. In the end, the real reason I’d like to do this is to make it a little more easy with the grain.

I’ve also been reading recently about using the spent grains in recipes. I’m definitely going to go that route to see what I can come up with.

Mashing away.

With this last set, I decided to make some spent grains dog treats. Now, I don’t have a pooch. But each of my brothers do. So I have some for them. It was quite easy to do.

The ingredients were the grain, flour, two eggs and peanut butter. Then, using the oven, dry them out completely. Simple, right? The recipe I looked at said it would take about 7 1/2 hours in the oven (on 200 or so) to get them set, though some ovens are quicker, especially if making them thinner. The treats I made were done in about 3 1/2 hours. The first part of it is when you do the initial cooking, with the oven up around 325. After like 30 minutes or so, you pull them out, cut them up and then back into the oven at the lower temp for another 3-7 hours.

I couldn’t figure out what I’d like to do with the rest of the grain at this point and didn’t want to double the batches of dog treats until I found out if their dogs liked them, so I pitched the rest of it. There will be plenty more batches of beer and I’ll be trying other recipes out.

In the end, it’s a lot of fun figuring out what to do with these beers and with the ingredients after. I’ve also ready one can re-use the yeast, but I’m not that far along yet. So I’ll keep going with how I am doing it.

I have several more beers in the wings and waiting to be brewed.

Next up (maybe today if I get up the energy to brew) is the Caribou Slobber brown ale. After that, I have all-grain recipes for two Dry Black Stouts (think somewhat of a Guinness), a Smoked Cherry (requires six months in the bottles!), my own concoction (2.5 gallons) and a peanut butter porter.

This has been a fun journey so far and I look forward to continued learning to hopefully keep making my beers taste better!

Though I won’t be likely making labels for each beer (tough to get the labels back off. I plan on doing small ones to identify each beer), I will still make them for use on Untappd and Facebook. I wanted to share the most recent ones here, too.

ObamaBrew

Giddy Up

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!