For my next beer adventure, I am going all-extract this time. Not going to use any kits but just extract and hops for my recipe. For the last 2 batches, I used beer kits which are actually boiled extract with hops already added in. Now, I will have to do a complete boil, get the hot break and add the hops myself. The timing for the hops is very important, so I guess I will need more discipline than doing with the beer kit recipe.

Nope, I am not an expert in beer brewing. Heck, I don’t even consider myself a brewer at all, it’s a learning process. After my first failed beer brewing experience, which I have learned a lot, my next batch seems to be going on okay. I am just waiting to bottle it now, maybe this saturday night. For the taste, it seems a bit light and dry, but it will probably get better if I age it for a while. After the bottling, I will reuse some of the old yeast for my next batch, which is the all-extract brew. I am hoping that my brewing skills will improve after doing all these different batches. But it will probably take a few years before I can really call myself a “beer brewer”.

The next batch will be another Pale Ale, which I hope would not be very bitter. Maybe like a session beer, which everyone can enjoy. Nothing too strong either. And I always like golden coloured beer. Looks so damn refreshing, don’t you think so? This will be the next recipe:

Skinny Man’s Beer -

1. 2kg of light Dry Malt Extract
2. 500g of Rice Maltose (for a little more alcohol)
3. 1 tablespoon of Irish Moss
4. 50g of Malto-dextrin (for some foamy goodness)
5. 1/2oz of Super Alpha Bittering Hops for 30mins (for bittering)
6. 1 oz of Cascade Hops for 15 mins (for flavour)
7. 1/2oz of Cascade Hops for 5 mins (for aroma)
8. Some bread yeast in boil as yeast nutrients
9. Nottingham Yeast (reused from my previous batch)

Any comments on the recipe? Well, I am going ahead and doing it this saturday. Can’t wait!

If you are living in Singapore, you will very likely need a maid, right? Singapore is a kind fo society that requires other people to do “house” work for them, probably because we are just too busy with making money. No, I am not saying that this is a bad thing, but it leaves us very little time to do everything else. Furthermore, we are overwhelmed with taking care of our children, our parents, our work, our social life, our hobbies and the long working hours in Singapore. That’s what life is all about here. Being overwhelmed. We definitely need help. Worse, in Singapore, usually both the parents are working, so someone has to take care of our children when we are at work. So maids are the only choice left for us if our parents are not able to help.

Maids have become such an integral part of Singapore that whenever we go, the maids tag along. Just recently, when I visit my friends and family during the Chinese New Year, everyone bring along their maids. Yes, they are there to take care of the little ones while we drink and enjoy ourselves. Perhaps Singaporeans are so accustomed to having maids that we can’t live without them anymore. One of my friends whose maid went back home for a few weeks, found that he had problems adjusting to those few weeks. He told me later that he feels like he was living in a whole new environment and his household was in chaos. Sometimes we are so spolit, that we can’t do things ourselves anymore.

And I often wonder how our children will become when they grow up. They have also grown so accustomed to have a maid to bring them stuff and do everything for them that they don’t even know how to do it themselves. Soon, we will have to see the possiblity of young Singaporeans bringing their maids to their workplace? That would be bad and embarassing.

Anyways, if you are looking for a maid, take a look at Singapore Maid Agencies Listing I have created. Hope you get a good maid to help you.

If you are working as a IT support or a network engineer in your company, I am pretty sure that you will have faced a lot of problems with Vista systems using your wireless network. A lot of my friends have problems with their wireless network at home. I have been to countless homes and have tried a lot of different methods to solve these problems, most of them are related to Windows Vista systems. It seems to me that Vista is really ill-prepared for the public and thus we get some much problems. However, not all the problems are due to Microsoft, some of which are caused by the manufacturers who can’t get their system Vista ready fast enough, yet they released “Vista Capable” systems to the public.

Problems include unable to connect to the wireless access point (router) with your Vista system but using a WinXP or other Operating system, they work perfectly. Or you can connect to your access point but you are unable to retrieve an IP address from the DHCP server. Or you get intermittent disconnections from your access point. How about very slow speeds when you connect through wireless but faster speeds with you connect wired? Or sometimes you can connect to the access point, sometimes you cannot?

Thus if you are facing problems with your wireless settings, I have compiled a list of solutions for you. Hope that this will help you troubleshoot and solve your wireless problems.

1. Drivers. Update your wireless adaptor’s drivers.  A lot of the time, it is due to old drivers which are not updated by your manufacturer. Goto the manufacturer’s website and download the latest drivers. Don’t expend on the CD that comes with your hardware. It could be months or even years old. Some features are not supported by older drivers or they have bugs and getting the latest driver will help solve these problems. This is especially true if you can connect to your wireless access point without any security settings like WEP or WAP but you can’t when you enable the wireless security protocols. I have found that this is the biggest known culprit - old drivers. A lot of hardware manufacturers are not ready for Vista and the drivers they provided are sub-par at best.

2. Firmware. Update your wireless router or access point’s firmware. Again, the firmware in your access point or router could be very old and may cause problems when connected to a Vista machine. Beware, sometimes updating your access point’s firmware will set your access point to the default settings. Always update your firmware using a wired connection and make sure you get the correct firmware. Get someone with some experience with networking to help you.

3.  http://support.microsoft.com/kb/928233 This can really help. If you have trouble leasing an IP address from your DHCP through the wireless network, then you should try this fix by Microsoft. You can also solve this problem by updating your access point/router’s firmware, that is if your router is acting as the DHCP server. If not, then try Microsoft’s fix. It requires you to enter to the Windows registry and do some changes, so be very very careful.

4. Disable the IP v6 protocol. Don’t know why this will affect the wireless network but it seems to work for a number of people. Give it a try. Since there isn’t really anyone out there using the IP v6 protocol. This got to do with users unable to connect to the Internet, but can connect to the wireless access point successfully.

5. Update Windows Vista. There could be a fix for your wireless problem already. Update your Vista using Windows Update to get the latest patches for your Operating System and install them. Hopefully it doesn’t cause more problems for you.

6. If you are using an USB wireless adaptor, the problem could be the driver for your USB controller. If you face problem with your wireless disconnecting frequently, update that.

I am pretty sure the majority of problems are caused both old drivers and old firmware. Usually, they can be solved by updating both the wireless adaptor’s driver and updating the access point/router’s firmware. I have faced problems with notebooks by Acer, Toshiba, Lenovo and many others, all with their drivers outdated and giving a lot of wireless headaches for their users. Updating to the latest drivers solved most if not all of the problems.

 

Would you believe it, now Dell is getting better. Well, previously they have mixed reviews, some say their hardware is of the poor quality, some say that their support is top notch. But whatever they say, I think Dell can only get better. Why? Check out Dell Canada! Yes, they are offering Ubuntu as the Operating System! Woohooo! Dell is offering Linux to their customers! Cool isn’t it? Never expected Dell to offer Linux to their customers as we know that Microsoft is giving Dell very competitive prices on their Microsoft Operating Systems. Finally, Dell is thrown off the shackles of Microsoft and embrace open source software! Hahaha, not exactly, but it’s good to see Linux going mainstream (to a certain extent) rather than sticking to the “hacker” background.

However it looks like only Dell Canada is the only Dell site offering Ubuntu. I wonder whether the other regional Dell sites will soon follow suit and offer similar Linux alternatives or not? And just look at the pricing they have there. Very competitive. Microsoft Operating System probably add about 100 over to the total price. Since Linux is free, you won’t need to pay for it. And it’s feature packed as well. Most, if not all of what software on the Microsoft Operating System is also available on Linux. You want to watch DVDs? Ubuntu has the software. You want to burn DVDs? Yes, Ubuntu has it as well. You need a Worksuite? Yes, Ubuntu has it preinstalled for you. Ubuntu is a relatively easy to use Linux distro when you compared to the other offerings we have out there. And Dell is right to choose Ubuntu for their customers. We won’t want a lot of their customers to be frustrated when using their newly purchased computers. In fact, if it happens, it will put off a lot of people from using Linux ever! I also wonder whether Dell is going to get some heat from Microsoft as well. Using a competitor’s Operating System is going to piss off some rich and greedy Microsoft Executive who wants revenge. Na, doubt so. Dell is one of Microsoft’s biggest customers. It’s not smart to piss off your customer, especially when the Open Source Operating System Ubuntu is right there.

So if you are living in Canada and you don’t want to spend about a hundred bucks for an operating system, you can really take a look at what Dell is offering. It also gives you a chance to start learning Linux. Ubuntu is dead easy and comes with whatever feature a regular user needs. Of course, Windows games is out of the question, but if you just need a PC to surf the net and to do some office work, then you have a choice. Use it wisely.

 

Would you believe this? The Film Machine is actually the name of a software! I bet you were thinking that this is the name of some site that sells videos or DVDs, right? Nope, this is the name of a software which helps you to convert video files into DVDs. So, let’s say you have some video files which you have downloaded from the Internet like those high resolution trailers and you would like to view them on your very expensive Plasma TV but you can’t, since the player only reads DVDs. So you can make use of this software to convert that video file into a format that your DVD player can read. It’s called MPEG 2. You can also convert to VCD format (MPEG 1) or SVCD format if you so wish.

However, The Film Machine needs an encoder installed like Cinema Craft Encoder or Sonic Foundry Soft Encode to do the actual MPEG 2 conversion. Of course, you can use the freeware HC Encoder as well. But that software takes slightly longer to do your conversion than the other commercially available software. If you don’t mind the time (I don’t as I usually do the conversion at night and set it to auto-shutdown when done), then HC Encoder is your best bet. The prices of the other encoders can be heart stopping to say the least!

The Film Machine has a ton of features which makes this software a must have if you do a lot of video conversion to DVD. It comes with a easy to use wizard, just choose the video file you want to convert, choose your encoder (for both video and audio) and you are done! The Film Machine supports avi, mov, mp4, mkv and rmvb files. It also supports NTSC to PAL conversion and vice versa. For the video and audio bitrates, you can easily modify and configure them as well. Furthermore, if you like to add a menu to your DVD, this software supports it! They can create a BIN/CUE image file for you if you need to burn the image into the DVD/VCD later, or just let the software burn the DVD/VCD for you automatically. Amazing software and simple to use. Not much fuss.

This software is available for Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Vista 23 bit.

I bet you have been wondering when I will be doing the little review of that Cooper’s Brewing Kit I have been promising. Well, here I am. I seldom break a promise and it only happens when I really, really, really need to. And since this is something which I find very interesting, I am going to keep this promise. Here goes…

I got my Cooper’s Micro Brewing Kit from iBrew Singapore. I believe that they are the sole distributors in Singapore and thus you should get it directly from iBrew. Plus they do free deliveries too. Their boss is a pretty nice guy and he is very patient too. Although there are a number of shops carrying the Cooper’s Kit, most would require you to carry it back. Why? Just order it from iBrew and have it delivered without any hassle. That’s my idea anyway. It cost about S$175 for the complete kit.

You can see happy people with foamy golden-coloured beer in the picture shown. Yaaa! If only life was like that eh?

Can you see what the kit contains? No? Blame my photography skills. The kit contains:

1. Fermenter - 30 litres but you can only brew 23 litres. Don’t be greedy. 23 litres is still a lot of shit. This is where you ferment your wort and it magically becomes beer. Some people say if you concentrate very hard, you can turn water and fruits to wine too. Crazy people.
2. Long plastic spoon - Yes, for stirring or for that cheapskate Jedi knight wannnabe.
3. Little Bottler - Amazing piece of equipment for you to accurately pour your beer into your bottles without too much exposure to air. Not spring loaded though. Plus the tubing it comes with is very stiff. I don’t like stiff.
4. Airlock - One piece type. Another amazing equipment to prevent air from entering your fermenter.
5. Adhesive Thermometer - To measure the temperature of your fermenter. You stick it on the fermenter and they have different colours that appear.
6. Hydrometer - Measure the gravity of your wort and beer.
7. Spigot & Sediment Reducer - Hey, you need to pour out the beer without the sediment right?
8. 1.7kg Beer Concentrate - Hahahaha, you make beer with this.
9. 1kg Brewing Sugar - Hahahaha, you get more giggles with this. 2.5kg would be better.
10. 740ml Amber PET Bottles - 30 of these. That’s where your beer will finally end up. Wait a minute, I am wrong. Your stomach will be where your beer will finally end up. These are just vessels for you to carbonate your beer.
11. Carbonation Drops - Drop these into your bottle and they will carbonate your beer. Eat them and you won’t have carbonated beer.
12. DVD - Starring some guy named Edison and a multitude of females. I don’t like.

That’s the fermenter without the cover on. You can see the sediment reducer at the bottom? Unlike what you often see in the Youtube videos or those “educational” videos on beer making, this fermenter is not really a food grade plastic bucket. It’s a properly designed 30 litre fermenter. For one, it doesn’t have the edge corners where it is difficult to clean and where bacteria can hide. Bacteria and wild spores are bad for your wort. Americans seem to like plastic buckets for some reason.

Yes, this is the fermenter with the cover on. The little hole is not for you or your dog to pee into but it is for your airlock. You add a rubber thingy to the hole and stuff the airlock in, ensuring that it is properly sealed.

Hydrometer. Pour a little of your wort into the tube and place the hydrometer floating on the wort. You can measure the gravity from there. Be careful, I heard that it is very fragile.

The 740ml Amber PET bottles. Yes, they are screw on types but unless you are planning to age your beers for over 6 months, you don’t need a glass bottle. PET bottles will do. You don’t need to worry about the sunlight skunking your beers either. However, you still need to keep them away from direct sunlight. Man, I DO have some real articulate fingers, don’t I?

Ignore the light malt. The screw-on caps for your PET bottles and the Carbonation Drops. You put 2 carbonation drops into one 740ml bottles. So if you have 30 bottles, you will need 60 carbonation drops. The kind folks at Cooper’s provided you 80 carbonation drops. The extra drops are meant for you to suck.

Ignore the bung at the top. You are looking at the airlock and the Little bottler.

Ignore the Nottingham yeast and pretend that wordings on the left is “Brewing Sugar” instead of “Brew Enhancer 2″. iBrew was kind enough to let me change the beer concentrate from a Lager (it comes with the kit) to an Australian Pale Ale beer concentrate. I don’t think with the temperature in Singapore, I am able to brew up a lager, so I am brewing a Pale Ale.

The Cooper’s Australian Pale Ale beer concentrate. Heavy piece of shit. It comes with it’s own yeast and it is already hopped, so you don’t need to add your own hops, making it much easier to brew. Just boil the entire thing with the brewing sugar in water for about 5 minutes and cool it. Then pour into your fermenter. Add cold water till it reaches the 23 litre mark. After which you “pitch” the yeast. That’s it. Simple.

My Thoughts On the Kit

First the fermenter. The plastic fermenter is very well-designed. The fermenter feels solid and not cheaply made like those plastic food buckets. The plastic of the fermenter is quite thick. This means that you can maintain a constant temperature better. It is also translucent, so that you can “see” what it going on in the fermenter. The cover is transparent though, giving you the perfect view of your wort (if it is not blocked by condensation). The fermenter comes with measurement markings on it’s side, so if you need to do a different amount of brew, you can make use of these markings. You won’t find any edges here which is very difficult to clean and sanitize, unlike those plastic buckets. The opening on the top is big, unlike those carboys. So it means that you can easily clean the interior of the fermenter without using any specialized equipment. The big opening on the top also ensures that you can pour your wort easily without spilling. I just hate to use a funnel when there is not really a need. The fermenter has 2 hidden handles and these makes it easy to carry. Carrying 23 litres of wort or beer is not an easy task, you know. Back breaking work, especially for an old man in his final years.

The seals in the cover, spigot and airlock can all be replaced. Just buy them from your Cooper’s distributor after a few months of usage. We want a complete seal of the fermenter. Leaks are no good. It is also important that all sort of accessories are available for replacement in case we misplace or damage some of them.

The fermenter itself is quite big, but big is good. Although it is meant to brew 23 litres, it can actually hold 30 litres of liquid. The extra headspace is good for the krausen foam that will usually form when you are fermenting. You won’t want the foam to flow out of the airlock right? That would be messy and your wife/mother/dominatrix will not be pleased. But your pet dog/cat/lion will though.

The spigot and sediment reducer helps to reduce the trub that flows into your bottle and makes your beer clear, which is very important for a lot of types of beer. And I don’t like too much yeast in my bottles. An simple but ingenious device if you ask me.

The Little Bottler doesn’t come with a spring. The bad thing about this is that without a spring, it leaks ever so slightly. So when you pull out the bottler, the beer still flows, making a mess. A spring loaded bottler would be better to minimize leakage. But I guess the spring makes it hard for users to clean and sanitize the bottler.

And it’s my opinion that this kit isn’t exactly complete. You wonder why? Well, the most important thing for any home brewer is cleaning and sanitizing all the equipment that comes in contact with the wort. But the kit doesn’t come with any sanitizing solution! This I find very disappointing. Unlike Morgan’s Beer Kit (which I don’t have), it comes complete with the sanitizing solution. And worse, the Cooper’s instructional video claims that the bottles come sanitized, which could be a problem. Nobody knows how long the box has been in the warehouse or have been exposed to the elements. And how about in the stores? How clean are the stores which sells the kit? It could be that the bottles were sanitized before, but I really doubt that it remained sanitized especially if it is in a leaky warehouse for a few months. So a sanitizer would make this kit a complete one.

My Rant

“Make Beer, Not War” is my newest motto. I would highly recommend any beginner to get the Cooper’s Microbrewing Kit. It really makes everything so simple and easy. I never expected my first (few) brewing experiences to be such a breeze. For that, I am happy. But of course, you need to consider the temperature in Singapore. So a cooler box will also be necessary for you to maintain a reasonably cool temperature for your brew. Peace out, ladies.

8/4/2008 - Good news! iBrew has just included a bottle of Iodophor (I assume it is 70ml) and a spray bottle in their Micro Brewing kit and the price has not changed at all. Iodophor is a no-rinse food grade sanitizer and the spray bottle is used to spray the diluted Iodophor/Iodine on all the surfaces which will have contact with the wort.

Singapore ecstatic about winning the Youth Olympics bid

Apparently there are a lot of Singaporeans who are ecstatic about Singapore winning the Youth Olympics bid. Yes, I am sure that you are shocked to discover that too. I don’t mean to be a bubble “buster”, but in all seriousness, what is it in for Singaporeans? How does it benefit the regular Singaporeans in the streets? What do they get from all these? Sure, the rich and the powerful government people (and their friends) are ecstatic about Singapore winning the Youth Olympics. Of course they are, more money for them and good publicity and propaganda for them to use. I am sure they are all jumping up and down crazy with joy. But then the rich and the powerful are not the entire Singapore. Singapore consists of the regular folks as well. In fact, the majority of Singaporeans are just regular people. I am wondering how “ecstatic” are they about this win?

Look at this way, if we host the Youth Olympics, most Singaporeans will have to face the problems with having such a big event in such a small country. Our roads are already overcrowded and our public transport unable to handle the traffic. And now comes the Youth Olympics, which certainly means a lot more people, more road closures and heavy traffic everywhere (since Singapore is so small). That’s what we will have to face. Picture yourself going home after a hard day’s work, only to find the buses have to be re-routed because of the Youth Olympics and you need to walk a long way to the nearest serviced bus-stop, all because of the Youth Olympics. Just think how crowded the buses and the trains are now. Now imagine what will it be like with the Youth Olympics on the way.

How about the building of the facilities for the Youth Olympics? Singapore doesn’t have the necessary facilities to cope with what the Youth Olympics needs, so we will have to build them big big buildings. What? You say that this will provide jobs for Singaporeans? Seriously, most jobs in the construction industry will go to foreigners. And if you are thinking that the salaries of Singaporeans will go up due to the increase in demand for labour, you should think again. Yes, this is just another excuse to let more foreigners into the country to artificially push down the salaries of locals here. Oh, don’t forget, Singapore is already building the extended MRT line, the Integrated Resorts plus whatever nonsense the government is planning. What do you think will happen to the prices of properties in Singapore? It will go sky high. That’s a plus for land owners and we know how those people are. But now about those Singaporeans just trying to find a flat just to live in? Wait, you are saying that it benefits Singaporeans since the value of their pigeon hole rise? Well, first of all, you need somewhere to stay. So that even if your pigeon hole increases in value, you can’t sell it. And if you sell it, you still need to find another pigeon hole to stay in (unless you would like to stay in the streets), which common sense tells you that the price has increased as well. Anyone tell me what benefit is there to gain except for the rich who are mainly the landowners? And if you need to renovate your home, again imagine how expensive the building and construction materials and labour will be. Time for you to pay through your teeth till it all falls out.

Heck, my area don’t even have a decent football field for me to play football. Kids have to pay in the void deck. The basketball court is always full of people and the damn basketball hop is always broken. Fix that first. Don’t talk to me about some shit Youth Olympics when you can’t even provide a decent standard of living for your own people.

Been posted before I am sure. But this always crack me up when I see it. So I am posting it here again for everyone’s viewing pleasure. True to a certain extend. It has some very profound meaning as well.

Jobs for Foreigners, NS for Singaporeans. I have to tell those people in charge of the country, if you treat people badly, the people will do the same to you. It’s a fact of life. If you treat Singaporeans unfairly and rule the country like you are managing a business, don’t expect people to think of you “elites” as leaders. Most probably Singaporeans will treat you like their boss, and a bad boss at that. Abuse that power, and sooner or later you will have to answer for all these abuses. This is just an friendly advise to our leaders here in Singapore.

I really hope that our leaders will change for the better. But I am not that hopeful, seeing that our current generation of leaders are all rich “elites” with no understanding of how Singaporeans feel or face. They don’t face the same hardship as what most Singaporeans have to face everyday. Thus, they are unable to solve Singaporean’s problems. Sure, they very efficient in solving their own problems (like estate taxes, increase in GST and so on), which isn’t exactly what most of Singaporeans face. Rich people will try to solved “rich people” problem and leave the “peasants” to their own doom. This is why I don’t respect the current generation of Singapore leaders. We need a new generation of leaders who are not from this “elite” circle, they should be able to understand what are the problems Singaporeans face, and what should be done. Time perhaps for a change?

It looks like everywhere you go in Singapore, you will see someone or another driving a shiny brand new car, probably one that is very costly. It’s like crazy. Maybe because the economy is good and everyone is having huge bonuses and they have no other way to spend it. They go into buying cars. Not sure whether Singaporeans heard of investing, but I guess in Singapore, the most expensive thing you can buy other than a house is a car. And I won’t blame Singaporeans for wanting cars. Just look at our pathetic public transportation system and you will understand. The buses are slow, expensive and never on time. Worse, they are always crowded and dirty. For me to travel to work, it takes about 1 hour 30 minutes by bus! I am living in Ang Mo Kio and my workplace is in Bedok. The MRT (Mass Rapid Transit) is probably faster, but it’s just too troublesome to take. You need to take a bus to the MRT, then change to the trains and after that change to another bus feeder service. And you probably be packed like sardines in the trains as well.

The sad thing about overcrowded Singapore is that, well…..Singapore s just so overcrowded. Everywhere you go, you see tons and tons of people and vehicles. And parking is a nightmare, especially at the weekends. Try some of the more popular malls, the number of vehicles waiting for a parking space is just staggering! Our ineffective public transport is just not able to cope with the huge influx of foreigners and they still want to bring in more people. Talk about insanity.

Anyways, if you are still interested in buying a car, please take a look at the list of car showrooms in Singapore. I hope it to be very comprehensive but due to the fact that a lot of businesses still do not have websites, it is not. However, these showrooms should get you started when you are looking to purchase a vehicle. Good luck.

Okay, we all know that Valetine’s Day was last thursday. I am pretty sure a lot of you guys went out with your sweethearts for a nice candlelight dinner and really enjoyed yourself. And some of you guys got lucky and well, played the game Twister all night long with your partner. You won’t get another chance till next year so I guess you better seize the opportunity. That’s what Valetine’s Day is all about isn’t it? A romantic night with your partner doing various things which involves body contortions and some serious sweating?

However, for pathetic guys like me, we stayed home on Valetine’s Day. Basically what I did was after work, went straight home and started surfing the Internet. Then I went to sleep early. That’s what I did for Valetine’s Day. No expensive restaurants, no nice flowers, no candlelight dinners. Nothing, just a normal evening, resting at home. There are even people who spend their Valetine’s Dat crying and crying. Sad day to spend it alone and some people just can’t take it. I understand that, but now with the Internet, are we really alone? No, we are not. Just go online and you will see several of your just as pathetic friends online as well. Isn’t that just dandy?  Misery loves company.

So, how many of you guys spent the evening like me? If you are like me, then you are a loser. Accept that fact and you will be alright.