Kyle Rankin @kyle@librem.one

After the water heats up I can "dough in" or add my ground grain to the mash water. I have a long metal mashing paddle that makes it easier to stir the grain as I add it to remove clumps, which helps improve mashing efficiency later. Basically you are making a barley porridge and the consistency at the end is pretty similar to oatmeal.

#brewing #happybrewyear #beer

While the mash water heats up, I grind my grain using a hand grinder. For some recipes I get my malted barley pre-ground, but I have started buying my base malt in bulk, and the barley comes whole.

Grinding the grain removes the kernel from the husk and exposes more of the starch to the water so the mashing process is much more efficient. Malted barley contains an enzyme that will convert starches in the barley to sugar when immersed in water. #brewing #happybrewyear #beer

Happy Brew Year! Today I'm going to brew a simple Mexican-style dark Lager which traditionally were based on a Vienna dark lager but with US ingredients including flaked corn. In this thread I will document my brew day.

The first step is to heat up my mash water. I brew beer using a Grainfather brewing system, which automates a lot of the process for me and shaves a few hours off of my brew day. #brewing #happybrewyear #beer

When I visited Canada I was surprised at how much better the chocolate, even the inexpensive mass-produced chocolate, tasted compared to comparable brands in the US.

I could be because Canada has tighter regulations on % of chocolate in their recipes, but today I learned it was probably also the lack of lead and cadmium: https://metro.co.uk/2022/12/29/hershey-facing-lawsuit-over-heavy-metals-found-in-their-chocolates-18012980/

Oh yeah! Vintage toasting perfection! #vintage #toaster #ifyouknowyouknow

My son asked if I would teach him how to weave so yesterday he learned how to warp a rigid heddle loom and the basics of plain weaving. Now he is busy making his mother a scarf. I'm wishing I had a smaller rigid heddle loom, this 32" Kromski is not ideal for a kid. That said, his beat is pretty consistent and he's doing a decent job managing his selvedges so far. #weaving

My copy of Ada & Zangemann by @kirschner arrived in the mail today just in time for Christmas!

I just finished reading The Romance of French Weaving which covers the history of French textiles from the early Gauls to the early nineteenth century. I learned quite a bit about the origin and etymology of fiber terms in general from it.

Next on the list is The Valkyries' Loom, which covers Scandinavian weaving history of the Norse people.

I'm enjoying reading about the weaving histories of specific cultures. Are there any others that folks recommend? #weaving #history

The ayes have it! Thank you everyone for your suggestions. I sewed a label on my new scarf.

I recently ordered a small package of fabric labels so I could add a simple "Handwoven by Kyle Rankin" label on things I made for others (you can see an example on the wider scarf at the top of this thread).

I'm torn whether I should add the label to something I've made for myself. I mean I already know it was handwoven by me, but perhaps it would be good to add it for posterity decades from now?

Those of you who label your projects, do you label projects you make only for yourself? #weaving

I finished my scarf! I had previously made a scarf as a gift that I liked so much that I decided to make a narrower men's version for myself. I've attached pictures of both for comparison.

This weave was pretty loose to get the pattern I wanted. As a result I had to be very careful with it off the loom, and also fix a few picks that were out of place.

I ended up washing this in hot water and agitating it quite a bit, because I wanted it to full and shrink a bit into its final form. #weaving

Don Quixote is hundreds of years old, but the story of a man who becomes so immersed in media that he can no longer distiguish fantasy from reality, and is aided by people who indulge the fantasy while saving him from himself, seems so very modern.