{"id":556,"date":"2015-04-14T13:50:15","date_gmt":"2015-04-14T20:50:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.timvandergrift.com\/?p=556"},"modified":"2015-04-14T13:50:15","modified_gmt":"2015-04-14T20:50:15","slug":"letoile-du-nord","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.timvandergrift.com\/?p=556","title":{"rendered":"L’\u00c9toile du Nord"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"City<\/a>
City of waters<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I’m back in the Twin Cities today, working\u00a0with Northern Brewer. As usual it’s a busy time: meeting with folks, talking about new products, projects, sales, marketing and all the great stuff that goes into being the world’s best supplier of consumer wine and beer making equipment.<\/p>\n

I picked a fabulous time to visit. The weather has been spectacular, with temperatures hitting 20C (low\u00a070’s) and bright sunshine. Even the flight in was auspiciously pretty.<\/p>\n

\"Never<\/a>
Never get tired of watching the world go by.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I’ve got a Q&A session with the folks in retail this evening, and they’ve come up with a great list of questions. It’s really the best part of my job, talking to folks about making their own wine, and seeing a really pertinent\u00a0leading question down on the page is like reaching into the pocket of a coat and finding a $20 bill you forgot you had.<\/p>\n

\"Strapped<\/a>
Strapped in and ready for use<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I’ve been meaning to give a shout-out to Northern Brewer <\/a>for a while on the Big Mouth Bubblers that I got earlier this year. The idea of a PTFE fermenter with a gasketed lid that takes a bung and airlock seems fine, but when you use one for something that’s really messy, their usefulness snaps into clear relief.<\/p>\n

I brewed a very hop-heavy IPA and when it finished fermentation, it looked like this:<\/p>\n

\"Oh<\/a>
Oh those dirty rings!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

That looks like a terrible job of scrubbing, but with the wide-open top, even a moose with bulky arms like mine can easily stick his mitts right to the bottom and get a good scrub on. What would have taken a long soak for\u00a0a carboy and the application of a brush and plenty of awkward gyrations to get all the goop off, only took 60 seconds with a soft cloth and some brewing detergent.<\/p>\n

\"Shiny<\/a>
Shiny as a new penny<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It’s got a bunch of condensed steam on it, but trust me, that Big Mouth Bubbler is as clean as a whistle. I’m replacing all of my fermenters with them, because I can’t visualise ever wanting to lug around and wash narrow-necked carboys again.<\/p>\n

Off for Q&A, and tomorrow video shooting and more fun times.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m back in the Twin Cities today, working\u00a0with Northern Brewer. As usual it’s a busy time: meeting with folks, talking about new products, projects, sales, marketing and all the great stuff that goes into being the world’s best supplier of consumer wine and beer making equipment. I picked a fabulous time to visit. The weather … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “L’\u00c9toile du Nord”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,30,31,65,64,96,97,98,45,58,54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-beer","category-brewing","category-homebrew","category-homemade-wine","category-kit-wine","category-master-vintner","category-midwest-supplies-2","category-northern-brewer","category-sales","category-teaching","category-winemaking"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.timvandergrift.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.timvandergrift.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.timvandergrift.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.timvandergrift.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.timvandergrift.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=556"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.timvandergrift.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":562,"href":"http:\/\/www.timvandergrift.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556\/revisions\/562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.timvandergrift.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.timvandergrift.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.timvandergrift.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}