Christmas shopping

[Malter White]

I've just started my Christmas shopping.
I got the missus a tablet so she can browse the internet looking for more houses that we can't afford. OK, maybe we can afford them but I don't want to move or go into debt...AGAIN.
My son and daughter are getting one of these each (link below). I really wouldn't mind one myself but it's hard to justify when I have 6 eskies already. 
https://www.snowys.com.au/icekool-icebox-24-litre

These purchases and all the other Christmas shopping have put my desire for kegging gear on the back burner for the time being. I've noticed a lot of stuff is out of stock anyway. If I eventually get a keg set up, I want it all there and ready to go. I don't want to be waiting for things on back order.

What are other brewers getting themselves and loved ones for Chrissy?


 

[Lab Cat]

I bought the missus and kids a renovation and pool and I'll still be paying for it when I retire.

She'll still want some jewelry as well. I'll be getting a new BBQ after being without one all year. It's been a tough year.

[Malter White]

@Lab Cat Hopefully as your sipping a few coldies and eating tender steaks from the new BBQ by the pool you'll forget your money troubles momentarily and enjoy the lovely life you've provided your family. At least until you get back to work, that is. 

[Stickers]

my family side is small so mum will get an "autobiography" of a recently retired footballer (afl), dad will get a bunnings voucher, my sister in NSW will get a phonecall. the other side of the family is a lot larger so we have a kris kringle type game with a $50 limit for the over 21s and the 3 under 21 are easy.. 18 year old money, 3 year old nephew duplo and 5 year old niece some art supplies.

struggling with my teen. it's that age where they've left kid stuff behind, thankfully still a couple of weeks to go, something's bound to come up.

me - super mario game&watch

it's going straight to the pool room so it can wait til chrissy

[Malter White]

@Stickers probably cash or a voucher for the teen too, I'd say. Can't go wrong that way.

[jamiek86]

On 11/30/2020 at 2:37 PM, MUZZY said:

I've just started my Christmas shopping.
 

These purchases and all the other Christmas shopping have put my desire for kegging gear on the back burner for the time being. I've noticed a lot of stuff is out of stock anyway. If I eventually get a keg set up, I want it all there and ready to go. 


 

exactly the same decision I have just made about kegging will be something for the future but my closest brew shop 35 minute away keeps saying they will be getting the new keggerators by end of each week. even though internet says they have it in stock. considering the set up cost and I have only just got back into brewing again I think I will wait a while to get one and decide when I can walk in and look at it all in person and talk to someone. I feel like the less efficient smaller series 4 keggerator for 40 odd dollars less would be a bad investment compared to a newer more efficient one with room for extra keg.

[Greenyinthewestofsydney]

On 11/30/2020 at 4:38 PM, Stickers said:

my family side is small so mum will get an "autobiography" of a recently retired footballer (afl), dad will get a bunnings voucher, my sister in NSW will get a phonecall. the other side of the family is a lot larger so we have a kris kringle type game with a $50 limit for the over 21s and the 3 under 21 are easy.. 18 year old money, 3 year old nephew duplo and 5 year old niece some art supplies.

struggling with my teen. it's that age where they've left kid stuff behind, thankfully still a couple of weeks to go, something's bound to come up.

me - super mario game&watch

it's going straight to the pool room so it can wait til chrissy

Have a few of those things from my younger days. Not the colour screen ones. Green house. Oil Panic. Donkey Kong 1,2 and jr. Manhole. Parachute. I think I got to 999 on all of them bar manhole. 

Edited December 5, 2020 by Greeny1525229549

[Stickers]

bought some PET bottles from dans and took the bus home. the one other person in my section of the bus was also a homebrewer. discussion quickly went from temperature control to the benefits of kegging. ahh one day. not actual christmas shopping but will be bottling my new year's beer in them on wednesday so close enough.

[Malter White]

16 hours ago, Stickers said:

bought some PET bottles from dans and took the bus home. the one other person in my section of the bus was also a homebrewer. discussion quickly went from temperature control to the benefits of kegging. ahh one day. not actual christmas shopping but will be bottling my new year's beer in them on wednesday so close enough.

Hahaha @Stickers. I'm a bus driver. If you'd caught my bus the conversation on home brew might have been with the driver.
FYI, if you didn't already know, you can get PET bottles delivered free from Coopers online store. *Conditions apply.
*Free Shipping if your cart only contains PET Bottles & Caps (1622). Standard shipping rates apply for other items added to cart (except a Snap Tap, Replacement O-Rings or Thermometer Strip). Deliver within Australia only and no further discounts apply.

[Stickers]

5 hours ago, MUZZY said:

Hahaha @Stickers. I'm a bus driver. If you'd caught my bus the conversation on home brew might have been with the driver.
FYI, if you didn't already know, you can get PET bottles delivered free from Coopers online store. *Conditions apply.

any other time of year i'd probably order some but a week before chrissy (when I really need them for the weekend) i don't really want to take the risk waiting for the post - even though cooper's seem to dispatch their orders pretty quickly.

former workmate of mine of mine gave up his printing job and got a bus driver role right at the end of last year. bloody good timing for him, he's had no shortage of work behind the wheel this year. i gave up driving this year when my car got nicked and i couldn't be bothered replacing it - roads around here are like pinball - and thus got into homebrewing because i can't walk a slab home but i can walk the ingredients home

anyway, i digress. for the teen i'm going to get them a teapot, a selection of teas and a card with some splash

[Red devil 44]

Off subject slightly but when was was with my first wife many yrs ago, she sent me out to buy a new tv ( as ours was getting old )  went to Bunnings instead and arrived home proudly with a new 4 burner Matador BBQ( on special, couldn’t resist )  , guess that’s why I got divorced and re-married, she had no sense of humour

[Stickers]

1 hour ago, Red devil 44 said:

Off subject slightly but when was was with my first wife many yrs ago, she sent me out to buy a new tv ( as ours was getting old )  went to Bunnings instead and arrived home proudly with a new 4 burner Matador BBQ( on special, couldn’t resist )  , guess that’s why I got divorced and re-married, she had no sense of humour

oh gosh that brings back memories. i bought a great VHS player, had stereo sound and s-video out. sadly lacked the ability to set a timer. also a member of club divorced

[Red devil 44]

3 minutes ago, Stickers said:

oh gosh that brings back memories. i bought a great VHS player, had stereo sound and s-video out. sadly lacked the ability to set a timer. also a member of club divorced

Welcome to the club mate, I am happily re-married now & my wife has no problem with me brewing, kegging, and believes everyone has to have an interest or hobby, she bought me ( well I ordered it as she wouldn’t know what she was looking at ) a Fermzilla for my Xmas present. 

Shes the one I should of married in the first place as we dated prior to my first marriage

[Stickers]

Just now, Red devil 44 said:

Welcome to the club mate, I am happily re-married now & my wife has no problem with me brewing, kegging, and believes everyone has to have an interest or hobby, she bought me ( well I ordered it as she wouldn’t know what she was looking at ) a Fermzilla for my Xmas present. 

Shes the one I should of married in the first place as we dated prior to my first marriage

long time now but bloody hell that brought back memories

[jamiek86]

still needs a few finishing touches like getting stronger stuff to hold manifold on back and blue tack the hole where gas lines go through back but almost done after alot of frustration. present to myself and cleaned the lines out already hardest part will be trying to age the first pilsner without testing it out

[kmar92]

The way I have attached my manifold is with pop rivets into the top plastic piece. I was concerned about drilling through important things but I really checked it out and the top plastic thing is just a top on the fridge so no problems with drilling it for me.

It is solid as a rock.

Edited December 19, 2020 by kmar92

[jamiek86]

@kmar92 thanks I was also concerned about drilling into it but noticed the holes thanks for that info

[Lab Cat]

A race against time to get things organised before the holiday break, or we'd still have sand backyard, no wall from the street, and an empty pool. Thanks to the project managing skills of the missus (and some great tradies) all the big stuff got done. A year long extension on the house and backyard reno that felt like 5.

A Weber Q to cap it off. Not as solid as the Genesis 4 burner I had for 20+ years, as the stand is all plastic, but it's smaller and lighter. I do like the grill design, nothing is going to fall through and the burner design and lid down cooking, cooks unbelievably fast.

[iBooz2]

1 hour ago, Lab Cat said:

A race against time to get things organised before the holiday break, or we'd still have sand backyard, no wall from the street, and an empty pool. Thanks to the project managing skills of the missus (and some great tradies) all the big stuff got done. A year long extension on the house and backyard reno that felt like 5.

A Weber Q to cap it off. Not as solid as the Genesis 4 burner I had for 20+ years, as the stand is all plastic, but it's smaller and lighter. I do like the grill design, nothing is going to fall through and the burner design and lid down cooking, cooks unbelievably fast.

You will be very happy with the Q lab Cat.  I have two, one big one on trolley on back patio and next size down (without trolley) on a slide out in our 22 ft off road caravan.  Get yourself a pizza stone, a breakfast grill plate and a webber pan (with handle that clips off) for spuds roasting and you will be set.

These buggers are way more thrifty on the gas than a multi burner spit roaster like we had in the old days.  We use ours 4 times a week and get a year out of a 8.5 / 9 kg gas bottle.

Cheers - AL

[ben 10]

On 12/27/2020 at 5:31 PM, Lab Cat said:

A Weber Q

Very good BBQ there mate

[Lab Cat]

23 minutes ago, Green Blob said:

Very good BBQ there mate

Ta. Will need some getting used to heat settings. I've had no trouble with snags, bacon and roast potatoes, but my chicken wings were overdone. They didn't burn, but they were very dry.

[iBooz2]

@Lab Cat  No more dry chicken wings bloke!  My recipe and technique.

Sticky chicken wings

900g chicken nibbles or (wings with the tips cut off and discarded).

¼ cup Honey of your choice. (or some honey and some maple syrup)

1/3 cup Rice wine vinegar.

1 tablespoons of All Purpose Seasoning. (or 1/2 tablespoon Cajun seasoning) modify to your own tastes.

Marinade:

In a small bowl, mix a couple of tablespoons of boiling water and the honey to dissolve it.

Then mix in the all-purpose seasoning and then add the rice wine vinegar.

In an aluminium tray place the chicken nibbles in a single layer and pour over the marinade, toss/turn chicken nibbles to coat.

Leave in fridge for ½ hour.

Toss/turn chicken nibbles once again.

Leave in fridge for another ½ hour.

Turn Weber on high (both dials on high) with lid closed for about 10” until the temp dial shows 200 C, then turn small dial off and leave big dial on about halfway between high and low (or a little bit less to hold at about 180 C).

Put the tray of nibbles into Webber and close lid and set timer for 20”

When this time is up turn nibbles over and close lid and set timer for another 10”

Again, when this time is up, turn nibbles over again close lid and set timer for further 5 to 10”

By now they should be starting to go golden and the marinade will thicken and start to get sticky so keep an eye on them.  If marinade is still a bit thin/watery then just keep cooking as per last step until it gets sticky.

Once the marinade has thickened to a sticky sauce, turn nibbles over to coat with sticky sauce then dish up.

Try these and if they do not stick your long whiskers to your smiling face then nothing will.  The smell is amazing when they are cooking so don’t be surprised if you get neighbor's knocking at your door asking, “what are you cooking? That smells terrific”.

Cheers - AL

Edited December 29, 2020 by iBooz2

[Lab Cat]

Cheers. The tray must make a difference there to diffuse heat, because that's about the time and temp I had my wings on the grills.

[iBooz2]

Yes direct heat and indirect heat can make a big difference.  I have 1/2 grill and 1/2 hot plate setup on my big Q.  Also use one of these trivets under the aluminium tray and rotate aluminium tray 180 degrees each lid lift so as to not burn one end, the over the grill end of tray will obviously get much hotter.

Cheers - AL

[Lab Cat]

4 hours ago, iBooz2 said:

Yes direct heat and indirect heat can make a big difference.  I have 1/2 grill and 1/2 hot plate setup on my big Q.  Also use one of these trivets under the aluminium tray and rotate aluminium tray 180 degrees each lid lift so as to not burn one end, the over the grill end of tray will obviously get much hotter.

Ahh ok, sWeber say you get indirect cooking using a tray with the Qs. With the Genesis model, I used only the outer burners to do that. For my wings fail I followed a technique that did low direct heat straight on the grill, but that guy was using a Q2200, so only has the U shaped burner, the 3200 has an additional one.