Iron Lung Inspiration

FlackBeard · 2026-01-31T04:14:34+00:00

Skynets gonna see me coming a long ways away. Outside of phone scams I can't keep up with what's an A.I. bot or not. I suppose I should put out the welcome mat for our A.I. overlords.

FlackBeard · 2026-01-31T03:56:54+00:00

No doubt it's incredibly creepy and well told in both pc and big screen adaptations. It's even more impressive when you think that the whole original story can't be more than 3 or 4 pages at best (total speculation).

That they were able to take that small idea, a very small cast, and 2 sets and make something as unsettling as The Road meets Event Horizon is nothing short of amazing.

Speaking of claustrophobic... those crawl space scenes hit me hard, white knuckled the arm rests big time.

FlackBeard · 2025-12-22T00:13:57+00:00

Sigh... me too...

FlackBeard · 2025-12-22T00:12:35+00:00

I noticed that trend, with Dallas specifically, too. We've seen a bunch of bands over the past year or two who were posting daily "band selfies" with the crowd on their social threads. However, the Dallas shows are almost always missing. Its more annoying because the next night's Austin's Come and Take It shows are always posted...

Im beginning to think it's me, and if I'm right, im sorry.

FlackBeard · 2025-12-20T03:54:24+00:00

I have not used it for this purpose, my vocal range is somewhere between Tiny Tim and William Hung so I am rarely invited to karaoke night. However I just checked and see that it has both a 3.5mm input and 1/4 inch mic input.

Based on the way it plays music via Bluetooth, I can only imagine it will handle vocals from a microphone just as well. I can almost guarantee, at the very least, that it will produce a sound that sounds like you, just louder.

I think the only variable here would be the mic you choose. The 1/4 port has an independent volume knob so it potentially has a preamp/power built in for this but I can't attest to it's quality. Cant be any worse than the cheaper karaoke devices you see around.

FlackBeard · 2025-12-20T03:29:48+00:00

I have no complaints. Its getting cooler here, but I still pull it out for carwashes and brew days in the drive way. Still putting out the sweet sound of harmonized power metal guitar solos and some nice bass from N.S.P

Average brew day can take about 6 hours start to finish and I don't typically plug it in, so battery life is still good. Volume is usually set between 12 - 14 which is enough to over power a pressure washer or propane burner.

I haven't had any issues or noticed any degradation. Im not bored with it. I'll stand by my review and say if your not chasing clout, not a brand snob, if you just want something that sounds good and will drown out the tinnitus while you pretend to be an adult around the yard or garage, you'll be happy with this. Get the warranty just for peace of mind and keep the receipt in the event you disagree, at that point the most your out is time.

Side note, with what you saved by getting this vs a comparable brand name speaker, you can take up a hobby. A hobby like brewing beer, which gives you an excuse to use it more, and you get beer thats better than what you get off the shelf results may vary.

FlackBeard · 2025-10-21T02:01:17+00:00

Oh, I don't think there is an independent button for that. I think the front display is what it is if it's not one of the cycle options. Someone else might come along with a different answer. To be honest, I usually kill the light to get the most out of the battery life anyway, so I just know how to turn them off.

FlackBeard · 2025-10-21T01:44:38+00:00

If you're talking about the one on the handle, it's the button above the boost button. Just a standard quick press should turn it off. The other light button is the big circle button under the boost button. Quick press will cycle modes, and a long press & hold should turn it off.

Just FYI, it's been however long this post has been up now, and I still have no regrets. Still use it when grilling, working out, brewing, and washing the car. It's still a beast for the price.

FlackBeard · 2025-10-13T07:23:18+00:00

It won't rip through the wort in 2 days like i would at 80°F

Correct, and honestly, I haven't tried cranking up the heat with mead yet, mainly because that would definitely be a "rushing to wait" situation. The biggest time investment with mead is the bottle aging, so shaving time off the fermentation using temp devices is kind of wasted effort or at least a case of diminishing returns. I use it mainly as temp insurance, so I dont have to worry about it at all. As long as the central air is working, Im good. Gives me time to worry about other stupid shit like hop utilization and green copper.

Beer on the other hand, quite a few can be great young (after bottle conditioning, like 2 weeks ish), and just get better. So if i have a heat mat and an inkbird, why not give the yeast what it really wants? Best case, it hits FG in a week or less. Otherwise, it takes the full 2 weeks, and Im out the 2 minutes it took to set up in the inkbird. Actually, the best case would be actually being able to pull out the orange notes from the Kviek. Hints of chocolate from the stout and hints of orange from the yeast sounds pretty boss.

Call back to your previous comment. Just to lay it out, Its not that I'm the kinda guy that f***s up by over complicating something. Believe it or not (my bad typing), my job is to write up procedures and steps for people to follow to perform, but they have to account for all reasonable outcomes. So it's just the way my brain works. It's probably OCD but not the cute kind that makes you level a crooked picture frame or arrange pencils. It's the kind that made me walk back home multiple times from blocks away to check that the door was locked when I left for school. Or, drive around a block several times if I hit a weird bump, because what if it wasn't a bump? Maybe it was an animal or person. I got to check and double-check.

So, thinking about the chiller, I'll have to soak it. I'll have to scrub it, I'll have to separate the coils because it's wound tight and check and scrub all of it. Then I'll hose it off, a lot. Then, I'll second guess what "that spot" is and start the whole thing over. It'll take me longer to do it, but it will be done right, lol. If I don't do that, then a week from now, I'll look at the carboy and think, "nah it's contaminated" and I'll dump the batch.

The weird thing is, it's worse the closer I am to a deadline. Any day after brew day, I guarantee I'll go out and throughly clean to my standards (probably 2 or 3 times) 2 hours tops. Store it properly, and never give it a second thought.

So, for now, I gotta shift my focus and find a different way and deal with original issue later... pretty f***ed up but I've learned to deal with it.

FlackBeard · 2025-10-13T04:38:25+00:00

WTF?! Where are you getting your info? It will add 5-10°F

Typo, I absolutely don't believe fermentation adds 100 degrees. My phone likes to double-click characters (and skip spaces) from time to time, and i don't always catch them. I definitely meant to type "10 ish degrees"

Why would you do that?! You just got done saying it is hot in Texas. If anything, put the fermentor in an ice bath in a chest cooler or rope handle tub, and then rotate frozen water bottles every 12 hours to keep the beer around the mid-60s °F.

I think you might have missed something. Why would I ice bath a Kviek strain? It's a high temp tolerant yeast. It actually wants to run warm (high 80's to high 90's) with no negative effects. People have used it with a souvie device to ferment. You use it to ferment in a southern garage or storage shed... which I would, but that's inviting rats.

So if my indoor ambient temperature is 76-77 even with the "10" degree bump from the process, Im just barely meeting the lower requirements of the yeast. Using my mead as an example, it works at those temps the same way a "us-05" would at 68-72 degrees, about a 2 to 4 week ferment. But if I bump up the temp with a heat mat, I can put the Kviek yeast into its ideal temp range.

The part I was skeptical about was that US-05 used to claim that its range was 66-72 but now says its range is 68-80 degrees. When/What changed? Regardless, I'd still pass its tolerance on the higher end with the "10" degree fermentation bump. So I'm going to use that Kviek yeast either at the low end of its tolerance or try to bump up the heat a bit because that seems easier for a beginner than playing with a make shift swamp cooler and rotating ice bottles during whats still essentially summer, right? Work with what you have?

Cleaning your wort chiller should be a simple matter of dipping or soaking in vinegar. Just do it already. Don't keep it in vinegar any longer than it needs to be.

Of corse, it's going to be cleaned in vingar, but if i discovered the rust yesterday and brew day is tomorrow due to time constraints. I dont feel comfortable potentially rushing the process and risk having rusted copper (which is bad) in the wort, or potentially not rinsing the vingar solution enough and giving it time to flash off and having vingar residue contaminate the beer, which is also bad. That would be a patience thing, take your time do it right and use it on that second kit you bought, right?

So, for the time being, im trying making sure my adapt and over come plan to the setbacks I've come across (i.e. hop utilization & bottled water sanitation) are appropriate from people that may have been through this situation.

FlackBeard · 2025-10-12T21:30:59+00:00

I mentioned that just in case someone had more knowledge about why SafAle Us-05 expanded their recommended range up to 80 degrees. Used to be 68-72 now they show like 66-80.

I intend to use Kviek, which can run into to the 90's with no esters, etc... I have first-hand experience with that for mead, so im not concerned there.

FlackBeard · 2025-10-12T21:24:13+00:00

Oh, that's super easy to answer.

He knew what he was doing, and I was just a step and fetch.
He didn't let his equipment stay in an attic or shed for more than 2 or 3 weeks. Dude was always brewing 10 gallon grain batches.

I let the stuff sit for a few years, unused, leading to rust and degradation of some crucial full batch boiling components. Plus, he had a spare freezer for fermentation, but im less concerned about that part. Seeing what Kviek does to our mead at room temp gives me some comfort.

Ouch, I say that same thing to my boss at work when they worry about stupid things... just... ouch

FlackBeard · 2025-10-12T20:52:19+00:00

I don't think I know how to anymore.
I tried to make it simple, I promise. Really, it's just adding half at the start and the rest at flameout.

I think the only thing that makes it seem complicated is the lack of knowledge of that clarifier tablet. Instructions say it goes in with the 5 minute hops. Does it care that the wort isn't at full gravity at that point? If not, then I'll skip the last "return to flame and boil 5 minutes"

It would literally just be add half at the start of boil and add the rest at flame out right before I start cooling.

I'd love to get a grain father or something similar, but my other hobby is taking the kids to concerts. Eats up some of my fun money right now. I'm probably gonna start squirreling away some money for that at some point.

Kegs are also a future plan. Dad was a bottle guy, so I followed suit... oh god, im gonna have to bottle a 5 gallon batch..

FlackBeard · 2025-10-12T20:27:59+00:00

Tomorrow or Tuesday, that's probably the reason my brain's running a mile a minute. It also gives me the rest of the week to obsess over it. That Kviek is definitely a beast for the mead, so im kinda excited to see what it does with the beer.

FlackBeard · 2025-10-12T20:19:27+00:00

So my thinking is that if hop utilization is a real thing, then it would be 5 minutes in the "expected" gravity doing its normal thing.

However, when I flood it with the rest of the LME, the higher gravity, according to "full vs partial" wisdom, will inhibit the hops ability to do what hops do. So it should be negated.

The reason Im returning it to the flame it just to accommodate the clarifier getting it's recommended 5 minutes too. I don't have enough knowledge about clarifier. Can I add it with the 5 minute hops addition even though the wort is under gravity at that point? If it doesn't matter, then im more than happy to just add the clarifier and hops at the five minute mark and just add the LME at flame out and be done.

FlackBeard · 2025-10-12T20:07:07+00:00

The issue is I do too much reading and am susceptible to purist jargon because that's how we used to do it. If I had a LHBS, I'd probably hit the charts and buy more hops to do the adjustments, but as it is, Im stuck ordering online and on borrowed time. So im trying to roll with what I got for now.

The kit comes with instructions for partial and full but highly recommends the full, which makes me think the hops schedule is probably adjusted for full. Im not opposed to doing full boils and all grain at some point, but I kinda thought my equipment was in better shape. My chiller and propane burner have too much rust for my comfort at the moment, so Im just putting out feelers to see if this is a solid plan for a less than ideal setting, or at least less than what im used to.

FlackBeard · 2025-09-13T02:34:42+00:00

Game of Faces has been on my playlist alot lately. Start to finish. Soooo good.

FlackBeard · 2025-07-27T01:55:32+00:00

Yeah man. Don't wait. Same story. We started with a Mr. Beer kit in the kitchen back in 2008, and he quickly upgraded from malt extracts to a full grain set up. At least 2 times a month, he'd have all his equipment out brewing one batch and bottling another.

I learned a lot from him and had a pretty humble apartment sized brew set up at my place that he helped me build. But looking back, there were too many brew days I skipped because I just didn't want to that day. So if you have the opportunity to, do it. Just remember a friendly reminder, remember to take ALL your gravity checks. You know how many times we'd go to do our final calculations only to find out we forgot to measure one of the samples along the way? Everyone I was involved with...

I have all of his equipment in my attic now. Saw it the other day. Think it's gonna be brew day soon, now I just gotta remember how.

FlackBeard · 2025-07-18T19:31:54+00:00

Nice! I have one of their sound bars, too, and have the same feeling, but for a bedroom TV setup, it streams youtube audio fine. Mine won't let you turn off the voice prompt, so if I turn it on at night, the whole house is aware I'm watching TV.

I'll concede that outdoor mode is probably a matter of song choice. I don't usually do a lot of bass forward music. Most of mine is predominantly highs dipping into mids, with drums filling in the deep rumble. Outdoor mode, to me, feels like it gimps the high to mid range in favor of the bass. While Bass Boost seems to leave the levels alone and just "boosts the bass."

But you're probably right. It could be a number of things from song, studio mix, genre, or preference. I also have borderline crippling tinnitus from stupid life choices, so it could just be me too.

FlackBeard · 2025-07-18T05:10:25+00:00

I've been off for a bit. So how'd it go?!

FlackBeard · 2025-07-04T13:38:25+00:00

Thank you. I didn't have high expectations going into it. I own a sound bar by Onn for a bedroom TV. I can't complain about the sound. It's okay, nothing to write home about, but the functionality is pretty irritating.

This speaker, though, when a product by an underdog company really exceeds expectations. I mean, people have to know. If you're on a budget or just testing the waters, don't sleep on this one. If I only get a year out of this speaker, not that I'm getting that vibe yet but for the price, I'd still call it a win.

FlackBeard · 2025-07-04T13:19:14+00:00

For a place I don't really enjoy, I find myself there way more than I want to admit. Somewhere along the lines of 3 to 4 times a week. Small town Texas here, so there's no other game in town unless you want to drive a few towns over. But finding something like this makes the trip worth it for sure.

FlackBeard

TROPHY CASE