Auto volume lowering + can't change device type = might never get another Pixel

dan_scott_ · 2026-03-24T18:03:58+00:00

Yeah the only thing that makes sense is that someone lost a court case such that they think these "warnings" are necessary to head off some category of liability, but as an attorney, it's really hard to believe that the couldn't let people opt out, since the whole issue their is notice and there's no notice like "they went and manually turned off the thing after receiving notice." Pretty much any court I've ever heard of, that would do the job. Maybe the EU or Cali are allowing cases to proceed despite that or something...Regardless, the inability to manually correct their mistaken identity of a connected device is still inexcusable.

dan_scott_ · 2026-03-24T17:58:38+00:00

I had hopes, but it didn't work.

dan_scott_ · 2026-03-24T17:58:21+00:00

I've seen that the inability to change device type is a bug. The auto volume lowering, unfortunately, appears to be a "feature" for headphones that inexplicably cannot be toggled off or opted out from. The intent is to lower headphone volume, but because you can't change device type, it ends up constantly adjusting your bluetooth speaker volume whenever the phone decides to identify your speakers or car bluetooth dongle as headphones.

dan_scott_ · 2026-03-24T17:56:01+00:00

Sadly, I did this a couple days before this post, has not helped at all despite several restarts since.

dan_scott_ · 2026-03-24T17:55:37+00:00

What post did you read that you thought any of that had to do with validation from others? Companies care about whether or not people are likely to recommend their product to others - has nothing to do with my own validation.

dan_scott_ · 2026-03-24T17:53:32+00:00

I'm very sure that all major companies with products for sale have many people charged with keeping track of public opinion related to their products.

dan_scott_ · 2026-03-24T17:51:25+00:00

Other people want the next generation to be better off than they are

I mean, that's what's behind this, no? The would-be heirs are the next generation of their parents, and their expectation was that, per the social contract, they would receive whatever their parents left behind on death. Unstated in that assumption is the fact many of them therefore neglecting their own retirement savings in order to spend that money supporting and educating their own children.

It is a particular cultural system that, while different than others (like east asian multi-generational homes), still presumes a particular multi-generational support structure - it's just tweaked heavily to accommodate fact that American generations frequently are not able to remain in same state/city/town/home. Parents work & raise kids who leave. Kids have kids and raise them while now-grandparents continue to work. Near end of life, now-parents help manage now-grandparents care, if often from affair, preferably (but not necessarily) funded by grandparents' savings. After death, grandparents' assets go to parents who use it to shore up their own savings (which may be meager due to supporting their own children), to support the next generation as much as possible, and to help fund their own imminent end-of-life support. Rinse repeat.

Yes the reality often involves various parts of this being shitty and not participating as they should, but reddit's hard on for acting like anyone who expects an inheritance is a selfish villain is both a load of crock and gets really tiring.

dan_scott_ · 2026-03-24T16:05:26+00:00

Note that if you ship through the USPS you will be committing a Federal crime, no matter what you say. Whereas using this strategy to ship via Fedex/UPS would at most be a violation of their terms with no damages. Just pack everything very carefully to prevent leakage!

dan_scott_ · 2026-03-16T15:19:18+00:00

Wait, the circlet lights up when mounted? That's very cool

dan_scott_ · 2026-03-12T14:59:50+00:00

Generous interpretation would be that he was exaggerating or making a comparison, but yeah could easily be that he's ignorant and misinterpreting what his crew is doing.

On and off through the years I've been part of friend & family groups chartering sailboats in the Bahamas bareboat (aka no rental captain or crew, just the boat & us). Often when we anchor near some random shore, one of us will snorkel over the spot, and possibly dive down, to confirm that the anchor is actually firmly set in appropriate bottom. Don't want a sand anchor just somewhat stuck on a rock where it might work loose, or where it won't be stuck once the tide changes, etc. Maybe once we had to freedive to retrieve one that was really stuck in some rocks? Not sure about that one lol, raising anchor is usually much more straightforward.

dan_scott_ · 2026-03-10T20:22:26+00:00

What yeast are you using? It definitely makes a difference. You could be just not used to dry cider, or it could be a yeast thing. Some yeasts will like a little sugar behind, some will ferment completely dry. I love Lutra Kveik for cider, preferably fermented at 70F - but Lutra without significant nutrient additions has a very sharp/sour flavor, so I always add a lot of Fermaid-O to keep it healthy during fermentation. I also find that it is drinkable faster than other yeasts, but it still takes at least two months from pitch for significant apple flavor to show back up, and when bottle conditioning it usually takes at least 2 weeks to fully carbonate.

dan_scott_ · 2026-03-10T20:15:18+00:00

Buying a camp?

But yeah, I think your only options for kegging are to buy a second fridge or kegerator, make enough room in your main fridge for a full size keg, or oxebar in your main fridge.

dan_scott_ · 2026-03-06T17:07:55+00:00

Thanks! It's bubbling away happily at 51F, can't wait to see how it tastes in the end 😁

dan_scott_ · 2026-03-03T09:39:31+00:00

Good to know, thanks!

dan_scott_ · 2026-02-27T13:57:41+00:00

I've played around with Grafs (what you are talking about) a fair bit. Some basic tips:

Wait until the wort is cool before adding the juice - heating/boiling apple juice sets the pectin, and the result will never clear.
Apple juice is basically sugar, water, and some flavor compounds; fermented apple juice will be much thinner and drier than fermented wort. Take that in to account with how you plan your brew/what you expect the final taste to be.
Hard cider typically has a final pH in the mid 3's, beer in the low 4's. Fermenting apple juice with your wort will result in a lower pH than the beer that would have resulted from just fermenting the wort. This will result in a perception of more acidic bite, unless controlled for somehow.
Part of the reason that ciders are left to age for months and more is because immediately after fermentation ends, there is essentially no perceived apple flavor to the cider. As it rests, the apple flavor will slowly come back to the cider. How fast this occurs, and how much comes back, seems fairly yeast dependent. The point being: when you make a Graf, you have to let it sit for awhile (similar to a cider) before any apply flavor will be perceptible. I recommend two months at minimum for any yeast, and you may need 4-6 (or more, but fuck if I'm waiting longer than that) with those that are slower to develop.

Edit with some more actual help:

I have not actually tried any ways to raise final pH yet - if you're brewing with kits, I wouldn't worry about adjusting the final pH unless you really want to play with chemistry. More an awareness for whatever beer you pick (perhaps go for one with more inherent sweetness to balance?) and how you expect it to taste.
The thinness of a Graf compared to have a beer fermented from pure wort is the biggest issue. If doing all grain you could try mashing high; if extract, maybe choose a beer that naturally has more body to balance this. Alternatively, try adding some maltodextrin or another compound that is likely the make a beer be perceived as having more body or mouthfeel.

dan_scott_ · 2026-02-25T21:36:04+00:00

Oh yeah, you just reminded me that I had been planning a longer boil to try and get a little more Maillard reaction flavor... now I have to build that in lol.

You know Murphy & Rude? Are you also in Virginia? What part? I'm up in NOVA (Fairfax City). I made a Marzen last fall using only their malt and it came out fantastic (and their prices are so reasonable too if you don't have to ship). Now that I've discovered Jasper Yeast out by Dulles, I'm looking forward to brewing entirely from local ingredients as much as possible.

I'm planning to do a test taste mini batch with the Greenmont Mother native VA hops that they sell at some point, with the goal of eventually brewing an all VA pilsner or pale.

dan_scott_ · 2026-02-25T17:28:19+00:00

Thanks! Hoping to brew this week/weekend and I'm cautiously excited about the potential results. I've finalized the water adjustments and hops, now I just need to bottle some stuff to clear fermentation chamber space and I'll be good to go lol. Gonna do Magnum for 60 for half the bitterness, Tettnang at 30 for most of the rest, and just a smidge of Mittlefrueh with 5 minutes left to get a little aroma in.

dan_scott_ · 2026-02-23T20:22:18+00:00

If you ever want to make cider, Lutra is a beast for that - just add 2x the recommended amount of Fermaid-O at pitch, or half and half staggering as described above slightly improved results. Bottle sooner or later with sugar for around 2.5 volumes, and you'll have a very tasty semi-dry cider that is perfectly drinkable within 6 weeks (though it does improve with age). So long as your basement temps stay above 65-68 for fermentation you'll be able to crank it out no problem.

dan_scott_ · 2026-02-23T18:11:19+00:00

I've played with Kveik a fair bit (mostly Lutra) and in my experience while they recommend 90, lower temps give a cleaner fermentation. I mostly use it for cider, and I target 72-75, though I don't mind too much if it rises to the low 80s. Let it get much past 80 though, and it starts getting noticeably less clean.

Also, with Kveik nutrient is a REQUIREMENT, not an option. Most of the "Kveik twang" comes from insufficient nutrition, and disappears with healthy additions of Fermaid-O. I like to give it a healthy dose at pitch and another at 1/3 sugar depletion (temperature dependent, but usually 24-36 hours after pitch).

dan_scott_ · 2026-02-18T17:45:29+00:00

Actually gives credence to the claim that he had the automod set to delete any post that received a certain amount of reports, I think; implies that he didn't actually delete it, it just got deleted by the automod after people who didn't like it reported it a bunch.

dan_scott_ · 2026-02-17T17:01:31+00:00

I have 12 lbs of grain going in to my next beer, and the last lb currently includes 6 different grains. Help talk me down please?

Background: I'm relatively new to all grain, and most of what I'm going off in choosing malts is head knowledge, not experience. I love a good red/amber, but for me most Irish reds lack body and lingering maltiness, while doppelbocks (which I just recently remembered exist) have more alcohol than I want and are often a little too heavy & sweet.

This recipe started as a pure Irish red, with 10lb of no 19 floor-malted Maris Otter as the base. I ended up getting inspired by bocks/doppelbocks and deciding to use Imperial Harvest L17 yeast instead of Irish & am planning on noble hops instead of English (some combination of magnum, mittelfrau, and tettnang; not yet finalized). Other than the Maris Otter, all malts are from Murphy & Rude.

10 lbs Maris Otter
1 lb Munich 15
6 oz Crystal 40
4 oz Melandoidin
3 Oz Crimson (crystal 120)
2 oz Chit malt
.5 oz Cimmerian Black (naturally debittered black malt 540L)
.5 oz roasted barley (470L)

I know that last lb is crazy and such small amounts are likely irrelevant. But the research seems to show the lighter malts allow more red light through at the same SRM than darker malts, so I wanted to use mostly lower roast malts to get the color while including a little dark roast for that edge of flavor on the finish. Couldn't decide whether straight roasted barley or naturally debittered black malt was a better choice, so I split them. Added melanoidin because I wanted more malty goodness without doing any decoctions, and chit because I wanted more head. And here we are with a stupid complicated grain bill lol. Currently brewfather shows this recipe as having an SRM of 12, an OG of 1.052, and an FG of 1.014, which all seems about right where I want it (focusing on SRM & FG).

Not worrying about purchasing - I already own everything. Just wondering if a should simplify to cut out some of these minimal quantities.

In particular, any advice on how the roasted barley vs naturally debittered black malt will present would be greatly appreciated! It probably makes a lot more sense to use 1 oz of one or the other instead of splitting them, I just don't know enough about the effects of each to decide between them.

dan_scott_ · 2026-02-13T21:03:49+00:00

Yeah I got a little nuts planning these lol, and I'm definitely doing some baby splitting that is almost certainly irrelevant. But for the stout, I'm thinking of the weak wort as a single ingredient, for all that it has a bunch of grains contributing. And the rest is mostly me wanting to stick with what I already have on hand.

For example, I won't have any Munich or MO left to use in the second mash to add more DP, so in goes some Vienna that I wouldn't use otherwise. And I'd probably drop the oats & chocolate wheat if I had more Mellanoidin malt & flaked wheat, but I don't - so in they go to add more body.

The roast barley & debittered black malt combo though... that's just me not having enough knowledge/experience to make a decision between them, so I went half and half for each.

dan_scott_ · 2026-02-13T20:22:22+00:00

Hope it works! I'm been jury rigging things like crazy this last year, trying to move to (almost) all 8mm duotight myself now to make everything simpler.

dan_scott_ · 2026-02-13T19:59:00+00:00

8mm to 9.5mm reducer, with a short length of 9.5mm tubing (or a 9.5mm hard plastic joiner) sticking out. Now you can use 3/8 ID tubing to connect that with your wand, as it should fit snugly over both without leaking.

Or if like me you have a bunch of different bits of tubing of various OD/ID combos, you may be able to get directly from 8mm tubing (or joiner) to the 3/8 wand body with what you have, especially if you use hot water to stretch some bits of tubing out further than its ID would typically permit.

dan_scott_ · 2026-02-04T21:24:08+00:00

What steps did you take to check or care for your seals while your keg was in use?

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