text:
Turbo Yeast & Distillers Yeast
White Lightning e85 conversion kit
Distiller Assembly Instructions
Fruit and Vegetable Based Mash
How to Convert Your Car To Alcohol
Misinformation About Distilled Water
Preparing Grain Worts or Mashes
Using Your Still to Make Flower Essences
Preparing a Sugar Based Wash
The following information was provided by www.homedistiller.org
Preparing a Sugar Based Wash
Ok, either knock up a "thin" wort (pronounced "wurt") for vodkas, etc (via a reflux still), or get fancy and do a full grain recipe for whiskey (using a pot still).
If you are using a reflux still, it's no point using anything other than a thin sugar/water wort, because the reflux will strip out all the flavours. So no point in paying heaps for grains, malt extract etc, when sugar is so cheap.
If you're after a neutral spirit, one thing you can do different is to add some activated carbon to the wash (eg with the sugar). This will take out the cogeners as they form. Just make sure that you filter/decant off this carbon with the yeast, so that it doesnt go into the still (and release the nasties when heated).
Thin WortThis is by far the easiest to do, to produce basically a flavourless vodka, which can be flavoured using either commercial flavourings, or use fruits to convert to liqueurs.
See Mikrobios' pdf Wine for Distilling on this topic - you still need to take some care to get a really smooth neutral spirit.
Also Viktors econ-o-wash.doc A cheap, well researched (720 litres over 6 batches) supermarket ingredient sugar based wash.
Thin Wort Recipes
MethodBasically the same as for beer making, but a lot easier. Use a 25L beer fermentor, sanitised by soaking full of water + 150 mL bleach for half an hour.
Dissolve 5 kg of white table sugar and 100g of yeast nutrients in 4L of boiling water, then top up to a total of 20L using cold water.
You require approx 17g of sugar for every %.litre of alcohol you want to make. Eg if you want to make 20L of a 14% alcohol wash, you need 17 x 20 x 14 = 4760g = 4.76 kg of sugar.
Dr. Legendre's One Dollar wash (TM)
(Product name may not reflect actual cost)
Ingredients (with approximate costs)
(Total cost approximately $7.70; optimum yield 3.15 liters@95% ABV or 7.5 liters@40% - about one US Dollar per liter of drinkable spirit. In contries where Cuban sugar is not under embargo (read: most), you will pay about half of this..)
In a pot with a good lid, heat 1 gal. water to 142F (61C) and add the barley, stirring well. Cover, insulate with a coat or blanket and leave set for at least 90 minutes. After 90 minutes, uncover the pot and bring to a boil. Boil the barley for at least half an hour, an hour is better - 15 minutes before the end of the boil, add the Wyeast nutrient. After the boil, add another gallon of water, the acid blend, DAP (see note 1), and the sugar - 4 lbs at a time, mixing until all the sugar is disolved. Add this mixture to the clean fermenter, along with enough water to make 5 gallons or an original SG of approximately 1.105 (14% potential ABV).
Take 1/2 pt of the new wash in a quart jar, and dilute it with 1/2 pt. of warm water. Following the package directions, rehydrate the 2 packages of yeast and add them to the diluted wash in the jar, (which should be about 72-74f) to make a starter. Let the starter work for about 2 hours then pitch into the wash - 15 minutes before pitching time, aerate the wash with a stone. Stir well and seal up the fermeter. You can further aerate the wash in the first 48 hours to stimulate yeast reproduction (budding), but not thereafter or alcohol yield will suffer. Ferment between 72-82f, the higher of these figures will speed things up. Hopefully finishes in 5-7 days at 14%.
1) The DAP can (and probably should) be divided into three doses, spread out over the first few days of fermentation; seems like excessive initial concentrations of Ammonia compounds stress the yeast.
2) Watch the pH in the first day or two of strong activity; the barley will serve as a buffer for the acids produced, but the pH should still be casually checked and kept in the 3.4-4.0 range. Potassium carbonate or calcium carbonate may be used to correct if the pH drops too far, but this is probably not necessary.
3) Stir several times a day for the first day or two, until it is obviously working well - this is important. Later when the activity begins to slow, stir daily to re-suspend the yeast.
From experience, its easy to make a brew that will ferment out to 10%, but to make the effort of distillation worthwhile, you really want something closer to 20%. Simply adding more sugar to a basic 10% recipe doesn't work, even when using a high-alcohol tolerance yeast. They seem to stick with plenty of sugar left.
While Turbo Yeasts are great, they are expensive (around $9) costing more than the sugar itself. My recipe (excluding sugar) costs just over $2 for a 25-litre batch, and is a little more in keeping with the home brewing ethos.(All prices are in Australian dollars)
Here's my recipe for a 100 litre wash
Combine all the ingredients (except the yeast) with warm water so the resulting mix is between 35 and 40 degrees. Aerate with an aquarium pump and air-stone.
Rehydrate the yeast as per manufacturer's instructions, and add to the brew. (http://consumer.lallemand.com/danstar-lalvin/danstarrehyd.html)
Continue to aerate for 4 hours. Use a thermostatically controlled heater to maintain the temp at 25 degrees (once it drops to 25 degrees).
I achieve the following fermentation rate:
A breakdown of the ingredients is as follows:
Molasses - contains sugars but is mostly included for its vitamin and mineral content. The fermentation rate halved when I didn't include it. Molasses is a waste product of sugar refining and can be assumed to contain bacteria. Do not dilute molasses if you do not intend to add yeast immediately as the bacteria will get established. This amount of molasses with this yeast does not foam over, despite the rapid ferment. Buy it from a stock feed supplier - 25kg for $22
Di-Ammonium Phosphate - Source of yeast assimilable nitrogen. Its need is well documented. About 350mg/L of Nitrogen recommended for fermenting this much sugar. This recipe provides 375mg including the DAP in the Fermaid K. Buy it from Winery Supplies (www.winerysupplies.com.au) 1kg for $8.
Marmite - Source of B group vitamins. If you don't know what it is already, then you probably live in North America and won't be able to buy it anyway. Often used in mead recipes. Fermentation sticks when not included.
Yeast ICV K1116 - Produced by Lallemand. Alcohol tolerance listed as 18%. Buy it from Winery Supplies (www.winerysupplies.com.au) 500g for $35. Lallemand (www.lallemandwine.com/products.php) also market a range of distillers yeast. Danstil A is claimed to have an alcohol tolerance of +20%. According to Lallemand Australia the exact same yeast is marketed to winemakers labelled L2226, which is easier to obtain. I will try this yeast next. Keep it refrigerated in an airtight container.
Fermaid K - General yeast nutrient, produced by Lallemand. Do a web search if you want to know whats in it. Buy it from Winery Supplies (www.winerysupplies.com.au) 1kg for $23. Keep it refrigerated.
Yeast Hulls - General yeast nutrient, prevents stuck fermentations. Buy it from Winery Supplies (www.winerysupplies.com.au) 1kg for $23. Keep it refrigerated.
Magnesium Sulphate - Epsom Salts. Source of Magnesium for yeast and plants alike. It's need is well documented. Buy it from the supermarket/hardware store/chemist.
Baking Soda - Sodium Bicarbonate. An inexpensive pH buffer, but molasses, tea and Marmite may also do the same job. Buy it from the supermarket for $6.50 a kg
Tea - Source of tannin. Often appears in mead recipes. No identified role in fermentation, but it occurs in grape juice, so included on the basis that it can't do any harm when I was trying everything I could think of might help.
This recipe works, but probably includes excessive amounts of some ingredients. The annoyance of a stuck fermentation outweighs the likely savings, so I've pretty much stopped experimenting.
SugarFor more details about sugar, see the Sugar page.
Wal summarises ...
Sugar is the chemical sucrose that occurs naturally in plants. 'Saccharum officinarum' is the species of basic importance to the history of the sugarcane industry.
The first evidence of crystal sugar production appears at about 500 BC in Sanskrit texts that indicate it took place in northern India. Knowledge of this technique spread from northern India eastward to China and (along with the cultivation of sugarcane) westward into Persia, eventually reaching the east coast of the Mediterranean about 600 AD.
The sugar industry entered the Mediterranean basin as part of an agricultural revolution carried out by the Arabs. To mill sugarcane, the burgeoning industry borrewed existing Mediterranean technology for extracting olives and nuts and, in a second operation, used screw presses to obtain more juice from the bagasse. The juice was then clarified, reduced to the point of crystallisation in open pans over furnaces, and the resulting syrup was placed in conical pots from which the molasses drained, leaving a loaf of sugar in each pot.
It was only after 1700 that sugar was transformed from a luxury product into one of everyday use by even the poor. This took place as Brazil and the new West Indies colonies began producing sugar in such large quantiities that price was significantly reduced.
From http://us.cambridge.org/Books/kiple/sugar.htm ... The above process is still common. This is unrefined non-centrifugal sugar. In India it is called 'khandsari', 'jaggery' or 'gur'. In Latin America it is called 'chancaca', 'panela', 'raspadura' or 'piloncillo'. The sticky brown sugar variant is the mixture that comes out of the crystallising pan. The liquid molasses remaining after this first boiling and removal of the crystallised sugar is called a 'light molasses'. When boiled again, the molasses remaining is called a 'dark molasses'. After a third boiling the remaining molasses is called 'blackstrap molasses'. This is normally used as cattle food and alcohol. The darker sugarcane jaggery is produced from these later boilings.
Types of sugar :
Yeast NutrientsThe yeast nutrient is necessary because refined sugar has no additional nutrients in it. If you try using just sugar, water & yeast, with no nutrients, you will get very little alcohol. Not much will happen without nutrients present. The alcohol you do make will contain more of the undesirable byproducts, like aldehydes and higher order alcohols. To grow, yeast needs amino acids, minerals, and enzymes, so that it can form the proteins the new cells will need during its "budding" to form daughter cells. It provides the necessary potassium, nitrogen, and phosphates needed (that would in other brewing usually be provided by the malt). If it can't "bud" to form daughter cells, it will still be able to reproduce a couple of times, but it does so using up its own reserves. The resulting cells aren't quite so skilled at the job of making ethanol, and tend to do a couple of extra other things instead.
Use yeast nutrients at the rate of 3 grams per litre of wash (eg 60 g for 20 L). It is typically made of the following, and/or similar:
This is why sometimes in some recipes you might see tomato paste or vegemite being touted as a "secret ingredient" that helps produce cleaner alcohol with less off-flavours to it. This is because they are acting as a primative mix of nutrients. It is far better however to use the prepackaged nutrient mixes, as these specifically target the needs of the yeast, based on quite a bit of laboratory testing & research. See the Turbo yeast and AllTech company web pages for more details about yeast and nutrients.
Jack writes ...
AcidityThe other important thing is the acidity of the wash. Getting it right should achieve better utilization of the sugar, a slightly higher alcohol %, and less other alcohol congeners. The wash should also take less time to ferment. The "Autofuel Manual" recommends that the optimum pH for mash is between 4.8 and 5.0 to keep the yeast happy, and to retard the growth of lactic acid micro-organisms. They also state that .. "Most grain mashes have a naturally acid pH of between 5.4 and 5.6 after malting or conversion has been accomplished. Other materials, notably saccharine substances like molasses and fruit pressings, have a naturally alkaline pH and must be acidified prior to fermentation." For sugar washs, the optimum pH is more like 4.0 to 4.5
Wal writes ...
(1 lemon is roughly equal to 3g of citric acid or 1/2 tsp.)
A pH of 5.0 equates to 0.4% acidity and is equivalent to 4g of citric acid/litre of water, or 1 large lemon/litre of water.
1.2g of citric acid raises the acidity of 1litre by 0.13%.
i.e. 1tsp. (2lemons) raises acidity of 5litres of mash by 0.13%
Using the new alcohbase yeasts, the mixture can ferment up to 21% alcohol.
Inverting SugarSome people "invert" their sugar, saying that it makes it easier for the yeast to ferment it. Others reckon that it makes no difference at all. For more details see the Sugar page. Wal writes ...
For 2 lbs of sugar (1 kg.), 1 pint of water (500 ml.), add 1/4 tsp. (1 g.) acid (or juice of 1/2 lemon). Bring to boil and simmer for 15 minutes. Cool.
There is a relationship between pH, temperature and time. At 100C, and a pH of 3.6 (6g acid/litre) you need to simmer for 15 minutes.
In acidic products, especially those with pH under 4 (jam, fruit purée and many soft drinks) more than half of the sucrose added is inverted to glucose and fructose when the products are consumed
YieldHow much alcohol can you expect to make, knowing how much sugar you put in ? Easy. The theoretical yield is 51.1%, but you will get less than this, around 48% because you lose some of the sugars to forming the small amounts of other alcohols, esters, etc (eg 480 g (610 mL) of ethanol for every 1 kg sugar). All going well, you should be able to capture approx 90% of this, ie 550 mL pure (100%) ethanol per kg of sugar. So ... for say 5 kg of sugar, you should be able to get 0.55 x 5 = 2.75 L of pure ethanol. I collect mine at 75% strength, ie I get around 2.75 / 0.75 = 3.7 L of distillate . If you run a pot still at 40%, this means you will get around 6.9 L of distillate. Knowing how much alcohol is present then lets you know when your run is about to finish.
Bakers yeast will produce a maximum of around 14% alcohol, whereas the "turbos" can generate up to 20% alcohol. Obviously you'd use different amounts of sugar for either case. To estimate the sugar you need, multiply the wash % alcohol by the volume and by 17 grams, eg to make 20L at 13% you'd use 20 x 13 x 17 = 4400 g = 4.4 kg.
Glucose (dextrose) can be used instead of sugar, and is sometimes said to produce a "cleaner" wash. You will need to use slightly more (12.5%) by weight to get the same result as using sugar (eg use 1.25kg of glucose for every 1kg of sugar needed).
Maximum Sugar ConcentrationWhy not just add heaps of sugar ? Because the yeast won't be able to handle it, and will burst. The better yeasts (ie alcobase) can take up to 0.35 kg of sugar per litre of water, but most other mortal yeasts won't. Keep it to around 0.20 to 0.25 kg/L unless otherwise specified on the packet.
However, Donald advises ...
ie .. so start out with the regular routine of say 5 kg sugar in 20L of water, to get an SG of around 1.07. Ferment down until about 1.0 or 1.1 (ie starting to slow down), then add another 3-5 kg and see what happens ? (me asking) Yes, but keep those yeast nutrients in there & make sure it includes diamonium phoshate.
With proper yeast strain & yeast nutrient a complete end fermentation is common past 20% so getting 17%-20% at home is only a matter of watching the hydrometer. Adding too much sugar or adding too much all at once will result in the wash foaming up when distilling, or burning onto the element.
Simple MoonshinePatrick writes ...
Take 4 gals molasses and 10 lbs sugar. Mix these together in 16 gals water. Now you commence setting mash in large wooden casks (not in any tin vessels) - only a wooden cask for good results. Put the above in cask the 1st day then when nearly cool add 1 ale bottle full of yeast (which is to start mask working). Remember when you put in the 4 gals molasses and the 10 lbs sugar into cask - have a little paddle made for stirring and stir constantly for fully 1/4 of an hour to blend things together, these will be mixed in hot water (not boiling) but just so as you can put your fingers in it without getting scalded. The hot water will melt the sugar and molasses splendidly and will give you more spirits and better rum. After you're finished stirring the 1st days lot also boil 8 lbs of old potatoes in muslin bag and put into the mash with yeast. And also with the yeast and 8 lbs potatoes you boil about 3/4 of a milk bucket of old maize in a sugar bag tied like a pudding and dont forget to drop this in the 1st days mash with the potatoes and yeast and again stirr well. This finishes the 1st days mash and dont take them out till the mash is fit to go into the boiler on the fire for distilling.
Second days setting. Put another 4 gals molasses and 10 lbs sugar into cask on top of the 1st days setting and stir well for fully ten minutes. This finishes the 2nd days setting.
Third days setting. Add another 4 gals molasses and 16 gallons water (no sugar) and again stir well (this finishes the setting of the mash).
To know when this is fit to put through you will see a little scum of bubbles will come to the top now and again. This will continue for two days sometimes three days then when scum is at its highest and starts to drop (Brew it). Don't forget when you finish the 3rd days setting to put a bag over the top of the cask then the lid belonging to cask on top of bag and a weight on top of it to keep warm and airtight. Have an occasional look at the cask when you finish setting the 3rd day because it works sometimes in 36 hours according to the hot or cold weather. In summer time it works a lot quicker than winter so a good idea is to brew in the summer time and stow away to get a bit of age so as it will not be too new to the taste, then sell in winter time when rum is more freely drank.
Now to make good rum to sell you want to know when distilling when to cut off the good rum from the second class stuff and the only way to do this is to get a hydrometer. (High means good spirits, low means poor spirits). You place this under the end of the worm in whatever you are catching the spirits in and as this vessel starts to get more than 1/2 full this hydrometer will start to float and register whatever proof the spirits is that you are making.
Now you always want two vessels one to catch the good 1st class spirits and immediately the hydrometer begins to register too low a reading pull the 1st class vessel away and pop the 2nd vessel under in its place to catch the 2nd class spirits. After a good while just have a teaspoon with you and dip same into the the 2nd class and throw a spoon full now and again into the fire and if it flares up like kero or meths that would be thrown in keep on as this is a sign there is still good 2nd hand spirits in the brew but after a while when what you throw in fire quenches the fire like water stop as this is the sign that you have taken all the spirits out of the mash. Anyhow you can taste it and if it has an alumny taste draw the charge from boiler and fill up again for another boil up.
Now the 2nd's have to be stowed away to themselves in a vessel and all the good 1st class stuff put to themselves as this 1st class brew is ready for sale without further distilling but in order to bring the 2nd class stuff to 1st class you have to put it through the still the 2nd time then it is 1st class and can now be stowed away with the other 1st class brew.
Now the next thing to know is how to do up your white spirits and tone it up for sale. Here is the rinkle. Aways put your spirits away in a large cask, or a wine cask is the best as rum and wine taste alike. Never put rum in a cask that beer has been in or you will spoil its taste. When you put it in the wine cask leave the bung hole open for 24 hours and as soon as you put it in the cask make a small curtain bag and put about a match box full of cloves in it and let down the bung hole tied with long piece of string so as you can lift it out. Then get a good well ripened pineapple and peel it and cut it in narrow strips about the length of a cigar and twice as thick and poke these down the bung hole, then get about 3/4 of an ordinary teacup full of seeded raisins and put these down the bung of cask into the spirits with the others, then put the bung back in cask and stow it away. Then when you are ready to sell your rum it is in its natural white state. Now you have to colour it for sale. Now to properly colour rum use white sugar not brown because it will make the rum too cloudy and dull and dark looking.
So in order to have a good clear clean bright looking spirit in a glass for drinking always use white sugar for colouring purposes. Buy a small frying pan for this purpose and dont use it for any other means because any greasy sediment will show in the coloured spirit. To colour say 5 gals rum put about 1/2 teacup of white sugar to start with in the pan, not over a blazing fire but on red hot coals; these should not be too strong to overburn the sugar or your rum will have a bad burnt taste so be careful and burn sugar to a good clean dark brown bubble. Keep moving the sugar in the pan with a long stirrer so as to evenly brown every grain then pour a cup of cold water in the pan on top of sugar at the same time stirring. When sufficiently stirred pour into a good clean bright quart bottle for colouring with. Of course you keep on burning sugar making bottles of the colouring till you have sufficient to colour your rum as it will keep in a bottle for a long time. The best guide is to buy a few shillings worth of good rum in a bright bottle and have this alongside of yours when you are colouring and you can compare the two so as you will not overdo things in the colouring or not give it enough colour.
Now everything is ready & OK for sale.
Finally i nearly forgot to mention when you are taking the rum out of the cask for colouring. When you colour, strain thoroughly before you put away for sale as the pineapple and cloves and raisins always leave a sediment and you in order to have a real clean article must strain real well.
Don't forget to get fully 22 feet of pure tin piping for the worm and 1 inch which means 7/8 waterway and when the worm is made must be coiled so as a gradual incline to lead the spirits through and no uphill position in the making as this means a blockage in flow and cause the mash to boil over. Get a good plumber to make the worm for you, should you not be able to get the pure tin you will have to get copper. But tin is more easy to clean all you have to do with tin after you finish each grew is to pour a bucket of cold water through it and it is always bright and clean. Understand when you are setting worm in cask at bottom it sticks out about fully 3 or 4 inches on a slight slope through a watertight hole through cask into catching vessel.
When distilling the 2nds in the white spirits state be careful not to have too strong a fire as this is very inflammable and will blow up so be carefull.
Say you have 5 gals of 2nd class brew cut off from the 1st class. When you put this into the boiler to distil put about 1/2 gal clean water in with it and it wont blow up, the water wont harm the brew, it will be of benefit to it and the rum wont be so fiery to taste.
For any second treatment the putting through of white spirits a person really wants a very much smaller boiler as the 50 gal boiler is too big. You only really need about a 10 gal boiler and you can have one made at the same time to just have the same size neck so as to fit the lid & pipe & worm & all and when boiling a mash use the 50 gal boiler, you never want to fill the boiler with mash - only slightly over 1/2 full or it will boil over in spite of you as it is just as hard to keep from boiling over as milk.
PoteenMaurice writes ... This is a recipe from County Fermanagh, taken from a book called "In Praise of Poteen". I've never tried it myself.
Steep ingredients in 3 gallons of lukewarm water at the bottom of a 40 gallon barrel after steeping fill barrel to three quarter full with cold spring water. Leave in a cool place to settle. After several weeks transfer to your still.
MolassesTo find large quantities of molasses, try farm stock feed dealers. They will sell black strap molasses for horse or cattle feed supplements. Different types of molasses have different sugar contents. (See http://www.syrupmakers.com/ for different kinds of molasses and the mills and plants / procedures that go into making them.) It therefore pays to measure the specific gravity (SG), until you get the desired concentration. Due to its high osmotic pressure, it needs to be diluted to less than 25 Brix (weight % sugar), or else the yeast wont be able to get started on it. Unfortunately, due to it sometimes only having around 46% sugar, this means you only get a sugar content of 14%, and a final alcohol of around only 6-7%. To get around this, you may need to feed the molasses to the wash in several stages.
In response to some questions about using molasses ..
Somebody suggested that you can add corn steep liquor (CSL) - does anybody have experience of this and what ratio of molasses (at 49% sucrose) to CSL would you use? Or is there a better alternative.
One of the problems with molasses is that it often dosnt have the sugar content that the seller claims and it therefore will not produce as much alcohol. There is often a lot of unfermentable material as well. A standard 44 imperial gallon drum (US 55 gallons) contains something like 260 to 280 kg of molasses. This contains a lot of inert material. If buying and using molasses for this purpose one needs to constantly monitor and check the brix level so you get what you are paying for. Note: not the theoretical or claimed level but the actual level.
The addition of CSL will generally improve the fermentability but you will probably need the addition of enzymes and this adds to cost. Note that CSL generally has much better starch levels than molasses. Molasses is invert sugar which still has a fair amount of the sugar content remaining but from which a lot of the easily extractable sugar has been removed. A lot of the sugar remaining is in the form of more complex starches so it is all not utilisable. Again the use of enzymes can help remarkably. Hope this is some help.
B.r., David
One thing to keep in mind though is that you wil need to gently stir the fermentation buckets daily to keep the syrup in suspension.
RumMake sure you read the section on distilling rum too.
Wal summarises the various recipes ...
1)Traditional ('Industrial') Rum (20 l or 5 US gals)
(molasses used in proportion of 1 kg molasses/5 l water) 4 kg (9 lbs) molasses for 20 l (5 US gals) of water
This is equivalent to 100 g sugar/ litre
2) Traditional ('Industrial') Rum for the Homedistiller (high alcohol)
4 kg molasses and 4 kg white sugar for 20 l water
This is equivalent to 300 g sugar/litre
3)'Agricultural' Rum (French rhum agricole, Brazilian cachaca)
3 kg white sugar and 1 kg molasses for 20 l of water (17% sugar)
This is equivalent to 175 g sugar/litre
4)'Agricultural' Rum for the Homedistiller (high alcohol)
5.5 kg white sugar and 1.5 kg molasses for 20 l water
This is equivalent to 310 g sugar/litre
Rum gets additional flavor from ex Bourbon barrels and caramelised (burnt) sugar. A suggested proportion would be 5-10 tsp/litre of rum which would give a sweetness of 2.5-5% which is in line with what is added to other liquors.
Jack writes ...
In my experience (molasses from Hawaii, piped into a bucket from a tanker), molasses needs to be diluted down to about 10 to 15% potential alcohol- it will ferment out only halfway (15% potential alcohol will only drop down till you end up with 7.5% alcohol by volume- molasses is only 50% fermentable). It doesn't need yeast nutrient, but a quarter ounce of acid blend per each 5 gallons of mash has shown to give a better flavor.
I use two of those little 5 gram packets for each five gallons of mash. I don't stir at all- there is no grain/fruit to mash down, anyway. It typically takes about a week to ferment out and to begin clarifying on it's own.
The foreshots are easy. Even with a 7-8L batch I discard the first 50-60mL. I stop collecting when the temp. off the thumper reaches about 185 F (85C). I notice that at this point % alc. begins to fall as well and the smell changes.I still keep going till the temp off the still reaches about 195 F (90.5C)
I have found a quick way to make charred oak chips. I wrap a tinfoil packet of oak chips about 3 layers and put them on my stove element at less than medium... Here's what keeps the fire out, a big old iron frying pan placed on top. In about 1/2 hr. good Smokey oak. I also sometimes add some caramelized brown sugar if the batch seems a bit harsh.
My recipe (I wouldn't let my old buddy "Captain Morgan" place my bags in my berth!):
My still:
I'm using, out of convience ( If it ain't for free, it ain't for me), 2 8L syrup containers from a commercial milkshake machine. Stainless steel.
First I dump the tails from the last lot ( first time... ohh well, next will be better!) along with a healthy portion of previous thumper juice( the stuff that accumulates in the thumper). I heat this on my stove because it has more power. When boiling I transfer to my hot plate (1200w) and wrap pot in insulation blanket.
Connecting pot to thumper and thumper to condenser, I operate the hot plate on max as well as a plate warmer under the thumper (125w).
More about the thumper. After experimentation I find that just enough liquid to cover the inlet is sufficient... any more reduces yield. ( Note: first timers should use a little wash for liquid, after that thumper juice. My thumper is the same size as my primary and I suspect that this allows for a lot of reflux allowing me to attain 80% purity from a 15% wash.
Get the meth out:
As Tony says discard the first 50mL. I've seen it, smelled it, and measured it. After 50mL of my wash is collected it will, seen, stop spitting... smell, a lot better... measured, the temperature stabilizes, mine is about 169-170F.
Collection continues between 169 and 173F ( measuring temp. of thumper head). As smell changes (173F), I mount my thermocouple to my primary still and continue until its head temperature reaches 194-195F. I do not collect above the 173F(non smelly) point of the thumper. Well I do but its recycle. I should mention that as the first drops appear at the still I back off my hot plate temp a little bit, somewhere around ¾.
In a bottle add toasted oak chips to distillate. If second time, add distillate to used oak and add a little more. 2-3 tbsp per 1L distillate. Yes distillate... Don't dilute!
So far I haven't seen such thing as too long a time sitting on oak. However after a week or 2 I find it quite acceptable. Filter and dilute to drinking strength.
On parting:
Know your still. I'm sure every pot still with thumper has is unique operating characteristics. PLAY!
I only hope this helps you demote the "Captain Morgan" to Stewart 2nd class as it did me.
I made an all molasses mash, pitched champagne yeast, and ran once through my reflux still. My condensor is attached to my column so I don't really have a good way to de-reflux my still. I took off distallate at an average of about 150 proof, and then kept the tails seperate when they droped to about 125-130 proof and the temp at the top of my column was about 90C.
I made about a 22L mash. I used a lot of molasses, around 7L, I'm not really sure of the amount because I went by my hydrometer. I added enough to get my potential alcohol up to around 16%. Nothing magical about that number, something I pulled out of a hat considering I was going to pitch champagne yeast, and noting that the molasses itself has a lot of dissolved solids in it that aren't sugar and will raise the reading.
I charred toasted oak chips by baking in my oven wrapped tightly in foil at 500deg F. I cut the alcohol to about 90 proof and soaked on the charred oak as well as uncharred oak. It had been soaking about 3 weeks before I dressed it up for the big night out. After filtering out the wood with a coffee filter, I carmelize sugar and add about a teaspoon to 500mL.
Two ways that I know of to carmalize sugar. The way cooks do when they make carmel and need to melt alot of sugar: dissolve the sugar in water first, boil until all the water goes away, and continue until the desired color is reached. It's quite a frothy mess and takes awhile. Since I don't need much what I do is just put a small coating of sugar in a dry saucepan, just enough to cover the bottom. heat on med to med-high and toss the sugar around in the pan alot. It will melt and then slowly change color. You have to do a lot of swirling of the pan so that you don't burn the sugar locally while some of the other sugar is still crystallized. It requires constant attention, but you're done in about 5min. Watch yourself on that liquid sugar, it is HOT and sticky. I.E. if you get a dab on your finger, it will burn and you can't get it off quickly.
Mostly made mixed drinks since it's still young (I can taste a little something back there but it's faint), but with further ageing and mellowing I'm sure it will be even better.
A couple people were interested in how I was able to get flavour through my reflux still. I have some ideas, but thought I'd also put this out for discussion. My reflux column has good surface area and insulation, but no cooling water in the column itself. I control the temperature of the top of the column by the heat input to the boil. My guess is that at the temperatures I run at, although I do a good job of knocking down the water vapors, there is still plenty of flavor coming over to my condensor. The oak chips also definately impart flavor to the liquer. Seeing as scotches, bourbons, ryes, tequilas, all age on oak as well, this can't be the flavor that makes it taste like rum, but is more of a backbone and mellower, I am guessing.
Update ! - Mike has a new improved recipe ..
Mike's Canadian Spiced Rum
In a 25litre fermenter with air lock, disolve the molasses and nutrient in warm water to around 22 litres at 25degC, pitch the yeast and keep the temp around 25degC until all bubbling stops. Add the 3kgs of sugar giving a quick stir and let it go at 25degC and leave for a couple of days after bubbling finishes. Decant, leaving the sediment behind (save the sediment in a sterile jar for the next batch).
When you distill, drop something in the boiler to aid bubbling when it boils (I use a couple of copper pipe offcuts (about 1"x1") to stop surging and give it just enough heat to do the job.
Throw out the first 50mls and collect the rest to about 88 to 90degC. I pull it off at about 80%.
Toast some american white oak in alfoil until smokin, let cool, then mix with the rum with about 2 tablespoons of golden syrup (cocky's joy, treacle) and 1 tablespoon of foodgrade molasses for every 2ltrs of rum for about 4 to 5 days. Filter through a coffee filter and water down to 40% (80 proof) and enjoy.
Dont forget to shake the bottle every day while on oak.
Anyway, what I wanted to tell you (and this fact I both read about and observed empirically) is that the only mayor difference between rum and whiskey is the main ingredients fermented in the wash. I think it was our never sufficiently praised Wal who once pointed to a link to Islay island distilleries and there I was amazed to find that they use exactly the same source of oak kegs (2nd run ex-bourbon) as does a close-by rum distillery .
However, you can't obtain the same organoleptic profile for rum from sugar washes (brown or white) but you can get a better, more subtly flavored product by fermenting "panela" or "papelon" as we and Colombians call it. I have been able to buy some in the past while living in South Florida, USA, in small Latin food grocery stores. Panela is solid unrefined evaporated cane juice molded into box or conical shapes and it's 98-96% fructose (100% fermentable by any brewing yeast), and has lots of nutrients for yeast. It gives all of the flavors of molasses with a better alcoholic yield but at a higher cost (0,35 NZ$ a kilo in my town's supermarket).
A tip: same as black pepper in the whisky profile, cinnamon plays a small but key part in replicating rum's authentic accents. Vanilla pods too and in still more subtle tones cloves and nutmeg. I don't know why but we people of the Caribbean tend to spice everything up with the same things.
it is essential to reproducing the rum taste profile to use molasses as your main wash ingredient. I've come to the notion that not all sugar refineries are the same, technologically speaking. Here in Venezuela I've found that old and small sugar factories (usually technologically backward) produce better molasses for distilling purposes simply because there's more sugar in them. Perhaps there's an artisan sugar factory near your home, or you can get sugar cane molasses from one such industry. It's worth to find out. I haven't tried this myself because we have a cheaper alternative hereabouts that's called "papelon" or "panela" that's simply boiled sugar cane juice to the point of crystallization that's then emptied and cooled into conical or box like molds (Venezuelan moonshiners use it almost exclusively as their wash sugar material), but you can try and make an all brown sugar wash. Try to make it from the darkest sugar available to you and if you can find it in naturist stores (and it's cost-effective for you) add some sugar cane molasses also to this wash.
Yeast love molasses. They find every nutrient they need there, so when using molasses don't add any yeast energizers or such. Brown sugar is mostly fructose (Typically more than 60-70%) and sugar cane impurities, so it will be more easily fermented by yeast than white sugar (mostly sucrose, a more complex molecule, not directly fermentable by yeasts). Industrially, rum is distilled as vodka, to it's azeotropic max (96%), but when diluted to 40% you can taste the difference from a corn or malt alcohol, for instance. Then it is aged in ex-bourbon oak (sometimes ex-brandy) barrels for no less than 2 years and in each barrel they put secret quantities of cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg and they add a very small quantity of a "mother rum" that's typically aged as long as the first batch made at that distillery (local Santa Teresa's is more than 200 years old). I've tried this stuff and it's heavily scented (specially with vanilla tones) and very smooth. I've found that using vanillin (I buy mine in the drug store), which is a powdered substance that artificially evokes vanilla's smell and taste, and some natural vanilla extract helps reproduce the subtle tones any rum must have. For oaking try to find some ex-bourbon (American white oak) barrel pieces or sawdust and make an extract from the alcohol you'll make diluted to 60-70% in water. Also try adding a tiny bit of raisin extract (soak some raisins in 90% alcohol) because this tastes like brandy and higher end rums have some brandy tones owing to the French oak barrels. Hope this helps.
15 lbs (6.8 kg) white sugar
24 oz molasses
5 tbsp yeast nutrient
2 tsp yeast energizer
yeast starter (see below)
To make yeast starter: Dissolve 4 tbsp Red Star brand Distiller's Yeast in 3 cups water at 93-97 degrees F (34-36C). Add 1 tbsp molasses, and 2 tbsp white sugar. Stir or shake until disolved and cover. Let sit, shaking occasionally for 1/2 hour to 1 hour.
Heat 1 gal (4L) water to almost boiling, pour into fermentor. Disolve 10 lbs sugar, molasses, yeast nutrient, and yeast energizer into hot water. Top up to 6 Gallons (23L) with cold water keeping temperature at 85- 89 degrees F (29-32C). Stir until well mixed. Pour yeast starter into fermentor and stir briskly. Put lid and air lock on fermentor.
After a few minutes, the ailock should start bubbling briskly. Keep wort at 85 degrees F (29C) for the duration of fermentation.
After 3 days, stir in remaining sugar.
Airlock should bubble vigorously throughout fermentation.
I have been using the recipe for a few months now and it never fails to produce 15-18 percent batches in 6 to 8 days. I use a pot still and run it through twice to achieve 85% purity with an output of around 1 gallon (3.8L). Flavor and aroma of final spirit is that of a very light rum.
Cost in sugars and nutrients is around 12$-14$
HoneyWal writes ...
Mock Honey. Not to be outdone by bees, we can also process granular sucrose to make a home-made 'honey'. Here is a mock-honey recipe (a form of invert sugar syrup), based on the above, using 4 units of granulated sugar to 1 unit of water:
You could infuse dried flowers (camomile, roses, citrus flowers) to provide a floral aroma. If you are making a heavily spiced mead, and you want to save money, the recipe is appropriate.
For low technology brewing techniques using honey, as still practised in East Africa, see "Honey Beer" http://www.fao.org/docrep/w0076e/w0076e08.htm
For brewing using honey as practised in Medieval times, see "A Guide to Mead" http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/articles/guide_to_mead.html.
"Spirit of Honey", distilled from a honey mash, consisting of 1 part honey to 5 parts water is mentioned in "Delightes for Ladies" by Sir Hugh Plat, 1609
Vikings made mead and sometimes added honey to malt when making ale. In Tudor times a mixture of honey and ale fermented together and spiced with pepper was called 'braggot'. Prior to hops the herbs (gruit) used to flavor ale included bog myrtle, rosemary, yarrow, alecost.
For making mead or a honey mash see "Mead" http://consumer.lallemand.com/danstar-lalvin/InFerment/Mead.html Honey is basically an invert sugar lacking in nutrients and the advice on nutrients is useful. The addition of acid is not recommended. Also "The Basics of Mead Fermentation" http://consumer.lallemand.com/danstar-lalvin/InFerment/Mead_Basics.html Another good site is "An Analysis of Mead Making and the Role of its Primary Constituents" http://www.solorb.com/mead/danspaper.html Also "Mead" http://www.fao.org/docrep/w0076e/w0076e07.htm
Honey Liqueurs:
Found 3 German honey liqueurs that use Mexican Yucatan honey - "Barenjager","Barenfang", BarenMet" - http://www.schwarze-schlichte.de/produkte/honiglikoer_met.htm The Polish firm "Polmos" makes a honey liqueur called "Krupnik" and "Medos" http://www.honeyvodka.com/ingredients.html
Honey is used to sweeten and flavor whisky liqueurs "Drambuie", "Glayva", "Irish Mist". "Stag's Breath" is a sweet mead fortified with whisky to liqueur strength. In Portugal "Brandymel" is a brandy flavored with honey. For those who want to make their own honey liqueurs, here are several recipes:
Krupnik (Poland)
1 bottle of vodka (750ml)
2/3 cup of water
1 and 1/2 cups honey
1/4 vanilla bean
1/4 nutmeg
3 cinnamon sticks
1 strip of orange or lemon peel
2 whole cloves
Combine honey with water, spices in a large saucepan. Bring to boil, cover and simmer for 5 mins. Add vodka, remove from heat. Serve hot or cold.
Poland and Lithuania were part of a Commonwealth, which explains the similarity of the names - Krupnik, Krupnikas.
Krupnikas/Viryta (Lithuanian)
1 litre alcohol
4 cups of water
900g (2lbs) honey
2 tsp caraway seed
10 cloves
10 whole allspice
4 sticks cinnamon
2 sticks vanilla
2 pieces ginger
2 pieces galangal
10 cardamon seeds
1/2 nutmeg
3 strips lemon peel
3 strips orange peel
1 pinch saffron
Boil spices until water reduced to 2 cups. Strain. Pour spiced liquid into honey and stir. Add alcohol. Allow to cool.
Spices for Polish Mead (5 gals or 20 L)
hops - 2ozs (50g)
1 tsp ginger
1/2 stick cinnamon
1/2 stick vanilla
pinch of nutmeg
6 cloves
2 peppercorns
lemon peel
orange peel
Honey MashOne of our Utah mates recommends this. Ferment for 75 days and distill. Said to taste great and the mash comes to about 18% alcohol.
Mead BrandyJacks recipe for Mead Brandy ...
It's good as a clear spirit, but I prefer to water it to 40 to 45% and age it on a quarter teaspoon of charred American oak until it gets a Glenmorangie (10 year) gold color. This takes maybe a month in the bottle. Age it at this lower strength as vanillins tend to interfere with the honey aroma of the spirit, and the bitter - sweet taste of this wood tends to balance well with the honey - the sugars in the wood that are extracted at this low strength also tend to smoothen out the spirit.
Maple SyrupYour Brother in Magick, The Omnipresent Mecakyrios writes about using maple syrup..
This is exactly as it is written. My comments with be enclosed in [brackets]. I will write the metric version below the original.
Honey Wine
Makes 1 Gallon [US Gallon]
3 Pounds Honey - Any Kind [Just substitute maple syrup for the honey]
1 Large Lemon Juiced [Only use the juice]
1 Tablespoon very strong English Breakfast Tea
1 Large pinch of bread crumbs
1 Package of good wine yeast ["good" means a strong alcohol content]
Fill a pot half way with clean water [basically, if you can drink it, it tastes good, and you don't get sick from it], and bring it to a boil. Turn of the heat and add everything except the yeast. Stir to mix everything real good. Let sit for 20 to 30 minutes [I assume uncovered, as this is what I have done and everything turns out fine]. After the wait, fill the pot to make one gallon, stir, and put into the bubbler [the fermenter with an air lock]. When the brew is room temperature, float the yeast [sprinkle the yeast - not mixing it in] and add the top [put the air lock back on the fermenter].
Let sit kicking away [producing CO2, or bubbling] for one month. After a month, pour [siphon] the green wine [fermented solution] into another bubbler [a secondary fermenter with an air lock] and let sit until clear. Once it is clear [about 2 to 6 months] bottle the new [not aged] wine. Let the wine sit for as long as you can so the flavor will loose it's bite [let the mead age for about 6 months to a year in the bottles].
Metric version
Honey Wine
Makes 3.78 Liters [Litres]
1.36 Kilograms of Honey
1 Lemon Juiced [Just use a lemon not grown in the States]
15 cc. English Breakfast Tea
1 Large pinch [use the fingers of a person not from the USA] of bread crumbs
5 gm. of good wine yeast ["good" means a strong alcohol content]
LactoseWal writes ...
Airag is fermented horse milk, a frothy, thick, alcoholic milk (about 3%a.b.v.) that fueled Genghis Khan's warriors and still remains a local favorite today. Mongols who like airag will drink up to 20 litres in a single day. It can be distilled to produce arkhi with an alcoholic content of about 12%. A Chinese style still is used. It is basically a pot with a wok filled with water over it, acting as the condenser, with the condensed alcohol on the underside of the wok dripping into a centrally placed ceramic jar. These days cheap vodka is readily available. Mare's milk is not readily available, so I have thought of using milk whey powder (75% lactose), and the lactose fermenting yeast kluyveromyces marxianus. 1.5kg of whey powder/5l water would be equivalent to 1kg of sucrose/5l water.
Lactose accumulates an estimated 1.2 million tonnes annually as a by product of the dairy industry. Lactose is a disaccharide like sucrose, and it can be converted to its monosaccharide components, glucose and galactose by acid or enzyme hydrolysis. 100g of lactose will produce 50g each of glucose and galactose. The lactose converting enzyme is also sold to people who cannot digest lactose in milk products. For the distiller unfortunately, converting the lactose won't work very well, as wine and beer yeasts will ferment the glucose, but for some genetical reason not the galactose when the two are combined. Even separately, galactose is fermented slowly. So using the lactose fermenting yeast, kluyveromyces marxianus is the way to go.
Milk whey is about 4.8% lactose
Milk whey powder is about 75% lactose
Concentrate your whey by boiling. You use your fermenter as a water distillation unit to get distilled water and a concentrated whey of say 25% lactose which you could ferment using kluyveromyces marxianus - you get 12% alcohol.
I thought of using lactase. Lactase enzyme can convert lactose to glucose and galactose, which is fermentable by ordinary wine/beer yeast but unfortunately because of genetics, when the two are together you get a poor fermentation.
You could I suppose also first ferment your 5% lactose whey using kluyveromyces marxianus, and then add sugar (1 kg/5l) and a saccharomyces yeast to ferment the sucrose. Whey contains a lot of soluble proteins and minerals which are a source of nutrients for the yeasts. This uses the whey as a source of water and nutrients. Note, this is a theoretical proposal.
The Golden Cheese Company of California also makes alcohol from its whey after removing the protein. See: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/gccc/alcoholp.htm
Utilization of Whey Through Fermentations
From "Alcohol from Whey" ... "First, the whey must be concentrated: that is, some of the water is removed. This is done by a process called reverse osmosis,....Then the protein in the whey is separated out (precipitated and filtered)....What is left is chiefly a mixture of water, the milk sugars and some minerals. By conventional fermentation technology, the sugars are converted into alcohol,....from which it can be recoverd by distillation."
For those in New Zealand, Anchor Ethanol was the first company in the Southern Hemisphere to manufacture alcohol from casein whey on a commercial basis.


text:
That's not a Min-Pin by any chance is it? Looks a lot like one. I can identify with that feeling. More like Sunday-recliner-beer-baseball game 🙂
Nope — just our doxie Jake (who, by the way, is lying in the shortest path between the grill and the table…)
Comments are closed.

subset: commoncrawl


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Six's upstairs Lounge area with sofas galore is a rarity in the city. With a high ceiling and minimal decor, the Lounge is a great place to relax with friends and listen to the phat beats being played downstairs in the Bassment.
The Basement with its low ceiling and twelve speaker system can make even the timid want to dance all night long. Six is a great mix of relaxation (Lounge) and high energy beats (Bassment) where one can have the option of sippin' a martini on a comfortable sofa or gettin' down underground where only the music can be found.
Club Six is 3 Clubs in one. 3 Rooms, 2 Floors. The White Room is a Art Gallery/Lounge. The Darkroom was designed for live performance. The legendary Bassment is downstairs.
Club Six 1998-2012. San Francisco's most Legendary Underground Night Club / Art Gallery / Live Performance Space owned & operated by Angel Cruz.


text:
Trolltunga – from Norwegian means -"Troll's tongue", is a rock stretched out horizontally (looks like a giant tongue), it is a part of mountain Skjeggedal located in Odda, Norway. it is a pretty popular viewpoint high above the ground (nearly 1200 meters), and it can shake and twirl your insides just to watch people get so close to the edge.
For more information visit Wikipedia – Trolltunga
Click here to find the best hotels & best deals >>
Google map of Trolltunga:
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text:
Pair of Large Carved Ebonized and Giltwood Blackamoor Torchieres
More questions? Get in touch
Opposing pair of Florentine figural blackamoors, of carved wood, each having a body of ebonized wood, with gilded hair and drape, holding a cornucopia finishing with a nine-light candelabra, standing upon rockery, on a rectangular plinth, centered by a cartouche, flanked by scrolling acanthus.
Their bases measure 16" W x 12" D
WIDTH: 16½ in | HEIGHT: 80 in | DEPTH: 16½ in
Shipping Estimate: $400 | White glove
Domestic shipping within the 48 continental states is quoted on each item via FedEx or White Glove delivery.
International shipping can be arranged upon request.
Delivery times will vary depending on the locations of origin and delivery, packing requirements, and the method of shipping used.
Once your order is processed, you will be notified of shipping status and given an estimated time of delivery.
We accept payment by Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and Discover through our secure portal. We also accept payment via check, money order, or wire transfer. All payment options are available at checkout.
CONDITION: Minor wear consistent with age and use.


text:
VoipAlot - Free Mobile Calls - FREE
by Finarea, Version: 1.3 , 3056 KB Official Site
Package name: com.voipalot , Last Update: 2012-09-14 22:03:00
226 ratings (3.491 average)
10,000-50,000 downloads
What's new in this version (1.3):
Fixed crashes on several phones.
Added Balance.
Fixed bug preventing application to be closed.
VoipAlot allows you to make FREE Mobile calls through our SIP/VoIP platform on your android phone using 2G/3G/Wifi. With VoipAlot you can call regular phones in various popular destinations at an incredible low rate.
VoipALot is the perfect way to start making free Mobile calls and save on your regular calling plan!


text:
"Kynn Bartlett": > At 12:37 AM +0000 12/20/01, Jim Ley wrote: > >I'd asked this before, can you please show me where in the public drafts > >of the CC/PP protocols, examples implementations etc. there exists > >frameworks for describing users accessibiltity needs, I'm obviously > >missing everything, or the working group has published something quite > >different to what it's developing privately. > > I'm still confused as to why you can't see the framework for such. > It seems obvious to me from reading the same documents. I'm amazed > that you continue to insist otherwise. Simple links to the relevant parts would seem appropriate, In http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/w3c-wai-ig/2001OctDec/0546.html I asked about figure 3.9 in <URL: http://www.w3.org/TR/CCPP-struct-vocab/ > which is an example CC/PP. It's all about the technical, and nothing about the user. Consider charHeight - "for a text display device, the number of lines of text that can be displayed" - that's nothing about the user, that's all about the device, that's about the closest it gets to being useful in a web accessibility terms (as defined.) and that's an optional part. > There's no need for a database of what JAWS means, there's just a need > for those user-agents to be made self-identifying under CC/PP as to > what their capabilities are. (At no time does the CC/PP-enabled > server need to know what "JAWS" is, it just needs a profile which > includes those _capabilities_.) Okay, I'd like to add CC/PP to my user agent, can you provide me details of where I can find a profile with the common elements so I can describe it? Jim.Received on Thursday, 20 December 2001 05:48:03 UTC
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.3.1 : Tuesday, 16 January 2018 15:33:39 UTC


text:
Harlem Shake Gone Wrong
[+] Hopefully this ends it.
[–] Hopefully this ends it.
Description: Two black girls attempt to make a harlem shake video in a school but break a glass display.
Tags: School, Window Breaking, Dancing, Fail, Video
Views: 11,549
Rating: 8.24
Date: Mar 23, 2013
Tags: School, Window Breaking, Dancing, Fail, Video
What's New
01. Amazing Things About Everything
02. News Reporter Owned by Sled
03. Worst Price is Right Player Ever
06. Eagle Throws Goat Off Cliff
07. Down Syndrome Guy Kicks Kid, Gets ...
08. Chubby Kid Gets Revenge on Bully
09. Bully Gets Knocked Out, Girlfriend...


text:
Rating: na
Presenter: Mukta Arts Ltd.
Producer: Dipti Talpade
Story, Director: Rajeev Patil
Camera: Pushpank Gawde
Music: Avadoot Gupte
Cast: Sai Tamhankar, Shilpa Tulaskar, Tushar Dalvi, Santosh Juvekar,
Subodh Bhave, Sushant Shela, Meghna Erande & Bharti Aacharekar,
Special Appearance – Shreyas Talpade
Movie Review by: Ulhas Shirke
In the era of 21st century globalization is unrepeatable part of our life. Especially in the metro cities, many of us prefers shopping malls even for vegetables than 'mandai.' Naturally our marriage system, relations and even social structure is changed a lot because of influence of global culture. 'Sanai-Choughade' is the bold (not visually, but mentally) covers all these aspects and provokes audiences to think about the success.
The story moves around Sai (Sai Tamhankar). Her elder niece Urmila (Shilpa Tulaskar) and Jijaji Shrikant (Tushar Dalvi) promises her mother on death bed that they will follow responsibility of her marriage. Sai starts living with Urmila and Shrikant after her mom's death. Urmila and Shrikant, who had gone through love marriage, are completely unaware with 'typical Maharashtrian arrange marriage system.' After taking many good and bad experiences, they came to know about latest marriage bureau handled by Rahul Borgavkar (Subodh Bhave)- 'Kande –Pohe.' The modern marriage bureau believes on logical match making than traditional one. They organises a nice trip to a hill station. The thought behind it is all of them will get a chance to get familiar with feelings, nature and Sanai Choughade understanding of partner. Sai and Aditya (Santosh Juvekar) fall in love with each other. Just before finalisation of their marriage, Sai revealed her past. She was in love with Shryas Talpade and had given birth to his child. Shreyas was ready to marry Sai and accept the child but unfortunately he became pawn of destiny and died in an Accident. Now do Aditya accept her past? What was reaction of other people who represents society? Do Shrikant and Urmila accept her mistake? What steps Rahul Borgavkar takes to keep his motto 'Nothing is Impossible.' The story developes swiftly and gives answer to all these question. Thanks to director Rajiv Patil and script writer- Sanjay Pawar for handling such a sensitive issue efficiently and giving different but certainly nice experience to audiences.
Sai Tamhankar and Subodh Bhave played lead characters in the movie and both had done well. Especially Subodh Bhave catches maximum attention through amazing facial expressions. Twice or thrice Sai's inexperience can be noticed but in her debut movie she is much promising. Santosh Juvekar, Tushar Dalvi and Shilpa Tulaskar strongly supported Subodh and Sai. Chinmay Mandlekar has also played done really nice job even in the small role. His body language and dialog delivery is simply amazing.
Versatile Avdhoot Gupte has given good music. Especially the song 'Kande-Pohe' sung by Sunidhi Chauhan has appropriately used in whole movie. Camera, lights and especially cinematography are good but certainly far behind 'Mukta Arts' standard.
A credit must be given to Rajiv Patil for handling two different stories- 'light comedy of Mulgi Dakhavne'(I swear I couldn't find appropriate English word) and problems of pre-marital pregnancy. Audiences do not realize any jerk or it does not sound odd, when story moves from light comedy to serious issue.
Marathi cinema is getting globalize and producers are showing courage to handle sensitive issues. Dipti Talpade's this movie is nice example of it. But the really nice thing is she never tried to show something 'extra ordinary.' She has successfully shown how serious topics can even be handled through perfect commercial film. And as even a common man can also enjoy this movie, seriousness of the issue can be delivered to higher no. of people. And that's real success of 'Sanai-Choughade.'


text:
monogram wedding cake toppers cheap
Kinds of Monogram Wedding Cake Toppers : Monogram Wedding Cake Toppers Cheap
Monogram wedding cake toppers are really simple and suitable for you who have the wedding party with simple theme. As you know, wedding cake is the essential part in wedding celebration because it is a symbol where the blessing and happiness are shared with others. Hence, wedding cake needs the special preparation because it will be displayed in the front of venue and many guests will see. To know more about these cake toppers, let's move into the next paragraph.
Monogram wedding cake toppers are identically with only one color. There are many selection colors that are usually used, for example black, silver, white, gold, navy, and sometimes it is decorated with shinny beads so it gives the little glamour effect in that wedding cake. The toppers often these are the front letter of the bride's and groom's names. Besides, this wedding cake topper is suitable for the wedding cake with white color, because it can gives the contrast appearance.
Actually, the couple can order this wedding cake topper custom according their need. the examples of designs cake topper that are usually used are the letters, the love sign, the wedding ring sign, the number, and fourth. Hope this explanation about monogram wedding cake toppers can inspire you to make your own wedding cake topper.
Here is wanted advice on wedding cake monogram toppers. We have the finest resources for wedding cake monogram toppers. Check it out for yourself! You can discover Monogram Wedding Cake Toppers Cheap guide and look the latest Kinds of Monogram Wedding Cake Toppers in here.


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The guns are gone. Now what happens to all those paper targets? Don't tell me you forgot about the paper targets. The ones hanging from little clips on fancy clotheslines at shooting ranges. With no guns to destroy these legions of paper bastards, they go unchecked.
Grimy horror growler Rob Zombie's scariest music videos finally ranked to warn your children.
A sign proclaiming "BACTA: DA FUTURE" marks the town's medical clinic
1998: I upload dave.pcx, and change the course of history
Set goals for yourself, and fulfill them. Absurd! Only in video games!
The Something Awful front page news tackles anything both off and on the Internet. Mostly "on" though, as we're all incredible nerds.
Copyright ©2018 Rich "Lowtax" Kyanka & Something Awful LLC.


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Foot Problems? Your Socks May Be to Blame
When you think of getting healthier feet, you probably think of wearing good shoes, practicing good hygiene, and going to see the foot and ankle doctor (officially called a podiatrist) on a somewhat regular basis. Those are certainly important aspects of foot health. But in most discussions of foot care products and foot care tips, there's an overlooked aspect you should probably be paying more attention to: your socks.
A Sock for All Seasons
At least in the wintertime, people know that wearing socks is a commonsense issue. They heat not only the feet, but contribute to warming the entire body, and prevent chafing and blisters caused by heavy winter boots. But you might not real Continue Reading
Pleasing Your Peds
The feet are a very important and unique part of the human body. Feet do so much and allow for so much, however, people do not generally know much about proper foot care and facts about feet. Not all feet are the same.
Your feet, complete with 250,000 sweat glands, have about 25% of the total number of bones in your entire body. Some people have a condition known as flatfoot (pes planus). Flatfoot is a condition in which the longitudinal arch in the foot, which runs lengthwise along the sole of the foot, has developed abnormally and is dropped, lowered, or flattened out.
Most children are born flat-footed and will stay that way until they are between the ages of 3 and 5 when their longitudinal arch reaches full development. That is part of the reason why babies have a noticeably different foot struc Continue Reading


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World News
Algeria: 20 hostages escape, including Americans
News agencies
Published: 17.01.13, 14:21
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1. Another Obama fine mess! AQ is VERY GRATEFUL to Obama
Alan ,
They thank the USA Obama Administration for training in special forces' tactics some 1,500 Touareg fighting men and their three officers received from the US. They have Libyan Weapons and now open another War theatre .. This time in West Africa/Sahel. You could not make this story up in a paperback Novel
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2. Barbarians that only the"intelligencia" can find excuses for
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3. Wecome to Sunny Uplands
In 1940 Winston Churchill said "f we can stand up to him, all Europe may be freed and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. "
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4. it is simple .. end the war in Mali .then hostages are freed
shadi ,
Gaza strip
why on earth is France waging a war against people fighting in their country. what is the interest of France in a country thousands of miles away from Europe ???
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5. #4 Shadi
Son Of Cyrus ,
By the same token why would EU & USA put pressure on Israelies not to defenf themselves from Arabs in particular Hamas Terrorist where you happen to live? Can you explain that Dear Miss HAPPY (Shadi)? Why would Islamic Republic send so mamny arms and men to Lebanon. Syria and Gaza?
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6. To #1
Daniel ,
Ted Aviv
I know you'd like to blame Obama for all the ills of the world. It is so nice to have a target. But let's face facts. The Libya war was run by Europe mostly France. France is in Mali and it will be France that will have to send in troops or request aid in Algeria. Why France? Mali and Algeria were French. In this case BO is really not at fault any more than Israel is at fault for the ills of the Arab world by its mere existence.
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7. #1 Alan SA are You Lithuanian Desent?
Most of africa mainly north africa and middle east were euro colony's. They (france) has had many nationals kidnapped for ransom, this what funds these n.african Terror. France needs go it Alone and clean up this mess!
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8. #4 Shadi you Hamas fool, Mali gov. asked Fr. for help
The legitimate government in Bokama made the request. Freedlom loving people, the world wide, do not want to live enslaved under Sharia.
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9. another islamic disgrace
real vision ,
islam is cancer on humanity. Those mullahs who encourage this violent behavior need to be eliminated for our planet
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One of the biggest struggles I hear from pastors relates to the apathy seen in so many people in their churches. It's a reality in far too many: too many professing believers showing up, doing the minimum, hardly checked in at all.
I've not done an empirical study on this, but I've preached in over 2,000 churches and tried to pay attention at each one. In every church I've also observed this: there are plenty of people who really love Jesus, who want to serve Him, and who want to live lives surrendered to Jesus. A lot of these folks actually appear apathetic because they aren't sure just how to do this beyond what's been modeled–show up regularly, give some money, serve in some way, don't rock the boat, and be moral. All these matter, but they miss the over-arching perspective of living for Jesus with a passion in every aspect of our lives, from our spiritual life to our relational, emotional, physical, vocational, educational, leisure, and financial dimensions as well.
When we show believers how Jesus impacts all spheres of life and how following Jesus is a daily, not a weekly thing, I've found many believers hungry to know more about that kind of Christianity. This is true whether talking to leaders and simply reminding them of these things, or introducing this to believers of all backgrounds and places of spiritual growth.
This week is a case in point. Monday and Tuesday I spoke to leaders, people who have walked with Jesus and led others to do so for decades in many cases. I spoke to them about character, godliness, and especially about sharing their faith (they all got a copy of my new book, after all!). Here's the reality: people who have served Jesus for a long time still yearn to know more, to grow more, to have their passions stirred for God.
Last night I spoke to a big crowd of folks at my church, Richland Creek, from the Sharing Jesus book. Again, there was so much hunger, so much passion to know Jesus more and serve Him. I talked to folks for a while after about specific opportunities, from a mom with a special needs child who asked how to talk with the healthcare folks who come into their home, to a new guest who loves Jesus and was so excited to find a church near her who makes her want to love Him more.
If you are a pastor, love everyone, but move with the movers. Don't be sidetracked by the apathetic, but feed the hungry. And remember some who are on surface apathetic aren't really, they just don't know how to run the race with joy. That's our job, to teach, to model, and to create ways to show what it looks like in everyday life to walk with Jesus.
God reminded Elijah at a lonely time there were 7,000 who had not bowed the knee to Baal. There yet remain believers in your church who want to live for and share Jesus. Pour into them, and you just might see God raise others from the dead!


text: On Fri, 7 May 1999, Matti Aarnio wrote:> Jan Varga <email@example.com> wonders:> > Hi,> > > > sometimes I notice that some processes starts consume much CPU time> > but when I run 'strace -p pid' nothing happens> > It is usualy netscape or some kde applications> > A process which is doing something purely in user space> without doing syscalls will not appear doing anything in> 'strace' sense -- which is to track kernel calls.> > Use 'gdb' to figure out where the beast is spinning.> (If debug symbols are available.)> Even better, use the "ltrace" command. It's like strace, but for librarycalls, and it doesn't need debug symbols. The web page is athttp://www.debian.org/Packages/unstable/utils/ltrace.htmlExample: I ltrace my netscape:$ ltrace -p 1397XFindContext(0x0880c800, 0x089aca00, -1, 0xbfffe480, 3) = 0XtGetSubvalues(0x089ad500, 0x08812800, 21, 0x08b3bca0, 1 <unfinished ...>ffs(0x80000000, 88, 21, 0x08726a78, 7 <unfinished ...>--- SIGALRM (Alarm clock) ---gettimeofday(0xbfffe28c, 0, 0x084d94c8, 0x4029acc0, 0) = 0__errno_location() = 0x4029acc0breakpointed at 0x08136253 (?)ffs(0x80000000, 88, 21, 0x08726a78, 7) = 32XrmStringToQuark(0x08751ed8, 0x08750e28, 0xbfffe4d4, 0x08726a78,0x08795180) = 7471 Brad-To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" inthe body of a message to firstname.lastname@example.com read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/


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The main reason Chris and I went to Woodstock this weekend was to go New World Home Cooking for my birthday dinner. This happened to be a special wine dinner for Earth Day that I spotted over on Table Hopping a few weeks ago. It was a vegan wine dinner!! Ric Orlando is the head chef/owner of New World Home Cooking in Saugerties and also the New World Bistro Bar in Albany. New World Bistro is my favorite restaurant in Albany, so I knew I would love New World Home Cooking.
Doesn't look like New World Bistro, does it? Its actually right next to a farm!
The vegan dinner started at 6:30, and was held in a special dining room in the back of the restaurant. The tables were set up wedding style. We even had name cards!
The meal consisted of five vegan courses, each paired with a New York wine. I knew this dinner was going to be awesome, since it falls in line with some of my green challenges. It was a special way to celebrate Earth Day! Eating a sustainable meal made with local ingredients couldn't be any better!
The focus was on the vegetables and the dishes were certainly creative. I love that about Ric Orlando! He came out a spoke to us about each wine and the dish it was paired with for about 15 minutes before the food was served. Chris and I saw him do a cooking demonstration back in November at Harvest Fest and knew what he was capable of.
The first course was a Korean soup paired with a Dry Riesling from Brotherhood Winery.
The soup: "Chewy Rice Cakes with mustard green Kim Chee, pickled daikon, radish sprouts, boiled peanuts". It was so spicy. I had to take a break from eating it a few times. I realized it was the broth and kim chee that was so hot, so I just ate the rice cakes and peanuts out of it, and it helped a little bit with the heat. My mouth was burning!
The Riesling was sweet, but not overly so. It helped a lot with the spice!
I also snacked on some bread and hummus to get rid of the burning mouth!
Next up: "Pan Roasted Parsnip 'scallops' with Sweet Pea-Wasabi Sauce, pea sprouts and wasabi 'caviar' ". The parsnips really looked like scallops! But surprisingly they didn't take like them at all. 😉 The parsnips tasted just like a potato to me. The wasabi sauce wasn't overpowering either (usually I don't like wasabi) but I could only taste a hint of it in the sauce.
The wine with this dish was a Fox Run Chardonnay. It was pretty tasty.
Third course: "Fun Guy Marsala- Beautiful Mushrooms–Honshimeji, King Oyster, Blue Oyster and Spring Morels on poured Wild Hive polenta".
This was my favorite so far. The polenta was sweet and the mushrooms were so weird! They each had their own flavor. It was my first time having any of these mushrooms, and the morels were the most interesting. They had such an earthy flavor. I commented that the looked like little brains. 😉
The wine with this one was a Lamoreaux Landing Pinot Noir. Not my favorite.
Finally–the dish I was most looking forward to! "Not Meat and Potatoes – Ramp Spanikopita, Roasted Fingerlings, Smoked Seitan, Red Wine-Green Peppercorn Gravy". I had never had seitan before and I heard that New World's seitan was incredible.
It looks like meat, no? It was a bit hard to cut with my knife (like meat) and had fibers (like meat) and tasted almost like meat. It was incredible!!! It had a thick consistency that was very meat like, but a pretty distinct flavor…I think it was the peppercorn gravy it was in. I could definely taste the peppercorns and I think they made the dish. The spanikopita was great too. I also really enjoyed the potatoes. Obviously, there wasn't a thing I didn't love about this course!
The wine was a Millbrook Cabernet Franc…might have been my favorite of the evening. It was full bodied and strong. So good! Unfortunately, I forgot to snap a picture of it.
Throughout the night we kept track of each meal. At our tables there was a sheet to fill our our thoughts! Of course I loved mostly everything. During dinner we were also seated next to a lovely (also vegetarian) couple we chatted with throughout dinner. They were so friendly and nice! (Hi Monica and Billy!)
Now, we can't forget dessert: White Chocolate Coconut Silk Pie.
Along with a dessert wine: Hunt Country Late Harvest Vingnoles.
It was so sweet, almost sickenly so! But it went great with the sweetness of the pie! The pie was creamy and delicious. I was a big fan, especially the crust! I was wondering why it was served in a glass though, maybe because it didn't hold up enough?
I loved this dinner because I wasn't left feeling overly stuffed. I felt just right. The dishes weren't huge portions so it left you wanting more and each dish was a surprise for your tastebuds. I was so impressed. I want to go back just for the seitan!
New World also had a live band playing by the time we finished with dinner, so we headed out to the bar area to check it out. The atmosphere of the restaurant itself was a lot different than the one in Albany, but I could see a little bit of similarity. Just a tiny bit. The major difference was that Chris and I were some of the youngest people there!
I would go back again. Now, if only New World in Albany had vegan wine dinners!


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10 Best Movies of 2011
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6. Hugo
An irresistible bedtime story for movie lovers. The usually raging and bullish Martin Scorsese tackles his first family film – in 3D, yet – to tell the story of Hugo (Asa Butterfield), a runaway boy who lives in a 1931 Paris train station and discovers the treasure of film history. How? Just give in to the film's sheer, transporting joy.
• Off the Cuff with Peter Travers: Chloe Grace Moretz
• Peter Travers' Original Review: 'Hugo'


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News Release
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|American Assets Trust, Inc. Announces Issuance of $250 Million of 4.29% Senior Guaranteed Notes, Series D, Due March 1, 2027
Prior to closing, the
As a result, net of the settlement of the forward-starting interest swap, the fixed interest rate in accordance with GAAP for the Series D Notes is approximately 3.73% per annum, through maturity.
The Company intends to use the proceeds from the private placement of the Series D Notes to refinance existing secured indebtedness and for other general corporate purposes.
Forward Looking Statements
This press release may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws, which are based on current expectations, forecasts and assumptions that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual outcomes and results to differ materially. Forward-looking statements relate to expectations, beliefs, projections, future plans and strategies, anticipated events or trends and similar expressions concerning matters that are not historical facts. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "may," "will," "should," "expects," "intends," "plans," "anticipates," "believes," "estimates," "predicts," or "potential" or the negative of these words and phrases or similar words or phrases which are predictions of or indicate future events or trends and which do not relate solely to historical matters. While forward-looking statements reflect the Company's good faith beliefs, assumptions and expectations, they are not guarantees of future performance. For a further discussion of these and other factors that could cause the Company's future results to differ materially from any forward-looking statements, see the section entitled "Risk Factors" in the Company's annual report on Form 10-K filed on
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The January 2001 and February 2001 installments of Outlook VBA on Demand highlighted problems you might encounter when you work with dates in Microsoft Outlook. In this installment, I continue that topic by showing you how to create Outlook task items for an all-too-common scenario—tasks that you must finish either this week or next week. The key to this programming job is a little function that returns the next available date that corresponds to a particular day of the week.
Meet GetNextDay()
The GetNextDay() function, which you see in Listing 1, contains two arguments: a date and an integer that represents the day of the week (starting with 1 for Sunday and ending with 7 for Saturday). Suppose today is Friday. If you use today's date and the integer 6 as your arguments, GetNextDay() returns the date for next Friday.
GetNextDay() uses two built-in Visual Basic (VB) functions that you'll probably find quite useful: Weekday() and DateAdd(). Weekday() takes any date and returns a number between 1 and 7 that represents the day of the week (with 1 representing Sunday).
DateAdd(), which lets you increase or decrease any date/time value by a specific number of units, uses the syntax
DateAdd(unit, number, date)
where unit is the interval you want to increase or decrease the date by. In Listing 1, the unit is "d" for days. You'll find the strings used for other intervals in the VBA Help file. (The procedures in Listing 4 use "ww" for weeks and "h" for hours.) The number argument is the number of intervals by which you want to increase or decrease the date. (You use a negative number to decrease.) Finally, date is the date you want to change.
Creating Tasks
The code you see in Listing 2 creates a new task for the current week, sets some basic properties, then displays the task so that the user can fill in additional information. The CreateThisWeekTask() procedure uses the GetNextDate() function to set the due date of the task to Friday of the current week:
.DueDate = _ GetNextDay(Date(), 6)
Date() is an intrinsic VB function that returns the current day's date.
The CreateNextWeekTask() subroutine, which you see in Listing 3 has the same functionality as CreateThisWeekTask(). However, it uses GetNextDay() twice—first to set the task's start date to the following Monday, then to set the end date to the following Friday.
The solution in Listing 4 takes a different approach. The CreateTaskForXDay() subroutine prompts the user for the number of days necessary to complete the task. The subroutine depends on the GetNextWorkDay() function, which contains some useful user options: the number of days in the user's work week and whether the user wants the procedure to adjust the due date if it falls on a weekend. Notice that the subroutine also introduces a couple of operators—the \ division operator always rounds down to the nearest integer, and the Mod operator obtains the remainder from a division expression rather than the dividend.
Try It—You'll Like It
You probably find yourself creating many tasks that you must finish this week, next week, or in a specific number of days. If so, try out one (or more) of this column's subroutines. Just add the tool to your Outlook toolbar so that you can create a new task—with the dates already filled in—at the click of a button.


text: Skansen Hotel is an inexpensive hotel situated in the centre of Stavanger. We can offer 28 newly renovated rooms, all with comfortable beds, TV and private bathrooms. Close to bus, train, boat and airport. Our bar has become a favourite meeting place.Urban Stavanger has large areas with small wooden houses, lots of green space and a variety of interesting buildings and architecture. In addition you will find museums, theatre and art galleries. Different kinds of concerts and cabarets, as well as various festivals, are arranged throughout the year. Stavanger can offer a magnitude of restaurants and pubs and has perhaps the best nightlife in Norway. Stavanger is centrally located, and well known for its hospitality.


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Note: Any posted comments are subject to approval.
A healthy Net Operating Income (NOI) is the ultimate goal of every storage business owner. Increasing the net operating dollar amount translates to greater profitability. "More Money in the Bank!"
Net operating income (NOI) is simply the annual income generated by an income-producing property after taking into account all income collected from operations, and deducting all expenses incurred from operations. --- PropertyMetrics.com definition
Today's marketing methods represent a major shift from what most of us were taught in school. This is true regardless of the generation. Understanding these new marketing methods and how to effectively apply them makes an impact on a storage business's NOI.
What caused these major marketing shifts?
Shopping at the touch of a button on your phone.
A business can't compete in today's marketplace without an online presence.
Strategic marketing to mobile phone users affects NOI.
The following graph demonstrates that in 2015, 51 percent of all search queries were on mobile phones.
There is an important change in mindset that a storage owner should make. Owners can't afford to think of a website as a business card extension or just an information tool, or just a web page. It is so much more! A website is the second business location that reaches a broader consumer base faster and which can stimulate higher income in a cost effective way. Plan the development of a website in the same way, applying related steps as if building a new facility or buying an existing one. There are certain basic steps involved.
This article provides information on two strategic marketing processes, SEO and PPC which are important parts of the basic steps. When implemented correctly on a website designed for both desktops and mobile devices, they can increase NOI.
SEO STRATEGIC MARKETING – Research, Plan and Build a Solid Foundation!
"Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of affecting the visibility of a website or a web page in a web search engine's unpaid results — often referred to as "natural," "organic," or "earned" results." Wikipedia
Before SEO techniques can be applied, it is important to know your target market area. For a storage business, it is a geographic local search market with a radius of 5-10 miles or a wider radius in rural communities. Good planning must take into account the potential customer known as a site visitor. What are the services or products site visitors are looking for and what search phrase will they use to find them? To guess or just assume they will use the same industry terminology as storage business owners is not a smart SEO decision.
While conducting research for a storage facility client in a particular city, I discovered that the most highly searched phrase was "storage units [city name] tx" with 140 queries in 30 days. It was not the industry term "self storage" or "mini storage" combined with the geographic location.
The only online storage businesses in that city taking advantage of this highly searched phrase were the REITs or listing services. Are the smaller storage businesses missing out on a large number of potential customers? YES! Can they get into the ball game? Of course! They can research and utilize search phrases used by site visitors looking for storage facilities.
Google Keyword Planner is a free online tool that provides statistical information on consumers' keyword phrases used in search queries. A Google Adwords account must be set up to access the Keyword Planner; however, it is not required to purchase Adwords before accessing this vital information. Keep in mind, the search phrases used in a particular geographic location do not necessarily mean they are the same for all geographic locations. If a storage owner has more than one facility with its own website, each location needs this research.
ZIP codes, subdivision names, street names, major employers, etc. are part of consumer search results in larger metropolitan areas. Identifying keyword phrases is essential for applying SEO techniques. If applied correctly, the SEO will bring a business into the top rankings on the first page of the Google Search Site below sponsored ads.
Be aware! Googlebot is crawllng content on the Internet for Google's indexes every day, every night, non-stop. Will your storage business place in the top 10-15 websites?
STEP 2: PLAN – When is it time for SEO?
An SEO plan should be the first objective of website development. It is the foundation for a successful online business. Without SEO, a storage business website stands a strong chance of not being as successful as it could be. The Internet is now the primary marketing source of new customers for today's savvy storage business. It is not a "field of dreams!" A website should not be developed with the expectation that it will simply be found. A solid SEO foundation is the difference of why a website is found by the greatest number of customers.
STEP 3: BUILD - Understanding how and where to use the research results.
Google's free training guide, "Welcome to Google's Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide" is an excellent source of information. Every business owner should know about these SEO Best Practices for evaluating the value a web developer is providing. The following are excerpts from the guide.
SEO Best Practices
Create unique, accurate page titles for each section of the website. A title tag tells users and search engines what the topic of a particular site section/page is. Page titles are displayed in search results and need to be relevant to the page. Use a keyword phrase that pertains to the page, not just a single word like home or about – these are useless words that will not count toward organic placement.
Use unique, different descriptions for each page's content. Write a description in complete sentences to inform and create interest for site visitors. This description is placed in the meta tags (behind the scenes information for the search engines). A storage owner should ask a developer to review how a description is worded It could include phone numbers, zip codes, services offered like moving supplies or truck rentals. Descriptions are important as Google may use them as snippets for the site.
Improve the structure of the site's URL's (internal navigation links). Organization of a website into site sections, categories and file names for documents helps site visitors. Simple to understand organization leads to better crawling by Googlebot and other engines. Use descriptive keyword phrases instead of numbers and symbols.
Make the site easy to navigate. The navigation of a website is important in helping visitors quickly find the information. It also helps the search engines to understand what content on the site is important. A website should always have a starting point or "home." There is a sense of dependability established when navigation is consistent with what site visitors are familiar with. Titles like "Home" or "About" are used in navigation areas due to width constraints on the visible website. If the width constraints allow for a phrase, use them,as keyword phrases count for organic placement.
Prepare two site maps, one for users (HTM) and one for search engines (XML). This is necessary even with a small site and especially when there is more than one level of navigation or linked documents placed within a site section. Site visitors leave when a site is complicated or getting back to information is not easy.
About the images on a website. Every image has something called an alt tag. SEO experts use the alt tag for keyword phrases to further enhance the amount of relevant content. The key component here is to use keywords that pertain to the particular site content where the image is placed. (In other words, give your photos a descriptive name.) It is best to use phrases in different arrangements and not repeat the same phrase in the same order. It makes Google unhappy if you do.
Have a useful 404 page. A 404 page is the one that shows up when a site visitor clicks on a link that has been changed or dropped. This happens often when there are external links to other websites. A message on a 404 page with a link back to the home page of your site or a phone number to call helps prevent visitor frustration. A contact form with a message box alerting the developer of the problem is quite useful for maintaining the site well.
STRATEGIC MARKETING PPC – What is it and how should it be used?
"Pay-per-click (PPC), also called cost per click (CPC), is an advertising model used to direct traffic to websites, in which an advertiser pays a publisher (typically a website owner or a network of websites) when the ad is clicked. Pay-per-click is commonly associated with first-tier search engines (such as Google AdWords and Microsoft Bing Ads). With search engines, advertisers typically bid on keyword phrases relevant to their target market."
--- Wikipedia.org definition
This strategic marketing tool can be a maze. I recommend you work with an expert trained and certified by Google. Storage owners who apply basic SEO best practices to their website can be successful without PPC.
PPC best applies when:
Opening a new facility
Running a special for a period of time
Promoting special products or services
Positioning the website at the very top in ads section
Strategizing to catch the attention of a REIT
PPC ads should be targeted for local search marketing only. When the ads are running and clicked on, there is a cost paid by the website owner. This is going to be a monthly expense for as long as the PPC ads are visible. For optimal results, monitoring and tweaking after analyzing statistical information recorded in the Adwords management center is needed. Daily spending amounts are established. However, Google cannot guarantee that the amount will not be exceeded. It is approximate, so be prepared to go over budget some. The good news is, ads can be stopped and started again as needed. Google is very efficient at knowing if a click is legit and will credit back for spammed clicks. Experienced PPC strategists work with Google representatives for achieving the best buys for the money invested.
Essential rules for a Google Adwords PPC account as provided by Google:
1. Understand how your ads are shown. Multiple factors influence this, including your budget, the maximum you want to pay (CPC) per keyword, your competitor's max CPC on the same keyword, how popular the phrase is and Google's Quality Score. Lots to learn!
2. Ad users do not need to go to your home page. PPC campaigns are designed for the direct response experience. Send a user directly to the action you want them to take.
3. Do not use broad or generic keywords. Search queries today tend to be several words long, a phrase for more target results. Bidding on broad or generic keywords such as "storage units" or "self storage" will spend your money, dumping your ad into the outer zones with low quality traffic. A negative return on investment results.
4. Start with Ad Groups. Keywords in a group are relevant and generate a higher click-through rate, which will help your Quality Score, leading to lower click costs for the same position.
5. Utilize all match type options. There are settings that can guide you through how and when Google displays your ads.
6. Record Negative Keywords. These are words that have no bearing on your campaigns. For instance an unrelated geographic location shows up in the statistical information as a word used to display your ad in search results. Record it so that it does not happen again.
7. Separate your campaigns. Google's default settings include search and display together and do not separate out for mobile. Manually opt out of display ads to preserve your budget. Then set up campaigns for mobile users to ensure ads are displayed to mobile users.
8. Use free conversion tracking. You need to be sure your advertising dollars are working well for your goals. Look at conversions and delete ads not getting results.
9. Test different ad versions: Run 2-3 ads from each ad group, track results, then continue with the ones that deliver results and delete the low performing ones.
10.Eliminate underperforming keywords. Delete the keywords resulting in clicks but not conversions to actual site visitors.
11.Take advantage of ad extensions. These extensions added to an ad allow you to show products, locations and phone number as additional links.
12.Connect your Adwords account to Google Analytics. Don't forget this one as you will be able to see how Adwords visitors to your website affect the overall activity on your site.
Basic SEO application is a game changer in targeting the online consumer marketplace. Organic placement of a website within a search engine is vitally important to gain business from local search marketing. Combined with social media marketing, it may well be the most necessary tool for increasing a storage business's ROI. It is cost effective because the development investment and ongoing fees are more manageable than sponsored ads or pay-per-click-advertising. A website developed with a solid SEO foundation often continues generating new business without a frequent major overhaul.
SEO developers plan for success with Google. A leader in measuring the digital world, comScore Inc., released their 2015 analysis of the U.S. desktop search marketplace showing Google Sites lead the explicit core search market with 64.5 percent share of search queries conducted, Microsoft Sites (Bing) with 19.8 percent, Yahoo Sites with 12.8 percent, Ask Network with 1.8 percent and AOL with 1.1 percent. There are others. However, for many years these have been the important ones with Google consistently leading. Optimize for Google following Google standards, as the others will follow. Submissions to the major search engines and in particular Google are all the local storage business needs. Solicitations from companies promoting submissions to hundreds of search engines should be viewed as a waste of marketing dollars. Storage businesses are local searches, not global.
Today's SEO developer has a dual responsibility to optimize websites for desktop displays and mobile devices. The business owner has a responsibility to provide relevant content based upon a keyword phrase search term for site visitors. Together the developer and business owner form a team that meets needs or resolves problems for site visitors resulting in income-producing activity.
PPC is an advertising tool for special events requiring wise management to enhance income. A storage business can benefit from this tool, but budgets must be carefully monitored. PPC consultants should provide statistics on progress of all campaigns to gauge results monthly. Pause ads when budgets are exceeded or results are not coming in as expected. Change ads up and then resume them again and plan on testing ads over a couple of weeks to gauge which ads are bringing the best ROI.
Most importantly, keep control of your domain name. Domains are reserved, not owned. Be sure to renew it prior to expiration. Keep your personal email as the admin email for the domain as it controls what happens with the domain. If a privacy service is being used, be sure to have access to the URL, login and password.
--- Marsha Yearian, owner of Monte Fe Self Storage and Internet Business Developer
Design & Development by Gray Digital Group


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The Silicon Valley Disc Golf Club presents The 1st Annual Coyote Creek Classic! We will be playing both Hellyer and LaRaza Courses.
Singles Tournament - Saturday January 5th
(Registration ends Friday Jan 4th)
Entry Fees: Open - $25 / Am - $15
Doubles Tournament - Sunday January 6th
(Registration ends Saturday Jan 5th)
Entry Fees: Open - $40 / Am - $40
PRE-REGISTRATION is REQUIRED!
7:15am - Gate Open / Check-in @ LaRaza
7:40am - Players Meeting
8:00am - Start 1st Round Play
11:30am - Lunch Break @ LaRaza
12:00pm - Players Meeting @ LaRaza
12:20pm - Start 2nd Round Play
4:00pm - Awards @ LaRaza
Player Package Includes:
Tournament Stamped Disc and Mini Marker
Pizza and soft drink provided for Lunch
Go to the SVDGC.ORG for more details.