life

about this site

Defay.org is simply a web site to share ideas and meet people with common interests. While the founders of the site share the defay surname, there are others who do not. defay.org is not limited to family members or people with the defay surname. It is an open community site.

If you've got a bit of DeFay in you, and you would like to know how we all relate to one another, please read my family genealogy blog.  Or for info about me, read my min-bio.

What will I find at defay.org?

Home brew setup

Here's a picture of my backyard home brewing setup at the start of a beautiful brew day in July
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I've got a March pump behind the 20g Blichmann kettle that I use to move the hot liquids around.  On the day I took this picture, I was getting ready to brew a 10g Belgian Tripple based on the original made at the Westmalle Trappist monastery. This is my first attempt at a Belgian style beer and I adapted the recipe from Sean Paxton's blog.

Bottling Day

Today was bottling day for two batches of ale I recently cooked up.  Here's a picture of my backyard bottling setup


bottling day


I use a light weight folding plastic table from CostCo to hold everything.  I use one ice chest to hold sterilizer & soak my bottles and caps in there & pull them out and line them up on the right as I fill.  I stick a sterile cap on each bottle so they keep things from falling into the bottles and I don't have to search for them when it's time to cap.

Home brewin

Amy got me a home brew kit for Xmas & I've been busy making beer ever since.  I've made about 10 batches of beer, starting with a kit so I could follow a simple couple of steps to learn how to make beer. 


Since my first kit batch, an Imperial Ale by LD Carlson, I've taken a class at my local brew shop and made an Amber Ale, Red Wine from a kit, a Fat Tire clone brew (twice), hard cider, a dry hopped American Ale, and Apricot Ale with a wheat beer base. 


Today I'm brewing my first IPA (India Pale Ale) and used a program called BeerSmith to come up with my own recipie (based on a local IPA I recently enjoyed). 


The hard cider and apricot ale were both disasters, but everything else has turned out pretty well.  I've got high hopes for my IPA (recipie here).

Too funny

The Two-De-Beast

Thomas turned two in April.  We had a combined birthday party / Easter celebration up at the cabin and there was snow on the ground!  We've been keeping busy since then going on various adventures and having a good time.

We're now working on potty training and he's doing great!  He's also given up his pacifier and we're so PROUD!  Since I've not been able keep up on my blog lately (too darned busy) I've put together a photo album with various pictures we've taken since Easter.  Click on the photo to see the full album.

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