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My trip to Japan with the kids really knocked a hole in my work on my current book. What with queuing up posts beforhand, the two weeks-odd of the trip itself and a couple of weeks writing the trip up, I didn't work on the book for over six weeks.

I finally got back into the swing this week. I've written at least 500 words every day and I've done some bits of basic research.

You wouldn't believe how many brewing records I still haven't processed. My guess is between a quarter and a third. This week I've been transcribing William Younger and Boddington records. A lot of work, but very satisfying.


Both the Yonger and Boddington records are in what I call the Scottish format. While English records usually have one brew per page or double page, Scottish records have multiple brews over a two page spread.

In the case of Boddington, there are 20 brews per double page. I have 150 photos of the log I'm currently processing. Which adds up to around 1,500 brews. Even if I only take 5 or 10 minutes per brew, it takes a considerable time to get through the lot.

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