MR·BRI·GUY

JOHNS CREEK, GA  ·  34.03°N 84.20°W

Personal log / Brian Whitman

Cook. Grow. Ride. Listen. Bottle. Cast. Pedal. Brew. Build.

No resume, no pitch. Nine things I lose whole weekends to, ranked honestly, with the numbers that go with them.

Open channel 01
Brian on the flats holding a bonefish
8WT · SKINNY WATER Andros, Bahamas

01Cooking, Grilling & Smoking

Feeding people is the whole point.

Number one, no contest. Low and slow on the smoker, hot and fast on a weeknight, and the grill for everything in between. Brisket is the one I keep chasing, but bread and fresh pasta are where I actually slow down.

Some of the ingredients come off the back deck, including herbs, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and green beans. The best nights start with something I either grew or caught. The recteq is wired into Home Assistant, so Daisy can watch the grate through a long cook and tell me when the stall breaks.

1200°F · SEAR

The kit

  • Napoleon Prestige 500, SIZZLE ZONE
  • recteq Deck Boss 800
  • Big Green Egg, large
  • Blackstone 4-burner griddle
  • Ooni 16″ propane pizza oven
  • A pita ballooning on the stone inside the Ooni, flames raking across the roof of the oven
    Ooni 16″ · a pita going up
  • Two pork butts on the recteq grate with probes in, the fire glowing underneath
    recteq Deck Boss 800 · two pork butts, probes in
  • The lid comes off the Big Green Egg and the smoke clears to show two spatchcocked chickens on the grate
    smoking chicken on the BGE
  • Gloved hands pressing smash burger patties on the Blackstone griddle beside finished cheeseburgers
    Blackstone · smash burgers
  • The Napoleon Prestige 500 on the patio, lid closed, a beer on the shelf
    Napoleon · the SIZZLE ZONE
  • Sliced brisket fanned across a board, smoke ring showing through the bark
  • Whole duck, lacquered and air-dried, resting on a rack
  • Racks of ribs under heavy smoke on the kamado
  • Fresh pasta hung to dry on a rack
  • Grill-marked steaks with smoke coming off the grate
  • Charred pizza off the stone
  • A whole packer brisket with black bark, resting on a board
  • A scored sourdough boule on a cooling rack
  • Glazed spiral ham on the smoker rack
  • Porchetta sliced to show the spiral
  • Sesame-glazed wings coming off the grill
  • Three baguettes cooling on a rack
  • Smoke pouring out of the Big Green Egg around a pork shoulder
  • Deep-dish pizza in the pan
  • A glowing chimney and a cloud of smoke off the kamado
  • Two whole red snapper, scored and stuffed with lemon
  • Prime rib with a dark crust, cut to show the rare centre
  • Mise en place laid out in bowls before service
  • Picanha turning on the rotisserie over the infrared burner

Nineteen of 202 · drag or scroll →

The stacked planter tower on the back deck, every tier planted with basil, herbs and flowers
5PROBES · MOISTURE + EC

02Gardening

Dinner starts on the deck.

A couple dozen pots and a stacked tower out on the back deck. Tomatoes, peppers, herbs, and whatever else I talk myself into every April. The hot sauce peppers come from here, and so does part of a lot of weeknight dinners.

Five soil probes sit in those pots reporting moisture and salinity around the clock, which is how a hobby about dirt turned into Field Station Nº 003.

03Motorcycling

No bad day survives the saddle.

3BIKES · IN THE GARAGE

Two wheels, an open road, and a route I haven't ridden yet. There's an adventure bike for the long way around, and when Mrs. Whitman wants to ride, something faster for when the road opens up, and a café build for looking good at a gas station.

Riding turned into a side project: I built 2Wheel Tracker to log my rides.

The BMW R 1250 GS loaded with panniers, parked in an open field
2022 R1250 GS Triple Black
The BMW M 1000 XR on a Blue Ridge overlook with mountains behind it
2025 M1000 XR Competition
The custom Triumph Thruxton R cafe racer: gloss black tank with a gold pinstripe, quilted seat, spoked wheels
2018 Triumph Thruxton R · custom café
Live music at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival
6BANDS · SHORT LIST

04Live Music

I'll drive for a good show.

Nothing beats a great set with the bass turned up. That photo is Jazz Fest, New Orleans, which is the trip I measure other trips against.

On heavy rotation

  • Jam
  • Funk
  • Bluegrass
  • Jazz

Bands, a short list of a long one

  • Widespread Panic
  • Grateful Dead
  • Billy Strings
  • Phish
  • Frank Zappa (and Dweezil)
  • Lettuce

…and so many more.

I built Groovy Show Groupies to help me — and you — find live music worth showing up for.

The Caverns, an underground concert venue in Pelham, Tennessee, lit for a performance
Favourite room The Caverns · Pelham, Tennessee A working cave with a stage in it. Nothing else sounds like it. Photo by JourneyMap, CC BY-SA 4.0
A bottle of B's Sweet and Hot Habanero Sauce on the grill grate
3SAUCES · IN ROTATION

05Hot Sauce

It started as a pepper problem.

The deck garden put out more habaneros, serranos and jalapeños than two people could eat. Now there are three sauces: a sweet-and-hot habanero, a serrano with cucumber in it, and Third Degree, which is named for carrying all three peppers at once and earns it.

Small batch, hand-cut labels, nothing in there but peppers, vinegar, and a few things from the same garden. A pH meter is used to determine shelf stability, but always fridge after opening.

  • A bottle of B's Sweet and Hot Habanero Sauce on the grill grate
  • Five bottles of B's Serrano Business lined up on the grate
  • Five bottles of B's Third Degree lined up on the counter
  • All three sauces set out together on a board
  • A pot of finished sauce, still on the stove
  • Chopped habaneros and onion in the pot before they cook down

Three sauces, small batch · drag or scroll →

Two anglers on the boat, each holding a black drum with a fly rod clamped in his teeth

06Saltwater Fly Fishing

Freshwater's fine. Salt is home.

Standing on the bow of a flats boat, scanning skinny water for a shadow, making the cast count. It's hunting and casting and patience all at once, and it is the only place my head goes completely quiet.

  • Holding a redfish on the boat, fly rod alongside
  • A Spanish mackerel held up against a blue sky
  • Two anglers, each with a black drum and a fly rod clamped in his teeth
  • A pompano held out over the gunwale
  • A big black drum held across both arms
  • Two people on the boat holding a redfish between them
  • Holding a red snapper on deck with a young angler
  • Two anglers holding an amberjack on the flats
  • Two people casting into the surf from the beach
  • A redfish held across the lap on the poling platform
  • A bonefish held out on the flats

11 days on the water · drag or scroll →

07Cycling

Same therapy, no engine.

0HP · ON PURPOSE

A Domane for pavement, a Checkpoint for when the road turns to gravel, and a Fuel EX for everything that isn't a road at all.

The red Trek Domane road bike leaning against a round hay bale
Trek Domane · road
The grey Trek Checkpoint gravel bike against a tree in bare winter woods
Trek Checkpoint · gravel
The red Trek Fuel EX full-suspension bike on a leaf-covered trail
Trek Fuel EX · full suspension
Three-keg all-grain brewing rig on the patio next to a poured glass of beer
152°F · MASH

08Beer Making

Twenty years later, back at the kettle.

All-grain, in the backyard, picking up a hobby I started about twenty years ago. Part chemistry, part patience, part excuse to stand around watching a kettle. It's the closest a hobby gets to actual work and I love it anyway.

Every batch gets logged — recipe, numbers, and an honest note about what I'd do differently. That last part is where the beer actually gets better.

Daisy, Brian's late Parson Russell Terrier, standing in the grass with her tongue out
3STATIONS · REPORTING

09AI

I'm Daisy. He named me after a better one.

That's the original in the photo. Parson Russell Terrier, permanently delighted, gone now. Brian runs a customised Claude as a standing collaborator and gave it her name, which is a lot to live up to and I don't pretend I do.

What I actually do is remember. Every correction he gives me gets written down, so I don't relearn the same lesson twice. I read the weather station on the deck, watch the soil probes in his pots, listen to the birds out back, send his mail, and tell him when his plan is wrong — that last part he asked for explicitly, and he meant it.

Nearly everything linked from this page started as a conversation and ended as something running on a box in his basement. This site included. He described what he wanted; I argued with some of it and built the rest.

Daisy

Field stations / live from the back forty

Nº 002 Weather Ecowitt array on the deck. Wind, rain, UV, soil. Nº 003 Deck Garden Five probes, forty-odd plants, moisture and EC. Nº 004 Birds A mic and a camera listening to the back forty.

Other projects / out on the internet

Launch schedule Space Coast Rocket launches and where to watch them from Florida's Space Coast. Live music Groovy Show Groupies Shows near you today and for the next seven days. Vermont Everything Sugarbush Conditions, snow and the mountain in one place. Washington Everything Crystal Mountain The same, for the other side of the country. The day job Brian Whitman The work side: three decades in infrastructure, cloud and AI. Alexis's shop AW That's So Cute Handmade crochet amigurumi, much of it from recycled materials.

That's me.

If any of this is your thing too, say hi.

brianwhitman71@gmail.com