A Short Vacation (And A Request)

Yesterday (7/28) was my last podcast before I take my August break.

I had the very nice surprise of getting a call from my friend Warren Priestley, who runs a web hosting company in the U. K.

After the call ended, I tried to mention his company, but blanked out when I tried to remember the URL. I had to go back and do a search for it.

Anyway, here it is:

http://my.ukhostme.com/

If you have a need for hosting services, business or personal, give him a try. He's a good person. In business dealings, that's often more important than any price point or service promise.

Worth Remembering

This was posted on my Facebook page today. I thought it humorous and though t-provoking at the same time.

 

 

 

Philosophy and Beer

(Long but worth reading to the end.)

A meteorology professor stood before his Meteorology 101 class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, wordlessly he picked up a very large and empty glass mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.

The professor then picked up a jar of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles, of course, rolled into the open spaces between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.

The professor picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar and of course the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with an unanimous yes.

The professor then produced two cans of beer from under the table and then proceeded to pour the entire contents into the jar, effectively filling the empty space between the grains of sand. The students laughed.

"Now," said the professor, as the laughter subsided, "I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things -- your family, your partner, your health, your children, your friends, your favorite passions -- things that if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full.

"The pebbles are the other things that matter, like your job, your house, your car. The sand is everything else -- the small stuff.

"If you put the sand into the jar first," he continued, "there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for your life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are important to you. Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Play with your children. Take time to get medical checkups. Take your partner out dancing. Play another 18.

"There will always be time to go to work, clean the house, give a dinner party and fix the disposal. Take care of the golf balls first -- the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand."

One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the beer represented. The professor smiled. "I'm glad you asked. It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem, there's always room for a couple of beers."

Another Way To Use Barley!

I've always wanted to do this. I had seen posts in many other places about using the leftover grain from brewing as an ingredient in bread. I love to bake, I love to brew. It just seemed like a natural fit. I don't know why it took so long to actually do it.

Drying the grain took longer than I thought it would, probably because I kept the oven door closed (My wife hates the smell.) I spread about 2lbs out into the largest pan we had; about 14"x18". I set the oven on warm, and stirred it every couple of hours. It took a couple of days. If I had left the door open, I think it would have gone much faster.

When it was completely dry, I ran it though my food processor. I wasn't quite flour, but was it wasn't just dried husks, either.

What to use for a recipe, I wondered? I did some searching, and everything I found looked WAY too complicated. In almost everything I do, I try to stick with the KISS principle (Keep It Simple, Stupid). So, I took a simple white bread recipe, and tried modifying it.

My first attempt went, uh, not well. I essentially made a hockey puck; small, black,hard. I increased the flour, decreased the barley, and got what you see above. It's dark, rather dense, and really yummy.

Here's the recipe I came up with. I used my bread machine, but it should work fine as a manual recipe, as well.

===================================
SPENT GRAIN BREAD

2 cups flour
1/2 cup (or less) spent grain, dried
2/3 cup water or milk
2 tbs sugar
2 tbs oil (or softened margarine/butter)
1 tsp salt
2 tsp yeast (or 1 pkt)
===================================

I plan to try this again with 1/4 cup of grain. I think that might result in a somewhat lighter loaf. I really like the taste, though. I also like the idea that you would make a slightly different bread after every brewing session.

An Apology/Explanation

I haven't posted in something like over a week. I've had some stuff going on which interfered with the whole writing process.

My dad went in the hospital, at first to simply get an infection cleaned out. As part of the normal examination process, they discovered he had colon cancer, and scheduled him for surgery.

There's no way to communicate the fear that grips you when a loved one goes through a health crisis. If you haven't been through it, you can't know it. If you have been though it, you know what I mean.

He came through the surgery well, and his recovery looks good. He's 81, and it looks like we'll have him with us for a few more years.

Mixed Bag

First, I had a very productive weekend, beer-wise. Saturday, I brewed a 1-gallon, all-grain milk stout with chocolate. In case you didn't know, milk stout doesn't actually use milk (That would be gross.), but milk sugar, lactose. Since ythe yeast can't eat it, it adds a bit of sweetness, but not alcohol. I'm looking forward to trying my chocolate milk stout.

And, that night, I went to my nephew, John's, birthday party, and gave him all the ingredients for a partial-mash imperial IPA. I really hope he offers me one. By recipe, it comes in at 115 IBU, and almost 10% ABV. I wish I were making it. It sound tasty.

Then, Sunday, I brewed up a batch of ordinary bitters. This English ale is one of my go-to beers. It has plenty of flavor. It's light and refreshing. And it doesn't break the bank.

One thing I decided to change up was the hops. Bitters doesn't require aroma hops, but I wanted to try something different. So, I used Czech Saaz as an aroma hop. I thought the idea of an English ale with Czech aroma sounded intriguing.

And, that was my weekend in brewing.

Today, a friend of mine wrote to me for some help. She's involved in a charity to help children who need medical equipment (prosthetics, wheelchairs, etc.). If you have a few dollars to spare, please help. It's a good cause, and she's a good person, and can use our help.

Here's the link:
http://www.gofundme.com/jillian-persons

Thanks for whatever you can do.

Sometimes, Aging sucks

Shortly after I published my post about doing a grain experiment, I realized I had forgotten to mention that I'm doing a short series about recipe formulation.

I'm not sure how much I'll have to say (I never do.), but I'm guessing I'll probably take about 3 or four weeks to cover everything I want to.

Listen Up! It Ain't Hard!

Over the last several weeks, I've seen a number of posts, in several forums, by folks who would like to move beyond kits. The actual words vary, but the message is always the same. "What do I do? What do I do?"

Things are not as mysterious as you might believe. As I've said for years, you simply make the beer you want to drink. To get there, all you have to do is learn where your flavors come from. Here's a little experiment to find that out.

Make a series of 1-gallon beers, and change the specialty grain each time, to see how that affects the beer.

First, the base recipe, in both extract and all-grain versions.

=======================================
Extract Version
1 lb Light Liquid Extract
.5 oz Generic Hops (3.5% AA)

All_Grain Version
1.5 lb American Two-Row
.5 oz Generic Hops (3.5% AA)
=======================================

So, The first thing to do is brew up the base version, so you have something to compare the others to. Then, all you do is make a different beer, and add 1/2 pound of your desired specialty grain to see what effect it has.

In fact, I would view this as an experiment with no end point. Once you make the base beer, and have a point to compare from, you can make a quick beer to judge the effect of almost anything you find.

As an added bonus, think of all the extra beer you'll have on hand!