The following little clip is really hilarious.  Check it out.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0S5EN7-RtI

The brew session started out on Saturday with a trip to More Beer in Riverside to pick up some grain and yeast.  All of this stuff was on hand here but Wolfie needed to go to stock up for her Mead thing.  The DG ranch has most all of the specialty grains in 5 lb cans in addition to the large amounts of base malt.

The recipe for the Robust Porter is pretty straight forward right out of the Jamil book, “Brewing Classic Styles“.  I have been having trouble with my PC lap top crashing Windows and the program that I use (Pro Mash) is on that computer.  So, I was rushing before it crashed again to write up the recipe for printing.  The computer crashed a couple of times before I finished writing up the recipe and in the heat of the battle with the computer I did not account for doubling the batch size for the hops.  Oh No Mr. Bill I only included half the amount of hops.  The IBU for this porter is going to be a little slim, damn!  The recipe’s are for 6 gal and I always do 12 gal batches so I have to double the grain bill.

Yeast starters in 2,000 ml with the use of a stir plate is the way to go for healthy yeast.  The benefits of the starter really paid off as you can see in the photo above.  The blow off tube was absolutely necessary for this 6 gal wort in the 6.5 gal fermenter.  The 1,800 ml of yeast starter were pitched around 4 PM and the damn thing woke me up in the middle of the night with its violent blub…blub…blub…..blubblubblub in the blow off glass.  Good thing the temperature has been behaving in the San Gabriel valley.  The fermentation started at 68 degrees and climbed to 72 after two days.

The starting OG is really high at 1.070 and for this Robust Porter a touch over the style guidelines.  The efficiency of the More Beer Brew Structure is around 80% and the recipe’s are written for 70%.  I like it!

This porter may be drinkable and then again it may be fish food for the bay.  The hop profile is going to be pretty thin.  The iMac is great but there is not a good replacement for the Pro-mash software.  Trying Beer Tools currently is not satisfying to say the least.  So I am not sure what I am going to do with my funky old PC laptop.  Maybe the solution is just to divide the iMac hard-drive in two divisions and run Windows on a small portion of the drive so that the Pro-mash software can find a stable home.

Mead!  What the hell is this abomination anyway.  Well as I have recently observed, mead is a honey fermented beverage for old people, aka Wolfie!  The DG brewery supplied the equipment but the work of brewing the mead was all Inga’s.  What a mess and sticky glob of goo that mead thing is. The brewery may not recover from the spilled honey.  Wolfie added some dark DME (dry malt extract) and honey to the boil kettle.  She added some hops casually by the handful – no measurements allowed here – and that was it!  Her yeast was some thing off of the back shelf along with some bathroom scrapings she got from behind the sink.  Its supposed to add a bit of tartness to the mead.  Hmmmm, can’t wait to try that out.  If I survive I will let you know about the “Tartness”.

The final batch was a “short beer” or “small beer” made from the final running’s from the Robust Porter mash.  There was still quite a bit of sweet wort to be had from the mash so we ran it off as a short beer.  Its OG was around 1.040 and boiled down to around 3 gal.  I added a bunches of hops to the mess.  The idea of a short beer is not new.  In fact it is a very old technique but not one that I have had the chance or desire to use.  Maybe that will change in the future.

If you peal an onion it all the way down – is it at the center? For cooking most of us know that the onion is a wonderful aromatic addition to many things. The outer tough skin is removed and maybe the the first layer or so before the gastronomic concoction begins. I personally have never found an Onion at the center of that aromatic goodness and I have sauteed fried basted and chopped a few. However, she got me thinking. Where is my Onion?

The movie, “So She Married an Axe Murderer” which came out what seems like a long time ago featuring Mike Myers, left me with such a lingering memory. Just a peal of the Onion that is still really pungent in my memory. I was recently widowed and found myself in love with a beautiful wonderful woman. I was left with three young children teenagers -sort of – and she had three young children. I remember, no its more than memory, its burned into my soul, that movie and how much in love I was with Erin. I still love her and always will. The Onion or several layers are tied to the loss of my wife and all of those feelings afterward. These are all triggered by that movie. Does it ever really go away, those feelings of love and loss – regret despair or frustration? I am still digging down further pealing off layers to find the Onion.

Its now 18 years later and a new life with wonderful relationships. During these so many years I have achieved so much graduating from Cal State University Los Angeles First in my class and going on to two graduate degrees one from UCLA and another from the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine and enjoy such a wonderful career as a nurse anesthetist and faculty member as clinical instructor in anesthesiology at USC. These onion layers are so diverse involving multiple and various work growth situations that the onion has grown very large the more I keep pealing. The chopping block is overflowing now. Have I left out anything. Of course I have. The onion is huge and today all I am thinking about is my friend at work and the lingering taste of  the “Woman, Woman, Woman Thing” Ala Mike Myers.

My life, like the onion, has had numerous layers. Is this what the Onion is all about? Really I have to say no. Well maybe – partially at least.

OK, coming back to the original situation at work in which my friend and I have been caught up in. We work together and deal with an array of personnel all having their own agenda’s with personal demands and goals. Its really tough dealing with conflict in interpersonal relationships especially when they are tied to role identity and professional performance. Hence, the Onion. Its kind of a matter of He Said, She Said whipped up into a frenzy by a monster food processor. Here is just one idea about this layer of the Onion.

When I feel attacked or threatened at work or in my personal life my first reaction is either defensive self justification or anger.  Often if I get really upset its followed by depression. Its almost a Kubler-Ross thing. There are a couple of onion layers there to peal. After I get past those, its a lucky day when I can see or peal outside of myself.  I had an Ah-Ha moment the other day when I was able to see a piece of some one else onion.  This got me thinking about writing.

A major Onion layer was revealed when I was able to see or appreciated what others were dealing with in these conflict’s. Conflict always has these multiple layers. All I can say now without being too cryptic is that for me a major step forward in pealing the onion of conflict down is appreciating the other side and seeing their Onion.  People are amazing when they are onions.

I split the slurry into two 1000 ml Erlenmeyer flasks with a bit of fresh wort in them. After a couple hours on some new wort to roust the yeast the little buggers took off like a ….. bat out of hell? Yes, it took off too quick so I had to let it sit and add additional fresh wort to the yeast two hours before I planned to pitch it to the new batch. Now that it is sitting on the beer in the carboy’s they are very happy.

My plan for the day was to brew up a somewhat simple American Pale Ale recipe from “Brewing Classic Styles” by Jamil Zainasheff and John Palmer of Brew Strong fame.  On the new system plans don’t always go the way it use to.  Maybe that’s the point of keeping it simple ….. trying to get an expected result.  Well, it did not go perfectly and that is what I expected.

The Mash was perfect holding 152 degrees with a recirculation through the Hot Liquor tank heat exchanger.  The Sparge was a little long at 90 minutes.  I have been using a refractometer to check “the numbers” during the brewing process.  Calibration of the instrument was the first thing I did this morning with distilled water.  The Brix scale number that the Refractometer reading gave me after 30 minutes of boiling was 16 which equates out to about 1.066 on the hydrometer.  My target was more like 1.050 after 30 minutes of boiling so I knew I was heading into IPA territory.  No problem just add more hops, right?  My American Pale Ale had turned into a bigger beer.  Most likely the 90 minute Sparge and the fine crush of the grain was at fault.  Next time I will take this into consideration.  More later.

OK, I know you are asking yourself now, What is a Beer Sculpture? No, its not a tower of beer cans. A Beer Sculpture is a welded metal piece of art that holds several brewing pots in the creation of Beer Wort. A typical Beer Structure holds three different kettles identified as the Hot Liquor Tank, Mash Tun, and the Boil Kettle. In a four kettle system there is the addition of a Lauder Tun but our Mash Tun functions as both. The Beer Sculpture not only holds the kettles but provides a frame for the burners and pumps that run the system.  This sculpture is a right to left flat structure which runs on two pumps. Its totally awesome.

Prior to purchasing this 20 gallon system, I was using 15 gallon kettles (10 gallon system) on a make-shift rig consisting of two Banjo burners and an overturned metal trash can to hold the Mash Tun. It was a one pump system that worked very well but required two people to lift the Boil Kettle off the ground after the sparge to set it on the Banjo burner. This was a gravity sparging setup. Now of course that problem is solved in fine style due to the two pumps and multiple burners. Thank you More Beer.

This 2100 Brew Sculpture from B3, is managed through the use of two controllers that fire up and off to control the temperature of the Hot Liquor tank and the Mash Tun enabling fine management of the wort creation process.

In the morning I will fire the thing up, check all the fittings and clean the entire system with PBW. The next brew day will probably be next week sometime and I will post some pictures of the event.

Actually, the mess up happened the day before when I went to the grain store – More Beer in Riverside – the happiest place in the whole world, just like Disneyland!  I won’t describe to whole messed up event but its just a matter of doubling the specialty malts for the recipe.  Its like the story when God was handing out Legs and she thought he said KEGS and replied, “I’ll take two fat ones.”  I was looking at the recipe thinking it was for 6 gal and doubled the specialty malts because we were brewing up a 12 gal batch.  What was intended to be an ESB turned out to be an American Amber Ale.  So no worries – I just adjusted to hopping rate and changed the yeast and bingo we are back in the style guidelines.  Its just a different beer.

The bottles are sterilizing in the dishwasher and the coffee is perking in the pot so its off to bottling time this afternoon.  Here is the recipe for 12 gal. batch of an American Amber Ale:

Malt Bill: includes 24 lb English Pale Malt; 2 lb C-15; 1 lb C-120

Hops: Magnum 1 oz. 60 min boil then East Kent Goldings 2 oz at 10 min and 2 oz at flame out. (This is on the fly changes OK because I messed up the grain bill remember).

Mash at 152 for an hour and Sparge at 170 degree to a total of 14.5 gal.  Boil for an hour adding yeast nutrient and bingo its wort.

OG is 1.062 high than expected by a couple of points but whose counting?

FG is 1.012  pretty attenuated.

Tasty now before carbonation so we will see in a month how it came out.

Its just the gentle drizzle of fall and the promise of things to come we are all hoping for.  Weather is great in Southern Cal.  Now all the talk is about the potential mud slides, reminds me of “Mud Slide Slim and the New Horizon”.  Maybe that’s what got me thinking about Robert Frost and his “Stopping by Woods” thing.

Another incidence that has got me into this somber mood is the return of a good friend from the East Coast following a funeral of a family member.  Young man, 30 something, too tired to be driving.  You know the rest of the story.  He left a young wife and family behind him on that blind turn that he was too tired to pay attention to.  He stopped by woods on snowy evening too.

So today is a good day to be alive and grateful of all the things around us that are exciting and new.  Its also a good day to be pensive if necessary and read a little poetry; so I leave you with this classic by Robert Frost.

Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

The New York Times Opinion section had a great statement today concerning this announcement,

“Mr. Obama has bolstered this country’s global standing by renouncing torture, this time with credibility; by pledging to close the prison camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba; by rejoining the effort to combat climate change and to rid the world of nuclear weapons; by recommitting himself to ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; and by offering to engage Iran while also insisting that it abandon its nuclear ambitions.”

In the NPR news program Left Right and Center, the topic of discussion turned toward the awarding of this prestigious award. The comments were mixed and portrayed the ambivalence that surrounds this announcement. Will Pres Obama fulfill the expectations that are now heaped upon him or will he like Henry Kissinger, secretary of state to Richard Nixon who won the prize in 1973 for establishing a cease-fire in Vietnam be viewed as a total disappointment? Henry Kissinger winning the Noble Peace Prize is thought by some to be the theater of the absurd after he escalated the war in Viet Nam!

Former President Jimmy Carter received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for his efforts to “wage peace” through negotiations with world leaders. But the award was also viewed as a signal of disapproval toward the Bush administration’s march to war with Iraq, of which Carter was a vocal opponent. Is the election of Obama is another world vote of disapproval against the Bush campaign of disinformation, and global US government expansionism. Maybe.

My bet is that this is a voice from outside the US saying, “Thank you America for waking up! Thank you for joining the civilization of the world and seeking to end the proliferation of atomic weapons, encourage the reduction of global warming and initiating talks that will settle the disputes between the Israelis and the Palestinians. I think the New York Times said it better.

Be on the alert for Moon Cakes, they are fattening!  As reported in the LA Times, Moon Cakes are the top choice for desert on this special day.  Yummy.  If you have not stocked already with a box of Moon Cakes and do not know where to look,  China Town might be a good bet or check out this resource in another Times article.

This anent Chinese Festival has its roots in legend.  In a distant time across the oceans in the mythical time of Yi a great archer, the legend was born of how he shot the moon.  No not in the 20th century sense of “shooting the moon” but literally with a bow and arrow.  In another old Chinese story Chang Er flew to the moon, where she has lived ever since.   During the Moon Festival you might see her dancing on the full moon of Autumn.

The Chinese Moon Festival is traditionally held on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month.  In the Chinese Calender it is usually marked in big Orange or Yellow letters as something very special.  It’s also known as the Mid-autumn Festival and  is deeply embedded in Chinese and Vietnam tradition.  The Moon Festival is one of the most important events for the Chinese taking the place of Thanksgiving and Christmas here in the West.

The Moon Festival is a time for families and reunions.  When the full moon rises, families get together to have parties, eat and watch the full moon.  Giving and eating moon cakes is a part of the festivities.   For the Chinese the Fall Festival is a celebration of harvest much like Thanksgiving is here in the West.  This is just one other reason why the Chinese are so fond of the Moon Festival time.

The Moon Festival is also a romantic one. A perfect night for the festival is if it is a quiet night without a silk of cloud and with a little mild breeze from the sea. Lovers spend such a romantic night together tasting the delicious moon cake with some wine while watching the full moon. Even for a couple who can’t be together, they can still enjoy the night by watching the moon at the same time so it seems that they are together at that hour. A great number of poetry has been devoted to this romantic festival. Hope the Moon Festival will bring you happiness.

The moon cake is the food for the Moon Festival. The Chinese eat the moon cake at night with the full moon in the sky.  From About Chinese Culture.

So, tonight family and friends will gather here while some mad Occidental cooks up traditional Western food for the hungry.  We will finish up the evening by sipping wine, laughing at the moon and just maybe eating a moon cake or two.  Thinking about it now most likely it is best to cut one of those beaties up into a couple of pieces and share it among friends.  Less calories that way and more fun to share.

I may not be a gun toting NRA member but I respect her moxy.  Anyone that can come dressed to kill and sign up to be Vice Pres in an evening hot pant gown has got to have something going down good.  At least that’s my assessment.

Meanwhile back on the ranch we are brewing up some outrageous IPA.

Seth called today.  His little sweet monster of a dog ran out of their apartment door in San Francisco straight into traffic.  OH NO MR. BILL!!!!  That dog must take after another family, yes? Car creches later the dog is at the vets with a dislocated hip.  How much will this cost you ask.  Don’t ask is a better option.