Well, Miss Jiwaku and I are paying close attention to the news about Japan’s ongoing crisis in Fukushima, and the good news is that it seems to have stabilized. (The bad news is that it still doesn’t seem to be getting better, so the stability is probably precarious and it’s stable but at a very dangerous point.) It seems a little self-indulgent to worry too much, since compared to a lot of people in Japan we’re insanely lucky right now. But unlike some people around here, we’re both acutely aware that national borders, as fictions, do nothing to block the …
Category: BEER & HOMEBREWING
Cascadian Brewday: St. Vitus of Cascadia RyePA
Since I’ll be going on a trip soon, I wanted to fill up all my fermenters, so I’d have something bubbling way while I’m gone. Therefore, though I rarely have two brewdays in a row, I decided to go for it today. Yesterday’s Saison was a long, slow mash, but I figured today I’d get a nice mix of grains, including a lot of highly enzymatic base grains, and just let ‘er sit for an hour or 90 minutes, and then get the damned boil done. Today’s quick brew is a RyePA, which is an American IPA with a substantial …
Belgian Brewday: L’identité Secrète (“Super” Saison)
I’ve been ill for the last week or so, and this prevented me from going on a trip with my writing group to Jeonju. I’d promised to show them around, and I have to say, it was a bit heartbreaking when I wrote up a short guide to places to eat and drink in Jeonju and Iksan, not just because I was suddenly dying to eat some of their amazing, wonderful food and make a last trip with those friends (since several of them are leaving), but also just out of a desire to see those cities again. But when …
Belgian Brewday: La Corée en a Quatre (Saison)
For those who don’t live in Korea, the name of this Saison (Korea Has Four) is a bit of a quip; anyone who has lived here a month or two knows that for some reason, the fact that Korea has four seasons is considered very important by a lot of people here — a fact lampooned in at least one film I’ve seen, Dasepo Sonyeo (Dasepo Naughty Girls). I could get into why this is, and the reasons that such a common thing in the temperate zone attained such an important status in Korea, but this is a post on …
Rye Brewday: Wonmisan Kvass
Yesterday, I managed to bottle a couple of batches that I suppose couldn’t be more like night and day: a batch of Berliner Weisse (about 2-3% alcohol, a gorgeous blonde color, and somewhat sweetish sour — though less sour than I expected given how much of the sugar was converted to lactic acid) and a batch of dubbel (~7% alcohol, brownish-black in color, and very dry yet also flavorful). The dubbel went into 500ml bottles, and the Berliner Weisse (which would have been a perfect keg beer, if I had kegs) went into 1L bottles, including a number of plastic …
The Brewsters
With all my posts about brewing here, you might think I’ve stopped writing… but I haven’t. Indeed, I have a short story or two on the go, and I’m hoping to have them go somewhere soon. One is called The Clockworks of Hanyang, which is developing nicely now (I posted about it close to a month ago, and it’s still developing, albeit slowly). The other story is “The Brewsters,” a tale of post-apocalyptic brewing. The idea had occurred to me a few times, but finally when it came up during a discussion on the homebrewing board I frequent, I decided …
‘Tis the Saison
So the last couple of days were busy: I was given only a few days to submit some “necessary paperwork” to some committee, I’m not sure which one or whether it’s of any use to them. I also formulated my final exam for my Film course, which I’ll be giving today at noon. And of course I was grading student work. But along with all that, I finally got in a mazing session–that is, I made some mead, which I discussed here–and I made a beer too. Le Premier Fois Saison Saison is, as the name suggests, a seasonal beer. …
No Boil Bokbunja Melomel
UPDATE (17 Dec. 2010): I wrote this up on Tuesday but forgot to post it. Therefore, it refers to a future act which actually happened on Wednesday. Just so you know. The melomel, incidentally, is in a bucket right by my desk, bubbling away happily. Must remember to do a DAP addition this evening. And by the way, I haven’t racked the Golden Strong to clear, but I should be doing that soon. (As soon as I can rack my Persimmoned Wheat off the fruit and put it in a closet on my balcony to clear.) ORIGINAL POST (written 14 …
Brew Plan: All-Wheat Berliner Weisse
Making a beer with only wheat in your grist isn’t supposed to be easy, but I heard someone refer to it on a podcast, and ever since then I’ve wondered how to do it. The problem, of course, is the mash tun. When you brew with grains, you have to mash them, and wheat is not like barley. Now, when I say “mash your grains”, I don’t actually mean mashing them up. It means, basically, soaking the crushed grains in warm water to get some nice chemical reactions, like loosening up proteins, getting enzymes to convert starches to sugars, and so …
Pseudo-Sahti Boiled
I’m not sure how soured it went in the 36 hours or so that it sat there–I could taste a touch of tartness, but not a lot–but I figured 36 hours was long enough to let the wort sit, so I boiled up the Pseudo-Sahti on Wednesday morning, with the following “hop schedule”: First Wort: 10 grams Amarillo 5 grams Cascade (because I didn’t have enough Amarillo) 40 grams crushed Juniper berries 15 grams uncrushed Juniper berries 2 grams Laurel Leaves 3 Minutes before Flameout: Irish Moss (oops, should have been earlier… been forgetting the Irish moss a lot lately!) …