So, let’s see. I have stuff to do this afternoon–an afternoon/dinner appointment I put off a bunch of times, but which I really need to keep today–but I swear, when I get home today, I will rack the Gentle Haejeok Oatmeal Stout to secondary to let it clear. I’ve promised a few people samples of the yeast, because it’s a famous one–“Cry Havoc,” the yeast used by homebrewing legend Charlie Papazian. (Who’s on Twitter, yo!) The neat thing about Cry Havoc is that it works as both an ale and a lager yeast, depending on the fermentation temperatures you choose …
Tag: BEER & HOMEBREWING
Days Flying By…
Today was a busy day during which I didn’t get much done, which is odd since I have a lot to do this week. On Saturday, Miss Jiwaku and I joined Chris, a member of the crit group to which I now belong, at the 2010iSF film festival, where we saw 2001: A Space Odyssey and Aelita: The Revolt of the Robots in the morning. We were starving, so we left after that, but missed a screening of Metropolis with a live pianist playing the accompanying music, and The Forbidden Planet in the evening. On Sunday, we had crit group, …
The Coming of the Malt!
I finally received the malt I ordered on Tuesday — not that I was impatiently waiting for it, but I was wondering when it would turn up. I now have a grand total of five kilos of wheat malt, four or five kilos of munich malt, and about twelve kilos of pilsner malt. (I should have gotten some Vienna, but I guess I didn’t think of it when I ordered it.) Tonight, I’ll be bottling my JAO (of which I nabbed a sample, and it’s pretty nice — I’m bottling most of it still, but one bottle carbed in a …
Brewday: Gentle Haejeok Oatmeal Stout
So, I am brewing up an oatmeal stout at the moment. It’s based on Randy Mosher’s “Black Pirate Ship Stout” recipe, from the book Radical Brewing, which some kind soul input at Hopville here. The concept of this beer is a dark stout–though I held back on the black patent malt, and it won’t be quite as black as Mosher’s, I think–laced with a punch of spices. However, I was making this for Miss Jiwaku, who is a fan of stouts and who asked me to make a beer with a lower alcohol level so she could enjoy more of …
Upcoming Beer Stuff in Seoul
Folks, November’s shaping up to be a great month for beer in Seoul! Pretty much every weekend after next there’s an upcoming beer/brewing-related event in the city: The Korean Daum Brewing Club is having a Beer Festival on 13 October. It’s 25,000 won in advance, or 28,000 at the door. I may make it, I’m not sure; if I do, I’ll be entering a beer. The Homebrew Korea Brew Your Best Fest is happening the following weekend, on 20 November, at the Gangnam Oktoberfest. Again, it’s 25,000 won a person if you pay in advance (30,000 at the door), and …
100% Brett Brewday: All Brett Night at the Amarillo
This is a SHaSY, which is a less catchy name for a beer than a SMaSH brew (Single Malt and Single Hop), but since I used a few different malts, I went with a Single Hop and Single Yeast. I’m fermenting with 100% Brettanomyces Clausenii, which is a nutsy yeast — it’s a dice roll with this thing, as far as my research suggests, though one can get great results. (Usually Brett is used as a secondary yeast, to get interesting effects because as an originally wild yeast it can ferment sugars that the various strains of Saccharomyces Cerevisae (“beer …
Sour (Mini-)Mash, Second Try
Whoops, wrote this yesterday but got busy, so I’m posting it now. The present tense… that’s yesterday afternoon’s present tense. The souring didn’t happen, and the thermos didn’t seem to hold in the heat enough, so I’m going to try warm up the mash again to 50, and then sit it on a hot pad. That means today I’ll brew the Abbey Dubbel, and tomorrow the all-Brett. UPDATE: Uh, what? I assumed it hadn’t soured, because it didn’t smell sour, but in fact, it was very nicely tart when I just tasted it. So, all-Brett is on for today, while …
The Microme Century
I’ve been thinking for years that SF’s love affair with nanotech was really just a symptom of a disease afflicting both physicists and technocrats in general: microorganism envy, or rather, the envy of those who work with the fascinating microworlds of biology. Well, this article has some interesting suggestions about how the growing realization of just how much of a role bacteria play in human life, and the biosphere generally. Bacteria-mediated and bacteria-friendly surgery. The human Microme project. The mental health effects of bacteria in yogurt. This is definitely an article to check out for anyone who wants some idea …
More Books on Belgian Beer (and More)
I mentioned reading Jeff Sparrow’s Wild Brews a while back, and noted that I wanted to read about the other Belgian styles of beer, covered in other books in the same series. Well, I wish I’d gotten to them sooner, but I have finally gotten to Stan Hieronymous’ famous Brew Like a Monk: Trappist, Abbey, and Strong Belgian Ales and How to Brew Them, and Phil Markowski’s Farmhouse Ales: Culture and Craftsmanship in the Belgian Tradition. Both books are really good, though the latter is slimmer than the former. I don’t have a great deal to say about them, in part …
Homebrew Beer Bottle Labels
I’ve done up some labels for a few of the beers I have fermenting/conditioning now. I was lazy for the first few batches I brewed, but I want to make ’em pretty, especially the ones I’m bringing to the Brew-Off Festival in November, or giving away to friends. Writing a letter in marker on the swing-top-lid just isn’t cutting it anymore for me. They’re test trials, really, the labels I’ve done up thus far: I haven’t printed them up and have no idea how they will actually look on the bottles. But it’s a start. I figure once I find …