Archive for April, 2008

“When [John McCain] says, ‘we have the highest quality of health care in the world in America,’ he is speaking as a man who has enjoyed a lifetime of government-run care.”

Wednesday, April 30th, 2008

Ezra Klein writes:

As Sarah Arnquist has written, aside from his awful internment in a Vietnamese prison camp, it is hard to find a day in McCain’s life when he was not sheltered by the government-run health care he now claims to loathe. Born the son of a Navy admiral, he was cared for by Navy physicians during his childhood. After graduating from high school, he enrolled in the U.S. Military Academy, and the military’s care continued until he retired from the service in 1981. In 1982, he won a seat in Congress, ushering him into the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program, and in 2001, he qualified for Medicare. When he says, “we have the highest quality of health care in the world in America,” he is speaking as a man who has enjoyed a lifetime of government-run care.

Don’t forget to pull the ladder up after you, McCain!

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Old Ingredients Pale Ale

Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008

This brew gets its name because almost 1/3 of the grain bill, and half the hops, were ingredients that I’d had in my fridge or other storage since sometime around 2004. All smelled and tasted fresh (with the exception of one ounce of the Magnum hops, which had an aroma that I could only describe as “silage” and which made me regret not opening the hops beforehand for a sniff. The odor dissipated rather quickly as the wort heated up.)

This is my first all-grain batch since 2004.

The tale of the tape, courtesy of Beersmith:

Brewed 4/20/2008

10.75 gallons

21.00 lb Brewers Malt 2-Row (Briess)
1.00 lb Caramel Malt – 10L (Briess)
1.00 oz Magnum (US) (old 2) [12.24 %] (60 min) (First Wort Hop)
1.00 oz Magnum (US) (old) [11.66 %] (60 min) (First Wort Hop)
2.00 oz Cascade (old) [1.81 %] (15 min)
2.00 oz Amarillo [8.30 %] (2 min)
2.00 oz Cascade (new NB 2) [6.90 %] (2 min)

Fermentis US-05 yeast

Measured Original Gravity: 1.054 SG
Bitterness: 44.8 IBU
Est Color: 4.2 SRM

Odd observation — I pitched the same strain of yeast into both fermenters, but from two different lots and vendors. The yeast I bought from Northern Brewer, lot number 11 2008 OQBC, had a much longer lag than the yeast I bought from MoreBeer, with lot number 05 2009 VWBC. Has anybody else noticed this?

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Two Great Tastes that Taste Great Together

Wednesday, April 16th, 2008

Two of my favorite software bloggers, Jeff Atwood and Joel Spolsky, have joined forces at stackoverflow.com.

This ought to be good.

Posted in Compu-Geeky | No Comments »

Hop Comparisons

Monday, April 14th, 2008

Pursuant to a discussion on the Northern Brewer forums, here’s a spreadsheet comparing various hop varieties. Data comes from Brew Your Own.

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Drinking Experimentale

Saturday, April 12th, 2008

I drank a couple of pints of the oiled ale last night.

There is a good hop aroma in the nose, and a nice dark copper color. Head formation is pretty good — the oil definitely doesn’t appear to have hurt in this respect.

Tasting, the first impression is of powerful hop bitterness. It is almost too much for this beer, as it’s fairly light-bodied, but it is an acceptable level of bitterness. It’s fairly intensely fruity, which is not surprising given that it was seriously underpitched, and there is a nice spiciness from the Mount Hood finishing hops.

Next time I will probably dial back the bittering hops a bit, and pitch more yeast.

Vital statistics from Beersmith:

Measured Original Gravity: 1.039 SG
Measured Final Gravity: 1.006 SG
Actual Alcohol by Vol: 4.29 %
Bitterness: 37.7 IBU
Est Color: 10.6 SRM

Brewed 2/18/2008
Kegged 3/29/2008

EDIT: Tasting again tonight, I am thinking that I am getting a whiff of diacetyl. Again, not surprising given the underpitching, but I don’t think it ruins the beer.

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You people cannot read my mind

Wednesday, April 9th, 2008

I have to keep reminding myself of that.

It’s not clear from the previous post how I will get one chest freezer to keep things at two different temperatures. That’s because it’s impossible to do that with just a chest freezer.

What I plan to do is to keep the chest freezer cold enough to maintain the lowest temperature I need held. Anything that needs to be warmer will be heated to the proper temperature, probably with a heating pad.

One of the features planned for this temperature controller is a “master cool” mode, where the master cooling device will not run as long as everything is already cool enough. In my case, this would be the freezer, and the idea is that if the freezer does not run constantly, energy will be saved.

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