No beer made on Saturday. Why? This:
That’s an 80kg. drum of liquid malt extract, which requires a drum wrench to open. I didn’t have a drum wrench … although I do now. Hopefully the beer will get made next week.
Drum wrenches: warehouse supply places = $55. Amazon = $8. Um…..
So this weekend, Dan and I will be brewing a bunch of IPA — probably 10 gallons of “regular” IPA, and 5 gallons or so of DIPA (double IPA for all of you not in tune with beer acronyms — basically stronger and hoppier beer). Using extract due to time constraints (daycare picnic in the morning) and ease of use and … availability, since we’ll soon have 175 pounds of the crap to deal with. It remains to be seen if such a volume of raw material can be effectively dealt with in the next few months!
Here, for the hell of it, are the recipes:
Regular IPA (10 gallons)
DIPA (5 gallons)
Depends on what’s actually on hand, but varying amounts of Simcoe, Amarillo, and Columbus may make it into the final products …. we’ll see when I take stock of things tonight.
Should be a productive afternoon!
Usually, beer is a thing of joy. Occasionally not, however, as was the case last summer, when the founding father of beer journalism and writing, Michael Jackson, passed away. This morning, I was directed to the site “i miss michael,” dedicated to memories of Michael Jackson. I had watched/read/heard most of those already, but being in the mindset of mourning and grief from yesterday’s post, it seemed like a good confluence to put this one up.
This weekend, though, I’ll be thoroughly involved in the more fun side of beer, judging at the Sam Adams Longshot competition down in Boston.
From the Palo Alto Weekly, May 7, 2007:
Mary Ager
Mary Hinderlie Ager, 66, a resident of Palo Alto, died of cancer in her home April 23.
She was born in Tyler, Minn. She grew up in Waseca, Minn., Midway, Wash., and West Seattle, Wash. In 1963 she graduated cum laude from St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minn. She earned a master’s degree in teaching at Brown University in 1964 and was awarded a doctorate in English in 1973 from the University of Pittsburgh. She married Tryg Ager, of Eau Claire, Wisc., in 1964. They lived in Pittsburgh, Penn., until 1967, then in Binghamton, N.Y., until they moved to Palo Alto in 1978.
She is remembered by friends from high school in Washington, where she produced musicals and plays, and by classmates from college, where she sang with the St. Olaf College Choir for four years. This provided a foundation for a lifelong commitment to excellence in choral music, including several years with the Binghamton Symphony Chorus in New York, and more than 20 years with the Peninsula Women’s Chorus in Palo Alto. In recent years she, with about a dozen friends, formed the JewelTones ensemble to perform barbershop and popular music for numerous audiences in the Palo Alto area.
She believed that her musical groups were best thought of as communities of friends, and that bonds of friendship and a sense of community could raise the delight, joy and spiritual quality of music for both performers and audiences. She articulated this belief in her co-editorship with Frank Farris of a volume, “Take up the Song,” that commemorated Patricia Farris Hennings, who conducted the Peninsula Women’s Chorus for many years.
In Palo Alto she was active in Parents Nursery School for many years.
Professionally she was a technical editor for Computer Curriculum Corporation and Aspect Communications, where colleagues fondly remember her good humor, editing skills and ability to form friendships that were conducive to excellence into the workplace. Her writing and editing extended beyond work to development and publication of personal memoirs of several Holocaust survivors and veterans of World War II. She participated in the production of books, films, presentations and performances related to the “Song of Survival” project — the story of how women imprisoned during World War II in Sumatra survived physically and spiritually.
She is survived by her husband of 44 years, Tryg Ager of Palo Alto; son, Andrew and his wife Laura; daughter, Emily; brothers, John and Mark; sisters, Lois and Anne; one grandchild; and numerous extended family members and friends.
A family service and visitation has been held.
Memorial donations may be made to the Barbara and Richard Tobias Fund at the University of Pittsburgh, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Parents Nursery School in Palo Alto or the Peninsula Women’s Chorus.
Does this bring it home for me more? I hope so. Explains the lack of posting, though … I have not felt like exposing my emotions on this one yet. I Hope that putting this out there helps me cope a bit better.
Yep. I’m now the Chair of the Lebanon Energy Advisory Committee. Woo-hoo! It’s an agenda-setting and meeting-leading position, essentially, but it is nice to be “in charge.” It’s also a chance to really make a difference and have an impact in my city. Looking very much forward to the challenge!
Um, the big new thing is a NEW BABY on the way! Due October 9.
In vastly lesser news, this place has changed a bit — dual-column theme now, and the 2.5 version of Wordpress. I know, I know, fascinating. But, this can do neat stuff with photos now, all on its own. Witness:
Spent yesterday at home with a (not really all that) sick toddler, which was actually a lot of fun, since he wasn’t really sick at all, but the evening contained the notable bits.
1) Kicked off the Lebanon Energy Advisory Committee with our first meeting, which went well. Should be a great committee to be on!
2) Came home and noted that enough snow had melted on the hill to warrant taking a quick peek for the wedding ring I had lost in the snow in December. 2 minutes later, I was holding my ring again! (The ring WANTS to be found!) WOOHOO!
Would that all days were that good.
Taking a break from the perpetual state of catching up on New Yorkers, I recently chugged through a few novels:
Forever appears to be the basis of the newish Fox show “New Amsterdam,” about an immortal detective; the base plotline is ripped wholesale from Hamill’s novel (guy who lives forever in Manhattan) but treated with all manner of annoying flashiness (keeps on dying-but-not, works for the city, etc.) and breaks the cardinal rule of Hamill’s book, mainly that the main character CANNOT leave Manhattan — if he does so, instant death. At any rate, it’s a pretty good read, and awesome for anyone who grooves on the history of New York City (like me).
The Book of Air and Shadows is a different kettle of fish entirely: it’s a book that takes The Da Vinci Code and administers a the literary equivalent of a vicious beatdown … with the same rough premise (and in the same vein as The Name of the Rose, etc.), Gruber creates a novel that’s engaging, interesting, more realistic, and most importantly: not maddeningly STUPID. I read DVC a few years back, and it was OK — a perfect airplane novel — but when we wound up watching the movie, that’s when I felt offended, angered, driven to extreme profanity … I mean, the combo of book and film is just an insult to those with intelligence above that of an amoeba. Gruber’s novel, although hamstrung from time to time by some oddball clunky prose stylings, is of an altogether different order. Characters come to life, do real things, act in real ways. Better yet, there are numerous sly digs at DVC that are laugh-out-loud funny if one has read both. Great book.
Strep throat = no goddamn fun. Sometimes, being sick allows you to relax, catch up on sleep, etc. This one, however, is 100% aggravating: eating and drinking = pain … even stuff like ice cream and pudding. Yogurt smoothies and Slim-Fast are about the sum total of foods taken into my mouth without pain this week. Arrrgh! Work, antibiotics, WORK!
From Garfield minus Garfield, easily one of the freakiest and most brilliant things I’ve seen on the ‘Tubes lately.
Then there’s this, from Playmobil:
Yes, that’s a Playmobil Security Checkpoint, and yes, it’s real. The best part about that thing is the commentary on Amazon.
