Saturday, June 14, 2008

Another weekend

Nothing really new to write today, but Marcie is at her WW meeting and I have some time to kill before I meet her for coffee. I will probably try the Red Line Wheat tomorrow since that will have been one week in the bottle and the Cubs are on TV tomorrow.

This past week has been an interesting one here in Lincoln and Nebraska in general. Severe thunderstorms and tornadoes ran across the state, taking the lives of 4 boy scouts at a camp in western Iowa. The sirens went off in Lincoln on Wednesday night but there was no confirmed tornado on the ground. The north side of Lincoln received reports of 5-6 inches of rain in a 24 hour period, and our neighbors had 3-4 inches of water in their basement. Their carpet was floating. I took a beer over for them on Thursday since I was pretty sure they needed it. Our sump pumps worked great, and we are dry. Thank GOD!!

In the sports news, Cubs left fielder Alfonso Soriano is on the DL for 6 weeks after being hit in the hand while batting in the 2nd inning Wednesday night. One broken bone, but the Cubs will miss hit bat and base speed while he recovers. The other guys will have to step up, and I hope they can keep up to get him back fo the run at the end of the season.

In beer news, Anheuser Busch may be purchased by a European company. Will their beer still suck?? Probably. For those of you who think Budweiser is an American icon, where do you think that the orginal proprietors came from?

I was searching for ideas for the next home brew, but I don't want to have to take out a second mortgage for the hops. I found an ESB recipe that called for 6 separate additions of hops. Figuring $4/oz, it came to $16 for just the hops. Keep on looking. I have a 4 day weekend for the July 4th holiday, so I might brew then.

Sunday, June 8, 2008

Lawnmower beer and other rantings

The Red Line Wheat is in the bottle. We sampled it (duh), but when we tested it for alcohol content a surprising number came up.....2.0%. Not even the equivalent of a mass produced domestic light beer. On the bright side, we have a session beer that tastes all right. There is a hint of lemon to it, and should be a real refresher when the Nebraska heat hits. As far as a lawnmower beer, I could probably mow all the yards in the neighborhood while drinking this and be good enough to grill when I got done.

So that being said, we might try something different the next time we do a wheat beer, but we'll see when we try it in a couple weeks. I might test the ABV when we crack open a bottle.

On a completely different note, we are watching a show on Discovery Health about the Duggars. IF you have not heard of them, they are the family that keeps on having kids. Marcie says #18 is on the way as we speak. It has been said before, so I will say it again. It's a vagina, not a clown car!!! I'll take arguements for birth control for $500 Alex. I'll be calling my urologist now since I can barely handle a dog.

On a weight loss note, my wife has been doing Weight Watchers since just before last Thanksgiving, and by consequence I have been doing it as well. Since then she has lost 54.8 pounds and I am down 44.4 (total of 99.2, almost 100 pounds). As the great Vin Scully said, How about that?

Battery is almost dead, better wrap this up.

Bottling Day!!

I was starting to get a bit worried. The batch of Red Line Wheat was going strong in the fermenter for four days, and was still showing bubbles about every thirty seconds until Friday morning. But by the time I got home from work on Friday, the bubbles had stopped and the surface a slightly red hue to it. I have no idea why, but maybe it will look different when it comes out of the carboy.

The name Red Line Wheat has many meanings. On the Saturday that we brewed, it was a nice sunny day in Lincoln, so my wife decided to get some sun outside while the boil was going on. She got a little more than she should have, and for a full six days there was a red line across her chest where her shirt was. It has since turned to a more tan color, but the name stuck. For those of you who have had the pleasure of visiting Chicago and using the mass transit system, you might recognize that the red line train is one of the few things that Cubs fans and White Sox fans have in common, as it makes stops near both baseball parks. The first trip my wife and I took to Chicago, we got on one of those red line trains at about 10PM. I was wearing my Kerry Wood jersey, and the train was headed northound filled to standing room only with White Sox fans. I did catch a fair amount of crap on that train ride.

On another note, regarding the news from the Dallas Cowboys camp. Jerry, way to go getting the checkbook out and locking T.O. up for the next few years. But can you do something about Tony and that Simpson girl. She screwed up his season last year. Don't let it happen again. Hey Romo find youself a non-celebrity woman.

Sunday, June 1, 2008

Happy Accidents??

You remember that painting guy on PBS, Bob Ross? One of his catch phrases was "we don't make mistakes, just happy accidents." Well, we will see about that in a few weeks when we can drink the Summer Wheat Ale. Found the recipe online as a clone for Sam Adams Summer Ale, but I neglected to read the recipe when getting my steeping bag ready. It called for one half pound of Cara-pils dextrin, but I put the whole pound in. We will see what happens. The recipe I used is listed below.

3.3 lb Pale Liquid extract
3.3 lb Wheat Liquid extract
1.0 lb flaked wheat grain
1.0 lb Cara-pils dextrin
1.0 oz Tettnang hops (50 minutes)
1.0 oz Tettnang hops (10 minutes)
1.0 oz lemon zest (5 minutes)
2.0 grams Seeds of Paradise (5 minutes)
2.0 gallons water
Saflager S23 dry lager yeast

The grains were steeped at around 155 degrees F for 30 minutes. After boiling, wort was cooled and added to 3.0 gallons cold water in fermentation vessel. Yeast was added when vessel temperature hit 78 degrees F. Bubbles started to appear after about 3 hours, and foamy head seen about 14 hours after pitching. The yeast was used as a suggestion from Kirk.