Looking Back

I've been feeling nostalgic lately. Remembering all the good times with family or friends; holidays, summer bonfires, drunken college shenanigans, late nights full of youth and laughter and ignorance of the future. Not that the future has held any horrible fate for many of us, but we were so close together in both physical proximity and emotional connections. Now we share neither of these.  I want to reach out to my old friends and rekindle that connection we had, reach out to family and let them know that this prodigal son didn't mean to abandon them.

I think that it is easier to look back on the past and remember the highlights than it is to look at your present and ignore the lows. College was bad for me in so many ways: the sleepless nights trying (and failing) to study, the waxing and waning (but never ceasing) levels of stress, the painful relationships, unhealthy and downright dangerous levels of caffeine. And life now is going well, I'm out of the kitchens and working as a brewer full time. I can take classes at SANCA at no cost, live walking distance from some of my friends, biking distance from work, have a wonderful girlfriend, a cool apartment in a fun city, and more money in my bank account than I think I ever have before (not that it's much, but I don't have to worry if splurging on guacamole will make my rent check bounce). And yet, life sucks.

Or better yet, my perception of my life sucks due to the chemical imbalances in my brain. Depression makes my life shitty, and only a combination of high-strength anti-depressants and shit-tons of weed (yay Washington state) keeps me functional enough to hold down a job and get me through the weeks.

And now it's way too fucking late in the evening. I need sleep.

Chinese Pole!

A curious thing happened last week. I took Sara over to SANCA to drop her off at her German wheel class, and somehow I ended up enrolling in a Chinese pole class! I've curious about learning pole for years, and out of the blue this opportunity fell into place.

Pole is super hard, and super tiring. After my first class, I was sore for two days afterward, and by the end of each two-hour class, I can barely move. So much of it demands musculature that I don't have yet, or body awareness to use the muscles I do have in just the right way. The class is small (just 6 of us), and we rotate turns on the pole frequently so we don't tire out too fast (and because we only have one pole to use...). But by then end, we are all worn out. Yesterday's class was especially tiring, as three of out six were missing, giving the rest of us twice as much time on the pole.

I am reminded of how I felt when I first learned aerial silks.hen I am on the ground, waiting to take my turn, I don't feel tired or weak, but as soon as I get up in the air all of my muscles turn to jelly and I can't hold whatever position I'm working on for more than a few seconds. It's been years since I've felt this way, and it's refreshing study something at a complete beginner level. I know that the muscles will come with time, so I try to focus more on the proper technique. 

And the technique is what it's all about. My instructor Nick is great at pointing out all the little things that help. So much of circus is about tiny little positions adjustments that have a huge impact, and Nick is great at highlighting these. Whether it's twisting your foot just so to maximize grip on the pole, or shifting weight in a way that doesn't seem to help now, but will open up new tricks as strength builds. On top of that, he seems to be actively improving his pedagogy, asking why one explanation or drill seems to work over some other. Having been in a coaching position myself, I understand how little tweaks in how you teach something, or even how you word your explanation can make a difference.

Two weeks in, with nine left to go, I am loving this class. Can't wait for the next one!

It Doesn't Fit...

I brewed a American Pale Ale about two weeks ago, (I never posted about it... grrrrr), and tonight I racked it over to secondary and added a 1/2 oz of Cascade hops for dry-hopping. I took a gravity reading, and it looks like it'll be around 4.5% ABV. A little lower than target, but oh well...

The problem is, I have a smaller bucket for secondary. I use a 6 gal bucket for primary fermentation, and I picked up a 5 gal bucket for secondary, but never got a second lid for that one, since I assumed the two buckets would have the same size lid. Nope! I didn't realize the problem until after I had racked everything over, and, desperate for a solution so I could go to bed, I simply placed a clean garbage bag over the whole thing, and tied it down tightly with butcher's twine. Hopefully this will work for a week or so, until the beer is ready for bottling. We'll see...

I am the kitchen

Tonight I ran and closed the kitchen all by myself. Which sounds silly and less impressive once I've written it down, but trust me, it's harder than it sounds.  See, normally when I work closing shift, I have someone working with me until 8:00. Since the kitchen closes at 9:00, I only have an hour to cook solo. On top of that, the days that I usually work are the days that we have our dishwasher, Lauren, closing with me. So even though I am doing all the cooking for the last hour, I have Lauren to help me clean and shut things down.

Tonight though, I worked all by myself from 5:00 to close. No Lauren to do dishes, no Buddy or Eric to help cook. Just me. And honestly, working the line by myself is weird in how it stresses me out. One ticket comes in, fine. Two tickets, no worries. But as soon as I have three or four tickets filling my board, I start stressing out, because there is only so much I can do at one time without fucking up (burning things, forgetting things, timing things poorly), and I hate having a long pickup on a ticket. Part of that might be carryover from working at The Garage, where the pickup on any ticket was never more than ten minutes, and usually closer to four minutes. I'm sure that most of the stress is needless, but it still got to me.

 But despite the stress, despite the fact that we had a party of 30 people hanging out from 5:30 to 8:00, despite the fact that Kristen ran FOH all by herself from 7:00 to close, and that just the two of us had to close everything, I still managed to get out of work at about ten past 10:00, which is earlier than I usually get done. So, that's pretty fucking cool.

BONUS BEER UPDATE!

I had an awesome conversation with Chinzi yesterday, and one of the things I talked about was how I probably spend too much money on beer, and don't brew my own beer often enough. The problem with that is I also want to start getting serious about getting certified as a Ciccerone, and doing so involves sampling lots of different beers to better understand different styles and variations within styles. So, to compromise between not spending too much money on beer and the need to study different beers, I've come up with a few rules to govern my beer consumption:

1. The only beers I will drink are the free beers I get from work (shift pint and weekly growler), and beers I've brewed myself.
2. The only exception to Rule 1 will be beers purchased for tasting/studying. Beers bought for this will have to be the same style as the last beer I brewed, and can only be bought when my beer is ready for consumption. This way, my own beer will be part of the tasting, and I can compare my own efforts to similar commercial beers.

I might buy a beer when I'm out at a bar with friends, but this doesn't happen often, and the money spent in this fashion is close to negligible.

Also, I'm brewing beer tomorrow. I'll write a post about it, if I remember to.

Job at Schooner Exact!

After two weeks of full-time work/on-the-job training, I can honestly say that I love my job at Schooner Exact.

The kitchen is small, so small that when we have four or five people working in there together, it can feel pretty crowded, especially when everyone needs counter space for prep. But most of the time, we only have two or three people working at a time, and space is less of an issue. The kitchen is also terribly under-equipped. We have no hood, and our hot line consists of one residential stove with four electrical (Not gas. Electrical!) burners, and the oven underneath, which is usually set to broil. We do have the advantage of having access to a HUGE walk-in fridge. Most of it is occupied with kegs, bottles, and other brewing-related things, but we are not lacking in refrigerator space. Despite some of our limitations, we manage to put out some kick-ass food. Definitely a step above the kitchens I've worked in in the past.

New city, new job!

About a month ago,  Sara and I took a minivan, packed a much of our belongings as we could safely squeeze into/on top of the van, and drove across the country. It was a beautiful five day drive. We saw old friends, beautiful views, took a detour to Yellowstone, and pretty much just had an awesome road trip. Sara had just got a new camera, and we took literally thousands of photos along the drive. At the end of it all? We arrived at our new home:

SEATTLE!!!

That's right. I moved from a tiny village of 600 people to a city of 3.5 million. It's a bit of a shock, realizing just how many people live here. But I'm getting used to it, and Sara and I are starting to get our bearings and learn our way around the city. After allowing myself a few weeks of lazy, restful unemployment, I started the job hunt. And after two weeks of applications, cover letters, and resume updates, I finally found a job that looked nice, and seemed to like me. As of Monday, I start as a full-time cook at Schooner Exact Brewing Co.

So, that's the life update in a nutshell. New job in a new city.

You know you're a brewer when...

Hah! I found this in my drafts folder, and thought I would share:

"The furnace at my house broke the other day. I noticed the house seemed colder than usual Monday morning, but didn't really think much of it.  I left for work and the house was still cold, but not that cold.  But that evening I received a text from my mother: Furnace broken. Sleeping at Nonnie's. "

The furnace was dead in the middle of January. We were staying in my grandparent's house to keep warm. And I had cider fermenting. I don't remember all the details, but by the time I got home from work, the house was in the 50's. I packed some clothes and toiletries for the night, grabbed the carboy of cider, and headed to a warmer house.

You see, my first thought when I got the text was not to worry about pipes bursting or houseplants dying or trying to sleep in a cold house. It was concern that the yeast I was using in the cider would not be happy fermenting below 65 degrees.

In the end, things worked out just dandy. The cider survived, fermented out completely, and is waiting to be bottled (probably this weekend).

10,000 Hours

I've been listening to Macklemore's Ten Thousand Hours (google it if you want to listen...), and it's got me thinking. The general theme of the song and Malcolm Gladwell's 10,000-Hour rule is this: to become truly great in your field, you should amass over 10,000 hours of experience. And while there are some that discredit this idea, arguing that lucky breaks and natural talent are just as important, the basic idea still remains.

If you want to be the best at something, spend time doing it.

Which is a problem for me. While I may not want to the the best brewer in the world, I sure as hell want to be a good one. And yet, I am not brewing (or studying brewing) often enough.  If you assume about 5 hours per batch of beer (brewing, racking, bottling, etc) and look at the number of batches I've made (around 30), I haven't even broken 4 digits. Even if we include time spent studying brewing techniques and related information  I'm still not sure I'm at 1000 hours. While I'm not hung up on the exact number of hours, the number is a quantitative answer to otherwise binary or qualitative questions (am I a good brewer/have I become a better brewer?).

And am I a good brewer? Given the feedback I've gotten from friends and family, I'd say yes. Most of the beer drinkers I know who have tried my brews have only (or at lest mostly) favorable things to say about my beers. One went as far as to tell me I consistently make the best home-brew he's tried (this might be partly due to the fact that I don't share the bad beers. I make myself drink them as punishment). However, I finally entered my first beer into a home-brew competition (hosted by Right Brain Brewery) and the results were not great. I had a average score of 33 out of 50.

Now there are several qualifiers I should through in. I don't know the number of entrants (though it was at least around 50. My beer was #47), I don't know the average score, and not every beer was reviewed by every judge. However, I can say that I did not win the overall competition, I did not win any of the style categories, and my beer only got a 30 from the Cicerone who judged. I'll post more about that beer and the feedback I got later.

The point is, there is definitely room for improvement. And how will I improve? By brewing over and over and over, learning from (and drinking) my mistakes, and celebrating my successes by repeating them (so I can understand what did work).

The New Project

So, in my last post, I hinted at a new brewing project. And I realize I've kept all of my loyal readers (all three? five? of you) waiting for too long. So here it is, my new goal:

Brew every BJCP beer style.
23 categories.
80 styles of beer.
And I want to do it in under a year.

Some clarifications:
I'm going by the Beer Judge Certification Program Style Guidelines, 2008 revision. I'm only attempting the beers in this goal. I might brew a few ciders and meads, but they are not part of this goal. I made my first batch on February 1, 2013 (13C, Oatmeal Stout). I want to have everything fermented and bottled by the 31st of January, 2014. The bottle conditioning/aging doesn't need to be finished, as long as it's in a bottle (or keg, if I get into kegging by then.

So, what have I done since I started a month ago?

Not much. The afformentioned Oatmeal Stout (13C), and today I am brewing a Guinness clone (13A, Dry Stout). I had originally planned to go crazy and do all 5 stout styles, and then realized that the weather is getting warmer, and stouts aren't exactly a spring beer... so I'll shelve the other three stouts till the fall.

What's next?

I'm not really sure. I do know I want to do some lighter beers (Light lagers, Pilsners, Wheat beers), and I have some Belgian Ale yeast in my fridge, so I'll prob do some Belgians at some point soon, too. I don't have an exact plan on how to pick what to brew..., so I'll probably just brew whatever I feel like, while trying to keep the beers seasonally appropriate. Given that I have 78 styles to get through in 46 weeks... it'll be a fun year, with lots of brewing.

Also: while 80 batches sounds like a LOT of beer, I'm only doing 1 gallon batches. While I may upgrade to a 3-gallon system in the future, I prefer brewing small batches frequently to larger batches infrequently. 1-gallon batches means I won't get stuck with way too much beer (like that has ever been a problem), and will stay within the legal limit. (200 gal/household...)

OH MY GOD UPDATES!!!

So, I haven't posted in a while. This is not just because I'm lazy (though that is part of it). I've been dealing with depression that slowly became more and more debilitating, until it was finally diagnosed as the psychological manifestation of Lyme disease. As treatment, I had a tube stuck in my arm for a month so I could shoot antibiotics directly into my veins every day (yay PICC line!). But now that's all done and over with, I can go back to being my usual crazy self, rather than the weirdly emotional and depressed former self.

So, what have I been up to? All sorts of fun stuff. I just bottled three different beers, and I can't wait to crack them open.

YAY BEER!

From left to right:
Soulless Stout: A malty stout I've made before. Forgot to take an OG reading this time, so I'm not sure of the alcohol. Also, I bottled it at 1.020, so I might have a few bottle bombs on my hands.
Mt. Hood SMaSH Lager: The name says it all. A pale lager made with 2-row barley and Mt. Hood hops. It's like a long-lost, forgotten beer to me. I left it in the basement and forgot about it for a few months.
? IPA: It literally is a question. I have no written record ANYWHERE of what this actually is. I think it's an IPA I made back in November, but I'm not really sure.

I was also looking back at some other posts on my blog, and I came across the post about my Brewing Project List. So I decided to see what I've taken care of, and what still might happen in the future.
 - SMaSH Lagers. Done. See above.
 -  Free Beer. Not yet.
 - Courthouse Ale. Never got around to making more. I still might, but I have other beers I want to do first.
 - Soulless Stout. Done. See above (though I haven't used it for any variations yet).
 - A proper IPA. Done. More than once, if the ? IPA turns out to be an IPA.
 - A proper Dopplebock. Not yet.
 - Meade. Haven't made any more yet.
 - Hard Cider. Made some, and have more fermenting,
 - Sake. Soon. I'm ordering ingredients for it this week.
 - Pumpkin Ales. Done. One was tasty, one had to be tossed.
 - Gruit Ales. Not yet.
 - Gluten Free Beer. Not yet.

Overall, I'd say I hit quite a bit of the list, considering I didn't really consult it after I made it. There are still things to keep me busy on it, but I'm actually shelving all of this for a new brewing plan. I'll post more about that in the near-ish future. 

Zorks!

Zorks are pretty cool. Basically, they're a synthetic cork-thingy. But unlike normal synthetic corks that mimic natural corks, Zorks don't need any tools to be put onto a bottle. And unlike normal corks, they don't need any tools to be opened, either. This is pretty cool.

So, if you happen to be a homebrewer who mostly deals in beer, but dabbles in mead, and would like to have a way to bottle his mead in clear wine bottles rather than brown beer bottles, but doesn't want to have to invest in any new tools (like a corker), this is the thing for you. The only downside it they only work for still (non-carbonated) meade and wines. Anything with carbonation will not work.

Now, the reason that all that is relevant to me is because I bottled two gallons of mead today. One gallon of Orange-Spice mead, and one gallon of Earl Gray and Lemon mead. I'll post pretty pictures of what the mead looks like in bottles with the Zorks tomorrow. Until then, the Zork website is here.

Silks in Tuscon!!!

I'm in Tucson, AZ. It's hot. Really, really hot. Despite all of the sweat, it's a fun place.

I'm in the middle of a week-long vacation visiting my sister and her boyfriend. She's a yoga instructor, and he a poi-spinner and fire-prop maker. They're involved with a local circus group called Cirque Roots. Cirque Roots does quite a bit of hooping, poi, staff, fire, and other object manipulation, but is looking to get into aerials. They already have a silk and a lyra, and on Saturday, Sara and I taught a workshop on intro level aerials!!!

Because I'm feeling lazy, I won't write more about it now, but as soon as I get the pics from my sister, I'll put some of them up here.

Also, Sara and I did a photo shoot, so we will have pro-level pictures of us doing aerials.

The Brewing Project List

It's been almost 8 months (gasp!) since I last posted, and quite a bit has happened in that time. I won't go into details, but I'll just say that I've been extremely busy. How busy? Now that one major project has (mostly) wrapped up, I'm back down to working only 55 hours/week.

However, today's post is not about the past. It's about the future. In particular, it's about what brewing projects I would like to attempt in the upcoming months. Things like:

 - SMaSH Lagers. SMaSH beers are Single Malt and Single Hop beers. They are usually brewed to gain a better understanding of a particular grain or hop variety, but can still make good beers on their own. I would like to do at least three lagers, all with the same grain and different hops. I still am unfamiliar with the subtleties of hop varieties, and this seem like a good way to get my feet wet with lagering, too.

 -  Free Beer. Seriously, Free Beer. Check it out.

 - Courthouse Ale. It's an English brown ale that I've already made twice. I want to make two more batches, to try to hammer down my accuracy in re-brewing existing recipes..

 - Soulless Stout. Again, a beer that I've already brewed. Unlike the Courthouse, I want to use Soulless as a base for other stout variations (Coffee stout, chocolate and vanilla stout, perhaps an oak aged version...).

 - A proper IPA. I don't usually lean towards hoppy beers, but I know too many beer drinkers who do. This is mostly to please them, but also to learn more about styles that I don't often choose to drink/brew.

 - A proper Dopplebock. Lagering AND decoction mash?!? It could be messy. It could be AWESOME!

 - Meade. I have two batches aging right now... I'd like to do several more.

 - Hard Cider. Doug and I made almost 10 gallons last year.  I'd like to see if we can get 20 gallons this year.

 - Sake. My mother has been bugging me about this one. Technically, it's similar to beer (converting grain to alcohol... easy enough, right?), but it is a very different process, involving various mold spores that produce enzymes that convert starches to sugars in tandem with yeasts... all done at lager temperatures.

 - Pumpkin Ales. Why? Because Halloween, that's why.

 - Gruit Ales. Gruits are this old-school class of beers that are brewed with various herbs, spices and plants in conjunction with or even instead of using hops (Beer without hops. Yes, it's still beer. Yes, it will taste good).

 - Gluten Free Beer. For Salle. She knows I brew, and she would love to try my beers, but she has Celiac disease, so I want to make a beer that she can enjoy.  For that matter, I also want to make sure that my Sake, Ciders, and Meades are also gluten free, so she can try them as well.

So that's what I would like to work on in the next few months... it's gonna be FUN!

Hey! Sorry I haven't updated in forever. I wish I had some excuse, like alien abduction, amnesia or winning the lottery... but I don't.  I've just been preoccupied with other things. So here's a quick update on what's new in my life.

Food:
 - Culinary school is wrapping up. I have just two weeks left in class, including finals.
 - As part of my practical exam for baking, I have entered into the NMC Gingerbread House Competition. I have been working on my house off and on for a week now, and I've still got a lot of work to go. I'll post pictures soon...

Beer:
 - I haven't made any new beer recently... but I plan to soon!
 - The beer that I already made turned out well, for the most part.
 - Spiced Zmas Ale: brown ale with hops, ginger, orange peel, and nutmeg.
 - Coffee Pot Experiment #2: A SMaSH (Single Malt and Single Hop) beer, light in body and color. Could have used more hops in it, though.
 - Imperial Stout: Thick, chocolaty, and tasty, but I didn't add enough priming sugar, so it's a bit flat...

Circus:
 - I have a gig! I'm gonna be working a New Years Eve gig at a near-by casino.  I'll give you more details when I get them...

Life:
 - I have a steady job! I'm working as a part-time projectionist at a local movie theatre.  It's super fun, and now I'll have more money to spend on beer supplies...

So, that's the last month-and-a-half, in a nutshell.

Coffee Pot Beer: Some notes.

Some thoughts on the whole "Coffee Pot Beer" thing:

 - It was a lot of work for about two pints of beer.  But, it was kinda fun, and if I can make it work so that it becomes a mostly hands-off process, it would make it a far more attractive option for making small batches of beer. So, I'm probably gonna try again.

 - The OG of the beer was 1.030.  This is pretty low, and means that at best, I will get a 4.0 ABV beer. At first, I was concerned that I had an incomplete mash, and because I topped off the fermenter with a bit of water to make up for lost wort.  But after crunching some numbers, it turns out that I just didn't use much grain.  So, the 1 1/4 cups (about 5 ounces) be increased.  There was definitely room in the lauter-tun (or coffee filter basket) for more grians.  

 - There was a huge drop in volume during the boil. A shorter boiling time could help solve this, as could having a lid on the pot during boil.  This guy got 3 bottles out of each batch, meaning he had at least 36 oz. of beer.

 - The recipe.  Let's face it... it was way too much chocolate malt.  Also, I may have put in too much hops... 

 - I don't like using an open fermenter... I've never used one before, and I don't like not having an airlock.  Partly, the risk of something getting into the beer concerns me (but it's not that likely).  mostly, I like to have an airlock going glug glug glug as a visual indicator of active fermentation.

So... definitely not a complete failure, but there is definitely room for improvement.  I'll try it again sometime soon, and I'll try to post pictures, too.

Coffee pot all-grain beer

Yes, you read the title correctly. I will attempt to brew a batch of all-grain beer in a coffee pot. No, I am not making this up. It has been done before. Yes, this is completely ridiculous.  I'm doing it anyways. Right now.

Now, regardless of how good or bad the beer may turn out, it at least demonstrates the 5 stages of all-grain beer brewing (mashing, lautering, boiling, fermenting, bottling), allowing you to see how the process works.  So... I'm gonna dive into it, and update as I go along.

UPDATE: STEP 1, THE MASH.

What is mashing? Mashing is where we take malted barley (and possibly other grains) and convert it into sweet sugar-water (called wort (pronounded 'wert')) so that the yeast can eat it and make alcohol. You combine a measured amount of hot water and grains together and let them sit at about 150 - 158 degrees F for  an hour. At those temperatures, enzymes (pieces of protein that do stuff) break down the starches in the grains and turn it into sugars.

Here's what I did with the coffee pot:
 - Put 1 cup pale ale malt and 1/4 cup chocolate malt into the carafe.  (I didn't need to crack my grains before this. I had cracked them previously)
 - Added 2 cups (actual measuring cups, not the 'cup' measurement on the side of the carafe) in the water reservoir of the coffee maker.
 - Turned the pot on and let it run.
 - Once all the water was in the carafe, I stirred the grains and water with a wooden spoon. Leave the heater under the carafe on.

At first I was apprehensive about this.  If you mash too hot (over 158 deg.), you deactivate the enzymes, and you get no wert. If you mash too cold (below 150 deg.), the enzymes work really, really slowly, and mashing takes far longer than it should. But, 20 minutes in, the mash it holding at 154 deg... this may actually work.

UPDATE: The temperature is climbing... it's near 158 deg.  I'm gonna take it off the burner for 5 or 10 minutes, see if it cools down a few degrees.

UPDATE: Cooled down fast. It went down to 150 deg. in less than 5 minutes, so I put it back on the burner.  It's been there for 15 minutes and is only at 145 deg... I guess the burner can hold things at a temperature, but not bring them up? Anyways... it's a bit lower than it should be, but I'm gonna keep going anyways.

UPDATE: STEP 2, LAUTERING.

Lautering is where we seperate the wort from the grains.  We do this in several steps.  First, we strain the grains out.  Then, we pour the wort back through the grains (the grain act as a filter, and help remove small bits that may have been missed the first time.  After that, we rinse the grains with hot water, pulling every bit of sugary goodness out of the grains.

Doing this in a coffee pot is a bit tricky...

UPDATE: It worked.... after a few tweaks.  The original website called for pouring your mash through a coffee filter, collecting the wort, and then pouring the wort and 1 cup of water into the reservoir, repeating this 4 more times, adding a cup of water each time.  However, as soon as I
started filtering the mash through the coffee filter, I knew this was gonna take way too long.

Time for a different approach.  Screw coffee filter.  Get a mesh strainer, put it over your boiling pot (3 quart pot is a good size), and pour the mash into that.  Put all the grains into the filter basket (without a coffee filter), and put the filtered wort (plus 1 cup of water) into the reservoir. Run the pot.

While this is going, keep the lid of the coffee maker open, so you can watch the level of wort in the grains. The last thing you want is an overflow, making a sticky mess everywhere.

Once all the wort has filtered through, put it back in the reservoir, and add 2 cups of water (I know it says one cup at a time, but I'm impatient).  Run it again.  Repeat this one more time (you should have added a total of 5 cups of water, not counting the mash water at the start).

You should have about 11 'cups' of liquid in your coffee pot (remember, the markings on the carafe are not accurate cups.  They're actually about 6 oz servings...).  Go ahead and just top it off to the 12 'cup' mark, which is actually 2 quarts.  Go ahead and put this wort into the boiling pot, and get that on the stove.

Now, before you do anything else, CLEAN YOUR FUCKING COFFEE POT! Run a few cycles with new water and a new filter each time.  Wipe down anywhere you may have spilled wort.

UPDATE: STEP 3, BOILING.

Boiling is where we add things to our beer (usually). Things like hops, spices, and other additions take place.  We boil our beer for about an hour, because the hops that we add need time to release the alpha acids, which in turn give beer it's bitterness.

Put your wort on the stove, bring it to a boil, and add your hops (reserving one or two pellets).  If, like me, you're using dried hops, not pellet hops, drop me a line and let me know how much to use. I have no idea... I went with about 15 hop flowers.

Boil this for 45 minutes.  You don't need a rolling boil... somewhere between a simmer and a full boil should be ok.

UPDATE: At the end of the 45 minute, add you remaining hops and boil for 5 more minutes.  Then take it off the heat.

STEP 4, FERMENTING

This is the step where you let your wort sit and let the yeast turn it into beer...

While the wort was boiling, you should have been sanitizing your fermenter(s).  For this experiment I am using two quart jars, one of which turned out to not be necessary.  Put a splash of bleach into the jars, added some water, put the lids on and shake them up.  After letting them sit for a few, rinse them out with tap water.

Carefully pour the wort into the jars.  I poured everything into one jar, then poured it into the other jar through a strainer to remove the hops.  In retrospect, this was a bad idea; once there were hops in the strainer, it made the wort splash all over, and I lost maybe half a cup (not good when you only have quart of wort at this point).

If you need to, top off the jar with water so you have at least 28oz of liquid.  Put the jar in a pot with cold water, and let is sit till it's near room temperature.  Once it's below 85deg., sprinkle in some yeast (i used a bit of champagne yeast I had in the fridge). Cover the top of the jar with a square of cheesecloth, put the ring of the lid on to hold it down, and then set the flat part of the lid on top of that. Put the jar somewhere dark and quiet, where it can sit undisturbed for about a week.

Now, some of you may be asking why the beer isn't sealed in some airtight container with an airlock to let out the excess CO2.  The type of fermenting we are doing is called open fermentation.  It relies on sanitary practices to keep the beer safe.  Once the yeast has taken hold, it will create a blanket of CO2 above the surface to help keep bad bacteria out.  The purpose of the lid on top is not to create a hermetic seal, but to just keep out dust and dirt.

However, if you wanted to put it in a growler or other fermenter, attatch an airlock, and ferment in a closes system, you're welcome to do that, too.

The final step, bottling, will have to wait until fermentation is complete.  I'll post about that when it happens.

My first all-grain beer

About a month and a half ago, I decided to explore the deep end of beer brewing pool: all-grain brewing. To complicate things further, I decided to do this on a whim, at a friends house, with no-one else around who knew anything about brewing.  It was ugly.  Messes were made, curses were uttered, and more than one frantic phone call was made to an acquaintance who is far more knowledgeable about all-grain than I. But in the end, I prevailed, and had two gallons of  a strawberry wheat beer fermenting happily away.

It looks like beer...

Flash forward to last week, when I finally found the free time to bottle the beer (which had been sitting in secondary for several weeks).  Two gallons fit quite nicely into a dozen bottles and three bombers.

Cut to last night, where I opened the first bottle to give it a try. What is it like? Well...

First off, the title 'Strawberry Wheat Beer' is a bit misleading.  There is no hint of strawberry red in it's coloring.  There is no scent of fresh strawberries in the nose.  And, unless you're looking for it, you're not likely to notice the very, very faint strawberry note in the taste.  However, it is a damn fine wheat beer. It's quite light in body, with a subtle (almost too subtle) hop bite to balance things out.  I have no idea the alcohol content, but would guess about 4.5% based on the recipe. This would have been a great beer to have about two months ago to combat the August heat.

When I next get around to brewing a batch of beer (hopefully soon!) I'll post about the whole complicated process. Until then, cheers!

Starfish TC: First run-through

Woah... we did it. We got the children through the first run-through of the show. It was rough, but it actually way better than it could have gone, and far smoother than some past Starfish rehearsals. That being said, we still have tons of work to do before the show opens on Friday (eeek! less than 48 hours!). Tomorrow, we do a full dress rehearsal. It will likely go far rougher than I want it to, and far smoother than I fear it will go. 

Also, we will eat fire for the kids as a reward for working so hard tonight.

Starfish Update!

Woah! So much to write about, so little time!

The past week and a half have been super-busy and super-rewarding! Between classes and Starfish, I have had very little free time (hence, no blog updates... sorry).  Here's a quick taste of what been happening:

Audition day came and went.  It was not nearly as crazy as I had anticipated it to be, and we ended up casting most of the kids who auditioned.

I'm trying something completely new with poi. Choreography will be more than just spinning things in circles.

One of my students fell off of a rolling globe and broke his elbow. Even though it was just an accident, I feel really, really bad about this. Luckily, he's still in the show. We've made him a lion tamer, and he has become reasonable adept with a whip in almost no time at all.

All of he kids are working very hard, and it shows. We've had two more days to work with the kids than we usually do at Starfish gigs, and when you're only working for two weeks, the extra two days makes huge difference.  We're also working with a slightly smaller cast than usual. All we need to add to that is a few coaches (check!) some circus toys (check!) and a willingness to play (check!) and we have the makings of a spectacular show. I'm can't wait for opening night. See you there!

Starfish Circus in Traverse City!

Starfish Circus started yesterday and I couldn't  be happier!

What is Starfish Circus? Why, I'm glad you asked, dear anonymous reader.  Starfish Circus is a two-week long circus residency program for high-schools.  What this means is that a group of circus coaches (including me) shows up at a high-school, holds an audition, casts 50-80 kids, and then in just two weeks, teaches them enough circus skills to put on a full show.  

Yesterday was play day, the first part of this whole process.  I got out of baking class (where I made delicious choc. chip banana bread and raisin bran muffins), and went over to the high-school to meet up with the other coaches.  We spent most of the afternoon alternating between rigging gear in the auditorium, and going from class to class talking to the kids about the program.  We told them a little bit about ourselves and our circus backgrounds, what types of skills we would be teaching them, when the show is (Sept. 23rd and 24th.  Mark you calendars!), and what the time commitment would be. But, most importantly, we invited them to play day after school, where they can show up and try out all of the equipment! 

Play day is always fun for me. I get to meet new kids, let them try new things, and secretly scout for talent, which will come in handy today.  Today is auditions, and while we run things more like a workshop than a traditional audition, it is still stressful. I have to run a lot of kids through two different pieces of equipment (poi and rolla-bolla) in not a lot of time, so I often end up feeling rushed.  I also have to actually decide who makes the cut and who doesn't.  Having done this for over a year, I've gotten better at learning to be ruthless and selfish, thinking in terms of what will be best for the show, rather than what kid seems nice, or tried hard.  Yes, those personal qualities can made a difference, but come second to raw skill and natural aptitude.  So today will be the day of stress, where I might crush a few children's dreams, but will also get to pick the lucky bunch that I get to spend the next two weeks training with!