Happy Holidays

NU Volleyball

Yesterday we had our work poker night. I don't really follow NU volleyball (apparently they got edged out of the final four last night) but many of my coworkers do. One coworker, who is really into it, decided that he'd rather go home and watch the game than stay and play cards. Long story short - we've been giving him a hard time today, as some of the players stopped by our little party for some cheer and beer after the game.

xmas tree

finally got it up

Holiday Gift 12-Pack - Holiday Porter

I apologize for missing last week. I had a cold and consequently my taste buds were not working properly. So I will have to do 2 next week to get them done in time before xmas.

This week I tried the Holiday Porter. Porter yes / Holiday maybe. It was a good porter. I could definitely taste the chocolate malt that they used, but that was the only nonbeer flavor I got out of it - so if by Holiday they mean chocolate then I guess the name fits. All the same it wasn't overly chocolately - just a hint. Good mouthfeel, moved across the tounge like sandpaper. Good balance, robust but not thick, light enough to be able to drink a few. All in all a descent beer.

Holiday Gift 12-Pack - Cranberry Lambic

The tasting continues, this time with the Cranberry Lambic. After reading the description on the bottle, which described it as more or less a wheat beer with cranberry juice and after hearing from others about this beer - I went in with low expectations. The beer had that phenolly smell I associate with belgian beers, especially the lambics. The taste on the other hand was not what I expected. It was almost creamy / fruity but not overpowering. I only really noticed a subtle cranberry flavor on the back of the tounge and in the aftertaste. The body was lighter like a good wheat beer, but without the normal yeastyness. If pushed to describe the mouthfeel I'd go for tangy. Color => Red. I liked it, could easily drink a 6er, but probably wouldn't seek it out as I am not a big lambic fan, and I prefer NB frambozen over this.

Holiday Ale

After sitting in the fermentor for roughly 2wks, I bottled my Holiday Ale. I'm excited - I think it's really going to turn out. The shot below is after siphoning from the fermentor. There was so much foaming during respiration that a thick layer stuck to the sidewalls and is still soaking off in my kitchen. I only got 45 bottles from the batch, which puts the volume of lost beer closer to 2 quarts - oh well.

Of course, the volume of lost beer should easily be made up by the alcohol content. I'd put this one near 7% abv. and you could smell it. Initial taste test suggests it is going to be a very flavorful beer - could definitely taste the spices. Cleared up suprisingly well too. Should be ready just in time for christmas.

Holiday Gift 12-Pack - Old Fezziwig

Noel's dad is a huge Sam Adams fan - basically that is all he drinks anymore when it comes to beer. So after seeing that Sam Adams had a holiday gift 12-pack of "winter classics" for sale, we bought him one as an improptu christmas gift idea. Of course then we found out that he had also seen the gift 12-pack and bought himself one. So not wanting to let the beers go to waste - I decided to not only drink them, but share them here as well.

There are 6 different beers in the 12-pack and 5 weeks till christmas. Since everyone should know what regular Sam Adams tastes like I am going to skip it and describe one of the remaining "winter classics" each week. Feel free to buy your own 12-pack and add your comments.

OLD FEZZIWIG ALE

Starting off dark, which I am guessing is going to be the start of a trend. This beer verges on a porter but is not quite that dark. Good body - roughish mouthfeel - sits somewhere between a traditional brown and porter for my palate - but with a creamy aftertaste. The beer toutes having orange peel, cinnamon, and ginger spices, which are just barely noticible. I think I tasted a little cinnamon. I maybe would have liked a little more spice flavor to settle my own curiosity, but would be wary of too much more. This beer has a little higher alcohol content at 5.8abv, however I would never have guessed it. A nice and filling beer that would be good for the holidays.

On a side note - I kinda wish I would have waited till later on this beer. From the description on the bottle, this beer should be very similar to the holiday ale I am currently making. Would have been curious to try them side by side (I had to drink both bottles to properly assess the Fezziwig ale), which means I may have to buy another holiday 12-pack.

Salt & Vinegar - Archer Farms

So we've been doing all our grocery shopping at SuperTarget as of late. Noel made the decision and it works for me. Target's off-brand is Archer Farms and they make some pretty decent stuff. As far as I can tell they are the only brand that still sells coffee in cans. Turns out they make a suprisingly good salt and vinegar chip too.

Flavor: Good tang - they'll make you sweat a little after the third handful

Texture: Big yet crunchy - nice combo

Overall Impression: Suprised - they are good chips. Will likely get again.

4 / 5

Salt and Vinegar - Kettle

I thought I had caught up and then realized I never did a chip for October - so here it is: Kettle Brand Chips - Sea Salt and Vinegar. If you've never had this brand of chip before - go get some. Their "Spicy Thai" are awesome and their salt & vinegar chips are pretty darn good too. I picked these up at Leon's down the street.

Flavor: Kettle Brand are all about the "sea". These chips are flavored heavily with malt vinegar. The flavor is almost creamy, but with a little bit of tang. For people who love tangy S&V chips, these might be too tame, however these chips should not be underestimated for as thick of a chip that they are - they have a lot of flavor.

Texture: Nice and thick - can be greasy at times, but usually have a good balance.

Overall Impression: Love em. Great alongside fish - these chips make me crave Joe Tess.

4.5/5

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Blowing Off

Brewed a new brew sunday. In anticipation of the holiday season I went for a holiday ale kit from Kirks. Basic recipe - throw in a ton of malt, add extra hops and toss in some spices for good measure. This stuff was thick. Like syrup. Everything went great through the boil - I even chilled it in record time. Then came the siphoning - which sucked. For some reason none of the trub settled out during the cool down, which greatly increased the viscosity and slowed the siphon way down. This effect combined with chunks of floating orange peel getting stuck in my racking cane meant I had to restart my siphon about 10 times before giving up and pouring the wort through a strainer.



The recent cold weather has dropped the temp in our basement to ~60F. I decided to leave the carboy upstairs where it is a little warmer (upper 60s). Unfortunately we don't have a real dark place upstairs as even the closet has a window, therefore I wrapped the carboy in a blanket and stuck it the back hallway.

So far so good. Last night I had to go to the blow-off tube as foam started jetting through my airlock. Apparently 1gal of head space was not enough for this beer. The incessant gurgling was quite nice to fall asleep to. The foaming continued through the night and was still going yet this morning, which really suprised me. I'm guessing I've lost half a quart of beer. I probably could have moved to the airlock this morning, but opted to leave on the blow-off tube just in case. Hopefully it is done by this evening, as I don't want to loose any more beer.

Just like finding a $20 in the coat pocket...

...it's always nice to find pictures on the camera you forgot you took. These are left over from Halloween and Noel / my 1yr Anniversary.

These were taken before / after we took Noel's Brother's Rugrats to Boo at the Zoo. Kirah was a ladybug and Salaya was a pink cat. It was a fun but tiring experience.

The pics below were taken at the Cornerstone Mansion aka The Offutt House aka the bed and breakfast located across the street from the Joslyn Castle. Noel's mom was nice enough to send us some ferns reminiscent of our center pieces from the wedding last year. Sadly these are the only pictures we thought to take.

Wedding Weekend

Man it's tough going back to work on a cold day after a long weekend. Had a good one though - went to 2 weddings. Congrats are in order for Josh / Renae and Emily / Anders. Saw a lot of family and the booze was free, so good times all around. I was DD so it was red wine for me, can't drink it fast so consequently I don't drink much. Both weddings were action packed, mostly in good ways, but in some less good ways as well. I am reminded of an old joke so I will tell tale through it.

A guy moves to a small town with one bar on the corner. He doesn't know anyone there, so bored one night he stops by the bar looking for something to do. After a few drinks he starts chatting with one of the local townies about what there is to do in town. The townies response was: "Well not much, mostly we head down to river and party."
new guy: "Oh yeah, what kind of parties do you throw?"
townie: "The typical - there's some cabins down there and we do a lot of drinkin."
new guy: "yeah..."
townie: "and then there's usually some fightin."
new guy: "huh, that sound's exicting."
townie: "and then eventually there's some fuckin - wanna come?"
new guy: "Sure - who's all gonna be there?"
townie: "Oh, just you and me."

Peanut Butter Jelly Time

It's hard to believe Halloween was one week ago. I wore my PBJT costume to work in addition to my "Old White Male" costume, which was for our friday afternoon office Presidential Debate. A co-worker was kind enough to get this footage.

Hallowvideos

Screamin Jay Hawkins - I put a spell on you


Disney Silly Symphony - Skeleton Dance


Bob Prickett and the Crypt Kickers - Monster Mash


Legend of Sleepy Hallow - The Headless Horseman


Oingo Boingo - Dead Man's Party


Nightmare Before Christmas - This is Halloween

Salt and Vinegar - Miss Vickie's

Miss Vickies Sea Salt & Vinegar potato chips are unofficially/officially September's chip of the month. I had a bag of these every day for lunch for about a week while in the field for work in September along with a Subway sandwich. I was surveying / water sampling out on the Platte River near Louisville and that was the easiest food option. I would have reviewed them sooner, but to be honest I forgot what they tasted like so I had some last night to remind my self.

Flavor: Good, but not terribly rememerable (as mentioned above). They definitly have the malted vinegar flavor going for them with just a little bit of tang. You might start to pucker if you ate a whole bag in one sitting. Good balance between the salt and the vinegar, but not the chip - the kettle oil showed through. Basically there just wasn't enough flavor for the chip.

Texture: Kettle style. Good crunch not to greasy. Small in stature.

Overall Impression: I liked them - I'd get them every time with my Subway sandwich, but otherwise would probably not seek them out.

3.5/5

Flatwater

The company I work for is currently undergoing a facelift of sorts. Flatwater recently moved to a bigger / more suitable location. Now we are updating our logo. Flatwater recently hired an advertising company to come up with something. Those of us inclined tried our hands at it as well and my design was selected to be sent back to the advertising company to develop the final product.

My Design



Final Product


I like the final product - definitely more professional looking than my more "natural" looking concept. Plus now I don't have to worry about being self-conscious. The overall concept is the box (engineering) with a meandering stream going through it (natural systems, specifically water), which is what we do.

Pale Ale continued

So I kegged / bottled my pale ale last week. As I hinted I had some special post fermenation plans for this beer and boy howdy I implemented those plans. For starters I decided to split the batch into 5 separate containters. One was my new keg into which 3 gallons of the beer went. The other four were 2liter plastic containers. I decided to force carbonate the keg to make sure it was ready for this coming weekend, therefore I made sure to only use 2oz of priming suger for the 2 gallons going into the 2liter bottles.

My tests - I decided to try two very different styles for my pale ale. An IPA (or at least close to it) and a Chilli Beer.

IPA - I haven't done my research so I don't know if this would qualify as an IPA, but it tastes similar to one. I decided to dry hop my pale ale. This means I added hops to the secondary fermentation, i.e. the keg. I took 0.67 oz of willamete pelleted hops, put them in a tea ball and dropped it in. The tea ball was probably unnecessary, but I didn't want an undissolve chunk of pellet to clog my draw tube. So far tastes good. Definitely has a noticible, but not overpowering hop flavor.


Chilli Beer - My goal was to create something that resembles Devil's Spit - Hoppy and Spicy. I decided to add peppers. Since I had 4 different vessles, I decided to try 4 different kinds of peppers - jalepeno, fresno and serrano and smoked serrano. I washed and boiled each pepper for 30 seconds. The smoked serranos i did on the grill with some mesquite chips, which mainly ended up burning most of the peppers. I salvaged as many as I could and that is why I did 4 different kinds of peppers. As for the number of peppers to add to each 2liter, I totally had to guess. I decided to do 1 pepper per 12 oz beer. Since the jalepeno's were so big I only did 1/2. The bottles were bloated one day later, so hopefully that means I didn't screw up. Hopefully they'll be ready to go this weekend.

Salt and Vinegar - Tom's

After too long a delay, here is an other salt & vinegar chip review. This month I am going to try to do 3 reviews to make up for missing august and september. The first one being "Tom's Vinegar and Salt PotatoChips".

I picked up a bag of Tom's while on the road to Kansas City at a gas station in St. Joeseph, Missouri. To be honest I am not sure if i've seen these in Nebraska (please let me know if you have). I'll start with the name, which places the vinegar before the salt. Upon reading this I was expecting a very tangy chip and recieved quite the opposite.

Flavor: These chips are salty, very salty. There is a hint of tang that comes through, but not near enough to provide balance.

Texture: The texture was good - a nice crisp thin chip, however the size was on the smaller end.

Overall Impression: All in all a good chip - will do in a pinch.

3/5

old brew - new techniques

So about 2 months ago I broke out an old recipe to try out some new equipment / techniques. The recipe is for a brown ale, which was the first beer I ever brewed. I went with the brown because 1) I haven’t made one in at least a year and 2) I had some leftover ingredients I wanted to use up. The latter reason caused me to substitute in some Belgian specialty grains rather than the typical crystal malt, which was an experiment in of itself. I also wanted to try partial mashing again, which I tried for the first time with the hefeweizen. The real thing I wanted to do, however, was test some new equipment I have.


Partial Mash - So after being reasonably please with the hefe, I decided to try the partial mash again. The process I used was to I hold the wert at set temperatures for a specified amount of time on the stove at low or no heat with the lid on. I stirred and checked the temps every 5 minutes. The tempurature ranges and times were 130 - 135F for 30min, 145 - 149F for 45min and 155F for 10min. The process seemed to work well with temps varying only a couple of degrees over the entire time period. One thing I noticed was that by holding the grains in the wert for almost three times longer that just steeping is that more grains tend to escape the grain-sock. To combat this I started straining the wert before boiling.




Turkey friar – I purchased this puppy during the last holiday season when it was on sale at target for $20. I bought it for one main reason. Eventually I want to at least try all-grain brewing. To all-grain brew, you need a stock pot that will hold all 5 gallons of wert because you have to boil it all at once. That means I need something bigger than my 5 gal pot, and the 7.5 gal kettle that came with the turkey friar is the perfect size. I hooked the friar up to my propane tank outside, filled it up, fired it up, cracked open a beer and enjoyed the show. Brewing beer outdoors is something everyone should try - there is just something strangely natural about it. The friar worked great. It produced great rolling boil and didn’t scorch the kettle.




Carboy – I got a new carboy for my birthday from noel’s folks. It’s a 6gal glass carboy, which leaves plenty of head room for respiration. Getting the beer in was no problem. My airlock / stopper I got when I borrowed brian’s carboy worked fine with it. Watching the respiration and fermentation was awesome. The first day the yeast activity was churning the beer causing huge chunks of trub to zooming up and down. The second and third days things slowed down but there was still visible movement, with little eruptions occurring from the bottom. After that the stratification began as all the suspended trub began to settle out. It was quite entertaining. Getting the beer out was a bit harder than getting it in, so I’ll have to rethink my siphoning, but all in all it was a great experiment and I think I’ll be using the carboy generally from here on out.



Since brewing I have kegged and tasted product and plan to serve it at the Halloween product. After letting others sample I will post how I think my experiments worked out.

Newest pseudo-Cermak

Allie and Jerry just had their baby.
Her name is Lucy and she was born on October 6th

new brew - pale ale

Brewed a new batch Monday night. This one's a pale ale that I hope to have ready for Halloween. I bought a "american pale ale" kit from Kirk's, which is supposed to be comparable to a Sierra Nevada.

I have two post-fermentation plans for this beer, neither of which have I tried before. I am going to show some restraint and wait to unveil my plans until after fermentation so that I can have some pictures to share when detailing said plans. For now I'll just show this picture of my latest attempt to better aerate my wort before fermentation.

The SSION

After what seems like a very long hiatus from concert-going I went to see the SSION last saturday at Box Awesome here in Lincoln. It was great - I'm really glad we went. After having a long history of being in bands / going to shows local or otherwise, I guess I took some time off. Post 2byTrent and the Touch&Go 25th Anniversary show - I had no desire to do / attend / or even purchase anything musical.

It's been at least a few years since last seeing these guys perform. I first encoutered the SSION when visiting my sister down at KCAI, and they were mostly a college performance art project. They did recorded music / video with live vocals / performance. Recently they added / lost some people and added instruments to the live performance. I'd say that now the performance and music sides have become more balanced. The experience is more on par with seeing a band than performance art. A very very fun and energetic band. Totally worth the ringing in my ears - I am starting to feel more musical.

MN Family Vacation

Each year my folks, sister + husband, noel and I head up to Minnesota for some late summer R+R. Here are a few pics from the trip.


Little Marion

My sailboat

Noel and I sailing

Noel and I playing yard-darts

Noel and I walking the dog

Yard darts champ

Relaxing on the deck

More relaxation

1 of 2

Kitchen window

Shore

Salt and Vinegar - Barrel of Fun

Back by popular demand from a different web site of mine is the Guide to Salt and Vinegar Potato Chips. Once upon a time I decided to try to share my love for salt and vinegar potato chips with the world by trying as many different kinds I could find and rating them. Since my love for these tangy treats began in Minnesota I thought I'd restart my guide while here on vacation.

Barrel of Fun potato chips are made in the great town of Perham Minnesota, which is only a few miles from where my family vacations annually and are the first salt and vinegar chips I ever had. These chips fall in the thin-style category and as far as I can tell are sold only in big bags. Texture: Thin but not brittle. Hold up well and are filling by the handful.
Flavor: Noticible vinegar tang - good balance with salt. Not overly potent but ware on the tounge after a while.
Overall Impression: I may be biased given my history with these chips, but I think they hold up to their name "Barrel of Fun". Not overly expesive chips make these a great buy - if you can find them.

3.5/5

Batchin it with Hefe

Travis's party was a success and so was the beer. I made a keg of Hefeweizen for the party and it turned out well. The beer came from a kit at Kirk's and I added some wit ingredients including orange peel and corriander. I tried something new with this beer - PARTIAL MASHING.

Basically instead of steeping the grains at 150 degrees for 0.5 an hour, I steeped the grains for 1.5 hours at various temperatures. This is supposed to help round out the flavor by fully converting the starch in the specialty grains into sugar. Seemed to work. I did it all on the stove and the temps held fairly well. Afterwards I pulled the grains, which looked kinda like puffed up rice. They gave the impression of well utilization. On the other hand the gravities were the same as other wheat beers I've done without partial mashing so who knows.

The other new thing I tried was force carbonation. I cranked the pressure in the keg to 32 psi and let it set for a week. Halfway through I move the keg from my basement to my fridge after reading that it should have been in the fridge all along.

The beer was good. Well but not over carbonated. Great flavor but heavier than expected. Likely cause was that I had to cut short it's time in the fermentor. The malt flavor overpowered the citrus, but that makes sense cause I was kinda light on the wit ingredients. All in all a good beer.