Filed under: Brewing, Events | Tags: beer, Brewing, honkey, joe-bob, leftover epa, Music, silent train
Last Wednesday was probably the best Wednesday on the history of the planet. Deuce barbecued up some mouth watering ribs, which we ate while hearing a performance from Joe-Bob Honkey and Silent Train. The music attracted some neighbors, as expected. Some were cool, singin’ along with the songs they knew, dancing and what-not. Others–really just one drunk chick– were douche bags. And Some were really cool, ie, the neighbor who owned a fiddle and kicked out some serious jams with the band. Deuce and a treetrust employee also joined the band for some massive jam tunes.
I was able to record a couple tunes on my mp3 player. My batteries were dieing and I was drinking, so I only recorded the first couple songs, missing the jam sessions. Also, all the files seem to have a high pitch ring for the first 20 second; I’m not really sure why that is, but it can be avoided in the future by starting the recording a little earlier and clipping the dead air off. Anywhere, here is the first song of the night, “Looking out my backdoor” featuring some chatter between Johnny D and Kellner about a particularly difficult beer bottle: Joe-Bob + Silent Train perform Looking Out My Backdoor
During the fours hours that the ribs were cooking, I was also able to brew my Leftover EPA. Unfortunately I tried to follow my hop schedule from memory, and ended up doing the reverse of what I intended. I originally planned on adding 0.5oz @ 60 min, 0.5oz @ 30min, and 1.0oz @ min. Instead I added 1.0oz @ 60 min, 0.5oz @ 30min, and 0.5oz @ 0min. Maybe this will turn out to be a Leftover IPA now. Also, I probably should have placed the hops in a muslin bag. I asked the clerk at Northern Brewer his opinion, which was that I didn’t need one, but I never mentioned that my batch was only going to be 1 gallon. Even though I ran the beer through a strainer into the carboy, a large amount of trub has formed. I’ll have to try filtering again before I bottle.
I finally made it out to Northern Brewer yesterday afternoon. While there I purchased the ingredients for my Leftover EPA and an ingredient kit for a batch of ESB.
Unfortunately, NB was out of some of the ingredients I had chosen for the Leftover EPA. As a result, I made the following substitutions:
- Loose leaf Cascade hops were substituted for Fuggles.
- Crystal 20L was substituted for 10L
- Wyeast #3944 (Belgian Witbier) was substituted for #3724 (Belgian Saison)
Cascade hops are usually higher in alpha acid than fuggles, so this beer will beer more bitter than I expected. The difference between the 10L and 20L should be negligible. The change that concerns me the most is the yeast. I had chosen the Belgian Saison yeast because it had a high attenuation rate and a fermentation range that extended to 85 degrees. My second choice would have been Wyeast #3522, Belgian Ardennes, with the same fermentation range but just a slightly lower attenuation. Instead, I followed the clerk’s advice and chose the Belgian Witbier, which has a lower attenuation rate and a lower fermentation range.
I still have high hopes for this batch however.
Why don’t people listen to more good hip-hop? It kills me to hear the B.S. that gets played on top 40 radio. I hate it when old ladies talk to me about music and they say things like “I don’t understand why people listen to this crap. It’s all just a bunch of cussing and yelling.” I cry at night because they will never hear good hip-hop. I desperately want to turn on some blackstar or atmosphere to show those gray hairs that hip-hop can be smart, funny, and even musical. But they have been lied to and tricked for far too many years by the joke that advertising agencies call rap. The concept that rap is juvenile and ignorant has been beat into their minds by the likes Chamillionaire (below) for too long for them to give good rap a chance. Thank you Chamillionaire. Old people all over the world will not give hip-hop a fair chance and will soon die having never heard a worthwhile rap. I hope you are happy.
“I remember diamonds used to be a girl’s best friend” -Murs
Luckily I am not yet hobbling around with one of those walkers that have two tennis balls on the front feet so I don’t have to strain my flabby old arms to lift it with every step. I have given rap a chance. I embrace rap like a warm blanket on a cold winter night. Recently, I have been using the power of pandora to listen to some awesome hip-hop, mostly rhymesayers stuff. I had heard of Murs before listening to pandora–mostly in his duo with Slug called Felt–but hadn’t heard any of his solo stuff. After hearing a couple tracks by the LA rapper, I broke down and bought “Murs 3:16 the 9th Edition.” It’s great stuff. Check out the music video for “Bad Man!” my current favorite track from the album:
I’ve got some left over dry malt extract from the Speckled Hen clone I made earlier this year. I’ve decided to use this leftover malt to make my first original beer. I want to head over to Northern Brewer later today to buy items for another brew, probably just a kit. I’ll pick the ingredients for this brew as well.
This is the mock-up as I have it so far:
Malt: 0.75lb Wheat DME, 0.75lb Light DME
Specialty Grains: 1lb Crystal 10L
Hops: 2 oz. loose Fuggles (0.5 @ 60 min, 0.5 @ 30 min, and 1 @ 0 min)
Because I have such little extract, I have to make up for it with Specialty grains and low volume. I’m curious to see how much of an impact the large amount of crystal malt will have.
According to the recipator a boil volume of 1 gallon will have an original gravity of 1.075, color of 10 SRM, and bitterness of 59 IBU.
I plan to use Wyeast #3724, Belgian Saison: medium flocculation, 76-80% apparent attenuation, and a fermentation range of 70-85 degrees.
With 80% attenuation, the final gravity should 1.016 and percent alcohol of 7.7% ABV.
