Well, being the web geek that I am (and the beer brewing geek that I’ve become), I’ve decided to create a blog just for my brewing, documenting current brews, as well as covering any resources or links that I find interesting or helpful. Unfortunately mtbottle.com was taken — doh! So I got the next best thing:
Be sure to add it to your RSS feeds.
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Measurement for Dry Irish Stout:
SG: 1.027; CSG: 1.033
I picked up the next two kits that I’ll be brewing, the infamous Scottish Wee Heavy and a refreshing Honey Brown Ale. I’m brewing two at once because the Scottish Wee Heavy takes about three months to reach an acceptable maturance and the Honey Brown Ale only six weeks.
Earlier this week I had been able to finally taste the (ready) fruits of my labor with the Winter Warmer kit and it was quite good — and strong. I’ll have to cherish what little I’ve left as I’ve only got about eight bottles left of that stuff and have given about two dozen away.
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When I really dig down deep and am honest with myself, I know that I really shouldn’t shelf the music that festers inside. I also know that I have pretty much put active discipleship on the shelf — relatively disconnected from God and any sort of accountability. The story is long and complicated how I got to this point — contributing factors including burnout, disenchantment, disconnectedness and loss of my innocense as it pertains to what used to be my relationship with God and how music was woven into that. It’s not that things were perfect then — far from it — but my hunger was insatiable and it burned so much so, that if I didn’t express it through music I would grow restless.
Through circumstances and a series of choices, here I am — leading a quiet life of desperation. I’ve got my 9 to 5 cushy design/development job, bring home a nice paycheck, got an okay house, all that I need and much more and yet desperately hungry for what I once had.
So when I got home from visiting a church this morning, I forced myself to sit down and play my guitar and write honestly. I tried not to worry extensively about slickness of words (tried anyway) and how well it sang or played. Setting up the phrasing structures on my Boomerang, I listened to the loop while I wrote. After getting all the words down, I eventually tracked it in Adobe Audition (which is a GREAT application for recording/editing) for reference only. Eventually I’ll retrack it later, but I wanted to at least have it down somewhere.
Anyway, here’s the words to the latest song, “Morning Supplication” (more…)
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Well, I’ve just recently finished a really cool, new media piece for my employer’s Executive Briefing Center (a fancy name for meeting room). Since I don’t really want HTTP_REFER references coming from my blog, copy and paste this URL into your browser, download the referenced zip file, and run the presentation contained therein. It rocks — if I do say so myself.
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A friend sent this to me to check out… and it left me… uh… speechless.
Check out this video with a tongue-in-cheek criticism about Islam in its “purist” form.
Filed under: Awareness, Spirituality, Websites
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Dry Irish Stout — OG: 1.05; SG: 1.036
Winter warmer — OG appx: 1.065; FG: 1.016
Today is the beer bottling party for the Winter Warmer kit. I picked up a number of snacks and some other beers, as the beer isn’t ready to drink yet — it obviously lacks the carbonation that comes in the bottling process.
Should be a fun night!
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I watched a peculiar program this evening called “What the … do we know?“. Essentially it’s a bunch of scientists, mystics and theologians trying to explain quantum physics. For the most part it held my interest, but there were a few mystics that had the major fruitcake thing going for them [particularly this lady who calls herself Ramtha]. The program would have been much better without her mystical nonsense. That said, there were two scientists who had some very interesting points to consider — Dr. Joe Dispenza and Dr. Masaru Emoto. I’ll give the disclaimer first and foremost that there are some things they say that I just don’t flat out agree with and they get a little too mystical about some things (I think they’ve been hanging around Ramtha too much), but they also had some compelling arguments as well.
Dr. Emoto revealed the alleged effect of thoughts, words and emotions on water crystals on the microscopic level. His conclusion is that if ideas can affect water on the molecular level, how much more our thoughts, words and ideas affect our own bodies — after all, we are over 70% water.
Anyway, it was a lot of information to consume, and given that it was presented in a documentaryesque format, it doesn’t leave you any time to digest what they’re talking about, check their facts and references and counter their findings with other proven studies. But of course, things get pretty messy when you try and mix science, mysticism and theology — especially mysticism.
Interesting program. Not sure how much is valid facts (or truth), but it does cause me to give more thought about the affect of my thoughts and how they affect me and the world around me.
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Lately I’ve been getting into The Postal Service, a pretty cool semi-electronica group — pretty good moderate to down-tempo stuff. I particularly like their single, “The District Sleeps Alone Tonight“.
Well on the way home from our small group this evening, I heard this awesome song on The Current. At first I thought it was another song from The Postal Service, but it ended up being Death Cab for Cutie. The lead vocalist sounds A LOT like the lead in Postal Service, but the overall sound of the band is less electronica and slightly more natural sounding in terms of instrumentation. The single I heard was “Brothers on a Hotel Bed” and unfortunately the sample from MPR’s store doesn’t do any justice whatsoever to the song. But it was pretty cool. They’re my next buy for albums, that’s for sure.
Correction: I guess it’d help if I checked the website for Death Cab for Cutie… They have a flash component there, where you can hear the song in its entirety. Very cool. They’ll also be in concert with Franz Ferdinand in April 20th at the Northrup Auditorium. I’d like to try and make that concert.
Specific Gravity readings for:
Dry Irish Stout (primary fermenter) 1.024
Winter warmer (secondary) 1.015
My cats had broken my hydrometer that Natalie got me, so I went and picked up a refractometer, which gives a much more accurate measurement of sugar levels. Of course, you have to use a series of formulas to measure out the actual gravity level. A guy from Northern Brewer recommended this one. The first form gives you a general gravity level. However, when you get further along in the fermentation process and nearing the bottling stage, you’ll want to use the second form. Enter the original gravity level (OG) and the brix measurement and you’ll get your current and corrected gravity reading.
I’m probably going to bottle up a bottle or two of the winter warmer for the bottling party, just so we’ve something to try out (and is semi-carbonated).
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Can’t wait to try ‘em out.