The Middle East etc

Damnit Peter Cetera.

Anyways, I was planning a post about all the crazy riots/uprisings/revolutions occurring across North Africa and Southwest Asia, and then, well, Libya happened, which just had to show up all the other ones.

Pro-, anti-govt supporters clash at Tehran funeral - World news - Mideast/N. Africa - Iran - msnbc.com
Libya awaits 'day of rage' rallies after rare clashes - World news - Mideast/N. Africa - msnbc.com 
Protests spread across Yemen, demonstrator dies - World news - Mideast/N. Africa - msnbc.com

Obviously this was all post-Egypt.

But yeah, things got really crazy over the weekend.

Report: Libya fighter jets attack protesters - World news - Mideast/N. Africa - msnbc.com

Yeah, shit is gonna get real serious in Libya real soon.

Fun fact, Gaddafi has been in power since like 1969 or something.

As there are clearly two+ sides to every story, I found it particularly amusing that NBC News ran a story about how all the trouble in the middle east was raising gas prices, and that is why everyone should settle down.
A) It really only postpones any issues that are going on there.  All of this stuff has to be resolved, and be resolved fully.
B)Gas price stories are such fluff pieces.  They don't even mean anything anymore.
C)The price of crude oil only makes up like half of what we pay at the pump.
D)Is big oil supporting both NBC and the dictatorships in the Muslim sphere?
E)That's something I'd expect more of Foxnews, but I don't watch a lot of that.
F)I should stop listing things in this letter format.
G)Seriously, I think I'm done here.

Seriously

-- Knuttel 

About That Engine

So I had a post a while back about the engines on the F-35.

House votes to kill expensive jet fighter engine - Yahoo! News

So yeah, looks like common sense prevailed.

-- Knuttel 

Curveball

Talk about a real "curveball".  Who calls themselves curveball anyway?

'Curveball': I lied about WMD to hasten Iraq war - World news - Mideast/N. Africa - msnbc.com

yeah, it's old news, get over it. 

Knuttel Makes Real Beer: Day 9, bottling

So I haven't really been playing my beer music since I started taking gravity readings.  All the movement just kinda makes it inconvenient to keep putting the speakers back and such.

Regardless, today, Presidents day 2011, was bottling day.

I determined it was bottling day by confirming that fermentation was done by taking gravity readings on 3 consecutive days.  If it is the same, this means it is done.  If there is a change, then fermentation may have went dormant for a day or two then restarted.  If bottling is done before fermentation is complete, then you end up with a bottle bomb -- a bottle filled with so much air and pressure that it can explode into many pieces, sending glass shrapnel, upon opening.

During one of the gravity readings I snapped a picture of a sample on my phone, but presentation gets an F-, so the picture is not getting put up.

I have also determined, using gravity readings from before fermentation and after, that the beer is around 5% abv.

It definitely has a distinct rye smell, very "spicy".  Perhaps I shall name it "Heart of the Sun-Ryes" after the Yes! song of the similar name.

I produced 31(.5) bottles, before I started picking up sediment and other unsavory things.

Next up will likely be an idea for a doppelbock I have.  Man, I can't wait till spring is actually really here, so I can try out  making a saison.

-- Knuttel

Knuttel Makes Real Beer: One week hence

So it's been a few days since I last put any updates about my beer.

I took some gravity readings today, to make sure its all good and fermented, and if I get the same numbers tomorrow and Monday, then bottling is a go.

So beer music, well it's been a few days, so my memory may be a bit foggy on the matter.  Today I played it Pink Floyd's Echoes.  Yesterday I gave it the Beatles' Revolver and Radiohead's the Bends.  The day before that I think I gave it The Sword's Age of Winters.  I don't know what else.  I think i played three albums one day, but that might have been earlier in the week.  whatevs.

T minus beer = soon.

-- Knuttel

P.S. totally taking suggestions for my next brew

Knuttel Makes Real Beer: Day 4

So the beer is definitely fermenting.  I didn't feel like peering through the side walls to see how much krausen is forming.  Earlier today, it was bubbling at about 1 large bubble every 7 seconds.  Yes, it is going very well.

Today's beerlist was made of Lady Gaga's The Fame (still the best album of modern pop history), The Jimi Hendrix Experience's Axis: Bold As Love, and later Helmet's Betty, though because that one was playing off my phone, the tracks went in alphabetical order instead of tracklisting.  Yeah, some of the albums on my phone are tricky like that.  It's just a little weird cos instead of having "Wilma's Rainbow" near the beginning, it's the last song.  I always forget about their noise rock cover of the jazz standard "Beautiful Love",  good ol Dizzy Gillespie.  I realize Meantime might have their super-recognizable track, "Unsung", but I think Betty is overall a better album.  Arrgh, this is a beer post, not a music post...

-- Knuttel

Puck the System?

Nah, that idea totally failed.  I simply don't watch enough hockey to follow the entire league closely and bestow upon the world my witty thoughts and observations.

That doesn't mean I can't write about hockey anymore.

Sidney Crosby is a bitch, and it's hurting the league.

Fantasy Hockey News » Lemieux on the NHL: “It Failed”

That's Lemieux angrily venting about his team sucking and playing like cheap bitch ass punks cos their two star players are hurt.

Let's establish a few things -- I am not opposed, per se, to certain players getting special kinds of protection.  I am opposed when it interferes with the other team trying to play hockey.  Granting these special players some sort of magic injury protection helps keep them, and fan interest on the ice.

Atlas Shrugged, Updated

McSweeney's Internet Tendency: Atlas Shrugged Updated for the Current Financial Crisis.

In honor of the trailer for Atlas Shrugged getting released at CPAC.

Talk Like an Egyptian

In Egypt, Christians, Muslims find common ground - USATODAY.com

This should be interesting to watch play out.  Personally, I hope it turns out to a secular kind of republic, a la Turkey.  I don't see any need to persecute people because of their religious beliefs.  It's an unnecessary effort, and counterproductive in a lot of cases.  Not to mention the Christian and Islamic worlds are not necessarily on best of terms right now, if one were to shut out the other, it could be catastrophic.

I just hope this isn't like the Iran situation of a few years ago where the elections were disputed by the Western Media, when in fact they were only really talking to people in Tehran and its suburbs.  Well yeah, if you only go where the opposition is, and the two parties are that opposite of each other (when really, they weren't, but damnit did they like to believe so, sounds familiar) then you are going to hear only words of bloody revolution.

Would it be responsible to go to a tea-party rally and ask about Obama's direction for our country?  No, that would be foolish and one dimensional.

I wonder what the Egyptian countryside thinks about this -- not Mubarak, the religion issue.  I don't think anyone liked Mubarak.

By the way, whatever happenned to the Zoroastrians/Mazdaists in Iran?  Did they all run to America?

-- Knuttel

When Even the "Good" Plane Sinks the Economy

F-35 engine shows challenge of belt-tightening - USATODAY.com

The F-22, while being a major feat of aeronautics and engineering, is pretty much unneeded today.  Even if we were to get involved in a "traditional" war with, let's say, China, Russia, or some other European power, most of the planes that get shot down would likely get taken down from the ground.  Dogfighting is largely a thing of the past, negated by increasing speeds, maneuverability, and stealth technologies.  Even as bomber escorts, they seem futile; any missile, ground or air, could target any singly aircraft, escorts would merely be sacrificial vessels at best.

In any case, I digress.  The point is, the F-22 was to be the military's superweapon of the future.  Tactics have rendered it obsolete since its initial design, but the project was so huge, tied to so many companies, so many states and districts, and requiring so many subsidies, that nobody was going to let it fail.  Even though it's maintenance cost is astronomical, and it has shown a weakness to rain, nobody was going to shoot the project down -- it was political suicide.

title?

The Paradox of Corporate Taxes in America - NYTimes.com

Sooooo, looks like not that much is getting cut from the budget ... and everyone is unwilling to raise taxes or close deductions.  So how exactly is the budget gonna balanced?

I look at it this way, these corporations are paying a portion of this money (not all, that would be ridiculous) to employ people who know these loopholes and can exploit them.

Not to mention anyone who's in the top tax bracket is also probably very much aware of these tax breaks.  I still remember a moment in the 2004 Presidential debates where Kerry called Bush out on not paying a lot of taxes due to his status as a small business owner, having a small logging business or whatever.  The specifics aren't really necessary here, and to my recollection, they weren't even proven or refuted back then; they became a throwaway line.

So how can we have it both ways like this?  How can the government get accused of unfairly levying exorbitant taxes upon the wealthy people and corporations, only to have them pay a token cost.

I wonder how much they'd actually bitch and moan if we cut their subsidies too.  Free handout welfare whores my ass, they're just as guilty.  It would balance the budget...

-- Knutel

Oh, Jersey Shore

Walk like a man: Gorilla strolls on hind legs - Technology & science - Science - msnbc.com

Haha, someone put Ronnie in a zoo 

Will They or Won't They

So I began the idea of writing this by reading up on the issues on tvtropes, and well, as things happen on tv tropes, I got hella sidetracked.  So here are I guess three links to form the basis of what I'm talking about.

So now that that's out of the way, rant on...

I hate it when television shows succumb to this styling of plotting and drama.  I watch few enough shows as it is to prevent seeing this kind of thing happen, but it almost always comes into play.

Any show whose plot revolves around creating sexual tension between the cast members to an infuriating "will they or won't they" level, or even just feels the need to pair up all the cast members in relationships fails on so many dramatic levels.

The obvious reason is it's one dimensional, effectively taking any dramatic depth from a dramatic show.

But on comedies it drags them, and makes them unfunny.  This is really where it kills.  WTOWT single handedly turned Friends from a mediocre but sometimes watchable comedy into a half-hour long torture session of half-hearted dramedy (half).

Maybe I'm just a romantic, who thinks that comedies should be pure -- a saturated mess of realism and surrealism, made of so many layers of jokes there is no space for a laugh track, packed so densely you don't want to laugh lest you miss the next joke.

As a comedic device, it can sometimes work (emphasis on sometimes).  The problem is, well, depending on I'm willing to blame at any time, either producers for mistaking these jokes for actual plot bits and forcing them along, or writers for losing ideas and resorting to these sort of cheap tricks to drag the show to its far away grave.

In dramas, well I've seen the worst.  By the time I had stopped watching new episodes of Degrassi, it was only about who was hooking up with whom.  There wasn't anything else to anything, and anything that might be something else was inexorably tied who was hooking up with whom.  I'll always have seasons 1-8.

-- Knuttel

Totally Blanked On A Title, Who Cares

For D.C.'s few tea party residents, home can at times feel like enemy territory

Kinda refreshing to see tea partiers who actually aren't just more conservative Republicans.  When they first appeared, this is kind of what I thought they would be -- a mouthpiece for libertarianism, caring only about the size of government itself, reducing spending and taxing; not fearing for a military with gays serving or dithering about whether the President is a Muslim, a foreigner, or both.

Frankly I have a hard time understanding how smaller government parties in recent history have usually been "let's invade people's private lives" parties.  It just doesn't seem to mesh at a philosophical level.

------------------

And while we're on the topic of conservatives and Libertarians

CPAC 2011: The crowd loves Ron and Rand Paul, but does the party? - By David Weigel - Slate Magazine

Maybe it's just the generation I'm in, being more open on social issues, but I wonder why Ron Paul has always been brushed aside by the party's base, if the big issue is usually boiled down to the size of government (period).  Frankly, I disagree with a lot of what he says, and perhaps even more of what his son says, but damnit I liked the foment behind his 2008 campaign.  It had a real fire to it, a substance that was only really matched by Obama.   But unlike Obama, Paul wasn't taken seriously, and despite being a late hanger on in the primary, he was mainly just a thorn in the side, like Kucinich for the Democrats.

-- Knuttel

Fwah?

Iowa population shifts from rural to urban - USATODAY.com

So, this article totally threw me for a loop.  When I think Iowa, and I do not think I am alone, I think flat ass farms and junk.

Lemme share a few facts.

The tallest point in Iowa is on a hill only like a mile or so from the Minnesota border.

I once had the pleasure of meeting people from Iowa (who had just attended the game against Penn State) who told me the most fun thing to do in Iowa was go to Corn Palace.  I looked it up when I returned home, Corn Palace is in South Dakota.  Let me rephrase that, the most fun thing to do in Iowa is to leave Iowa.

That'll do.

So where are these people going in Iowa?  Des Moines?  Cedar Rapids?  Dubuque?  Iowa City?  Sioux City?  None of these places are extraordinarily big.  Geographically it doesn't seem to make much sense as much else besides a series of farms.  It's pretty far upstream on the Mississippi river.  It isn't really close enough to Chicago to be a part of that Great Lakes Sphere, at least as a major member.  It's separated by the Rocky Mountain states by a layer of more Great Plains states.  I mean, what could possibly be happenning in Iowa?

-- Knuttel

Ah, Fear

The emergence of talent: genius and precocity : The New Yorker

  Perhaps not in the traditional sense, but is it so unreasonable to fear years and years of toiling in obscurity before anyone gives a shit?

Knuttel Makes Real Beer: Day 3

So yeah, basically just more maintenance today, make sure everything is still fermenting and at the right temperatures -- which it totally is.  Played Blur's 13 album for my beer.  Forgot I listened to that album so many damn times that parts of the end are practically burned off.

I know this doesn't have much to do with 13 or my beer, but damnit, this song has been stuck in my head...




So epic and so brutal.

-- Knuttel

Knuttel Makes Real Beer: Day 2

So I spent pretty much all of Saturday making "real" beer.  What do I mean by that?  I mean I did an all-grain brew, where I extract the wort from the grains myself through use of a mash tun, as opposed to buying pre-made malt extract.

I bought the ingredients on Friday, and began Saturday with a tour of a certain Philadelphia brewery.  My accomplice and I quickly grabbed some cheesesteaks and then escaped back out to the suburbs to brew some beer.

I didn't really do anything fancy, so instead I'll just say where we ran into complications.

-- We didn't have enough water (more on this later, but we only accounted for water lost in the actual boil)

-- The mash tun had to be cajoled into working properly.
  First, we needed 3.5 gallons to sit in the container, as opposed to the 2.5 we originally had heated up for it.  Next, we were doing a batch sparge process, and, well the water didn't want to pass through once we got to a certain point -- and this was not for a lack of water, there was a definite inch sitting on top of everything.  So first we tried fixing this by mixing with something long enough to reach the bottom (in this case, a hockey stick).  That opened things up for a little, but then it was back to nothing as usual.  So then we decided just to press everything through a strainer and fill everything up that way.  We full intend to use the mash tun to its full extent next time around, but it needs modifications.  Also in this stage is where we failed to account for water lost to grain absorption.  An additional gallon of water was added to our planned 6 (the amount we were going to boil).

-- We had a minor boilover (it was minor, but messy).  Resolution, be more vigilant and don't underestimate how early it could start boiling.

-- We did a 90 minute boil as opposed to the 60 minute boil most people use.  My intent was to get more use out of the hops, but again, I failed to account for additional water I would lose during this stage (and you really need the water to boil hard).  Not to mention, the fact that the wort was split amongst one giant dutch oven and two smaller pots means I was dealing with a whole lot more surface area (even more evaporation).  From now on I will do only 60 minute boils, especially with the apparatus I have.

-- COOLDOWN
  Luckily we still have snow, otherwise I don't even know how we'd attempt a wort chill.  Even so, we started by simply placing the open containers in holes we made in the snow, checking periodically to make sure the pot sides were still making contact with snow and to check the temperatures.  Well, two things, first off, leaving the lids open just let everything evaporate off even more.  Secondly, the snow (the coldness) was only surrounding the substance on the bottom and sides.  We fixed this by dumping the remaining small pot (yes, by now we were down to one small pot) into the large dutch oven (and, oh yeah, all of this had lost enough that I could fit it all in the dutch oven), closed the lid, and covering the whole thing with snow.  About an hour after we had started cooling the wort (longer than one should take) we had the wort down to room temperature and were able to transfer it to the fermenting container.  We only lost about a gallon, gallon and a half during cooling.  An alternative cooling process will have to be found, with both the inefficiency of the one I used and the snow (hopefully) going away soon.

-- Yeast
  The yeast was taken out from the refrigerator too early, and was also shaken pretty fully waaaaay too early, so I had to put it in a glass with some sugar to make sure it wouldn't die on me.  No yeast = no alcohol.  This was just carelessness on my part.

-- In order to adjust for the gratuitous water loss (we had only 3 gallons of wort ready to ferment post-cooling) I had to add I think like 12 water bottles to the whole mixture.  I think it brought us around 4 gallons in the end.  Considering we were aiming for 5 gallons, we didn't have much of an option.  Oddly enough we ended around our target gravity (sugar density), so there's that.

PICTURES FROM THE PROCESS

mostly emptied mash tun, with hose being pulled out

trash bag with all of the spent grain

All of our lovely wort, pre-boil

Sooooo, day 2 stuff -- definitely saw bubbles on the air valve this morning, which means it has already started fermentation.  very nice.  Also have already played my beer the entirety of Rush's 2112 album.  Gotta nurture it.  I should also mention I have decided to move the fermentation area from the basement to my closet due to more ideal ale growing conditions.

-- Knuttel

Goddamnit, Man Up America

http://www.avclub.com/articles/casting-agents-say-superheroes-are-played-by-briti,51246/

From a pure casting standpoint, I only really care that Captain America be played by an American, and I would prefer Wolverine to be played by a Canadian.  Last time I checked, Captain America is being played by an American, and Wolverine, well, let's not go there.

The fact that Supes isn't played by an American now, I mean, ok, the character is supposed to have that all-American aww shucks kinda demeanor, but that's just acting.  Superman is kryptonian.  He isn't American.  And as far as Batman being played by a Welshman, whatever so long as the acting chops are there.  Side note, it would be interesting if Bale used his natural Welsh accent for Batman.

As a trend, this is disconcerting, for all of the reasons listed.

I submit myself, adonis that I am, to rectify these issues.

I know, you may say, but Knuttel, your acting experience is minimal, you should be utilizing your talents behind the camera.  -- I KNOW THIS.  But this situation needs to be fixed, so I'm gonna have to do some Orson Welles up in this bitch.

-- Knuttel

Let's Hope They Don't Jinx It

http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2011-02-09-editorial09_ST_N.htm

So I'm guessing this means that Keynesian economics actually work, and it takes a while for stimulus related things to take effect?

I realize the great depression was, well, great, and much larger than this recession we had/are having, but it took an extremely long time to get out of that, and there was little improvement of any kind until well into any of the FDR administrations.  Some say it didn't fully recover until the war.

It's like brewing beer.  I'm hella anxious right now to drink my beer, but I know if I open up one of those bottles it will probably be like shit.  You have to give this stuff time to work.

Captain Sisco on Deep Space Nine once made a comment about letting a soufflé bake undisturbed.  Opening the oven (stopping stimulus) to see whether or not it's working would just result in a deflated soufflé.  You have to wait and trust it is going to work, and either it will or it won't, but there isn't much you can do about it either way.

-- Knuttel

Trains

http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/362107

Two things strike me about this article.

1. Of course it's Dr. Teeth to suggest this plan, he has a reputation from his Senate days of taking the Amtrak commute every day from Wilmington to DC.

2. Why is our train system so outdated?  It's everywhere too, not just the nationwide Amtrak system.  Rail based public transit systems haven't been updated in decades in most places.  Philadelphia's El doesn't even reach city limits at its north, south, and east (northeast) limits (yes, it is shaped as a cross -- the backbone of public transport for a large area'd city and the 5th most populous metro-region in the nation is essentially a cross).

The way I see it, the rail system, at least for people transport, should be based around the nation's densely populated areas, and then there should be smaller networks to connect these to one another.  It doesn't really matter the cost incurred because of the boost it will give economically.

-- Knuttel

Genetics or eugenics or something

http://www.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/02/06/enriquez.gullans.human.species/index.html

I could list an infinite number of science fiction stories that says this is ultimately a bad idea, and maybe a handful that says it's a good idea.

The Sudan Splits

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110207/wl_nm/us_sudan_referendum

The south of Sudan votes to separate from the north in a landslide election.

I wonder how cohesive this region has actually politically been, and how much of their borders are defined by British colonial convenience, ala Nigeria.

Either way, there's been way too much violence between those from the north and those from the south.  Even if Sudan should be a united country, now is not the time for that.

-- Knuttel

Knuttel Makes Beer: Day Bottling

Yes, so as the title indicates, I have bottled the beer I have been making.

To bottle, on adds the brewed contents into a bottle along with some sort of priming sugar.  What I was following recommended regular white sugar, though some prefer corn syrup, as it gets metabolized by the remaining yeast quicker without changing the flavor as much.  Other options can include anything that has some sort of sugar in it: brown sugar, molasses, maple syrup, honey, etc.

For one batch, I used the recommended white sugar.  For the other batch, I used skittles.

Yes, skittles.  You see, the story goes a long ways back, and it's probably not even really worth repeating at this moment, but damnit, I was determined to make some skittlebrau.  I had to leave them uncrushed, as an attempt at crushing them in a sandwich bag with a food hammer left a broken sandwich bag, not crushed skittles.  Upon trying the same thing with no holding container, skittle pieces flew everywhere; the skittles went into the beer whole.

I'm already looking forward to my next batch, where I will likely make "real" beer.

-- Knuttel

Knuttel Makes Beer: day whatever, Knuttel makes a Mash Tun

Since it's officially been a week of fermenting my first batch(es) of beer, i pulled a sample of each to test them, see if they're ready or not for bottling (since it was from a kit and they gave me no hydrometer, I simply had to taste the beer to see if it tasted like, well, flat beer).  And it wasn't ready yet.  Will probably test it again sometime in the middle of the week.

But I also did some important fact finding and mash tun making today.

That's right, I made my own mash tun; all grain brewing is only a step away.

I used a 5 gallon water cooler.

And a piece of flexible tubing.

Then I drilled holes into the tubing, carving them afterward to make sure they were big enough and clean enough.

And inserted the tubing into the spigot on the inside of the cooler.

You see, a mash tun is supposed to extract the sugars from the grain using hot water, so basically there are two things you need -- an insulated container (in this case, a water cooler), and a filtering mechanism of some kind to separate the sugar water from the grain (in this case, the holed piece of tubing).  I made mine for around 21 bucks, looking around the internet, it's usually been done for like 25-30 bucks.  If you buy a premade one, well that will probably run you a hundred or (more likely) two.

I still have to find a way to close (at least a majority of) the hole on the other end of the tube, but I also still have to clean it, so that will happen.  Regardless, I am just that much closer to creating the vaunted "Knuttelbrau".  Besides, now I can say things like "Sparge the mash" and make total sense.

-- Knuttel

Knuttel Makes Beer: Day 5

So I haven't had the opportunity/time to properly play music for my beer the past two days due to work-related issues, but I assume its all gonna be fine.  Tomorrow I will test to see how close it is to bottling.

Tomorrow I may also attempt construction of what is known as a mash tun.  A mash tun is used to extract the sugars from grains (barley, etc) to make the wort.  If I ever want to do any all-grain kind of brewing, I would need this.  And let's be honest, I do not want to keep making beer from a can.  That is not beer.  It's like making cake from a box.  Technically you just mixed it and put it in the oven (or in beer's case, cooked the wort a lil and set up fermentation).  I just want to take pride in a product that is all mine.

That being said, I believe I may have created a mathematically perfect beer recipe.  It will be the first one I test, but I will only make it in 2.5 gallon format, not the 5 that is deemed standard.  I am also debating whether I should make the heavier (probably very heavy) 6.6 abv version or the about 5 abv version.

Guess I'll figure it out.

-- Knuttel

Knuttel Makes Beer: Day 4

So the waiting game continues.

Today I played my beer Bitches Brew by Miles Davis and Meat is Murder by The Smiths.

I worry sometimes that my basement is too cold for properly fermenting the beer.  I guess I'll find out later.  Maybe I should have left it next to the heater.

-- Knuttel

Knuttel Makes Beer: Day 3, more maintenence

The beer's music for the day was some Mastodon and Slayer, though some of the more  mature offerings from each.  I guess you could say it was "brewtal"  heheh.  Anyways, during the day I played Crack the Skye by Mastodon, and the night offered Seasons in the Abyss by Slayer.

I decided to pull the blanket up a little bit to see the progress of the fermentation, and I suspect only one of them is fermenting.  Guess Knuttel-made products are better than non-Knuttel made.  Anyways, it will be interesting to see how these turn out.  But seriously, I should be seeing some krausen by now.

-- Knuttel

Knuttel Makes Beer: day 2, maintenance

Ok, so I realize it is technically day 3, by date, but here is the rundown of what happened on day 2.

As far as music is concerned, I played it Rush's Moving Pictures during the day, and followed that with Black Sabbath's Vol. 4 at night.  As I have stated before, this is vital to the growth of the yeast, as the beer is living.  Suck on that vegans, you guys technically drink beer.

Moving on, there really wasn't that much maintenance.  I mean, it's still fermenting, so the best thing to do is to keep it out of light and everything, so I have speakers set up right next to the batches, and the wire runs out and over top the tarp that's covering them.  So when I put on some music for them, I don't have to expose them to light.  The one batch was definitely fermenting the last time I opened the tarp up, didn't really check the other one, but I don't see any reason it won't.

I also took a trip to the local Homebrewing store yesterday to learn more about this great, mysterious, and arcane art (that some people treat as a science).  I learned a lot on this trip, and realized that if I am going to really take this seriously, I am going to need to brew these batches at 5 gallons a piece (would turn out to be like just over 2 cases).  Technically I am brewing about 5 gallons right now, but they are two separate containers, and the one is definitely not designed for any brewing.  I did some research and I could probably pick up some food buckets to do brewing in from like a bakery or something, as they get them all the time.  They get their ingredients in these, and so long as they're the proper size, it will do fine for fermenting as it is a food grade bucket, and there shouldn't be any plasticizing of the flavor -- they also sell buckets similar to those at like Home Depot and stuff, and while they are not approved by the FDA, they are essentially the same material.  Given that one was definitely used for food, while the other was not though, and that one would likely be free, I think it's a given what I would look for first.  Basically the same thing is sold at the Homebrew Store at like just under 20 bucks.  Also learned I would need a second bucket for bottling (and this would pretty much be just for bottling, as beer could also be fermented in a carboy, as some prefer because they can come in glass also), sugars must be added just prior to bottling, this completes the fermentation process and gives the beer carbonation.

Basically my head is just overflowing with beer ideas, and at the very least I need more equipment to test them out.  Shit, going to be making alot of beer though.  Whatevs, like that's a bad thing.

-- Knuttel

P.S. figured I'd give a link or whatever to the homebrew store I visited, even though there's like nothing on their website.  They were pretty damn helpful there -- http://www.winebarleyandhops.com/

Knuttel Makes Beer: maintenence day 1

Ok, well the beer is definitely fermenting in the one "cask", didn't really get a good look at the other, but I assume it's all going swimmingly.

As the photos show I replaced the tissue filter with one made of fabric.  I realize this is still far from ideal, but at the very least it is far more waterproof.

The fabric comes from leftover material from my trip to the rally to restore sanity and/or fear, therefore this batch will be called "Dr. Stephen T. Colbert's Skittlebrau, Presented by Prescott Pharmaceuticals."

Other than that, I played my beer some music today -- a jazz compilation I put together for a trip to Chicago I think.  It includes some Mingus, Eric Dolphy, Herbie Hancock, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, and Charlie Parker/Dizzy Gillespie, possibly among others, but I think that's it -- you know, the basics.  Let me put it this way, beer is a living thing, what with the yeast and all.  You gotta nurture it.

-- Knuttel