My Best Gift

My daughter and son-in-law gave me a Microbrewed Beer of the Month Club membership for Christmas. It has been quite an impressive gift. Every month I have received 12 American microbrews (3 bottles each of 4 kinds of beer). This month I received beer from Wyoming (my first ever Wyoming beer) and Massachusetts. I've gotten everything from Milk Stout to Porter to Belgian Wit to India Pale Ale. It's been quite a ride that alas, has come to an end. My membership officially expired with this shipment. I'm going to start my own personal club at Homsie's (they don't have a website, but their beer selection is great and so is the boudin).

Some of my past and current selections. The kegs on the lower shelf contain my homebrewed version of Bear Republic Racer 5, ready for tapping this weekend.

A sideways view of the well packaged and protected container that the beer is shipped in. I saved them all for future mailings.



And alas, my notice of termination

Thanks for the memories, Liz and Brett!

NHC Here We Come

Andy and I signed up to attend the National Homebrewer's Conference in Oakland from June 18-20. Competions, seminars, speakers, and unlimited homebrew samples for 3 days. We should be quite happy together...

My New Toy

I broke my third or fourth hydrometer during my last brew session in late November. A hydrometer is an instrument used to measure the specific gravity of wort. They are made of glass and consist of a cylindrical stem and a bulb weighted with lead shot to make it float upright. The wort is poured into a tall tube and the hydrometer is gently lowered into the liquid until it floats freely. The point at which the surface of the liquid touches the stem of the hydrometer is noted. The hydrometer contains a paper scale inside the stem, so that the specific gravity can be read directly. I check the specific gravity before and after fermentation, and the difference gives me an indication of percent alcohol in each batch of beer I brew.

Unfortunately, the glass tube offers little resistance to concrete when dropped from waist level. This has been the case in each of the 4 instances I dropped mine. So I decided to upgrade to a refractometer. A refractometer is an analog instrument used for measuring a liquid's refractive index. It works on the critical angle principle by which lenses and prisms project a shadow line onto a small glass recticle inside the instrument, which is then viewed by the user through a magnifying eyepiece. Wine makers use this instrument to check the sugar content of grapes.

No batteries, no glass stem, no problem! Instead of filling a tube with liquid, I placed 3 drops between the measuring prism and cover plate. Light traveling through the sample is passed through to the reticle. The net effect is that a shadow line forms between the illuminated area and the dark area. It is where this shadow line crosses the scale that a reading is taken. My wort came in at 16.8 on the Brix scale. Now if I could just find someone in the wine business who could convert from Brix to degrees Plato like my hydrometer used to indicate...

My new refractometer alongside one of my older hydrometers

Racer 5

I brewed for the first time in over 4 months yesterday.

All work and no play makes FP Brewer a dull boy...
All work and no play makes FP Brewer a dull boy...
All work and no play makes FP Brewer a dull boy...
All work and no play makes FP Brewer a dull boy...

Okay, I'm going to get back on the brew once per month track.

I created a nice Racer 5 clone. It is happily fermenting as I speak. I used 14 lbs of grain with Cascade and Chinook hops for the brew, to be followed by dry hopping with Columbus, Cascade, Centennial and Amarillo. Wow, a northwest taste bud extravaganza! I'm so excited. Stay tuned for sampling details in about 3 weeks.

Until then...cheers.

National Homebrew Competition

Every year, the American Homebrewer's Association sponsors the biggest beer competion in the world - The National Homebrew Competition will culminate this summer in Oakland, CA. Over 5600 beers were entered last year. This year, there is also an entry off of the Front Porch - a Chocolate Stout recipe I've been brewing for years. This year's batch came in at 9.5% ABV and is quite tasty, if I may be so bold.

My beer has to be in Atlanta, GA by April 8th for first round of regional judging. Final judging takes place in Oakland at the National Hombrewer's Conference. I'm hoping someone I know in that area will leave a light on for me should I make it that far.

So keep an eye out for entry ID 418 in a winner's circle near you! Until then...cheers!

Krewe of Barataria

Babs and I were invited to our first Krewe party last night. At this particualr event for this Krewe, the Dukes, Duchesses, Queen and King were introduced. Apparently, there are hundreds of Krewes throughout Louisiana currently celebrating Mardi Gras. Everybody in attendance is required to be in costume, and there is a theme for each royal person who invites you. We were invited as patients of Nicole, the Duchess of the Red Cross. There were probably a couple of hundred people in attendance, all of them having a Louisiana Mardi Gras good time.

We're not entirely sure what this Krewe business is all about, but one thing is for sure: these people know how to party. Enjoy.

Dr. Pheel-u-ups, Nurse Pheelgood, and a bottle of Abita Christmas Ale

Our Emcee. Check out his beads.

Here is the entry of the first Duke. This sort of thing went on for an hour...

The arrival of the second duke

This guy knows how to rock. You can hear what a good time Babs is having...

Here's our Duchess, surrounded by her naughty nurses and "exposed" patients...

All hail the King of Krewe Barataria

And the Queen....

And the King and Queen togther

Check out the robes

And finally...the entire royal Krewe toasting their subjects.

After this, there was much more loud music, drinking, eating and dancing until 1:00AM.

And the parades haven't even started yet.... Like I said, these people know how to party.

I'm managing a 5-week turnaround starting next weekend, so I'll talk to you again in March.

Until then...cheers!

The Ultimate Farkle Roll

Rolled by Babs on Friday night January 30, 2009.