Mu: Catharsis

A few months back C's Brother, who has a very different brewing philosophy than I, brewed an ESB. After some discussion, it was obvious that the exactly meaning of the label 'ESB', (extra special bitter), was not particularly well understood by me. Further investigation lead me to a believe that ESB was a term applied to a bitter (or amber ale) that was stronger than normal. Not very helpful given the wide rang of options for what could be called a bitter.

For years I've been tinkering with Linux, to the point where I've made my career of it. Throughout all of these years the basis of my tinkering has often been done on X86 PC hardware with conventional desktop or server-class hardware.

It's been nearly a year now since my first homebrewing attempt, and nearly a half year since my last attempt at a Scotch Ale. With all the lessons of the last year behind me, I'm hoping for a much less sweet, and accurate rendition of one of my favorite beer types. This recipe is supposed to produce a beer similar to Belhaven Scottish Ale. Though based on the sugar content I suspect it will be somewhat stronger. "Scotchie" Scotch

It's fall! Time to go apple picking, wear fleece and drink cider. Also, a good time for my first non-malt fermentation project. In this case, hard cider. After doing a bit of research, the resulting recipe was amazingly simple.

I've recently been spending some time looking over a new piece of hardware I find pretty interesting. Namely, 'Friday', a three-speed commuter bike with a Shimano Nexus internal hub gear system. They also come in eight speed, and automatic versions as well. Other manufactures apparently make them with up to 27 gears.

I've been a little more busy than I've indented to be over the last two weeks. As a result, it seems like I've only had time to do foody like updates. So... I'll fix that, but not today ;) Today, I made pasta.

When I was picking up the ingredients for Barley Wine Alpha, I also grabbed ingredients for an amber. I figured it would be nice to make something 'easy', with a lower gravity. Also, I thought maybe a less 'dark' beer would serve a broader audience.

In late June after having a glass at CBC, I decided to try my hand at making a barely wine. Barely Wine Alpha

13.2 lbs. Coopers brand light syrup

2 lbs. Muttons light DME

.5 lbs Lyle's Golden Syrup

8 oz. 40 crystal malt

8 oz. acid malt

5.2 oz. East Kent Golding @ 5% alpha acid (bittering hops)

After a 45 minutes boil:

1 oz. Fuggle (flavor hop)

A 57 minutes:

1 oz. Fuggle (aroma hop)

Last week, I kegged what will be the last of this initial series of scotch ale attempts. This batch was pretty much ingredients as the Notajew Brew, with a different yeast, and some process changes. Take a Break Scotch

6.6 lbs. Coopers brand light syrup

2 lbs. plain amber dry malt extract

1 lb. brown sugar

1 lb. 40 crystal malt

4 oz. chocolate malt

1.75 oz. Fuggle @ 4.2 % alpha acid

It's been several weeks since my third scotch ale attempt reached it's terminal gravity. At that time, I noted some rather unpleasant bitterness which had me worried the batch was spoiled. After deciding it might have been a failure, I immediately wanted to start on my fourth attempt (more on that soon). So into the keg it went. Happily, some few weeks later, it's now quite drinkable . Well carbonated, clear, and otherwise pretty damn good.