Happy New Year!

KabLOOEY!!!

Howdy all....

Just checking in after a busy busy busy holiday season. To Recap:

Shopping.
Shopping.
Dodge mall traffic.
Church on Xmas Eve.
Open presents with C family on Xmas Eve.
Xmas morning breakfast at our house with both families.
Xmas dinner at P family house.
work for a week (busy).
Watched Gamecocks lose bowl game.
Ate greasy onion rings and drank tasty beer.
Fretted.
New Years Party.
Saw Chronicles of Narnia on New Years Day.
Back to work. (booo!)

Stayed home for the holidays, and it was great, but man were we tired out from all the merrymaking. yeesh! Especially Babygirl. She was tired, but hung in there!

Anyways, hope y'all have a great year, and you find yourself further along the road to accomplishing your dreams, whatever they may be.

P.S. On the zymurgy front, I brewed an English Pale Ale, and it is now in secondary fermentation. The pale ale votes won in my little online 'poll'. Thanks for your support!

Zymurgy Poll

Dear intrepid Spatial Dimension readers and beer fans alike, due to the recent opening of my carboy for another batch of home-brew, I am planning my next batch to brew probably sometime in early January or right before Christmas. The problem is, I have made all the beers that are my favorites already and I cannot decide what to make next.

So, being the democratic type guy that I am, I'd like to open this one up to you all to give me your favorite type of beer and a recommendation if they aren't the same. If you know me, just think, if you win the poll, you get to taste what you wanted when its done conditioning in January!

*ooooohhhhh....ahhhhhh*

First a couple of conditions:

1) Lagers are difficult to make and I do not have the proper equipment to do so yet. So please do not recommend any types of pilsners or mass produced Ameri-beers such as Budweiser or Miller.

2) I'm not too hip on trying to make another high gravity beer, such as a Belgian Abbey Ale or Barleywine or the like. My first high-grav has been conditioning for four months and it still hasn't carbonated. I'd rather not wait for the final product that long - oh and they're expensive to brew.

That's it. Post your favorite beer or beer style and I'll pick the most popular or the one that looks best!

Slainte!

the Beer Machine

now after 5000 years of wasting time brewing beer the old fashioned way, you can make it at home in just 5 to 7 days!

As seen on TV!
Courtesy of Coach Thugg

I mean everyone knows you can make beer in just 5 to seven days with a plastic keg and a plastic bag of beer mix.

*smacks self in head*

now why didn't I think of that! I wonder if it comes with its own Ginsu blade?

Is Fall finally here?

Must be because I had my annual version of Curley-Aerator SMACKDOWN WWE!

This past weekend was the first weekend that actually felt like fall. Low 70's and yesterday it was gray and drizzly all day with a high in the uper 60's. I almost could smell the fireplaces burning... Not only that, but I spent all day yesterday preparing the yard for aeration. My neighbor and I went to Lowe's at 8 AM to rent an aerator and they were all out. We didn't end up getting one until about 1:30 or so, and by that time I had just started scalping the lawn and raking up the thatch. Ouch. By the time it was my turn to aerate, the drizzle faucet was on full, I was wet, the lawn was soggy, and the behemoth of an aerator sunk down good and deep into the soil. If you have no idea what aerating is, its basically using an oversized lawnmower/tiller thingy with spikes under it to run over your lawn while the spikes pull up little 5 inch cores out of your lawn. This allows oxygen and other nutrients to get into your soil through these holes. Oh did I mention that in order to do this effectively, the aerator has to be HEAVY?? Cripes. Turning it is a feat in itself. I got maybe 30 yards of grass aerated before the behemoth just stopped moving - I looked down and saw the drive chain lying on the grass, snapped in half. Nice.

So I stood there in the drizzly rain all wet with a 200+ pound machine sinking into my lawn with no drive chain at 4:30 in the afternoon. I was a happy camper. Not. We took it back to the rental center and I'll be finishing the lawn tonight, if they have another aerator on hand when I get there, that is. Then I can happily apply the lime and grass seed, all so the lawn will be green next spring.

The things we do for a pretty lawn. *sigh*.

Well at least I got a chance to brew a stout on Saturday evening, oh and the Gamecocks won a game. So I guess it wasn't too bad of a weekend. :)

Random Friday Thoughts

- Getting glass in your foot really hurts. If at all possible avoid doing so, because trust me, you will be mega-gimpy for a few days until you have to see a surgeon to get it pulled out.

- Will the Gamecocks rebound and beat Troy University on Saturday after the thumping they received from Bama last weekend? Does anyone besides myself care?

- Rita is bearing down on Texas and will hit it hard. New Orleans is flooding again as I type this. Our gas prices will be affected by another huge hurricane. Is someone upstairs trying to tell us something?? I'm just asking....

- I have determined that Natural Lite Ice in a can is horrible. It's like drinking water with alcohol added to fool you into liking it. Oh I just bought it to grill beer can chicken with, I'm still a beer snob.

- After winning two presidential elections, people still call our President an idiot. Doesn't say much towards his competition or the people that say that about him in the first place. It has to take SOMETHING in the brain department to accomplish something like becoming the chief executive and Commander in Chief in a constitutional republic.

- My fantasy football team won laast weekend. YAY! Wonder if I'll make it two in a row? I'm playing my buddy Renato's wife, and she's been talking smack. You go girl (but not this weekend)!

- Best wishes and godspeed to my good friend Renato who has shipped to Iraq to serve our country. We will miss him horribly, but are extremely proud of what he is going to accomplish with his and his family's sacrifice. I plan on attending his welcome home party next year and toasting with a nice cold one. He is a man of true honor and duty, and for that we are all thankful.

- Dang, what does one guy gotta do to get some comments on his Blog? Advertise free beer?

- Good friend of mine yesterday at lunch told me when I asked him if he read my blog that he doesn't like to read them because its usually just a bunch of ranting about stuff. I don't do that do I??? *coy look*

P-Dogg's Zymurgy Tip of the day..

Just in case you've ever wanted to make a high gravity beer, here's a tip for you. Get a reaaaal strong yeast or one that you can add to the bottle after primary fermentation. My batch #7 is a Belgian Style Abbey Ale with about a 10% Alcohol content. It has been almost three months since I bottled it, and I have no carbonation whatsoever. I asked the friendly neighborhood beer maker store owner guy about it and he told me that the amount of alcohol in the beer ends up slowing the yeast activity and therefore the remaining yeast in the bottles are having a hard time creating the carbon dioxide needed for proper carbonation. He recommended adding a few granules of dry yeast to each bottle and then re-capping them.

I did that Saturday evening, and I sure hope I didn't put too much in each bottle and they become bottle bombs.

Moral of the story: I'm probably not going to make another high gravity beer anytime soon. They're expensive, take too long to make, and you have to wait forever for them to carbonate and be drinkable. I'll stick with the regular gravity beers, thank you very much. I can buy myself a finely crafted Belgian Ale at the liquor store when the need hits me.

Back from vacation, Jury Duty Etc..

Check out APC's blog for more detailed info from our trip to HHI for the past weekend.

Things I learned on this trip:

1)Babygirl gets fussy past 8 PM
2)it is waaaaaaaay too hot in the end of August to sit by a pool in coastal South Carolina
3)Georgia's laws against happy hours STINK! half price appetizers and $2 beers at a 4 star resort on the beach in South Carolina? sweeeeet. (Cartman voice)
4)Wild Wing wings at Hilton Head are just as yummy as they are in Atlanta.
5)Hotwire rules. We stayed at a top notch resort with great facilities for a C-note a night.

After we returned I had to report for my civic duty at the Fulton County Courthouse Monday morning. Jury duty. Two words feared the country over, yet noone really knows why. Basically I learned why. You wait way too much, and then listen to lawyers speak, and you can't resume your normal schedule until they're done with you. BUT..this was a murder trial, and it was actually very very interesting. More on this later, but let's just say, I didn't make the jury after TWO DAYS of questions.

*sigh* Finally back at work.

Oh and dayammm....APC's Blog is dominating mine in hits - you go girl!

Hurricane Emily

In the latest weather news, Category 4 Hurricane Emily hit one of my favoritest (is that a word?)places in the world, Cozumel. As APC pointed out recently on her blog we are JONESIN to travel back to Mexico for a good old fashioned tequila-laden dive trip. Of course the storm hit the southern end of the island and as a result I was searching web forums and the news for any information on what happened to Cozumel. Sounds like there's lots of trees down, some structure damage, flooding, and no reported deaths. *phew* BUT the palapa toll was extensive. NOOOOOOO!!! What the hell am I gonna drink my fruity drink under next time I'm there? I hope they regrow! Damn you Emily...DAMN YOU ALL TO HELLL!

On a more serious note, the Eastern side of the island which had all of three bars on isolated beautiful beaches, was demolished. We will miss you, Mezcalitos.


APC at Mezcalitos


Me and Corona overlooking Caribbean at Mezcalitos *sob*

On that note, we are starting to plan a little trip sometime in the month of August. We are looking for some beachy type resorty place in SC,GA or NC where we are close to Hickory. Charleston? Myrtle Beach? HHI? Anyone have any great suggestions for an affordable family friendly beach resort to stay?

Random Thoughts...

Hmm since a presentation I was supposed to give today was cancelled, I suddenly have a moment of free time to download (or is it upload?)a couple things to my blog.

- APC's Blog is getting serious traffic, she's just about caught up to me in hits. Dang, I just knew our baby girl was irresistible! Everyone wants to see her pictures :)

- I don't get all the fuss over the Karl Rove story - I understand it, I just dont get all the fuss. You'd think the media would have more on their mind than drilling the White House Press Secretary two days in a row with questions about 'Will Pres. Bush fire Karl Rove?' (See here and here) when nothing has been proven yet. Must be a slow news day, which is a good thing. But they sure do want Rove's head on a pike, don't they?

- Ate some good German food last night for dinner on our Wednesday Date night. I had the sausage platter with Weisswurst, Bratwurst, sauerkraut, german potato salad and spaetzle. Man I love spaetzle. Spaetzle with that really danged tasty German brown gravy. And of course washed it all down with a half liter mug of Paulaner..yummy hefeweizen goodness. Prosit!

- The London Bombing thing seems to be some big media cover up. I just this morning read on Boortz's blog that the four killers were Muslims. Now why did it take a week before the bombers identities were finally revealed as such? I had my initial thoughts that this may be the case, and shame on me for thinking that, but hey, if the shoe fits.... All I've heard is that it could be the IRA, it's 'home-grown' terrorists, etc, etc. When all along I knew with most people out there, that aren't in denial (or trying to protect the 'Religion of Peace'TM), who and what was behind this atrocity. People better wise up or lots of us are gonna get killed.

- Well just damn. The USC athletic department released a joint report with the NCAA stating that they in fact violated 10 NCAA regulations since 2001 under Lou Holtz. I don't care how 'trivial' the violations were, there were still violations. Lou, what's the story man? I suddenly lost lots of respect for him all in one morning. Guilty as charged, USC is, and I cannot defend those actions nor make excuses for them. I will however continue to pull like crazy for the Garnet and Black. Hopefully USC can take its knocks and move on and play some (clean) ball.

Zymurgy Take V - High Sierra Curley Pale Ale

Last Friday Batch number 5 - my attempt at Pale Ale - was finally ready to taste. This was also my first attempt at brewing using a secondary fermenter using a glass carboy I bought at the friendly neighborhood beer supply store. Suposedly the secondary fermenting process matures the beer and lets it clarify more. So I took a bottle off of the conditioning shelf, walked back upstairs to the kitchen with it, grabbed a pint glass, popped the top *pop*. What an excellent sound that is - that 'pop'. That means that the priming sugar did its job and the beer is nice and carbonated.

I poured the bottle into the pint glass, hmmm nice color - a little darker than the picture above - kind of a tan-red color, nice head also. I noticed immediately the lack of sediment in the bottom of the bottle and also the clarity of the beer.

I took a sip...wow. This beer is better than the beer it is patterned after - Sierra Nevada Pale Ale - one of Angie's favorites. The aroma of hops hits you in the nose as you lift the glass and then the first sip is bitter and then finishes out with a sweet full bodied flavor. Yum. APC approves of this batch, since, well, I brewed it just for her knowing that when it was done she would not be pregnant any more and could drink it guilt free. I would say that the secondary fermentation indeed did prove to be a smashing success.

I found the recipe here: Pale Ale Let me know if you want a sample, I'll send you a bottle. (just kidding)

Now I think I'm going to go get my next batch of ingredients and attempt something I never thought would be possible for me to do, make a Belgian Abbey Ale. Well here's to the future! *clink*

Zymurgy Take IV - Curley Hefe

Hefeweizen in its natural habitat

One of my newest hobbies just bore some more fruit last night as I pulled two bottles of my newly conditioned hefeweizen (Curley Hefe) batch for tasting. I brewed this beer about four weeks ago, using mostly liquid malt extract with a bit of Hellertau hops in there for a bit of bitterness. Let it ferment a little longer than the first three batches and then racked and bottled two weeks ago. Drum roll please...

The first bottle I pulled, and poured - first thing I noticed was the head. Whoa! I had to stop half pour to let the head settle down, I have never made a batch of beer that was this carbonated. Needless to say, I was very pleased with the result. With visions of Paulaner floating in my head, I swirled the sediment out of the bottom of the bottle and topped off my pint. Oops, don't do that with home brew, unless you like your beer extra chunky. The sediment consisted of flaky chunks of yeast and other unidentifiable particulates, not exactly the nice cloudy yeast sediment I was looking for.

*sip* hmmmm.....kind of crisp, a little sweet, definitely taste the hops, and a significant lack of that trademark 'soapy' yeasty flavor associated with your typical mass produced Hefeweizen. Not bad. Second bottle I poured after chilling maybe an hour in the fridge, same heavy head, but this one poured cloudier than the first. I added a wedge of lemon for kicks and *sip*. Whoomp there it is.

Not bad for batch #4, this will make a nice refreshing summer beer for those hot afternoons sitting on the deck. Batch #5, the High Sierra Pale Ale is in the secondary fermentation process in the basement right now, this one should be ready for APC to drink to her heart's content after our little girl is born. Will give you all an update after we taste that one in three weeks. All I gotta say is....

Hop Hop Hop!