The Power of Beer

A quick bit I noticed on the whole Henry Louis Gates/Cambridge PD/Obama's mouth menage-a-trois. I will refrain from any sort of commentary on the very real institutionalized racism which still exists in our country or the possibility of a belligerent Harvard Scholar, but I did want to point out this quick little blurb I saw on NPR:

"After a phone call from President Barack Obama urging calm in the aftermath of his arrest last week, the black professor said he would accept Obama's invitation to the White House for a beer with the president and Cambridge Police Sgt. James Crowley."

They are totally going to crush a few beers and easily work this whole thing out! I love it...I'm sure things might be heavy and a little awkward at first, but by the time they are all on their 2nd glass of barley juice, they will probably be talking about baseball and tits, making prank calls to Iran, and having such a good time they won't even be able to remember why they were there in the first place. Michelle will totally have to throw them all out of the house 8 hours later after they trash the blue room.

The Power of Beer.

-Wrence

Tours at the Fish/Kite & Key

Holy Junk-show did we have TON of people in the brewery yesterday! I was there from 1-4 giving tours and I seriously think we got 100 people through in that time. Poured MANY a free sample and put a few into my own face as well. My last group was huge and I was actually starting to lose my voice by the end of the tour, which was a first.

Snotty showed up at the brewery, along with a couple of his bros. It was good to see some familiar faces there. We shot the shit & drank little cups of beer for a few hours. I think they enjoyed seeing the brewery, especially since I brought over a bunch of our beer last weekend to Snotty's BBQ and they were naturally curious to see where it was brewed.
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After shutting things down out at the brewery, I drove right back into town to meet Snotty and his crew at Monkey Boy's restaurant (last mentioned here). Well, it's not actually his restaurant, but he has been executive-cheffing things up there for the past 9 months, and totally rules at it. Seriouslyforeals. Last time we met there, he just started sending out courses and we basically died from awesomeness. This time was no different, except for the fact that I had my phone with me and decided to take pictures of each plate before I ate the Jesus-punching shit of it.

I now offer you gratuitous food-porn for the remainder of this post:

Course 1
Spicy home made kimchi with
chillis and basil oil

Justin fermented the Kimchi himself, and it was impressive.

Course 2
Escargot with bacon over English muffin
bread with poached egg

The last time we were here, Monkey sent us out something very similar to this, and I loved it - even though the idea of eating snails is still something I can't quite wrap my head around. Though it is not nearly even close to the most disgusting food item I regularly eat, it is just weird, right? Maybe it's the name...let's just start calling them "land-clams" - I think more people could get down with that. I thought this dish was awesome the LAST time I had it, and this time he added BACON. Enough said.

Course 3
Prawn with corn/shrimp nugget
& kick-ass sauce

This dish was really a life changing moment for me & Snotty. I realized quickly that I had never been served a prawn with the head still attached. I obviously knew that this was the way to do it, intact body usually translating to freshness, but I had NO IDEA. Biting into this guy was like biting into fresh corn on the cob in summer: crisp, juicy, sweeeet as all hell. Like super sugar sweet fleshy prawny goodness! Did I mention how sweet it was? I couldn't believe it. This bore ZERO resemblance to those pre-be-headed pink rubbery shrimps I had been served all my adult life. When Snotty and I stopped to think about that fact, we became incensed! He put it best when he said "I've been paying people to shit in my mouth all this time."

Course 4
Marinated tomatoes on toasty
bread with goat cheesy goodness

There's not much to add about this dish other than it was awesome.

Course 5
Sliced steaky bits over beans & bread
crumbs, with some sort of reduction sauce

Same here.
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All in all, a strong showing for the day. Also I should note that this place has great beer. Among my quaffed were: Elysian's Jasmine IPA, Ommegang's Hennepin, and a few others. I got crunked and walked home around 9pm. I awoke in the middle of the night in my bed, but on top of my sheets and sporting a large ice cream-colored stain on my tee-shirt. Sweet.

-Wrence

Ry's Saturday

It's been a crazy weekend for this little guy right here. To start, I had a ticket for Frday' sox game. So we went and I got loaded....thing is my cousin on my mom's side was at the game because she was up in Boston for a wedding this weekend. I regretfully met up with her at Game On. The place sucks, and that's the bottom line.

So, today rolls around. and after I finished creeping Angie out with my excessive hungoverness we went downtown. You see, I had another cousin in town. This one from my dad's side. So I met up with her, her husband, and their three kids guess where???? game on. Yes, twice in two days I went to this place more than I have been there since it opened.

After boozing at Game On, we stopped into the Pour House where our friend Eric was. Plowed through some wings and nachos there and then finally made our way home.

Once home, I realized that I needed to bottle my hefe and move my pale ale to secondary or risk drastic consequences. Well, I hate bottling, but I decided to make this time worth my while and so I plugged my ipod in while I got the work done. There really is nothing like listening to The Last Waltz under any circumstance. Earplugs plugged...I bottled my beer and did whatever else I had to do and it has never been so epic. As I type this right now I still have the plugs in my ears and Van Morrison is going through his Tura Tura Tura Tura Tura Tura Lura....it's so dope. You are all jealous.

I am gonna go now, the caravan is painted red and white after all.

&Ry

New Thom Yorke Song

So I just today found out that Thom played a solo set, somewhat unannounced, at this festival in England somewhere the other day. I love the Thom solo shows; watching him glide from piano to guitar to organ, backed only by his samples, loops, and angelic voice, is a sight to behold. I swear if I ever have a chance to see him play in the states, I'll be all over that shit like a fat guy on pie.

He played a new tune that is thought to be called "The Present Tense." It follows along his other somewhat Neil Youngy pieces, strolling along pleasantly enough, but picking up steam after the 3-minute mark. A nice song, to be sure, but still in its infancy. After following this guy and his band for so long I can recognize it as still more of an idea, which will undoubtedly appear in a completely different form on a Radiohead album in say, 3 or 4 years from now.

Give it a listen if you wish:



Which reminds me, last summer, when Radiohead was touring, we were treated to great new song called "Supercollider" which pretty much rocks the mustache right off my face. Check it out below if you wish:


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Anyway, that's what I'm up to today. About to head into work, where we are finally wrapping up an epic 10 day blur of production. Normally we brew four days a week, typically 10 brews. For several reasons, we have been playing catch-up lately, brewing 8 out of the last 9 days, the only exception being Saturday. 24 brews in 10 days. And I won't even get into the filtrations we've done each day as well. I'm being rewarded with Friday off from work (though I still have to show up Saturday to give tours, so I am essentially stuck inside of Philly with the New Jersey blues again).

Enjoy your humpday, all

Love
'Wrence

Brewreport

I brewed the pale ale I was planning today. It went relatively well with only a few of the minor fuckups that my brew sessions have come to be marked by. I continue to suffer from mediocre efficiency...and my attempts at doing a protein rest and raising the temp through a decoction didn't pan out exactly as I planned. Either way, I am certain this will still be a very tasty brew to be enjoyed be many in just a few weeks.

I also racked my hefe to secondary today...and I cheated a little taste as I was siphoning....this shit is gonna be delicious. If it turns out as planned, it will be the third hefe I have made that I have sweated the shit out of. Let's hope. I don't think it is done yet because the grav came in at about 1.015....I think it probably has another couple of points to go before it is fully finished. Looking at bottling this next Saturday....cross your fingers for me.

I am trying something new today...more for fun than for any other reason. I have been fucking around a bit more with ProMash and I also have been diddling a bit with GoogleDocs. As such, check the brew report for today's attempt. Thoughts?

See ya...
&Ry

Say Cheese!

Just a quick hit here....I figured that there may be people who might have missed this like I did and might find it equally infuriating.

Apparently, as a last act of antagonism, the Bush administration raised the import tarriff on Roquefort cheese to a level that essentially made it impossible to buy in the states (read about it here). I guess the Obama administration eventually removed the ridiculous tarriff, but it still makes me mad that it ever happened in the first place. I mean....I can't say I eat it that often, but it's good to know you can get a good hunk of Roquefort when the mood arises.

Here's to cheese!

&ry

My week so far

So after all that busyness described below, I am in a very enthralling period of latency at the moment. I have basically had this entire week off and have been spending a good deal of time at home. I recently decided that I no longer want to be overweight and have used these days to concentrate on reading my latest book, eating right and going for runs.

Boston Organics has made the former a lot easier. I can't remember if I have mentioned them before, but Angie and I have been getting deliveries from them "on the reg" for the past few months. This week's bin had an assload of awesome shit in it. Kale, collards, three zucchini, a big ass bunch of red leaf lettuce, the biggest fucking cucumber you have ever seen...I mean seriously...THE BIGGEST CUCUMBER EVER. So far I haven't been able to get myself to chop it up and saladify it...I am afraid it is going to try to run away or start begging for its life or something. Did I mention that it is fucking huge? So, yeah...Boston Organics makes it easier for me not to eat like shit.

I took advantage of the time and brewed a batch of beer on Sunday...a hefe...and will be brewing again on Saturday. I am giving the hefe a short primary because I usually wouldn't give it a secondary at all. However, since I need the big boy carboy for my next brew I am cutting the primary a little short and will give it a short secondary. The next brew on the horizon is the first one expressly designed and brewed for Angie's sister's wedding on 9/5. I am planning on pitching onto the cake of my summer blonde ale that I brewed 6 weeks or so ago. I also have enough hops left from recent brews to bitter with those. So my LHBS trip this afternoon was solely for the purpose of grabbing some grainage. Psyched to see that they got themselves a fancy new persian-style runner-type rug on the grain/fridge side of the shop. Classes the joint up a bit. Anyway....the 'pe looks a-like this:

8# British 2-Row
1.5# Munich Malt
1# Crystal 20
.75 oz Saaz 6.8%AA (60 Minutes)
.75 oz Tettnang 5.1% AA (30 Minutes)
I might throw some whole leaf Palisades in there for dry-hopping but I am not sure yet.
The cake I am throwing it on is Wyeast 1272

Anyway, I do most of my computing on Angie's lappy...but ProMash is on my desktop (yeah I still have one). So I was feeling lazy and googled "brew calculator" and came up with this place. It's not perfect, but I am willing to give it a shot for a bit as I simultaneously keep up with ProMash. I made a profile and stuff, so I think it will be easier to access and share my recipes as I go along. Give it a try, maybe we can be beerfriends.

&Ry

What RyToy's been doing....

The month of June was a crazy one for yours truly (RyToy)...here's a quick refresher since my last update:
June 14-16th - Orientation Session 1 (out of 7) at a Boston area university where i am currently a student and also hold a position as a staff member for the office that does freshman-y type of stuff.
June 18th - Bus to NYC -- took my mom to dinner at Craft which is one of Tom Colicchio of Top Chef fame's flagship establishments. Righteous dinner...to say the least
June 19th - took my Dad to the Mets game at CitiField wearing my blue "I'm Calling It Shea" t-shirt to rave reviews from fellow Mets fans. They won the game...which is a rarity these days and the stadium is pretty tight. It lacks a lot of the flavor and memories of the old place and I am never going to be ok with it having a corporate sponsorship, but it makes up for that in some small way by having pretty bitching food, comfy seats, good sightlines, and a ballpark that you can actually walk all the way around.
After the game, I met my buddy J'Mann at David Copperfield's in NYC...pretty tight laid back beer-bar;. If I lived around the corner from a place like this I would likely have my own toilet and/or urinal
June 20th - bus back to boston and dinner with angie
June 21st - Orientation Session 2
June 22nd - Angie's gramps dies at the age of 93. He'd been failing for a while and it was really a matter of time. Nonetheless, the family, and Angie, were very affected by the loss. I however was not allowed to leave campus even to take Angie up to NH , so she had to drive herself up after leaving work. I will probably hold that grudge for a while.
June 23rd - Session 2 ends, I leave that night to go up to NH and hang out with the fam.
June 24th - Drive back to Boston to put in 5 hours at work then drive back to NH.
June 25th - Gramps' burial
June 26th - Gramps' memorial service
June 27th - Back to Boston
June 28th - June 30th - Orientation Session 3
June 30th - Drove home post-session, packed a bag and drove myself to Hyannis to catch the fast ferry to Nantucket
June 30th - July 3rd - stayed at Angie's family's time-share in Nantucket and enjoyed island life/the beach. Went to an amazing Spanish restaurant that had just opened up. We liked it so much the first time that we made it our last dinner on the island before leaving. Here's a write-up...no official site.
July 4th - Plumb Island Beach for the 4th then picked up some lobsters and steamers and had a little clambake type thing at my house for dinner. watched the fireworks on TV and lamented the loss of Neil Diamond
July 5th - brewed my Hefe at long last
July 6th - Work
July 7th - Bottled my summer ale....at long, if not longer, last

I'll put something together to discuss brew stuff, but just wanted to catch you up on that nonsense. Until Sunday July 5th, the last time I had spent two consecutive nights sleeping in my own bed was June 12th and 13th. Suffice it to say, I am grateful to have a little respite.

&Ry

July 4th weekend in Massachusetts

After finding out at the last minute that I actually had Friday the 3rd off from work, I decided to take up the Bones & Amanda on their invite to 4th at their new place for the weekend.

I caught them somewhat off-guard by showing up Thursday night instead of Friday (the day of the actual invite) and they were still finishing up unpacking and setting stuff up for a party they had planned the following night. I thought the place looked amazing, but they were visibly stressed about the condition of things. Hell, I would have slept on a pile of rusty pipes in the basement, but they seemed to think that I required an actual bed (which they just bought new) complete with sheets AND a pillow. I must say, I was put up extremely well. The house is unpretentious, 19th century New England perfection; good size, detached garage, front & back yards, nice front porch and a huge back deck. I am officially jealous as I type this in my stupid faux-modern yuppie hut in the Northern Liberties. But I digress.

I also was excited to discover that the house is a 20 minute drive to Walden Pond, one of my favorite places on earth. I got there both Friday AND Saturday morning, and the early summer water was perfect. Score. We also grilled the hell out of all sorts of stuff on Kevbones' new Weber charcoal model. Add to that a shit-ton of his homebrew and my Jerseybrew and you have a yourself a classic summer weekend. I could see myself heading up there a lot were I not so busy for the rest of the summer, and the drive not so unbearably sucky.
Happy July from Philly,

-Wrence