“Content requires proper care and feeding”, says Bill Swallow, director of operations at Scriptorium. We talk localization, content strategy, local beer, summer’s oppressive heat, and more.
Released on International Podcast Day!
Continue reading Local needs of content featuring Bill Swallow – Content Content podcast episode 12
I’ve made a bad habit of documenting most, if not all, of the beer I’ve drank over my lifetime (see writer, technical). It started with a Microsoft Access database that went nowhere, even after paying someone to input tons of bottle information. After a house move where I angered friends who helped move 27 cases of empty bottles, and moving in with someone who had zero interest in keeping them around, I started photographing the bottles and getting rid of them. I believe there’s somewhere between 650-850 beers cataloged, but not in one meaningful way — yet.
Continue reading 135 Different Beers in a Year, 135 Different Beers…
It’s been a personal goal to turn on as many people as possible on to beer. As I mentioned in the Fordeville blog, my own journey to the beverage was not direct, so I sympathize.But allow me to try to convert you once again, dear beer-challenged reader.
“Oh, it’s too bitter”. Then you’re drinking the wrong beer.There are 23 general styles of beer, with infinite variations within each style. There are many more breweries than Anheuser Busch, Coors, and Miller, you know. (As an aside, the oft-favored Blue Moon is owned and brewed by Coors). If the beer’s too bitter, first try to find out the style- then avoid it. The hoppiest types – which are the most bitter – are IPAs and Pale ales. Try a malty style, like a Dunkelweizen, porter, or brown, which traditionally have very low hop flavor and aroma. Or, a classic Weihenstephan Weissbier.
“Dark beer scares me. It’s too much alcohol”. Then you’re drinking the wrong beer. Realize that “dark” doesn’t necessarily mean “high alcohol”. The perennial “dark beer” Guinness actually has less alcohol by volume than Budweiser. Try a Sierra Nevada Porter (they make more than just the green-labeled Pale Ale), or a sweet stout like Mackeson’s.
“Beer has too many calories”. Then you’re drinking the wrong beer. Drinking an MGD 64 or Bud Light is like eating iceberg lettuce – it gets you where you want to go, but doesn’t bring a lot of flavor to the table. Alcohol inherently has calories, regardless if it’s wine, beer, or gin. Just find the right one- high alcohol beers are generally heavier because of the higher quantities of malt. Again, a bottle of Guinness only has 126 calories, and in my opinion, is worth drinking one instead of two MGD 64s.
“I get bloated drinking beer”. Then you’re drinking the wrong beer. If you want bang for the buck, calories be damned, have a barleywine. Anything “Imperial” means more malt, more hops, and more booze. If you can handle a “regular” IPA with higher hops, try an Imperial IPA like Dogfish Head’s 90- or 120-Minute IPA.
It make take some time and effort to find just the right beer for you, but remember, it’s the journey, not the destination. When possible, drink locally and support your local breweries and brewpubs. And if you want a full-on beer education, meet me at the Copper Mine Pub.
Am I the only technical writer that doesn’t feel like writing or blogging when they get home? Lately, I feel like that’s the case.
I comfort myself in the fact that I’m making good food.
Summer’s over. I’m not happy about it.
Overall, I think it’s been a mediocre year, musically.
I updated from WordPress 2.9 to 3.01. I backed up my database. It was a click. It was good. The dashboard looks the same; am I missing something?
Android 2.2 Froyo is a nice upgrade. It actually looks like they put sometime into the user experience. Today I noticed a little “You declined this call” message at the top of the screen. Nice.
I have an IPA in secondary, based on the same recipe I’ve used for the past three years, but with Cascade instead of Amarillo hops. I think it’s gonna be good. There’s a porter in primary waiting to be transferred to secondary, as well as the two vanilla beans that have been soaking in scotch the past two weeks.
It’s time for Wii Fit Yoga.
That’s right, folks, according to our “research”, people like year-ending lists. So we, by which I mean “I”, came up with some things that happened, were purchased, or created by me this year.
Best advice– “Shit happens” – from (former…) Champ Car owner Derrick Walker at the final Champ Car Grand Prix of Long Beach. Mr. Walker stands to lose several million dollars of personal money in a sponsorship dispute.
Album of the year– “Pretty. Odd.” by Panic at the Disco. Amazing Beatlesque work from an “emo” band.
Most Disappointing Album: “Viva La Vida”, by Coldplay. So yeah, looks like their 15 minutes ran out just before X&Y.
Brewery of the year: Founder’s Brewing. Probably the only good thing to come out of Michigan this year. Their beers are heavy and expensive, but worth every damn dime.
Concert of the year: Minus the Bear, Webster Hall, 10/25/08.
Homebrew of the year: Simcorillo IPA. I didn’t brew as much as I would’ve liked, but this was a highlight.
Trip of the year: Washington, DC with the Secaucus High School Marching Band.
Trip of the year excluding chaperoning 40 kids: The final Champ Car race ever at Long Beach, Ca.
Movie of the year: I, uh, didn’t see any movies this year.
Most Addictive Website: Facebook. Twitter comes in a close second here, but the amount of people with whom I’ve reconnected makes Facebook a complete and utter timesuck. Also, my Twitter feed now updates my Facebook status, so it’s win-win!
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Among the few gifts I got S this year, one was supposed to be a joke – ShamWow!, the chamois made in Germany and sold on TV. The guy that appears in the ad is alternatively annoying and engaging, and has been on the TV enough to make it a joke in our house.
So, with Xmas approaching, I went to their crappy website and ordered a batch. Although they say 3-4 weeks for delivery, it came in only a few short days, plenty of time before Xmas. It was honestly hard for me to keep from giving them to S, but I decided waiting (and wrapping!) would be a better payoff.
On Xmas Day she was making her chocolate truffles for both her family and mine. I had a feeling melted chocolate would require cleanup, so I quickly wrapped them and handed her the package. She of course laughed, but then put them to use!
On Sunday, I decided to brew a dark Imperial Stout. Again, plenty of opportunity for messes. Two of the large ShamWow! were employed for cleanup, and a third is underneath the now-fermenting carboy in the closet.
I’m sure there are other, cheaper chamois available, including one S bought at Trader Joe’s, but they absorbed black stout and cleaned the floor pretty well. They sure came in handy at our house!
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I came in today thinking i’d be feeling creative and write a post. Well, here I am at 12:30 EST with no such creativity, but at least I’m writing. I plan to blog more in 2009, but then again, I think “Write more” was my resolution for 2008, and that went basically nowhere.
there are three other people in my group here today with me. I think there are maybe another 5-10 people here in addition. Makes sense to open the office for alllllll of those people, eh?
i got a new flash for my camera for xmas … Nikon SB-600. i don’t know what i’m doing with it, yet. guess this also locks me into Nikon, not that it’s a bad thing. the grass is always greener over at Canon…
my girlfriend is out shopping for her family’s party tomorrow. i’m sitting in the office freezing with the other people, all of whom are wearing jackets or other heavy attire. it’s current 39 outside in NYC.
i plan to brew on Sunday – an imperial stout. my last porter didn’t come out so great. a bit lacking in body, a bit too much alcohol burn, not enough vanilla. still very drinkable, just not fantastic. 5/10.
my inbox is barren, facebook is dead, no one’s on twitter, and even my rss feeds aren’t entertaining me.
why is it that we’re here today? i guess this is the entitlement society i keep hearing about. even Hale and Hearty doesn’t have a full selection of soups today.
yes, i’m bitter. and cold.
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Well, after a little over two months in secondary, we finally got around to bottling my latest homebrew, a porter. When I transferred to the secondary fermenter, I added a whole vanilla bean that was soaked in Jack Daniels for a couple of weeks. I also added the Jack Daniels. Unfortunately, there’s not much vanilla flavor; next time I’ll add another bean and cut them open, but there is a nice caramel flavor to the uncarbonated beer.
The big lesson with this batch is the effects of yeast on the beer. I used a Burton Ale yeast from White Labs. I should’ve known better (he says now), as I don’t really care for the “twang” of Bass Ale. Well, in my porter, you certainly get that Bass-like yeastiness. It was certainly interesting to see just how much of an effect the yeast has on the beer.
12-C Baltic Porter
8.0 lb Dry Light Extract
1 lb American Chocolate Malt
.5 lb Caramunich® TYPE III
.5 lb British Crystal 55°L
1.0 oz Fuggle (4.0%) – added during boil, boiled 7 min
1.5 oz Super Styrian (7.0%) – added during boil, boiled 20 min
1 oz Super Styrian (7.0%) – added during boil, boiled 60 min
8.00 fl oz White Labs WLP023 Burton Ale
1.0 ea Vanilla (whole bean) – added dry to secondary fermenter
Results generated by BeerTools Pro 1.5.2
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This past Saturday night I saw Minus the Bear at Webster Hall. It was an awesome show; they are a very tight band that brought the crowd through a wide range of emotions. I was damn surprised that their drummer plays a basic, clear fiberglass Ludwig four-piece set with only two crashes, a ride cymbal, and hi-hats. His sound is generally much fuller than the equipment portrays. It’s great seeing bands in small venues, where you can actually see the performers’ faces instead of resorting to a big screen.
Afterwards, with time to kill before my train home, I went to my most favorite place on Earth (ok, my favorite bar at least) for some libations. Despite the large crowd in this oddly laid out location, I grabbed a seat at the bar, and had my first beverage. As I was consuming my second, a girl came up to me, “Excuse me, sir”.
Oh boy.
Long story short, these four girls were out for a bachelorette party (… at the Blind Tiger?!). As part of the bride-to-be’s scavenger hunt, she was required to kiss a man’s scalp. I guess scavenger hunts are what people do at bachelorette parties? As a male, I am used to bachelor parties consisting of severe intoxication that is generally paid for all day the next day, and barely clothed women asking for money at expensive locations to which I normally don’t go.
So, being the intoxicated good sport I normally am, I took off my hat, and tilted my head towards the woman who will probably only remember kissing my sweaty pate (I was at a concert, y’know) because of the photos her friends took.
As I wiped the last bit of lipstick off my head, the bartender placed an empty glass upside down, and she said “your next beer is from the lady wearing the tiara”.
I chose that delicious beverage as Avery Brewing’s Reverend Belgian Quad. A stellar way to finish right before I stumbled to the train station. I was considerate: it wasn’t the most expensive beer in the place, and as I left, I both thanked and congratulated the bride-to-be.
And I wasn’t even that hungover the next day.
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Yesterday, Sunday, I transferred my latest India Pale Ale (IPA) from primary fermenter to secondary. While secondary is technically a misnomer (no further fermentation takes place), it clarifies the beer and lets the last bunch of dead yeast cells and hop detritus fall to the bottom of the carboy.
One of the joys of homebrewing is taking a gravity reading, which tells you the density of your beer, where 1.00 is plain water, and everything above it is, in this context, beer. Homebrewers check the starting gravity, then the gravity when transferring to either a secondary fermenter, bottles/kegs, and/or both. A hydrometer checks the gravity by taking a sample of the beer and placing it in a beaker. You then read the hydrometer as it floats in your oh-so-precious liquid. My final gravity (FG) was only two points off what the recipe said it should be (the recipe noted FG at 1.014; mine was 1.016). This just results in a bit less alcohol in the beer, but I’m not sure how accurate everything is, anyway.
To avoid contamination, the sample is never returned to the rest of the beer. However, it is completely drinkable, and I always drink it to see how my beer’s coming out.
And holy cow, was that sample good. It was almost exactly the taste I want from an IPA. It was bitter, without being too much so for a hop-head like me. I do think it’s a bit thin in the malt department; next time (and there will be a next time) I’ll be sure to add another pound of malt extract to counteract the bitterness.
I also added a half-ounce of Amarillo and half-ounce of Simcoe, the two hops used in the beer, to the secondary fermenter. This is known as dry-hopping. It doesn’t contribute to the bitterness of the beer, but adds to the delicious aroma.
A few weeks in the fermenter, then bottle day, then I can drink a few weeks later!
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