April 2008 Archives

i've got some bottling i need to do (f'rinstance, my bottomless keg. i may just admit defeat and bottle it). i have maybe 2 clean bottles, at most.

i've been reading the homebrewer's answer book and he suggests that I soak my bottles in a detergent prior to sanitizing. he emphasizes that sanitizing needs to be preceded by a real "cleaning" otherwise sanitizing will be ineffective.

so that's what my bottles are doing now, about 40 of them, soaking in 10 gallons of water mixed with a little dishwasher soap.

after that, i plan to spritz them with my faucet-mounted bottle spritzer, then soak them in 10 gallons of bleach solution (concentration TBD). i have obtained a 45-er bottle tree, where the bleached bottles will be stationed for drying, after which they'll be capped with tinfoil and closeted until needed.

it seems like a lot of work, and it's why i hate bottling (actually, i hate bottling regardless of the bottle cleaning/sanitizing process, i hated it even when i did very little to sanitize) and besides "trying something new" i didn't come up with any good reason that i'm doing all this. then i remembered my multiple batches of gushers and realized that no matter how "easy" my previous bottle cleaning methods were, they were likely ineffective.

sigh.

"American IV" is a pretty freakin awesome album, but good god is it poorly recorded :(

"hurt" is nearly unlistenable for all that distortion. how'd they manage that?

i realized simultaneously why this album sucks, and why it's called "tribute to the gods".

it's all covers. bleah.

i thought a little more about why the following is so absurd:

Dunn said the jury noted that both Hans and Nina Reiser's cell phone batteries had been removed after she disappeared, making it impossible to track their locations. A computer expert would immediately be familiar with the implications of removed batteries, he said.

Some may call me a "computer expert," and to the extent that i am " immediately [...] familiar with the implications of removed batteries" it is because I've seen people do it in the movies. I suspect that the police and other black-ops organizations can track me through my cell phone, but only because I, and pretty much everyone else in this nation, saw "The Matrix" a decade ago.

Yeah, I'm a "computer expert" but that doesn't give me any special insight into "things don't work when you remove their power source" that's beyond the insights of the average person (unless, of course, we're talking about the average juror).

However, as a "computer expert", I am aware that often, electronic devices have multiple batteries, and that it may be possible to track a person's cell phone even when the battery is out.

Now that is the sort of thing that maybe a "layperson" would not know, since it hasn't been widely reported in the movies. But that's not what mister jury man said.

i was mistaken about the death penalty, apparently that requires additional charges or something in CA. like a good lazy programmer, i'll worry about that when i need to and not before.

according to wired:

By the time he was done, Reiser had succeeded only in dispelling the cloud of ambiguity surrounding his actions in the case, replacing it with a storm of very specific explanations that each strained credulity. Jurors had to choose between Reiser's strained version of events and the plain conclusion that he was lying.

my point still stands: hans may have been an asshole and a liar, and a poor one at that, but it does not follow that he murdered his wife.

and then, of course, there's this:

Defense attorney William DuBois cross-examined the witnesses about Nina's extramarital affair with Reiser's former best friend, Sean Sturgeon. (The jury was not allowed to hear testimony that Sturgeon has confessed to killing eight people unrelated to the case, in retaliation for child abuse.).

reasonable doubt?

Hora speculated that Reiser might have choked his wife, based on little evidence except that Reiser was a black belt in judo, a martial art where choking is a specialty.

except, of course, the only "evidence" in the trial was a bunch of blood in various places, and a removed carseat from a hosed down car (suggesting blood). a black belt in judo should not produce a lot of blood when choking someone, right?

In January, Judge Goodman threatened to bar Reiser from his own trial. "I'm not sure whether you're doing this on purpose to screw up the process or it's just part of your nature," the judge said outside the presence of the jury. "I'm tired of you disrupting the courtroom."

look at this, there's more evidence for my own comments than evidence that a murder occurred in this case. in a case like this, where the guys life is on the line, perhaps "justice" could be a little more accomodating to his personality "flaws"? no? but those same "flaws" end up as evidence to put him away?

that is not justice.

"I have a compulsive tendency to say things that I know are true that people don't want to be true," Reiser said at one point.

a jury of hans' peers would find this eminently believable.

He bought those books about murder investigations, he said, because he wanted to know how police behaved. "I was under investigation by the police," he said. Reading up on their techniques was only logical, he testified.

this, too. i'm not claiming that only programmers should judge programmers, but i am saying that, before reading the wired article, based on my own guesses at the personality of a linux filesystem developer, i successfully predicted hans' behavior in the courtroom.

if i can predict it, why can't 12 of his "peers" comprehend it?

"You are rude," he said. "You are arrogant. There are not enough words in the English language to describe the way you are."

But the jurors found a word on Monday: guilty.

how about: railroad.

i may as well share my important thoughts on something topical.

hans reiser was found guilty of first degree, premeditated murder.

i haven't followed the case closely, however, many things are made clear from the article: hans was convicted without a body, without a weapon, without any solid evidence that his wife is even dead. at the time of her disappearance she had stolen money from him and was having an affair. it is understandable if he did not then and does not now like her much.

understandable to me, that is. apparently the american jury system is capable of finding 12 people who are unable to empathize with these feelings, but can be convinced that someone who "would immediately be familiar with the implications of removed batteries", someone who is "arrogant" and does not miss his thieving, cheating wife must therefore have murdered her.

more than angry, this piece of news has me scared. i know a lot of people who behave like hans. they're called programmers. many of the best ones (and hans was certainly one of the best) are both devoted to and impressed by their own genius. it seems like the prosecutor was able to turn the jury's jealousy of hans' intelligence against him, conflating the hallmark traits of a cowboy-programmer with those of a murderer.

it's not that hard for me to understand why hans may have seemed arrogant on the stand, because i've seen the same situation unfold hundreds of times in my work. someone of presumed lesser intelligence (in the workplace, QA, in the courtroom, the DA) accuses the cowboy of something (a bug, a murder). the cowboy, unimpressed with the lack of evidence to support the claim, may become irritable (his intelligence was insulted), arrogant (doesn't this idiot know that extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof?), obstinate (intelligence insulted), and insulting (you think i'm dumb enough to have a bug? i'll show you how dumb *you* are).

this may sound like "extreme" behavior but i've seen it hundreds of times (well, the QA/bug version, not the DA/murder version). It takes very little imagination on my part to guess that hans is the type of guy who behaves like this and is incapable of masking his indignation when accused of something he thinks is unjust.

and because the jury didn't like his 'tude, and because they were suspicious of a guy who is capable of removing a cell phone battery, they convicted him of a crime (without a body or weapon) that could result in the death penalty.

without a body or a weapon.

to a guy like hans that's got to throw his mental gears into a lockup. for a mind that enjoys rigorous logic of the complex variety (and his has got to, to do the sort of programming he did), the failure of 14 people to grasp the elementary logic of "if there's no body, there is reasonable doubt that she is dead" must be crippling.

perhaps their inability to comprehend simple logic like this caused hans to seem "arrogant". and perhaps the intellectual insecurities of the jury, faced with sensing (or knowing? maybe he told them) why hans thought they were stupid, led to them jealously convicting to validate some smug sense of superiority.

it's grade-school politics. beat up the smart kid. only in this case, they may kill him.

30 easy minutes on the trainer == torture.

booooooooooooooooooooring.

but necessary, i guess. sigh.

Stone Ruination IPA: two thumbs up. addresses the shortcomings (to my taste) of their regular IPA, which is to say, this one has residual sweetness, which i like in a hoppy beer, which others do not. it's got an enormous floral hoppy aroma, and a puckering bitterness that borders on grapefruit pith but doesn't quite get there. i'd like more aroma and less bitterness, but for something like that, i'd probably have to brew my own. (hey, I did! did it rock my socks? I don't wear socks, on account of the Great Sock Rocking Incident of Aught Seven.) this is a beer to sniff: i can't stop sniffing it. this was something i experienced at the double ipa fest: a beer that has such a rewarding hop bouquet that it's hard to actually drink it.

i'm drinking it out of my Firestone Walker mug, which means it's probably the best beer that any Firestone Walker drinking vessel has ever had the honor of containing.

On the 0-10 scale I give it a 10, which, according to my memory, puts it 1 below Oaked Arrogant Bastard and equal to both of the Plinys.

Ground Venison Patties: meh, what do you expect from supermarket ground venison cooked in a foreman grill (heh)? it's as good as it could be, plenty gamey, a little overdone (better safe than sorry in this case), and about 8oz more than i really wanted to eat.

wumpscut: they're better than I remembered. Hells no, I'm not listening to them on headphones! they're singing about "to kill all our children." i'm not sure if they're for that or against that.

Guacachips: lame. they taste like doritos (i think. it's been at least half a decade since i've had a dorito, probably much longer). i'm really stretching my memory/imagination to decide wtf these taste like. i think that when i was a doritoeater i was partial to ranch flavor. in fact, i'd venture a guess that i never really strayed out of the ranch flavor grotto of dorito island. so the fact that these remind me of ranch doritos, which, in theory, they should not, since ranch and guacamole have just about nothing in common, suggests that what i'm tasting is "crappy artificially flavored chip flavor", not ranch flavor, and certainly not guacamole flavor.

THE GUACAMOLE: awesome. i rule. it needed salt, i added salt, it needed salt, i added salt. it seems that my guacamole eats salt. no matter how much i add it doesn't come through. maybe a tiny bit too much garlic, or, maybe i just need to mince the garlic a little more thoroughly. but the guacamole is definitely avocadolicious, and really, that's what it's supposed to be. the garlic and de-veined red chili is there only to accentuate the avocadoliciousness of the main ingredient.

the fork: it's hops' fork. i prefer my old forks but i'd have to find them to use them.

the knife: it's a ginsu. prior to slicing my venison i used it to sculpt a 70-foot scale model of the Planet Express building, then I used it to slice a tomato.

the napkins: crap, i forgot napkins, and i just broke a chip off in the guacabowl and i really need a napkin! but it's dark in here and my beer's on the floor and i sure don't want to spill it because i haven't got another bottle of Ruination, only the IPA. fortunately, i have hairy legs, which stand in for a napkin (in a pinch).

the salsa: well, it's open. but the guacamole is so delicious that i haven't had any.

the ambiance: needs more mariachis; no shorage of blinkenlights, as it should be.

the weather: frak it's hot. actually, "it" is not hot, unless "it" is defined to be my oven-architecture apartment, in which case "it" most certainly is hot, and weather the hot is a dry heat or not, i care not one whit, because IT'S FREAKIN HOT IN HERE.

the weekend: unique. a throwback. a preview.

the salsa: casa sanchez mild. has some weird interaction with the chips which makes it quite a lot more than mild. mmmmm, chemicals.

the final thoughts: can a person have too much guacamole? i dunno, ask me tomorrow.

whelp, the venison patties are so solidly frozen together that instead of 1 4oz patty, i'm having 3x4oz patties, for a whopping 12oz of ground up bambi's mother.

the bad news is that i won't be having venison for dinner tomorrow night.

the good news is that venison is amazingly low in fat, which isn't too amazing after all if you've ever seen what deer do.

this is posted outside my cubicle at work. (i confess, i stole a copy from one of my neighbors. shame on me!)

the note invariably gets a huge laugh from everyone who reads it.

i wish i had that kind of comedic gift.

because:

• the sort of folks whom i believe about this sort of thing point out that they're an affordable way to get a very good sounding stereo system up and going
• sometimes i just don't wanna listen on the cans
• hops wants to listen with me sometimes
• sometimes i just don't wanna listen on the cans, but the cans sound so nice and my $300 HTIB sounds so bad

unfortunately:

• if i got studio monitors, i'd want to pipe the sound through my high quality dac. this is a problem because my high quality dac has one set of outputs, which is currently and forevermore connected to my high quality headphone amp. no, i'm not going to swap those cables. so i'd have to get another dac. that's pricey. the bar has been set high.
• if i got studio monitors, i'd want to pipe the sound through my high quality tube amplifier. this is a problem because my high quality tube amplifier has one set of inputs, which is currently and forevermore connected to my high quality dac. no, i'm not going to swap those cables. so i'd have to get another tube amplifier. that's pricey. the bar has been set high. also (if you're still reading this after realizing that this last bullet point is just a slightly modified copy/paste of the preceding bullet point), my high quality tube amp is a headphone amp, and has no speaker bindings.
• i'd have to re-familiarize myself with terminology and technology in the world of speakers, for example: speaker bindings. i made it sound like i knew what those were. there may be no such thing, in fact. i vaguely recall that that's what you connect your speaker wire to. but who knows?
• finally, studio monitors are meant to be positioned more or less in your face. there's no room in this room for that.
• even more finally: i'd have to listen to lots of them. that's what you're supposed to do and i'd feel a bit like a yutz if i didn't. of course, i bought my high quality dac, my high quality tube amplifier, my high quality interconnects, and many of my pairs of high quality headphones without actually listening beforehand to them, so i guess i could do the same with the monitors and not be any worse off. editor's note: i am pretty freakin happy when it comes to my headphone system. although, i could use just one more set of cans. and in another couple of weeks, i'll have the chance to listen to salsaman's system, which will be quite similar to mine but with different tube amp and interconnects. that should be fun.

i considered posting pictures of my guacafeast tonight, but then i thought: a picture is worth a thousand words.

so if i were to post a picture, much less several pictures, i'd be in the black for several thousand words, and how am i supposed to become a better writer with so many word credits on my ledger?

i'm mostly alone for the weekend. hops went to arizona for a retirement party for an instructor she had at the university there.

this is my first real throwback to the old days in quite a long time. it's funny how easily i slipped back into the old swing of things. perhaps it's because i also recaffienated this weekend that i'm so bloviatous.

the woman at the lunch place (you know, the lunch place i used to go to EVERY FREAKING SUNDAY for about 3 years back when i was heavy into routines (heh)) asked, no doubt in reference to my seating requirements: "are you alone?"

to which i replied, channeling Robert DeNiro in "Heat," "I am alone, but I'm not lonely."

Sadly, the woman to which i replied this was the imaginary woman in my mind 2 minutes after the question had been posed. At the time the real woman asked it i answered, "yes," because i was tired and hungry and hot. also, I was alone.

there's something to be said for timing.

chips and guacamole.

that must be why some genius in marketing invented Guacachips (probably TM or R or something) - the tortilla chips (or are they corn? who cares) made with real guacamole! and msg! but mostly guacamole! (and some msg. but we can suffer a headache for guacamole flavored chips, right? we were going to have one anyways, on account of the heat.)

i wasn't going to buy them but the affable fat guy with the cheap mexican beer recommended them. and when it comes to matters of snack foods, and particularly tortilla chips (or was that corn?) i generally trust the advice of affable fat guys with cheap mexican beer. after all, there but for the grace of cheap mexican beer go i. also, i lack the affable.

in any case, i decided that guacamole flavored chips just didn't go too far enough, so, despite the advice of the affable fat guy with cheap mexican beer, i got some guacamole forwithwhich to dip around the guacamole flavored chips. that's right: guacamole upon guacamole upon tortilla chips (or is that corn?) (may contain msg).

yes, affable fat cheap mexican beer guy said that guacamole upon guacamole is going overboard, and that he preferred salsa, but i went and bought guacamole for my chips. or, i would have, had i not been distracted by FROZEN VENISON BURGERS at the grocery store. in that moment, the crisis of what meat products would compliment tonight's guacamolefest was resolved, and all worries -- including the worry of what to dip my guacachips into -- were expunged from my worrying aparati.

and so i walked out of the grocery store with venison burgers (please don't tell my brother-in-law that i bought venison at the grocery) but no guacamole, a fact which escaped my attention until the moment i had swiped my credit card. i wasn't about to go back into the grocery store so i went home and regrouped.

fortunately, i know people. and people told me that guacamole is easy to make. so i got me a secret ingredient list, and walked down to my local grocery place, and gathered my ingredients, substituting anonymous red chili peppers (not technically anonymous, i just don't remember their name. they are not jalapeños.) for bright orange habanero insanity, which was tempting but the focus of tonight's banquet is, of course, guacamole, and not severe intestinal cramping, which i get quite enough of already thank you very much without having to go out of my way to cause it.

2 of the 4 avocados (nuts! now you know most of my secret recipe!) were rather hard. one of them went into the fledgeling proto-guacamole, one of them stayed in the bag to become The Guacamole Of Christmas Future. i mashed extra forcefully and now the completed and taste-tested guacamole (may need salt, depending on the saltiness of the chips) is resting for a bit in the freezer because it's nearly dinnertime and nobody likes warm guacamole, at least nobody who matters, which is to say, of course, that i don't like it.

i'm sure that if i survive the incident, i will inform you, dear reader, of the result of my overguacamolization experiment.

you, dear reader, will be happy to know that my 2 (3?) week hiatus from riding did not take from me my ability to pedal up that hill that i hate, nor that other one that i also hate but not as much because even though it's at the end of the ride and seems much harder it's actually not because it's really short.

if anything, the rest did me good. my time was down by about 10 minutes, my ave. cadence was back up to 77 (middle-bottom of where it ought to be) and i didn't have to stop anywhere on my wimpy route.

plus, it was extra hot today. i enjoy hot weather exercise, but what i really enjoy is hot weather exercise where the weather turns cold for the rest of the day. that is, i'd really like that in theory, because i've never actually experienced it. i can hope, though.

hot weather exercise that turns cold when i'm done, and does not involve smog, allergies, or sunburn. maybe they've got that in valhalla. i'll find out when crom takes me.

speaking of crom, today is the first day of my next 6 week exercise cycle. the ride today provided great insight into how i ought to organize the week's exercise. for the last 6 weeks, monday has been a "medium effort" day. however, i'm feeling now like it ought to be a "light" day. so it shall be written, so it shall be done.

these next 6 weeks will feature both deadlifts and coffee, two great flavors that go great together.

hey, you've got your deadlifts in my coffee!

hey, you've got your coffee in my deadlifts!

i've been putting 16oz worth of sports drink powder into what turned out to be more like 20-24oz of water.

oops!

http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=535698&cid=23209294

http://apple.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=535772&cid=23212082

http://www.google.com/search?q=pediococcus+damnosus

the coffee poop.

i remember that, now.

i'm back on the coffee. i quit for a month or two, as i tend to do. but now i'm back. and i think my blogging is closely tied to my coffee intake, so i reckon that means more junk here. lucky you!

sadly, the coffee i made today is pretty weak sauce. it's a camaroon, which is my new favorite bean, but for months before my coffee hiatus i brewed only espresso, and i attempted french press today and suspect i bungled it badly. so now the coffee insanity re-begins where every day i tweak the whole system 1mm that way then tweak it 2mm the other way the next day. and the cycle continues.

last night at midnight, i made an insightful observation about the denizens of heidi's pies: at 12pm, everyone there is 20 years older than me. at 12am, everyone there is 20 years younger.

a reasonably sized slice of heidi's pie is a great nightcap to top off the beer gut after another enjoyable Beer Friday at Devil's Canyon. We missed the previous Beer Friday but Jason, one of the brewers (not the "head brewer", oops!) still recognized us and spent some quality time with us.

there were a lot of mohawks and a lot of faux-hawks, but mine was the only one with a rockin curl. i dreamed last night that i was running in sf, and i ran past a group of teenage girls carrying some protest signs about how curly hair was awesome, and i slowed down and showed them the curlyhawk and they applauded. that's right, i'm awesome even in my dreams. plus, dream sf has some amazing views of the dream pacific along that dream running path. no, it doesn't look anything like the ocean beach running path.

speaking of running, that's something that needs to become a part of my life again. 2 weeks ago, while listening to some music, i happened to come across 2 of my running songs. biking is fun and all, and so is climbing, lifting, and kettlebells, and whatever other physical crap i've tried, but so far, nothing beats the home stretch of a 10 mile run. actually, nothing beats the break-through at the 7.5mi wall. if i recall correctly, the last 2.5 miles were cake. so that's my new goal, i reckon, to do another 10 mile run. i've only done it once. it was a hot day. hot days are coming back soon.

finally, last but not least, what inspired me to blog this morning: ozric tentacles. a band, successor somewhat to pink floyd, inheritor of tribal drums and psychedelic guitars and so forth. not only do they artfully make incredibly good music, but even on their early albums, when they perhaps had little money, they had awesome sound engineers/masters. i still haven't sorted out whether it's the engineer or the master who is responsible for royally screwing up most recorded music (e.g. any album by The Offspring, Therion, or anything produced after 2003). Whoever it is, they didn't hire that guy to work on OT albums.

The sound is crisp, warm, airy, and wide: just the sort of nonsense an audiophile desires. think "audiophilia" is silly? i'm confident that even on a mediocre system a "non-audiophile" could tell the difference between quality recording (OT) and rubbish (The Offspring).

I'm off to order more beans and read a refresher on french press brewing. Cheers.

tubes are unable to compensate for the idiocy of M.I.A.'s audio engineer.

seriously dude, wtf?

W

T

F?

so i got me a tube headphone amplifier.

it came with two sets of vacuum tubes. the idea is that different tubes distort, er color, er, that is sound differently.

i spent a couple hours listening with one set of tubes. it was nice. it was very nice. it was even slightly tubey, i think, meaning that some of the harsher highs were softened in a harmonious way. everything sounded... nice.

then i got up, made some tea, talked a bit on the phone, bled the lizard, and swapped out the tubes for the other set.

now, the other set seems more powerful, more soft, more authoritative. these are all technical audiophile terms that mean very little but sound impressive.

i could just have the volume up a little higher, that's a big problem with audio comparisons. keeping the volume constant is nearly impossible as you swap out components.

this is probably my last audio upgrade, at least, i hope it is. i have reached the point of diminishing returns for my ears. while the amp sounds rather different from the dac's amp, it's hard to say just how it differs. for what i paid, i'd expect to hear huge differences. that is fine, it just means i'm done.

on teh other hand, my experience with hi-fi has taught me that many of the important differences are not so much heard as missed when absent. if i listen to my portable rig tomorrow, i may well realize what i'm missing.

(there's a bit in Buena Vista Social Club's "Chan Chan" where the trumpets are just a little too harsh/shrill on my dac, but sound "just right" on the tubes. that's what tubes are supposed to do. as far as i can tell, there's no loss of detail, just a bit more "warmth" where there used to be shrillness. that's also what tubes are supposed to do.)

i got to experience several amazing positioning/soundstage moments tonight. that may have been due to the new amp, or it may have been just my more attentive listening.

and for now, until i bother to do a better job of it (i can, you know), some glowing tubes:

by way of virginia. on the way to DC, we stopped at fredricksburg for lunch. i am not what you'd call a "civil war buff", but i did recognize the name, and lo and behold, on the way out of town (after a decisively excellent lunch at an irish pub (!)), we came across a confederate cemetary. how did i know it was a confederate cemetary?

inside were a sobering number of graves. from looking at signs we determined that the graves had been moved to make room for more recent additions in the early part of the 20th century.

some folks visit still, it seemed. that's the confederate flag (the one on top of the general lee is the confederate battle flag, not the flag of the CSA. i may not be a "buff" but i do know a thing or two.). the iron cross dingus says CSA which i guessed (and later confirmed) stands for Confederate States of America.

eventually, we made it to dc. upon entering the metro (DC's subway), i was greeted by a fellow mohawkian. he wanted his picture taken with me, so i got one of us, too. he'd had his mowhawk created the night before while he was slightly more drunk than his "friends". then, the day of the photo, he'd had a local salon fix it up. i did mine in the hotel room with TSA-approved hair gunk.

although his facial hair was nearly identical to what i sported for my driver's license photo, i don't think his was a joke.

the washington monument is big.

really big.

you won't move it.

the view from the lincoln memorial is actually quite moving. in fact, the visit to the lincoln memorial was the most interesting part of the trip. looking out across the reflection pool, i could nearly feel the weight of the nation upon me.

pondering lincoln's role in the formation of our nation, in light of my more recent understanding of our nation's direction, i had to question my former assumptions about his positive impact. my feelings are now mixed. more research is indicated.

i and i.

who owns the government of the united states of america? not you and me, my friend. not you and me.

but we have the most open democracy in the world, yes? input welcome from citizens?

it is fitting that lincoln's view is one of ponderous, peaceful, solemn contemplation, while the senators' view is of...

(zoom)

toward the end of our rounds, we wandered up to what looked like, and turned out to be the supreme court. it's big. and impressive. and ultimately, not so big on the inside, i reckon, but how would i know? i'm just a lowly citizen, i can't get inside.

last but not least, your tax dollars at work.

more to follow.

April 7, 2008

Dear Residents,
I have received complaint from residents in the 75-95 building regarding a "cat roaming the halls. This is not permitted and must stop immediately.

Cats are welcome at [apartment building name] as a pet in their apartment only.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Sincerely,
[manager]

couldn't remember if i took my allergy pill this morning, and not wanting to double dose (in case i had taken it) i waited to find out.

whelp, i found out. bleah.

it's Frobuary 2, YOMHC 0x26.

i went to a beer festival in berkeley this weekend, and mine was only the third best mohawk. clearly it was time for a trim. and maybe some egg whites (ick).

i figure it's better to be seen and honked at than unseen and flatten.

all that honking you're doing is only reinforcing my method.

i got to do an inline post-increment:

var base_name = 'tests-' + parseInt(g_tests++) ;

i felt a little naughty, and not just because it's javascript.

I like brewing. I like it quite a lot. I will now commence to relate to you an anecdote detailing why I like brewing.

My 19th beer was an experiment. Actually, all my beers are an experiment, but this was even more of an experimental beer than most. I was attempting to recreate the excellent flavor and hop aroma of my Date Beer (aka Desert Heat) without using dates, since 4 pounds of dates is freakin expensive. I also wanted to dry hop with whole hops instead of pellets, because the pellets gave me a chunky beer.

Finally -- and here's the real heart of the experiment -- I wanted to use only "late hops" inspired by an article I read (and perhaps misunderstood) about using lots and lots of hops at the end half of the boil, to impart flavor and aroma without bitterness. I wanted to make a hoppy beer that was not bitter. It was an ambitious task. Here's the recipe:

0.5 lbs victory malt
1 lbs rice hulls
0.125 lbs roast barley
0.5 lbs special b
1 lbs munich malt
2 lbs carapils
16 lbs maris otter pale malt
1 oz centennial whole
4 oz amarillo pellet
2 oz perle pellet
1 oz amarillo whole
4 oz centennial pellet
WLP001 yeast

all the pellet hops were added during the last 30 minutes of the 60 minute boil. Somehow I managed to end up with less than 5 gallons of wort, I pitched the yeast and let it sit for two weeks. At the end of the two weeks, I was disappointed. It fermented from 1.071 down to 1.011, so it should not have been too sweet, but without bitterness to balance the remaining malt, it was too sweet by far. Not quite syrupy, but definitely sickly-sweet. Not good at all.

So I crossed my fingers and dumped in the 2oz of whole hops, and let it sit for another 4 weeks.

And then I had some, last night, and remembered why I like brewing. Even when I don't brew quite what I wanted (it wasn't the color I wanted, and even with the whole hops, I ended up with a cloudy beer) I quite frequently end up with something surprisingly good. In this case, I ended up with something surprisingly good and exactly what I wanted -- a sweet, non bitter beer with the hop aroma and flavor of a mighty west coast IPA.

I'll do an official tasting later on, but from what I remember of my tasting last night, it had the caramelly, raisiny notes that I enjoy, a toasty finish, a grainy, citrusy hop bouquet, and plenty of fresh hop flavor. The aftertaste was not bitter in the least, in fact, that's probably it's biggest weakness (that is, if "non-bitter hoppy beer" is not itself a weakness) -- a lingering malt sweetness instead of the crisp finish that we've all come to expect from an IPA.

Since, when I racked to secondary and had a poor tasting sample, I relaxed, didn't worry, and had a homebrew, everything came out far better than expected.

And that's why I like home brewing. Cheers!