Since I can’t seem to fall asleep at a decent hour I thought I would try my hand at video documentations. Below is what I do at 3:30am.
Our second batch, a Nut Brown Ale, we are going to call the “Snowy River Nut Brown Ale”. So named because it was brewed on a cold and snowy night here by the river. This second batch was a lot more complex than the first. And I have confidence that this batch will be a good one based on the fact that the house smells so good right now. It smells like a mixture of the best aromas from a bakery and a plant shop.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Friday, January 29, 2010
What if?
Brew update. We have bottles (hiccup)! Someone I don’t know, somehow got wind we were brewing and left us some cases of empty 16oz brown bottles. Thank you Dude, whoever you are. Will be bottling this Saturday and starting a new batch of Brown Ale. This second batch will be better than the first. We are looking for a name of our operation. Brew de la Casa is just the R&D department’s name. If anyone has any suggestions feel free to let me know. We are looking for a name that has the theme of a river, fishing, or something ranging from Ltown to SWVAish. A name that is edgy, allows for cool artwork, and bam in your face. Imagine if you will that we are most awesome rock band of all time and we are called the “{______}” Brewery and we just knocked your dad’s teeth out with our felt bottomed fishing boots. Please keep that in mind with your suggestions and don’t be insulted when we don’t pick yours.
The Survivalism Movement. (Wikipedia that)
There is a country song that goes “…a country boy will survive…”, and it is right! I will survive. I don’t know if this is a normal male line of thinking or not, but I fully believe that with the knowledge I have amassed if society as we know it collapses I will be the only house in the neighborhood with the lights still on. I know how to survive MacGyver style. I don’t mean to sound like a crazy internet doomsayer predicting the collapse of all we know. I’m just saying that I have just picked up skill sets and knowledge from here and there that I feel confident will carry me through the worst of anything. I have the country boy roots, so I can shoot, fish, or raise my food. But I also have those smarts mom is so proud of. I can make a gasifier to fuel my truck and generator when the oil runs out. I know how to make a tesla coil out of car batteries to make a radio transmitter to call for help. I can make an ozone generator to purify water. I can perform simple medical procedures if forced to. I know how to use local plants medicinally. And I am still learning, picking up on things here and there. I’m not saying the world as we know it is going to end tomorrow and I’m not hording canned food in a bomb shelter, I’m just unintentional preparing mentally for the worse. As long as I don’t get hit in the head by the falling sky I should be fine. Our society is more fragile than you might think. All I want to do is make you aware of the movement and tell you the Boy Scout motto “Be Prepared” I think I am and I hope you are too. It just makes sense.
The Survivalism Movement. (Wikipedia that)
There is a country song that goes “…a country boy will survive…”, and it is right! I will survive. I don’t know if this is a normal male line of thinking or not, but I fully believe that with the knowledge I have amassed if society as we know it collapses I will be the only house in the neighborhood with the lights still on. I know how to survive MacGyver style. I don’t mean to sound like a crazy internet doomsayer predicting the collapse of all we know. I’m just saying that I have just picked up skill sets and knowledge from here and there that I feel confident will carry me through the worst of anything. I have the country boy roots, so I can shoot, fish, or raise my food. But I also have those smarts mom is so proud of. I can make a gasifier to fuel my truck and generator when the oil runs out. I know how to make a tesla coil out of car batteries to make a radio transmitter to call for help. I can make an ozone generator to purify water. I can perform simple medical procedures if forced to. I know how to use local plants medicinally. And I am still learning, picking up on things here and there. I’m not saying the world as we know it is going to end tomorrow and I’m not hording canned food in a bomb shelter, I’m just unintentional preparing mentally for the worse. As long as I don’t get hit in the head by the falling sky I should be fine. Our society is more fragile than you might think. All I want to do is make you aware of the movement and tell you the Boy Scout motto “Be Prepared” I think I am and I hope you are too. It just makes sense.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
I Know I Can
We started our first batch of homebrew (Brew De la Casa) and it feels like an experiment doomed from the get go. Only time will tell how it turns out. Hopefully it is drinkable and more than muddy stump water. It will be another few weeks before all is said and done. [Side thought - Patience is earned by agony and torture in my opinion. If you really knew how God has been working on patience with me you would think I should be nothing but pure virtue by now. Hopefully in life much like in Brew De La Casa I will see an end to the waiting soon. But that’s all another story for another day.] I will lay out the whole Brew De La Casa experiment when all is done.
I would like to talk about the “Eli Condition”. In my mind I multitask, which means I am thinking about several completely different things at any given moment of time. So remembering what I need to do and even completing conversations kind of gets suppressed to lower levels of thought.
Example: Saturday night our subject “Eli” goes to dinner, he enjoys his sushi and conversation, he gets in car to leave and go to a party, he then looks at written note of stuff he needs accomplish tonight (written on back of his left hand is the word “Beer”) and in the next 5 minutes this is what goes on in his mind.
He calculates what the best place for quality beer in reasonable distance from route to final destination. Finalizes which route he will take, remembers the most important thing he does tonight is get ***Brown Bottles with Pop Top Lids*** because he needs roughly 60 of the 12 ounce bottles to contain his new homebrew experiment in and he needs to collect the 60 sum bottles in the next few weeks before he bottles the brew. He then does a quick review of why it is only Brown bottles that he wants, because when light hits beer it provides the energy necessary to drive a reaction that transforms the iso-alpha-acids into 3-methyl-2-butene-1-thiol causing beer to go skunk. Brown bottles let in the least amount of light so those are the best ones to use because skunk beer is no good. Thinks that is cool science, how come we didn’t talk about that in high school chemistry. He is reminded of the cartoon caricature Pepe Le Pew the skunk getting drunk on love (chuckles out loud as he gets out of car to walk to the Food City near the restaurant). Buy Brown Bottles. He thinks about his right knee since it is still a little sore from falling out of the church attic several weeks ago. Wonders if his dominate right leg is now equal in stride with non-dominant left leg and if stuck in a desert will walk in a straight line instead of a circle over a distance of 50 miles. Decides to buy some Ibuprofen because it is the least harmful NSAID on the stomach lining and liver when used in combination with alcohol. Buy Brown Beer Bottles. Amazed he didn’t break his neck falling out of the attic, wonders what it would be like to be Christopher Reeves before he died but after the accident. Decides he would rather die than be paraplegic. Reviews conversation from dinner and analyze it for key words in combination with facial cues to determine intent of fellow dinner companions. Nothing sticks out from conversation (Looks at watch as walking in door to grocery store). Estimates time of arrival at party calculating amount of people in store and waiting in line, weather outside is raining slowing driving time, and guessing about 2 minuets to choose from beer selection. Buy Brown Beer bottles. Knows he is only getting a 6 pack, but is reminded about his college days when grabbing beer to hang out with the same people he would have grabbed a 24 pack and spent about the same amount of money. He realizes that the price of beer for him has stayed a constant while quality, volume, and time have been variables and quality and volume are inversely proportional to each other (chuckles to self again). Buy Brown Beer. Looks at the beer selection and decides on a 6pack of Newcastle. Wonders what it would be like to live in Newcastle England, and bets that it rains there all the time like it is raining outside at current moment. (Hands ID to female cashier who is in conversation with male assistant manager) Listens to conversation, not relevant so starts to ignore what they are saying but watches for facial tones and other non-verbal expressions. Decides they are friends outside of work, the cashier likes the assistant manager and flirts strongly because she knows it is not going to go anywhere and that makes her more comfortable, meanwhile assistant manager is looking at a more attractive female cashier about 20 feet away from the corner of his eye every few seconds, for him cute cashier is not ruled out as a possibility (without thinking says “thank you” to cashier and grabs bag of Newcastle). Wonders what the three employees will look like when they are old. He realizes that last thought was really random and then shakes his head at himself as he walks out the door. Knows he is forgetting something, what is it? He can’t remember if he said “thank you” to the cashier or not. Thinks that must have been what he forgot since he can’t remember saying anything. Remembers he has one 600mg Ibuprofen in jacket pocket from snowboarding trip two weeks ago, that had to be what he forgot, feeling he forgot something leaves him. Can’t believe it’s already been two weeks since new years (gets in car).
I would like to talk about the “Eli Condition”. In my mind I multitask, which means I am thinking about several completely different things at any given moment of time. So remembering what I need to do and even completing conversations kind of gets suppressed to lower levels of thought.
Example: Saturday night our subject “Eli” goes to dinner, he enjoys his sushi and conversation, he gets in car to leave and go to a party, he then looks at written note of stuff he needs accomplish tonight (written on back of his left hand is the word “Beer”) and in the next 5 minutes this is what goes on in his mind.
He calculates what the best place for quality beer in reasonable distance from route to final destination. Finalizes which route he will take, remembers the most important thing he does tonight is get ***Brown Bottles with Pop Top Lids*** because he needs roughly 60 of the 12 ounce bottles to contain his new homebrew experiment in and he needs to collect the 60 sum bottles in the next few weeks before he bottles the brew. He then does a quick review of why it is only Brown bottles that he wants, because when light hits beer it provides the energy necessary to drive a reaction that transforms the iso-alpha-acids into 3-methyl-2-butene-1-thiol causing beer to go skunk. Brown bottles let in the least amount of light so those are the best ones to use because skunk beer is no good. Thinks that is cool science, how come we didn’t talk about that in high school chemistry. He is reminded of the cartoon caricature Pepe Le Pew the skunk getting drunk on love (chuckles out loud as he gets out of car to walk to the Food City near the restaurant). Buy Brown Bottles. He thinks about his right knee since it is still a little sore from falling out of the church attic several weeks ago. Wonders if his dominate right leg is now equal in stride with non-dominant left leg and if stuck in a desert will walk in a straight line instead of a circle over a distance of 50 miles. Decides to buy some Ibuprofen because it is the least harmful NSAID on the stomach lining and liver when used in combination with alcohol. Buy Brown Beer Bottles. Amazed he didn’t break his neck falling out of the attic, wonders what it would be like to be Christopher Reeves before he died but after the accident. Decides he would rather die than be paraplegic. Reviews conversation from dinner and analyze it for key words in combination with facial cues to determine intent of fellow dinner companions. Nothing sticks out from conversation (Looks at watch as walking in door to grocery store). Estimates time of arrival at party calculating amount of people in store and waiting in line, weather outside is raining slowing driving time, and guessing about 2 minuets to choose from beer selection. Buy Brown Beer bottles. Knows he is only getting a 6 pack, but is reminded about his college days when grabbing beer to hang out with the same people he would have grabbed a 24 pack and spent about the same amount of money. He realizes that the price of beer for him has stayed a constant while quality, volume, and time have been variables and quality and volume are inversely proportional to each other (chuckles to self again). Buy Brown Beer. Looks at the beer selection and decides on a 6pack of Newcastle. Wonders what it would be like to live in Newcastle England, and bets that it rains there all the time like it is raining outside at current moment. (Hands ID to female cashier who is in conversation with male assistant manager) Listens to conversation, not relevant so starts to ignore what they are saying but watches for facial tones and other non-verbal expressions. Decides they are friends outside of work, the cashier likes the assistant manager and flirts strongly because she knows it is not going to go anywhere and that makes her more comfortable, meanwhile assistant manager is looking at a more attractive female cashier about 20 feet away from the corner of his eye every few seconds, for him cute cashier is not ruled out as a possibility (without thinking says “thank you” to cashier and grabs bag of Newcastle). Wonders what the three employees will look like when they are old. He realizes that last thought was really random and then shakes his head at himself as he walks out the door. Knows he is forgetting something, what is it? He can’t remember if he said “thank you” to the cashier or not. Thinks that must have been what he forgot since he can’t remember saying anything. Remembers he has one 600mg Ibuprofen in jacket pocket from snowboarding trip two weeks ago, that had to be what he forgot, feeling he forgot something leaves him. Can’t believe it’s already been two weeks since new years (gets in car).
Later at the party after the first few sips of my Newcastle I could have kicked myself because Newcastle comes in CLEAR BOTTLES!!! UGH. And that is a prime example of the “Eli Condition”. I hope I’m not alone in my condition, but I wouldn’t be surprised if I was.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
A New Year
Well it has been a busy holiday season. Unfortunately my inept camera skills have left me without any pictures to visually prove my busy times. So instead I will give you a quick synopsis of the last month. I worked more than I wanted to. I traveled many miles in sort periods of time. Visited the North Carolina family, did the family Christmas thing down there. Did not get enough time to see everyone I wanted to while they were in town visiting. Had a huge snow storm and a few follow-up storms that made for some fun wintertime driving, sledding, and other forms of fun. I spent six days without power at the house and now have the opportunity to restock my fridge and freezer. The Hokies won another bowl game and in the process silenced the UT bragging that I have been putting up with for the last five years or so. I’m going to coast on the high of that game till next fall, great win. I had a really fun new year’s eve. Went snowboarding, had the second biggest spill of my long snowboarding career and didn’t break any bones that I know of. And now I am going to bleed out the rest of my vacation days over the next 3 weeks before I loose them, so work will be a little easier. And I think that sums up most of everything I can think of off the top of my head.
Now let’s talk about this new year 2010. I have a feeling this is going to be a great year. I don’t know why, I just have a feeling in the back of my head that it’s going to be a good one. I feel like the last ten years I have just coasted through them and the next ten will be different (hopefully married, maybe a couple of kids, be a homeowner, and traveled to some really neat places). I don’t have any new year’s resolutions. I have never done those, mostly because I make new goals all year long not just only at the beginning of the year. But I do have a new goal that I think I will push for, and that’s to really enjoy life. I think when I have been doing “life” in the past my mind is normally elsewhere, so I’m only half there to enjoy whatever I am doing or experiencing. I’m going to try to change that. I don’t know how going to accomplish this just yet, but that is my most recent goal to fully engage the moment.
Lastly with all this cold weather I have been starting to long for those hot summer days being lazy on the lake or fishing in the river. I certainly have some more winter fun to “fully engage in”, but I can still long for long days, shorts, flip-flops, motorcycles rides, and swimming right?
Now let’s talk about this new year 2010. I have a feeling this is going to be a great year. I don’t know why, I just have a feeling in the back of my head that it’s going to be a good one. I feel like the last ten years I have just coasted through them and the next ten will be different (hopefully married, maybe a couple of kids, be a homeowner, and traveled to some really neat places). I don’t have any new year’s resolutions. I have never done those, mostly because I make new goals all year long not just only at the beginning of the year. But I do have a new goal that I think I will push for, and that’s to really enjoy life. I think when I have been doing “life” in the past my mind is normally elsewhere, so I’m only half there to enjoy whatever I am doing or experiencing. I’m going to try to change that. I don’t know how going to accomplish this just yet, but that is my most recent goal to fully engage the moment.
Lastly with all this cold weather I have been starting to long for those hot summer days being lazy on the lake or fishing in the river. I certainly have some more winter fun to “fully engage in”, but I can still long for long days, shorts, flip-flops, motorcycles rides, and swimming right?
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