What's wrong with this picture?

My poor baby is frozen!!

After a fantastic 10 day stay in the sunshine state, we awoke the first day back to a snow storm. We got hit with 4" of the "white death" on the first full day of spring. Well as I stated in an earlier post Ohio's seasons are: Summer, almost winter, winter, and almost summer. It seems to be holding true again this year.

We really shouldn't complain too much though because it has been a mild winter so far. I'm just afraid that this is the start of the payback and that we're likely to see snow in April or May too!

FC and Me

Like I said in an earlier post, I get to travel a few times a year as part of my livelyhood. Well Lightnin is in a similar field, and luck was finally with us when both of us were able to attend the same conference in Orlando. We took some time off before and after the conference to visit some dear old friends in the northern part of the state, you guessed it, Florida Cracker and his lovely wife Patience!

For me it was a chance to reunite with my old college buddies, for Lightnin it was a chance to catch up with some relatively new friends. If it's true what they say, that laughter is the best medicine, then we're some of the healthiest people on earth at this moment! I can't remember a time where I laughed as often or as long for days at a time. It was simply too much fun!

One thing I have noticed through my travels and meeting folks from different cultures is that we all still have a similar tradition that brings us together, the feast! Whenever people gather together, friends, relatives, what have you, there is usually a feast. in our case there was no difference. We all pitched in and created a Cuban food feast that consisted of a shrimp curry, pineapple saffron rice, black beans, MoJo pork, and corn cakes (we couldn't remember the Cuban name for these, but they still tasted great!), and of course a cold one to wash it down!

There'll be some more posts from our trip coming soon, so stay tooned!

Beer Snob or Merely Someone Who Knows What They Like?

The other day I was asked a question about beer that sort of prompted me to write this post. That person shall remain anonymous, but I’ll give you a hint: He has a blog spot about Pure Florida! (Sorry FC, but I just couldn’t resist)

Anyway the question was (paraphrasing here): Is it the hops that make beer bitter, and how do I know what styles to look for to get a beer that I will like?

To answer this question I may need to share some history and get slightly technical, but I’ll try to keep it as generic as I can. In fact here is how simple it can be. Beer (according to the Reinheitsgebout: German Purity law) is made from Water, Malt, Hops, and Yeast. Malt (usually barley or wheat) provide the sugar, Hops provide the bitterness, Yeast is what ferments the sugars to form alcohol and carbonation (both waste products from the yeast), and Water is the main ingredient and provides a medium for the others to co-exist in. The secret of course is in the proportions of each of the ingredients.

Yes, Hops do give beer its bitterness. Without them the beer would be far too sweet, by current standards, to be drinkable. However, hops weren’t the first choice of ingredients to balance the sweetness of the malt sugars. Things like Spruce Sprigs (you may have seen my post about the historic Scotch Ales), Juniper Berries, Bitter Orange Peel (as in a Belgian Wit), the list goes on. Anyway, somehow someone stumbled upon the hop plant and it stuck! Hops also provide flavor and aroma to the beer.

Ok, here’s a bit of science that is necessary to help explain. Hops are categorized by type, region, and bitterness. The bitterness units most commonly used are % Alpha Acid content. This is then used to determine the quantity of hops the brewer should use to balance the sweetness to create the type of beer that is desired. The calculation actually comes out with an IBU value (International Bitterness Unit) for the batch of beer to be made (I’ll spare you the math, but if interested please let me know and I can get you further information). Rule of thumb is that the higher the % Alpha, and the longer the hop are boiled, the more bitterness it will add to the beer.

So for example let’s say I want to make an American Pale Ale (Sierra Nevada is a great example of this style). I would start out with a grain (malt) build that will give me around 5.5% Alcohol content when fermentation is completed (this would take around 7 lbs of malt extract or 12lbs of malted grain). I would then choose a combination of hops to give the desired flavor, aroma, and bitterness. In this case I’d choose a mixture of 1oz Cascade hops (around 4.5% Alpha), 1oz Kent Goldings hops (around 5% Alpha), and possibly 1oz Willamette hops (around 3.5% Alpha). I’ll boil the batch for 1 hour total so I’d add the Kent Goldings at the beginning of the boil (for bitterness), the Cascade with about 15minutes remaining (for flavor), and the Willamette at the end and then remove from heat to allow them to steep for about 5min (for aroma). This will produce a fairly hoppy beer.

So now to the other part of the question: How do I know what style will be what I like?

Hoppy (sometimes bitter) beer styles would include: American Pale Ale, IPA (India Pale Ale), any style of Pete’s Wicked Ales, Pilsners (Urquel, Stella Artois, Miller Lite, etc.), and American Amber Ales.

Less hoppy (bitter) and sometimes sweet beers include: Belgian Abby or Trappist Ales (Chemay, Leffe, Grimbergen, Orval, etc.), Lagers: (Bud, Molsen), Bock Bier, Oktoberfest Biers, Marzen, Vienna (Dos Equis) English Amber Ales (Bass, John Courage), Swartzbier (Negra Modelo).

Some in between beers (might be bitter, might not): ESB (Extra Special Bitters, Fullers ESB is a good example), English Bitters (the name bitters is a bit of a misnomer), Cream Ales, Wheat Beers (Heffe Weizen, Dunkle Weizen, Belgian Wit-orange peel, not hops, but some can be sort of bitter).

Well, I hope that helps answer the question, and helps give you a few styles to look out for. I also hope that the answer wasn’t too long-winded!

Oh I did promise that I would address the fact that Dos Equis is a Vienna style lager, and why Negra Modelo is a German Swartz bier. It turns out that during the period leading up to WWII there was a lot of persecution taking place over in Europe, not just anti-Semitism, but included anyone not thought to be of “pure blood”. Well it turns out that many of the worlds leading brewers, at the time, were not of “pure blood”. These brewers moved to Mexico and Central/South America to escape persecution (Evidently to escape the German winters too, which is not a bad idea in my opinion!). So anyway once they relocated they started doing what they do best, which was to produce some of the world’s best beers!

Please let me know if you have any further interest in brewing, I’d be more than happy to share my experience and knowledge with you! And remember that the best beer in the world, at any given time, is probably the one you’re holding in your hand!

Is that Elvis, No just Frank Zappa!

I forgot to note a very important event in the post "The Old Guy Makes the Club Scene". While we were at the "club" I was just mindning my own business, sipping on a Binder Pilsner (side note: a nice German pils, and relatively cheep too!) when all of a sudden there he is. No not Elvis, Yes it was Frank Zappa! I'm not kidding, It had to be him!

I know, most people see Elvis everywhere, but you know he would be a bit hard to hide since everyone knows exactly what he looks like. Frank on the other hand could hide away in Europe and no one would know. So if you're ever in the Franfurt, Germany area remember to stop in at the Boschkapp club and look for Frank Zappa, He'll probably be doing a dance called the "Running Man". (That was for you G-Nerve!)

Farewell to Hanau, Deutschland

Well, it's time to leave for Brussels to start another work week.

In a feeble attempt to repay my hosts, I cooked the Sunday meal. It consisted of pork tenderloin (Schweinfleisch Filet), stuffed with spinach, pine nuts, and Parmesan cheese, and drizzled with a cherry and red wine sauce. This was served with butter and parsley potatoes, that were prepared by my son and his girl friend.



It was an enjoyable stay while it lasted! As usual it was hard to leave, but life goes on!

To my hosts: Edgar who made sure that I was never thirsty, and provided stories and laughter through out the weekend. Lovely Marena, who also possesses a nice sense of humor, and made sure that I was never hungry. Sabrina, better known by her father as "Translator!" is a wonderful young lady, who tries to keep my son in line. All three provide a nice sense of stability and surrogate family for my son AKA "His Dudeness", "Spc. Dude", "G-nerve". I can't possibly thank you enough and look forward to seeing you again when ever possible.

Ein Prosit der Gemütlichkeit!











This was a photo from July '05 when TJ and I were able to both be there. Pictured from left to Right: Front row - "Spc. Dude", Sebastian, Sabrina; Back Row - "Der Guila" (sp?), myself, TJ, Edgar, and Marena.

The Old Guy makes the Club Scene

We had a nice meal of Lasagna (expertly prepared by Marena) and Lamb’s Lettuce salad, and then it was time to sample my Christmas present. My son had purchased a sampler of Historic Scotch Ales and I was ready to sample. From right to left the Ales are: Heather Ale, Gooseberry Ale, Elderberry Black Ale, and Spruce Ale.
The Heather Ale was very much like Mead with the gentle aroma of the Heather flowers and a sweat, almost honey like, flavor. It was a mere 5% brew, and was fairly light in body.
The Gooseberry was mild with a slight tartness, obviously from the berries, but not over powering with fruit. It was also a mere 5% brew and was also light bodied and would be good in warm weather.
The Elderberry Black was rich and full of roasted grain, much like a good porter or stout. The Elderberry flavor was subtle and actually reminded me of my own Cranberry Stout. This beer however was 6.5%. This is the right kind of beer for cold weather!
Last, but not least, the Spruce Ale. This was to be served at room temperature, which wasn’t a problem because it sat out while we sampled the other three. It was similar to a barley wine, but with the definite influence from the spruce and pine sprigs that were used in place of hops. This brew packed a wallop weighing in at an impressive 7.5%. One was enough for us!

Well with that under our belts, and some time to rest after dinner and drink, it was time to head to the club. The kids took me to one of their favorite clubs “Boschkapp”. The name refers to the slapping down of the bill of a baseball cap onto the unsuspecting victim, usually a friend that you are joking around with. As we approached the door, with proper ID in hand (hey, they could ask for mine!), we noticed that it was their 30th anniversary. This meant that anyone over 30 was allowed in free! Hey, my lucky night! Now it is important to note that the Door Man was used to his routine, you approach and hand him your ID, he inspects it for authenticity, pats you down and allows entry. I approach (I put my ID back in my pocket feeling pretty confident that they would notice that I’m slightly over 30), he holds his hand out expecting to be handed my ID, I merely raise my arms to allow him to pat me down. At this point he looks up and his facial expression reveals his enlightenment. He and I both laugh and he completes the routine and allows me to enter.

Once inside we move to the back bar so that we can find a seat. Where we can look around and enjoy the view and the music. The music was surprisingly recognizable, mixing rock and pop tunes from 30 years ago to the present, and to my son’s surprise I knew a quite a few of the new tunes! We met up with one of my son’s buddies, a Sergeant from his old Unit the 69th Chemical Company. He was going to be heading back to Iraq on Monday, so we shared some laughs and drank some beers, and toasted to his safe return (Of course our designated driver drank only Coca-cola because driving is an even more serious business over here!).
Oh yea, I almost forgot, It seems that a few folks that were in line behind us when we first entered the establishment were somewhat impressed with the fact that I didn’t need to pay to enter (they obviously didn’t read the sign that officially declared this “Old Man” night!). They seemed to be following us around, trying to catch our eye with smiles, as if they wanted to find out just who we were! We could only imagine what must have going through their minds: Why did he get in free? It seemed like he and the door were joking with each other, could this old guy be the owner? Is he someone famous? It’s too funny how some people can so easily allow themselves to be misled merely by not paying attention to all the details. We laughed about it on the way home. It proved to be a very enjoyable evening.

Short trip to Wiesbaden, but with a Bonus!

This post was actually composed on Sunday January 15, 2006.

Yesterday was the coldest so far during my trip (-9C; 15F), but we braved the cold and headed into Wiesbaden anyway. The sun was out so it was a nice drive, even though it was so cold.

As we drove through town, looking for a place to park we noticed a sign that the Chinese Terracotta Soldiers were on exhibit at the museum, what luck. I have always had a fascination with Anthropology and had actually considered an offer to go to Australia and work on a dig site back in the early80’s. As luck would have it I met my wife during that same time and the rest is history. Anyway back to the trip. I had heard about these since the late 70’s early 80’s and was finally able to view them. You cannot believe how majestic these statues are.

This is an entire army, including horses and wagons, created centuries ago by the emperor to protect him in the afterlife. They are true recreations of his actual army, including the unique facial feature details of each individual soldier.
It took several hundred artists to accomplish this. They were discovered by a couple of farmers digging a well. Since then archeologists have recovered slightly more than an acre of the tomb, but they believe that the army actually covers nearly 5 acre of space. Currently recovery work has ceased until new techniques are discovered that will allow the artifacts to be better preserved during the process.
















We then headed into the main part of town to do some shopping, site seeing, and of course a little beer tasting. Der Andechser was a good place to stop. They offered some little sampler size servings (0.1L), and you keep the glass! We sampled the Hefeweizen and the Douple Bock. Both beers were excellent examples of the styles and the DB was decided to be the best. It was sweet and full of flavor, but had a very nice clean finish.




Well, time to head back home for the day. The kids are planning to take me out “clubbing” this evening. It should be an unforgettable experience!

Frankfurt am Mein

This was originally written on the morning of Saturday January 14, 2006, but as usual while I’m traveling, I needed to wait until I could link to the Net before I could post.

Yesterday I was lucky enough to travel into Frankfurt with my son and his girl friend. We walked through several historical areas of the town and she pointed out several other options that my son and I should check out while we waited for her to complete her classes for the day. The air was crisp and the wind was cold, but it wasn’t raining so it was a good day for walking around and checking out the sites.

When we first pulled into town I spotted this building. I’m not sure what it is, but I thought it was worth a picture.











We started with a view from atop the shopping center, where you can get an idea of the size of the city. It is also interesting to see the contrast of old and new architecture. (Sorry, but I'm having Image Uploading issues again. I'll add photo when possible!)

We then moved on toward the famous shopping district and paused in front of Paul’s Kirche (Paul’s Church).











This is the old Opera house (alte Oper), a pretty cool looking building and in a really nice open area. During the summer it would be a good place to hang out and catch your breath, but today the wind stings a bit so we kept moving.









We decided to stop at the Tower Bar to sample a brew. I had the Dunkel Weitzen and my son had the Radler (a mixture of Sprite and Pilsner). I know, but it actually wasn’t too bad and would have been a good choice during the summer, and the story of how this drink was created is kind of interesting. The story goes that a group of bicyclists (Radler) became thirsty during their ride and decided to stop off at a pub to quench their thirst. As they entered the pub the Braumeister realized that he did not have enough beer to serve them all, so he decided to dilute the beer with the lemon/lime drink so that everyone would have enough to drink.
This is the sign in the bar to let you know that the bathroom is on the upper floor and that it is a winding staircase with 44 steps! You need to plan your strategy carefully if you intend to stay there and drink beer on such a cold day!

We then wandered around past the City Hall and over to the Old Stock Exchange (Die alte Deutsche Boerse), and eventually ended up at Zwolf Apostel Brau Haus (the Twelve Apostles Brew House). This place lays claim to being the first brewpub (hausbrauerie) in Frankfurt! They have what looks like a 7-barrel system capable of producing two types of beer: Hefeweizen and Dunkelweizen. I of course chose the later, as did my son and we both agreed that it was one of the best we had ever tried.
Well, it’s time to meet up with his girlfriend again and then head back to the house. Tomorrow we will be heading to Wiesbaden to see more things of interest while I’m here in Deutschland.

Oh, you didn't think I'd forget to write about the beer did you?

Although France is more famous for wine than beer, you can find several choices from surrounding countries.

The one French beer that I have tried is 1664. It's a pilsner style beer, light, clean and refreshing.

Of course I already mentioned the Irish pub in a couple of previous posts, where I sampled Beamish Stout and Beamish Red, both very nice especially under nitrogen rather than CO2. The Stout is full flavored, surprisingly light in body, and actully refreshing (if you can find it on tap or in a Nitrogen widget can, try it. I like it better than Guiness.). The Red is a bit sweeter, heavier, and in my opinion is an example of what an Irish Red Ale should be!

Carlsburg Brewing has two entries here: Carlsburg and the infamous Elephant Malt. On tap these are both much better than in the bottle, I would bet you can find the bottled version somewhere near you almost anywhere in the US.

My favorite of course are the Belgian Ales. Three of these seem to be prevalent here (not to worry though I'll be in Brussels next week!). Blanche de Brug (pronounced: brooge), Leffe Blonde, and Grimbergen. Blanche de Brug is is your classic Belgian Wit (Wheat or White) with the mild flavor and aroma of citrous and corriander (You may be familiar with Hoegarden, which just happens to be Lightnin's favorite. Speaking of which I have to give a shout out to my Homegirl! Enjoy tooling around in the ragtop, I get to meet up with "G-nerve" tomorrow!). Leffe Blonde has a sweet taste and smooth body. Grimbergen is an Abby Ale, strong, full, smooth, and slightly sweet.

Well, I'm just waiting for my host to come get me so that we can leave work to head to the bar to have a beer while we decide where we are going to eat (you can see the rest of the nightly routine on my previous post). Even though it may take some decision making and dicussion to determine the restaurant, the beer choices have become pretty clear: He will have his usual Leffe, and I my Grimbergen.

Cheers, Prosit, Salud, or Strochen! A parting toast to Amiens!

It Must be the Coffee

Well, we completed our work in Amiens a day ahead of schedule so it looks like I'll hit the road to Frankfurt tomorrow and cash in a vacation day on Friday!
It was amazing what we were able to accomplish in such a short time, but unfortunately due to proprietary rules I cannot discuss that (besides many of you would probably delete this site from your list for subjecting you to such boaring things)!

I think I figured out how we were able to get ahead of schedule though, Coffee! Now it is important to note that I quit drinking coffee (in the US) almost 4 years ago. I switched over to a mixture of red and green tea (naturally decaff and full of antioxidants blah, blah, blah). Anyway, when I am over here I simply cannot resist the coffee. It's the real deal! Full of flavor, and really packs a punch. Also, you can't avoid it!

Here's an example of the typical day:

1. Wake at 6:00AM, have a lite breakfast (some sort of whole oats cereal with other things in there), a small pastry, a small juice, and of course coffee.
2. Arrive at work, and are immediately greeted with "How about a coffee?" (How they got to work before I did and already had coffee ready I don't know)
3. You work feverishly until precisely 12:00noon, go to lunch, then coffee, while discussing what happened in the morning and what you will do in the afternoon to correct it.
4. You work feverishly again until 5:00PM and then go to dinner (dinner is an experience all it's own: first you meet for beer to decide where to go eat, you then choose a wine for the starter which is usually champagne in this region, and a wine to go with the meal, then either dessert or a cognac, and then coffee).
5. At this point if someone else has just arrived in town, and either you or someone you are with knows them, you go for a beer or two to celebrate seeing them again and to wish them luck on their work.
6. You get back into your hotel room and catch a few hours sleep before doing it all again.

The day seems to fly by and before you know it your work is completed and you are ready to leave.

Well, I've got about a 5 hour drive ahead of me tomorrow, but I'm not going to be in any hurry. I'm a day ahead of schedule and plan to take my time and see the sites along the way. Hopefully I'll capture some of them for you to see too. You can be sure of one thing though, I'm gonna have a nice cup of coffee to make sure I stay awake during the drive!

Just Wondering Around Amiens

I needed to get out and stretch my legs, so I took my camera along with me. There’s a canal that goes through the town that is lined with shops and restaurants, so I thought I’d snap a few photos for you to see.

You can see the Cathedral Notre Dame de Amiens in the background of this one, which also helps to give scale to the structure.











The canal lined with shops, restaurants, and homes. I bet it is hopping during the warmer months.











Aunt Jeanne’s restaurant grabbed my eye.













On the way back to my hotel I spotted this and just felt the need to snap the photo.












That concludes the tour for today, and I’m sure you are all concerned as to whether I’ve managed to hydrate myself after walking around the city snapping all these photos. Not to worry, there’s an Irish pub strategically placed right on the corner at the end of the street that my hotel is located. So I popped in to sample a Beamish Stout. I mentioned in my post the other day that I had sampled Irish Ales along with the other local varieties, yep, that was in the Tower Pub. I was able to strike up a conversation with the bartender, well ok not exactly a conversation; however we did manage to communicate with each other with some effort on both our parts. It turns out, as fate would have it, that the other night that I wondered into the pub just happened to be the grand opening of the place. I guess they don’t hang balloons or streamers to make as big of a fuss over those sorts of things like we do at home. At any rate, the beers were good, the food was wonderful, and the service was excellent! Just for the record the menu consisted of French cuisine, not your typical Irish pub fare, however it went very well with the Irish Ales.

Things to Do of an Evening, When You Don’t Speak the Local Language!

Ok, one of the tricks to traveling in different time zones (no I’m not talking about time travel again) is to get acclimated to the new region as soon as possible. I’ve found that the best way to do this is this:
1. Try to avoid taking a nap right away after arriving at your destination. Despite the loss of sleep you may have encountered during the 6 hours of turbulence you experienced during the 8 hour flight! Try to stay up late enough to go to sleep at your normal time, but at the local time.
2. Try to walk around in the fresh air and sunshine as much as possible once you reach your destination. Ok right, its like -3C, 20 something F, here right now and it’s such a dry cold that it feels like the skin is peeling off of every part that is exposed (oh man was that my ear hitting the ground, whew, no just my keys jingling in my pocket).

Ok I kind of got side-tracked, but hopefully you get the picture. (did I mention the lack of sleep thing?)

Anyway back to the original subject, while trying to fight off the urges to take a nap, I ran across one of the most interesting (by interesting I mean strange, odd, and eccentric) things I have ever seen in my life: The Dakar Challenge!

Ok so I’m watching Euro Sport TV and this show comes on: The Dakar Challenge. Sounds interesting, let’s watch. I’ll try to sum this up as best as I can. Some people have entirely too much money and way too much time on their hands. This is a competition between different classes of vehicles racing across the Sahara Desert (ok, I think it’s the Sahara remember the title of this posting!).

There’s these crazed maniacs riding hybrid motorcycles (a cross between a, pardon my French…. he he…., a crotch-rocket and an endurance motocross bike), Baja style buggies, and oh yes full size delivery trucks, racing each other through hundreds of miles of deep sand and rocks. (Ok, I’m watching this and wondering why, but remember this: somebody funded this show, and every vehicle is covered with sponsor’s names!) I’m not sure if the object is to actually cross the desert, or to completely bury your vehicle in the sand. The later is a feat which I noticed a few of the competitors are very good at.

Well, I’d better get some shut-eye so that I can try to get switched over to my current time zone. More to come later!

Bonjour, Greetings from Amiens, France

I wrote this post on Saturday 1/7/06, but have been experiencing issues with my connection to the Net, so I'll try to add the rest of the images when I can, but I at least wanted to share with you what I can. I hope you enjoy following me on my trip through Western Europe, and will check back to see the rest of the photos.
Oh and, Mad Prop's to my Loving wife who was unable to make this trip with me! Honey, please keep in mind that I am actually working over here and that most of the posts that I am going to be putting out I composed while attempting to recover from Jet-lag! (I hope that got a smile out of you!)


Well, like I said in an earlier post, I get to travel a little bit in my line of work and this just happens to be one of those times!

I boarded a plane yesterday afternoon (4:10PM Eastern US time) and arrived in Brussels, Belgium this morning about 9:30AM (that’s 3:30AM Eastern US time), and then drove the 2+ hours to Amiens, France where I’m at right now. But hey, it was a nice drive through the Belgian and French countryside all the same (170Km/hr avg, you do the calculations to mph!).

No, I’m not going to go into the time travel thing again, just giving you some perspective so you can hopefully understand my current state of mind while I’m writing this.

Amiens is a small city in comparison to most US cities, but it’s got some interesting contributions to society that are worth mentioning. For starters it just happens to be the birth place, and home while he was alive; of Jules Verne (you know 20,000 leagues and the Nautilus and all). Ok, I have to admit that the Sci-fi part of me is pretty excited about that, but I’ll keep it to myself and spare the rest of you!

Amiens also has claim to one of the oldest remaining gothic cathedrals in Western Europe, the Cathedral Notre Dome de Amiens. This place is definitely impressive, and I don’t mind telling you a little eerie. I tried to capture a few photos for your enjoyment, but I have to be honest with you when I walked inside the cathedral I felt something that I really can’t explain, but I’ll try. If you’re Catholic, and in the US, then you’re probably familiar with the rather warm and friendly faces of the statue figures of the saints that are found in most US Catholic churches. Well, let me tell you a different picture was painted years ago! Theses statues are some of the most macabre figures I have ever seen! The hair on my neck stood up as I walked through. I felt queasiness in my stomach, and a strong need to get out and breathe some fresh air. Yes sir, a serious case of the Heebie-jeebies! I didn’t feel comfortable taking pictures inside, due to the need for flash, as the Cathedral is still an active church and some sort of service was in progress as I quietly toured through.





The outside is very ornate with figures such as these gargoyles, designed to protect the church from evil.











I took this next series of shots to try to show the scale of the building. I couldn’t step back far enough to get a single shot of the entire structure.
The past couple of times that I have been here the Cathedral was under renovation and was covered with scaffolding, so as you may have noticed, I went a little camera crazy since I had a clear shot this time.

But hey, the town’s got more to offer than that. It’s a wild mix of culture, even though Amiens is pretty much out in the middle of farm-land France. There are all kinds of foods, music, styles, and people.
Well with that behind me, as well as a few good French, Belgian, and yes Irish ales in me, that’s all I’ve got for now. I’ll be here in Europe for the next couple of weeks though so who knows what else may come up that’s post-worthy!

Frohe Weihnachten und Eine Glükliches Neues Jahr!

Seasons Greetings from the two of us to all of you!

Brewing Made Easy

I spent this past Saturday teaching a couple of friends how to brew beer. Since it's too cold outside to run the garden hose, I moved the operation in doors and went with extracts rather than whole grain. This is the easy way to brew, and the best way to get started. The quality of malt extracts has improved greatly over the past few years and you can brew every bit as good of a beer from them as you can from starting with whole grains (I'll save that for this next spring or summer).

Anyway, to start off we brewed up Lightnin's favorite recipe. It's a knock off of Sam Adam's and actually scored higher than Sam's Boston Lager in a blind taste test. We named it "Sammy Jo's Lager" (Sammy Jo is a nick name given to Lightnin by friends, but that's another story). This recipe calls for two 3lb cans of malt extract: 1 light, and 1 amber. It also calls for 1lb of carapils (an adjunct malted grain, I'll explain in a minute), and 3oz of leaf hops (1oz Kent Goldings, 1oz Hallertau, and 1oz Tettnang), and a tube of liquid German Lager yeast.

The equipment you'll need for this is a 4 to 5 gallon pot (either stainless or speckeled enamel, a canning pot works great, if you have at least two of these it makes brewing much easier), a smaller pan capable of holding 1 gal hot water, a mesh strainer (capable of holding 1lb of wet grain, and later hops), a long handled spoon, 2 glass carboy fermentors (water cooler jugs, 1-6.5 gal and 1-5 gal), 2-rubber stoppers, 2-airlocks, a transfer (racking) tube, bleach (for sanitization), water, snacks, beer to drink, and patience. (Most of this equipment can be purchased at the brewing supply store where you get the malt, hops, and yeast. You can piece it together yourself for cheaper, but it does take a bit of leg work to find it all).

First, sanitize the primary fermentor (6.5 gal) with bleach water (1/2 cup bleach to 5 gallons water, minimum contact time of 30 minutes). Add somewhere between 1/2 and 3/4 cup bleach to the fermentor and fill to the brim with cold tap water, allow to stand for a minimum of 30 minutes. I usually do this before I go any further and then dump out the bleach water and rinse the fermentor with hot tap water just prior to the finishing steps (detailed below).

Next, get a gallon of water boiling in the smaller pan. While this is heating, crack the carapils. This can be done with a rolling pin or mallet by placing the grain into a plastic bag and rolling over it, or smacking with the mallet. You only need to crack the husk around the grain so that water can get in. I have a Corona mill that works pretty good, but it can sometimes grind the grain too much so you have to constantly adjust the gap setting when you change grains (more on that when I write about all grain brewing). Once the water and grain is ready, add the grain to the water, turn off the heat, stir and allow to sit for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes pour through the strainer into the big pot (Brew Kettle). Bring an additional gallon of water to boil in the small pan, this will be used to rinse (Sparge is the brewing term) the grains, keeping the rinsings in the brew kettle.

Next (while waiting for the above water to heat and the grains to drain) fill the sink with hot water, remove the labels from the cans of malt, and soak the malt cans on their sides. This will warm the malt to allow it to flow out of the cans. The syrup is a bout as thick as molasses, but sweeter (go ahead and taste it, you'll want to put it on ice cream!). Open and drain the malt into the brew kettle, rinse cans with hot water pouring the rinses into the brew kettle, stir to dissolve. Now bring this mixture, which from here out will be refered to as wört, to a boil. (These are actual brewing terms, I'm not making this up!)

When bringing the wört to a boil keep an eye on the brew kettle! The proteins in the malt syrup will form a thick foamy head that, if left unattended, will boil over onto the stove creating a much bigger mess than you will ever want to see! (not that I have personnally experienced this, yeah right)

Once the wört comes to a boil, add the first addition of the hops (Kent Goldings), and allow to boil for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. It is important to maintain a good rolling boil at this point, but not an all out splatter the kitchen bubbling boil! When the 45min is up, add the second hop (Tettnang) and a pinch of Irish Moss (a natural floculate: helps particulate material to sink to the bottom during fermentation), and allow to continue boiling for 15 minutes. After 15 min. add the Hallertau hops, turn the heat off, and allow to stand for 5 minutes.

Now you have a few choices: 1) if you have another, clean non-aluminum, 3 or 4 galllon vessel you can add about 1/2 of a small bag of ice to the pan and then pour 1/2 the wört through the mesh strainer onto the ice, repeat this twice, pouring the strained wört into the fermentor, 2) slowly add ice to the current brew kettle, then pour through the strainer into the fermentor, or 3) add about 2 gallons of cold water to the fermentor, then strain the hot wört into the fermentor. Attach the stopper and airlock (also sanitized with bleach water).

This last part is the most criticle, next to the sanitization step, make sure that the wört has cooled to below 80 deg F and add the yeast. Replace the airlock and partially fill, the airlock) with either bleach water or Vodka. This serves as a filter to allow the release of carbon dioxide, created during fermentation, and keeps microbes (the little bacteria/yeasts/molds that are floating around in the air just waiting to feast on your malt sugar solution). Place the fermentor in a dark cool place (usually a centrally located closet works fine). If you've done everything correctly, and the yeasty boy's like you, you should hear the music of the airlock bubbling away within a few hours.

In a few days, might take a week, the bubbling will stop. It is now time to transfer to the secondary fermentor (5 gal carboy). Sanitize the secondary, the second airlock, and the racking tube with bleach water (1/2 cup bleach to 5 gal water, minimum contact time of 30 minutes). Drain and rinse the equipment with hot water. Set the primary fermentor (the one with young beer in it) on a counter top. Set the secondary on the floor below. Siphon from the primary into the secondary. Attach the airlock and allow to sit in a dark cool place for another week or so. At this point you're ready to bottle, and that my friends is the topic of a future post!

Cleanup isn't too bad either, I usually try to clean as I go so that when the yeast has been added, I'm done and can sit to enjoy a good brew while I anticipate how wonderful the one I just made will be!

I've been brewing beer since July 1993 with over 130 batches under my belt (ok it's obvious by the pictures that most of those are just above my belt), and have been a card carrying beer judge since 1997. So If you're interested in more information around brewing, please let me know and I'd be more than happy to share my knowledge, experience, and some good books that you can check into to get started. Special thanks to our friends: Ollie, Mary, and Rod for hanging out on a Saturday and making the brew day a fun time!

"Superman and Green Lantern...."

If you remember the 60's, or early 70's, then you are probably humming the song referenced in the title.

We're not exactly the dynamic duo, and probably closer to partners in crime, buddies just the same! (Hey when you have such snazzy matching PJs you've got to take the time for the photo opt!)

I just can't say it enough, being a Grandpa is the best gig around! And I know I feel the same as every other Grandpa around the world, that my little buddy is the cutest, smartest, and most entertaining of them all.

We enjoy each other's company every time we get together, which isn't often enough, but whenever possible. Not too long and he'll be old enough to hop on a plane and come stay with us for a few weeks at a time.


I chose the photo below because you can just hear him saying "Grandma, isn't Grandpa a little old to be playing with my toys!" He was patient enough to allow me play for a few minutes.

Ciao Italia!

Being a scientist does have some advantages, one of which is traveling around the world to meet with other scientists. So I've decided to write a little about some of the places that I get to visit. Back in October of 2004 I had the pleasure of visiting our R&D and Production facility in Italy.

I'm Fresh off the plane and my hotel is located about 45 minutes from Rome, a place called Villa Degli Angeli (The city of Angels!). It sits on a volcanic lake, and as you can see from the photo, the view from my room was spectacular. The weather was absolutely beautiful too, mid to upper 80's during the day and cooling to the lower 70's at night.

Yes, I know, I can't believe that I have to work under these conditions either! It's a tough job, but someone has to do it!

Anyway, I don't speak Italian and it seems that out in the middle of nowhere Italy they don't speak English! Lucky for me the hotel staff is mainly college students who have been wanting to practice English, talk about luck! I recieve a crash course in conversational Italian so that I can at least be polite to the locals, and possibly survive the next few days!
Whenever I travel trough too many time zones (no I'm not going to get into time travel again, I got that out of my system!), as in going to Europe, I ususally try to arrive at least a day ahead of when I am supposed to be responsible for thinking, or responding with any intelligent thoughts. This trip was no different and I was able to adjust to the time change while finding out a little bit about the area. The hotel sits directly across the lake from Castelgandolfo, the Pope's summer home. The picture to the left was taken from my patio while I was testing my ability to hold still and utilize my 30x digital zoom!

After finding this out I immediately phoned the front desk and had word sent to the Pope to see if he would like to join me for coffee, or purhaps a beer later in the day. It turns out that the pope,at that time, was a wine drinker and refused to have audience with me. (Just kidding! But this may be one of the stories that my Grandson will hear more details about. Shhh! Dont't tell his Grandmother!)

The photo below was taken later that evening. It was really beatiful because from the angle that I was viewing, the sun sat directly behind Catelgandolfo! The next few days I spent working about another 45 mins drive, further from Rome, and returned "home" to my room each night to be greeted with this view. My daily ritual was to enjoy a cappacino while watching the sun rise, work all day, return to "home" to sit on my patio and watch the sunset whil enjoying either a cold biere (beer) or a glass of wine, then sample the finest Italian cuisine for dinner!

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. I did visit Trivi Fountain and tossed a coin over my shoulder, I will be returning to Rome one day!

Ciao Italia, for now!

Just a few more pictures of Newcastle, England

These are just a couple of castles that were within 2 miles of my hotel. The steps in the one shot lead up to the castle to the left (they made up nearly 1 of the 2 miles). The well was in a clearing about half way up those steps.

That day I definitely earned the Special Bitters that I sampled when I made it back down to the hotel pub!

Time Travel: Fact or Fiction? (or "Look out, the Nerd has a beer!")

So tell me, is "Time Travel" possible?

First off let me give credit where it is due. This post was inspired by my good friend "Florida Cracker" at http://pureflorida.blogspot.com/ from a recent post of his where he apprehended an alleged "Time Traveler". Further credit is due to Albert Einstein who's mathematical reasoning helped to explain what was, until his time, unexplainable. Einstein had a wonderful theory about relativity, which most of you have probably heard of but really didn't take the time to try to understand. It's really common sense once you have explored it, but I'm not going to bore you with too many details. Please feel free to read it if you have trouble sleeping at night (or happen to be a fellow "nerdy scientist")! By using my understanding of Einstein's theory, and a little imagnination, I hope to stimulate your thoughts enough to entertain the idea that "Time Travel" is more than just a plausible theory.

Please do not blame "Florida Cracker" or Albert Einstein for this post, they were merely inspiration and should not be held accountable in any way for the following! ;-)

Now to be clear I'm not talking about traveling through the centuries or visiting another dimension, (come on I admit to being nerdy, but I'm not insane) I'm merely stating my observations. I have the pleasure of working for a truly global company and in my current occupation I have the opportunity to work with some of the world's most innovative scientists. I don't mean for this to sound boastful, but hopefully it will help to explain my postion on this topic. Anyway, I myself work on teams of people that are in several different geographies. Each one of these locations are in different time zones. Because of this my work day can start as early as 6:00AM and end as late as 9:00PM depending upon individual situations.

For example: I am on Eastern Time(ET), but I might need to have a teleconference with someone on Central Time(CT), here in the US, along with someone from Europe, and someone else from Asia. So, (stay with me here) it's 6AM for me, 5AM for CT, Noon for Europe, and 6PM for Asia (based on 24 hour day, standard 12 hr clock). No, this isn't the time travel part, but I needed to explain this to get there.

So let's say that we need to meet in person to have a discussion. So we decide to meet in Europe, because it is as close to a central point as we can get.
(Alright, I will boast a little here. This is the awesome part of my job! I get to travel a bit, and the frequency is just about right. It seems like a trip always comes along about the same time Lightnin asks: "Don't you have someplace to go for a few days?!"; This is also one of the secrets to a good marriage, but that's for another post).
Ok, where was I before I almost bored myself to sleep. Oh yeah, so here comes the math lesson (not really, but it might seem like it). So we meet in Europe at 8AM, that's 1AM to CT, 2AM to me, and 1PM to Asia.

Hang with me here, I'll get to the point in a minute. Get ready though beacause this is where it gets wierd!

I just got off of an 8hr flight, but I'm now 6 hours in the future! Think about that for a minute!
Now try this one: my colleague from Asia just traveled 6hrs into the past, yet we're now in the same place in time! I call my lovely wife to let her know that I have arrived safely. (Hopefully you're keeping up with me) She's 6hrs in the past and I have already traveled through those 6 hours!

If your head is starting to hurt, please take a break and maybe sit down and have a beer, hey that's how all this thinking started anyway!

With business concluded a few days later, I board a flight to return home. This is an 8 hour flight, that will take me to 6hours into the past, but when I arrive it's only 7 hours later (flight left at 10AM and arrived 5PM)! Don't even think about the fact that I have just lived 6 hours twice! (I said, don't think about that).

So, you tell me. Is "Time Travel" possible? Doesn't it happen every day? Maybe I just gave you a reason to read more about the theory of relativity! (OK, but it was worth a try!).

I think the key here is to remember that Time is a man made measurement. This measurement is relative to the distance between sunrise and sunrise, at one particular place on the earth. Once you move to a different place on the earth the original measurement, time in this case, is no longer relative. To say another way: once you leave your timezone that time no loger exists, at least for you, because you are now in a different time!

So again, you tell me Is "Time Travel" possible?

I say: "It's all relative"!



Ok, this is the prize for actually reading the ramblings above. This is a picture of Newcastle, England that I took on one of my trips. There are actually four bridges in the photo.

Beer, Not Just for Breakfast Anymore (or This isn't your Father's Budweiser)

I thought that it was fitting to begin with a couple of commercials that you may or may not remember, depending on your age. The title is a parody of the old Florida Orange Juice commercials by Anita Bryant (I believe she was Miss America, from Florida, back in the late 60's or early 70's), and the alternate is a parody of the Oldsmobile commercials in the 90's.

Anyway surprisingly enough this posting is about beer. Not so much the drinking of it, but the brewing. I do however need to provide you with a little background to get you up to pace with me. I am a registered beer judge and I enjoy the opportunity to help out my fellow brewers by examining their wares and providing helpful tips whenever possible. I was scheduled to do just that on this past Saturday, at a local competition that I like to attend annually. However, sometime during this past week my beloved Lightnin some how broke her foot (again, possibly the subject of a series of posts in the future). Not bad and just above the toes but painful just the same, so I decided that I should saty home to make sure she kept her foot elevated. This was no real problem, as I had already secured my official judging points for the year that are required to keep my license. So I was happy to stay at home and "be of use" to my spouse. Aha, I thought to myself, I can stay home and brew while keeping an eye on her. This is where the real story begins!

I am what you might refer to as a contemporary brewer. I have brewed the classic styles and have awards to attest that I do this very well, but I like to work out in the fringes of what is possible. This time of the year is a good time to brew a hearty drink, a stout for instance, so that is what I decided to do. Not just an ordinary Irish variety that you can find on tap at any respectable pub, but a Chocolate Cranberry Oatmeal Stout. An Oatmeal stout is typically a bit smoother than the standard dry stout that one might be used to and going a bit heavier on the chocolate malt (not the kind that is served at the soda fountain) would give it a nice flavor to go with the berries. This would go well with a Thanksgiving meal and should be ready to serve by then. So I searched through my records, aha I brewed one back in 2001 I'll use that recipe, but make a double batch (one for actual Thanksgiving, and the other to have on hand when people drop by)!

Now, to step back again for a minute, I should explain that my brewing equipment is about as manual as you can get and yet perform an all-grain process. And I have doubled up on recipes before with great success. I did however forget the physical characteristics of one, make that two, of the ingredients in this recipe. I typically use flaked barely in my stouts, to add some body and head retention (foaming). In this particular recipe I used both flaked barely and flaked oats (basically oat meal), to get a really nice creamy rich texture. Worked great on a single batch!

"Aw man, a stuck sparge!" Some brewing terminology: Sparge is to rinse the grains, keeping the run-off to be boiled and eventually becomes beer. A lautertun is used to set the mash (grains steeped in warm water to convert starches to sugars) in to perfrom the sparge. Well, my lautertun was definitey plugged and there was no sparge occuring! It seems that when you double the amount of flaked grains the percentage of oatmeal (the glumpy looking breakfast food) to cracked grains (usually form a natural filter bed and allows liquids to flow), was high enough to form a rather gelatenous structure that could be used to stop the flow of the Ohio River!

What do I do now? I've got over 20lbs of grain that was mashed in a little over 6 gallons of water, and I have my 10gal of sparge water ready to go. Well, nothing to do but go back to the oldest method of filtering the grains that I could think of. I pulled out the wire mesh straininer and started rinsing sparging the grains by hand. Thereby turning what should have been an enjoyable 6hr brewing session into a 13hr labor intensive mess! So about five hours later I have a brew pot full of good wort (the runn-off from the "sparge"), and a kitchen that looks like a tornado hit it (normally the kitchen is left in tact because I brew all grain outside).

Well from there the rest went according to plans, sort of. There was the extra 4 gallons of wort that was created because sparging through the hand held stainer was less efficient and required more sparge water. This of course had to be boiled down on the stove while the rest of the wort was boiling in my real brew pot. The boiling wort smelled wonderful, especially when the hops are added. Thank goodness Lightnin likes brewing too, she actually appreciated the aroma of the boiling wort and hop mixture in the house, of course she hadn't seen the kitchen yet because she was laying in the other room with her foot elevated (at least for now).

"Oh man, look at the time!" It's already 7:00PM, I've got another couple of hours to go before I'm done. "I hope lightnin isn't starving yet!" Too late! I hear the step-drag, step-drag of an approaching orthopedic damage control boot wearer! Luckily I had thought ahead and grilled out both lunch and dinner meats earlier in the day, but the side dishes would still need to be prepared. She enters the kitchen, smiles and asks "When do you think dinner will be ready?" I responded with "Weeelll, I've got a couple of more hours of brewing,and then theres this mess. Your'e not starving are you?" Then it happened, the worst blow of the day. She says "No, but it looks like you could use some help!" (probably thinking: in more ways then one). She continues "Really, I don't mind getting some of these pots rinsed out and then starting on the vegetables". "After laying around all day with my foot up I was getting a little bit of cabin fever, and needed to get up and move around for awhile".

So admitting defeat, I finished the brewing, Lightnin finished the dinner (and cleaned up part of my mess), and I failed to do what I had originally set out to do! Well , not completely, the beer is fermenting just fine and should be ready for the cranberries by next Saturday. If everything goes as planned the beer should be ready for Thanksgiving.

Sorry there weren't any photos of the operation on this posting, but next weekend I'm planning to brew a Rauchbier (a traditional Bavarian style smoked malt lager) and I'll try to get some pictures of that! It should be more colorful, and possibly more interesting!