Moving On

[I’m typically not very good at going back to drafts and I don’t have much time to write this. But I can RERO this. It’s an iterative process in any case….]

Been thinking about different things which all relate to the same theme: changing course, seizing opportunities, shifting focus, adapting to new situations, starting over, getting a clean slate… Moving on.

One reason is that I recently decided to end my ethnography podcast. Not that major a decision and rather easy to make. Basically, I had stopped doing it but I had yet to officially end it. I had to make it clear, in my mind, that it’s not part of the things I’m doing, these days. Not that it was a big thing in my life but I had set reminders every month that I had to record a podcast episode. It worked for ten episode (in ten months) but, once I had missed one episode, the reminder was nagging me more than anything else.

In this sense, “moving on” is realistic/pragmatic. Found something similar in Getting Things Done, by David Allen.

It’s also similar to something Larry Lessig called “email bankruptcy,” as a step toward enhanced productivity.

In fact, even financial bankruptcy can relate to this, in some contexts. In Canada, at least, bankruptcy is most adequately described as a solution to a problem, not the problem itself. I’ve known some people who were able to completely rebuild their finances after declaring bankruptcy, sometimes even getting a better credit rating than someone who hadn’t gone bankrupt. I know how strongly some people may react to this concept of bankruptcy (based on principle, resentment, fears, hopes…). It’s an extreme example of what I mean by “moving on.” It goes well with the notion, quite common in North American cultural contexts, that you always deserve a second chance (but that you should do things yourself).

Of course, similar things happen with divorces which, similarly, can often be considered as solutions to a problem rather than the problem itself. No matter how difficult or how bad divorce might be, it’s a way to start over. In some sense, it’s less extreme an example as the bankruptcy one. But it may still generate negative vibes or stir negative emotions.

Because what I’m thinking about has more to do with “turning over a new leaf.” And taking the “leap of faith” which will make you go where you feel more comfortable. I’m especially thinking about all sorts of cases of people who decided to make radical changes in their professional or personal lives, often leaving a lot behind. Whether they were forced to implement such changes or decided to jump because they simply wanted to, all of the cases I remember have had positive outcomes.

It reminds me of a good friend of mine with whom I went through music school, in college. When he finished college, he decided to follow the music path and registered for the conservatory. But, pretty quickly, he realized that it wasn’t for him. Even though he had been intensely “in music” for several years, with days of entering the conservatory, he saw that music wasn’t to remain the central focus of his career. Through a conversation with a high school friend (who later became his wife and the mother of his children), he found out that it wasn’t too late for him to register for university courses. He had been thinking about phys. ed., and thought it might be a nice opportunity to try that path. He’s been a phys. ed. teacher for a number of years. We had lunch together last year and he seems very happy with his career choice. He also sounds like a very dedicated and effective phys. ed. teacher.

In my last podcast episode, I mentioned a few things about my views of this “change of course.” Including what has become something of an expression, for me: “Done with fish.” Comes from the movie Adaptation. The quote is found here (preceded by a bit of profanity). Basically, John Laroche, who was passionately dedicated to fish, decided to completely avoid anything having to do with fish. I can relate to this at some rather deep level.

I’m also thinking about the negative consequences of “sticking with” something which isn’t working, shifting too late or too quickly, implementing changes in inappropriate ways. Plenty of examples there. Most of the ones which come to my mind have to do with business settings. One which would require quite a bit of “explaining” is my perception of Google’s strategy with Wave. Put briefly (with the hope of revisiting this issue), I think Google made bad decisions with Wave, including killing it both too late and too early (no, I don’t see this as a contradiction; but I don’t have time to explain it). They also, I feel, botched a few transitions, in this. And, more importantly, I’d say that they failed to adapt the product to what was needed.

And the trigger for several of my reflections on this “moving on” idea have to do with this kind of adaptation (fun that the movie of that name should be involved, eh?). Twitter could be an inspiration, in this case. Not only did they, like Flickr, start through a switch away from another project, but Twitter was able to transform users’ habits into the basis for some key features. Hashtags and “@replies” are well-known examples. But you could even say that most of the things they’ve been announcing have been related to the way people use their tools.

So, in a way, it’s about the balance between vision and responsiveness. Vision is often discussed and it sounds to some people as a key thing in any “task-based group (from a team to a corporation). But the way a team can switch from one project to the next based on feedback (from users or other stakeholders) seems underrated. Although, there is some talk about the “startup mentality” in many contexts, including Google and Apple. Words which fit this semantic field include: “agile,” “flexible,” “pivot,” “lean,” and “nimble” (the latter word seemed to increase in currency after being used by Barack Obama in a speech).

Anyhoo… Gotta go.

But, just before I go: I am moving on with some things (including my podfade but also a shift away from homebrewing). But the key things in my life are very stable, especially my sentimental life.

Selling Myself Long

Been attending sessions by Meri Aaron Walker about online methods to get paid for our expertise. Meri coaches teachers about those issues.

MAWSTOOLBOX.COM

There’s also a LearnHub “course”: Jumpstart Your Online Teaching Career.

Some notes, on my own thinking about monetization of expertise. Still draft-like, but RERO is my battle cry.

Some obstacles to my selling expertise:

• My “oral personality.”
• The position on open/free knowledge in academia and elsewhere.
• My emphasis on friendship and personal rapport.
• My abilities as an employee instead of a “boss.”
• Difficulty in assessing the value of my expertise.
• The fact that other people have the same expertise that I think I have.
• High stakes (though this can be decreased, in some contexts).
• My distaste for competition/competitiveness.
• Difficulty at selling and advertising myself (despite my social capital).
• Being a creative generalist instead of a specialist.

Despite all these obstacles, I have been thinking about selling my services online.

One reason is that I really do enjoy teaching. As I keep saying, teaching is my hobby (when I get paid, it’s to learn how to interact with other learners and to set up learning contexts).

In fact, I enjoy almost everything in teaching (the major exception being grading/evaluating). From holding office hours and lecturing to facilitating discussions and answering questions through email. Teaching, for me, is deeply satisfying and I think that learning situations which imply the role of a teacher still make a lot of sense. I also like more informal learning situations and I even try to make my courses more similar to informal teaching. But I still find specific value in a “teaching and learning” system.

Some people seem to assume that teaching a course is the same thing as “selling expertise.” My perspective on learning revolves to a large extent on the difference between teaching and “selling expertise.” One part is that I find a difference between selling a product or process and getting paid in a broader transaction which does involve exchange about knowledge but which isn’t restricted to that exchange. Another part is that I don’t see teachers as specialists imparting their wisdom to eager masses. I see knowledge as being constructed in diverse situations, including formal and informal learning. Expertise is often an obstacle in the kind of teaching I’m interested in!

Funnily enough, I don’t tend to think of expertise as something that is easily measurable or transmissible. Those who study expertise have ways to assess something which is related to “being an expert,” especially in the case of observable skills (many of those are about “playing,” actually: chess, baseball, piano…). My personal perspective on expertise tends to be broader, more fluid. Similar to experience, but with more of a conscious approach to learning.

There also seems to be a major difference between “breadth of expertise” and “topics you can teach.” You don’t necessarily need to be very efficient at some task to help someone learn to do it. In fact, in some cases, being proficient in a domain is an obstacle to teaching in that domain, since expertise is so ingrained as to be very difficult to retrieve consciously.

This is close to “do what I say, not what I do.” I even think that it can be quite effective to actually instruct people without direct experience of these instructions. Similar to consulting, actually. Some people easily disagree with this point and some people tease teachers about “doing vs. teaching.” But we teachers do have a number of ways to respond, some of them snarkier than others. And though I disagree with several parts of his attitude, I quite like this short monologue by Taylor Mali about What Teachers Make.

Another reason I might “sell my expertise” is that I genuinely enjoy sharing my expertise. I usually provide it for free, but I can possibly relate to the value argument. I don’t feel so tied to social systems based on market economy (socialist, capitalist, communist…) but I have to make do.

Another link to “selling expertise” is more disciplinary. As an ethnographer, I enjoy being a “cultural translator.” of sorts. And, in some cases, my expertise in some domains is more of a translation from specialized speech into laypeople’s terms. I’m actually not very efficient at translating utterances from one language to another. But my habit of navigating between different “worlds” makes it possible for me to bridge gaps, cross bridges, serve as mediator, explain something fairly “esoteric” to an outsider. Close to popularization.

So, I’ve been thinking about what can be paid in such contexts which give prominence to expertise. Tutoring, homework help, consulting, coaching, advice, recommendation, writing, communicating, producing content…

And, finally, I’ve been thinking about my domains of expertise. As a “Jack of All Trades,” I can list a lot of those. My level of expertise varies greatly between them and I’m clearly a “Master of None.” In fact, some of them are merely from personal experience or even anecdotal evidence. Some are skills I’ve been told I have. But I’d still feel comfortable helping others with all of them.

I’m funny that way.

Domains of  Expertise

French

• Conversation
• Reading
• Writing
• Culture
• Literature
• Regional diversity
• Chanson appreciation

Bamanan (Bambara)

• Greetings
• Conversation

Social sciences

• Ethnographic disciplines
• Ethnographic field research
• Cultural anthropology
• Linguistic anthropology
• Symbolic anthropology
• Ethnomusicology
• Folkloristics

Semiotics

Language studies

• Language description
• Social dimensions of language
• Language change
• Field methods

Education

• Critical thinking
• Lifelong learning
• Higher education
• Graduate school
• Graduate advising
• Academia
• Humanities
• Social sciences
• Engaging students
• Getting students to talk
• Online teaching
• Online tools for teaching

Course Management Systems (Learning Management Systems)

• Oncourse
• Sakai
• WebCT
• Blackboard
• Moodle

Social networks

• Network ethnography
• Network analysis
• Influence management

Web platforms

• Facebook
• MySpace
• Ning
• LinkedIn
• Twitter
• Jaiku
• YouTube
• Flickr

Music

• Cultural dimensions of music
• Social dimensions of music
• Musicking
• Musical diversity
• Musical exploration
• Classical saxophone
• Basic music theory
• Musical acoustics
• Globalisation
• Business models for music
• Sound analysis
• Sound recording

Beer

• Homebrewing
• Brewing techniques
• Recipe formulation
• Finding ingredients
• Appreciation
• Craft beer culture
• Brewing trends
• Beer styles
• Brewing software

Coffee

• Homeroasting
• Moka pot brewing
• Espresso appreciation
• Coffee fundamentals
• Global coffee trade

Social media

Blogging

• Diverse uses of blogging
• Writing tricks
• Workflow
• Blogging platforms

Podcasts

• Advantages of podcasts
• Podcasts in teaching
• Filming
• Finding podcasts
• Embedding content

Technology

• Trends
• Geek culture
• Equipment
• Beta testing
• Troubleshooting Mac OS X

Online Life

Communities

• Mailing-lists
• Generating discussions
• Entering communities
• Building a sense of community
• Diverse types of communities
• Community dynamics
• Online communities

Food

• Enjoying food
• Cooking
• Baking
• Vinaigrette
• Pizza dough
• Bread

Places

• Montreal, Qc
• Lausanne, VD
• Bamako, ML
• Bloomington, IN
• Moncton, NB
• Austin, TX
• South Bend, IN
• Fredericton, NB
• Northampton, MA

Pedestrianism

• Carfree living
• Public transportation
• Pedestrian-friendly places

Tools I Use

• PDAs
• iPod
• iTunes
• WordPress.com
• Skype
• Del.icio.us
• Diigo
• Blogger (Blogspot)
• Mac OS X
• Firefox
• Flock
• Internet Explorer
• Safari
• Gmail
• Google Calendar
• Google Maps
• Zotero
• Endnote
• RefWorks
• Zoho Show
• Wikipedia
• iPod touch
• SMS
• Outlining
• PowerPoint
• Slideshare
• Praat
• Audacity
• Nero Express
• Productivity software

Effective Web searches

Socialization

• Social capital
• Entering the field
• Creating rapport
• Event participation
• Event hosting

Computer Use

• Note-taking
• Working with RSS feeds
• Basic programing concepts
• Data manipulations

Research Methods

• Open-ended interviewing
• Qualitative data analysis

Personal

• Hedonism
• Public speaking
• GERD
• Strabismus
• Moving
• Cultural awareness

Bubbling Wildly

Lag time on last night’s batches was quite short. In fact, the “Mighty S-04” lives up to its reputation: in a large bucket with lots of headspace and a lid not sealing properly, the “So Far” was churning away in less than two hours after pitching. I had just started to sleep and the airlock was bubbling very vigorously. As that fermenter is in my bedroom, the noise woke me up. I loosened the lid on top of that bucket to make sure I wouldn’t get a spill. There wasn’t that much kräusen but fermentation was clearly vigorous, already. This morning, it smells this distinctive S-04 smell and has a good, thick kräusen.

The “Lo Five,” which I left in the basement, is also showing clear signs of fermentation. Thick kräusen, frequent bubbles, yeast smell… As it’s the first batch in which I use US-05 yeast, I didn’t know what to expect. The smell is actually fairly similar to the S-04 but less assertive. The fact that I’m using this yeast for the first time is also a reason I couldn’t attest to its fault tolerance. Judging from the smell, at least, I’d say that it’s as “robust” as S-04 and Ringwood but that it might still make for a cleaner profile which doesn’t hide small flaws really well.

My intention is to “drop” the fermenting beer away from the yeast pretty quickly on the “So Far” to intensify diacetyl. Can’t find the reference, but some British brewery is still doing this, with special equipment. Maybe it’s called “dumping” or “crashing.” Racking the beer early, the yeast isn’t able to “chew up” the diacetyl so more of it is left in the finished beer. Yeah, I know. Diacetyl isn’t typical of mild ales. But I tend to like some level of diacetyl in British-style beers. In this case, if the beer is complex enough despite its low ABV, a bit of diacetyl could round off the finished beer.

As is often the case in homebrewing, I’m already thinking about other batches I might want to do. One could be a doubled-up version of “So Far” (twice the grainbill, maybe twice the hops). Another would be a light weizen, brewed with Lallemand’s Munich strain.

It’s too much fun.

Brewing Mildly

[This is one of my geekier posts, here. As a creative generalist, I typically “write for a general audience.” Whether or not I have an actual audience in mind, my default approach to blog writing is to write as generally as possible. But this post is about homebrewing. As these things go, it’s much easier to write when you assume that “people know what you’re talking about.” In this case, some basic things about all-grain brewing at home. Not that I’m using that obscure a terminology, here. But it’s a post which could leave some people behind, scratching their heads. If it’s your case, sorry. But, you know, “it’s my blog day and I’ll geek if I want to.” As for the verb tenses and reference to time, I’m writing much of this as I go along.]

So…

Generated a recipe for a Mild (11A) using BeerTools and posted it in their recipe library.

So Far (So Good)/Lo Five

That generated recipe is serving as the basis for two recipes I’m mashing right now (June 8, 2008). One, “So Far (So Good),” close to this generated one, is a single-step (infusion) mash with a simple grainbill, to be fermented with S-04 (so it’s “British style”). The other (“Lo Five”) is a multi-step mash with a more complex grainbill (added Carastan, Caramel 80, and chocolate). “Lo Five” is to be fermented with SS-05 (so it’s something of an “American style”).

I’ve copied the main details of this generated recipe in the standalone BeerTools Pro desktop application (version 1.5.9 beta, WinXP; also available on Mac OS X). I then tweaked that generated recipe a tiny bit to suit my needs for the “So Far.”

Here’s the version I used, before I started brewing:

So Far (So Good)

11-A Mild

Size: 5,0 gal
Efficience: 75,0%
Atténuation: 75,0%
Calories: 114,99 kcal per 12,0 fl oz

Densité Initiale: 1,035 (1,030 – 1,038 )
|=================#==============|

Terminal Gravity: 1,009 (1,008 – 1,013)
|==========#=====================|

Couleur: 13,81 (12,0 – 25,0)
|==========#=====================|

Alcool: 3,41% (2,8% – 4,5%)
|=============#==================|

Amertume: 16,9 (10,0 – 25,0)
|===============#================|

Ingredients:

1,0 ea Fermentis S-04 Safale S-04
2.5 kg 6-Row Brewers Malt
150 g Brown Malt
150 g Vienna Malt
150 g Munich TYPE I
200 g Special B – Caramel malt
0.5 oz Challenger (8,0%) – added during boil, boiled 90 min
11,0 g Strisselspalt (3,3%) – added during boil, boiled 10 min

Schedule:

Air ambiant: 70,0 °F
Source Water: 130,0 °F
Altitude: 0,0 m

00:13:00 Mashin – Eaud Empâtage: 1,91 gal; Strike: 173,56 °F; Target: 158,0 °F
01:33:00 Sacc 1 – Rest: 80 min; Final: 158,0 °F
02:13:00 Fly Sparge – Sparge Volume: 4,0 gal; Sparge Temperature: 168,0 °F; Runoff: 3,48 gal

Notes

Trying for a relatively simple mild. May skip the Strisselspalt. Doing two similar recipes.

Results generated by BeerTools Pro 1.5.9b

I then cloned that recipe and tweaked it a bit more to get my “Lo Five” recipe. Here’s the recipe I used before I started brewing:

Lo Five

11-A Mild

Size: 5,0 gal
Efficience: 75,0%
Atténuation: 75,0%
Calories: 106,17 kcal per 12,0 fl oz

Densité Initiale: 1,032 (1,030 – 1,038 )
|============#===================|

Terminal Gravity: 1,008 (1,008 – 1,013)
|========#=======================|

Couleur: 17,05 (12,0 – 25,0)
|==============#=================|

Alcool: 3,15% (2,8% – 4,5%)
|===========#====================|

Amertume: 15,0 (10,0 – 25,0)
|=============#==================|

Ingredients:

1,0 ea Fermentis US-05 Safale US-05
2 kg 6-Row Brewers Malt
150 g Brown Malt
150 g Vienna Malt
150 g Munich TYPE I
200 g Special B – Caramel malt
105 g Light Carastan
125 g 2-Row Caramel Malt 80L
50 g 2-Row Chocolate Malt
0.5 oz Challenger (8,0%) – added during boil, boiled 90 min

Schedule:

Air ambiant: 70,0 °F
Source Water: 130,0 °F
Altitude: 0,0 m

00:03:00 Mashin – Eaud Empâtage: 2,02 gal; Strike: 130,09 °F; Target: 122,0 °F
00:21:36 Ramp 1 – Heat: 18,6 min; Target: 150 °F
00:41:36 Sacc 1 – Rest: 20 min; Final: 150,0 °F
01:00:12 Ramp 2 – Heat: 18,6 min; Target: 158 °F
01:20:12 Sacc 2 – Rest: 20 min; Final: 158,0 °F
01:38:49 Mashout – Heat: 18,6 min; Target: 170,0 °F
02:18:49 Fly Sparge – Sparge Volume: 3,72 gal; Sparge Temperature: 168,0 °F; Runoff: 3,23 gal

Notes

Trying for a relatively simple mild. May skip the Strisselspalt. Doing two similar recipes.

Results generated by BeerTools Pro 1.5.9b

On a whim (and because I just found out I had some), I switched the hops on the Lo Five to Crystal at 4.9% A.A. One half-ounce plug as first wort hopping, and another half-ounce pellet for the full boil. According to BeerTools Pro, t brings my bitterness level either below BJCP-sanctioned 10-25 IBUs for a Mild (11A) if I don’t add the boil time (FWH isn’t supposed to contribute much bitterness), or at two-thirds of the bitterness range if I add the full boil time.

The “brown malt” is actually some 6-row I roasted in a corn popper. The one in the “Lo Five” is darker (roasted longer) than the one in the “So Far.”

I’ve been having a hard time with the temperature for the “So Far.” I ended up doing a pseudo-decoction and adding some hot water to raise the temperature to something closer to even the low end of the optimal range for saccharification. This is the first batch I mash in a mashtun I got from friends in Austin. I used the strike temperature from the BeerTools Pro software (174F) but I hadn’t set the “heat capacity” and “heat transfer coefficient.” As I usually mash in my Bruheat, I rarely think about heat loss.

On the other hand, I largely overshot the strike temperature on the Lo Five. Two main reasons, AFAICT. One, the Bruheat I mashed the Lo Five in also served to preheat some sparge water, so it was still pretty hot. Second, the hot water from the sink was around 140F instead of 130F, as I had expected. In this case, overshooting the strike temperature wasn’t very problematic. The idea was to do a kind of protein rest, but that’s really not important, with the well-modified malts we all use.

Sparging the Lo Five’s mash was a real treat. Very smooth flow from HLT to MT to vessel. Plus, the smell of the Crystal hops in the first runnings was just fabulous. Because I “recirculate” during the mash, with my Bruheat, I didn’t have to recirculate, yet the runnings were quite clear. My sparge water was pretty much at the perfect temperature and I had just a bit extra sparge water (that I’m using in the So Far). I poured the liquid beneath the false bottom and it looked really nice. Rather clear and dark. After this, the grain bed was almost completely dry.

I did have to recirculate the So Far quite a bit. A good four litres, maybe even more. Still, it remains cloudier than most batches I’ve seen, possibly because some starches are remaining. I didn’t check conversion but I mashed long enough that I was assuming it was enough. Still, with a very low mash temperature, I may have needed an even longer mash. Actually, the mash is much cloudier than the runnings, which eventually became relatively clear.

May need to heat a bit of sparge water. Stopping the sparge in the meantime. A bit like a late mashout, it may help convert some of the remaining starch.

Oops! Was waiting for the Lo Five to boil. Thought it was taking a long time. Usually, the Bruheat gets to boiling pretty quickly. Eventually noticed that the element wasn’t running. The thermostat was still working (clicking sound when I reach the wort’s temperature) but I wasn’t hearing the sound of the element heating the wort. Unplugged the Bruheat, pressed the reset button, etc. Still wasn’t working. Was getting ready to try the clothes dryer to see if there was electricity coming through when I noticed it was in fact the dryer that I had plugged back, not the Bruheat.

Ah, well…

Ok…

One thing I found interesting is that when the wort was cooling off instead of heating up, the hop aroma wasn’t as pleasant as before. As the wort heated up, the pleasant profile from the Crystal came back as it was.

These are actually old hops, kept in a vacuum-sealed package. This specific package was a bit loose, as if the vacuum-seal hadn’t worked. I expected the hops to smell old. But they smelled really nice and fresh. Their colour is a bit off, but I trust their smell more than their colour.

Eventually got a rolling boil. Because of FWH, I didn’t skim the break material from the wort, which makes for a very different boil. In fact, when I added some of the runnings I had left on the side (to avoid a boilover), the effect was quite interesting.

Added back the rest of the runnings, waited to get a rolling boil again, then added the hops. Had to be careful not to get a boilover as the hops in the unskimmed wort created a lot of foam.

At the same time, I’m heating some sparge water for the So Far. Yes, once again. Guess I really under-evaluated how much sparge water I needed for this one. Strange.

It should be hot enough, now.

This time, I had let the top of the grain bed dry up a bit. This might not be so good. So I added enough water to cover the grain bed and I’ll wait a bit before I resume running off.

Overall, I’ve been much less careful with the “So Far” than with the “Lo Five.” My reasoning has to do with the fact that I perceive S-04 (Whitbread; PDF) to be a “stronger” yeast than the US-05 (PDF; aka US-56; the Sierra Nevada strain, apparently). For one thing, the optimal temperature range for the S-04 is somewhat higher than for the US-05: although Fermentis rates both at 15C to 24C, S-04 is known to sustain higher fermentation temperatures than most other strains (apart from some Belgian strains like Chouffe’s yeast). The flavour profile from S-04 also tends to be more estery than for the US-05, so it can increase the complexity of the finished beer and even cover up some small flaws. Plus, “Mighty S-04” is one of those strains which can be (and has been) used in open fermentation and continually repitched. A bit like “famously robust” Ringwood yeast. So, unlike a lager strain, this is not a yeast strain that Peter McAuslan would likely call “wimpy.” The “strength” of this strength is obvious in the fact that it ferments very vigorously and quickly.

Besides, I have a slurry of S-04 (graciously donated by a friend) and only a rehydrated pack of US-05. With more yeast comes a certain safety.

Another whim: I added a plug of Crystal to the “Lo Five” about two minutes before the end of boil. Shouldn’t get any bitterness from this, may get some flavour and, quite likely, some nice hop aroma.

So I was somewhat careless with the “So Far.” Conversely, I was rather careful with the “Lo Five.” Not more than for the typical homebrew batch, but more than with the “So Far.” At every step, I started with the “Lo Five” and let the “So Far” wait for its turn, when I wasn’t too busy with the “Lo Five.” For instance, I only started boiling the “So Far” when the “Lo Five” had been pitched. I didn’t even rinse the Bruheat after transfering the “Lo Five,” so the “So Far” started heating up with some hops from the “Lo Five.”

What I expect as a difference between the two is that the “Lo Five” will be rather clean and crisp while the “So Far” will be a chewier and grainier beer with some fruit notes.

More specifically, I’d like the “Lo Five” to have a clearly delineated malt profile and a perceivable hoppiness. in both nose and flavour. Though I wasn’t very specific about trying to emulate it, I guess my inspiration for that one was Three Floyds‘ Mild, as brewed for Legends of Notre Dame. That one was one of my favourite beers, from one of my favourite breweries, served at one of my favourites places. I don’t think “Lo Five” will be anywhere as tasty as that beer, but I was probably aiming for that kind of profile.

Tasting the “Lo Five” wort once it was cool, I thought it was decidedly bitter. Given the fact that this beer may finish rather low, it might be unbalanced. Typically, unfermented wort is sweeter than the finished beer so I’m assuming the bitterness might intensify. What’s somewhat sad is that a Mild can’t really age so it’s not like I’ll be able to wait for the bitterness to smoothen out.

Ah, well… We’ll see.

On the other hand, I seem to have overshot my OG. Not by much, and I probably had a reading error. Given how well the sparge went, it’d make sense that I overshot my efficiency (I usually get 75%-78%). But BeerTools Pro is giving me an efficiency of 92% which is pretty much not possible on a homebrew scale without pulverizing the grain (and leeching lots of tannins). At any rate, if the actual OG is higher than expected, it might balance the beer a bit.

…

Yes, clearly there’s a problem with my thermometer.

Just finished cleaning up (2:36, June 9, 2008). When I took the OG on the “So Far,” the wort was barely lukewarm yet the thermometer was indicating 120F. Using this temperature for hydrometer correction, the OG for the “So Far” would be exactly the same as that for the “Lo Five” (which seemed cooler). That would mean an efficiency of 83% which is not impossible but kind of high. In fact, the volume in the primary seems to be more than 5 gallons so the efficiency would go through the roof.

I did skip the Strisselspalt but the “So Far” was run through the hops from the “Lo Five” at knock-off. It was boiled about an hour, instead of 90 minutes.

Technorati Tags: beer, brewing software, homebrewing, brewing, Whitbread, Ringwood, McAuslan, Sierra Nevada, sparging, mash efficiency, brewery efficiency, BeerTools Pro, BeerTools.com, Mild, Mild Ale, Three Floyds, Legends of Notre-Dame, geek culture, thermometer, double-batch

Austin Bloggers

Been missing Montreal’s blogging community a bit but it sound like Austin also has something going on in terms of blogging.Met two local bloggers yesterday at the Austin Zealots‘ Roaming Happy Hour:  

• Lee: I Love Beer
• Ed: Extra Dive NanoBrewery

 Not only am I able to add these guys’ blogs (and a few of their favorite blogs) to my own blogroll, but I get a better impression of what Austin’s blogging scene might be like.Of course, Austin has some Metrobloggers. It’s quite possible that these folks may meet occasionally, thereby providing the local blogger with a YulBlog-like experience. But it’s still more fun to meet bloggers with whom you share some interests (in this case, respect for craft beer).After all, it’s all part of the social butterfly effect.