Mad Andrew's Journal

If you're still reading...
Then I apologize for being mister goth "oh I don't know if I want to do this anymore" for the past couple of days. I'm not saying I'm over it, but I think I'm done whining about it. Fuck that noise. The paper is almost done, and we're almost ready for review. Lets talk about something important. Beer.

The two batches that I've done with the set that Rob sent me (both 5 full gallons) were interesting. Not only do I get to decide the hop content, but to a certain extent, I control the alcohol content as well. What I've done the last two times is since I've used a full 7 lbs or so of malt extract, I've boosted the convertable sugar by adding two full cups. The result is pretty much tasty, undiluted HOOCH. One bottle makes the room spin a bit, and leaves you without a direct line of communication to your toes. Since I've been looking for inspiration for the next batch, it occurs to me that I don't have to put ANY additional sugar in. I can just ferment the malt extract, and see what that gives me.

Now, I might note that if I experiment like this, a smaller batch might be in order. Five gallons is a LOT of beer, and more importantly, it is a HELLA lot of beer to be stuck with if it ends up tasting like ass. Which is where I think my old friend 'Mr Beer' comes in. Mr. Beer was the first set I made stuff with, and is a 2.5 gallon fermenter, which is not only easier to clean, but translucent so that you can see when the top floating yeast has finished its mission. It also completely relied on pre-hopped pre-mixed malt extracts, making it sorta the EZ Bake oven of beer making. But with the smaller fermenter, and all the bottles I have now, experimenting need not be so disastrous.

In other news, my application to Florida State has brought some interest from them, I've had a couple of talks with them now. Need to wait to see what the other appls turn up. As a colleague pointed out, for those who are still being educated to within an inch of their lives, it is actually exam time, a fact which had escaped me.

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