Art inspired by Maurice

An ex post facto post.

More on the beer soon folks. But for now let's take a moment to celebrate some recent acquisitions to the Atkinsonian (aka my personal library).

In Travel Writing:
A Time of Gifts by Patrick Leigh Fermor
If You Lived Here I'd Know Your Name by Heather Lende

In Reference (a new and expanding section):
Crabb's Synonymes
Where There is No Doctor

Psychology:
The Road Less Traveled by M. Scott Peck

And a rather exciting find in the basement:
Markings

Is that what I think it is on the cover? I don't think he knew any Swedish.

Wedding Weissen



On the 8th of August I bottled my beer. The ending specific gravity was 1.016 and the yield was 46 bottles plus a one litre growler. The wort tastes rather sweet and bland with the priming sugar and none of the carbonation. It took me most of the afternoon to clean and fill the bottles. Then I used the dross to water the garden. Here is a picture of me racking the beer into the bottler and of the beautiful orange hue of my first brew. The beer must undergo a second fermentation before it is consumed. This will last about a week. Then the beer ages in the bottles for another 3-5 weeks. Hopefully some will be ready for the wedding.

Beer Brewing Travails Part The Second
(continued from "My Wort Overfloweth")

After twenty four hours all evidences suggest that no fermenting is occuring. Risking contamination I pry off the top and confirm my horrible hypothesis: the yeast was deceased (incidentally a great example of assonance). Nothing to do but add on a 7 gram package of Canada's own Fleischmann's 'Active Dry' Yeast. Yes this is for bread. Does that make a difference? Probably not. I hope. The brewer's yeast came in an 11 gram package which leads a cineophile to hypothesize: when the beer dies it inexplicably loses 21 grams. Could 11 of these grams be due to the dead yeast? What about the other 10? Is this just some absurd plot contrivance?

Data: standing temperature is 74 degrees farenheit, as this is an internationally friendly blog and in view of bridging the cultural divide across the atlantic and the woods and the desert (and oh well pretty much everywhere else) I'll do the math for you: 23 degrees celcius; temperature outside? 102/39; highest temp in Alaska this summer: 81/27 (yes I could go for a swim right now). With any luck the beer will make it. Expected yield: 5 gallons-I'm going to need some help from friends.