March Madness!

Gawd I love March Madness.

Right now I am watching Cal State Fullerton taking it up a notch against the Badgers. Even when it's boring March Madness is still awesome. At it's absolute worst it is better than 99% of my days.

Duke pulls one out of their ace at the end to avoid total humiliation.

Beasley made USC just look silly. Ball goes up, Beasley comes down. Beasley shoots, Beasley scores. Rinse and repeat.

Xavier gave me a good heart attack. Only in March Madness can give you "good" heart attacks....it's definitely an indication of some kind of masochistic streak in me. Which is a big red flag; I should probably avoid those types of emotional accelerants so often associated with addiction: gambling, beer, spicy food, picking the best March Madness brackets again and again and again, winning Fantasy Football leagues, etc.

With college hoops there is this air of youth/inexperience that permeate the tourney. Once you get to the professional levels the players are no longer playing, they are going to work. March Madness on the other hand encompasses all of that naive passion and uncontrollable excitement you felt when you didn't know any better; when a game was still pretty important to your world view. So taking the ups and downs vicariously is a quickening of sorts...maybe...

....or just another excuse to drink beer. I can't decide. But it's still fun to watch and still a good escape.

I miss the hot wings though. Oh Barrel House why have you forsaken me? Whatever that crappy joint is now is fully crap-diddly-astic.

Batch 5 (Pilsner)

Aaaahhh... the most recent pilsner... though it had its many issues (and some of the same issues over and over again) it is still enjoyable after the first liter (as I suppose any beer would be); however, I am more willing to be lenient with the taste considering this beer happens to be the first and only brewed in the Corbett household as opposed to the Spencer household! Long live the Pilsner...

and it was good.

Better Attenuation

This would be good idea as well. A couple batches have had great fermentations and others, not so much. Temperature control is likely in play along with several other factors; the better we can control the environment for the yeast the more consistent our (awesome) results will be.

*** Update ***
Three different options here.

Chilling the Wort

I'd love to get that wort chilled to pitching temp sooner on subsequent batches. This does the trick, but they seem to be asking a bit too much for such a simple solution. Here is a simple DIY for building one from basic supplies.

Both the retail version and the DIY version require chilling directly by placing the copper into the wort... so sanitation of the tubing must be managed. It would be nice to chill indirectly after the wort is in the carboy. The glass insulates so the chiller has more work to do; however, not having to sanitize and store a big coil of copper could be worth it.

A 5 gal paint bucket with ice+water? It would work better if the carboy is spinning, but automating that portion is definitely too much trouble. Manually spinning it for 30 mins isn't worth it either.

Something to think about.

In the middle (In the beginning continued)...

"Beer: the cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems."
- Homer Simpson

**** note to all you Simpson's fans - I took a little literary license with the quote ****

But the story does not end with brackish water and gleeful farmers. Beer transcended the Osirian Myth and was passed from generation to generation not just through written and verbal accounts but in practice. That practice found its way from Egypt into the heart and souls of the European population decimated by depression during long winters and rainy springs. And so when these people migrated across the ocean to a new continent, beer was there. When a new country was formed, beer was there. When independence was claimed, beer, not tea, was there. And we strive to honor this living institution by continuing its story, and potentially saving our marriages in the process, by passing on our skills, knowledge, and drinking prowess to the next generation. Yes, our pursuits are not selfish; our pursuits are to honor all the past generations from the first sip of brackish water to the cool, crisp, refreshment of each and every tasty brew currently available. And most important of all, our pursuit is for the children and the next generation of braumeister 1/2.

And it was good.

Oh Danny Boy...

We are so S-M-R-T

If we had bottled the stout back when it was done fermenting instead of sitting on our thumbs we could be enjoying our very own Irish Stout on St Patty's Day. Eh, what are you going to do...

Caed Mille Failte!

**** Marcus Addition to Jeremy Post *****

Since I have the ability to edit your posts, I decided to take the liberty and pass on an Irish Proverb that was quoted to me by a server at the Mitchell Hall Dining Facility during my days as a wayward KAY-det at USAFA, "You are not drunk until you have to hold on to a blade of grass to keep from falling off the earth."

Let's knock another one back - I'm not there yet!

Batch 6 (Irish Stout) Successfully Bottled

....of course I did get an eye full of beer when Marcus began racking to the Ale Pail which was hella funny for him; a successful venture none the less. I still hate you.