Monthly Archive for April, 2009

Why hasn’t RI legalized gay marriage?

Published on April 30, 2009 in Politics. Closed

Massachusetts was the first state in the country to legalize gay marriage through a lawsuit in which the judges ruled that it was unconstitutional for gays not to marry. Connecticut, a very Puritanical state, was the second state in New England to legalize gay marriage through a similar lawsuit. Vermont just recently became the first state in the country to legalize gay marriage through the legislature, meaning the people cannot complain that unelected officials made the decision. New Hampshire is about to legalize gay marriage through the same means. That leaves only two states in New England, one of the most progressive regions of the country, where same sex couples cannot be legally married – Maine and the more progressive Rhode Island.

Come to find out, after reading an article on New Hampshire’s recent decisions, Maine’s legislature is considering a bill that would legalize gay marriage. That leaves Rhode Island, the smallest state in the country, the bluest state in the country, the most urban state in the country, as the only state in New England not currently considering allowing gay marriage.

How can this be? In a state where the general assembly and the governor never see eye-to-eye, why is it that the general assembly doesn’t just write up a bill legalizing gay marriage and pass it? It would be passed with a veto-proof margin, similar to the medical marijuana bill. The governor will veto it, and the next day, the general assembly will override the veto.

Could it be because the general assembly is too busy working on pet projects? Could it be because Rhode Island is also the most Catholic state in the country? Could it be because the bishop of Providence makes all the social decision for the governor?

Whatever the case may be, if Maine legalizes gay marriage before Rhode Island, you can rest assured the Rhode Island is also the most backwards state in the country. This one is a no brainer. They tried to teach me in my pre-Cana class that gay marriage is bad for marriage. The bishop regularly makes statements against it. The governor has come out against it. However, the people just wouldn’t care. The people of Rhode Island are just as backwards as the government. They complain at every little thing. They complain about things that deserve praise, such as when an investigative journalist digs up a story on wasteful and deceitful practices in the Providence Parks Department. But that shouldn’t matter. The general assembly doesn’t listen to the people anyway.

So I ask all of you Rhode Island legislators… Why are you dragging your feet on this issue? It’s a no-brainer. Legalize gay marriage and be done with it!

All you people out there, support Marriage Equality RI. Help get gay marriage legalized in Rhode Island. Help make New England, all of New England, the most gay-friendly region of the country.

Batch #3: Update

Published on April 29, 2009 in Beer and Homebrewing. Closed

This batch has me working hard. First the boilover, then screwing up the aeration and the pitching of the yeast, then the problem with the airlock (which is actually not cracked, I’m not sure how it lost water), then the crazy amount of fermentation.

Well, we had a brief heatwave and to save the beer from getting into the 80′s, I moved it to my basement for a day. Come to find out, the temp dropped from 72-74 to about 68-70. All noticeable action basically stopped. I decided it was time to rack it to secondary (this was yesterday after spending an extra 2 days fermenting). I brought it upstairs, the temp went back up and it started bubbling like crazy again. I had to consult a friend on this one. I decided I’d leave it upstairs where the temps were warmer to let it keep fermenting. I did take a gravity reading. It was at 1.016, the upper end of the range I’m shooting for (though the OG was at the upper range of that as well). Well, it’s slowed down again and I decided I’ll transfer it tomorrow, assuming it’s not fermenting like mad again. At the very latest, I have to transfer it on Saturday. I need the bucket to brew on Sunday (I’m on a schedule, after all).

I decided to follow the footsteps of one of my commenters, markmier, and bought the cheapest 1 liter bottle of vodka I could find at the nearest liquor store. It’s called Crowne Russe. I’ll be using this for my airlock (I’d never drink $7 vodka).

I did find a great substitute for PBW. Oxyclean does a great job at cleaning the crud off of stuff. I had some dried crud on the “cracked” airlock that had filled up with some beer and crud. The oxyclean took it right off. Of course, now that I have delayed transfering it to secondary, I have to pick up another carboy. I’ll be doing that on Friday or Saturday when I pick up the ingredients for my killer IPA.

Homebrew Updates

Published on April 27, 2009 in Beer and Homebrewing. Closed

Batch #3: Murphy’s Dark Wheat Ale

I figured I’d update everyone on how my third batch, Murphy’s Dark Wheat Ale, is coming along. It’s still in primary and still fermenting away. I’m planning on leaving it like this until the bubbling slows down (it’s still going just as strong as it was in the beginning). Because of the color and malts used, I bought a bottle of Dark Force, an imperial double wheat stout, from Haandbryggeriet to do a side-by-side comparison. That ones a little over 8% ABV. Mine was supposed to be about 6% (and of course, nowhere near as dark as it is). I really can’t wait to try this one.

Batch #2: The Chocolate With, an Oatmeal Stout

The Chocolate With, my chocolate oatmeal stout, has been in the bottles for about a week. We decided to open one to try it. It’s coming along quite well. I think I’m going to let this one go 2 more weeks before another tasting and deeming it ready for consumption. It definitely needs to carbonate a bit more (though I’m sure the heat over the weekend helped pick up the speed a bit). It has a nice chocolate flavor, though not too bitter and not too strong. The oatmeal smoothed it out quite nicely. I can’t wait to try it. It’s a little light in body still, though I was told the added carbonation should help fix that. The color is actually not as light as I originally thought. It’s not black, but rather closer to a traditional English stout.

Batch #1: Alt Things Reconsidered

Alt Things Reconsidered is drinking quite nicely now. I try to keep some in the fridge to give it a little cold conditioning before I actually drink it. I should probably be moving the rest of it to the fridge now that my beer room has warmed up a bit with the warmer weather.

Batch #4: Divided SkyPA

Finally, my 4th batch will be brewed this coming Sunday. I know Saturday is technically National Homebrew Day, but to keep to my schedule, it’ll be brewed on Sunday (giving me Saturday to get some other stuff done). It’s going to be a hoppy American IPA. I put together a recipe myself, but we’ll see what changes when I pick up the ingredients. Feel free to critique the recipe.

I Am A Craft Brewer

Published on April 23, 2009 in Beer. 1 Comment

This video was shown during Greg Koch’s (Stone Brewing Co.) keynote address at the Craft Brewers Conference in Boston today. It’s too good to not share.


I Am A Craft Brewer from I Am A Craft Brewer on Vimeo.

Batch #3: Brewday; Batch #2: Bottling Day

Published on April 19, 2009 in Beer and Homebrewing. 8 Comments

Today was brewday for my third batch, an American Dark Wheat ale. This one is going to come out very interesting. It’s extremely dark. In fact, it looks about as dark as my stout, if not darker.

I ran into 3 issues. The first, after steeping the grains, I realized I had too much water in the pot. I let it boil for about 20 minutes or so to boil down some of the water before adding the extract. The second issue was my first boilover. I turned around for about 10 seconds after it returned to a boil and it was everywhere. Luckily, it stayed mostly on the stovetop with a tiny bit that dripped over the front (thank god nothing went over the side). The rest of the boil was uneventful.

The third issue is probably the biggest, and hopefully won’t ruin the beer. I pitched the yeast before aerating the beer and then aerated it. I then realized my mistake. I opened it back up and took some beer for my gravity reading. I really hope this wouldn’t have screwed anything up. I really wanted this one to be good.

Other than that, everything went well with brewing.

I also bottled my second batch, the Chocolate Oatmeal Stout (which I named The Chocolate With, after the Phish song “The Curtain With”). That went pretty well. I ended up with 3 22 oz bombers and 38 12 oz bottles.

After a mishap upon opening a bottle of the Alt during which the top of the bottle snapped off, I think in the future, I am going to stop using Anchor bottles. They seem to be a bit thinner and more fragile than the other bottles I’ve used. It’s all fine and well because Anchor costs more anyway.

Now I need to drink more commercial beer to collect more bottles for the Dark Wheat Ale.

Internet Videos

Published on April 15, 2009 in Fun Stuff. Closed

I came across some great videos yesterday and thought I’d share them. The first is a roundup of the 100 most iconic videos. The list starts with “Bad Day” (the guy who beats the crap out of his monitor) and goes through some of the greatest videos on the Interwebs. I won’t spoil the list, but #1 is almost a given considering the number of remixes.

Many of these videos brought back memories of college (some were about 10 years old, the students here had never heard of  them, including the #1 video).

The 100 Most Iconic Internet Videos [urlesque.com]

In addition to that, I came across a great video called “We Didn’t Start the Flamewar”.

Calling All Red Sox Employees or Season Ticket Holders

Published on April 13, 2009 in Music and Phish. 2 Comments

Help a Phishhead out. Leave a comment or send me an email to jim@rizzopvd.org if you want to help me out. I just need a password or an account number to purchase tickets in the special pre-sale. Please do not enter this information in the comments.

Thanks,

An utterly pathetic groveling Jim.

Batch #3: Preparations

Published on April 13, 2009 in Beer and Homebrewing. 3 Comments

I went to the homebrew shop the other day with my recipe for the Dark Wheat beer. The owner actually really liked it, but we made a couple changes. We went with all DME instead of dark LME and I switched the light DME to wheat DME. We also changed the dark wheat malt to a chocolate wheat malt and went with 3 oz instead of 4.

Now the cascade hops I got were higher in alpha acids than the what I calculated when I created the recipe (7.3% as opposed to 5.5%). When I re-calculated the recipe I ended up with a more bitter beer. I was originally going to add an ounce at the start of the boil and an ounce at 30 min. I did some playing around and decided I’m going to add half an ounce at the start of the boil and half an ounce every 15 min from then. It drops the IBU’s about 5 points when I do that (the wife doesn’t like hoppy beers).

I’m wondering if it’s ok to do the hops like this or if I should do a full ounce at the start and then half ounce at 30 min and 45 min.

I’m actually going to be quite proud of myself if this comes out as good as I hope. It’s the first recipe I made pretty much entirely on my own.

Great Article on Lambics

Published on April 7, 2009 in Ale, Beer and Belgian. 3 Comments

I just wanted to link to this article from the Wall St. Journal on lambics. Lambics make up some of my favorite beers. I love the sour, musty, and funky flavors.

Tracking an Ancient Belgian Beer [wsj.com]

There’s also a great video to go along with the article.

Batch #1: First Taste (a week early)

Published on April 5, 2009 in Beer and Homebrewing. 1 Comment

After a week of bottle conditioning, I decided to throw a bottle of my Alt Things Reconsidered in the fridge for a taste. I have to say, it’s pretty tasty, though it’s a little estery. It’s also a bit cloudier than I would have liked. Now all this could be because of 2 things.

The first is that I should have waited another week. I was told it should be carbonated after a week. Being my first batch, I had to try it early. It’s definitely carbonated, though it could probably use a bit more (another week may help).

The second thing is that I didn’t want to “waste” one of the cleaner bottles if it ended up not being ready. I opened one of the last 3 bottles we filled. It had a huge layer of sediment on the bottom that wasn’t nicely packed and mixed in. That could definitely explain the cloudiness. I’m not sure if it could also explain some of the estery flavors.

Now that I’m about halfway through the glass and the beer has warmed up a bit more, it’s actually tasting a bit more like an Altbier. I’m really enjoying this. It’s not top notch, but it’s certainly drinkable. I’m just glad it’s not infected.

So, my question to the brewers out there… Most Altbiers are generally fermented at cooler temperatures (closer to a lager, but not quite as cool). The White Labs website suggests that the temps for their Altbier Yeast (WLP036) should still be about the same as most ale yeasts (about 68°F). Should I have fermented it at a lower temperature (say closer to 60°F)? Should I have kept the primary fermentation at 68°F and done the secondary lower? Will it benefit from a cooler conditioning for an extended period of time (my beer cellar is currently between 55° and 60°F)? I’m just looking to make a really tasty Altbier. It’s one of my absolute favorite styles. This is a beer I will be brewing again and will want to perfect.

Regardless of whether or not it’s really close to a true Alt or not, it’s tasty. I’m very happy and proud of my accomplishment. I don’t plan on opening anymore until next weekend. I’m bringing a 4 pack to my mother to share with my family and a 4 pack to bring to my step-father-in-law (who is probably more excited about it than me).