SB Nation User Blog: chrisisasavage

Piniella Admits he Smoked Pot

chrisisasavage — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 06:15:48 -0000

Piniella Admits he Smoked Pot

His argument is spot on. Why the WBC tests for a performance inhibitor is beyond me.

Off Topic Fanpost - Beer, BBQ, and Bike Camping

chrisisasavage — Fri, 15 May 2009 21:37:16 -0000

So, my rootbeer experiment could have turned out better, it went bad faster than any beer I've made. I'll have to use hops next time. I scrapped it and made an IPA-Like beer with the rest of what I had. We'll see how that turns out :)

I'm looking at making a lager of some kind. I built a box out of styrofoam and a thermoelectric cooler, so hopefully I can keep the temps down during fermentation.

Anyone have any suggestions for craft lagers (Shmaltz Coney Island Lager is pretty good).

I'm thinking about doing a european style beer with American ingredients, or maybe a mix. I would like to try and find some good lagers (no, not coors), and do some comparisons, then try to formulate a beer based on that. I've had a few, but thought I'd get some suggestions.

Anyone have good BBQ Joint suggestions (or food in general). Stans BBQ in Issaquah, and Pecos Pit in Seattle are the only two I've tried that I liked in the Seattle area.

Here's a question, I know good places to camp, and to backpack, but does anyone know of any good areas to mountain bike in and camp out?

OTFPOTD - Help me figure out my vacation edition

chrisisasavage — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 05:51:57 -0000

I have May 8 - 17 scheduled off of work. I was going to drive to Boise to visit inlaws, but my Wife is going back next weekend instead. Due to a scheduled product release and recent work insanity, I'm planning on keeping the week+ off for a solo adventure.

I like to Bike pack, but I like to road trip. I can do and sometime can handle cold rain, but bike packing in it be a pain, but can also be rewarding. I could sleep in the back of my Forester, and take my dog on a road trip, do a tour of some car camping places. I could do the Peninsula, hitting the national forest and park, but it's more a summer time trip, and Earl (my dog) couldn't go to the National Park. I could do Eastern washington. Maybe do some prospecting near Liberty (I LOVE that area). I want to camp. If I go off my bike Earl may not be able to go. If it's off a trail or Forest service/logging road I could probably take him. I'd like that. I'm geared up to camp with him.

I could probably do $500 or so max, and I'm a campaholic (rain, wind, snow, or forest fires, I've done them all), so something camping related is probably in order. I'm geared for anything short of camping on glaciers. Snow is not an obsticle.

Anyway, help me. Even crazy things like run to vegas (I'd nix that idea immediately, since the wifey would have visions of hookers dancing in her head) or hunting bigfoot all week are welcome since I like differing opinions like the new FO do. BTW, as an Avid NW roadtripper, Corco's highway blog rocks.

***

The root beer turned out not the greatest, but not the worst. I'm drowning the last one I have (my dad has some). It's OK. Too gingery, kind of funky. My next two beers are a Blueberry Honey ale, and another root beer, except it'll be done with hops. I did a blueberry honey ale about 3 months ago. It went fast. It was my best beer. I'll post what I do when I do them. In a Beer making fan post. I also plan to do a quick and dirty beer making for dummies post.

Poll

Joe Satriani?

The best ever

0 votes

Cool

7 votes

Guitar solos suck (#*&! you in advance)

4 votes

Awesome

1 votes

Totally awesome

4 votes

Malmsteen is superior (#*&! you in advance too)

0 votes

16 votes | Poll has closed

OTFPOTD 02/21/2009 - Looking for Food and Beer in Leavenworth Edition

chrisisasavage — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 18:23:41 -0000

Every two or three months I run the Leavenworth to eat German food and drink German Beers and Micros. Well, I'm here. I love stopping at the cheese monger to get beer, cheese, and landjager. I take the dogs to the Munchen Haus to eat hot dogs and drink beer with me. We'll be doing that today. I just realized Der Man Shoppe has homebrew supplies! I gave up my weekend trip to the beer supply, so hopefully they have a few things I need, and it's not SOOOOO expensive I can't bring myself to buy anything.

Any suggestions for food and drink? I know the town too well, but still, I honor other peoples opinions.

I'll probably not be posting anything tommorow, here's my homebrew tidbit. I racked the rootbeer to secondary yesterday. The taste was underwhelming, so I'm getting some Anise Extract, Vanilla Extract, Wintergreen, and Sarsparillia to spice it up at bottling. I'm thinking an Imperial Rootbeer next time I decide to do a root beer. 8-12 percent, hopped to hell and back, lots of dark malts and/or chocolate malts.

My next beer is going to be a casked mild ale. Now I have to find a decent cask for 1-2 people :p

OTFPOTD 02/15/09 - Repurposing Mr. Beer as a Cask edition

chrisisasavage — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 18:14:58 -0000

Well, I'm going to be racking my root beer to the secondary fermenter next weekend. I could probably do it now, but I haven't taken any hydrometer readings, and I'm sure it'll be OK to rack in a week. The problem with racking beer too early from the primary is risk of making bombs.

If you're not sure Racking is the process transferring the beer from the primary to the secondary or to bottle. You want to make sure fermentation is done, either by doing successive hydrometer readings, or just waiting long enough (2 weeks for normal beers).

The Root beer has a wonderful rootbeer like flavor. It also looks like root beer one my last poll, so when I finally bring some beer around, it'll be a root beer. Probably just use a decent extract syrup, a few spices, malt extract and molasses.

I'll be bottling my heather ale tonight. My next project might be a session style ale or a cask ale, like real ale or a casked mild ale. I realized that 2 Mr. Beer fermenters hold 2.5 gallons of beer. They're only useful as a 2 gallon primary fermenter, so I've considered them for test batches, but now I an thinking of making a 5 gallon batch and splitting it in half, one in each fermenter. I'd make a small beer (I SWEAR I'm not obsessed with small beers), since I'd be forced to drink 2.5 gallons of beer as soon as I started drinking it. You don't use additional sugars to carbonate, so it'd taste flat compared to what you're probably used to. I could get one of those expanders, like they use in a party pig, they expand as the beer empties to keep it from spoiling. Then I could make a higher alcohol beer and not be forced to drink it ASAP. If the Mr. Beer works as a cask, I'll let you know.

Did you know George Washington had a beer recipe. It's a molasses small beer.

http://www.beerhistory.com/library/holdings/washingtonrecipe.shtml

Poll

Vote for an spice you'd like most in a beer. I may formulate something based on the choices.

Sarsaparillia

4 votes

Birch Root

1 votes

Spruce Essence

1 votes

Ginger

1 votes

Vanilla Bean

3 votes

Wintergreen leaves

2 votes

Dandelion root

2 votes

Anise

2 votes

Licorice root

0 votes

Lemongrass

4 votes

20 votes | Poll has closed

OFTPOTD 02/08/2009 - Hard Root Beer Brewing Pics

chrisisasavage — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 07:50:48 -0000

I finally did it. I made my root beer. Its sitting in the primary right now.

Here’s what I ended up doing:

2.5 Lbs Liquid Pale Malt Extract
1.5 Lbs Molasses
4 oz Dry Pale Malt Extract
12 oz Maltodextrin
14 oz Honey Malt
14 oz Crystal Malt
5 oz Chocolate Malt
8 oz Flaked Barley
2 oz Sarsaparilla
.5 oz Spruce Essence
2 Vanilla Beans
2 oz Star Anise
1 Brewers Licorice Stick
.8 oz Toasted Dandelion Root
2 oz Chopped Ginger Medallions
One smack pack of Wyeast 1056 American Ale Yeast
2 oz Yeast Nutrient

First, I sanitized everything and kept the equipment that would touch the wort in water with Iodine in it, I rinsed thoroughly before using anything.

I did a mash on the malt, ramping the temps from 120-170 over an hour and 30 minutes. The long boil wouldn't necessary, as the only malt I used that has any diastatic power is the Honey malt. It doesn't have the power to convert other starches. No I did it because I realized I forgot to smack my yeast pack and had to kill time. It turned into a nice brown wort. I only used 1 gallon of water or so, but I don't have a proper brew pot, and was mostly using stuff I already had, like molasses and malt extract.

Here's before I put it in the bag:

After I an hour and a half, I poured the wort through a strainer into another pot, then back to the brew pot. I added the spices, except the ginger, dandelion, and spruce. I did 2 separate boils for the ginger and dandelion root. I cut the ginger into medallions and covered them in water and boiled them. I did close to the same thing with the dandelion.

Boiling Dandelion Root

After 30 minutes I reevaluated the spice flavor and let it go 15 minutes more.

I slowly poured in the dandelion and tasted as a I went. I ended up using the whole thing. I did the same with the ginger, and used the whole thing. I added the spruce essense, and it doing the same thing, but stopped after .5 oz, I started to taste spruce, but nothing more.

Spruce Essence from local home brew supply:

Once the wort was done, I ran the Molasses and Liquid Malt Syrup under hot water to get them to pour easier. I poured them in and stirred the wort.

I stirred the maltodextrin powder in and the dry malt extract. I used the dry extract and the liquid, because that is how much I had of each. The dry extract hardened, so I had to stir until it disolved, about 15 minutes.

While it dissolved I sanitized the fermenter. I added 2 gallons of cold water, then poured the hot wort into it, then topped to the fill line using more cold water.

I added the yeast and yeast nutrient to the fermenter and put the lid and airlock on and shook it.

Yeast and Nutrient:

Fermenter with root beer wort, yeas, and yeast nutrient.

Fermenter w/ Lid on

I'll let it sit in the primary for a week, then siphon to the secondary for 2 weeks, then bottle for a month, then sit the bottles in the fridge and enjoy.

Secondary Fermenter (aka high tech Beer Making device)

I did things a little differently then I would for beer. I usually do a partial mash for my beers. I'll do a post on that sometime, since making beer is fun.

If you want to experiment, but have limited space, look at a Mr. Beer. They're 40 bucks and make 2 gallons at a time. I have 2 of them, and they're fun for experimental beer batches, so you can always use them later. The 6 gallon bucket and 5 gallon carboy set up is not expensive either, but the higher volume creates logistics issues for all grain and partial mash. You more or less need a super kitchen, or to do it outdoors over propane. I do partials on the stove, using a coleman coolor as a lautering tun.

I have some pics of doing an all grain brew w/ a mr. beer. that I'll post those if I can find them.

Misc Pics:

Vanilla

Anise:

Some of my pics wont show for some reason. Oh well.

Poll

What kind of beer might you be interested in if I formulated a beer for an LL event. I could make 50-100 bottles depending on a few things, but wouldn't matter. I'll make it to an event eventually, if anything to share beer.

Stout

0 votes

Brown Ale

1 votes

Mild Ale (these can be very yummy)

5 votes

Pale Ale / Bitters

4 votes

Amber Ale

2 votes

Blond Ale

0 votes

Weizen (Berliner Weisse????)

1 votes

Fruit Beer (Kriek, Framboise, Blueberry, etc)

0 votes

Gruit and Herb beer (you have to be open minded here, but it can be good)

0 votes

Spruce Ale (Ginger and Spruce, likely hops)

2 votes

Hard Root Beer

6 votes

21 votes | Poll has closed

OTFPOTD 2-01-09: Keeping the Brew pot boiling edition

chrisisasavage — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 09:11:58 -0000

I just got a new primary (6 gal bucket) and secondary (5 gal glass carboy). I can now do 10 gallons of beer a pop.

I've got a heather (unhopped) ale going, I am planning on doing a hard root beer, maybe tommorow. It's basically a beer, except instead of being malt and hops, it's molasses, maple syrup, root beer spices, malt extract and yeast. It should be interesting, based on early american beer.

Here's a few of the ingredients:

Pale Malt Extract
Molasses
Maple Syrup
Crystal 40L Malt
Chocolate Malt
Flaked Barley
Maltodextrin
Dark Candy Sugar
Sarsaparilla
Vanilla Bean
Spruce Essence
Wintergreen Leaves
Licorice Root
Anise Pods
American Ale Yeast

My heather ale is another gruit-like ale. It's a scottish ale, except it's "hopped" with heather, mugwort, sweetgale, and spruce essence (just a bit). I'm working at keeping my office 55-60 degrees :)

I just bottled a "blueberry honey ale". It's an extract ale, with honey, honey malt, pale malt, pale malt extract, blue berry syrup, and blue berry extract. It's got 4 hop editions, including a 2 minute hop. All cascade hops. Usese White Labs wlp001 california ale yeast.

Anyone got some crazy ideas for me? I love trying weird stuff.

OTFPOTD - More beer a brewing edition

chrisisasavage — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 16:14:20 -0000

The gruit thing is growing on me. The 7% ABV and odd herbal taste makes it so I don't want to drink too much, but I can now see why people brewed with gruit herbs before hops was widely used. It's not really beer though. My "recipe" would not hold in a competition, but it was more pleasant than I expected. Next gruit is still going to be that Anti-imperial stout, but I have a mild ale to do first.

I picked up 10 lbs of pale malt and am going to try and mash the malt my self. Always time for a first :) If it doesn't work out I piced up some light malt extract syrup and dry malt extract.

My goal with the mild ale is to make a "low alcohol" brown ale and see how well it turns out. I have some Wyeast 1084 Irish Ale yeast (Stout yeast) and some Safale-04 in the fridge. I'm leaning toward Safale-04 because it has higher attenuation, higher flocculation, and leaves less of the diacetyl and estery (buttery and fruity) tastes in the beer than the Irish Ale yeast. I may save the Irish ale for my stout. I plan on steeping in 6 oz of Brown malt, 6 oz Crystal 60L, 2 oz Chocolate malt, 1 oz of Black malt, and 1 oz of roasted barley. I'm going to do 3 editions of .5 oz Kent Goldings hops.

Guess I let you know how it turns out. I may ALSO start a stout today, but not the anti-imperial one. I don't think I have enough mugwort and would need to find Licorice Root, Vanilla Bean, chicory, etc.

Also, try and give me some idea for a beer to brew. Someday I may share. Not next weekend though. I will most likely have to work, so no LL/USSM event for me :(

Drunken OTFPOTD Zymurgy (and I hate OTFPOTD) edition.

chrisisasavage — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 07:51:37 -0000

OK, since beer is technically on-topic for LL, it's not fair, but since I'm drunk on Widmer's Brrr winterbeer, I could care less. Honestly, the whole OTFPOTD thing bugs me, but since beer is at least partially on topic, and I'm in an OT mood ....

I've recently joined the ranks of people who brew beer. I love beer. Malted Barley + Hops + Water + Yeast + Time = yummy goodness. Who here brews? I made a Blackberry Honey Ale recently. I've always wondered why Honey ales don't taste like Honey. Now I know, most of the honey is converted into alcohol. I also made a Gruit ale, which I plan on bottling tommorow. Gruit does not use Hops, but uses Sweet Gale, Yarrow, and Marsh Rosemary instead. I added Mugwort, which is also traditional. This is Dark Ages beer, except I used Malt extract from my local brew supply. I also made a spruce beer that got contaminated, and I was afraid it would happen :( I was lax on my sanitation.

Any who, I'm curious what people here do. I'm really interested in un-hopped beers. My dad is alergic to hops, and used to be a beer lover in his 20's and hasn't had beer since he found out he was alergic to hops. The gruit tastes interesting. I'll find out in 3-4 weeks when the conditioning is done.

I'm also interested in malting my own grains. I want to do Chicha, which apparently is malted Corn, Quinoa, or Amaranth. I <B Corn, Quinoa, and Amaranth. I've sprouted Quinoa numerous times, but never toasted it and extracted sugars. It takes 2-3 days to sprout.

Someone here brews. Has too.

Also, anyone cellar beer? I have a 2 year old Trader Joes ale (seasonal, winter) I'm getting ready to drink. I tried drinking booze the other day, and wine one too long ago. I can't help it, I love beer. That probably has something to do with being 235 lbs. So does being 6'4". Jeff, just a warning. You're 6'5", right? If you drink beer ANYTHING like I do, you'll be a big dude once you get past 30. It's not bad big, but big. People hear 230 lbs and think "good god", but they're 5 foot nothing, so who cares. Also, what size shoe do you wear? I'm a 15.

It's 12:03 am, so it's Sunday. I get the OTD part :)

Some More Beltre Love

chrisisasavage — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 04:19:02 -0000

I'm pretty sure he won't keep his current line up (especially the walks), but either way, he's been a major asset. I just did a marcel weighting his current performance (2008=0.83, 2007=4.83, 2006=3.83, 2005=2.83). He's a safe Marcel since he's played 3+ years here. That increases him from about a 2.7 per 600 PA WAR to about 3 WAR, assuming +0 UZR, which very well may be too low, and +0 positional adjustment for being 3B.

.3 WAR difference probably won't make or break us, but it means his hitting the 2nd half of last year was probably legit, and he's probably a better hitter than a lot of people have given credit for (we all knew it). Also Adrian Beltre is probably under paid at this point! If it's at all possible, we need to extend him NOW. Boras won't let that happen, especially while he's hitting like he is.