The Hydrogen Project

09:55PM Byetone "Grand Style" from "Death of a Typographer" on Raster-noton
10:00PM Kraftwerk "mitternacht | showroom dummies" from "Live 1975"
10:09PM Wareika Hill Sounds "Jamaica is Reggae Land" from "Wareika Hill Sounds" on Honest Jon's
10:19PM Murmur "Discovery of Mother Voidness" from "Fermata" on Backporch Revolution
10:19PM Akiko Kiyama "Isotope" from "7 Years" on District Of Corruption
10:25PM Tanzmuzik "Mokha Coruba" from "Version Citie Hi-Lights" on Sublime
10:34PM Anthony Shakir "Random Shuffle" from "Lost & Found 1" on Dust Science
10:43PM Thomas Brinkmann "Momoklick" from "Opensource Code" on Source
10:49PM Monolake "Occam" from "Hongkong Remastered" on Monolake
10:55PM Arne Weinberg "From Consumption to Enslavement" from "Romantic Machinery" on Headspace
11:16PM Anders Ilar "Path to the Sky" from "sworn" on Level Records
11:22PM Daniel Gardner "Under the Shower Tower" from "Under the Shower Tower" on Thinner
11:30PM Spiral Into the Storm "Camera Culture" from "A Futile Veneer" on Decibel Palace
11:36PM Lee Douglas "New York Story" from "New York Story" on Rong Music
11:41PM Lowfish "The Bite that Bleeds" from "Frozen & Broken" on Noise Factory Records
11:54PM Glimpse "Elephant Skins" from "Elephant Skins EP" on Leftroom
12:10AM Kevin Saunderson Feat. Inner City "Good Life (Mathew Jonson's Acid Mix)" from "History Elevate 4" on KMS
12:12AM Bong Ra "Eenzaam Sterven Wij Allen" from "Soldaat Van Oranje" on Sublight
12:17AM Inner City "Praise (Future Sound of London Conceptual)" from "Praise Edition 1" on Ten
12:32AM Kakaka "Ka" from "Kakaka First" on Reel Musiq
12:41AM Klaus Schulze and Lisa Gerrard "Farscape I" from "Farscape" on Synthetic Symphony

Bottled the gruit ale last night. FG was around 1.010 before priming. Wish I had the OG! Oops! I couldn't find my priming sugar, so I used KreamyX from the Saison kit in my basement instead! I hope that turns out well.

The herbs were added directly to the boil. This is not a problem except that I also failed to sparge before adding the wort to the fermenter. With hops this isn't a big problem, as they settle to the bottom of the container, but heather tips and yarrow float! This clogged my racking cane and also got stuck in the bottle filler valve. When your bottle filler is stuck open you end up spilling beer!

Also, on 's suggestion, I sanitized all the bottles in the dishwasher, on the high heat wash and high heat rinse cycle. I had 37 bottles after discarding quite a few that wouldn't come clean, in both 12oz and 16oz sizes. This was exactly enough for the 5 gallon batch minus the sediment.

Southern Tier was nice enough to put all the ingredients for their Imperial Pumking Ale right on the side of the bottle. I will give this a shot for next fall. Let's call it batch 8.

In the meantime, after the saison kit I have is done, my next projects will be FREE BEER (if I can find guarana berries). I looked into the Flying Dog Open Source Beer, but unfortunately it's a lager, and I'm not set up for cold-fermenting or lagering. (YET! See previous entry)

This morning we are heading to brunch with Pete and Shannon, who have just moved to Salem from Rhode Island. On the menu is a goat cheese and tomato frittata, peanut butter waffles, and bacon. (He works at Strega) After we come home, I am going to make a freaking sweet pork roast on the grill. The recipe is based on one from How to Cook Meat as per usual: Apricot-Sausage Stuffed Pork Loin. I will be making the following substitutions: apricots are replaced by apples (because we have apples and apple preserves), I am using a rack of pork instead of boneless pork loin (because I don't have any pork loin, but I have a rack of pork!), and I may tone down the garlic.

- immersion wort chiller (make this myself)
- hydrometer thermometer combo
- hydrometer testing vessel
- carboy (glass or PET) with carrier + stopper
- bottle corker
- construct temperature control device for lagering
- lautering setup
- drink cooler for step-mashing
- floating thermometer
- bottle tree

I counted up all my bottles. I currently have nearly 11 gallons of empties! If I drink all the rest of the beer in my house, I will have over 12! So, don't go hoarding your empties for me anymore. I don't need them.