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Smoothies, Beer, and Other Forms of Bliss

So Ann's up here now, and she eats at a man's time like a theoretical puppy eats at an Asian girl's heartstrings. Not that that's a bad thing, unless you happen to be a diehard blog enthusiast.

In a funny twist of fate, after writing those first two sentences I got side tracked making smoothies. Like I said, not a bad thing. Now I have a smoothie, so that's nice.

The Brewery

My dream brewery is nearly complete, and I was able to brew up 5 gallons of pale ale and 1.5 gallons of what I'm calling a "German IPA." If you're familiar with Sierra Nevada's famous pale ale, the former beer is a clone while the later is an interesting inversion of their classic recipe. After making the first batch by the book, you would typically throw out the remaining grain and usually lose some of the sugars or as I call them "pre-alcohol." This time, I circulated some more water through the grains to pick up this sugar and had about enough to make a "small beer." With some left over hops from the first batch, I took the american hops that typically provide the flavor and aroma to SNPA and added them earlier in the boil to add bitterness. I then took the German bittering hops, and added them later in the boil to completely change to flavor and aroma from a standard american pale ale. A most fun experiment indeed.

It kept me up until 1 am on a Wednesday night, but damn I missed it.

 The brewery, closed up for the night. Complete with lab bench, grill, and box.

I can temperature control my fermentations now, but unfortunately I can't stop my yeast from blowing the top off of my carboy. Note the crust on the roof...

Ann kind of let the cat out the bag here, but this is my new kegerator and I'm very proud of it.

The House


There have been several new additions to the house other than an asian and brewing nonsense. Mainly free craigslist and MIT cruft, but we are slowly amassing a cozy and fun little abode.

 1/2 of the kitchen, because this is a pretty half-hearted effort at a tour.

The most complete room in the house, the rompus room/office/crafting hovel. Ann didn't notice this picture being taken because she's in a choir now and choirs are very serious business.

CIRCLE RUG! CIRCLE RUG! CIRCLE RUG! CIRCLE RUG! CIRCLE RUG!

The Visitors

Both my parents, and some UT friends have come to visit in the last month. It's easy to forget how lucky I am to live in such an exciting city until I try to cram all of the exciting things to do in a few days. I'm pretty sure I ran my parents ragged, but at least they now know I'm not homeless. Also, Here's my dad in a hairnet. We toured a pretty fantastic local chocolate factory, Taza Chocolate.



The Job




I work in the jewelry design division of MIT.

That's enough for now, I might go sit on my porch and enjoy the beginning of fall or something. The weather is pretty incredible.

Winter is coming.

Bryan

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