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Everything posted by cdh
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Yup... you're getting the lessons the progression of recipes is there to teach you. The Red Ale was packed with unfermentable sugars... it will have a rich body, but not much alcohol in it... unlike the Golden Ale that has very little unfermentable in it. If you have any of the Golden left, mix them in varying proportions and see how they blend with each other.
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While we're on the subject, the (sadly derivative (said as a Philadelphian)) PHL piece clearly refers to the recent NYTimes piece First Camera, then Fork (which features snaps of food cooked at my house and served on my back porch...)...
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Ask who? Host? Waiter? Manager? Everybody in view? Majority rules, or single blackball voting? etc?
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Hmmm... I'm PA Dutch country well water, no chlorine... lots of hardness unless it's been through the softener... must wonder if chloride or chloramide is the catalyst for your sweetness...
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Tried the boiling water infusions, and (as expected) they intensified the bitterness, but didn't bring out any sweetness. Maybe WmC and I have different water chemistries, or different taste buds... but we taste this tea in totally different ways.
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Perhaps I'll try much hotter water than the last few grams... My water has been in the 195 range. WmC indicates she's been using much hotter water... maybe I'll use the last 2 grams with boiling water and see if that cooks the sweetness out of these leaves.
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A few more infusions in, I think I get the sweetness descriptor... this tea is sweet in the same way that raw green beans or asparagus are sweet. Heavily vegetal with a sorta sweet note in it. I'm tasting it as vegetal rather than sweet, but it is a sweetish sort of vegetal.
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Am now trying 2g to 2oz near boiling with 5 second infusions, and still no sweetness. There is a mouth-coating astringency, and the herbal tail really does remind me of the aftertaste of herbal liqueurs like Chartreuse. But nothing sweet yet 4 infusions in. I'll give it another 4 or 5 while watching the talking heads talk this morning and see if anything sweet jumps out later on.
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I still don't find this sweetness you're talking about. I get a vegetal and astringent note up front, followed by some roasty, lightly smoky notes, followed by long herbal tail. Nothing thick or sweet going on in here at all.
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Caramel sweetness? I'm not noticing any of that. Interesting.
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The bitterness is an astringency more than a sharp bitter bite. This is not gentian or echinacea bitterness... It is not something you want to get rid of.
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Thanks for the info on the processing. an update- infusions 3, 4, and 5 all grew more and more like a Chinese green tea in both aroma and peripheral flavors. The herbal and citric thing in the aftertaste persists, sorta reminiscent of Chartreuse liqueur. It continues to be interesting.
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Two 20 second rinses, as directed, followed by 10 second brews. 5g of leaf, 5 oz water near boiling. After the first infusion, I must say that I like this tea a lot. It is reminiscent of some young darjeelings I've tried. Quite complex. A bit of bitter chlorophyll is central, but it has hints of both bright floral and smoky undertones. The aftertaste carries on forever, and morphs into a mixture of herbal and perhaps a hint of citrus oil... Thing is that you never tell any of that from the aroma in the cup, which is nondescript. Second infusion brings out more astringent bitterness, making the chlorophyll more central and hiding what floral edges there were in the first infusion. The paperyness (verging on woodiness, but not quite) comes further out, bringing along a toasted nuance and a bit more of a hint of hardwood smoke. The aftertaste is significantly more astringent, though the citrus-y thing comes through in the back of my throat again. I'm going to let the tea sit for a while, as 10 oz of tea is all I'm in the mood to consume now. Into the fridge with the leaves until the mood strikes again.
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Hmmm... so short and hot is the way to go. I'll give it a shot and report back. How is this tea processed? The write-up indicates that its processing is incomplete, but doesn't indicate what has been done. Is it steamed and fired, or withered and dried, or something else entirely? It looks rather like a white tea. In the package its aroma is very young... it has that papery aroma that very young teas seem to have in common.
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So if you have the equipment and know-how, why are you asking us whether and how, then getting touchy when we chime in? Just do it... and report the results!
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If it is a throw-away anyway, it can't hurt to experiment. Best way to roast coffee that you're likely to have in your house is a hot-air popcorn popper. Chuck a few scoops of whole beans in there and let it rip. Beware that coffee can go from just right to carbonized dreck in the final 30 seconds of roasting. But Mitch is probably right that it isn't the lack of roastiness that is making your coffee suck. Underroasted coffee is sour, not insipid. How are you grinding it, when are you grinding it, and how are you brewing it?
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Fascinating look at the 2010 foodstamp user: http://www.salon.com/life/pinched/2010/03/15/hipsters_food_stamps_pinched/ Educated, underemployed, infused with the Michael Pollan ethos. Wild caught salmon and other Whole Foods stuff bought with modern day food stamps. I say hooray! Showing that food stamps don't necessitate a diet of mac'n-cheez and processed crap... others seem to think that nutritionally aware poor folks are uppity and abusing the system.
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As a bit of scene setting follow-up, things have been slowly changing in PA in recent years. Yes, we still have the you-must-buy-beer-by-the-case law. We still have bars in the take-out six-pack business. BUT Wegmans and a couple other grocery stores have managed to get single beers and six-packs into some grocery stores by setting up cafes, getting beer-licensed as food service establishments, and selling take-out beer that way. We've got a convenience store chain litigating a similar legal theory. State senators were introducing bills to reform the beer laws before any of this craziness happened. Now that people are getting fired up, there is a real chance for reform to happen. Let's see if there is enough momentum to make it happen.
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About a week ago the cops tasked with enforcing the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board's regulations did 3 simultaneous armed raids on the bars owned by one particular couple. What was the provocation for this armed assault on these drinking establishments you ask? Not rampant underage drinking, not repeated and excessive noise complaints, not illegal gambling happening in the establishments... their infraction: selling beer brands that had not been registered with the state by their producer. That's right... for no error or omission of their own commission, these bars were raided and 60+ gallons of beer was confiscated by armed men. Later it turns out that a significant fraction of the beer seized was actually properly registered after all. That's a pretty outrageous sounding story, no? It certainly is to lots of Pennsylvanians who've been buzzing about it since it came out in the news. Facebook groups devoted to advocating rewriting the liquor code have sprung up, and have amassed more than 2000 members in less than a week. State representatives have been getting peppered with inquiries. Perhaps this particular episode of craziness will be the straw that breaks the Pennsylvania Liquor Camel's back. Stay tuned for further developments... Initially this broke on the blogs... Philadelphia Inquirer story Followup newspaper coverage Beer Columnist's blog with ongoing updates
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Belgian beers are tough. They're very idiosyncratic and all over the place. As a general rule, you've gotta experiment to figure out what you like. A bar that has lots of the classics would have all the exported Trappist beers: Achel, Chimay, Westmalle, Orval, and Rochefort. Try them all. To my tastes, all but two are really tasty... As a general rule, a dubbel is a fairly strong beer (7-8%ish) that is fairly dark, and not particularly hoppy. Most of the interesting flavors in a dubbel are going to be yeast derived. A trippel is an even stronger beer (9-10%ish) that is fairly light in color and flavored by noble hops. I personally hate trippels and love dubbels, but that's just me. The multiplier effect implied by their names does not apply to modern brewing. It's just a naming convention that may or may not have been based on a multiplier used 400 years ago. That's all. Beware that Belgian brewing does encompass sour beers like Rodenbach, Vichtenaar and Duchesse de Bourgogne. Some people hate them, I love them. Don't expect it to taste like the "beer" you're expecting if you order one. Same applies to anything called "lambic" or "geuze". Even their Witbiers, wheat-based beers, have a tart and citric thing going on. If bittersweet is your preconception of what beer should taste like, Belgians will really challenge you.
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And while we're talking brewing, I must report that after a couple of years with the fermenting space tied up with sour beers that take lots of time to finish, I'm back to brewing more regularly now. I just got in on a local group grain buy, and have stocked up with 55 lbs of pale malt and 27.5 lbs of Munich malt... I've got the materials to do a bunch of brewing this spring...
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Oh, and Pilori, the Scotish yeast choice was a great pick for that beer.
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When doing big batches, that's good advice. When brewing small, a hop bag might let you get another couple of bottles-worth out of the primary before your siphon starts sucking yeasty sediment, as the sludge is not augmented by the hop volume.
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Read all about it: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/mbauer/detail?blogid=26&entry_id=57788 Coming from a legal background, and liking good drinks, long ago I did look at some liquor laws and they did seem to outlaw most of the craft of bartending if taken at face value... it appears that somebody in California has started taking that state's liquor laws at face value. It would appear that you're on shaky legal ground if you do anything to booze other than open the bottle and pour it into a glass. What we call artisanal, the law calls adulterated. How could we change the law to keep a control on unethical dives selling watered down well spirits poured into top shelf bottles, while still allowing a cocktailian bartender to practice his craft?
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For brewing gong fu style, the aroma cup was helpful... though similar effects were achieved by brewing 100ml of tea and putting it into a tall 400ml mug... the aromas concentrated in the enclosed space. As to conclusions, the SJG was my favorite when brewed gong fu style... extremely fruity and interesting. The BTY, on the other hand was overly vegetal and not so pleasant brewed gong fu style. The exact opposite results obtained when brewed in a more western style, as the SJG was unexciting, and the BTY was very well rounded and quite pleasant with a toasty cocoa finish. The Da Hong Pao brewed either way struck me as more like a black tea than an oolong.