...And just like that and I have a little brewery in my apartment.

This weekend I rented a car and loaded up on all my supplies. I planned on brewing when I had some time this week, but I have no patience when it comes to new projects and I started only hours after unpacking the car.

The process took about four and a half hours from heating up my water to getting it in the glass carboy. The next morning I woke up to find an eruption of activity that smelled...well, not so great at 7am, but when I come home from work I sit with it for a few minutes with a bottle of store bought beer and watch the little bubbles percolate.

Now that the blow off has subsided (it foams up and over the top) the smell has gone away. I have five more days of it like this, then I transfer to another container to get the beer off the sediment (hops/used yeast) that's collected at the bottom. After several days in the new container I bottle it, and let it age a bit and build up some carbonation.

This was something of a test run. It had been so long since I brewed anything I was more interested in going through the motions and remembering what I needed to do and when. I have no idea if this beer will be any good—I assume it will be drinkable—but once I get a good rythym going I can start focusing on all the things you have to pay attention to to brew excellent beer.

Also, some links:

tuesday
july, 31 2007

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Originally uploaded by pusgums
So, my friend Sean reminded me that it's humanly possible to brew your own beer. I used to brew it when I lived in LA but you could only do it in the wintery months, and even then a couple of warm days would screw your batch and you'd end up with banana smelling malt liquor. (back then I was pretty poor, so the trick to disposing of this mistake was pinch your nose closed with one hand while you drank with the other)

But now I live in San Francisco! I drink much more beer! It's always fricken cold! Wish me luck!


friday
july, 27 2007

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Picture 3.png While trying to register on Translink's site, the iPhone conveniently sensed the field was named with "phone" and replaced my keyboard with a number keypad. A number keypad with no dash. A dash that the Translink required on their end to know it was a "real" number.

wednesday
july, 25 2007

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Today it occurred to me that the Spanish word for "and" ("y") is much more symbolic than the plain old english word "and". The "y" describes two lines converging into one line, the joining of two things is the perfect way to say "and".

This is also the day I ate Miracle Fruit. I forgot to find out if there was any sort of hallucinogenic properties associated with it, because that "y" thing I wrote about above is total stoner thinking.

  • Tessa's Braces: When I was ten. - When I was around 10 I decided that if I slept with my left arm across my stomach and my right arm at my side then the Zombies that lived in my closet wouldn't bother me. It worked. I still find myself sleeping like that.
  • THE HELLO EXPERIMENT - This won't make sense unless you've seen the video. link from Fresh Arrival.
  • Rands In Repose: Ninety Days - "Your job interview isn’t over until you’ve changed to become part of a new team." via Merlin. I am in the middle of Michael's book. It's excellent.

tuesday
july, 24 2007

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The Results of The Miracle Fruit
Originally uploaded by torrez
Today in Tech we sampled Miracle Fruit. It was very interesting, at times completely weird, but it's not quite a "miracle".

Click the photo to see how Miracle Fruit converted some of these items.

tuesday
july, 24 2007

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I spend a very large amount of time catching up with sites on my commute into work. Since I haven't developed a good workflow for del.icio.us bookmarking while on the device, I'm seeing the rate of my bookmark collection fall.

Apple iPhone update is desperately needed! OMG this iPhone is so outdated!

:)

So on with the links:

monday
july, 23 2007

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Crosswalk Sting Operation in Sausalito
Originally uploaded by andrewyang
Today's excitement at the office. Click through for the description.

friday
july, 20 2007

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You'll notice I have a slight advertising/marketing bent in things I link. I like companies, their brands, and how companies use their brands to interact with their customers or potential customers. I hate advertising without focus. I am not a fan of pretty much any contextual or behavioral schemes I see day-to-day.

There are two advertising campaigns right now that I keep running into on the web. The "Cloverfield" viral marketing campaign, and the fun and far-reaching campaign revolving around the Simpsons' movie. Below I have a link to a story about the Simpsons appearing in Harper's Bazaar, and no doubt you've heard of the Simpons/7-11 Kwik-E-Mart project in which 7-11 stores were converted to Kwik-E-Marts as seen on the Simpsons' TV Show.

I like both of these because they took effort and it shows (though the jury is still out on whether Cloverfield is masterfully architected or entirely botched. Paramount goons are throwing around C+Ds everywhere I look).

Everyone lauds the death of print media, traditional publishing paradigms, the music industry, DRM...but I'm most happy to see the death of rewarding advertisers for shitty, thoughtless campaigns. I think it's something we've all known for a while: treat your customers to something engaging and they'll reward you with an appearance in their link list and possibly a ticket to your movie.

wednesday
july, 18 2007

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Wow, lots of links to get through today. Be sure and check out the Youtube video "zZz is playing: Grip" for a pretty cool, uncut video with no special effects. If you're an iPhone fan there's some bugs you can re-create if you like that sort of thing (I like that sort of thing).

tuesday
july, 17 2007

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Hey We're Playing The Knockout Tomorrow Night
Originally uploaded by torrez
10PM! $5! ALL CAPS!

http://www.theknockoutsf.com/

tuesday
july, 17 2007

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