beer
greengabbro | March 13, 2009This one's for Wilkins; it's a Pi Day / St. Patrick's Day twofer.
Ingredients
1 lb. stew lamb
1 onion
A few tbsp diced tomatoes (whatever was left in the can you used for pasta the other night)
1 clove garlic
6-8 ice cubes of broth - I make broth from whatever bones and scraps I have left over after other cooking, and freeze it in ice cube trays for easy use later. Fortuitously, my most recent batch was mostly lamb ribs and onion butts.
~1/2 pint Guinness
Salt, pepper, and MSG to taste
1 cup white flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
8 tbps (1 stick) butter
2 1/2 tbsp vegetable shortening, and…
terrasig | March 9, 2009
I'm very proud today to see one of my formative professors, Dr Fulton Crews, quoted extensively in a USAToday article on a new, web-based alcohol awareness initiative, "Rethinking Drinking," from NIH's National Institute for Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) Division of Treatment and Recovery Research.
While many associate heavy drinking with liver problems, it can also increase the risk for heart disease, sleep disorders, depression, stroke and stomach bleeding. Consumed during pregnancy, it can cause fetal brain damage, says Fulton Crews, director of the Bowles Center for Alcohol…
terrasig | February 13, 2009Like many of my readers, I am continually blown away by the parenting skills and science education abilities of my friend and colleague, Dr Janet D Stemwedel (aka Dr Free-Ride). Among her many gifts is her Friday feature with her family documenting how kids learn about science. And like her commenters state, I'd love to see these posts compiled into a book.
As an aside, having children returns one, whether one likes it or not, back to the days of asking "why" about everything (or, more appropriately, being forced to answer why about things you've taken for granted for 20 or more years). One…
rallain | January 25, 2009When you pour a beer, there is this foamy top called the head. The size of the head decreases over time. What is this process dependent on? Clearly, little bubbles of beer are popping. Does each bubble have an equal probability of popping? Do only the bubbles on the top (or bottom) pop? I became aware of this idea from a colleague. Maybe he was going to do an analysis, but I haven't seen it yet. If you do (Gerard), I am sorry for doing this before you. This may have been investigated before, but in the spirit of re-doing everything I have not searched for previous beer head studies.…
terrasig | January 4, 2009I should really save this new item for next week's Friday Fermentable but I was too excited walking back from picking up the NYT and local fishwrapper from the cold, rainy driveway this morning.
Beer enthusiast, brewer, and public policy wiz, Sean Wilson, is staring back at me on the front page of the Raleigh (NC) News & Observer as "Tar Heel of the Week," in a Josh Shaffer article entitled, "Brewer to blend mad science, local flavor."
Each week, the N&O recognizes a citizen making substantial and often unique contributions to the state's economy, community, cultural patina, or all…
zooillogix | October 3, 2008How we missed this the first time around I will never know, nor forgive our readers for. Enjoy!
Thanks to Mike McElwain for sending along. yitb
terrasig | August 11, 2008After a long sit on the tarmac at LaGuardia Airport, I'm home from the ScienceBlogs blogger and reader meet-up. Many thanks to all of you readers who came out on Saturday to meet the bloggers at Social Pub, sponsored jointly by Seed Media Group and NYC Skeptics.
The threatened anti-vaccination crowd did not materialize and I had a delightful time chatting with Dr Val Jones of the Voice of Reason blog, Peter Frishauf, founder of Medscape, one of the Medgadget proprietors, a reader named Dawn whose blog I cannot remember right now, and Steve, a pharma/biotech attorney.
Dr Val was totally…
terrasig | May 4, 2008Well, we kept the polls open as long as possible and some bloggers voted early and often while others waited 'til the last minute. We've had some locals and some out-of-staters with recollections of North Carolina. So, without further adieu, the NC primary edition of the Tar Heel Tavern:
NC Politics
Political bloggers in the state were not surprisingly among the first to submit entries. Perennial NC blogging fave, The Olive Ridley Crawl, gives us NC Primary - Vote for a Non Panderer.
Jim Buie submitted several of which I picked Obama, in Raleigh, Shows He's No Elitist Egghead and In NC,…
mikethemadbiologist | March 10, 2008I've already covered the War on Beer, but now, pizza is taking it the chops too. Have they no decency? From the Back Bay Sun:
The changing economy is not only affecting the housing market and the prices at the pump - it's also taking a bite out of local pizza makers' profits. The rising costs of two key ingredients in the perfect pie - flour and cheese - have been making pizza joints around the Back Bay take a second look at their production costs and even their pizza prices.
"The costs are just getting crazy," says Doug Ferriman, who would know as the owner of Crazy Dough's Pizza at 1124…
mikethemadbiologist | March 7, 2008By way of the Burned Over District, we find out that there is a global hopps shortage:
A worldwide shortage of a key beer ingredient, hops, is causing beer prices to spike, beer batches to be delayed, and talk of your favorite pale ales being forced to (gulp) mellow out.
Already, in Charlotte, retailers are reporting that beers from smaller, "craft" breweries have risen about $1 per six-pack this year, with more increases coming as brewers pass on the cost of a five- to tenfold increase in hops prices.
That's if the brewers can find any hops at all.
So whom do we invade to fix this?
terrasig | January 5, 2008The e-ink wasn't even dry last night on my Friday Fermentable post about the Flying Dog Open Source Beer project before I received a comment from Josh Mishell, Creative Manager for the brewery:
Thanks for writing about our Open Source Beer! $12.79 is a great deal, considering we sell it out of our tasting room for $18, as well.
By a strange stroke of luck, your blog entry is very timely. Today is the first Friday of the month, and every first Friday, beer bloggers everywhere write on a common theme (we call it "The Session"). I think it's a unique thing in the blogger world, and love being a…
terrasig | January 4, 2008I can't believe I missed this earlier in the year: Colorado's Flying Dog Brewery created a beer based upon a basic recipe together with reader suggestions in what was called The Open Source Beer Project:
You are holding what we believe is the first Open Source Beer to hit the market in the United States. We started with a basic Doppelbock recipe and solicited suggestions from homebrewers on our blog. We took your comments and crafted this Doppelbock, aptly named Collaborator. The blog, the recipe, and the label are online at opensourcebeerproject.com, if you'd like to brew some yourself.…
terrasig | January 1, 2008...there is a very colorful discussion thread of hangover remedies over at the WSJ Health Blog.
Yesterday, Health Blog's Jacob Goldstein briefly discussed a 2000 Annals of Internal Medicine paper on alcohol hangovers and remedies/prophylactic approaches. Despite all of the discussion, Goldstein also cites a 2005 systematic review in BMJ by Max Pittler and Edzard Enrst at Exeter that concluded,
No compelling evidence exists to suggest that any conventional or complementary intervention is effective for preventing or treating alcohol hangover. The most effective way to avoid the symptoms of…
terrasig | December 7, 2007Yesterday, 6 December was the feast day of Saint Nicholas and that can only mean one thing: the newest batch was Samichlaus bier was brewed in Austria. Samichlaus - Swiss-German for 'Santa Claus' - is recognized widely as one of the world's rarest, finest, and strongest bottom-fermented, or lager, beers. Indeed, it weighs in at a heroic 14% alcohol by volume (ABV). But the special attributes of the beer come from how it is brewed.
The selection you are viewing here was brewed on 6 December 2006 and bottled in October (that's tea in my mug, not Sami, as this picture was taken this morning…
mikethemadbiologist | December 3, 2007I received the most bizarre spam email. It claims to be from the company that makes Guinness:
Guinness Online Lottery.
Diageo Ireland
P.O. Box 1759,
Killorglin, Co. Kerry
Irelandwww.guinness.com
THE GUINNESS COMPANY OFFICIAL PRIZE NOTIFICATION
We are pleased to inform you of the result of the just
concluded draws held by Guinness Company. Your E-mail was
among the 5 Lucky winners who won £2,500,000.00 GBP
(Two Million, Five Hundred Thousand, British Pound Sterling's)
each in the Guinness Company online Lottery. This draw is being
organized to enhance awareness and publicity of the…
terrasig | November 23, 2007I'm a little late today with The Friday Fermentable. I wanted to be able to report back from a local beer tasting event called Black Friday Beer Fest. In deference to today's major shopping day in the US (named Black Friday to denote that many businesses come out of the "red" due to the brisk sales the day after Thanksgiving), NC's Pop The Cap organization conceived a tasting of dark beers (local, national, and even Polish) to welcome in the holiday season and provide an alternative to hunting for parking spaces at the local mall (Tagline above: "We'd Rather Drink Beer.").
Attendees were…
terrasig | November 22, 2007For readers not in the US, today is Thanksgiving Day. Our friends to the north celebrated their harvest festival last month.
I'll be giving thanks today to my local Honeybaked Ham® franchise for making our little stay-at-home celebration that much easier.
As I also enjoy my British-crafted Samuel Smith Imperial Stout, I'll also be giving thanks that my little blog hobby is something that is valued by you folks around the world.
There are a great many challenges on this planet and there is much suffering among our people. We should all find something to be thankful for today.
Wherever you…
terrasig | September 28, 2007Beer is good for you, especially at this time of year. If I had my druthers (or knew what druthers were), I would be in Munich/München for the annual Oktoberfest celebration. This two week festival (22 Sept - 10 Oct this year) hosts over six million visitors and is a celebration of the Bavarian capital and its storied culture.
But why does Oktoberfest begin in September? From the Oktoberfest blog:
The festivities began on October 12, 1810 and ended on October 17th with a horse race. In the following years, the celebrations were repeated and, later, the festival was prolonged and moved…
terrasig | September 7, 2007This week has seen an outpouring of sentiments in the wake of the death of famed beer and spirits writer, Michael Jackson.
Therefore, we dedicate this edition of The Friday Fermentable to the memory of this remarkable gentleman and writer.
A post at Michael's Beer Hunter website details a series of resources that celebrate Michael's life and mourn his passing.
Among the links are to Michael's last article, written for All About Beer Magazine, and a video of his last interview on 7 August. The muscle rigidity and jerky movements due to his Parkinson's disease are clearly evident but, like…
terrasig | September 2, 2007As I noted last evening, the world of beer and spirits is mourning the loss of British writer and libation enthusiast, Michael Jackson. Jackson was suffering from Parkinson's disease but succumbed to a heart attack earlier this week at age 65.
Jackson's Beer Hunter website/blog notes that a national toast to Jackson will be held on 30 September, with all proceeds to benefit the US National Parkinson Foundation. Stan Hieronymus writes:
If you know a brewpub, bar, tavern, ale house, tap house, multi-tap or similar establishment that might participate urge them to do so. Information will be…