For anyone waiting with bated breath:
Spicy and banana-y wiezenbock chilling;
Strong Scotch Ale fermenting;
Hops sprouting;
Garden tilled and planted;
Politics turned back on with a primary annoying me daily.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Monday, April 7, 2008
The Wonderful Immigration Agency I work with Daily, Episode 3
Citizenship and Immigration Services wants you to know it's working full-time to welcome legal immigrants and new citizens to the country:
To be fair, "I don't think anyone could have anticipated" a massive increase in immigration and citizenship filings before fees tripled last July.
Plus, most of these potential new citizens would vote Democratic in November. Best to nip that problem in the bud right now.
The number of people who legally immigrated to the U.S. dropped 17 percent last year, largely because of administrative problems, according to a Homeland Security Department report.
A total of 1.05 million people became legal permanent residents in 2007, falling from 1.27 million a year earlier, according to the report by the department's Office of Immigration Statistics.
Citizenship and Immigration Services has been under fire after processing times grew because immigrants flooded the agency with applications filed last year in advance of a dramatic increases in filing fees. The delays will keep some people from becoming citizens in time to vote in November.
To be fair, "I don't think anyone could have anticipated" a massive increase in immigration and citizenship filings before fees tripled last July.
Plus, most of these potential new citizens would vote Democratic in November. Best to nip that problem in the bud right now.
Weihenstephan Weizenbock for Brooke
Weihenstephan Monastery in Germany has been brewing beer since 1040. 10-freaking-40. It's tough to really wrap your brain around the idea of a continuous trade in a good for nearly 1,000 years, but it makes sense. Stan Hieronymus in Brew Like a Monk notes that Benedictine Monks were ordered to sustain their living through work and trade. Add that to the demand that they offer hospitality to all who passed through (i.e. beer rather than the contaminated water of the middle ages), and you've got a built-in brewing tradition.
Weihenstephan makes an incredible weizenbock. They keep the color light to fit the heavy 'bananas and cream' flavor to this beer. It's just delicious - full-bodied, goes down smooth, very creamy and all at around 7.5%.
More than that, though, their Weizenbock 'doesn't have that yucky back of your mouth stingy' taste (paraphrased) that Brooke despises in beer. In fact, she loved the bottle we bought a couple weeks back. That's a big deal. A good friend of mine once commented that when her husband makes her beer, it's like having a song written for her.
So I took a stab at a similar style this weekend. I didn't match the Weihenstephan recipe and I didn't try to hunt one down. I did, however, use Weihenstephan weizen yeast, a ton of wheat and the same or similar noble hops. The original gravity wasn't at all what I was going for (this is an alcoholic beer, but it's also got a lot of delicious non-fermentables in it that add to the body), so I threw in a pound of turbinado sugar. I was careful in pitching and fermenting temperatures (55-65 degrees), which is central to the weizenbock style. I'll take advantage of the landlord's second fridge and cold-condition it for a week or so.
It won't be the same as the monks' brew. It never is. Hopefully it resonates with Brooke and the rest of us who drink it this late spring.
______________________________________________________________________________
*For Brewing Nerds: I used about 50% wheat, with the remainder split between two-row, munich and light crystal. The color was definitely darker than the commercial variety, but I knew that going in. Disturbed by the gravity reading, I added the sugar to the wort. I threw in Saaz at the boil, and a couple small additions of Hallertau in the last 20 minutes of an 80 minute boil. It's fermenting with Weihenstephan Weizenbock yeast from Wyeast.
Weihenstephan makes an incredible weizenbock. They keep the color light to fit the heavy 'bananas and cream' flavor to this beer. It's just delicious - full-bodied, goes down smooth, very creamy and all at around 7.5%.
More than that, though, their Weizenbock 'doesn't have that yucky back of your mouth stingy' taste (paraphrased) that Brooke despises in beer. In fact, she loved the bottle we bought a couple weeks back. That's a big deal. A good friend of mine once commented that when her husband makes her beer, it's like having a song written for her.
So I took a stab at a similar style this weekend. I didn't match the Weihenstephan recipe and I didn't try to hunt one down. I did, however, use Weihenstephan weizen yeast, a ton of wheat and the same or similar noble hops. The original gravity wasn't at all what I was going for (this is an alcoholic beer, but it's also got a lot of delicious non-fermentables in it that add to the body), so I threw in a pound of turbinado sugar. I was careful in pitching and fermenting temperatures (55-65 degrees), which is central to the weizenbock style. I'll take advantage of the landlord's second fridge and cold-condition it for a week or so.
It won't be the same as the monks' brew. It never is. Hopefully it resonates with Brooke and the rest of us who drink it this late spring.
______________________________________________________________________________
*For Brewing Nerds: I used about 50% wheat, with the remainder split between two-row, munich and light crystal. The color was definitely darker than the commercial variety, but I knew that going in. Disturbed by the gravity reading, I added the sugar to the wort. I threw in Saaz at the boil, and a couple small additions of Hallertau in the last 20 minutes of an 80 minute boil. It's fermenting with Weihenstephan Weizenbock yeast from Wyeast.
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