The Very Rich Hours of the Lambrights

Once again, it’s Brew Day!  Tonight (the fun had to wait until the girls were in bed for the night), our beer is Hefeweizen.  This is my second attempt at this beer.  Hefeweizen is a German wheat beer.  Typically made with around 60% wheat malt and 40% barley, this ale is usually light in color and boasts an alcohol content of 4% to 6%.  Mouthfeel is also typically light; this is a good refreshing beer for a hot summer day.  The only thing that keeps it from being a lawnmower beer is the assertive flavor it gets from the yeast.  Yeast strains used for Hefeweizen give the beer distinct flavors of cloves, banana, or even bubble gum (in a subtle way).  A peppery hint on the back of the tongue is not unheard of.  Bitterness is not part of the flavor profile; the hops are there simply as a counterweight to the sweetness of the malt and don’t lend much flavor of their own.

My last batch of Hefeweizen turned out pretty good.  Fermentation got a little too warm resulting in a mild off-flavor.  The clove flavor dominates, however, and there is a definite hint of that peppery spice at the end of a swallow.  Color is way off; the beer is more amber than yellow; this issue may not be avoidable as long as I’m brewing with malt extract.

So, what’s the plan tonight?  First, the recipe:

6 lbs of Northern Brewer house brand wheat malt extract
1 oz. of Tettnang hops with 3.5% Alpha Acid (boiled for 60 min.)
1 packet Safebrew WB-06 Bavarian Wheat yeast

That’s it!  Hefes don’t use specialty grains so this recipe is very simple, which makes it good for a late night session where I don’t want to be up until 1:00 AM.

What am I doing different from last time?  Several things:

• I’m doing a full volume boil with about half of the malt extract.  The other half will be added for the last 15 minutes of the boil.  That might help lighten the color.
• Different yeast.  Last time, I used Danstar Munich Wheat yeast.  It’s a good yeast but it is not very tolerant of higher fermentation temps.  I can’t get my beer much below 72 F in the basement, which was too high for the Danstar.  The Safebrew yeast is supposed to work OK (i.e. no off-flavors) up to 75 F.  I’ve never used this one before, but I’ve had great success with their S-04 and S-05 yeasts (for British and American style ales, respectively) and I have high hopes.

That’s it, really.  We’ll see how it goes.  I should be drinking this batch in about 4 weeks and I’ll post an update then on how it turns out.
 

Listening to the latest episode of The Red Zone, a weekly podcast on all things related to the Kansas City Chiefs.  This week, they interviewed Willie Lanier.  For all you young’uns out there, Lanier was a linebacker on the Chiefs team that won Superbowl IV in 1970.  He was the second Chief to be inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame.

Anyway, Willie had a lot of interesting things to say, particularly when comparing today’s NFL to the NFL of the 1960’s and 70s.  In the old days, there wasn’t enough money in the league for players to make a living at just football.  During the offseason, most players had to work some non-football job to make ends meet.  By contrast, few if any NFL players have to do anything but focus on football and training nowadays.  Lanier felt that, in the old days, a player’s college academics were more critical because it wasn’t just about having options for a post NFL-retirement career.  Your academic degree had a lot to do with your off-season job and thus had immediate impact on your life.

Lanier also thinks that the art of tackling and hitting people has gone downhill a bit as teams have gotten more worried about the risk of injury to their high-paid players.  :-)

Summer is already more than half over; hard to believe.  The girls have kept pretty busy and have had a pretty good time, I think.

We started the summer a little early with a trip in May to Missouri to see my Mom.  The girls are getting old enough to appreciate the Grandma that they don’t see as often as they do their other relatives.  I think the highlight was chasing ants and butterflies around Mom’s yard.

Rayna has been to, not one but, two vacation bible schools.  First, she spent a week at a Baptist church in Rochester at the invitation of Emily, her best friend from preschool.  And then, of course, bible school at our own church.  She returned the favor and invited Emily to come along.  Both girls had a great time.

As reported previously, both Rayna and Kaylee have been spending a lot of time in the pool at the Rochester Athletic Club.  Both took swimming lessons and are coming along nicely.  I personally had a great time in Kaylee’s parent/child lessons.

A few weeks ago, we all went to the Minnesota Zoo and had a good day.  I personally enjoyed the giant fish tanks the most.  Kaylee really seemed to get into that too, although she beat a hasty retreat when a shark suddenly swam close by.  Everyone had fun watching a brown bear who was quite a ham and put on a good show for the crowd.

So, it’s been a good summer so far.  Here’s looking forward to a great August!

Kaylee has gone over two days without a single accident and I think we’re over the hump with potty training.  She’s so excited that she can hardly contain herself.  This morning, she demanded that we remove the changing table from her room because she’s a big girl now and no longer needs it.  So, the old changing table that got us through two kids will be going out on the curb with a FREE sign on it today.  I hope someone else gets as much use out of it as we did.

This morning, we’re going out mattress shopping to get Kaylee a big girl bed.  We told her that we’d take this big step when she started using the potty so now it’s time to ante up.  We don’t need a headboard; her bed can be disassembled and (some of) the pieces reassembled in a different configuration to serve in that capacity.  All we need is mattress, frame, and bedding.  There are a lot of 4th of July sales at the furniture stores this weekend so the timing is good.

After that, we’re going out for lunch and ice cream in honor of Kaylee’s big achievement.  Should be a great day!

Kaylee has been taking swimming lessons at the RAC for the past couple of weeks.  It’s a parent-child kind of thing, with both of us in the water.  We play games, learn about different ways to encourage the kids to feel comfortable in the water, and generally have a good time.

Kaylee was in rare form tonight.  The teacher put out some noodles for us to use and within a few minutes, Kaylee was swimming by herself.  I was a little nervous about my 2 1/2 year-old, but she insisted that I not hold on to her while she clung to the noodle and propelled herself around the pool by kicking her legs.  Over and over again, she kept saying “I don’t need you, Daddy!”  It wasn’t dismissive or mean.  It was a cry of triumph and I couldn’t have been more proud.  I knew she was really happy when she suddenly blurted out, “I love you, Daddy.”

Once we finished playing with the noodles, it was time to jump off the side of the pool into the water.  Kaylee really likes this.  But after a few jumps, she seemed to lose interest.  I couldn’t figure out what she was trying to do at first.  She laid down on her belly at the pool edge and then kicked her legs out and slid right into the water while holding onto the edge.  I started to grab her but it was clear that she was in control and didn’t want any help.  Next thing I knew, she pushed off with her legs and shot back through the water into my arms.  We did that five or six times, with me putting her out of the pool so she could slip back in and push off.  The teacher came over and complemented me on getting her to do this but I had to admit that it had all been her idea.

All in all, it was quite an evening.

Today, I spent the afternoon indulging one of my favorite hobbies: homebrewing. Today’s beer is a Mild Ale, the first I’ve ever tried:

MILD ALE
Batch 1

4 lbs light malt extract
8 oz. 40L Crystal malt
4 oz. Chocolate malt
1 oz. Fuggles hops

Steeped the specialty malt for about 20 minutes until the temperature in the brew pot reached 168F.  Boiled the malt extract and hops for 60 minutes.  Pitched a packet of Safale S-04 dry yeast to start fermentation.

Mild Ale is an historical beer style that is not nearly as popular these days as it used to be.  Back in the 19th century, mild was a low-strength beer drunk in great quantities by manual laborers in factories, mines, and other heavy industrial areas.  In the days before bottled water, pop, and other beverages, mild would be drunk for breakfast, on breaks (if any) and for lunch.  So it had to be refreshing and hydrating but not as intoxicating as regular brews.  Making a beer with only 3 or 4% alcohol that is also tasty can be a challenge.  Specialty malt like the Crystal and Chocolate add character and heft to the beer without adding sugar that can be fermented by the yeast (which is what produces alcohol).  Hops are usually kept to a minimum, adding just enough bitterness to offset the sweetness of the malt.

Mild is considered a niche drink these days and it’s hard to find good examples commercially.  I myself have only had one opportunity: a bottle of Gale’s Festival Mild that I ran across at the Brickskeller in Washington DC.  With less than 5% alcohol, it wasn’t going to impair me and tasted seriously good.  Mine will be ready to drink in about 6 weeks.

Good article at Slate: How Obama’s cool, detached temperament is hurting him and his party

I think the author hit the nail on the head. I don’t think it would be good for the President to change his style, however. Public discourse in this country has become way too emotional and ignorant of facts. I really don’t want another President who will connect with me emotionally. I want one who is smart, focused, and intellectually rigorous. It’d be nice if more citizens were that way, too.

Reading all the derision of the President’s Nobel prize and the positive joy some Americans seem to feel about Chicago losing the Olympics is getting really old. Claire McCaskill, Senator from Missouri, summed up my feelings really well on her blog:

I feel that I’m in an alternative universe. For eight years some people called anyone who disagreed with the President’s foreign policy or war in Iraq unpatriotic. Then in the course of two weeks, those same people cheer when the United States does not get selected for the Olympics and boo when our President is the unanimous choice for the Nobel Peace Prize. Go figure.

Congratulations Mr. President for standing up to the scorn and derision of your opponents in the election when you firmly stood for the proposition that strength meant being willing to talk to your enemies, not just your allies. Thank you for the confidence and wisdom to say that a hand will be extended when their fist is unclenched. And thank you for understanding that our national security rests on our principles, the example we set for the world, and our alliances along with the excellence and strength of our military, rather than exclusively the latter. God Bless America.

On October 5, 1969, Monty Python’s Flying Circus made it’s debut on the BBC.  Others have already hailed this program for it’s comedic genius so I’ll skip that.  I will also spare you the maudlin details of how I discovered this show on PBS while in High School and have loved it ever since.  Instead, I’ll just play one of my favorite Python bits, Flying Lessons:

trip to como zoo 2009 (6), originally uploaded by The Lambrights.

This is one of the pictures from our Labor Day weekend trip to Como Zoo. Hanging out in the butterfly tent, Kaylee suddenly decides to let her inner hip hop star come out.

Seriously, I have no idea where this came from.