New Website

Thu, 06 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0500

After about 6 months of trying to get my old domain back I've decided to buy a new one and create a new website. Hopefully everything will be mostly the same, albeit with a slightly different layout and easier to maintain too.

A new batch of beer is born

Thu, 28 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0500

We've just finished bottling a new batch of beer. It's one of my favourites - we call it "Golden Boris IPA", named after the biggest fish in our pond. Golden Boris is India Pale Ale made with Maris Otter pale malt, and hopped with Fuggles, Goldings and Cascade. It should turn out to be around 5.9-6.0% alcohol and has a crisp Citrusy taste and flowery aroma. I based the recipe on the ingredients in Marston's Old Empire, but I think i've made something that I prefer more. I must admit i've been trying to make a good IPA for a while and I think I've cracked it. The leamington spa water here seems to be perfect for pale ale although i'm still not sure what other minerals I can alter to make the beer better. We certainly have a lot of sulphides in the water, but nowhere near that found in Burton on trent.

One of the things i've tried to do this time is to ensure that the PH of the mash is correct, tried to tighten up the sparging process to get a better extraction of colour and sugars and eliminate some of the subtle impurities in the aftertaste.

A Gigantic Lion Bar

Fri, 07 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Now that the internet is readily established it's very easy to share knowledge, and with the recent invention of digital cameras you can show people exact what you are getting up to. My work email inbox was blessed with a link to the website "Pimp that Snack". This website can be reached by clicking here. After browsing through the many projects that these guys had undertaken, I thought it would only be proper to give one of the recipes a quick go. Luckily I was going on holiday soon, so this would give the perfect opportunity to flex my creative muscles

Our tale begins with a journey to Aberystwyth's Lidl's store to find our ingredients. The challenge was to find similar materials amongst the myriad of foreign product found there. Luckily Lidl is very cheap and high in quality so I was certain that the project would turn out to be a success

Our pantry filled with choice ingredients we endeavoured to give ourself luck by brewing a special potion of cooking enhancement. This was made from equal proportions of Lidl's "Energy Drink" and Somerfield's very own Club Royal pale cream sherry. All medicine that is good for you is supposed to taste awful, and this was no different. The very prospect of it made the hardware in my digital camera have momentary jitters. The crew all assembled, we toasted our success in the foul brew and set to work!

The first instruction on the Pimp my snack website for the construction of the lion bar was to "tediously seperate the werther's originals from their wrappers". Our first stumbling block had been in the supermarket. As we were unable to find Werther's originals we had to settle for Lidl's "Butter Candy". Unwrapping them was tedious, but we decided to go the extra mile and increase the tediom. Adding oven gloves to the mix did significanly increase the time taken to unwrap each sweet, but after about 4 or 5 successful goes we thought we could do much better. The ladel, spoon and oven glove techniques was rated the best - it took about 5 minutes to unwrap each Butter candy!

By the end of the procedure we all thoroughly hated the Candy fiends, so we were all too glad to throw them into the saucepan and give them a good heating. Serve them right we say! During the melting process they took a great deal of stirring, and I was slightly worried that they would burn, but all turned out well. We were left with a saucepan full of very thick sticky caramel and arms like the fat end of table legs.

The caramel was quickly poured into our container ( in this case a plastic sandwich box ) and left to set. The setting process probably took all of 2 minutes, and we were able to fashion long strands of caramel that were about 3 metres long. Careful kids, when it's hot it burns! The next step was to add wafers to the container and begin to make the filling

Consulting the recipe on the pimp that snack website, I saw that the filling was a simple butter icing made with icing sugar, butter, and a jar of peanut butter. It turned out to require around 1kg of butter which basically meant it was Lard cake. For those slimmers out there it'd probably not be wise to eat the bar in one go. The mixture was also significantly runnier than i was expecting. The mixture was layered alternately with the wafers

Ah chocolate! There is no better chocolate than Lidl's. It's cheap and tasty and in my opinion much better than any chocolate you can buy from the larger supermarkets. For this recipe we needed 12 bars. Once the wafers were installed some chocolate was melted and used to seal the bottom.

The whole bar was then put in the freezer and we went off for the rest of the day and evening to make merry. The next day the bar was removed from the fridge, more chocolate melted and rice crispies ( or lidl's choco rice ) mixed in. This lumpy concoction was then poured over our bar and left to set. The final pictures show the cutting of the bar and comparisons with a normal size snack. I can only assume that the picture on the pimp that snack website was taken when the bar was still frozen, as their filling didn't ooze out. It certainly tasted ok!

Memory Shell

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0400

I decided to buy another ambient album from ShopSonic this week, so I went over to their downloads section and had a listen to one of the previews. One of the albums that really stood out was Memory Shell by AES Dana. I'd heard a couple of their tracks on other compilations and was impressed, but I was looking forward to hearing a whole album. So I handed over my £4 and got my 192Kbps DRM free MP3s. I've listened through the album a couple of times now and I can honestly say that it's becoming one of my favourites. The album starts off with some lovely ambient pads and odd noises before building up to some catchy basslines and drums. These rhythm sections last long enough before returning to some more pads and some female vocals before building up again to some more up-beat tracks. Overall an excellent album, it keeps the listener occupied without the tracks being too similar. Thoroughly recommended!

A good beer hunting trip in Scotland

Sat, 22 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0400

I travelled to scotland for easter and visited the lovely city of Glasgow. Whilst I was there I managed to purchase 26 lovely beers that I'd not tried before. Getting them back on the train wasn't as bad as I'd thought

From Left to Right:-

Top Row - Anchor Porter, Sapporo Lager, Anchor Liberty Ale, Goose Island IPA, Cooper's Pale Ale, Rochefort 10, John Sleeman's Honey Brown Lager, Orkney Skullsplitter

Middle Row - Brew Dog - The Physic, Hoegaarden - Forbidden Fruits, Orkney Dragonhead, Isle of Arran Sunset, 1488 Whisky Beer, Orkney Northern Light, Orkney Red McGregor, Mongozo Coconut Beer.

Bottom Row - Nimbus Blonde, Schneider Aventinus, Delerium Tremens, Lindermans Lambic Peach Beer, Westmalle Dubbel, Leffe Radieuse, Rochefort 8, Konig Ludwig Weissbier.

Long Itchington Beer Festival

Sat, 03 May 2008 00:00:00 -0400

To celebrate the start of the bank holiday weekend we decided that we'd head off down the canal to Long Itchington for their beer festival. The festival itself was held in six pubs all over the village and participants could walk between pubs to sample their ales. We set off in high spirits at around 12:15 and had a most pleasant walk and arrived at the Two Boats on the canalside at around 13:40. We scampered straight to the bar and started the day with a pint of Nettle Thrasher which was around 4% if I recall. The Two Boats was conducting canal boat rides during the day, but we were just happy to sit in the sun and sup some ale. Next up on the menu was a pint of Monkmans Slaughter, an incredibly fruity ale at 6%, and it was absolutely delicious.

We decided we'd better press on at this rate, so we walked over the canal and down the other side to the pub on the other side of the bank. I was pleased to see that they had Wyre Piddle's Same Again on Tap, and at 4.2% it was just what the doctor ordered. A very refreshing beer with excellent hoppy aroma. We were already familiar with Adnams Bitter ( which we'd drunk on many occassions ) so we decided to head into the heart of the village. There was a hog roast advertised and we were starting to get peckish. We passed by the Duck on the Pond pub on the way into the village but did not go in ( haha my revenge - see the PieQuest - "The Tale of the 9 Chips" for details ) but instead settled down in the Buck and Bell for a pint of Oakham's JHB. This beer was a must for me, as it's one of the beers in my beer book "300 Beers to try before you die" that i've sworn to complete. I wasn't disappointed with the JHB. A lovely light refreshing beer with an excellent aroma. We were getting quite drunk at this point and also the hunger was starting to bite.

So we legged it down the road to the Green Man for a pint of Nailmaker Mild, and a roast pork roll with apple sauce. Things were starting to get a bit hazy at this point, and I think we had a few more beers here. I seem to remember trying the Belvior Old Dalby ( 5.1% ) and a pint of No Escape by a brewery I can't remember. After this I think I'd had my limit and the next thing I know i'm waking up in my bed at 1.40am fully clothes. All praise the magic of the beer scooter! A thoroughly excellent day, and I gladly paid the price of the hangover the next day.