Bubblin...

Thought i would share a video of the fermentation procsess in full swing.   as you can see in the clip, the Co2 that is created as a bi-product of yeast digesting sugars is able to escape the chamber without allowing outside air in.   a beautiful thing.....

I love that you can hear the kiddos yamming away in the background......

also included is a picture of the yeast "head" that forms during the first three days of fermentation.  this is a good sign of healthy a yeast colony at work -

the Sopranos machine at Mathews,,,,,

Mathew's bar is for regulars.   I mean, the guys who come in at ten o'clock on the dot to get it done right.   I walked in and every eye shot to me.    every guy in the place seemed to know each other and knew i was just there to play pinball.   well, i was.   and i got the highest human score on the board!   dudes were pissed.  

I went in on the fifteenth of December cause a friend told me thats when all the guys getting benefits get their check.   sure enough, the place was packed.   the bouncer told me he had the best machine in town.    he also came to check on my progress three times during the half hour i was there......

the machine was in fact, awesome.   i'll be back to play it.   

I thought for sure that this machine was going to be dilapitated and crooked, but to my delight it was fast, acurate, challenging and out right fun to play.   for two bucks you get five games - i also got two free replays out of it making it a very affordable machine to get into.

Check out the strip joint in the top left hand corner.....
the trucks that you rob throughout the game in the top right.....
in the upper center is the safe you repeatedly rob.

As you might expect, the point of the game is to climb the ranks of the mafia from grunt to top-boss - you do this by completing tasks: selling stolen goods, offing people, exchanging money and my favorite, managing a strip joint.   there are lots of profanities and random acts of violence in the gameplay, but its pretty mild really.  

I killed it.  on my third game i scored the highest human score that the machine had played.   it was like walking on water.    zen and the art of pinball.   magic. 

In all honesty, Mathews Pub was quite a lovely spot.    I grew up at Bruno and Rico's up in Belfast and have grown to appreciate an establishment like Mathews.   Though its got a bad rap, the bar was clean and had new jukeboxes and a dance floor - not to mention the pinball machine was top-notch.

Now i just have to beat the computer score.........

Operation Pinball......

So, its my intention to find every single pinball machine in a twenty mile radius of Portland.   is that crazy?   well, its what i'm doing....other than being totally busy all the time.   but that's the beauty of pinball - while guys are out there pissing away their time and money on something like bowling (yea, thats for you christian), pinball only costs fifty cents....and if you're any good, you'll get a free game or two.   anyway....here's the first machine of my tour.

At the Yankee Lanes on outer Forest Ave lies a little played gem called "Cirqus Voltaire."   its bright, colorful, eye catching backboard drew me in.    love at first sight.   plus, the kids who usually play it don't know what there doing.....low replay score!   Anyway, the replay must be twenty second, so it's forgiving as you learn the ropes.    the game consists of defeating a RingMaster by completing assorted tasks on the play-board.   at first, getting the RingMaster out is no problem, but as the game continues, it gets more challenging to defeat him.

As in all games, there are assorted "SideShows," but these left me a bit perplexed.    in fact, this was my big criticisms for the machine - though the board is exciting, there are so many ramps, spinners, stoppers, gates, bumpers, slingshots and other assorted accouterments that it became difficult to figure which shots corresponded with the actions i needed to follow.  

As you can see, the backboard is really wild.   I didn't like the placement of the display board.    Being tall, it was difficult to see pop ups that corresponded with the game.    Esthetically, I think having the scoreboard so close to the game action was just a little too much.

Once played for a few games, the shots became more and more clear.   I figured out all shots other than the ball lock which seemed totally random.   but i got it.   twice in the same game.    strange.

Tons of shots.   Thank god for a twenty second ball-save!    above the left main bumper lies a strange entraped bouncy ball that deflects the pinball in strange ways.   one nice thing - if you do not make a shot up one of the ramps all the way, the ball has a tendency to shoot back in a non-direct path.    too many machines have steep ramps that shoot the ball straight down the center if you don't make them.    makes for nice long plays.    the neon on the right was a bit too much and out of place, but overall, this is a nice looking machine.

The backboard is really sweet.    the white slash behind the performer is actually a window - behind it is a cannon that is used in one of the mini games.   also included is some sort of wheel.  Flashy? yes.   Functional.   maybe?

Overall i thought this game was worth a play.   not crazy hard - i was able to get a double replay out of it, but challenging and different.

Bowling is for people who like to have a good time together.   be a loner.   play pinball.

Belgian triple IPA brew process.

I've started this blog upon the request of my freinds and family whom drink my brews but don't know much about the process or really about what exactly they are drinking.   well, here it is - my attempt to shine light on what i'm up to.    to start off, i'll show what goes into the brew and later i'll do reviews and tastes of both my own and other's selections.  we'll start with Belgian Triple IPA!

Personally, this is my favorite kind of beer to make. Big, yet light- smooth, with a Belgian yeast overtone that pairs oh so sweetly with cascade, saaz and Amarillo hops. East meets west baby!

This is a look into my makeshift brew process.   Though i'm no pro and I don't have a lot of resources to put into purchasing equipment, i've been making some really great beers for the last year.  
 
 

The first step is to steep the grains for one hour. As mash temp was at around 153', I added water that was 160' and regulated with the burner.    The goal of this step is to extract the sugars in the grains by process of keeping them at a specific temperature for one hour.  

After the hour is up, i did my best to strain all liquid from the grains through a makeshift process of industrial stainer.    Once all available liquid is removed, I poured on another gallon of near boiling water to rinse the grains of sugars as well as stopping the conversion process.

 once all liquid is removed from the grains, i began my boil.   the boil is the hour in which the wort is boiled with hops and additional adjuncts (sugars, spices, stabilizers) to create the final product.   during this hour hops are added incrementally to provide the adequate bitters to hide the sweetness of our malt.   


also, as used just seven pounds of grains for the mash, additional sources of sugar are needed to achieve a higher alcohol content.   in this case i used approximately 5 pounds of light pilsner malt extract.  also, i used two pounds of clear rock candy sugar to bring out keep the body of the beer down as much as possible.   


during the hour boil, i usually take the time to create a boost for my beer's yeast pitch.......

.    one potential mishap that i've made with prior beers is to not throw enough yeast on a beer that is chock full of sugars to digest.   if there is not enough yeast pitched, the yeast can get overwhelmed and you end up with a sweet beer.   in order to avoid this issue, brewers many times make a high concentrated wort for the yeast to get going before pitching it into the actual beer.      i boiled a small amount of my wort with some additional malt extract and cooled to room to room temperate.     very carefully i sanitized a old growler and air lock for a fermentation vessel.   then, I added the yeast and left it in a warm spot for the night to do its magic.

for this brew i used the best.....white labs liquid yeast.   with many ales or stouts it is fine to use a nondescript yeast, but a belgian beers defining characteristics (in my opinion) is the yeast undertones.   in order to get the fruity, spicy flavors i went for the top shelf.

    Using a sanitized bucket and straining equipment, i carefully transfered the wort and mixed it with cold water to make 5.5 gallons.    My boil yielded 3.5 gallons, so the addition of 2 gallons of cold water brings the temp of the wort down considerably.   this is a potentially dangerous time in the life cycle as airborne yeast can survive (and thrive) at these temperatures.      Cover immediately!      Sanitize! 

My transfer bucket is handy in that its equipped with a valve.   I simply place the sanitized carboy under the bucket with a short length of tubing attached to reduce spill.   As the wort is still too warm to host yeast (temps over 90 will kill the yeast.....i learned the hard way.   twice) i let it sit overnight in my cold kitchen.   this is also handy because it gives my starter the time to do its thing.  

The next day when i added the yeast starter to the wort (on the right) i was sure to keep it warm for the first 24 hours.   In this stage of fermentation it is vital to keep the wort at 70 degrees or above to ensure strong growth.    

So basically, there it is.    A peep into my passion.    A look into my love.   This insight may or may not be helpful - in fact, i may be doing some things in a totally unreasonable way....but hey, its been working for me!