carnal panic

Brewing today

Andy and Keith are coming over, and we’re gonna brew beer and watch the Pats game and eat some of that new bacon that looks basically as good as bacon can look.

4 lb US 2-row malt
2.5 lb Crystal 20 malt
2 lb Belgian biscuit malt

1oz Crystal
1oz Cascade

Trying out WLP-862 “Cry Havoc” yeast, which is a Charlie Papazian signature strain. Charlie Papazian wrote the book on modern homebrewing (literally) and this is his personal strain of yeast, developed to flourish pretty much anywhere from 50-75degF. What a coincidence, that’s the temperature range in my back room! Says on the White Labs brochure that this yeast responds well to altbier-style aging, which I am keen to do.

flac2lame - Convert FLAC to MP3, Preserving Tags

I wrote a script to convert FLAC files to MP3s, preserving tags.

It’s pretty minimal, but I’ve been ripping some of my vinyl lately, and this scratches my itch.

I wanted to call it ‘flac2mp3’ but that’s already the name of some dude’s Bash script.

https://github.com/gamache/flac2lame

Radically Simple Home Distillation

This is a how-to guide for stovetop distillation. It requires no specialized apparatus and is good enough for all sorts of small-scale distillation projects around the house.

You need a metal pot, a round-bottomed (or close to it) metal bowl which is too large to fit inside the pot, and a Pyrex dish or measuring cup. You also need a supply of ice cubes. One five-pound bag will distill about 2L of vodka on my gas stove.

First, HOW NOT TO SET YOURSELF OR YOUR KITCHEN ON FIRE.

1. Use a stovetop hood or fan, or aim a room fan at the stove. Make sure vapors are carried away.
2. Gas stoves: turn off the flame before uncovering a boiling pot.
3. Have a pot cover and an extinguisher handy.
4. Don’t be stupid

Here goes:

You fill the pot with the liquid to distill.

You then place the empty dish in the center of the pot, taking care to keep it empty.

The pot goes on the stove, and the bowl is placed atop the pot

…and filled with ice.

As the pot liquor heats up, different chemicals will boil off at their respective boiling points. These will rise as vapor, condense on the ice-cold metal bowl, and drip down the side of the bowl and into the Pyrex.

Obviously such a simple still cannot produce precise results, but for simple tasks not requiring precision, you can’t beat shit you already have.

If you know the expected amount of alcohol (in my case, 1.75L of 40% ABV vodka = 700mL), then great — you know when to stop. Otherwise, there are cues. If you listen hard, you can hear the bubbling speed up as the alcohol starts to boil, then slow down as the alcohol is boiled off completely, only to speed up again as the water starts to boil. When the alcohol slows down, that’s a good time to stop.

There are many other compounds with boiling points lower than that of the alcohol, which come out first. This is especially true when distilling fermented mash, as opposed to turning crappy vodka into high-proof grain alcohol. The first stuff to boil often contains a few things you don’t want. It’s wise to either discard the first bit of distillate that you collect, or to briefly boil the distillate later. The finished product can also be passed through a charcoal filter (e.g. Brita) for added cleaning.

This kind of still is not very practical for mash distillation, but it works fine for purifying vodka and I imagine it would work just as well for liqueurs. Perhaps I will put an absinthe together in the not-too-distant future.

Smoked: Bacon, Kielbasa

I smoked the bacon from these posts, along with some fresh kielbasa that I made the other day with my new Kitchenaid meat grinder/sausage stuffer attachment. Five hours on and off in applewood, with the flue wide open. I’ll be doing this a lot, because the results kicked serious ass.
This was just a salt, brown sugar, and black pepper dry rub for a week or so. Sliced up half a pound for breakfast this morning and it was just awesome. No creosote flavor on the outside at all.
These got an extra two or three hours the previous day. They sure smell good. We’re eating them tonight.

Gonna distill today

Cause why the hell not. Plus I need some high proof stuff to make a pile of orange rinds into bitters, but mostly why the hell not. I’ll be doing it on the stovetop and using a metal bowl full of ice as a condenser. Time to get some cheap vodka!

Edit- ok not today. Got some real shit vodka though!

Ruby 1.9 Hash Syntax Is Dumb

As I am attempting to write more about software topics in my everyday life, and not just post food:

The new Ruby 1.9 hash syntax is a pretty dumb idea.

Just a few of the reasons I invoked in a workplace discussion about our hash format:

Visual complaints:

* Input doesn’t visually match output
* Two symbols right next to each other look different

Functional complaints:

* Visually identical but operationally different from Javascript hash syntax
* Ruby doesn’t need to get any closer to Smalltalk than it already is (using a hash to pass in all method params is a cool approximation of Smalltalk/ObjC named parameters, but it doesn’t need to look exactly the same)
* Loss of backward compatibility with no discernible payoff

Ad hominem complaints:

* I’m pretty sure [coworker redacted] only likes the new hash syntax and CoffeeScript cause of blogs and internets anyhow

I haven’t heard any compelling reasons to promote the change. Anyone?

Creosote and Smoking Meats

After a few heavily-smoked meats in my recent past have come out with pretty unpalatable skin, I decided to finally read something about it. Turns out I have been going about things pretty much dead wrong, in terms of grill control!

Creosote builds up on food when there is improper airflow. I have been smoking things largely by restricting the exhaust flue for long periods of time.

The smoke coming out is supposed to be thin, not white and billowing. Oops.

So now I have a smoker to clean and learn how to use all over again. Game on!