October Banter 2019

[jonjon]

20 minutes ago, mattie g said:

@jonjon

If you don't mind my asking, what are the specs (OG, FG, etc.) on the imperial stout? Did you do anything different than your standard brew session like a longer boil, higher mash temp, or anything?

I'm curious because I want to see if I can really thicken up the stout I'll be doing..and to see what a pro might do to set a big stout apart from others. I did one a couple years ago that I conditioned on a bourboned oak spiral and vanilla beans (and of which I have one bottle left) that I'm pretty happy with, but it was definitely thinner and had more carb than I wanted. I'm not too worried about the carbonation for the upcoming one since I'll be naturally carbonating and keg conditioning it, but I'd love to get it a good deal thicker.

I'm a big fan of Firestone Walker Parabola, and I've read some posts from their brewer about the challenge of brewing a big beer like that, and their process, so I've followed their lead.

We will be putting an entire 55lb bag of flaked oats in the mash, this will thicken things up pretty well.  We also mash low (144 degrees) in order to help the fermenability of the wort, as this will be quite a monster for the yeast with an OG of somewhere between 1.100 and 1.125 (we've set the goal posts wide here since this will be the first we are brewing this on this scale).  To get the gravity up this high we are going to add an entire bag of Muntons dark DME for gravity boost.  We'll check gravity near the end of the boil to see if we're in the range, if too low we'll boil longer.  I'd like to get the final gravity down in the 1.030 to 1.035 range, if possible.  It will be a monster pitch of US-05 dry yeast. This will give us a beer in the 11-13% abv range without being too cloying.  We also add the dark malts to the mash for just the last 10-15 minutes of the mash (not the entire mash time) to cut down on astringency.

I think that sums it up.  I'll be glad to answer any other questions.

Jon

[yoda]

@nj2va and other Cap fans -- https://www.prohockeyrumors.com/2019/10/pheonix-copley-headlines-three-players-on-waivers.html

Also... just saw on Twitter that Reirden says that Samsonov will be the goalie and make his NHL debut on Friday when the Caps play the Islanders

Quote

The Washington Capitals have seemingly decided to make the switch to Ilya Samsonov as their backup goaltender. Pheonix Copley has been placed on waivers, along with New York Islanders forward Scott Eansor and Carolina Hurricanes forward Max McCormick. Eansor recently announced he would be retiring from professional hockey, meaning this placement will probably precede a mutual contract termination.

Copley,  27, was just signed to a three-year $3.3MM extension in February, though that was at least in part due to the upcoming expansion draft. The backup goaltender played in 27 games with the Capitals last season and recorded a 16-7-3 record with a .905 save percentage, but is a little too pricey for the team right now with his $1.1MM cap hit. Samsonov, who carries just a $925K cap hit on his entry-level deal, is one of the top goaltending prospects in the world and should get his first taste of NHL action this weekend.

The 22-year old Samsonov dominated the KHL for three straight seasons between 2015-18, but struggled somewhat in his first season in North America. Posting an .898 save percentage for the Hershey Bears, he showed some inconsistency even behind a strong group. Despite those disappointing stats, he still possesses all the potential in the world and could push for a starting role at some point in the future. Seeing exactly what they have will be important to the Capitals, who have starter Braden Holtby approaching unrestricted free agency and in line for a huge raise on the open market.

Interesting decision considering they just signed him to a 3 year deal earlier this year... seems like this was a cap crunch move... but I don't think Copley is going to make it through waivers without some team claiming him

[nw baltimore wx]

53 minutes ago, jonjon said:

I'm a big fan of Firestone Walker Parabola, and I've read some posts from their brewer about the challenge of brewing a big beer like that, and their process, so I've followed their lead.

We will be putting an entire 55lb bag of flaked oats in the mash, this will thicken things up pretty well.  We also mash low (144 degrees) in order to help the fermenability of the wort, as this will be quite a monster for the yeast with an OG of somewhere between 1.100 and 1.125 (we've set the goal posts wide here since this will be the first we are brewing this on this scale).  To get the gravity up this high we are going to add an entire bag of Muntons dark DME for gravity boost.  We'll check gravity near the end of the boil to see if we're in the range, if too low we'll boil longer.  I'd like to get the final gravity down in the 1.030 to 1.035 range, if possible.  It will be a monster pitch of US-05 dry yeast. This will give us a beer in the 11-13% abv range without being too cloying.  We also add the dark malts to the mash for just the last 10-15 minutes of the mash (not the entire mash time) to cut down on astringency.

I think that sums it up.  I'll be glad to answer any other questions.

Jon

Hey, Jon,

Awesome stuff there. Thanks for sharing. You brew on a 5 bbl system, right?

[George BM]

IAD has now hit 96F.

ETA: Wrong thread... but I keep.

[BTRWx's Thanks Giving]

This is so sad!  NCEP's director drowned!

https://wtkr.com/2019/10/02/noaa-official-drowns-after-possibly-being-caught-in-rip-current-off-north-carolina-coast/

[nj2va]

24 hours late but wow what an exciting game last night for the Nats.  About time we catch a break...I was in Texas for work but found a few fellow Nats fans to watch at a bar together.  

 

And to double it up...Caps are back!

[mattie g]

15 hours ago, jonjon said:

I'm a big fan of Firestone Walker Parabola, and I've read some posts from their brewer about the challenge of brewing a big beer like that, and their process, so I've followed their lead.

We will be putting an entire 55lb bag of flaked oats in the mash, this will thicken things up pretty well.  We also mash low (144 degrees) in order to help the fermenability of the wort, as this will be quite a monster for the yeast with an OG of somewhere between 1.100 and 1.125 (we've set the goal posts wide here since this will be the first we are brewing this on this scale).  To get the gravity up this high we are going to add an entire bag of Muntons dark DME for gravity boost.  We'll check gravity near the end of the boil to see if we're in the range, if too low we'll boil longer.  I'd like to get the final gravity down in the 1.030 to 1.035 range, if possible.  It will be a monster pitch of US-05 dry yeast. This will give us a beer in the 11-13% abv range without being too cloying.  We also add the dark malts to the mash for just the last 10-15 minutes of the mash (not the entire mash time) to cut down on astringency.

I think that sums it up.  I'll be glad to answer any other questions.

Jon

Amazingly enough, I’ve never had Parabola, but I should definitely give one a whirl sometime soon.

Thanks for the breakdown of your process. Really cool to hear how someone In your shoes will go about a beer like that.

The idea of adding oats definitely makes sense. I’m going to go with flaked rye for mine for much the same reason.

As for mash temp, for some reason, on my “system” (BIAB with sparge), I tend to attenuate more than I expect, even when I mash high. Case in pont is my most recent IPA - mashed at 155 and used Wyeast 1318, but attentuation was 82%. The previous imperial stout attenuated about 80% (1.114 to 1.022 with Wyeast 1728). I’m going to go high for my next stout because of this - I want to end up in the 1.035-1.040 range, and this has to be the way to do it.

I like the idea of adding dark malts late. I may try that!

I'm drooling just thinking about this...

[Stormpc]

I don't know what language you guys are speaking when it comes to brewing beer. Wow. I love great craft beer but I also enjoy sitting down and drinking 10 Budweiser's as well. I'm glad people like you exist so the rest of us can enjoy your craft. 

[Jebman]

Wow guys! 95 degrees in Dale City today! That MONSTER HEAT RIDGE MEANS BUSINESS! You should be 72 degrees for a high on Oct 2.

It hit 97 down here in central Texas. Our normal high is 85 now.

It may be hot now, but the pattern is gonna change and then you better look out! Especially in November and December! Its going to get VERY COLD then it will be snow after snow and you will all go stark ravin crazy from tracking snowstorms in the Mid Atlantic!

[mappy]

if anyone heads to Shrewsbury fest this weekend, ill be there! 

[mattie g]

10 hours ago, Stormpc said:

I don't know what language you guys are speaking when it comes to brewing beer. Wow. I love great craft beer but I also enjoy sitting down and drinking 10 Budweiser's as well. I'm glad people like you exist so the rest of us can enjoy your craft. 

That's how i feel when people talk about weather. I'm just here for the bantz.

[jonjon]

17 hours ago, nw baltimore wx said:

Hey, Jon,

Awesome stuff there. Thanks for sharing. You brew on a 5 bbl system, right?

We actually have a 10bbl system, but we have a couple 5bbl fermenters that we brew half batches in for our specialty beers (such as in this case)

[BTRWx's Thanks Giving]

How in the world does DT think the Mid Atlantic has a 37% chance of a record cold and snow winter?!  Lmao

[WxUSAF]

11 minutes ago, BTRWx's Thanks Giving said:

How in the world does DT think the Mid Atlantic has a 37% chance of a record cold and snow winter?!  Lmao

It’s 37% chance of colder and snowier than normal

[BTRWx's Thanks Giving]

1 hour ago, WxUSAF said:

It’s 37% chance of colder and snowier than normal

That's not what the graphic shows.

[mattie g]

2 hours ago, BTRWx's Thanks Giving said:

That's not what the graphic shows.

Yes, it is. You’re reading it incorrectly.

[Mrs.J]

I get to be at a horse show on Saturday and not sweat my fanny off!! 

[RDM]

2 hours ago, mattie g said:

Lol. Yeah...I was referring to the first “it’s.”

I just cringe when I read it in forums or on social media - I won’t criticize - but in a published article? Ugh...

   Ok, I can't help myself...  Beyond the battle between "it's" and "its" in this New Age English,...  We have "to" and "too" and "has been" instead of the past tense verb.  Hear it nearly every morning on WTOP when they talk about someone who "has been arrested for..." instead of saying "was arrested for..."   And these are journalism majors?  Hearing the utterance of "has been" brings back vivid memories of my 3rd grade English teacher nearly 50 years ago repeatedly scolding everyone in class.  I can hear her now, "do you want to be a..., "HAS BEEN?"  At the time we thought there was no worse title one could have as an adult.  In the 3rd grade we can't wait to be 18 and be an adult.  Hell, we would have rather been picked to pay right field in baseball during recess than to be called a "has been" for any reason.  Everyone knows only the scrubs are picked to play right field, right?  Oops, I forgot.  We don't keep score anymore because everyone wins!  (no score t-ball is a sore spot too, but I'll refrain) 

   Then we have this new fangled idea of only using a single space after the period at the end of a sentence?  Who came up with that stuff?  Our brains are programmed to add a pause at the end of a sentence to separate thoughts and give both the narrator and listener a split second to comprehend a concept before moving on to the next.  Been a constant point of debate with those charged with educating our daughter for the past 15+ years, to no avail.  

   And next we have the excessive use of "that" mid-sentence for no purpose.  In my former profession where concise content, accuracy and efficiency of the written word was paramount I challenged (note the use of past tense?) those more junior to read a draft to themselves without inclusion of the "that" they had needlessly inserted.  They'd read it, read it again, and then you'd see the gears of learning start to mesh.  More often than not, the use of "that" has no bearing on the overall message and is a waste, time  to write and read.  Ain't that just great?

   No doubt, being mere mortal engineer I've probably mucked up the above diatribe in more ways that one can manage to count with todays new way of doing math.  Yet, I regress into another area where the USA is falling behind on the global education scale.  However, we have our silent soccer leagues where we can vent our frustrations!  Darn it, I got side-tracked again onto another tangent.  But that takes trigonometry to understand.  Do we still teach simple trig?

 

[nw baltimore wx]

We still teach trig and kids still don’t understand.

[BTRWx's Thanks Giving]

13 hours ago, mattie g said:

Yes, it is. You’re reading it incorrectly.

It specifically says "record" throughout the chart.  DT just printed it wrong.

[WxUSAF]

37 minutes ago, BTRWx's Thanks Giving said:

It specifically says "record" throughout the chart.  DT just printed it wrong.

Omg dude, it’s a quadrant of a chart where the extremes of the axes are record cold/snow/warm. So he’s saying there’s a 37% chance that snow and cold will be between normal and record levels, in other words colder and snowier than normal. 

[nw baltimore wx]

WxUSAF is on a roll.

[nw baltimore wx]

The GFS is going in the wrong direction with regards to any significant rainfall on Monday night across central MD.

[BTRWx's Thanks Giving]

1 hour ago, WxUSAF said:

Omg dude, it’s a quadrant of a chart where the extremes of the axes are record cold/snow/warm. So he’s saying there’s a 37% chance that snow and cold will be between normal and record levels, in other words colder and snowier than normal. 

I think the chart was poorly done.  If I (weather geek) can't understand it, the average user won't.

[mappy]

47 minutes ago, BTRWx's Thanks Giving said:

I think the chart was poorly done.  If I (weather geek) can't understand it, the average user won't.

i think at this point its just easier to admit you were wrong than try to continue to find excuses. 

[BTRWx's Thanks Giving]

1 hour ago, mappy said:

i think at this point its just easier to admit you were wrong than try to continue to find excuses. 

Jesus, I don't even care.

[Mrs.J]

9 hours ago, nw baltimore wx said:

We still teach trig and kids still don’t understand.

I still don't understand it!

[NorthArlington101]

On Tropical Tidbits, you can now see the GFS snow output all the way to 384 hours. Gonna be a banner year for the Digital Snow Thread.

[RDM]

14 hours ago, nw baltimore wx said:

We still teach trig and kids still don’t understand.

I loved geometry and trig.  Yea, warped, but both are actually practically applied in every day life.  Use em all the time in my shop.  Now, differential equations, Laplace transforms and the like are for....  well....  I'm not really sure who they are for.  (Joking re the applications, I just hated that "higher" level of math.  Hard to focus on something you know you'll never use again, ever.)  

[Scarlet Pimpernel]

19 hours ago, RDM said:

   Ok, I can't help myself...  Beyond the battle between "it's" and "its" in this New Age English,...  We have "to" and "too" and "has been" instead of the past tense verb.  Hear it nearly every morning on WTOP when they talk about someone who "has been arrested for..." instead of saying "was arrested for..."   And these are journalism majors?  Hearing the utterance of "has been" brings back vivid memories of my 3rd grade English teacher nearly 50 years ago repeatedly scolding everyone in class.  I can hear her now, "do you want to be a..., "HAS BEEN?"  At the time we thought there was no worse title one could have as an adult.  In the 3rd grade we can't wait to be 18 and be an adult.  Hell, we would have rather been picked to pay right field in baseball during recess than to be called a "has been" for any reason.  Everyone knows only the scrubs are picked to play right field, right?  Oops, I forgot.  We don't keep score anymore because everyone wins!  (no score t-ball is a sore spot too, but I'll refrain) 

   Then we have this new fangled idea of only using a single space after the period at the end of a sentence?  Who came up with that stuff?  Our brains are programmed to add a pause at the end of a sentence to separate thoughts and give both the narrator and listener a split second to comprehend a concept before moving on to the next.  Been a constant point of debate with those charged with educating our daughter for the past 15+ years, to no avail.  

   And next we have the excessive use of "that" mid-sentence for no purpose.  In my former profession where concise content, accuracy and efficiency of the written word was paramount I challenged (note the use of past tense?) those more junior to read a draft to themselves without inclusion of the "that" they had needlessly inserted.  They'd read it, read it again, and then you'd see the gears of learning start to mesh.  More often than not, the use of "that" has no bearing on the overall message and is a waste, time  to write and read.  Ain't that just great?

   No doubt, being mere mortal engineer I've probably mucked up the above diatribe in more ways that one can manage to count with todays new way of doing math.  Yet, I regress into another area where the USA is falling behind on the global education scale.  However, we have our silent soccer leagues where we can vent our frustrations!  Darn it, I got side-tracked again onto another tangent.  But that takes trigonometry to understand.  Do we still teach simple trig?

 

Get off my lawn, you damned trick-or-treaters...says the old man!! ; )  I'll continue your rant here if you don't mind, haha!

OK, being a bit snarky there, but in all honesty I agree with a lot of what you say.  The it's vs. its thing kind of irritates me when people don't do it right.  Simple to just remember "it's" is the contraction for it is, "its" (with NO apostrophe) is the possessive of it.  Also agree with the "someone has been..." vs. just saying "someone was...", but I'm a bit more forgiving on that one.  I remember in about 6th grade, a teacher made us all memorize prepositions, and had a funny way of helping you to remember it.  Just think of a sewer pipe and any relationship to it will be a preposition:  IN the sewer pipe, NEAR the sewer pipe, ALONG the sewer pipe, etc.  You get the idea.  But I've never forgotten that in trying to determine what's a preposition!!

Single space at the end of a sentence?  Oh HELL NO!!  Yeah, I'll be a Grammar Nazi, and maybe it's (not its, hahaha!) more acceptable to just use a single space with Twitter and other social media to save space or something like that.  But in formal (or even not-so-formal) writing?  Follow the regular rules!  I always learned 2 spaces after a period or colon and one space after a semi-colon or comma.  Sometimes, I find it hard to read when someone only puts one space after a period.

RDM...not sure if you're old enough(?) to be familiar with Tom Lehrer.  I was too young or not yet alive when he did a lot of his routines "live", but my parents indoctrinated me with his stuff when I was growing up (with records, no less!)!  Your comment about new math reminded me of his song/skit about that:

 

Oh, and as for trig?  Hell, I remember having to interpolate using a table!  And walking uphill both ways while doing it!  Does anyone know how to interpolate from a table anymore?  Part of me thinks perhaps it's just not necessary nowadays of course, but at the same time, a little bit of having to do that does help just to get a taste of how it works.  Even if you never have to look at at trig or log table again.  It's the idea of it, the knowledge of what to do and how it works, that's important I think.