An Inconvenient Truth..
Last week, or so, Wendie and I watched the global warming documentary ‘An Inconvenient Truth‘. Both shocked and amazed by the camera footage, scientific studies, and visual aids, we were both glued to the television while watching the film. I’m certainly not a professional on global warming, but after watching this film I find it hard to argue that humanity hasn’t had an affect on the global climate.. Seeing pictures of glaciers receding as drastically as they have in as little as 30 or 40 years was a real eye opener. Its one thing to say “go look at the glaciers now, they might not be there for the next generation”, but that just doesn’t really convey the seriousness. This film has some really interesting time lapsed photography of some glaciers over the past couple of decades showing how much they have melted away, some as much as 80% or more! Another shocker was the co2 levels studies that have been done on ice cores from the north/south poles showing that we are head and shoulders above the levels co2 that have been in the atmosphere as much as 660,000 years ago. While the earth has went through its cycles of ice ages for a very long time, we see that these cycles are generally consistent.. But over the past couple of decades we (humanity) have taken so little care of the earth that we’re in uncharted territory (something like 2x the highest level) with regard to co2 levels in the atmosphere. Scientists really do not know for sure what is going to happen to our climate.
Al Gore does a great job with this documentary, and I encourage everyone to take a few hours of thier time to sit down and watch this. Even if you think this is a political tool for Al Gore or that this is impossible because the earth will manage itself and we (humanity) aren’t capable of really screwing things like this up..please rent or buy this DVD and sit down and give it a watch. The worst case is that you’ll feel like you’ve wasted a few hours of your time. I suspect you’ll be shocked like we were and will try to start doing something about it yourself.
Brew #24: Chile Lager
I love spicy foods and I’ve been meaning to brew up a chile lager for quite some time and finally did it.. I put together a “california common” style lager and added chile’s to the last 5 minutes of the boil while I drained the kettle. I had read about people using 40 or 50 chiles for thier brew so I wasn’t sure if the 10 that I bought would be adequate.. Well, I chopped up 4 habanero, 4 serrano, and 2 anahiem chile’s and added them to the very end of the boil with great results. The spicy heat isn’t overpowering, there is a noticable chile flavor and the base beer with hops and flavor seemed to balance everything out really nicely.. I definitely get that hot spicy burn at the back of my throat and it sticks with you for a few minutes, not painful or overbearing but just right. As an aside, using jalapeno as the scale, the heat rating on serrano and habanero chiles are significantly higher while the anahiem chiles are quite a bit less spicy. Check out the “Scoville scale” of pepper spiciness if you’re interested..
Chile Lager
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Brewer: Josh Gum
Style: California Common Beer
Batch: 5.50 gal, Mashed
Characteristics
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Recipe Gravity: 1.050 OG
Recipe Bitterness: 45 IBU
Recipe Color: 13° SRM
Estimated FG: 1.013
Alcohol by Volume: 5.0%
Alcohol by Weight: 3.9%
Ingredients
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American two-row 8.00 lb, mashed
German vienna 1.25 lb, mashed
Crystal 40L 0.50 lb, mashed
Chocolate wheat 0.25 lb, mashed
Northern Brewer 1.00 oz, whole, 60 minutes
Centennial 0.50 oz, whole, 20 minutes
Centennial 0.75 oz, whole, 5 minutes
Pilsner Lager Yeast, 2L starter
Irish Moss 1.00 unit, clarifying
Chiles, 4 serrano, 4 habanero, 2 anahiem diced, added to last 5 minutes of boil
Notes
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Batch Notes:
Mashed at 149F for 60min. Collected just about 5 gallons of wort, gravity measured 1.055, damn good chile flavor and heat already. I’m hoping that fermentation doesn’t drive off too much of the chile flavor because it tastes great right now. Fermentation has already kicked off and I’m dialing the fridge down to keep the beer at 49F for the next 3 weeks.
3/25 : Transferred to keg, final gravity read 1.015. This was fermenting for one week at 49F and then 4 weeks at 52F. Tastes clean, really good, and with a nice kick of heat at the end of the taste.
So very stupid…
The headline is “New York mulls iPod ban on city streets“.. Ok, I just have to read the argument for this one! I read the article and I’m now afraid I’ve lost a few points off my IQ. Senator Kruger, of the 27th district in New York, is planning on introducing some legislation which makes it illegal to use electronic devices while crossing streets in New York. Here’s my favorite quote:
“What’s happening is when they’re tuning into their iPod or Blackberry cell phone or video game, they’re walking into speeding buses and moving automobiles,” Kruger said in a statement. “It’s becoming a nationwide problem,”
So granted, I’m no professional in the people-distracted-by-ipod-resulting-in-tragedy department, but to say that this is becoming a nationwide problem seems like quite a stretch.. Why would our elected officials spend thier time working on a law as lame as this? How are the police really going to enforce this anyway, shouldn’t they be focusing on more violent crimes?
Shouldn’t the same law apply for car drivers listening to the radio, shouldn’t they be fined for the potential of being distracted.. afterall, they’re travelling in a couple thousand pound 4 wheeled bullet. And finally, not to be too insensitive to those who have been enthralled by electronics such that they have lost life or limb, but isn’t it a personal responsibility to pay attention to reality?
