Zen Of Beer

Saw this #military styled #motorcycle with #sidecar while out grocery shopping today. Don't know what it is, I didn't see any badges. If you know what it is, I'd like to know. #ZenOfBeer
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Google Making Me Good At Stuffs? So, a while back Google announced a feature called "Google Calendar Goals." An interesting idea that
would let you enter in some goals that you'd like to achieve, roughly how often you'd like to practice those goals, and roughly when you'd like to practice those goals. Then, using Google's magical learning algorithms, the tool would look at when you "defer" the goal and when you mark the goal as "complete." Based on that information, Google then works out the best time for you to work on the activity. I have a few things I'd like to get better at, so I thought I'd give this thing a try.

#northwesttrek #northwesttrekwildlifepark in #eatonville #washington #summerfieldtrip #electricbass #ZenOfBeer
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#munnharpe - I'm a natural, and the people in the house love to listen to me play. #ZenOfBeer
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Went to see the #oldtimey #cabin at the #pioneer #museum #ZenOfBeer
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Brewing Across Germany RevisitedA while back I rambled on a little bit with the post below. I'm still mostly on the traditional bandwagon. I prefer my beers that I buy to be made from the basic ingredients, and I prefer the beer that I make to be the same...With one exception. I like saison's. A while back I got the urge to try to come up with something similar to Ommegang's Hennepin farmhouse ale. I've got another post about that somewhere around here, and I'm sure that'll make the rounds, eventually. Anyway, what's the point? Not much, really. Just rambling. 
On to the old post So, if you could see my rough schedule for the year, you'd see that my basic plan is to brew my way across Germany. It's not that I'm some kind of purest, it's just that I think there's a kind of elegance in the fact that true German beers are made only of water, grain, hops, and yeast. Using only those for ingredients it is possible to make a wide variety of b…

Sourdough Pancakes Pulling up some ramblings from a while back. Git yerself some maple syrup, sit back, and enjoy. 

Obviously, that's not beer. It fits, though, because the essential process is the same. That process is as follows:
1) Get a substance that can act as food for the little beasties.
2) Let the little beasties eat, and produce something that wasn't there before.
This guy in the picture is my sour sponge. I've pulled him out of the fridge, and I'll let him sit on the counter and ferment for a few hours. Sometimes I'll let him go over night, but I'm running a little behind today. Winter in Utah isn't great for this project because it's cold and dry, and this guy prefers warmer and humid. With luck that will be changing for us this year, but that's a subject for another day.
After he's fermented for a few hours I'll do a couple of things.
First, I'll remove a chunk about the size of a small orange, and set that aside for a sour…

#coolcars on a #hotday in #bothell #washington #classiccar #jaguar #etype #ZenOfBeer
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#coolcars on a #hotday in #woodinville #washington #classiccar #volkswagen #karmannghia #ZenOfBeer
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#polarbear at #seaworld #sandiego #california #ZenOfBeer #summervacation
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Home Grown Mash TunWhen preparing for my entry in to all-grain brewing I had to gather some new equipment. Among the required items, of course, was a mash tun. If you’ve done research you know that you can spend quite a bit on commercially produced hardware, or you can use one of several methods to build one of your own. I took the latter route, and I did it for about $7.00. I’m going to use my first post on this blog to talk about how I did it, and a bit about how I use it.
First, what’s required.
A spigot. I purchased mine from the local brewery supply store, http://www.beernut.com.Two food grade buckets. I would have been better off getting larger buckets, but I know the owner of a local Chinese restaurant, J. Wong's Asian Bistro...If you’re ever in the Salt Lake area, stop by. The food is excellent. Anyway, I bugged them for a couple of 5 gallon buckets that were used to supply food products. A splatter screen. The kind that’s used for putting over your frying bacon. Get a Chea…

My Guitar Is Missing A Knob Over the years I've had a couple of hobbies. I go back and forth, do different things, and come back around. Years ago, my wife bought me a birthday gift of a Charvel CX 492 electric guitar. Up to that point I'd been strictly a 6 string guitar player, but when you're an aspiring rock star, it's always good to expand one's skill set. Turns out, that was a decent plan. Several years later, the band I was in lost our bass player. As I happened to own a bass, it was a perfect fit.  I played for a while, we had a good time, I never became famous. Instead, I went off to write software for a living. Anyway, somewhere between now and then the tone knob fell off. I've been looking at that damn missing knob for damn near 20 years, and it's been driving me completely out of my mind. Sure, the thing works just fine, but it's ugly as hell. Incomplete. Sad. Ugly. Sad.  I finally broke down and went searching for a replacement. What I did f…

#snoqualmiefalls #daytrip #ZenOfBeer
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Equilibrium ArmageddonSo, here I am, minding my own business and getting ready to do a little kitchen cleaning. I pop open Google Play Music, and I'm informed that Equilibrium has a new album. If you know them, you know them. Technical, oddly upbeat German folk death metal. So far, the album is pretty damn good. I'll have to give it a few more rounds, though, to really get a feel for what's going on here. Check it out.






The Amazon links go through my affiliate account, and any purchases will give me a little taste that will help to motivate me to keep putting out content.

And so begins #hatchchile season. Hatch and friends, getting ready for the #grill . #poblano #chilis #cheese #ZenOfBeer
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Been missing the tone nob for years. Finally replaced it, and I have two nobs again. #bass #electricbass #electricguitar #charvel #charvelguitars #ZenOfBeer
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#playlist up next, #ledzeppelin #classicvinyl #vintagevinyl #ZenOfBeer
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Up next, #ledzeppelin #classicvinyl #vintagevinyl #ZenOfBeer
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Keeping things alive on the blog with some things, until I get back around to actually writing my backlog of posts. Enjoy :)

Starting off with today's #playlist #steppenwolf #monster #classicvinyl #vintagevinyl #ZenOfBeer
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Playing with #prisma #washburn #washburnguitars #spring #acousticguitar #kenmore #washington #ZenOfBeer
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#asainpear #harvest from the #backyard in #kenmore #washington #ZenOfBeer #backyardphotography Next year I really have to plan for pressing so we can make #cider #homebrew
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Somewhere in #seattle #washington looking over #pugetsound #ferryboat #ZenOfBeer
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Little #bird in the giant cage at the #sandiegozoo #sandiego #california #ZenOfBeer
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Giant #fern in #discoverypark #seattle #ZenOfBeer #nature
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From the walk that one day in #discoverypark #seattle #washington #pugetsound #ZenOfBeer
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From a very long time ago, #seattle #boats and a #seagull #ZenOfBeer
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Last test... I think... #homebrew #ZenOfBeer #saison from a couple of summers ago.
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#storm rolling in... Another test. #ZenOfBeer
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Another Test Post #desert #landscape somewhere outside #palmdesert #california. Too damn hot. #ZenOfBeer
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Test post #backyardphotography #kenmore #washington #ZenOfBeer
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Stuff in the #parkinggarage #exhaustfan #bellevue #washington #ZenOfBeer #prisma #killintime
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#backyard #roses #kenmore #washington #ZenOfBeer
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