Brewblog, Entry Seven

August 7, 2010 - Brewed Matrimonial Ale 6 (MA6)

With most bottles of Matrimonial Ale 5 gone, it was time to start the cycle all over again. The consensus (two out of three, anyway) for MA6 was that we should try the same Imperial IPA concept of MA5, but with the citrus hops of MA4. And that's pretty much exactly what I devised in BeerSmith on the morning of brew day. I say "pretty much" because I had a new 15 gallon pot to work with.

After using a friend's 8 gallon pot for over a year, we finally saved up enough money to purchase a big pot of our own in July. With twice as much volume to work with in the new boil pot, we are now able to create 10 gallon batches (38L) of some beers instead of the standard 5 gallon (19L). I say "some beers" because we haven't yet upgraded our cooler mash tun, so there are limits on how much grain we can use in a batch. We can easily make 38L of a 4% beer, but as the alcohol content goes up, we can make less and less volume, until we bottom/max (depending on your perspective) out at 19L around 9%.

(We will not brew 38L every brew day, just because we now can. Between only three guys, that's simply too much beer. We just like now having the option to go big if we want to.)

Having previously maxed out our cooler with Blackout Stout, I had a vague idea of how much grain and water I could fit in the mash for MA6. I planned the recipe for a 22L batch of 8% beer, requiring nearly 8 kg of grains. The cooler was definitely maxed out once again.

I had been very happy with the Wyeast Scottish Ale yeast's performance with the Wee Heavy so I wanted to give it another chance to impress on a strong beer. My first attempt to reuse a ranched yeast (the Denny's Favorite 50 in MA5) had been a dismal failure, but I was confident that a yeast starter was key to success. And I was right. MA6 had a very healthy primary fermentation with more than a foot of krausen and better than expected attenuation. Like the Wee Heavy before it, MA6 easily crossed the 9% threshold.

MA6 was bottled on September 4, so I will reserve comments on the finished product for a few more weeks. The samples have been promising. The dry hopped aroma is excellent.

The Matrimonial Ale series, for me at least, has always been about experimenting with American IPA and Imperial IPA recipes to find what kind of crazy things we can make, but one member of the club wants us to settle on an MA recipe and start making that over and over. I expect that MA4 will be the model for future Matrimonial Ales, putting the series firmly back in American IPA territory (it started American, went Imperial by accident, then American, American, Imperial, Imperial).

However, as a big fan of MA5 and hopefully MA6, I am not giving up on the Imperial IPA series. So I need a new name. Aside from Blackout Stout, I haven't really done anything creative with our beer names. Matrimonial Ale was not my idea. Everything else is just named after its style. It's a little boring. But I'm a little boring. So, "Imperial IPA" it is?

August 21, 2010 - Brewed Belgian IPA 2 (BIPA2)

The first Belgian IPA was soured and a big disappointment, but everyone liked the concept enough to try it as our first 38L batch. The plan was to bottle 19L in the standard way but keg the other 19L in Simon's newish kegerator setup. In a month or so, we will do a bottle vs. keg taste challenge.

Not coincidentally, the size of the grain bill for the Belgian IPA 2 was identical to the previous week's Matrimonial Ale 6, maxing out the mash cooler. The extra volume for BIPA2 was added during the sparge process. Ignoring the size difference, the recipe was only slightly revised from the original BIPA, with the same hops, malts, and yeast.

For this double batch, we used the Wyeast Belgian Abbey II liquid yeast that had been ranched from Trevor's Blonde. That yeast has been in my fridge for a few months, and had been ranched and cleaned sloppily and possibly incorrectly, but I made a starter for it two days before brew day, and it seemed healthy enough. And it was. It did quite well.

Simon, unsurprisingly and understandably, wants nothing to do with the sour epidemic of this summer, so his half of the Belgian IPA is currently sitting in a glass carboy, just in case. So far I have detected no obvious sourness in the Belgian IPA, but I am checking on a weekly basis out of paranoia.

August 28, 2010 - Brewed Extra Special Bitter 2 (ESB2)

On this brew day, we wanted to do another big batch (35L or so) to split between bottles and a keg, but of a simple light beer. English Pale Ale was a good fit, especially considering the unused Wyeast London Ale III yeast sitting in my fridge. The first Extra Special Bitter (aka English Pale Ale) was brewed well over a year ago, and I can barely remember how it tasted. In the meantime, we have brewed two Standard Bitters that were solid if unspectacular.

I completely ignored the recipe from our original ESB, instead taking inspiration from various online recipes and our previous Standard Bitters. For malts, it was mostly Pale, with some Crystal 80 and a little Biscuit. For hops, I went with Northern Brewer for bitterness, Goldings for flavour, and Fuggles for aroma.

As I write this, I am racking ESB2 into its two carboys. I detected no sourness in the sample. And it seems like it will be a crisp, refreshing, mildly bitter brew. Nice.

September 4, 2010 - Brewed Simon's Sapporo Lager (SSL)

We don't make many lagers. They require tight temperature control and at temperatures much lower than you'll find anywhere in my house. The first, a Pilsner, fermented and lagered in Simon's basement, had turned out okay (once the sulfur smell went away) despite being fermented and especially lagered at higher than recommended temperatures. But with Simon's kegerator setup, making lagers properly is now a much more realistic prospect.

For our first kegerator lager, Simon wanted to try to make a Japanese rice lager like a Sapporo, so that's what we did. All we could get on short notice was two pounds of rice flakes, so eighty percent of the grain bill was still Pale Malt. I did some research on hops and determined that Saaz and Hallertau were the best fit for bitterness and flavour/aroma respectively.

Other than the rice flakes in the mash, it was a pretty standard brew day. We did only 19L for this batch so it can all be kegged.

Next time on Brewblog

As I conclude this post, I am preparing the London Ale yeast starter for Saturday's Imperial Stout.

A Month in Review, Aug 8 to Sep 6

For a month in review post, this one is actually quite short. I haven't really done that much of note in the last month. Christina moved in, so there was that. And we watched a lot of episodes of So You Think You Can Dance and Queer as Folk. And I've read a lot of reddit threads. And I've been busy at work for a nice change. And I listened to a ton of music as research for the favourite albums posts. It was overall a pretty good month, just not very blogworthy.

The Month in Movies

I can't believe I forgot to review Inception last time. As a big fan of Christopher Nolan's films (Memento and The Prestige, mostly), I was quite excited to see his latest mindbender. What took me by surprise was the fact that it is actually a pretty straightforward storyline. The ending is left open to interpretation, but Inception is otherwise completely logical in structure and easy to follow, once you accept the premise's rules. Repeat viewings are not required to understand Inception, but there are enough details and subtleties to keep the movie interesting in repeat viewings. That is good movie-making. And Inception also features top-notch acting and action. Joseph Gordon-Levitt's zero-gravity scenes were the highlight for me.

As good as Inception was, I enjoyed Edgar Wright's Scott Pilgrim vs. The World even more. I haven't read the source material (soon?), but this live-action video game of a movie was entertaining from start to finish, features one of the coolest soundtracks I've ever heard, and even made me like Michael Cera again. From Spaced to Shaun of the Dead to Hot Fuzz to this, Edgar Wright has yet to disappoint.

The Month in Music

Disturbed's "Asylum," released August 31, is a solid hard-rock album. All of the songs are pretty good, but there is an undeniable sameness to a lot of Disturbed's songs since 2002's "Believe," and I certainly don't think they broke out of that rut with "Asylum." Disturbed is clearly unconcerned with diversity. "Asylum" is a more consistent album than 2008's "Indestructible," but "Indestructible" had better stand-out moments, so I'll call them even. Best Disturbed album is... hmmm... I'll go with "Ten Thousand Fists," I guess.

The Month in Television

My first TV task of August was catching up with Eureka's in-progress fourth season, which has surprisingly been the best season of the series to date. The writers took a big risk in the season premiere that could easily have backfired in a huge way, but have so far managed to make it work rather well.

More recently, I also finished all six series/seasons of hilarious British comedy Peep Show. This series might just be my new favourite comedy series of all time. If I compare only its first two seasons with the two seasons of The Office, The Office wins, but Peep Show kept getting better throughout its third season and hit its comedy genius stride in season four. It's embarrassing how often I identify with pathetic sad sack Mark Corrigan. A seventh season is coming later this fall, so: yay!

It is now September, so that means the return of endless television viewing. I'm looking forward to (in alphabetical order) 30 Rock, The Big Bang Theory, Chuck, Dexter, Fringe, fucking Glee, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Modern Family, The Office, South Park, and Stargate Universe. I'm reluctantly also going to watch The Amazing Race, House, How I Met Your Mother, and Merlin. I'm undecided about Survivor. And I'm annoyed that Caprica and Parks and Recreation are being held for midseason.

As for new shows, I'm not watching any of them, at least not at first. Not even the promising No Ordinary Family. I can always catch up later if the buzz is strong.

Loved: Futurama (7x9-12), Penn & Teller: Bullshit (8x10), Sherlock (1x3)
Liked: Eureka (4x6-8), Hung (2x6-9), Mad Men (4x3-7), So You Think You Can Dance (7x22/23), So You Think You Can Dance Canada (3x1-11), True Blood (3x8-11), Warehouse 13 (2x6-9)
Meh: Entourage (7x6-9)

In the best news of the month, Futurama continues to kick all kinds of ass. I can definitely count on twenty minutes of hilarity every week.

Sherlock's third episode/movie, "The Great Game," was the second best of the three, ending with quite the unexpected jolt. I'm looking forward to more of this series, in a year or two or whenever...

Bullshit's season finale, "Vaccinations," was definitely one of the strongest episodes in the eighth season. In particular, the duo's episode-opening demonstration of the effectiveness of vaccinations was eye-opening. Anti-vaxxers need to fuck off and die.

Eureka and Warehouse 13 had fun crossovers this month that I enjoyed. Eureka has definitely been the better of these two similar silly shows this season, but I nearly always guiltily enjoy both.

Sadly, I'm getting a little bored with the rest of the shows. Like with its second season, True Blood's third season lost a lot of momentum in the second half and is now getting kinda boring sometimes. Mad Men seems to have no dramatic thrust this season, so is just there. Hung is still mostly just okay. Entourage is up and down and all over the place. The three HBO shows end their seasons this coming Sunday. I am still pretty excited for True Blood's finale, as episode eleven did have quite the awesome cliffhanger ending. Perpetually overrated Emmy-winner Mad Men still has half a season to impress.

The Albums That Always Bring Me Back For More, Part 3

Wow, I've been busy these past couple of weeks...

Better late than never, at long last, I present my top five favourite albums. To make up for the delay, I put a little more effort into each entry this time, including my favourite lyrics from my favourite songs.

If you are late to the party, please check out part one and part two.

5. Catherine Wheel - Happy Days (1995)

The video from Waydown was my introduction to Catherine Wheel. I didn't know what to make of it at first, but it was in heavy rotation on MuchMusic in 1995 and grew on me to the point where buying the album became a necessity. It's fun to remember those days when music wasn't so easily sampled for free, buying albums based on one song you liked was common, and you often quickly came to regret the fifteen bucks you had just wasted. Some music stores let you sample the album in-store, but I rarely took advantage of that; I was a risk taker. This particular risk was well worth it. Happy Days is the best album I ever purchased on the strength of only one song without any prior exposure to the band.

It was only when I checked out Catherine Wheel's previous albums that I realized how much of a departure Happy Days was for the band. Fans of Ferment and Chrome, their two quite similar previous albums, were not necessarily fans of Happy Days. The lyrics and vocals have an awesome angry edge, and it is a much harder rocking album musically. Catherine Wheel continued to change their sound significantly with their final two albums, Adam and Eve and Wishville, because they insisted on never stagnating. I love all of Catherine Wheel's albums, but Happy Days is the one that I fell in love with first, and you never forget your first.

Essential Tracks:
"Waydown" - "I breed deep in me a beautiful thing / And I need energy for my beautiful thing / But pain for days has stayed with me / Expect to see some change in me"
"Heal" - "I can climb a tree and push up through the leaves 'cause / Only when I try am I happier to see / My head's in some kind of space where boyhood used to be / It's how high you are and the time it takes to heal"
"Eat My Dust You Insensitive Fuck" - "Eat my dust you insensitive fuck"
"Shocking" - "But won't you listen to me, why can't you believe / That you're breaking my heart / And these moments were part of our lives / And it destroys me to see you destroy them / Every time"

Filler Track: "Fizzy Love"

Runner-Up: Chrome (1993) - "The Nude"

4. Silverchair - Diorama (2002)

Diorama is one of those albums that comes out of nowhere to completely blow you away. Previously, I had only moderate interest in Silverchair, just enough to pick up their "Best Of" album at a used CD shop in the winter of 2001/2002. The best song on that greatest hits collection was "Emotion Sickness," an awesome orchestrated rock ballad that showed promise of much greater things to come. Now much more curious about Silverchair, I also tracked down a used copy of 1999's Neon Ballroom, which is definitely a solid rock album, but with no other songs in the same league as "Emotion Sickness." The next album, Diorama, was the much greater things.

As soon as "Across the Night" starts, you know you are in for something special. I've always been a huge fan of orchestrated rock music; the orchestration just gives it that extra kick, a little epicness. Diorama is the best orchestrated rock album in my collection. The influence of the orchestration ranges from subtle touches in some of the harder rocking songs to songs that are effectively built around the orchestration. Another big reason Diorama stays in my playlist is the diversity of songs. In this one album, there are brilliantly quirky songs "Across the Night" and "Tuna in the Brine," awesome hard rocking songs like "Without You" and "One Way Mule," and beautiful ballads like "World Upon Your Shoulders" and "After All These Years." This is an album that repeatedly rewards the listener from beginning to end.

Essential Tracks:
"Across the Night" - "Never seen the sunshine / From higher points than sunrise / I don't wanna be lonely / I just wanna be alone"
"Without You" - "Old incisions refusing to stay / Like the sun through the trees on a cloudy day"
"Too Much of Not Enough" - "A close look at something so close / It's too much of not enough / When all we need is just a taste"
"After All These Years" - "All those years / I was hurting to feel / Something more than life"

Filler Track: "The Lever"

3. King's X - Please Come Home...Mr. Bulbous (2000)

King's X's Please Come Home...Mr. Bulbous (herein referred to as PCHMB) has a lot of elements working against it. It was written and recorded spontaneously in studio as an experiment, entirely self-produced, features the most ridiculous title and cover art in my entire collection, has foreign language tongue twisters between tracks, jumps from lyrical absurdity to profundity between songs and sometimes within songs, and even includes a beat poetry breakdown. All of these elements actually lend the album a quirky charm. PCHMB is a diverse, crazy mish-mash of an album that works because the songs all work.

Although the members of King's X always share writing credits on all of their songs, on most of their albums it is not difficult to pick out which songs were originally written by Ty or Doug or Jerry, as they all bring different sensibilities to the music. And that is a big reason why PCHMB is special, because the songs don't feel like Ty or Doug or Jerry songs, but Ty and Doug and Jerry songs. And this group effort led to some of the band's best, most melodic songs, really living up to their reputation as the hard rock Beatles, and some of my favourite songs of all time. "She's Gone Away" and "Bitter Sweet" are my favourite songs about marital separation; "Move Me" (annoyingly split over tracks nine and ten) is my favourite song about losing faith in god; "Smudge" and "Charlie Sheen" are my favourite songs about complete nonsense; "Julia" is my favourite song about Julia. (Yes, that last sentence was largely a joke.) PCHMB is a quick listen, far, far too short, leaving you wanting much more, but that's ultimately the best thing you can ask for from an album.

Having said all that, there is no way that I could claim with a straight face that PCHMB is King's X's best album. That honour belongs to 1994's Dogman, which, like Catherine Wheel's Happy Days, found the band at their angriest and hardest rocking. Old school fans might go with 1989's Gretchen Goes to Nebraska, but Dogman was my first King's X.

Essential Tracks:
"She's Gone Away" - "I've got a lot I call my own / My house is full of things / But it's just an empty home / And all day long I walk around / Seeing reminders and reliving all I've found / She's gone away"
"Smudge" - "Any day... yesterday... there's tomorrow to say / Let's forget it anyway"
"Bitter Sweet" - "Ever reading... something's bleeding in my soul / And I can't seem to fill up the hole / And I love you... thinking of you... bitter sweet / So I bury the feeling and empty my head / Just to sleep... too deep"
"Move Me" - "Wish I could whisper how much I need you / After tomorrow I might forget to / If it's only from a story"

Filler Track: "When You're Scared"

Runner-Up: Dogman (1994) - "Cigarettes"

2. Jimmy Eat World - Clarity (1999)

I have already told the story of how I discovered Jimmy Eat World in my second Soundtrack post, so I won't repeat that here. Once again, thanks former co-worker!

Clarity is another diverse album. (If you are starting to notice a pattern, that's because diversity is very important.) It is also unique. Opening track "Table for Glasses" is a slow, quiet, amazing song, not at all representative of Jimmy Eat World or the rest of the album. Album-ending track "Goodbye Sky Harbor," which is awesomely rockified when played live, is seemingly over after three minutes but somehow keeps going for another thirteen. (I used to despise that repetitive instrumental ending, but it grew on me as I started noticing the subtleties of the changing arrangement.) In between, there are catchy pop songs "Lucky Denver Mint" and "Believe in What You Want," rockers "Your New Aesthetic" and "Crush" and "Blister" and "Clarity," epic "Just Watch the Fireworks," and beautiful songs "Ten," "A Sunday," and "For Me This is Heaven." And then there is "12.23.95," the one song that I wish had been left off the album; it's pretty, albeit a little boring, but its worst offense is that it is a fucking Christmas song. It is not bad enough to tarnish the album, but I have been known to pretend that "Ten" comes after "Crush."

Clarity was a major departure, and significant step up, from Jimmy Eat World's emocore major label debut, Static Prevails, and while some of their newer albums have approached its quality level, most notably 2004's Futures, it is still their best overall album. Seeing as Jimmy Eat World is my favourite band that is still together and still at the top of their game, it should make sense that they come in pretty high on this list.

Essential Tracks:
"Table for Glasses" - "Not asking of me anything / Saying nothing about what it means / Without anybody telling me what I should feel / Lead my skeptic sight"
"Just Watch the Fireworks" - "What giving up gives you / And where giving up takes you / I've had and I've been / Here in center frame / Here, there's only air / And just enough space to fit"
"For Me This is Heaven" - "And the time's such clumsy time / In deciding if it's time / I'm careful but not sure how it goes / You can lose yourself in your courage"
"Clarity" - "Wait for something better / Will I know when it can be us? / Wait for something better / Maybe that doesn't mean us / Wait for something better? / I shouldn't, it's not enough / Pull one excuse from another"

Filler Track: "12.23.95"

Runner-Up: Futures (2004) - "23"

And, Now, The Moment You Have All Been Waiting For

1. Live - Throwing Copper (1994)

Like Catherine Wheel, I was introduced to Live by the heavy rotation of their first single "Selling the Drama" on MuchMusic. It was awesome, but I was hesitant to buy the album Throwing Copper based on only the one song. (The difference between this situation and the Catherine Wheel situation is that Throwing Copper was released in 1994, when I was a poor high school student with no job, and Happy Days was released in 1995, when I was heading off to university with lots of money from a summer job and scholarships.) The next single, "I Alone," tempted me further, but I was still broke and very frugal. By the time "Lightning Crashes" was in heavy rotation both on MuchMusic and local radio, I could no longer resist Throwing Copper's pull. Three amazing singles in a row was enough justification to spend fifteen bucks of my birthday money.

It should come as no surprise at this point to read that Throwing Copper is a diverse album. Between the distorted wailing vocals of slow-building album opener "The Dam at Otter Creek" and country-infused hidden track "Horse," numerous alternative rock styles are represented. A number of the songs rely on predictable quiet verses, louder choruses song-writing, but that shit is classic and overused because it works. And Live mixes it up wonderfully with a "Top" here and a "Stage" there. And then they throw in the indescribably fantastic "Waitress" and the epic "Pillar of Davidson." Every song on Throwing Copper is terrific in its own way.

Throwing Copper is easily Live's best album. I was never a big fan of their debut album Mental Jewelry, which makes Throwing Copper a hell of a sophomore improvement. 1997's Secret Samadhi and 1999's The Distance to Here have some excellent songs, but are much less consistently strong throughout. There was a brief time that I considered The Distance to Here to be Live's best album, but those days are long gone. The band almost went completely off the rails with 2001's V, but 2003's Birds of Pray was a surprisingly strong recovery and the last worthy Live album. 2006's Songs from Black Mountain commits the unforgivable sin of being thoroughly boring. And then Ed Kowalczyk went full dick and screwed over his bandmates and Live is no more. What a sad ending to my favourite band from 1995 to 2000.

Essential Tracks:
"Selling the Drama" - "And to Christ: a cross / And to me: a chair / I will sit and earn the ransom / From up here"
"Lightning Crashes" - "Lightning crashes, a new mother cries / Her placenta falls to the floor / The angel opens her eyes / The confusion sets in / Before the doctor can even close the door"
"Waitress" - "After all, everybody's good enough / For some change / Some fucking change!"
"Pillar of Davidson" - "Warm bodies, I sense / are not machines that can only make money / Past, perfect, tense / Words for a feeling and all I've discovered"

Filler Track: "Iris"

The End... finally!

Now back to regularly schedule blog content. Brewblog and Month in Review posts should show up early next week... I hope. And, next Friday is my one year blogiversary!