Jan 27, 2008

What has been getting my nads all pumped lately:



1. VooDoo Funk -- Frank scours West Africa for records so you don't have to. If you have not had the pleasure of listening to West African pop, rock, and psychedelic music, this would be a great place to start. Frank has single songs and podcasts. The podcasts are particularly kick ass.





2. FuFu Stew -- All kinds of goodness here. The other night I was listening to FuFu Stew #9, and I heard a song by the Trogs that was not "Wild Thing". Podcasts go anywhere from Motown, Pop, Bubblegum, Soul, Funk, and points in between.








3. Hammond Eggs -- Hammond Eggs is the early Saturday morning show on an alternative station in San Antonio which is sharp since too many people live without jazz. There are many shows at the link which is to archive.org , which is loaded with everything.

Jan 18, 2008

Oily Bohunk



First thing's first: this is a beer blog now too. If you don't love beer, lick my coin purse. With that out of the way, I can get to typing the recipe for the Bohemian Pilsner I am brewing right now:

Oily Bohunk Bohemian Pilsner:

Grain:
9 lbs: Pilsner Malt
2 lbs: Munich I
.5 lbs: Carapils
.5lbs: Carahel

Hopz:
.75 oz Sterling -- First Wort Runnings
.75oz Sterling -- When the foam breaks (-60 minutes)
1 oz Sterling -- (-15 Minutes) (add 1 tspn Irish Moss) (I am out of Moss. We will see if it makes a difference
1 oz Sterling -- (-5 minutes)
1 oz Sterling -- (-0 minutes)
.5 oz Sterling -- (Dry Hop when transfer to secondary is made)

Pilsner Urquell Yeast

Mash 12lbs grain x 1.3 quarts = 4 gallons strike water (Strike at 160 to Mash at 145 for a nice dry pilsner).

4 gallons Sparge water @ 170 (maybe should have been 3.5 gallons now that I look at my notes).

Boil 60 minutes after foam breaks -- Hop schedule above:



Here are the songs I particularly dug while brewing this up (all via Mediafire):

Agua Ardente -- Santo Samba
I Can't Feel My Face -- Lil Wayne
Reefer Man -- Cab Calloway
Jigsaw Falling into Pieces -- Radiohead
Purple -- Shuggie Otis
We're Gonna Boogie -- Lefty Dizz
Dust Devil -- Butthole Surfers

Or you can enjoy the whole thing as a playlist! (via Mediafire)

It went down like this:

Notes:

1.20.08 -- still no fermentation activity. This worries me a tad. It is probably because I put the fermenter in a very cold spot (46 degrees). I moved it to a little warmer spot in hopes that this will wake it up. The only real fear I have is of oxidation, so if the beer tastes like a wet paper bag, we will know the reason. Keep your fingers crossed.

1.24.08 -- FERMENTATION!! Hell yay-ya. The beer finally woke up yesterday; by the time I got home from work yesterday evening, the Oily Bohunk was alive with sugar-eating activity. Apparently, I had shocked the yeast into going dormant when it was too cold (carboy was next to the back door on one of the coldest nights of the year). I will likely transfer to the secondary and dry hop next Wednesday (1.30.08)

2.1.08 -- Transfer to secondary and dry hop with .5 oz Sterling

2.8.08 -- Kegged and put in the fridge. Will be ready to go in 4-6 days. Final Gravity was 1.014. I forgot to take an original gravity reading, so this does not mean much. Maybe I will figure some way to make calculations later. I tasted the gravity sample, and it tasted pretty good for being warm and flat. The color was looking nice and gold as it came through the hose. I am afraid this beer will not last long once it is ready.

2.15.08 -- I have been drinking small amounts of this beer so not to go through it before it is at its best. Right now, seven full days getting gas, it is carbonated right, but still a bit cloudy. I will photograph it when it gets clearer -- when the residual hops and yeast are all sucked off the bottom of the keg leaving just beer. This is not an exact replica of Urquell, but it is not that far either. I bet it would be much closer were Saaz available.

2.19.08 -- Looks as clear as it will get as I remember that I ran out of moss.

2.29.08 -- Finally added the picture. I am liking this beer more and more, which probably means it is almost gone. The crispy hop character is really starting to shine. This is becoming closer and closer to what I intended.


Jan 7, 2008

Grinderman

You don't give a fuck what I think, and you shouldn't. This is not a record review because you do not give a fuck what I think, and I would not be a cheeky bastard to think that you would. The extroverted world of blogging, however, gives me a platform to tell you something about this record that I liked, like I am someone who has some sort of authority to tell you something about how you might appreciate a piece of art. I am not doing that, so get off my nuts. This is the reason I do not do album reviews, not that this is one, because I have to go through all this shit before I even get to the music. Fuck.

At the end of the year 2007 I reviewed other blogs for best-of lists before procuring a handful of albums. The above-pictured Grinderman was perhaps my favorite. Grinderman is the new band featuring Nick Cave, whom I am pretty unfamiliar musically. I saw a Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds performance at Lollapolooza in 1994, and I thought it sucked ass. I was twenty, so I probably did not know any better. Oh, you fuckin' care.

Of the three selections below, "No Pussy Blues" reminded me of Bob Dylan's "Gates of Eden" for no immediately apparent reasons; "Honey Bee" has notes of The Butthole Surfers' Independent Worm Saloon, and I put "Man in the Moon" in there because it was a little different than the others.

Two other things that make this album rad: they have an electric bouzouki player, and there is a monkey grabbing his nuts on the cover.

Download "No Pussy Blues" via Mediafire
Download "Honey Bee (Let's Fly to Mars) via Mediafire
Download "Man in the Moon" via Mediafire

Jan 3, 2008

2013

2013-2018

2013
Tommahawk! American Pale Ale -- February 9, 2013
Mrs. Gorilla's Best Bitter -- April 7, 2013 
Lajoie Beliner Weisse - May May 8-11, 2013 
Pegasus - September 2, 2013
Bullfrog Brown - -November 3, 2013
Temptation Toad-- November 3, 2013
Smokey the Bandit - December 12, 2013
 

2014

Keller XP-- January 04, 2014
Estimated Prophet - February 17, 2014
New Brewery Pale Ale - March 22, 2014
Floyd the Barber -- May 3, 2014
Aero Zeppelin -- May 3, 2014
The Illustrious Merkin Gherkin -- July 8, 2014
Merkin Splendor - July 8, 2014
Kattenstoet -- August 30, 2014
Figgy Pudding -- Augst 30, 2014
Bloody Hell to Pay -- November 3, 2014

2015  

Another Pegasus - February 21, 2015
Mordecai Brown - March 28, 2015
Toxic Avenger - May23, 2015
Angel Piss - May 23, 2015
El Jeffe Amberweissen -- July 30, 2015
Space Ritual -- December 28, 2015


2016

DAS Beer 1 - January 10, 2016
DAS Beer 2 - February 29, 2016
The Infamous El Guapo - April 7, 2016
DAS Beer That Owns Itself -- May 15, 2016
Booze Hound - June 14, 2016
DAS Beer 3 - August 28, 2016
DAS Strangers - December 23, 2016
Sour Barrel One - December 30, 2016

2017

DAS Landlady - March 20, 2017
Sourpatch - May 28, 2017
DAS BEER 4 July 30, 2017
Brown Barrel Beer October 22, 2017
Pecan Smoke December 23, 2017

2018

River Bitter: First 811 Beer -- June 16, 2018
DAS Beer 5: July 28, 2018
Barrel Beer 4 -- October 26, 2018

2019

Big Brew Day / Partigyle -- January 21, 2019
XPA / Cahntrelle Saison -- February 24, 2019
River Bitter 2 -- June 13, 2019Barrel Beer Five
Barrel Beer 5 -- December 29, 2019

2020s

DOOMIE -- February 16, 2020
River Bitter #3 -- March 25, 2020
Manual Transmission -- June 29, 2020
Barrel Beer #6 -- January 5, 2021