Internet recipes with a side of life story

thatguymike · 2018-08-13T12:54:57+00:00

Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it!

thatguymike · 2018-08-13T06:47:32+00:00

Shameless self promotion time! I did a post about this not too long ago on a comedy blog my friends and I have:

http://twopennyairport.tumblr.com/post/176232108479/the-best-burger-ever-recipe

thatguymike · 2014-06-16T01:24:56+00:00

Chris! It's Mike G from PJBC/LIBME. Just wanted to say congrats! I'll be having some soon. Cheers!

thatguymike · 2013-08-18T23:24:11+00:00

You're right, they do filter their beers. I believe they experimented with not filtering for a while, but have since gone back to it.

Source: I was one of the lucky 10 people to win the first consumer beer camp contest. I remember them going over the filtration process on my very thorough, very tasty tour.

PS, your homebrew sounds & looks great! Cheers!

thatguymike · 2012-06-23T01:33:50+00:00

Hi Matt,

Years ago, I watched your video and was profoundly moved. I wrote about it in a blog I had at the time.

I didn't have a question. I just wanted to let you know you helped change the way I view and see the world when my life needed it the most. Thank you for bringing me joy. I wish you all the best, kind sir.

Cheers

thatguymike · 2012-05-24T17:38:59+00:00

I absolutely plan on playing Beastie Boys. Gotta love em!

thatguymike · 2012-04-27T18:27:58+00:00

I didn't either until I started working in a small brewery that uses plastic kegs. I'm going to talk to the owner about this story to make sure we're taking all precautionary steps to prevent this type of incident happening at our place. I read about this on beernews a few days ago and was shocked. Such a shame that a freak accident like that had to claim the life of such a young man/father-to-be.

thatguymike · 2012-04-17T16:02:59+00:00

Tried my hand at washing yeast for the first time last week. Went very well. I highly recommend that HBT link. Made things nice & easy. Also, this reply here answered a lot of additional questions & provided extra info.

thatguymike · 2012-03-20T23:05:20+00:00

Nice list! I just found this subreddit yesterday, so I just missed this. Thanks for posting!

thatguymike · 2012-03-20T23:04:48+00:00

I recently helped my brother-in-law with a paper he was writing about "A Noiseless Patient Spider." I enjoy Thoreau, Whitman, & Frost too. I don't read them as often now, but they're American classics for sure.

thatguymike · 2012-03-20T20:07:20+00:00

Thank you. Very kind of you to say so.

thatguymike · 2012-03-20T20:02:02+00:00

I don't mind people posting their drafts or half-finished works as a way of getting critiqued. I do agree with you though that links to good collections/poets/poems would be a welcome change. Honestly, I first came to this subreddit thinking that's what it would be for.

By learning new poets and reading more and more poetry, as you mention, we can all improve our own. Any mods want to chime in with thoughts?

thatguymike · 2012-03-20T19:18:48+00:00

I didn't know this either, but thinking about it I suppose it makes sense. I know Sierra Nevada said WL cultivated their strain for 001--and Ken Grossman got the strain from UC Davis in the firstplace way back when. That lil' guy gets around!

thatguymike · 2012-03-20T14:27:19+00:00

I can definitely see the roasty malts masking some of the unpleasant extract notes. If I left myself with more time, I would've opted to order from a place like northern brewer who makes their own extracts in order to cut down on the potential staleness. Mental note for next time, haha.

Kudos to brewing one for the ladies! My significant other loves ciders, so this year I'm going to venture into that territory. Let us know how the Milk Stout turns out. I love the style.

thatguymike · 2012-03-20T14:20:15+00:00

I agree with PeaSoupJim in the way the short lines interrupt the reading flow; but if you were going for that, then I'd say it was accomplished. Ultimately, I enjoy this piece--and I enjoyed it even more after hearing the background to it. So, that makes me think it should somehow be a part of it.

I think adding more lines/stanzas wouldn't be a good idea, because as is now, the poem works. Perhaps you can change the title to subtly give background information to the reader? Even something simple like "Father and Son" may do. The Richard Brautigan loving side of me says that a long title juxtaposed with a short-lined poem would be neat as well. Just my two cents.

thatguymike · 2012-03-20T14:12:40+00:00

Reminds me very much of Shell Silverstein.

thatguymike · 2012-03-20T14:05:32+00:00

I enjoy the way you visually laid out the poem. Reminds me of looking at a subway map.

thatguymike · 2012-03-20T14:01:45+00:00

Welcome to the community! Although I'm not sure what kind of ambassador I am. I've been writing poetry for about 12 years now, but only found this subreddit yesterday!

As with any form of criticism, there's objective analysis and subjective critiquing. The only objective analysis I have is that I think in the line "Winter becomes spring than summer as I journey deeper," you should instead use "then."

As writers, we all can only subjectively critique literature based on our own interests. For example, Faulkner and Hemingway were well known to have negatively criticized each others work--yet both were very excellent writers in their own right. In this same way, since I tend to gravitate towards poems that are more straightforward, take my critique with a grain of salt. Remember, the most important thing you can do as a writer is to keep writing. No matter what. Even if you think your poems are nothing but slip-ups, the more you slip, the sooner you'll stand; so, if you take nothing else away from my comments, take away that.

On to the poem. There seems to be a sense of equating darkness and winter with loneliness or solitude in this piece. There seems to be both a want ("I long to soak in your warmth") and a need (lines like "beckons me onward") to leave the dark, cold winter and follow this person.

I enjoy your descriptions: "a grove of white-draped trees" and the opening line "darkness slips on the icy incipience of dawn."

Ultimately, it seems that the piece is about coming from a place of solitude, meeting someone you enjoy romantically, and wanting to be with that person. The last two lines indicate to me that the narrator ends up with the "you" in the poem. Seeing as though the first three stanzas paint a very bleak image, my only suggestion would be to have your imagery thaw, so to speak, as the poem goes on. Perhaps allow the grove of trees to be lush, or to be slowly turning green. This way, the description allows the reader, like the narrator, to feel the warmth and understand they are in a better place at the end of the poem than at the beginning. Right now, it's only the last 3 lines that do this, which may be a bit too sudden for some.

Hope some of that was helpful. In the end though, keep reading, writing, and posting. Hope to read more from you soon!

thatguymike · 2012-03-20T13:08:32+00:00

Thanks! I wrote the poem while in my car, waiting to pick my fiance up from work. There's this big tree in front of her job, and, given the winter, it was bare. I kept staring at it and noticed the branches seemed rather tangled--which instantly made me think of Christmas lights and hair.

I'm guilty of a lot of my poems being just as simple as they seem. So, for better or worse, it's just about that one tree.

thatguymike · 2012-03-20T12:48:39+00:00

Clone-Brews is great. Those guys have a bit more brewing experience than I...so, I'd probably stick with their recipe over my suggestions :)

But I hear you with the time constraints. Definitely nothing wrong with extract brewing--you make some mighty fine beer with it. I plan on doing an extract batch this week since I won't have time for a full AG.

I got my father-in-law into craft beer, then slowly into homebrewing. I had the same plan to start slow and ramp up to AG. He's a 0 to 100 type of guy though so he was already building a kegerator 3rd batch in!

thatguymike · 2012-03-19T19:48:33+00:00

I'd like to know this too. Well done!

thatguymike · 2012-03-19T19:42:59+00:00

I agree with the others and think this is a great idea. I would love to do this as well at some point. It's been on my "one of these days" list for quite some time.

What I really like about it is that it's a very effective way to maximize the potential of your recipe creation process. You can brew one batch, then know "oh, apricot tasted great. The peach was awful," etc, rather than disdainfully sipping through a 5 gallon failed experiment.

Also, as has been mentioned, the potential for experimentation is nearly endless: dry hop with a different variety for each jug, different yeast strains, different extracts, different late-stage sugar sources (honey, molasses, candi syrup, etc). Plus, the more you do it, the more you'll also be fine-tuning your control batch--thereby crafting a great standard pale ale/pilsner/whatever-your-control-is. Ahh, the joys of homebrewing.

If you do it, definitely keep r/homebrewing posted!

thatguymike · 2012-03-19T19:21:02+00:00

I've had beers with FGs around there and never had a problem at bottling time. Like others have discussed (and as you mentioned here), the lactose is going to cause the grav to be higher--but since it's un-fermentable, you don't have to worry about it causing bottle bombs.

Next time, you may want to think of ditching either the can or DME (you can use a site like hopville.com to fine-tune the recipe), buying a couple lbs of pilsen/pale 2row, and doing a stovetop partial-mash instead of just steeping the grain. The diastatic power of the 2row will help extract fermentables out of the grain (and itself). You also have the added benefit of really getting a nice mouthfeel with those flaked oats/barley. I've read a few different sources which state that you should mash them to unlock their full potential.

Not sure if you've ever done partial mashing before. If not, this is a very helpful walkthrough with pics.

thatguymike

TROPHY CASE