The Hydrogen Project

This weekend I bottled the barleywine that I brewed so long ago. Let me give a short review of all that has happened with this beer:

1.) First thing to do was to dry hop with the last of the Cascade hops. I simply tossed the pellets into the fermenter (still primary at this point) and resealed the lid.
2.) After pitching the champagne yeast once the lock stopped bubbling, fermentation stuck at gravity 1.032.
3.) The first thing recommended to me by the LiveJournal homebrewing group was to try adding yeast nutrients and swirling the beer around a bit to oxygenate. No change in gravity.
4.) Several weeks pass with no change in gravity. I attempt to make a starter with a second pack of yeast, but my attempt is foiled when a fruit fly makes its way in and contaminates it! Bah!
5.) A few more weeks pass. I purchase a glass carboy and rack the beer onto to some oak chips within. Still no change in gravity.
6.) Several months pass to this weekend.

Well, I think I left the beer on the oak chips a little too long. Pre-primed tasting is ULTRAOAKY. I'm sure it will improve with some time in the bottle and some fizz. They always do.

Capoeira Gerais is having (another) open house this Wednesday!

For those not familiar, capoeira is a Brazilian martial art that was practiced by slaves and disguised as dance for centuries while it was practiced illegally. If you would like to see it in action, look it up on YouTube.

Anyways, if one of your New Year's resolutions is to get in shape, capoeira does that pretty well. To that end, my capoeira instructor is holding an open house Wednesday Jan 13. It's free for the first class. If you would like to attend, just show up at Boston Ultimate Fitness on that night at 6PM. Wear comfortable clothes and optionally shoes (please not street shoes though. The floor was all full of sand tonight), and bring a towel! You'll need it.

The address is 33 Harrison Av, in Chinatown, on the 7th floor.

Regular classes are on Mondays and Wednesdays every week at this time and address, or at 8:15 PM at Champions Dance Studio in Everett if that's more convenient for you.

Yesterday morning, high winds caused a power outage on my street. This somehow managed to totally reset my Westell 7500 DSL modem and wireless router. The official install process failed to work, just as it has never worked, so I had to call tech support. Since I ended up listening to about 15 minutes of pre-recorded advice that was completely irrelevant before getting to wait on hold for the helpful technician who actually called me back when my call got disconnected (Verizon Wireless's great network in action!), I will document the repair process here in case this happens again.

Note, at any point, you can reset the modem back to the original state by poking the little reset button on the back with a paperclip.

1. First, turn the modem upside-down and note the serial number and WEP key. The serial number is the default SSID, and the WEP key is just that.


2. Connect to the wireless network, or connect your computer to the router with an Ethernet cable.


3. Visit this URL: http://192.168.1.1/verizon/redirect.htm


4. Click the 'DISABLE' button. You will eventually be asked for a password. The username is 'admin' and the password is 'password'.


5. The next screen will ask you to change your username and password. Change it to something besides the default. At this point, you should be able to connect to the Internet.


6. Go into Wireless Settings and twiddle the settings how you want. Most likely everything you need is under Basic Security Settings.


7. You will likely need to double check your firewall settings as well.

I hope that helps anyone in my situation. Naturally, if you need this advice, you probably can't get on the Internet anyway.

Yesterday morning, high winds caused a power outage on my street. This somehow managed to totally reset my Westell 7500 DSL modem and wireless router. The official install process failed to work, just as it has never worked, so I had to call tech support. Since I ended up listening to about 15 minutes of pre-recorded advice that was completely irrelevant before getting to wait on hold for the helpful technician who actually called me back when my call got disconnected (Verizon Wireless's great network in action!), I will document the repair process here in case this happens again.

Note, at any point, you can reset the modem back to the original state by poking the little reset button on the back with a paperclip.

1. First, turn the modem upside-down and note the serial number and WEP key. The serial number is the default SSID, and the WEP key is just that.


2. Connect to the wireless network, or connect your computer to the router with an Ethernet cable.


3. Visit this URL: http://192.168.1.1/verizon/redirect.htm


4. Click the 'DISABLE' button. You will eventually be asked for a password. The username is 'admin' and the password is 'password'.


5. The next screen will ask you to change your username and password. Change it to something besides the default. At this point, you should be able to connect to the Internet.


6. Go into Wireless Settings and twiddle the settings how you want. Most likely everything you need is under Basic Security Settings.


7. You will likely need to double check your firewall settings as well.

I hope that helps anyone in my situation. Naturally, if you need this advice, you probably can't get on the Internet anyway.

I have created a small subproject of fs1rgen in order to get a really basic app working that uses a genetic algorithm. It's called tonegen, and instead of generating random FS1r patches, it generates random noises. (By default, 44.1kHz 16-bit audio with a 1/440 second sample) 10 of these noises are created per generation using some horrific mishmash of Objective-C and C++. (Seriously, there is no reason for me to use Objective-C for what is now a command line app that interfaces with Core Audio, a C API)

FS1rgen will be the same, for the simple reason that Cocoa is written in Objective-C and GALib is written in C++.

If you would like to try tonegen, you can grab the source code from github and you'll need the latest GALib. You'll need to muck with the XCode project file to make it find GALib, since I really haven't bothered with a autoconf or even a Makefile.

Beer & Wine Hobby has a 70 dollar (!!!) bourbon cask vanilla bean stout kit. The most recent newsletter from Modern Homebrewing Emporium has instructions that I can put together on their website for $55. The vanilla beans are another 10 clams from JR Mushrooms and Specialties, but I want to do a vanilla bourbon infusion, too, so I need those beans! I will skip the bourbon soaked oak chips

Here is the plan (modified to suit my tastes and available hops):

- 1 lb crystal malt (90L)
- 1 lb Maris otter malt, since it sounds interesting
- 1/4 lb chocolate malt
- 1/4 lb black patent malt
- 1/8 lb roasted barley
- 6 lbs dark malt extract (dry)
- 1 oz Northern Brewer hops (kettle)
- 1 oz Chinook (aroma)
- White Labs WLP004

Ferment in primary for a week, then rack to secondary on top of four vanilla beans.

Rack to secondary? Uh oh, my brand new carboy is already full of barleywine! On the recommendation of the LiveJournal Homebrewing community, that will be sitting for a few months on some medium toast French oak chips.

CHEAPSKATE TIP: A paper bag from the supermarket is just as good for a 5-gallon carboy cover as it is for a book cover! Just cut a hole in the bottom of the bag for the fermentation lock to poke through.

Today was a big beer day. Last Saturday, I had added the second specified spice packet to the pumpkin ale I had brewed. In doing so, I racked it all into the bottling bucket, then got rid of all the yeast trub at the bottom. This made today's bottling experience much easier. No sediment at the bottom of the fermenter means less grit in the bottles! Altogether the yield was about 4.3 gallons into 26 nice big bottles. For the sake of consumer interest, the gravity on this when racking to secondary was 1.016 and just before priming and bottling was 1.014. Temperature corrected ABV is 5.1% and a 12 ounce bottle would have about 184 calories if I bottled in bottles that small.

Once bottling of the pumpkin ale was complete, I started the barleywine brew also mentioned in the above link. I slightly modified my plans to include steeping some bitter orange peel along with the grains. The OG for this is 1.082 at 75 degrees. Once primary fermentation is done, I am to pitch the champagne yeast right into that vessel, and then rack to secondary once THAT fermentation is finished. This brew could get up to 11% alcohol! Yow!

Last Friday I was on the radio. The auto-archiving on WZBC is now working. These links should function until October 30.

Hour 1: http://zbconline.com/wzbc-2009-10-16-22-00.m3u
Hour 2: http://zbconline.com/wzbc-2009-10-16-23-00.m3u
Hour 3: http://zbconline.com/wzbc-2009-10-17-00-00.m3u

Playlist below:

Continue reading "Beer and "wine" and tracks" »

Friday night, I'll be on the radio subbing for Forward the Bass. I don't have any new new records to play, but I have some new old records and some old old records. Listen in on WZBC 90.3FM in the Boston area or the WZBC web site at 10PM eastern time until 1AM. I promise not to be too predictable.

Some production and consumption notes:

Saturday I made a pumpkin ale. I have long wanted to make a clone of Souther Tier's Pumking, but I'm not ready for all-grain brewing yet, so instead I picked up a kit of the on-sale Harvest Feast Pumpkin Ale from Beer and Wine Hobby. This kit consisted of 6.6 pounds of malt extract, with a pound of flaked barley, half a pound of chocolate malt, 2 oz of Hallertau hops for bittering, a can of pumpkin puree for those of us without fresh pumpkin available, two packets of magical 'pumpkin spice', the usual priming sugar, and Irish moss for clarification. I opted for the dry yeast version of the kit as my fridge is full. As usual, I started things off by rehydrating the yeast using a stir plate. (Someday I may actually make a yeast starter the night before brew day.) Brewing was straightforward, but I did try a few new things for this batch! I sparged my grain bag with hot water instead of squeezing it, making the total boil volume just shy of four gallons. I actually strained out the hop and protein residue before adding to the fermenter; hopefully this results in less useless sediment at the bottom and more clear beer to drink! The kit instructions said that the gravity of the wort should have been 1.042. In reality, it was 10 points higher, 1.052 after temperature correction! I can't imagine what may have happened. This brew also calls for racking to secondary and adding a second sachet of pumpkin spices. I don't have a glass carboy, so I will have to rack to my bottling bucket and then back into my primary fermenter just as I did with my chocolate stout.

The brewing store was busy, and I think they may have given me a yeast that was not quite intended for this beer. They handed me a packet of Safbrew T-58 yeast which is what I used for my "Belgian" honey amber ale. This yeast generates spicy and fruity flavors all its own, so this may be a really weird ale!

My next beer project will be a barleywine based on Death by Barleywine. I bought 10 pounds of dried amber malt extract; a pound of crystal malt and half a pound each of chocolate malt and roasted barley; 1 ounce of Nugget hops for bittering and 3 ounces of Cascade: one for aroma, one for flavor, and one for dry-hopping; a packet of Pasteur champagne yeast to take over once the Safale S04 dies off; and French oak chips for aging. The oak chips take about 6 weeks to fully infuse, at which point I will bottle and let that stuff sit until the bleak midwinter. Mmm.

We also roasted a chicken Saturday night. It was a kosher chicken and that made a serious difference. Moist and juicy! I attempted to make a nice chicken gravy with the drippings, but we were too hungry to wait for it to boil down!

Sunday I attempted to make a Steak and Ale pie with the last of my Park Ave Porter Plus . It was tasty, but the crust didn't puff up as puff pastry is supposed to! It just got warm and stayed mushy. Bummer :(

Oh, and today while on a stop at the liquor store to get a single bottle of wine, I picked up Sam Adams Imperial Series Stout and Double Bock, a bottle of Troegenator, a Stone Vertical Epic 09.09.09, and a Red Hook Tripel. I hate having a semi-decent beer store right on my walk home from the train.

I am late in posting this, but this week is the third Capoeira Gerais batizado in Boston.



Events are Thursday and Saturday in Marlboro and Friday night in Chinatown. See the poster for all details. You should not miss this. To paraphrase a friend who came to last year's: "I spent two hours alternately saying HOLY SHIT and WHOA. Those guys were unbelievable"

fs1rgen

I have mostly completed the XML document that describes the FS1r data model, at least enough to start writing code to parse it. Because spending 30 minutes at a time reading Xerces-C is almost useless, I have abstracted away the XML parser so that I can write a Xerces-C driver later and a RapidXML driver now. Since the RapidXML driver was, well, rapid, I am now onto writing a very basic test XML so I can build the genetic algorithm component using GALib. A lot of my ideas about the data model have had to change to adapt to the GALib environment; I'm awfully glad I started reading the manual before I wrote all that code.

For fs1rgen I am using git. I made a public repository on github for it, but since I'm always in a hurry to get off the train when I check stuff in, and I haven't really figured out git anyway, there's not much there.

LoopCollector

I have abandoned the C++ command-line version and I am now thinking of writing a third prototype in Perl before implementing the VST version. I have started the VST version but the VST scaffolding is a little tough to figure out a half hour at a time. I may implement a prototype in ChucK, Pd, or CSound, whichever I can figure out the quickest.

eyeCalendar

I have taken eyeCalendar off my sidebar here after some performance problems. It's a low priority now that I'm not actively tracking Boston music events since the whole baby thing keeps me craving sleep more often!

Blogging

I have been offered a spot as a contributor at Way of the Spatula. In addition, I am spinning any non-DJ type musical content into a separate blog: The Republic of Nynex. There's no content there, yet. I need to finish my software projects first!

If anyone has a suggestion on a Linux RSS reader that can handle HTTP authentication or cookies, let me know. I would like to stop using LiveJournal as my feed reader. I tried RSSOwl but I do not like it.

The words of C. B. Stubblefield adorn every bottle of Stubb's barbecue products: "First of all, you have to have the taste and the time."

Well, I didn't have the time today, so I had to buy a bottle of someone else's sauce.

Today was my extended family's July and August birthday party and was the first chance for most of them to meet our new baby. Always on the lookout for a barbecue excuse, I offered to make ribs at my dad's house where the party was being held. He and I have the exact same smoker configuration. For some reason, even though I only bought my kit after he did (and made some really awesome ribs) he thinks I have some magic power that he doesn't, so he told me that he would pick up the charcoal and he would watch me do everything.

Anyway, since the party was on a Saturday, I wouldn't have time to make my ribs the day before since I would be at work. Food was to be served at 1:00 P.M., so my options were limited. I decided to try my hand at Memphis dry ribs since this style only requires 1-2 hours to cook.

Friday night, I made some brief preparations. I put together a half-batch of my old standby, Mike Mills' Magic Dust. While not strictly Memphis style, it is somewhat similar to the spicy version of this Memphis rub which I will try in the future. Notice that the Memphis Dust does not include ANY cayenne or chili powder by default!

What makes dry ribs dry is the lack of a sauce basted at the end of the smoke. You still can use a mop. I would recommend it for any barbecue, honestly. I improvised since I couldn't find the recipe I used last time: 1 cup olive oil, ½ cup apple cider vinegar, ½ cup Worcestershire sauce, a can of Miller Lite, and a few spoons of Phat Mike's mysterious rub that appears to be equal portions paprika and espresso grinds.

This got packed up with a my actual mop and a few foil pans. I asked my dad to get a few oak logs handy.

This morning, I stopped at McKinnon's, hoping to get some full slabs of the baby back ribs on sale starting Friday. They had three half slabs and when I asked at the counter they were otherwise out! Instead, I picked up two slabs of spare ribs. They were cut super thick: ten pounds each! I also picked up a bottle of Charlie Beigg's Maine Apple barbecue sauce, and some ice for the trip. Upon arriving at my parents', my dad presented me with yet another rack of ribs (baby backs!). To start the fire, he usually uses small pieces of pine wood that have been covered in wax. This is basically a homemade version of those fire log contraptions you get from the grocery store. It worked well enough. The cooker got up to temp pretty quickly. My dad went to run some errands, and told me to wait on the baby back ribs so he could watch the whole process.

Turns out that half a batch of Magic Dust is exactly enough for two slabs of untrimmed spare ribs (the meat flaps on the backs were mostly fat and the knife was getting slippery) and one side of baby backs. After scraping and oiling the cooking grates, I loaded the spares into the cooker, and waited for my father's return.

Once he got back, I spiced the baby backs, and I placed that rack on the warming rack.

Now, the other thing about dry ribs is that they are smoked really hot for barbecue. I was shooting for a temperature of 350°F, so I actually started the fire in the main cooking chamber, not in the firebox. Guess what? Some of the spare ribs got a little burnt! Oh well.

After about two hours and much pestering by the family, I took the ribs to be sliced. I actually trimmed off the brisket bone and all the cartilage-y bits but served them anyway, warning people about the difference. Nobody seemed to mind. There were leftovers, but honestly, three racks of ribs for 15 people who were also eating dynamites is a little overkill. One comment made by my brother makes me want to explore some of the standard Char-Griller modifications to reduce the right-side hotspot, but that will be a long time from now, I'm sure.

• LLVM


• Erlang


• J2EE


• VST and CoreAudio/MIDI


• Stronger Objective-C


• More Perl (Moose)


• GALib


• PD/Max and SuperCollider


• Linux kernel hacking (at long last) and all the other stuff about Linux I forgot over the past 6 years of not having a daily Linux beater.


• strong Python (work requirement, blah)


• C++ topics (boost, template hackery)


• Clojure or some other functional language


• more J2EE since I appear to be working on that in the office now also

This weekend is the Salem CultureFest, basically a small arts festival with some typical carnival attractions. Pretty much everything was of a multicultural bent: African instruments for sale, Japanese calligraphy demos, reggae band, drum circles, etc.

In the middle of yesterday's program was a demonstration by the K-9 unit of the Salem Police. Does this strike anyone else as a bizarre entry?

Tonight's Test Pattern will focus on Glasgow label Iridite Productions. From their press package:

"ItÂ’s all about the music"

Iridite was founded on this principle in the summer of 1999. Dedicated to producing quality electronic dance music, and acting as a platform for both established and new artists whose work was yet to be heard. This music would be unified not strictly by genre but by its quality, the styles ranging from down tempo to Detroit inspired Techno, Dub and House. Initially the aim was to bring together different artists on each release, each track being the strongest possible selection by that artist for the EP at that time, creating a fluid mix of high quality music without trying to hard to be overtly "eclectic".

From Matt:

I will be playing tracks from Iridite's entire 10-year history (well, most of it). If time permits, I will also present some unreleased, untitled tracks by unnamed artists coming up on future Iridite releases.

Listen in tonight at 6PM on 90.3 FM or www.wzbc.org