Plain Text Persists

“Relying on these application files for our precious words is a mistake. Standards and preferences change. What your computer can understand today, it may not tomorrow.”

I’ve got a shelf full of backed-up work that is essentially useless because the applications, file formats, and technologies I used to create the work no longer exists.

What value is an archive if it’s not usable years later?

Fermenting: “Marley was Dead” Barleywine

“Marley was dead: to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker, and the chief mourner. Scrooge signed it: and Scrooge’s name was good upon ‘Change, for anything he chose to put his hand to. Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail.” – Charles Dickins, A Chrismas Carol

Last night Jon came by to help me brew the Christmas barleywine recipe I’ve been working on for month now. It went super smoothly. And rather than sticking the boil pot in the snowbank to cool it off (doesn’t work), we shoveled snow into the sink (also doesn’t work). Either way, I had a great time.

    “Marley was Dead” Barleywine recipe

  • 12# Northern Brewer Organic Light Malt Extract
    This is my first experience w/ Northern Brewer’s house extract, sounds like this Organic Light is a little darker than pale – exactly what I was looking for.
  • 4# Maris Otter
    Seems like the right adjunct grain for the English side of the recipe.
  • 2oz. Spruce essence
    I’m hoping this provides a touch of Christmas to the overall flavor. Prior to the popularity and availability of hops for preservation & bitterness – young growth spruce was commonly used in beer. Particularly in Colonial America. For an inspiring story on using actual spruce in a barleywine – I recommend: Spruce Barleywine, Part 1
  • 2oz. Galena @ 60min
    a fruity, citrus-y, high alpha (13%) bittering hop popular in American ales.
  • 2oz. Galena @ 30min
  • 2oz. UK Kent Goldings @ 15min
    Traditional English aroma & dry hop – with a sweet floral nose.
  • 2oz. UK Kent Goldings – Dry Hopped
  • WYeast’s Headwaters Ale Yeast
    The new strain from Midwest Supplies designed for big American ales – alcohol tolerance is 10%.
  • Original Gravity: 1110
  • Potential alcohol content: 15% (far higher that I’d like – I’m trusting it’ll fall).
  • Bottling scheduled for: November 12, 2011.

Update 3 June 2011: I couldn’t wait until November. It’s June – and already I needed the reminder of winter’s chill – so I bottled.

Final Gravity: 1.030.
ABV: 10.7%
IBU: 94.1
Here’s the recipe on hopville: http://hopville.com/recipe/641796/american-barleywine-recipes/marley-was-dead—test-2011

Babãr

Even before the Abbey Cyser experiment I’ve been intrigued with the idea of a bragot/bracket/bragawd/bragaut [1] – a mead with a beer base.

Over the weekend, I tried a bottle of Brasserie Lefebvre’s Babãr. Amazing and balanced. The honey had a presence, the ale had a presence. And despite their distinctive flavors – neither overpowered the other. It was delicious – and got me looking up bragot recipes at hopville.


1.

“It is a curious fact, and one to which no one knows quite how much importance to attach, that something like 85% of all known worlds in the Galaxy, be they primitive or highly advanced, have invented a drink called jynnan tonnyx, or gee-N’N-T’N-ix, or jinond-o-nicks, or any one of a thousand or more variations on the same phonetic theme.”