Robert Judge

Now that I have my pot of hot grain tea, it’s time to mix in the barley malt extract. What is malt extract you ask? Basically it’s sugar syrup made from barley. Rather than malt my own barley in my barn, I purchased a half gallon jug of it.

Yo, this shit is thick! I turned off the burner and poured it in my pot slowly while stirring. It took almost 15 minutes of pouring to get every last drop out of the container.

I brought my mixture up to a boil, but stayed around to make sure it didn’t boil over. (I hear that can happen.)  At the first sight of a boil bubble, I added 1.5 ounces of hop pellets. Hope pellets are just compressed hops. The compression allows them to stay fresher longer, therefore more flavorful and aromatic. Here they are:

Boy, when I put them in, some craziness happened! I had to quickly lower the heat because the hops foamed everything up with thick lather.

Scary, right? Well, this happened periodically for the next hour. That’s right, I boiled it for an hour. Because of the process known as “evaporation,” I was left with this, known as “wort.”

I added another half ounce of hops that will serve to provide more aroma. If you didn’t notice in the photo above, My pot is in a sink full of icy water. I chilled the wort to below 80 degrees. The point is to 1. Not crack my carboy when I add the wort and 2. Not kill the yeast that I will add.

After I cool everything down, I sanitize my glass carboy jug thing and add 4 gallons of clean water. Using a siphon, I transport my wort into the water and mix it up a bit. Next, I add yeast! I take yeast powder and hydrate it in some water so it looks like this:

Gross. It smelled like a …

I added the yeast and sealed it up with a bottle stopper. Some crazy foaming action is going to happen for the next 2 days! This will be the first stage of fermentation. The yeast loves it some sugar and it’s by-product is what we know as alcohol. The more the sugar (malt) the more the alcohol! I used 6 lbs of malt. My alcohol content should be about 6%.

Because of the foam that will form from the yeast and sugar’s love-making, I attached a tube on top that ran off into a mason jar as to not make a mess. It is still about 99% sealed off from harmful elements in my apartment.

Some foam is already comin’! The major action will slow down within the first few days. I will allow 2 weeks of fermentation before I ….. Part 3 coming soon! Topic: Bottling!!!!!!

I enjoy beer. I also enjoy cooking. Therefore, I should enjoy cooking beer. Partially inspired by my cousin Joe’s first few successful batches of homebrew, I decided to make my own batch of Judge’s Brew. (This may be a temporary name.) First step: Research.

As recommended by Joe, I picked up a copy of Charlie Papazian’s The New Complete Joy of Home Brewing. If you have any interest in beer in general, styles of beer, the history of beer, or making it, this book is a great read! Charlie’s repeated advice and slogan, “Relax, drink a homebrew” sets a great mood for brewing. I did not have any homebrews, so I drank some Magic Hat 9’s.

I picked up my equipment and ingrediants for my beer at Midwest Homebrewing and supplies. They have great prices and the quality of the equipment and ingredients seems good. I picked up ingredients for a Nut Brown Ale. YUM. I’m not going to go too much in to describing the equipment. If you’re interested, check out that book.

Step 1: Steep your grains!

This is the bag of grains!

I put them in this weird bag and brought a pot of 2 gallons of water to 155 degrees for about 30 minutes. It smelled great!

STAY TUNED ….

Next! I add malt!!!!!!

More soup, please! That’s what your friends/family/babe you’re trying to impress will say. This is sort of based on a Lebanese lentil dish that isn’t soup, but I made into soup. I think I also read something similar on the internet at one point. Anyhoo, this is how I made it.

Ingredient List:

- 6 Cloves of garlic (more if you love garlic like me. you can go up to 1000 cloves, but no more!)

- 1 large onion, chopped

- olive oil

- 1/2 bunch of cilantro

- - salt

- 1 pound red lentils (or any kind that looks split, I forget what they’re called. This will give it more of a split pea soup style. Don’t worry, the red mysteriously fades away during the cooking)

- 1 package frozen spinach (I’d go with chopped rather than leaf)

- 12 cups of water

- 1 or 2 potatoes (optional)

- 1 or 2 carrots (optional)

- bay leaf

- 2 teaspoons cinnamon

- lemon slices

- 1 can American Lager beer (to drink while you cook)

Directions:

Now I will direct you on how I made this soup using these ingredients. I think you should make it however you want to, though. It’s soup, ok? It can really all go in a pot and cook for a few hours and you have something, right?

1. cook the onion in some olive oil until they get a little caramelized, but not too much. Stir a lot so they don’t burn

2. Dump your lentils in there. Stir em up and let him heat up in the oil and onion until you’re bored.

3. Put in your water and bay leaf and let it boil. Turn down the heat and let it simmer for about 45 minutes. Don’t get lazy! You have some stuff to do in the meantime.

4. Crack open a beer and drink at your own pace.

5. Take a food processor or blender or whatever works for you. Put in the cilantro (leaves only, you don’t want stems. Yuck) and garlic and some salt. Blend until its smooth. If it isn’t chopping so well, you can add some water.

6. When the lentils have cooked, add the spinach, your garlic cilantro jawn, the cinnamon, diced potato and carrot if you want and stir. Cook some more. Maybe 20 minutes? remove the bay leaf. NOW!

7. Serve with a squeeze of lemon. I also like pita bread and yogurt with it.

Today, Wednesday January 30th 2008, former North Carolina Senator John Edwards announced that he will be dropping out of the Democratic race for president. When asked why, Edwards replied, “No one will vote for me. I think I’ll spend my money on something else. I hear the new Radiohead album is good. I might buy that and listen to it this weekend.”

Edwards managed to come in a close second place in the Iowa caususes last month, but has recently fallen far behind the two big budget celebrity candidates, Illinois Senator Barack Obama and former first lady Hillary Clinton.

“I think I’ll continue working on my screenplay before I shop it around. The ending needs more of a twist.”

When asked to react to Edwards’ choice to drop out, Obama said, “Mr. Edwards is a fine man, and a fine screenwriter. I wish the best to him in his future.”

Not yet a guild member, Edwards does not fall under the current writer’s strike plaguing Hollywood. When called a SCAB, Edwards shyly shrugged, “I’m just a former senator with a dream.”

Firemen I like!

Originally uploaded by bobjudge

These guys were outside my apartment for a bit because someone smelled a gas leak. This is the only good shot I got. Stupid built in flash is a crap! I’m getting a new one.

Although J Rol (Shortstop Jimmy Rollins) won the National League’s top honors along with setting several shortstop hitting records and winning his first gold glove, Phanatic may have packed the final punch to get the team over the hump for the first time since 1993. Rollins set the standard about a month before the season began, saying the Phillies were the team to beat in the NL East. But who is to say whether Phanatic would have said the same thing if he had the ability to speak. Unfortunately, his species cannot. I imagine he has quite a bit of trash to talk. Based on his on and off the field (Hollywood i.e.) hijinx and capers, we can only assume his potential to sass as a linguist. A provocative dance-one line combo could be more of a threat than J Rol’s power/speed/defensive trio.

This past week, Phanatic won his own MVP as he was named by The Marketing Arm’s Davie-Brown Index as the top mascot of sports. Yes, Phanatic stands atop a mountain of mysterious men in oversized costumes holding a soft pretzel in victory. One can only imagine the types of endorsement deals and special appearances he will make as a result of this (as if he already doesn’t have enough!) Perhaps this will spawn a sequel to the unsurprisingly poorly received debut film, The Phillie Phanatic Goes to Hollywood. Something along the lines of, The Phillie Phanatic goes to Space? To the Outback? The Wild West? I can see a great series of films rivaling the success of the Ernest franchise(played by Jim Varnes).

It is indeed a reason to celebrate. We look forward to the 2008 season, when the Phillies can too raise their pretzels as top team in Major League Baseball.

http://kabillion.com/shows/bobbysworld

Howie Mandel endorsed Bobby’s World site. Watch episodes!!

At the end of the summer, I shot 100 feet of Fuji 65D 16mm film. I used a friends Rex 5 Bolex manufactured sometime in the 1960’s. It has a 1.8f zoom lens, something like 25mm-110mm. I finally got it telecined at work last night. It is a mix of Prospect Park, my Labor Day Party, and the Empire State Building shot from my office. Enjoy! You better have Quicktime.

Hippie in Beirut

Originally uploaded by bobjudge

I found this on a blog when I was looking for Kishk recipes.