mind over matter

I have something on my mind and although I can’t stop thinking about it I also can’t seem to say it out loud (or type it). So instead I will write about how my weekend was.

Friday

I met Mr. One downtown Toronto to watch a movie outside. They played Gnomeo and Juliet in Maple Leaf Square. I brought my real life picnic blanket and we cuddled romantically on pavement. Although it was crowded and uncomfortable I had a great time. I love seeing movies outside. I work in a windowless office, commute for 2 hours a day in my car and go home to do dishes and whatnot. It is nice to be outside as much as possible in the summer. It is Canada after all and we have to take what we can get. I would give the movie itself a 6/10. It had a few funny moments and it inspired me to incorporate a gnome into my future gardens.

Saturday

My 3^rd annual beerfest! I look forward to it every year and this year did not disappoint. The group got bigger (which broke into smaller subsets of groups), the beer got better, and once again I had a great time. I had some classics to wet my whistle [Rolling Rock (Pennsylvania), Corona (Mexico) etc], but tried a lot of new ones. I really should bring a notebook as I find it difficult to keep track of them all. A few good ones included Red Stripe (Jamaica), Erdinger (Denmark), and Banks (Caribean). A few interesting but not so good beers were 3 Brasseurs blond (Montreal), Gummie bear, and all of them at Great Lakes brewing (Ontario). I did however miss out on the Japanese beer once again. I’m sure it goes better with sushi anyways.

I have been interested in beer, the process, the types and the differences between countries. Just recently I have taken that interest more seriously and have been looking into creating my own at home. I haven’t started yet, but I have been doing a bit more reading to know what I might be getting myself into.

The Basics so far

Beer is essentially a fermented starch (mostly malted barley or wheat). First, the starch is mixed with hot water (called mashing) to create the wort (sugary syrup). The wort is “washed” to separate the grains. With every wash, the wort extracted is weaker thus producing a weaker beer. Hops (flavour and preservative) are added during a second boiling. The sooner it is added the more bitterness it contributes and the less aroma. The hopped wort is then fermented for weeks by brewer’s yeast. Once the beer is made a clarifying agent can be used to or it can be left cloudy (wheat beers). [Random fact: seaweed is used as a clarifying agent for vegan beers and wines.]

There. That worked as somewhat of a distraction from what I am really thinking about.