Earlier this year, there were several UFO sightings in Morristown, NJ. Several red lights were seen in the sky. Then again, some days later, another set of red lights were seen. These sightings were reported by media outlets nationwide: Fox News, the History Channel (highlighted on their UFO Hunters show), Local News outlets and more.

From the get go hoax theories abounded. One astute police officer in the area even picked up some binoculars and reported that what he saw were flares tied some balloons. Was this account given much attention? Of course not. Eyewitnesses, UFO experts and Photo Analysis alike discounted the possibility of flares…

Fast forward to today. April 1st, 2009. A great day to announce a hoax!

Today, Chris Russo & Joe Rud, two New Jersey locals and avid readers of Skeptic magazine published a written and video account, via the eSkeptic Newsletter, of what shall now be known as the Morristown UFO Hoax. In the eSkeptic article they state,

“We brainstormed the idea of producing a spaceship hoax to fool people, bring the charlatans out of the woodwork to drum up controversy, and then expose it as nothing more than a prank to show everyone how unreliable eyewitness accounts are, along with investigators of UFOs.”

I’d say they suceeded.

Read their full account in eSkeptic.

And watch Chris and Joe’s videos documenting their entire hoax:
Part 1 – The Setup
Part 2 – The Launches
Part 3 – The Reactions

Of course, being April fools, there’s always the possibility that these hoaxters are hoaxing about their hoax….. 

At long last, another issue of the Missing BJCP Styles series. Last time we looked at some Australian Lagers.  This time we look at two of the several “almost” lost styles of American Ale.  The American Stock Ale and the Kentucky Common Beer. As always, these descriptions are a work in progress. If you have any additional information on these styles, please post a comment (with references) and I’ll incorporate it into the style description.

As information on these two styles is so difficult to come by, and commercial examples are extremely rare to non-existent, this post is a bit more of a work in progress than some of the previous “Missing Styles” posts. However, the information below should be enough to formulate your own recipe. So, with that in mind…

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AMERICAN STOCK ALE

Aroma: Distinctive hop aroma, slight malt fruitiness. May smell a hint of sourness due to lactic acid.

Appearance: Pale to amber in color. Can be slightly cloudy.

Flavor: Quite bitter, and can be somewhat tart from lactic acid. Strong hop flavor. Finishes fairly dry.

Mouthfeel: (more info needed)

Overall Impression: (more info needed)

Comments: Traditional mash schedule: start at 149-151°F for 15 to 30 minutes, then raise the temperature to 154°F for 1 hour. A long secondary fermentation is traditional; 3-6 months. Traditional boil time is often 2 hours with a hop schedule of: 1/3 of hops added at start of boil, another 1/3 added an hour into the boil and the last 1/3 10 minutes before flame out. If sugar is used, it is added towards the end of the boil. American Stock Ales are either similar to or synonymous with Imperial Pale Ales.

Ingredients: Six-row malted barley with up to 25% sugar. American hop varieties Cluster, Northern Brewer and US grown Goldings. American ale yeast, at 68-70°F (20-21.1°C); WYeast 1056 or 1272 would both be good choices. Dry hop with up to 2.5 ounces (71 g) of hops per 5 gallons. Adding a small amount of lactic acid may be appropriate.

Vital Statistics:
OG:  1.066 – 1.079 (even up to 1.100? Though in 1896, average was 1.067)
IBUs:  70 – 100
FG: 1.013 – 1.016
SRM: 3 – 15
ABV: 5.5 – 7.9+%

Commercial Examples (tentative): Rogue Imperial IPA, Three Floyds Dreadnuaght IPA (9.5% abv).

References: “Radical Brewing” by Mosher, “American Handy-book of the Brewing, Malting and Auxiliary Trades” by Wahl and Henius

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KENTUCKY COMMON BEER

Aroma: (more info needed)

Appearance: Dark amber to almost black in color, comparable to a Bavarian dunkel.

Flavor: Pronounced malt flavor, slightly sweet, mild.

Mouthfeel: Full bodied, high carbonation.

Overall Impression: (more info needed)

Comments: Ferment at 68-70°F. Consumed Young. Highly Carbonated.

Ingredients: Pale malt, 25-30% corn or flaked maize, and 1-2% caramel or black malts for color (or some caramel coloring). American hop varieties, such as Cluster or Northern Brewer. American Ale, California Common or a London Ale yeast. Should be pitched with a very small amount (2% of yeast) lactobacillus – or add a very small amount of lactic acid.

Vital Statistics:
OG:  1.044 – 1.048
IBUs:  20 – 30
FG: 1.009 – 1.013
SRM: 18 – 27
ABV: 4.0 – 5.0%

Commercial Examples: Mosher (see references) reports that the Bluegrass Brewing Co. in Louisville, KT has brewed a Kentucky Common in recent years.

References: http://www.lagersclub.com/louhistory.htm, “Radical Brewing” by Mosher, “American Handy-book of the Brewing, Malting and Auxiliary Trades” by Wahl and Henius

Other Missing Styles to be covered in coming articles:
Kellerbier, Gose, Wiess, Broyhan, Graetzebier, Honey Beers (not Braggots), Classic American Cream Ale, American Stock Ale, Czech Dark Lager, English Pale Mild, Scottish 90/-, English Strong Ale, Non-alcoholic “Beer”, Malt Liquor, Imperial/Double Red Ale, Imperial/Double Brown Ale, Imperial Lager, Imperial Pilsner, Imperial Porter, Rye IPA, Dark American Wheat/Rye, Dry Beer, Pennsylvania Swankey.

We had some day-old left over pizza dough (uncooked, still sitting in a bowl on the kitchen counter) and my wife decided to improvise some rolls.  These turned out sooooooo good, that I thought I’d post the recipe here. I don’t have a good name for these, so I’ll just call them Hearty German Rolls, because they’re based on a German style of roll.

These are hearty rolls. They are equally good to eat at dinner along with some soup, or have with breakfast with your favorite omelet or other egg dish.  Eat warm though!  And cut in half and spread some butter on.

Ingredients

2 Cups Flour
2/3 Cups hand-warm Water
1 tsp. Olive Oil
1 tsp. dried Yeast

1 small onion, diced (or half of a medium-large onion)
3 strips of Bacon
small handful of shelled Sunflower Seeds
2-3 Tbsp. diced Chives
1/4 tsp. each, salt and pepper
some 10 Grain Cereal, ala Bob’s Red Mill
some coarse salt (rock salt)

Method

Mix flour, oil, water and yeast. Knead for 5 minutes. Let dough rise 30 minutes in a warm place.

While the dough is rising, dice the raw bacon and mince the onion. Heat up a skillet, no oil, and put the onion and bacon in together and saute until the bacon is cooked and the onions are starting to brown. Transfer them to a paper towel lined plate to soak up the excess oil.

After dough has risen 30 minutes, punch down and add the cooked onion and bacon, along with the diced chives, sunflower seeds and salt and pepper. Knead in thoroughly.  Divide the dough in 8 equal portions and make slightly flatten balls. Press some 10 grain cereal into the bottom of each dough ball.  Sprinkle a few grains of coarse salt on the top of each roll. (A good method is to have the seeds and salt on two small plates and just press each side of the dough ball into each plate).

Preheat oven to 375°F (190°C).

Place dough balls on a pizza stone and let rise for another 30 minutes in a warm place. Dough balls will be about 50% larger when ready.

Using a sharp knife, cut a single slit in the top of each dough ball. Place dough balls (rolls!) in oven.

Bake for about 40 minutes. After 15 minutes, and every 10-15 minutes thereafter, open the oven and brush the tops of the rolls with water.  When ready, tops should be just starting to turn light golden brown.

Makes 8 rolls.

We already know Westboro Baptist Church pastor Fred Phelps is a buffoon, but can things get any more absurd? He now wants to put an anti-Santa Claus sign up at our nation’s capitol…  Actually if you check the blog link below, the sign is kinda funny. 

“Santa Claus will take you to hell”

That has got a ring to it, doesn’t it? And his suit is red.

In the Blogs.

In the News.

So, I just got back from doing my civic duty … I voted. After signing in (I still don’t understand why you don’t need to show an ID), I went over to the table to grab my ballot.

“Do you want to vote on paper or electronically?”, I was asked. Not liking to waste paper, I opted to vote electronically. Though there was one, if only slight, problem. They only had one electronic voting machine.  So I could wait in line to use that or vote now on paper. I was in a little bit of a hurry, so I opted to go paper. (I know, what a hypocrite).

Now what’s the point of paper voting?  A better paper trail?  Easing fears of mistakes when voting electronically? Ok, I suppose.  So, I vote on my paper ballot, and what do I do after that?  I feed it into an electronic scanner (something similar to the one pictured here) to record my votes. Low and behold, I just voted electronically anyway!

Seriously, what is the difference?  If you have an electronic voting machine that retains a paper receipt of every voters choices, printed in view of the voter, how is this any different from making your marks on a paper then feeding it into a ballot scanner? Well, one uses more paper.

It has me wondering. Was there only one electronic voting machine there because the city/county could not afford more, or are people in my area afraid of electronic voting? If the later is true, someone really needs to inform these people that they are voting electronically anyway…

So, in fact, there were two electronic voting machines in the room.  One that lets you enter your votes straight into the computer via a screen and one that scans votes marked on paper. One of these options uses less paper – and in the long run would probably save money, and a few trees.

Three cheers fr REAL electronic voting!!!

I just read this article on Reason.com and thought I’d just plug it, since it made some really great points about reason, law and beer:

How Your Beer Bought John McCain’s $500 Loafers
Uncovering the government subsidies behind Cindy McCain’s family fortune

The article discusses the history of alcohol distribution and the “poor” economics of the forced three-tiered system in place in most states.

I was perusing German maltster Weyermann’s website and found a recipe for a stout that they had posted.  It used Pilsner malt and Hallertauer hops.  Not very stout-like, in the traditional sense, but interesting. It’s almost like they took a Dunkel or maybe a Schwarzbier recipe and threw in an ale yeast. So, here’s my slightly modified version of their recipe, translated into English and scaled to a 5 gallon batch. I call it Ein Seltsames Gebräu Stout (German for “A Strange Brew Stout”).

The closest official BJCP style for this beer would be a Foreign Extra Stout, though it’s not quite dark enough – but close. The color range is in Oatmeal Stout territory however – though it’s too bitter for an Oatmeal Stout, and well there’s no oatmeal. Ok, on with the recipe!

Ein Seltsames Gebräu Stout

5 gallons
OG 1.058
IBU 42

9.8 lbs. Pilsner Malt
18 oz. Carafa II (use Carafa III for a darker color)
5.4 oz. Acidulated Malt

2.4 oz. Hallertau Hersbrucker for 60 minutes

Fermentis Safale S-04 English Ale Yeast
(or White Labs WLP002 English Ale or WLP004 Irish Ale Yeast should give similar results)

Make sure to get the rests in for the mash, as this calls for pilsener malt.

We recently looked at some unique Australian Ales not found in the BJCP Style Guidelines. In this third installment of The Missing BJCP Styles series we’ll be focusing on a couple Australian Lagers: Australian Lager and Premium Australian Lager.

These two styles are very similar to their American counterparts: Standard and Premium American Lagers, though the Standard Australian Lager’s IBU range is slightly greater than that or Standard American Lager. Other contrasts would probably show up in choices for yeast and especially hops. Seeking out good Australian malt is desirable, of if you’re doing extract brewing, use Coopers’ extracts.

If you’re setting out to brew an Australian lager, you’ll probably want to use Pride of Ringwood hops for bittering and flavor/aroma; though if you can’t find them, Galena or Cluster are said to make acceptable substitutes. There are no readily available Australian Lager yeasts (in the USA) that I know of, but due to their strong similarity to American Lagers either White Labs’ WLP840 American Lager or Wyeast 2035 – American Lager yeasts would be appropriate.

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AUSTRALIAN LAGER

Appearance: Very pale straw to pale gold colour. White head. Carbonation medium to high. Clarity good to
excellent.

Aroma: Little to no malt aroma. Hop aroma may range from low to none and may be flowery. Slight fruity
aromas from yeast and hop varieties used may exist. No diacetyl.

Flavour: Crisp and dry flavour with some low levels of sweetness. Hop flavour may range from low to medium. Hop bitterness low to medium. Balance can vary from slightly malty to slightly bitter, but is usually close to even. No diacetyl. No fruitiness. Finish tending dry.

Mouthfeel: Low to low medium. Well carbonated. Slight carbonic bite on tongue is acceptable.
Overall Impression: Light, refreshing and thirst quenching.

Vital Statistics:
OG: 1040-1050
FG: 1004-1010
IBU: 10-20
ABV: 4.2-5.1%

Commercial Examples: Fosters Lager, Carlton Draught, XXXX, and Tooheys New.

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PREMIUM AUSTRALIAN LAGER

Appearance: Straw to pale gold. Bright, with a reasonable head. Darker than common Australian lagers, due to the use of less adjuncts.

Aroma: A mild, malt aroma, which may be supported by low to moderate, and even possibly noble, hop notes. Estery fruitiness, diacetyl, and phenolic or yeasty notes should be absent.

Flavour: Low to moderate mild malt flavour may be supported by low to moderate hop flavours. Bitterness can range from low-medium (lagers) to high-medium (pilsners), resulting in a neutral to slightly bitter malt/bitterness balance. Medium to medium-high carbonation. Crisp and dry. Any fruity flavours, phenolics, yeasty flavours, diacetyl, astringency or harshness, should be penalized.

Mouthfeel: Light to light-medium.

Overall Impression: A clean, crisp lager, designed basically for quaffing, but containing more interest and more malt and hop character than the typical Australian session lagers.

Vital Statistics:
OG: 1045-1055
FG: 1008-1012
IBU: 15-25
ABV: 4.7-6.0%

Commercial Examples: Malt Shovel Pilsner, Boags Premium Lager.

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Special thanks to Tony Wheeler and all those at the AABC for assisting me, directly and indirectly, with putting the Australian styles together.

Note: I was going to include Australian Bitter Lager here, but the Australian version of the BJCP, the AABC, recently removed it from their style guide.

Other Missing Styles to Be Covered Soon:
Kellerbier, Gose, Wiess, Honey Beers (not Braggots), Classic American Cream Ale, Czech Dark Lager, English Pale Mild, Scottish 90/- (?), American Stock Ale, English Strong Ale, Non-alcoholic “Beer”, Malt Liquor, Imperial/Double Red Ale, Imperial/Double Brown Ale, Imperial Lager, Imperial Pilsner, Imperial Porter, Rye IPA, Dark American Wheat/Rye.

We had a ton of vegetables sitting around and a couple pounds of ground turkey in the freezer.  So using a couple recipes as a foundation I whipped together the finest meatloaf I’ve yet had.  As I was just winging it, the below recipe is a very close approximation of the meatloaf I made tonight. Let me know if you try it!

Super Duper Turkey Meatloaf

Ingredients

2 lbs. (900g) ground Turkey (half breast meat, half thigh meat)
1 tsp. olive oil
2 medium onions
4 cloves garlic
1 large carrot
2 stalks celery
1 large zucchini
3/4 lbs. (340g) cremini mushrooms
1.5 cups (350ml) fresh bread crumbs
1/3 cup (80ml) milk
2 eggs
3 Tbsp. tomato paste
3 Tbsp. ketchup
2 tsp. chicken base (or equivalent bullion that would normally make two cups of broth)
3 Tbsp. beer (hoppy ale)
2 Tbsp. soy sauce
1 Tbsp. worcester sauce
1-2 tsp. malt vinegar
1 tsp. oregano
1/2 tsp. paprika
1/4 tsp. thyme
1/4 tsp. ground sage
1/4 tsp. black pepper
dash yellow mustard powder
dash cayenne pepper
dash mace
salt to taste (remember, there’s salt in a few of the ingredients above already!)

Method

Finely chop all vegetables and mushrooms (keep the separated!) in a food processor.  Combine the bread crumbs with the milk and set aside.

Preheat oven to 400°F (205°C).

In a large skillet, saute the onions and garlic in the oil for a couple minutes until onions begin to soften.  Add the carrots and celery and saute for a couple more minutes. Add the zucchini and mushrooms and saute for a few more minutes until all vegetables are just a bit soft. Do not over cook.  Place vegetables in a large metal bowl.

Add the milk/bread crumb mixture to the sauteed vegetables. Mix. Use you hands, its more fun. Add the eggs. Mix more. Now add the beer, tomato paste, ketchup, chicken base (I use Better Than Bullion brand), soy sauce, worcester sauce, malt vinegar and all of the herbs and spices. Mix more. The mixture should be pretty soggy.

Add the turkey to the mixure. Mix more. Again, hands are more fun. When everything is thoroughly mixed, it should be extremely moist, but just “together” enough to keep its form if you shape it into a flat sort of ball. If it’s too moist, add a few more shakes of bread crumbs.

Lightly grease a large rimmed baking sheet with olive oil. Divide the turkey mixture into two equal portions and make two flattened oval loafs on the baking sheet. Squirt some ketchup over the top of the two loaves and spread around with a brush – or your fingers.

Bake at 400°F (205°C) for about 50 minutes, or until a meat thermometer registers 170°F (77°C) when inserted into the center of the loaves. Remove from oven. Let stand for 5-10 minutes before cutting (it’ll stay together better).

I served this with a side salad made of red leaf lettuce, some dried bing cherries, some home toasted sunflower seeds, some freshly grated parmesan cheese and topped with my own home made buttermilk ranch dressing.

When I make this again, I’ll take some photos and add to this post.

Searching the net for something to cook tonight, I ran across a recipe for a British Style Curry.  The author of the recipe states, “I can close my eyes after eating it and hear the patter of rain on the streets of London.” Sounds good to me. I’ve only been to London once, and I didn’t have any curry while I was there … but I can imagine.

It’s just about done as I type and it smells fantastic.  I tasted a little with a spoon, and it tastes as good as it smells. Though the author of the recipe may not appreciate me cutting down on the oil…  Sorry, I just couldn’t do it!!!  Two cups?!?! 

I was thinking of ways to make this recipe just as rich as the “two cups of oil” version, but without the, you know, two cups of oil. So upon serving, in by bowl, I added a dab of honey for a slight hint of sweetness. This seemed to work well. I think I might also try adding a couple spoons of yogurt next time and see how that fares.

Anyway, I thought this recipe should be shared.  And I’ll be perusing through the rest of quarrygirl.com when I get a chance to see if there are more recipes hidden there. She does mention beer…

I’d suggest feasting on this with a nice 55°F (13°C) pint of Fuller’s London Pride.

The British Curry Recipe

(Oh, and I just had to cheat and bake some beer battered fish to go with it.  Fish and Curry.  Why not?)