Monthly Archives: February 2011
Becoming a morning person
| February 19, 2011 | Posted by matt under Uncategorized |
I woke up this morning at 5:29, on a Saturday, no less. My alarm went off about 30 seconds later. I jumped out of bed and am writing this while the rest of the family is sleeping. Why on earth would I be doing this?
I found this post (from 2005) on hacker news a few weeks ago. The basic premise is to set your alarm to the same time every day, 7 days a week, and get up as soon as you can without snoozing. Then, in the evening you have to fall asleep when you are truly tired and can fall asleep quickly.
This has worked really well for me. I used to snooze my alarm for 30 minutes every weekday and sleep about an hour or two on weekends. I’d try to go to sleep about the same time every night and often would end up spending lots of time waiting to fall asleep. Now I’m falling asleep almost immediately, and getting up at exactly the same time. I have felt very well rested and haven’t been tired except for in the evenings when I should be. The best part is I think it has bought me about an extra 5 hours a week. That’s time I can use for exercise, reading, writing, and other things.
Yes, you can make your own beer!
| February 5, 2011 | Posted by matt under Uncategorized |
I first made my own beer with a friend a few years ago. After getting some exposure to the process, I realized it was not that hard and produced a pretty drinkable product. However, the second batch we made turned out a bit skunky and I had to throw it out. The beer had a slight banana taste, not what you’re going for in a beer. That experience turned me off to beer making for a while since I was afraid that I’d screw up my next batch and waste all the time, effort and money that went into it. This summer, my friend Frank and I decided to give it another go, and the results were much better. Since that batch, I’ve brewed six more times with much better results.
A typical batch of beer
Making beer is not much more complicated than boiling a big pot of water. You can basically brew two different ways: with malt extract or all grain. Using malt extract, either in liquid or dry form, is much easier than brewing with all grain and is where most homebrewers start out whereas brewing with all grain is considered an advanced technique. You need a large pot for brewing (mine is 32 quarts), some equipment for fermenting the beer, and then some more for bottling. Several companies sell starter kits for less than $100 that will get you everything you need to make batches for years to come. Ingredient kits can be had for $25, although some can cost much more. My current favorite store for buying home brewing supplies is Northern Brewer.
Brewing beer takes three basic steps: brewing, fermenting, and bottling. On brew day, you boil water, add malt extract and hops to the boiling water, then cool the beer (known as wort) and finally add yeast. For the fermentation step the beer is then stored in a sanitized container (glass or plastic) for at least 2-3 weeks. Finally, some sugar is added and the beer is placed in bottles. It’s usually ready to drink in a week or two.
Like any hobby, homebrewing can be much more involved than what I describe here, including advanced equipment and techniques. However, making a basic recipe is not complicated, is affordable, and can be quite rewarding. I enjoy it since it is fairly easy to make a very good beer with little knowledge or effort, but the more you want to learn about the process and ingredients, the more you can appreciate the skill and effort that goes into a fine beer.
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