Metal Spinning, Chinchillas, and the Beer Infochart

First - a quick brewing update:

It is a joy for Johnny to have the pilot equipment up and running. The machining is truly beautiful, and I have a soft spot for the metal spinning involved, probably because my dad spins metal chinchilla exercise wheels, yeah, you heard me...

Metal Spinning, which is basically the equivalent of working with metal on a potters wheel, is useful for making fancy cookware, fermenter tops, rocket cones, and rodent exercise equipment. Check out my dad's website and the Flying Saucer Chinchilla Exercise Wheel site - which includes a video of the wheel in action.

Many of us have seen the awesome Grand Taxonomy of Rap Names from the intensely clever folks at Pop Chart Lab. Now beer geeks can appreciate the Many Varieties of Beer poster. Created by Brooklyn-based kickass designer Ben Gibson and book editor Patrick Mulligan. Gibson's work is quite spectacular.

You can get it for yerself at their website.

They also just came out with a t-shirt version, also at their site.

4 kegs of California Common

Johnny was a whirlwind of kegging today - four kegs of California Common, a steam beer, which can't be called a steam beer thanks to Anchor Brewing. Steam beers, historically from California's west coast, are brewed with lager yeasts, but fermented without refrigeration. Steam beers probably originated in the Gold Rush through the inelegance of necessity, but resulted in unexpected delectibility. Though they claim no connection to the original steam beer process, Anchor Brewing trademarked the term "steam beer" in 1981, rendering the rest of us unable to use it.

While researching California Common, steam beer etc, I came across the Beer Judge Certification Program style guidelines, a matrix of ABV%, color and chemical breakdown, Johnny said "What I am trying to do is make something that's good, in and of itself." We're less into the statistics of style and more into just making beer that tastes good.

Starter Logo

I made us a starter card - it does make the whole thing seem real to set it down on paper. We'll be working with a designer soon to make a kickass logo, but we figured we'd self-legitimate in the meantime. Johnny is Grain Alchemist and Creek is Minister of Information.