I was just glad no one had to ride in the trunk, esp me. Harry, the beer is about 4.5% alcohol, since it is a gift to a wide range of palates I tend to make them somewhat mild. On rare occasions I make barley wines or doppel helles bocks that range in the 10-12% area. A nice sipping beer for those cold Miami nights. Jay, maybe I can be durian boy's (man's) apprentice, I still have a ways to go on the durian train. That durian not only looked scary but by the time I was done cooking everything and eating the leftover durian flesh, the entire house was thick with durian funk. I had to go outside for fresh air for a couple minutes. My daughter was unfazed and today enjoyed sharing a cupcake with me, tough little kid. -Ethan

I've actually divided the grains into two, mixed each with kitchen waste and they are now busy composting the conventional way. I'll keep them this way for about a month to 6 weeks, mainly for it to pass the hot stage of composting. The thinking is also that this way, there will be a tremendous increase in the microbial population, which I understand would serve as food for the worms, as well as breaking down organic matter. I'm also mindful not too keep the stage of conventional composting for too long, since from what I've read I understand that this will impact the nutrient quality of the worm casting negatively.

Ahhh, I miss hard cider. Here's hoping this batch comes out glorious. For about the last 10 years even half a glass of wine, um, bounces. Wah. Nothing like an ice cold cider or gin and tonic on a sultry afternoon. Before I had to quit bending elbow a friend was going to make a hard pear cider - aka an undistilled perry - for me, I'd only had it once and was very intrigued. For those who think they don't like mead because it's too sweet (it can be mighty cloying), look for dry meads. (For those who don't want to brew it themselves, Bartlett Winery of Maine makes some very sophisticated meads, both sweet and dry. They also make the only red wines I can drink, as they're not based on grapes but rather blueberries! They don't ship out of state but Bartlett's is almost reason enough to vacation in Maine...) IIRC dry mead wants a lot longer aging in the bottle than an ordinary sweet mead so patience is a virtue. The better honey you use, the better result, so if he can get something tastier than the generic clover honey that has no taste except "sweet" his mead will improve dramatically - perhaps he might check to see if there are any beekeepers around who produce specialty honeys (lavender, fruit-tree, etc.) or even just particularly good mixed-wildflower honeys. Or so I've picked up sitting around listening to my friends geek endlessly about brewing. :-)

I have 5 gallons of home brewed beer. It is a "full body" beer, so plenty of complex sugars, with low alcohol and low hops (.9oz hops, most of which was left in the brew kettle). The yeast slurry (mix of proteins and inactive yeast) is about 4" thick in the 12" round jug. Unfortunately for ME the brew was infected with some sort of bacteria or fungus that has produced a white layer on top and rendered it undrinkable (for flavour reasons, not health concerns. Pathogens don't grow on beer) I read about the really crappy experiment to see if beer helps plants (it was used in a hydroponic system), but I'm more interested in using it to feed the microbes that I just deposited on my lawn in the form of compost, hoping that it will boost them to ravenously eat the soy bean meal I just spread so I can spread some more asap. As a brewer I don't make beer, I farm yeast. So understand the idea that I don't grow grass, I farm soil microbes. This seems perfectly reasonable to me as a means of a) disposing of the beer in a useful manner and b) temporarily boosting the metabolism of my micro herd. Bad batches happen now and then, so I may make this a semi-regular occurrence. Perhaps toss down some SBM and jolt the herd into action with a bad batch of beer. Thoughts?