Art, Brewing, Photography, Audio, Short Stories and The Kitchen Sink from D.B. Williams.
Over the last three weeks I have worked on a series of butterfly prints. There are 18 of these in total, all of which are different. Most use the colors above, however some also have touches of orange/red. They are 9 by 12 inches and would look best framed in grey/black mattes.
I have spend the last month editing and re-editing “A Weekend in the Saddle: The Turbulent Tale of a Bike Warrior”. The book is an exposition composed of my thoughts from years of cycling. It’s not entirely factual and not entirely fictional. At best I would consider it semi autobiographical. I used prints such as the one above throughout the book subdividing pages, and further added some black and white sketches for more visual interest. The work runs around 48 pages single spaced, and spans a series of races occurring over one weekend. I have enjoyed the project, however I’ll be glad to move onto other works I have in progress (more to come). I have processed this book through LuLu and am expecting the first draft in the mail for final editing any day now. A PDF download is available free of charge BELOW THE PICTURE for those interested. A PDF download is also available through LuLu for one dollar, and hard copies will be available soon through Amazon for around $20 dollars. I would have gone for a cheaper price, however the color printing increased the price two fold – It’s worth it. In time I’ll put out an audio reading of the book for free as well via podcast feed.
When visiting my brother in San Francisco I had the pleasure to take part in a multitude of human follies/vices. We perused the art museum, spent a lovely Saturday on “the lawn” outside of Berkeley near Haight-Ashbury street, and meandered through the shops of china town. One of the highlights of the trip for me, was having the chance to visit Russian River Brewing. Russian River for those unfamiliar is perhaps the predominant and foremost American brewery in regards to “wild brews( lambic style)” and IPAs. I had the good fortune to sample all of their beers on tap through a sampler platter. I fell deeply for Pliney the Elder DIPA. It’s the equivalent of drinking liquid pine resin – distilled to its essence without the harsh cleansing properties that an overly hopped unbalanced beer can possess. I hence went home, and swiftly bought an entire pound of hops (hop salad) per the recipe below. I brewed the beer per the Vinnie’s recipe and placed in cold storage for three weeks after a month long ferment. The color is spot on with Pliney as well as the head. The hop flavor, while complex is not up to par with the true Pliney, perhaps owing to the fact that I used pellets as opposed to flowers during the dry hop schedule. It’s a satisfying brew with two beers being more than enough due to the satiating nature of the beer. It’s good, but I can do better. I think the key with the recipe below is using fresh whole hop flowers and drinking quickly after ferment so as not to loose hop oils to oxidative and uv reactions.
All Grain Recipe – Pliny the Elder Clone
T.G 1.074/ F.G 1.012 (6 Gal)
Grain Bill
12 lbs. – 2 Row Pale Malt (American)
1 lb. – Corn Sugar
1/3 lb. – Crystal Malt (45L)
1 lb. – CaraPils Malt
Hop Schedule
1.5 oz – Chinook (First Wort or Mash Hop)
2.75 oz – Warrior (90 Min.)
.5 oz – Chinook (90 Min.)
1 oz – Simcoe (45 Min.)
1 oz – Columbus (30 Min.)
2.25 oz – Centennial (Flameout)
1 oz – Simcoe (Flameout)
3.25 oz – Columbus (Dry Hop)
1.75 oz – Centennial (Dry Hop)
1.75 oz – Simcoe (Dry Hop)
Yeast
White Labs California Ale Yeast (WLP001) – 1800 ml starter
Mash/Sparge/Boil
Mash at 150° to 152° for 60 min.
Sparge as usual
Boil for 90 minutes (remember to compensate your water if you normally do 60 min boils)
Cool and ferment at 66° to 68°
