Fun With Twitter - The Zeitgeist of Irrelevance

How's this for a random, insignificant activity.   It may just be emerging OCD, or closet statistician-tendencies, but it's fun to search Twitter to briefly tune into the huge bubbling mass of synchronicity.

Specifically I'm thinking of that nifty situation where you think of some phrase or idea and instantly verify that a whole bunch of other people are thinking the same thing too.  No, not regarding some breaking news story or something relevant to lots of people just now.  I mean a totally random, out-there phrase perhaps from a book or a years-old pop-culture reference.

I was thinking about how these phrases should be classified. Not clichés, really - those are different. They aren't surprisingly part of general usage.  These are more just random quotes, catch phrases or puchlines that may be unknown in your peer group, but over the broader planet, still have a substantial following.  I guess they strike a chord and become memorable on their own, and thus get thrown around without context.   Only on a system like Twitter could this happen.

I confess to occasionally acting on the spontaneous recall of one of these, and tweeting it, or almost tweeting it, twigged by some random, innocuous moment in daily life.  The cool thing is that at any instant there are many people doing the same thing.

Here are some of my favourites, and a link that shows search results from twitter right now:

• Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!   Search Results
• Who is John Galt?  Search Results
• Ladies and gentlemen Mr. Conway Twitty.  Search Results
• It's a perfectly cromulent word.  Search Results
• Looks like I picked the wrong day to quit sniffing glue.  Search Results

Probably familiar if you follow my twitter feed @ottaross, but how can you deny the fun of seeing so many people tuned into the same frivolous zeitgeist?

Supplemental Notes for Brewers

...and Curious Technophiles

There are elements of the ginger beer recipe that might spawn a few questions if you have brewed your own beer before or are generally knowledgeable about bubbly yeasty things. 

The process is similar to beer brewing, but rather truncated to avoid the alcoholic beverage and get something 'soft' instead.  In beer brewing, we do a primary fermentation followed by a secondary fermentation then kick-start or 'prime' the final brew as it goes into the bottle to give some desirable carbonation.

The initial work of the yeast is a somewhat 'messy' process in a "primary fermenter."  For me that is just a large plastic bucket with enough head-space to allow the big foamy mass to collect on top of the working liquid ("wort") for a few days, then collapse after the bulk of the sugars have been consumed and turned to alcohol by our yeasty animal friends.  After that process, discerning beer makers 'rack' (siphon off) the wort into a secondary fermenting vessel - typically a large glass item called a "carboy," which is fitted with an airlock. There, the low-level secondary fermentation continues to consume sugars, while ensuring that wild strains of yeast and other contaminants don't get into your beer.  This can last for a week or so after which the yeast has pretty much become dormant.

Beer brewers then rack the liquid off the sediment again in preparation for bottling.  The yeast is given a new lease on life by adding a tad more fuel in the form of some malt or glucose or corn sugar as the beer goes into its bottles.  After that, the beer sits around for a few weeks to mellow, and when you pop the lid thereafter you not only get the satisfying phhhst, but the beer you pour produces a nice foamy head and is carbonated to your liking.

The grenade effect mentioned earlier is in play here, as you can over-prime the bottles and the yeast can produce so much carbonation as to make them 'splode.  Purists won't prime at all, and will rely on the remaining natural fermentation to give you little carbonation without adulteration of the brew.  Read about the reinheitsgebot if that gets you all aquiver.

With our ginger beer we are preempting the massive conversion of sugars to alcohol, by arresting the primary fermentation and exploiting it mostly to carbonate our beverage.  So, after a brief working period, it is straight into bottles, and we preserve the sweetness which goes so well with the ginger flavour. 

Alcohol is still a byproduct of the yeast of course, we're not able to avoid that.  But measuring the specific gravity of the pre- and post-brewing product I've calculated that the alcohol by volume is somewhere south of 0.5%, so not likely to get a gnat tipsy. 

This shortened brewing process also makes the threat of wild yeasts getting a foothold unlikely. The boiling process starts us off clean, and the vigorous work of our cultivated yeast ensures the competition doesn't have much chance, then it's straight into the refrigerator, so we're protected.

In the casting of the yeast, I'd suggest an extra step for those interested.  Rather than directly cast it into the wort, you can re-hydrate it first.  The benefit of this is that you give it a bit of a head start, but mostly you can verify that it is viable before committing.  Especially if, like me, you're sometimes using old yeast that you've had a bit past its shelf-life.  Use a cup of boiled water into which you've dissolved a tablespoon or so of sugar and cooled to 32C in a clean bowl.  Again, careful with that temperature! Cast the yeast in, and give it a stir, then let it sit for 10 or 15min.  If you look very carefully, (I've even used a magnifying glass) you can verify if the yeast is working by the first little explosions of yeast production bubbling up, as they wake up, eat sugars and make more of themselves.

If you don't see any action after 30min, you probably have dead yeast, so get more rather than risk your batch.

Finally, in the tuning of the flavour, the maximum gingeriness can be gained by paying attention to the sediment in the bottom of your crock-pot after the overnight session.  After you strain out all the lumps, those ginger bits still contain a fair bit of bite.  You can use a brewing trick here too by rinsing, that is using some boiling water to rinse more flavour out of them.  Your beer brewing friends know this as "sparging."  Even pressing the bits a little with a spoon as you do so will get the sharp flavour hints out.

Okay, I think I've done the ginger beer to death by now.   If you make some, tweet me at @ottaross and let me know how it worked out!

Too Many Words™ on Making Ginger Beer

A few things first. This recipe is mostly by weight, and I use grams just because they are easy to work with. A few things are in litres - these are like quarts only smarter.

If you don't have a scale, you really should just break down and get one. I put it off for years - which wasn't so bad because you can now get a decent digital one now for less than $30.

credit: greatcanadianpubs.blogspot.com

You'll need some sort of bottling option. Beer bottles and caps work great. I've lucked out in that a local brewer was producing awesome beer (Beau's Lugtread Lager) in ceramic spring-lock, pop-top bottles for a while in large 750ml sizes(now discontinued).  Those tops are also on Grolsch bottles. These work great, because I don't have to pull out my capper.

I also use some plastic screw-top bottles. These are good because you can squeeze 'em to see if the yeast is working properly. So when in doubt, just get some clean used large soft-drink bottles and you'll be okay.

A word of caution - be careful about the pressure issues I highlight at the end of this recipe. If you are a regular beer brewer, you'll be familiar with the grenade effect. If not, just read carefully. I make only 4 or 5 large bottles worth because that will fit in our fridge. Read the last bit about the risks if you don't refrigerate.

A word about hygiene - This is a brewing process with yeast involved. You'll need to be reasonably clean, though obsessively sterilizing isn't necessary. Unlike brewing beer, this is a much shorter time-frame process, and a bit more forgiving, but wild yeasts or soap contamination could spoil your batch.

On Yeast - for best results you really need to find a beer & wine making store and pick up a package of beer-brewing yeast. It's very cheap, often around $1. You can use bread yeast, but it doesn't taste as good.

About the oven - The brewing stage needs a stable warm place. Your oven works perfectly if it has a light bulb inside. Turn it on low for a minute or two to get the chill out, then OFF with the light still on. Place a bowl inside with warm water in it. Do this before you start anything, so it can reach a steady temperature. Measure the temperature of the water in the bowl as a way to accurately read the temp of the oven. You're shooting for 30-36C ideally. That's like a hot summer day.

Finally, note that this is the result of reading many old recipes and experimenting to acheive the taste, spice, colour and effervescence I value in a ginger beer. You might feel differently, but I'll add tips along the way.

Equipment:

• Big pot - mine is almost 5 Litres, (probably about a gallon)
• A large crockery vessel, something non-metallic.   If you don't have one, a couple of large glass or ceramic ones would probably work too. Food-grade plastic is probably okay. If you have nothing, you could use the same cooking pot, but be warned you might get a metallic taste in your result.
• 5 - 750ml bottles, or equivalent based on the above discussion
• Large stirring spoon, should be non-wood for hygiene reasons above.
• Weighing Scale - in grams
• Thermometer that reads the 20-40C range pretty accurately.
• Glass measuring cup or siphon hose.

Wash everything very well in soapy water, and rinse it very well.

You'll need an oven or a steady warm place, sitting it beside the fire was traditional.

Ingredients

• Ginger Root 140g grated. That'll require a big chunk that fills your whole hand
• Sugar - 130g brown, 250g white That's 2/3 white 1/3 brown.
• Cream of Tartar 10g
• Lemon Juice 1Tbsp adds some acidity and bite
• Cold Water 4Litres - filtered is best, but whatever.
• 1Pkg Brewers yeast - it's a little envelope

Is your oven ready. Follow the setup above if you haven't yet.

Procedure
Get your water ready. If using straight tap water, let it run cold for 60 seconds or so. Did you know the first water that comes out typically has heavy metal content above your local municipal drinking water health guidelines. Crazy huh?

Put 4litres of water into the large pot and get the heat on it. Measure and add your sugar, cream of tartar and lemon juice. As it starts to boil, turn it back, but stir well to ensure everything is dissolved.

Shred the ginger with a medium-to-large grater. Don't let the juice get away, it's good stuff. Put it into a tiny saucepan and just cover it with cold water. Raise to a hard boil, and hold it there for three minutes.

Add that ginger and liquid into the big pot, and bring it all to a boil. Simmer it so it's just lightly boiling for 10-15 minutes. In brewing this stuff is called 'wort'.

Now turn it all off, and let it cool. If you're impatient like me, you can emerse the entire pot in a shallow cold water bath in your sink to speed it up, it can take hours otherwise.

IMPORTANT - your goal is to get it down to about 32Celsius. That's 90 Fahrenheit if your thermometer is wacky.

Make sure your oven is in the 30-40C range as it should be by now.

When the temp is right (don't cheat you'll murder the yeast), transfer the liquid to your crockery pot. Sprinkle your yeast in and stir it around well. If the temp is too high you'll kill the yeast and it won't work. So be sure of the temperature. If it's too low the yeast will be dormant and do nothing. Between 28C and 36C is okay, low 30's is best.

Using a couple of vessels because you don't have a big one? Add the yeast to the pot first then dispense into the smaller vessels. Try to divide up the solids evenly too.

Place the vessel into your oven, and cover with a clean cloth towel or napkin. Let it sit for 18-24hours. You might see a bit of foaminess, usually there isn't much. Not like beer which would foam all over the place. Put a cookie sheet under your vessel just in case, to catch spills.

After you're done, transfer it gently through a sieve to the big (CLEAN) pot. There will still be some sediment, but don't worry about that. Let it sit while you get your bottles in order, and mostly leave the sediment behind as you transfer. Some like a more cloudy bottled result, but it will settle in the bottom.

You need to fill the bottles. Use a clean, clean, clean measuring cup, or even better a siphon if you have clean food-grade tubing (the beer makers will have one handy). Fill the bottles but ENSURE you leave an air space - about two fingers worth in the neck of the bottle will be fine.

Tightly cap all the bottles, and leave them out at room temperature for a day. If you have plastic bottles, squeeze one occasionally, it should be hard after about 24hrs. It's worth using one plastic bottle just for this test. If it doesn't get hard after a day, or two at the most, your yeast was either bad or you screwed up and killed it. You could re-boil, re-cool and re-add the yeast if you are in such a predicament, rather than throw it away.

Put the bottles in your refrigerator. If you leave them out longer, be careful when opening the top. After a few days or a week they'll be energetic. After a couple of weeks warm, they may be geysers or grenades. In the fridge they'll keep for weeks with no problems. But once you taste them, it will be hard to not drink 'em all up.

I'll make a separate post of notes for experienced beer brewers and other keeners shortly. Some stuff you're probably wondering.

Ginger Beer Success

After six batches, I'm reasonably happy with my ginger beer now! A few thoughts on my quest...

It took a while to get to my destination, as in any good quest. There is even a goblet at the end, only this one is full of spicy ginger elixir, and no knights or swords were involved.

It is really a rather old beverage, isn't it. Popular up to a couple of hundred years ago, but perhaps less so today. There was a good segment in a BBC Victorian Farm re-enactment series that came on during my first few ginger beer experiments, suggesting it was a staple drink among 19th century farm folk. Ginger beer is also well associated with the Caribbean - and the Jamaican stuff is very sharp indeed. Many who hail from the UK reflect on its popularity during their younger years. But for the rest of us, you don't find ginger beer as an option at your corner soda-pop vending machine - at least not here in Canada.

I've been a fan of ginger for a long time. As an adult I've always liked ginger ale more than most soft drinks (though I think I like tonic water even more). But really I rarely drink pop (or 'soda' to you.) Most are WAY too sweet for my taste, and it's no wonder as they contain roughly 16 tsp of sugars per can. I find Ginger beer to be spicy enough to almost be in a class of its own separate from pop. Plus I rarely came across it as a kid, making it seem more exotic to me. So embarking on my own fabrication experiments seemed a good way to both control the sugar and create an alternative drink when I want something a little different.

During the exploration, I had also paused to experiment with making ginger marmalade. Not being a big jams-and-jellies maker, I discovered first hand that cutting back on the sugar in the recipe means the pectin doesn't really work too well in setting the marmalade. So it turned into more of a ginger syrup product (thankfully a small 4-jar batch). However, in that process I learned more about the bite of ginger which I was able to use to improve my ginger beer recipe. Ginger marmalade recipes call for boiling and draining your shredded ginger three times before starting - I saved the second boiling and found it a tasty, sharp liquid, which I used in some cooking, and added to some soda water once to make an interesting drink, which would be closer to how ginger ale is made.

By the way - toast with ginger marmalade and peanut butter? Yum.

In making my ginger beer, I realized that this fiery marmalade byproduct liquid was of a better taste than the bruised ginger result was producing in the old Ginger Beer recipes I had found. So I experimented with shredding and boiling the ginger in my process, with good results.

Quality of yeast made a difference too - bread yeast left too 'yeasty' a flavour (go figure) whereas beer brewing yeast was quite good, and crisp.

The other variant is cream of tartar AKA potassium hydrogen tartrate. It's used sometimes to help froth up egg whites, or make a creamier sugary dessert. But ironically - for something that crystallizes OUT of wine making - it also inhibits the formation of crystals in sugary liquids. Thus it's used in most ginger beer recipes too. Unfortunately I could taste it a bit in the final result though, so another enhancement was to cut back on it from the recipes I had found.

I'll share my ginger beer recipe here shortly. With Batch Six it finally meets my vision for what I wanted. The last several batches have been focussed on getting enough bite into it, and getting a bit of colour as well, as it was a crystal clear beverage up to this last batch.

Interestingly, ginger is touted among herbalists and various other people for whom evidence is an inconvenience, as a stomach calming agent. Go figure, it turns out that actual scientific testing has shown that it is as effective as pharmaceuticals like the motion-sickness prophylactic Gravol. I see recently in my local drug-store that the people who make Gravol are making a ginger-based version now too. So perhaps there is something to your mom's suggestion of drinking flat ginger ale when you are feeling queasy.

Oh did I mention ginger and dark chocolate? Also yum. I personally recommed the Dolfin brand Belgian "Noir au Gingembre Frais." Turns out I couldn't type this without grabbing some. :P

Stand by for the recipe which will show up here shortly. I'll be sure to tweet its arrival upon posting. [It's up now!]