Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
Oh, and I forgot to mention that if you like my illustrations, you
might want to check out my Facebook page "A Buddha A Day." You could
enter the writing contest for a chance to win an original papercut.
  

    
YOU did the papercuts?!?!  Holy smokes, they're truly beautiful and
ingenious!  Looking at the cover now I can see the slight shadows that
a papercut would cast.  This is so amazing.  I don't belong to
Facebook, so I'll have to content myself with the illustrations here.

I'll come back the rest of the topic, but I first had to flip out over
the artwork. 
  

    
Those are gorgeous!  Wow.

Ellen, when I read the book one of the things that made me smile was
your account of wanting to try Lambic beers, made with the yeasts and
bacteria from the air. 

In the last four years I have gone from tasting my first sour beer, to
craving and seeking out these complex and ancient brews, to reading up
on said beers and making my first one a year ago.  Since they
traditionally take from 18 months to a year, I have jugs maturing in my
basement. I have done multiple batches so that I will have something
to blend with, and I have tasted and enjoyed a few of them (at about 6
months) even though they are still young.  I think you might find some
of what I have learned pretty interesting!

While the authentic brewers in the Senne Valley near Brussels (and a
few new professional brewers in America) include cool night air laden
with yeasts and bacteria in the process, much of the house flavor
evidently comes from organisms that colonize the barrels. SO some "wild
beers" have no air exposure.  Though they have bacteria working away,
the brewer still avoids contaminating them, because not all "beer
spoilage organisms" have a happy influence.

Moern homebrewers working with sour beers have not brewed in the same
room for 100 years, and are usually not making a big enough batch to
fill a reclaimed wine fermentation barrel (often a good source of those
treasured microbiota including Brett). So these adventurous hobbyists
tend to buy the "bugs and critters" mix from White Labs or Wyeast, the
two main commercial brewing yeast companies.  There are also brewers
who make these beers by cultivating the yeast "dregs" from the bottom
of bottles of fine Belgian sour beers, and building up a beer starter
much as a sourdough baker builds up a dough starter.

I took a picture this morning to post for your amusement...  Let me
grab the link.
  

    
This morning I photographed the newest batch, only a few weeks old. 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/gail/4362897528/

These were started with a vial of wild and dreg-cultured yeasts that I
traded for, from another amateur brewer of sour ales.  The larger (3
gallon carboy) bottle is starting to form a film on top, rather early
in the life cycle.  The two one-gallon jugs are behaving differently. 
The size of the container and even the geometry can have an impact on
the temperatures, and influence which of the "bugs" have the most
flavor impact.   

I also did one completely ambient batch (air-innoculated last April on
a cold clear night in San Francisco) which is coming along.  I gave it
four months before the first tasting, to be sure the alcohol and
acidity were up to a level to kill off any of the more dangerous
bacteria that can live in warm malt-sugar with very low hopping. It had
fermented some nice alcohol and had a trace of leathery Brett flavor,
but no sourness yet.  I'll be patient.  Some of the nasty organisms
that would give you food poisoning can actually contribute interesting
traces of flavor complexity before the heroes of this mix contribute
waste composed of alcohol, CO2 and acidity so those bad guys can't
survive. Beer is important in human history as a safe source of liquid.
 
  

    
About the diapers, it seems like Diaper-Free Baby/EC is a great approach 
if the parents are willing and able to do it. Even in a modified form it 
uses far fewer diapers than any diaper system. 
  

    
CJ, 
I have a few of the papercuts on the A Buddha A Day blogspot page, but
unfortunately, it seems not to be findable unless you use the link
from my Facebook page (I suffer from almost total technical
incompetence).

I did the internal illustrations, not the cover. The cover was done by
a very ingenious young designer at Scribner.

Gail, 
I'm really impressed that you make lambic beer! Don't you envy the
Europeans with their accumulated wealth of fermenting organisms?

fom,

Are you referring to the potty training infant techniques? I really
wish I'd known about those when ours were infants! It makes such great
sense!
  

    

Waah!  I can't find your Facebook page!
  

    
Linda, try
<http://www.facebook.com/pages/A-Buddha-A-Day-Ellen-Sandbeck/356713595606>

Ellen, yeasts and bacteria vary, but we have nice ones too.  Some
American commercial brewers are playing with local varieties, too.  
Russian River Brewing, Allagash, Jolly Pumpkin...  some elegant beers
are coming out, with local sour components.  Anyway, very cool that you
picked up on this peculiar and delicious trend.  
  

    
  >Are you referring to the potty training infant techniques? 

I guess so. I'm no expert but it seems to work really well with my little 
grandsons. 
  

    
That Facebook link worked for me.  Thanks!

Beautiful work, Ellen.
  

    

I love the papercuts!

Thanks for the link, Gail.
  

    
I'm glad you like my work! And I'm relieved that you were able to
access my Facebook page! I've been having a bit of trouble with the
page lately.
  

    
And our focus has moved to a new discussion, but I want to take this
opportunity to thank Ellen and CJ and all of you for a lively and
interesting and fun discussion.  As always, the topic will remain open
indefinitely.
  

    

Excellent discussion!  Thank you for visiting us, and please do 
continue.
  

    
I too am interested in keeping the discussion going if you are! 
You've been a terrific guest, Ellen, and I want to thank you for your
knowledge and enthusiasm.  Please stick around if you have the time,
and also please visit the many conferences on The Well where your
knowledge and sense of humor would be more than welcome!
  

    
BTW, just put some laundry in and checked the name of my detergent,
which has gotten harder to find but is one of the few 'green' products
I've been using for a long time:  Bio-Kleen.  It comes in a 10lb box,
and does 100 loads, and really does 100 loads.
  

    
yup, bio-kleen is what i use (but the liquid). must be a regional thing;
easy to find here in the bay area
  

    
Good idea.  I'll go (with husband in tow) to pick up a box.
  

    
We have bio-kleen available in Asheville, NC too.
  

    
just looked at my bottle of it --- made in vancouver wash, which istr
is not very far from portland. so, made in usa! however, where they get
their ingredients from, dont know...