:TESTO:Yesterday I walked uphill for about 3 miles to a contra dance in a packed church hall. Good band, good dancing, plenty of age variety. I'm going to head down to Friday's contra outside of DC with someone I met there, there's a fair bit of overlap between the two crowds. Rafe and Bradley surprised me by dropping in for a part of the dance, and then vanished in a puff of folksiness.

The label for the experimental brew that must not be named (I figure I'll try it this weekend):

I might make various connections between the interweaving structured madness of contra dancing and Lovecraftian gods, but I'm going to go have a drink with the housemates. And seafood. :ENDTESTO:

:TESTO:I don't know where I first came across this notion, but it's tickled me ever since. An acappella group could have a blast with this - go join one and make them sing it. The tunes line up fairly neatly, and the interleaving allows for humorous connections between adjacent verses.

//to the tune of Amazing Grace
Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale,
a tale of a fateful trip.
That started from this tropic port,
aboard this tiny ship.

/*to the Gilligan's Island theme*/
Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me....
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind, but now, I see, blind, but now, I see.

//to the tune of Amazing Grace
The mate was a mighty sailin' man,
the skipper brave and sure.
Five passengers set sail that day,
for a three hour tour...

/*to the Gilligan's Island theme*/
T'was Grace that taught...
my heart to fear.
And Grace, my fears relieved.
How precious did that Grace appear...
the hour I first believed.

//to the tune of Amazing Grace
The weather started getting rough,
the tiny ship was tossed.
If not for the courage of the fearless crew,
the Minnow would be lost;

/*to the Gilligan's Island theme*/
Through many dangers, toils and snares...
we have already come.
T'was Grace that brought us safe thus far...
and Grace will lead us home.

//to the tune of Amazing Grace
The ship took ground on the shore of this
uncharted desert isle,

//restart the tune?
with Gilligan, the Skipper too,
the Millionaire, and his Wife,

the Movie Star, and the rest
here on Gilligan's Isle.

/*to the Gilligan's Island theme*/
The Lord has promised good to me...
His word my hope secures.
He will my shield and portion be...
as long as life endures.

//to the tune of Amazing Grace
So this is the tale of our castaways,
they're here for a long, long time.
They'll have to make the best of things,
it's an uphill climb.

/*to the Gilligan's Island theme*/
When we've been here ten thousand years...
bright shining as the sun.
We've no less days to sing God's praise...
then when we've first begun.

//to the tune of Amazing Grace
So join us here each week my friend,
you're sure to get a smile.
From seven stranded Castaways,
Here on Gilligan's Isle.
 
/*to the Gilligan's Island theme*/
"Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,   
That saved a wretch like me....
I once was lost but now am found,
Here on Gilligan's Isle!
(end) :ENDTESTO:

:TESTO:Rafe came through the other day, we drank and bottled the Timberwine that we had brewed together in January. It's nice, with a maple start and a piney finish (the cinnamon and cloves seem lost to me, among the trees), less alcoholic than my previous brews (due to a lesser initial sugar-density - our estimate is 9-10 percent alcohol by volume).

Rafe and I each ended up with nine bottles from the batch, three wine-sized and six half-liter.

My current mead-stock is somewhere near 36 bottles, ranging from in volume from 0.5 to 1 liter, spanning every batch I've ever bottled (five so far, and Water From India on the way). Even after I handle the holiday backlog, I'll still possess a respectable volume - so don't be shy about asking for a bottle all of your own.


And today I decided to try a small experiment:

• 4 cups water
• 3/4 cup molasses
• less than 1/4 cup sugar
• ~1.5 tsp powdered ginger
• two dashes cayenne pepper
• leftover champagne yeast

I wanted to experiment with the flavor of molasses in a meadlike brew, and decided only recently that I'd also like to produce a lower-alcohol, more-quickly-fermented drink. So I'll either add more water and ferment it in a larger container, or anticipate a sweeter, bubblier product than most ales. The latter suits me more, especially because I've found the intended flavor of many recent batches to be too subdued - if I like fermented molasses, I'll adjust timing and quantities on the next batch.

In honor of the anniversary of HP Lovecraft's death, I shall not name this blasphemous concoction, this dark and nascent spirit that rises even now from the squamous effluence of that strange fungus which dwells and feasts among the sweet black ichor carried here upon some nameless vessel from a steaming, alien shore.

But that won't stop me from drawing a label for it. :ENDTESTO:

:TESTO:The blackberry & black cherry melomel (which is the word for a honey-and-fruit fermentation) that I've been calling Bee Seasoning has been bottled, and I think I may change its name.

"Heliotrope" strikes me as an entirely appropriate name, combining connotations of delightful blossoms, shades of purple, solar-powered autonomous vegetable ambulation, and geographic survey equipment, and with a short linguistic hop also connotes a strange blend between heterotrophism and phototrophism, just like the long-intended image for the label:



The lettering also suggests "honey" to me, with its initial "h" and round vowels. That may just be me, but I'll count it as a plus.

So Heliotrope is in its twenty bottles. If I still owe you a wintertime mead-gift, I've got the goods to deliver now.

This particular mead has been a long time in coming - I brewed it Mid-December, and found it to taste rather poorly of cheap wine, six weeks later - harshly alcoholic, quite pleasant. So I added another gallon of stuff, water and sugar and black cherry juice in carefully improvised proportions, and it has since matured nicely to the point where I felt confident in bottling it. It's quite different from the other five meads I've made (by virtue of the fruit, and the double fermentation cycle), and I'm excited by it -- I look forward to measuring its reception by others. :ENDTESTO: