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For almost two years now I have been exploring the complex hobby of home brewing wine, beer, and most recently Limoncello. Based on my experiences it is apparent that this hobby can be as simple or complex as you want it to be with total cost existing as a parallel characteristic.

First attempts at beer left much to be desired as the resulting ‘brew’ had slight hints of funk with a moss-like finish. Batches since then have consistently and predictably improved. Some of the best beer recipes came from www.heartshomebrew.com that include high quality ingredients. Their English Bitter and ESB kits are among the best that will see a repeat in my near future. A word of warning though… brewing the ‘wort’ has a funky not-so-inviting-spicy-soup smell that will linger in the house for a couple of days. And it takes nearly just as long to completely clean the kitchen afterwards. Total prep time: 4-5 hours. Bottle in: 2-3 weeks. Ready to drink: Almost immediately after carbonation is complete.

Likewise, the first round of wine making was not void its troubles. However, with a roughly 20 minute prep time before the primary fermentation it is difficult to get it wrong. Quality of the kit is everything. A kit that contains less than 2.5 gallons of grape juice but is expected to yield 6 gallons of wine is very concentrated and lacks to necessary solids for proper aging and body. Most of the high quality kits contain 4.2+ gallons of grape juice but require between 6-8 weeks to ferment and even longer to properly age. For a beginner who is anxious to dive into wine making I suggest the cheaper kits due to its relatively quick aging characteristics. Total prep time: 30 minutes (seriously). Bottle in: 4-8 weeks. Ready to drink: 4-12 months once bottled.

Limoncello is a complete different beast all together. As an Italian lemon liqueur Limoncello packs quick a alcohol percentage kick as it can tip the scales at 30-35%. Compared to Beer and Wine this has to be the most simple to produce. Some online recipes online call for Vodka, which in my opinion sounds just weird. I suggest a recipe that calls for 1.5 Liters of the combustion engine starting, Molotov cocktail inspiring, 95% grain alcohol. This is used, to be best of my knowledge, for its non-flavor adding qualities. I followed this www.washingtonpost.com recipe and was able to compare it directly to the taste and texture of authentic Almalfi Italian counterpart. The verdict… it tasted EXACTLY the same. Total prep time: 2-3 hours. Bottle in: 3-4 weeks. Ready to drink: Immediately in my opinion but some recipes call for an additional 3 weeks to rest.

Presentation takes an important roll in all of examples of home brewing. Beer should be bottled in high quality bottles but I do believe that labels are optional. Wine should be bottled in the correct bottle accompanied by a nice label and color-matched heat shrinked capsule. Like the rest Limoncello should exist in a nice bottle but with a blue capsule to match (difficult to find).

Homebrew Photos:

The impending arrival of the Nissan GT-R Skyline to the US shores, in my opinion, is one of the biggest automotive events of the decade. Previous events that were note worthy in the past six years were the arrivals from ultra performance tuner examples from Subaru and Mitsubishi. Build to compete with the 911 Turbo, the GT-R is rumored to boast a 3.2-liter twin turbo power plant huffing out around 450 horsepower. Securing this power to the ground comes by way of an advanced all wheel drive system entitled, ATESSA-ETS, that utilizes individual limit slip differentials on each axle providing monstrous grip. Unfortunately for those, such as myself, with average salaries the price tag for all this Nissan goodness is targeted in the $70-80k range.

In a world where music can be acquired legally in a single click thanks to the iTunes, Napster, and MusicMatch type services letting CD’s rot in the basement after they have been ripped into your favorite portal music player is a thing of the past. And yes, CD’s do rot over time but in my case its just because they lived under my car seats with Taco Bell wrappers.

I believe there a solution exists with www.lala.com/. This online service, in all its Web 2.0 goodness, offers an easy to use music CD trade service. Each CD you ship out to is free to the shipper but the recipient pays a nominal fee of $1.75 per trade. The rest of the specifics can be found at lala’s extensive FAQ.

This is a nice idea, however, what happens when the recipient is done with the CD that he or she received? Obviously the CD is ripped and placed it back into circulation. I would be surprised if the RIAA is not loosing sleep over this one so seize the opportunity and trade away. Unfortunately my request for some Fun Lovin’ Criminals CDs were not fulfilled to my impatient standards so I was forced back to iTunes for this one.

In general I have come to the realization that I am an impatient person. Perhaps the Internet is to blame. And why not, the Internet is blamed often in recent times for society’s shortcoming due to its abundance in stolen music, violent video games, and pr0n. The reality is that I have little or no interest in reading books, waiting in lines (or cue for the Br\its’), or keeping a car longer than two years. My wife can attest to the latter as I have drooled over the Inifiniti G35 Coupe for several years now but have only seen 12 months in my current car. The four-year gap between our cars could be a good indication as to why that conversation never seems to go my way.

Despite the frequent feeling of isolation here in rural Maryland more and more restaurants have been popping up. Since my wife and I eat out way too often we usually head out hopping for a nice dining experience. Far too often, unfortunately, that cannot be further from the truth. Local restaurants whose slogan includes the phrase ‘the finest’ or ‘gourmet’ have proven to be some of the worst we have seen. Waiting fifteen minutes for a server to approach us and ask for our drink order when our final bill will be in no doubt be over $100 is unacceptable. Though my wife may attest it was less than 10 minutes, that too is way too long for an impatient person such as myself.

Enter my New Year’s resolution – getting in shape. It’s funny because it seems my resolution from year to year is the same but, as an optimist, I do consider it consistent. My goals here are modest as I hope to simply tone up and not get winded by walking to the mailbox. Before passing judgment, please remember I am paid to sit for 9 hours a day. Spending 4-5 hours a week at a local fitness club trying to reach this goal seems to me like ample time to see results in the first week. However, come the third month and all the results I can see is that I am still limping home after the gym begging my wife to massage my spent calves.

\ So here we are in April, and I am still drooling over the G35 – in my garage. :) We have given up on finding fine dining local here in town. And lastly I am 5 days late on my April Fools resolution to get my butt back on the treadmill.