A Sour and Bitter Evening

Wait, it's much better than it sounds.

I went to Sears to pick up a new toy -- a replacement for a 40-year old one. On the way home I stopped in at the ReStore and ran into Eberhard Eichner, the resident furniture builder and designer. He showed me the progress on his new workshop -- a major improvement on the old one located in a drafty unheated attic.

Eberhard deserves a blip devoted just to him -- it's on my list.

My last call on the homeward journey was Elizabeth Station where I enjoyed a pint of the Fremont Brewing Company's Fremont Sour Kettle:
A kettle soured wheat beer. Pale Malt, Thomas Faucet Wheat Malt, Acidulated Malt, Raw Wheat, Rolled Oats, Dextrin Malt, Golding Hops OG: 11 Plato FG: 3.5 Plato ABV: 4% In the style of a German Berliner Weisse, we soured our wort over night in the kettle using lactobacillus bacteria cultures found naturally on the malt. This all natural process lowers the ph of the wort giving it a pleasant tartness. We then ferment out any residual sugars in the wort with our house yeast strain so the beer finishes dry and delicious. Every word is true!

Coincidentally, Eberhard was born, raised, and received his journeyman certificate in Berlin.

My photo is the bottle I bought to bring home. If you know your beers, you would expect an IPA with grapefruit peel to be quite bitter, and you'd be right! Cynthia makes candied grapefruit peel for use in baking, and to snack on. Now you know what's on the bottle top! This beer was also delicious.

Stochastic:
1: random; specifically : involving a random variable <a stochastic process>

2: involving chance or probability : probabilistic <a stochastic model of radiation-induced mutation>