do you have thomas muir in a bottle?
well i did and last night we let him out! i christened my first homebrew, a scottish ale, the “thomas muir ale” for thomas muir was the son of a rennaisance era hops merchant from glasgow. and his was one of the first names i found in a web search for scottish martyrs. anyway i didn’t want to set expectations too high so the highest praise i would offer before last night was to call it “solidly drinkable” but after the reactions of my friends and peers, i’m prepared to go much further. “clearly exceeds all reasonable expectations for a first homebrew.” “upping the bar for all future beginners’ luck.” and maybe even “will not be dumped out under any circumstances.” what i thought might have been my undoing during one of the fermenting transfers, when i plunged my arm into the brew to initiate the syphon, was identified by gunter as what may have been key to the success. i can’t say whether everyone’s left arm has the same capacity for producing the perfect beer that mine does, but we all enjoyed a beer with a nice head, that was not too hoppy, and tasted great (but may have been somewhat filling). thanks to everyone who stopped by - if you missed it or would like a bottle, it’s like morrissey says: ask me, ask me, ask me.
UPDATE 2006.01.16 The Chill Wizzard
I was on the bus when I initially wrote about this and didn’t have
google handy but I would forever regret if I didn’t point out that my
uncle’s invention - the Chill Wizzard - definitely shared the
spotlight last night. I don’t think the Chill Wizzard is still being
produced but the concept is simple: a suction cup is attached to a
small motor powered by two AA batteries. You stick the suction cup on
your can or bottle, spin the beverage over an icy surface and in about
90 seconds you have a drink cooled to perfection. You can read people
raving about the Chill Wizzard on
forums,
and there seems to be an updated design model available from
It’s a shame these didn’t take off and I’m incredibly glad we had ours
last night - thanks, X!