Smoke fills the air.

Bleeting is heard in the background. I lay my hand on the head the young bull. I take my knife to the animals neck and slit its throat. I place a bowl at the open wound and collect the animal's blood. Before me is an altar.I take the blood and sprinkle it against altar.

Its a gruesome sight, but it is required. Therefore I must do it.


I take the animal and hang it by its hooves in the air. I take my knife and run it from the carcass's tail to the base of its skull, removing its skin. I then begin removing pieces of the carcass, its legs, tail, torso, and skull. Standing before the altar, I arrange the animal in the way in which Elhoim requires. The organs and fat are cleaned and also placed before the LORD. The fatty aroma feels the air around me.

This is what I must do, this is what the Lord requires...


So I'm sitting here reading Leviticus chapter one and smelling of charcoal from grilling dinner tonight. It such an interesting experience to read about animal sacrifices when you smell charcoal in the air. Its like your senses are transported to that time.

I feel like I gotta read through the entire book before I leave Big Bear.

So I found out today that Paul Kahan (of Avec and Blackbird in Chicago) just opened a gastropub called the Publican. I love the idea of simple delicious food with an amazing selection of food. As soon as I get my tax return back, I know where I am going to go.  Here's an idea of what to expect. 

I have so much to be thankful for this year. A family, home, food, work and most importantly a a great God and Savior. So in the spirit of thanksgiving I thought I'd share this reading from the Valley of Vision-

" There is no blessing we implore but thou art able to give,hast promised to give, has t already given to countless multitudes, all unworthy and guilty like ourselves; Make us willing to receive the supply of our need from the bounty. To this end convince us of sin, soften our hard hearts, to bewail our folly, ingratitude, pride, unbelief, rebellion , corruption. Through the law may we die to the law, then look with wonder, submission, delight, to the provision thou hast made for the glory of thy Name in the salvation of sinners.

Give us a hope that makes us not ashamed, a love that excites to holy obedience, a joy in thee that is our strength, a faith in thy Son who loved us and died for us. May we persevere in duty when not fully conscious of thee, wait upon thee and keep thy way, be humble and earnest suppliants at thy feet, live continually as on the brink of eternity. Let us be at thy disposal for the duties and events of life, submit, our preferences to thy wisdom and will, resign our enjoyments if thou shoudst require it as our absolute Proprietor and best Friend.

In our unworthiness and provocations make us grateful for the means of grace and the ordinances of religion and teach us to profit them more than we have done. Help us to be in the Spirit on the Lord's Day, to enter the sabbath mindful of its solemnities, duties, privileges, setting all things wordly aside while we worship thee.

May we know the blessedness of men whose strength is in thee, and in whose hearts are highways to heaven."



Happy Thanksgiving everyone I hope that yours were blessed!

"Do you mortify;
do you make it your daily work;
be always at it while you live;
cease not a day from this work;
be killing sin or it will be killing you...."


Simply Awesome.


More to Come.


JW

Ok so today was brew day.  It went way better than I expected.  I made my first all grain batch and I didn't have any of the problems that people normally have doing their first all grain batch. I ended up doing a five gallon batch of a Chocolate Stout recipe and then I divided it in half during the last half hour of my boil.I then added Acai juice, Hershey's powdered cocoa and a little Vanilla extract. It turned out very sweet with a slight hoppy aftertaste, which is exactly what I was hoping to achieve. I definitely think all-grain brewing is the way to go and in the future I plan on making all my beer that way. In three weeks I'll check the fermentation and see if its drinkable!

I listen to music when I brew, so here was today's playlist, on shuffle of course:

David Vandervlede -Moonlight Instrumental
Delirious- All God's Children
Luna Halo- On Your Side
Monarch- Lowly
Shane and Shane - Bad Days Better
Tokyo Police Club- Graves
Kevin Max- The Imposter's Song
Coldplay- Clocks

At this point I wanted to watch some new Podcasts:

Dinner with the Band -Pigeon John pts 1,2,3,4

Ok now my latest brews are ready, The Chocolate Acai (pronounced "Ah Sigh") Stout, and an Oatmeal Cream Stout. I'll be back!

SO today was exciting because I finally got hold of my partner in crime Nate McGathey.  We usually like to get together and develop recipes and try to team up on our brews. He's down with doing a stout. so half of our recipe will be a good old chocolate stout and the other half will be the acai stout that I've been formulating over the last few weeks.  So in the next couple of days I'll place an order at the organic supply shop I've found and hopefully by the end of the week we'll be brewing again!

In other news I've been realizing that I'm not challenging myself enough theologically. Last year I downloaded a really great podcast by tim keller in which he says that Christians really should take a multiperciptival approach to theological education. For a while I've taken that to mean that I should listen to a bunch of different theologians from my particular theological stream. Over the last couple of months however I've been realizing that that is not the healthiest approach for me in my journey.  SO as a result, I've been listening to guys that I don't necessiarilly agree with 100% Theologically, but are still challenging and, who, I believe, still love Jesus.  Guys Like Doug Paggit, Brian McClaren and Rob Bell.  I'm also getting a healthy dosage of guys like Mark Driscoll, Matt Chandler, and John Piper as well.

I don't really think that true discerment can come about when you just listen to people on one side of the fence. As I've been listening to these guys with very different theological backgrounds, its really been encouraging me to sit down and study the Scriptures and develop where I stand on orthodoxy and orthopraxis.  I've also found that I can be "Emergent" in the living out of my faith, while be very "conservative" in my theology. Ultimately for me its all about fullfilling what Jesus calls the two greatest commandments; loving God and loving my fellow man.



JW



P.s thats a David Bowie reference in the title if your wondering....

So I got all my equipment to make a mash tun out of my coleman cooler. A Mash tun is essential to making all grain beer, which is what I'm making next.  I've also decided that I want to buy a keg and make jockey box so that I won't need to find 50 bottles each time I decide to make a batch of brew. 

In other news I found a really cool vodcast called dinner with the band. Hosted by Sam Mason (from the restaurant wd-50 in NYC) its an interesting take on a fairly normal cooking show. Sam invites his favorite bands to come to his flat and enjoy really interesting meals that he's created. Afterwards the bands will usually preform a small set of music. Being both a chef and a music lover this was right up my alley.  If your into podcasting I'd suggest checking it out @, http://www.onnetworks.com/videos/dinner-with-the-band


Well I'm off to read some Valley of Vision, and then to bed.



JW

current song: Pigeon John -Live- "Freaks, Freaks!"

So my brewing adventures continue! Over the last few weeks I've been tempted to brew organic beer but didn't know where to start. Brew Your Own Mag. (byo.com,) just released an article on brewing organic beers and I happened to stumble across it at the B&N. Inside they also had an add for breworganic.com, which offers USDA certified organic products for homebrewers such as myself. So I headed over to the website today and found an sweet oatmeal stout kit that would be perfect for my Chocolate Acai Stout that I've been wanting to make. Whats even better is the fact that they have an all grain kit that will allow my to make my first all grain batch of beer!

Oh and also I was able to talk to the Maintencence Director at work today and he is able to hook me up with some equipment to turn my 48 qt ice cooler into 48 qt mash tun. A mash tun is essential for making all grain beer and is the only peice of equipment I don't currently have. It basically allows you to steep your beer grains at a constant temp and then convert it into wort. Then you take the wort and yest to it and you got some good homebrew.
 

So all that means is, that very soon,  the first (of my knowledge) Organic Chocolate Acai Stout will be a reality!

Rock on!

So I'm pretty excited. Actually really excited. I'm excited of course because I've decided what my next batch of brew is going to be. At first I was leaning towards a Belgium beer using a continual hopping technique that, as far as I know, hasn't been done before.  But now I've decided to do a stout instead. However this not just any stout its a chocolate cream stout. Oh but wait it gets even better...

Ok, so my buddy Lee has got me hooked on Acai juice while I've been fighting sickness over the last month. Acai juice has very powerful antioxidant properities and tastes like a really tart mixture of blueberries and raspberries. It also has chocolatey notes to it. Hmm perfect for my chocolate stout! So now I'm making a Acai Chocolate Stout!

I've also decided to make the transition to brewing my first all-grain batch of beer. The process is a little more complicated than what I have been doing and double the amount of time it normal takes to brew, but the end results are supposedly much better. Plus it cost half  the ammount of money for supplies! So hopefully it will all be worth it!

I'm also really excited because I just purchused a copy of The Voice, which is a new contempary translation of the New Testament by authors like Chris Seay and Brian McClaren. If you've never heard of it check it out @ http://www.hearthevoice.com/ They have the entire book of John for free to check out.  It features some of the most diverse and interesting translations that I've read in a while.

I also began listening up on some really great podcasts to go along with what I've been studying in 1 Corinthians. First off there's my home church  Bethel Church in Crown Point. Then theres Mark Driscoll's Church in Seattle called Mars Hill. Finally I just found out that Rick McKinley just started a series in Corinthians at his church Imago Dei.  Its very cool to have such good teaching and a zune to listen to it on. I'm so blessed!


JW


current song:
Just As I Am
by E-pop

Sorry for the lack of updates in the last few weeks, a LOT has been going on!

First off, I've decided to move back to my hometown of Cleveland, TN. There are a lot of reasons why, but the driving forces have been basically friends, school, work experience, and I absolutely love the area. Starting next week I'll be driving down there to find a job, apartment, etc...Please keep that situation in your prayers.

Secondly, I've been considering the future vision of Apostles Ale Brewing Co. I think so far there hasn't been a clear objective in what I've wanted to accomplish with it. So I'm in the process of laying down some sort of business plan so I can start marketing and selling it. I'm also trying to figure out what my flagship beers are going to be. Once I figure that out I'll apply for a license and start selling it!

Thirdly, I've started a very ambition study on the Theology/Spirituality of food. My goal is to first start reading through the entire Bible and figure out the significance of food in the Scriptures and how it relates to us.I might even start a blog dedicated to my results/conclusions. I'm really interested in what my studies will find.

Speaking of food, I'm on my lunch break at work and haven't actually had anything to eat yet. So I'm off!

So I just found a really really cheap vacuum sealer at B3 for under $20. What does this have to do with sous vide?  Well by definition sous vide requires whatever you're cooking to be air tight so that your main ingredient  can become infused with your marinade or seasonings that you're using. A vac sealer can achieve this. I'm going to try to make some chicken or steak next time I'm off and see how it turns out!

Hey everyone, until further notice I wont be using my cell phone.  Not only do I have a huge bill due to texting, it also keeps dying on me 15 minutes into a conversation. So yeah either use facebook or (preferably)  call my house phone (661-8768) and ask for me.  I'm hoping to get everything fixed by the 8/22  but we'll see.

So the soda making process has began! I'm making 3 different sodas using a couple of different techniques. The first one will be mangosteen flavored with regular soda water without a high sugar content. The seconded will be Yuzu flavored with carbonation from dry active yeast and sugar reactions.  The third will be a candied ginger ale. Hopefully it will be drinkable by the end of the week!




 
  Yuzu!

    So as some of you may know I want to open up my own restaurant thats basically Southern Comfort food with a Molecular twist.  Thats what I cook and thats what I love to eat. But I'm realizing that there is so much southern gastronomy goodness that I haven't exposed myself to. Therefore I've taken it upon myself to learn as much as I can about southern cooking and try to re imagine them  through the lens of modern  culinary techniques.  This is really quite an undertaking but its something I have to do and now is as good a time as any.

     I've also been trying to dive into the world of soda making. I found out yesterday that Goose Island
is making their own line of colas.I'm hoping to make some in the style of the Italians but with my own brewing twist, (yuzu anyone?) The first one will probably be like a yuzu cream sickle or something.

    Anywho, I better get ready for work here in a bit but I should have some photos uploaded here by the end of the day.

So as much as I hate being a trendy yuppy that jumps on the newest piece of technology, I think I am going to have to get the newest iPhone that came out yesterday. See here's the thing. The phone I have now sucks. Like seriously sucks. Like the battery keeps dying and I get no reception kind of sucks. Oh and verizion keeps screwing me over as well. So I was planning on going with ATT at the end of the month. Today I was looking and plans and I realized that they are the main US carrier for apples crazy new phone. So I've been researching all morning and it seems that for all practical purposes the iphone would be a great phone for me to get. So I'm biding my time and waiting for my verizion contract to run out so I can get my new phone! In other news I got heston blumenthal's cookbook called In Search of Perfection. I can't wait to make some of his recipes (see below.) I also got some new brewing magazines that will hopefully inspire me when I make my next brew.

Reformatting pt.2

So as everyone who read my last post knows, I decided to reformat my laptop. Overall the process went very well and now its up and running like a new machine. I decided to dual boot it with Windows xp and Ubuntu 8.04. I've been dabbling in Linux for over a year now and I've decided that Ubuntu is my favorite version of it. With the newest version I have all the applications for school and work that I need as well as some fun toys like image editors, music players, and torrent programs. I would have gone completely over to Linux, but I can't find an open source program for music production that is as good as Ableton Live or Reason. I also use Logos Bible Software for my studies and it doesn't like Ubuntu to much. So I have a small xp partition that I only plan on using for those specific applications.

Indiana, I Just Can't Stand Ya

Ugh,I'm really wishing I was in TN right now. Bree (the awesome girlfriend) is there having a great time with her friends in Nashville and Gatlinburg and I'm incredibly jealous. But I'm already planning on flying there on the 31^st so I'm basically just counting down the days. Waiting is definitely the hardest part.

In Other News

I went to the new brewery that opened in Crown Point last night. I'm definitely not impressed with Carriage Court Pizza which is the restaurant located next door. However, the beer is good, the Brewer was a pretty nice guy, and its a heck of a lot closer than 3 Floyds. It'll probably be my new bar of choice, even though I really didn't have one to speak of before...

I also got a new cook book by British chef Jamie Oliver. Someone left it in one of the hotel rooms at work and my mom found it. The 3 week rule applies in a situation like this and its been 4 weeks without anyone claiming it, so guess who's it is now bitches! Its actually a really awesome cookbook and I can't wait to try the recipes in it.

Well, I'm off to the grocery store and then off to work!