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I love NPR.  When I was in high school a friend of mine used to listen to NPR on his drive to school and tell me of its great worth.  Not only did I not believe him,  I mocked him most thoroughly.  In my defense, this is the same guy that shaved a 36 into the back of his head to harness some unseen power while taking the ACT.  (Coincidently, ACT is also the answer to the following question:  You know you grew up in the middle of the country if you qualified for college based on the score of the _____.)  But I will confesson this,  he was so right.

Now you may be asking yourself, what the hell does this have to do with beer?  And that is a fine question.  The answer is this.  I heard a fascinating interview on Forum with Steven Johnson the author of a biography on Joseph Priestley called The Invention of Air that I want to read.  According to the interview, Priestly discovered how to produce soda water by a tour of his neighborhood brewery.  He noticed the haze above the tanks (the carbon dioxide being realized by the brewer’s yeast) and passed water over the tanks in order to trap the gas inside.  So next time you have a glass of soda water (I have no idea why people drink unflavored soda water, but they do), give thanks to beer and Joseph Priestley.

Beer doesn’t cause Cancer.

Brewsci’s newly hired (but as yet not paid) crack investigating reporter uncovered this bit of news from the interconnected series of tubes that is the internet:

Beer and Cancer

In fact it may even work to fight cancer:

Beer: The new anti-cancer drug?

But before you decided to up your daily beer dose by 12 fold remember as Aristotle never said but we like to pretend he did everything  in moderation.

It is that time of year when tradition obliges each of us to look at our lives with an eye towards changing our ways and learning from our past mistakes.  What did I learn in the past year?

1.  A carboy full of hot water makes for a nasty blister.

2.  Brewing is best done sober (see 1. to understand how I learned this)

3.  Putting in two weeks notice is very liberating.

4.  Working for two weeks after you dramatically quit is much less liberating.

With that said here are my 2009 resolutions.

1.  Brew 14 different batches of beer.

2.  Read 6 books from start to finish on brewing.  Starting with Brewing Up a Business by Sam Calagione.

3.  Post at least 8 times a month.

4.  Lose more weight than Joe (cuz what is life without endless competition).

5.  Make more lists.  Especially in spreadsheet form.  (Live each day asking what would ScoMo do?)

6.  Travel to a foreign country.

7.  Attend the GABF again.

What about you?  Write it down in the comments sections so I can judge you at the end of the year.

Hi All,

It’s been an eventful year here at brewsci.com (even if the lack of posts suggests otherwise).  Joe and I have went all the way from brewing with a thirty dollar extract kit to buying enough brewing equipment to fill an entire room.  For those of you lucky enough to have tried our beers, we are asking for your votes on your favorite.  Post a note in the comments section with your favorite beer and that will be the first beer we brew in the new year:

Your Choices:

Bad Science Amber – the brew that nearly cost me a finger

Mystery Recipe Pale Ale – Our first all grain batch

Zeke Choco Stout – So good a puppy was named after it

Fading Wit – Our Hefe that was christened in Yosemite

Hairy Hippie Pumpkin Ale – You can taste the organic goodness

Portland Grown IPA – no you haven’t tried this yet, but we have a whole keg of it!!!