The flight to Chicago-Cancun went fairly smoothly. Upon landing in Cancun we had to fill out about 8,000 forms detailing things like if we have had diarhhea in the past 72 hours. Stupid swine flu. So after filling in and turning in that form, we had to wade thru the sea of humanity that was passport inspection. That took about 30 minutes, not unlike a lengthy wait at the Peace Bridge to go to Canada. Oh but the fun didnt end there. See after that they make you stand in another line and turn in another form detailing if you are basically a terrorist or not and then they scan all your luggage. If they confirm that you aren’t indeed a maniacal suicide bomber they make you push a button, and a screen flashes either green or red. If its green you go, if its red, apparently you have to get inspected further in some dark secluded area of the airport. Luckily for me, I got the green light and never had to find out what was behind door number 2. Not everyone was so lucky. Upon exiting the airport we were greeted by our friendly Best Day Tours transportation representative who was most obliging in sorting out some confusion with our reservation. As our flights were rearranged by Expedia due to airlines cutting flights, Best Day was not aware of this change and had trouble finding us for a short time. But disaster was averted and we we soon on our way towards the palatial Grand Palladium Resort Hotel and Spa. The trip to the resort normally would take about an hour and ten minutes if you were driving yourself but since we were the furthest away and there were 8 other people being dropped off at other hotels, this was not the case. It was more like the longest hour and 40 minutes ever. Lets not even mention the approximately 38 speed bumps on the road between the airport and resort. Instead of relying on police patrols to check speed, Mexico uses an ingenious system of speed bumps in strategically placed areas to prevent speeding. Annoying as hell, but I can see why they do it, since “La Policia!!!” have other things to do such as you know stop Drug Wars and the like.

We were originally slated to stay at the Palladium Kantenah resort for our 4 day stay in Mexico. Upon arriving though we were informed that the Kantenah portion of the resort was closed due to the drastic number of cancellations from Swine Flu. We were thus upgraded to a nicer room for free at the White Sands portion of the resort. In retrospect, this was a great move. One we were much closer to the beach

The view from just outside our hotel room

which we would soon discover and we were a little more centralized in the resort. So once we got all checked in, we were chauffered via golf cart to our room and promptly changed out of a New York clothes (jeans) and into Mexico clothes (shorts/flip flops). Seeing that we hadn’t eaten anything since about 7am we were lucky to find the 24hr snack bar adjacent to the beach. After eating a fairly average plate of loaded nachos, we made our way to the beach to check it out. It was a quite a sight. The beach at the resort is absolutely huge. I would estimate it at about 1/2 mile long at least, half of which is the whitest finest sand you will ever see. The other half of the beachfront was a protected coral reef area that is known as a spawning ground for endangered sea turtles. Pretty cool. After hanging out at the beach and checking out a few of the beachside bars we went back to the room to take showers and get ready for dinner. There are 8 restaurants at the resort all specializing in a different cuisine. During the off season, they have 4 restaurants open one nite and the other 4 open on the other nite. The first nite we decided to go to the Brazilian restaurant. This would end up being the best dinner we had all vacation. Basically how it works is you are given a 2 sided card, one side being red and the other green. They tell you to go to the salad bar (more like an appetizer bar) and load up there. After you are done with that, you then flip the card over to the green side and they bring you a plate with all your side dishes that included a spanish rice and bean mixture along with salted potatoes and mixed vegetables. Shortly after that the meat parade begins. What they do is bring out cooked chunks of meats on a sword and ask if you want a slice. If you do they cut you off a slice. Quite amazing. Then 5 minutes later they come out with a different kind of meat. This is repeated for a total of 8 different meat choices: beef tenderloin, pork tenderloin, turkey breast, chicken wings, lamb loin, sausage, chicken breast and beef brisket. Everything was quite good even though I skipped the sausage and chicken wings so I could load up on the beef and lamb. After eating all that and drinking up a decent bottle of reisling, I was in no condition to even attempt dessert. Jamie on the other hand was all about it. How I have no idea. After a most awesome dinner we ambled around to a few of the different bars at the resort but since dinner took almost 2 hours we were pretty tired and decided to call it a day…Day 2 tomorrow

Star Trek

Went and saw Star Trek with my buddy Tim at the local IMAX a little over a week ago.  If I had to sum up my observations of the movie in one word, I would say “WOW”.   I have always been a bit of a Star Trek but have been extremely disappointed with the feature films since First Contact.  I have also been a big J.J. Abrams fan for quite awhile as he was the creator of Alias, Lost and Fringe which all rank up there as my favorite TV shows.  Even though I am not a huge Tom Cruise fan, I thoroughly enjoyed Mission Impossible III, which was Abrams first foray into feature films.  So naturally I went into the movie with high expectations all of which were met or surpassed.   For those who have no idea the new film details how the Original Series cast (Kirk, Bones, Spock) originally got onto the Enterprise.  There are a number of twists to established Star Trek history, which I will not bother explaining here, but every change is very plausible and adds depth to each of the characters.  The casting of the movie is top notch.  Karl Urban OWNS as Dr. McCoy, absolutely spot on.  I was a little leery with Chris Pine as Kirk at first but I was convinced that he was Kirk by the end of the film.  Zachary Quinto was an excellent choice as Spock.  He adds a brooding humanistic element to the emotionless Vulcan side of his persona with perfect balance, which could be very difficult for an actor to pull off with success.  The special effects in the movie are by far the best of any Star Trek film by miles and even surpass the more recent Star Wars films in some aspects.  While the plot devices in the film are a little weak, it did not bother me due to the fact that this was meant as a character driven film, as we are meeting these ‘new’ characters for the first time.  I imagine that in follow-up movies to the series that there will be more of a balance of character development and a more thorough plot.  All in all a great great movie.  Highly recommended.

Moving

I am going to be moving in a few weeks as I have an opportunity to help out my buddy Tim for a year, so he doesn’t have to search for a roommate.  For me its adventageous in that I will be saving a large sum of $$ over the next year.  I will be cutting down on space and privacy, but these are things I can deal with for a temporary basis.  With all the $$ I will be saving, I will have an opportunity to pay down a lot of debt (school loans, car loan) and get myself a bit more of a ‘rainy day’ fund set up.  I have considered saving up a bunch to get enough for a down payment on a house but I don’t want to commit to buying a house until I have someone to share it with.  With Jamie going to Duquesne for the next 3 or so years, I can feasibly put that one off for a little while.   Who knows, I may just decide to ditch Buffalo for a little while and go down there for a few years.  With the way I seem to have ‘pleteaued’ at work the past year, it might be worth trying to see if there is something out there in a year or so.  As much as I for the most part like the people I work with, save one person, I don’t think I would hestiate for a second if I could find something in Pittsburgh in a year that will challenge me more, pay me more and let me be with Jamie full time.  I do dread the whole moving process though.  I haven’t done it in 3.5 years and I am starting to realize how much stuff I have accumulated in those 3.5 years.  I shouldn’t have a problem moving a majority of it, but its just a lot of stuff.  At least my stepdad’s truck is now fixed so I will not have to rent a UHaul for a day which I was not looking forward to.  Then I will most likely get to turn around and do the same thing again next year this time, but I will cross that bridge when I get to it.

Mexico

Jamie and I are heading to Mexico on Wed for a little 5 day getaway.  With the whole swine flu thing going on down there we weren’t sure if we were going to go or not, especially with all the airlines cancelling flights.  After looking into it a little bit though, we decided to proceed with caution.  We are staying at the Palladium Kantenah resort just outside of Playa Del Carmen.  This area is just south of Cancun but out of the touristy areas which was kind of what we were looking for.  Basically we are there to drink, eat, relax and catch up on our tans, along with some other stuff   ….Even with all the health concerns we are still looking forward to it and to getting out of Buffalo for awhile, something we really havent done since November.  I fully plan on taking advantage of all the free ‘libations’ that will be available throughout the resort, including the pair of swimup bars!!!  I plan on taking a smattering of pictures while I am down there (not taking the expensive good camera) and I will post some on here when we get back on Sunday.

Beer Adventures

Bottled the Dunkel 2 weeks ago today.  I don’t really have high hopes for it, but we will see.  I think its one going to come out with a fairly thin body do to my low mash temperature.  That in turn didnt extract as much of the malt sugars as it should have resulting in what will probably be a thin beer.  I think the conversion fared well though as the yeast defenitely did its thing.  I made the mistake of putting the bottles directly in a ‘cool’ fridge (50ish) after I bottled them to carbonate the beer.  Only later did I discover I should really keep the bottles at more like 60ish for a few weeks to aid in the carbonation process.  I will crack a few open when I get back from Mexico, during my move-in process and see how it goes.  Hoping they aren’t flat.  I recently brewed a Scotch Ale about a 10 days ago.  Its a little on the weak side of a Wee Heavy style but I have high hopes for this beer.  I screwed it up a little in the brewing process as I forgot to stir the wort while the immersion chiller was doing its job.  Because of this I pitched yeast into wort I thought was 74degrees but was actually more like 84.  I was able to cool it down quickly to 80 though so I think that helped.  I know I didn’t kill the yeast cause the fermentation took off like a banshee in about 18 hours after brewing.  After 4 days the airlock didn’t show much activity so I popped the top of the primary fermenter to take a look at the temp and gravity.  The temp much to my surprise was at 68degrees, i figured it would have been higher.   So I am hoping the yeast only went to town on the ‘good’ stuff and didnt produce any harsh estery off-flavors.  The gravity of the beer was right in its target range of 1.016 so that was a good sign as well.  I put the lid back on and I’ll let it sit till 2mor so the yeast can clean up after itself a bit more.  After that I will transfer it to the secondary glass carboy for a few weeks so it can settle out and clarify some more.  I think this one will turn out much much better than the Dunkel.  Have my fingers crossed on this one.

Random Observations

- Golf is a cruel cruel game.  I have no idea why anyone plays it, let alone me.  You think you are making progress and then it all falls to pieces with the snap of a finger.  Very frustrating.

- Mae is an awesome band.  Just recently discovered them.  They have a new EP out called (m)orning EP and it is fantastic.  Check out www.whatismae.com to donate and check out the songs.  Fav is “The House That Fire Built”

-  I love how President Obama didn’t back down to the protests at Notre Dame and chose to speak intelligently and candidly on controversial topics.  I agree with a lot of what the man says, but even if I didn’t I would still applaud him for having the conversation.  I can’t think of any politician since maybe Kennedy would speak so open-mindedly and have a debate about a controversial topic.  In 1961 when Kennedy took the oath of office he said there was no reason we couldn’t put on a man on the moon by the end of the decade everyone thought he was crazy and that it could never be done.  But it was.  I think Obama is of similar quality.

- I am totally ready to hop on the iPhone bandwagon as soon as the new one comes out.

- Optimistic about the new Terminator: Salvation movie.

- The Red Sox really need to figure out how to win on the road, this is the 2nd season in a row where they have been just downright awful away from Fenway.  They need to get their act together this week against Toronto at Fenway.  They have to take at least 2 of 3 games.  The Blue Jays are no joke this year.  I think the 4 best teams in the AL are all in the East.  The rest of the league is a joke except for maybe Kansas City, which I kind of have to laugh at cause they haven’t  been good in 20 years, since like Bret Saberhagen and George Brett played for them.

- Buffalo is a joke for giving T.O. a key to the city.  The dude is going to be here for one year and one year only.  What a sham.  He has done nothing and will do nothing for the city to help its image at all.  I like the move on the football field but give me a break.  Buffalo is just way too desperate to get plastered in headlines.  Our MASSIVE inferiority complex just scary sometimes.

- I can’t grow anything.  Its science.

So last Tuesday, my friend Tim and I cracked the lid on the primary fermenter holding the Dunkelweizen.  It had been 9 days since we started fermenting and the airlock really hadn’t bubbled for about 2 days, so I thought we were ok.  Can I just say holy crap those lids are a pain in the arse to get off.  Here is the view of the beer after popping the lid.

From here I sanitized my hydrometer and gave her a whirl to see what kind of reading I would get.  After settling out, the reading came to 1.009.  Now typically Dunkel’s are in the 1.014 to 1.020 range for Final Gravity.  So this was a bit low.  But considering my Original Gravity was 1.042 (which was right on the mark from the recipe that I used) and most dunkels are in the 1.050 range for OG, I wasnt too terribly surprised by this reading.  After getting that reading, I was fairly confident that most of the fermenting was done.  At this point, I started siphoning over the brew into the glass carboy.

I came up a little short of 5 gallons after transferring but I know next time to tip the bucket towards the end to let the siphon pick up a little more liquid.  From here I capped the carboy and moved it to the basement (a nice steady upper 50′s) to allow it to clear up and condition for the next few weeks.  I think the plan is to move the brew into bottles next weekend.  From there the beer has to carbonate and condition for about 3 more weeks and some awesome day in late May there will be drinkable beer!

I have decided the next batch is going to be a Scotch Ale ‘Wee Heavy’.  The ‘Wee Heavy’ style of Scotch Ale is exactly how it sounds, wee heavy on the malty side and wee heavy on the alcohol.  Not too terribly hoppy either.  Normally, I would do this as an All Grain beer but due to the amount of grain I would have to use to make this style (~15 lbs) makes this not feasible considering I only have a 5 gallon cooler with which to mash in.  Because if this inconvinence, I am going to attempt to do a partial mash.  So we will see how that pans out.  Of course I will post an update once I brew.

1 Tbsp of Barbeque sauce (ketchup can be used)
2 Tbsp of Orange Juice
2 Tbsp of reduced sodium Soy Sauce
1 Tbsp of Vegetable Oil (Basting oil works as well)
1/4 tsp of Lemon Juice
1 clove of minced garlic
A pinch or 2 of the following: Parsley, Oregano, Old Bay Seasoning, Pepper, Ginger.

Mix the marinade together and place in a baking dish.  Place swordfish in baking dish and wrap dish in plastic wrap.  Allow swordfish to marinade for 30 minutes, flip swordfish and allow to marinade for 30 minutes.

Grill the swordfish on a low to medium heat.  You want flip the swordfish about every four minutes or so and baste each time for a total cook time of about 12 minutes.

Thats all there is to it.  I like plain white rice with the extra marinade mixed in.  The soy sauce in the marinade helps bring a little of flavor out in the rice.  Enjoy…Heres some pics below.

This is a photo I took this past Saturday at my friend Tim’s bike race.  I occasionally accompany him to his races for moral support and photography opportunities.  This race, the Sharpcut Media Road Race (results) took place in the bustling metropolis of Corfu, NY.  If you have no idea where that is, don’t worry, 99% of everyone else would not have a clue either.  Hence, as far as bike races go, this was a perfect location.  In mid-April in Buffalo, the mornings are what some people would consider crisp.  I would consider them cold as balls.  Now watching road racing for cycling is a bit like watching a NASCAR road racing.  A bunch of stuff goes on for about 30 seconds and nothing really happens for 10 minutes while you wait for them to cycle back around.  I of course would take all my pics when the action was going down.  What is one to do in the meantime?  Well sit in my toasty car and listen to tunes (aka Rush).  The picture shown above was of the leader of the race as he coasted across the finish to win the race.  I tried to frame the picture off center to capture the scope of the background but to still leave the focus on the foreground.  I liked how it turned out.  Post-processing involved so work in Photoshop playing around with color temperature, shadowing and highlights.  With the bright background and emphasis on body shadowing, it really made the cyclist ‘pop’ which was what I was going for.  The grittiness of the blacktop was a nice bonus as well.  If you would like a full size version of this photo, please feel free to email me at digitalkid2112@gmail.com.

Starting off boiling a little over 3 gallons of water which on an electric stove takes much longer than I expected.  After boiling for 5 minutes, I let the water cool to 166 degF, figuring in about a 12 degree drop when I added the grain.  I used a dunkelweizen recipie that my buddy Jim recommended, with a few changeups.

5 pounds Wheat Malt

3 pounds Pilsner Malt

2 pounds Munich Malt

.5 pounds Crystal Malt and handful of Chocolate Malt

This was incorrect as the drop in temp was more like 20 degrees.  I think this was partially due to an electric stove that heats incosistently.  Next time I might just use the propane burner to heat the water.   As ive been told, a lot of the brewing process is improvising on the fly, so I changed my single infusion mash to a step mash since i was at 146 degrees.  I let the mash sit at 146 degrees for an hour, then added about 2 quarts of boiling water to step the temp up to 152 degrees.  I knew I was risking coming out with a pretty thin mash by adding the water but i weighed that against getting as much sugar extraction as I could which meant raising the temp to the 152 range.  So I let the mash rest at 152 degrees for about 40 minutes.  While that was going on, I heated up 3 more more gallons of water to 170 for the sprarge process.  At the end of the mash I drained about 3 quarts of liquid from the mash and poured it back over the top of the mash to recirculate the grain bed.

At this point I started sparging.  This is where things got interesting.  I sparged out about 1/3 of what I needed and then noticed that my runoff was going extremely slow.  So I checked the grain bed and noticed there was some severe compacting.  Not good.  So in a valiant attempt break it up the disconnected the drain line inadvertantly from the false bottom, which then caused the false bottom to start floating.  At that point drastic measures needed to be taken, but I had seen these measured before so I knew what to do.  I poured all the mash out of the water cooler and into a fermenting bucket, re-attached the false bottom, cleaned out all the grain underneath the false bottom and carefully poured the mash back into the water cooler.  Disaster averted.  So I sucessfully made it thru my first stuck mash.  I think part of this may have had to do with my grain being crushed to fine personally, but I cannot know for sure.  We’ll see what happens next time, it will have to be monitored in future batches.  After the fix, the rest of the sparge went rather smoothly.  I then commenced boiling the 5.5 gallons or so of runoff wort and adding hops according to the hops schedule of the dunkelweisen recipe I was using.

1 oz of Fuggle leaf hops

1 oz of Hallertauer Hersbruecker hops

So this mixture boiled away for 90 minutes or so.  I had a thermometer attached to the side of the pot, that I forgot about due to the fact that I was not exactly sober and it was dark outside and I did not have the best light source.  So when I added the immersion chiller to the boiling wort, the thermometer went right into the wort…oops.  There was no saving it at that time.  So i chilled the wort with the thermometer right in there, hehe.  I overshot my chill temp by about 2 degrees, I wanted 66 and got 64.  No big worries, it will just take a little longer to ferment at the cooler temp.  I added the liquid yeast to the primary bucket and then poured the chilled wort over a strainer and right into the bucket (Palmer “How to Brew” method).  Took a quick reading with the hydrometer and got 1.042, which is dead on with the recipe gave me.  So despite the slight mis-steps along the way, I still hit the OG number I wanted.  Was honestly a bit surprised.  We will see how the Final number looks in a week or so, when it stops fermenting, hopefully its close.  Then put the lid on nice and tight and shook it up to start oxygenating the beer.   All done!!!!

The brew is now comfortably resting with a towel wrapped around it and an airlock inserted on top, which is now bubbling away.

The unquestioned force in early Chicago was its guitarist Terry Kath.  An extremely underrated guitarist in rock music, the man produced guitarwork that was easily rival that of Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix.  Jimi Hendrix was once asked in 1969 after a gig at the Whiskey A Go Go in Los Angeles, if there was any single guitarist that was better than him and he simply responded, “I am a pretty good guitar player, but Terry Kath is.  That cat is a better guitar player than me”.  Kath, like Hendrix, also contributed vocals to many of Chicago’s earlier material.  With a deeper baritone rasp, Kath’s vocals took on a soulful tone.  Sadly, Kath’s influence on Chicago’s early sound was cut short in 1978 with a self-inflicted gunshot to the head.  Chicago’s other 2 most recognizable figures were Bill Lamm (who manned piano/keyboards and also contributed vocals) and Peter Cetera, yes that Peter Cetera, Karate Kid theme music (who played Bass guitar and was the 3rd main vocalist in the band).

Chicago Transit Authority was recorded entirely live in the studio, many of the songs in one take.  This is almost completely unheard of now and it was the only time the band would record in this fashion.  It is even more impressive considering there were 7 members in the band playing 7 different instruments in a studio setting.  There were no singles released from this album, but there are many recognizable songs on the album.  “Beginnings” and “Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is” are 2 songs from this album that are widely played and covered.  These 2 tracks while classic songs, are not anywhere close to the best on the album.  “Poem 58″ opens with a nearly 6 minute guitar solo from Terry Kath that absolutely shreds and was the height of his guitar prowess as recorded in the studio.  The other 2 and a 1/2 minutes of the song is typical Chicago, but the guitar solo makes it the best song on the album.  Other highlights on the album include “Question 67 & 68″ and “South California Purples”.

This album documents Chicago in their rawest pure form as a rock band that incorporated soul, jazz and funk into their sound and was able to combine that into a raw and at the same time crisp powerful sound.  As debut rock albums go, it is one of the best to come from that generation, on par with Led Zeppelin I and Are You Experienced by the Jimi Hendrix Experience.  Chicago would maintain this sound thru their first 5 albums until musical preferences of the public pushed the band towards a more synthesized pop sound (read boring, uninspired).  Highly recommended if you appreciate fantastic guitar work and jazz (horns).

Rating: 9/10

Those from the Buffalo area know that the former home of the Buffalo Sabres, The Memorial Auditorium is in the process of being demolished as part of the Canalside project.  Built in 1930 and expanded in 1970, the Aud has been vacant since 1996 when HSBC arena was completed.   For the past 11 years there have been a lot talk debating whether it was worth keeping and rehabbing the Auditorium or demolishing it.  Plans ranging from a casino to a train station to an aquarium were all debated an eventually put out to pasture.  Finally, in 2005 Bass Pro Shops showed interest in developing the Aud site for a urban Waterfront retail location to work in conjunction with the upcoming Canalside project.  After some redesigns and slight changes in location it was decided that the Bass Pro Shops would be located on the Aud footprint.  Demolition bids were put out for quote and after the closure of that process, not to be undone by a lenghty requote due to a steep drop in scrap metal prices, the demolition of the Aud began in early February to be completed in late June.

At this point the demolition is 1/3 complete.  The entire North face and lobby has been removed exposing the cavernous bowl area of the building.  Next, work will begin in removing the 11 trusses holding up the roof.  Once the roof is down the walls we be removed and the site cleared.

At 27 years old, I do not have a lot of memories of the Aud.  I could maybe count on 2 hands the number of times that I had been in the building.  I have heard many stories though.  Led Zeppelin on a hot August nite in 1973.  A unfortunate person falling to their death at a Pink Floyd concert.  The Buffalo Sabres playing the Philadelphia Flyers in the 1975 Stanley Cup Finals included the legendary “Fog game“.   I don’t remember every experience I had in the Aud but I definitely remember the first time. February 1987, 5 years old and I am getting over a mild case of the chicken pox.  My parents going thru not the amicable of divorces.  There was only one thing that could bring a 2 people together that could barely talk to each other and a kid with chicken pox.  Neil Diamond.  The man.  The myth.  The legend.  It was everything I imagined it could be, and it is the last memory I have of my parents together.  Bittersweet.

While I’m excited to see whats to come for the new Canalside development, I must admit that it makes me a little sad to see the old place go.  Going down there was like paying my last respects to the place, almost like a wake of sorts, but I was the only one there on a Tuesday at 530 in the afternoon.

• 2 – 6 gal. Primary Fermentation buckets
• 2 – 6 gal. glass Carboys
• 1 – Immersion Wort Chiller
• 1- Propane Burner with Stand
• 1 – 5 gal. Mash Tun
• 1 – 5 gal. Lauter Tun
• 1 – 30qt Brew Pot
• 1 – 6 gal bottling bucket
• Various hoses, siphons, valves, hydrometer, thermometer, airlocks, bottle caps, bottle capper.

Normally such a setup would run in the $600 range for brand new equipment, so I considered myself pretty lucky to find such a deal.  Now watching beer be made and actually making it yourself are 2 completely different animals, so I thought it best to educate myself on the finer points of the homebrewing process.  No sense in having all that awesome equipment and not know what to do with it!!  After researching on Amazon, I selected The Brewmasters Bible by Stephen Snyder.  This book has been a tremendous resource in learning the terminology and process for introductory brewing.  It is also an excellent recipe resource as well.  After reading thru the book, I found that I was jumping thru various sections of the book to get an exact process from beginning to end on brewing.  Based on this I decided to make myself a ‘cheat sheet’ Quick Reference Guide.  For those interested, it is presented below.  This method follows the Single Temperature Infusion Method for All Grain brewing (for you brewers).  When I get comfortable with it, I suspect I will give Step mashing a tryout.  My buddy Tim and I are going to attempt to brew a batch of Dunkel Weissen using a recipe Jim so graciously recommended.  Im pretty excited to get started to see how it turns out.  I will definitely be posting on that adventure when it takes place.  Please feel free to make corrections if you see that I missed anything (this means you Jim, Supa, Rene!!):

1. Purchase grain bill, typically 8-12 pounds for a 5 gallon batch.  Grain bill will obviously vary depending on the type of beer being produced.  Most homebrew stores will crush your grain for you, make sure this is done as it is a necessity for insuring good efficiency also known as the percentage of potential grain sugars that are converted to sugars in the wort (what beer is before you add hops and yeast) of your brew.
2. ‘Dough-in’ grain to strike water, stirring mixture as grain is added.
   NOTE:  The strike water temperature should be approx. 165 degF.  Boil water for 5 minutes (to remove tap water chlorine) then cool to ‘strike’ temperature.
   NOTE:  Use 1.25 qt/lb of grain for strike water.
3. Mash at approx. 153 degF for an hour (this time will sometimes vary based on recipe callouts).
4. Mash out by raising temp of mash to 165-170 degF by adding pints of boiling water over 5 minutes.  Once temp. is achieved, let mash rest for 10 minutes.
5. Open valve on mash tun and collect 3 quarts of wort.  Slowly pour this wort back on top of grain bed at the top of mash tun.
6. Fill lauter tun with 165-170 degF water and sparge this water slowly over the grain bed in mash tun over a period of 45 minutes.  In conjuction with this slowly open valve at bottom of mash tun and allow wort to slowly run into 30 qt brew pot attempting to match flow of sparge water.  Sparge until about 6 gallons is collected in brewpot.  Keep grain bed in mash tun covered with water at all times to prevent compacting of grain bed.  Avoid splashing wort when running off into brewpot

   

7. Place brewpot on a burner and bring to a boil. Boil wort and add hops as required by recipie once full boil has been achieved.  Typical boils are between 60 and 90 minutes once full boil begins.
8. Add 1 teaspoon of Irish Moss to boiling wort 15 minutes prior to end of boil.  This will improve beer’s clarity.
9. Insert immersion wort chiller into boiling wort 5 minutes prior to end of boil.  This will sanitize wort chiller.
10. Remove brew pot from burner, hook wort chiller up to water source and cycle cold water thru chiller.
    
11. Once wort drops below 75 degF, remove wort chiller from wort, unless recipe or beer type dictates different temperature.
12. Measure and record O.G. (Original Gravity) or wort with hydrometer (sanitized).
13. Using auto-siphon (sanitized, notice a theme), carefully siphon chilled wort to primary fermentation bucket.  Avoid siphoning cold trub sediment at bottom of brew pot.
14. Once wort is collected in primary fermentation bucket, pitch (pour) prepared yeast (activate smackpack yeast at least a day prior to brewing).  Cover bucket with lid and vigorously aerate (shake the piss out of it).
15. Install airlock in lid of bucket, add 1 oz. of water (sanitizer or vodka work too).  Affix cap to airlock.
    
16. Move primary fermentation bucket to area with stable temperature as called out by recipe (typically 64-68 degF).  Primary fermentation typically lasts 10-14 days or when airlock activity (bubbling) has ceased or hydrometer readings of beer do not change over a period of 3 days.
17. Beer can be siphoned to a glass carboy for an additional 10-14 days for secondary fermentation.  This will improve clarity and flavor.  When lagering, this step is necessary and will take longer depending on type of beer.
18. Once secondary fermentation is complete, prepare priming sugar (1.5 pts of boiled water mixed with 2/3 cup of corn sugar) and pour into bottling bucket.  Siphon beer into bottling bucket, avoid splashing.  Attach bottling wand to bucket and fill clean/sanitized bottles.
    
19. Cap bottles and condition beer as per recipe specifications (typically 3 weeks).  Serve chilled and enjoy!!!