I added 150g of houjicha (ほうじ茶), a roasted green tea into the 20L of brown ale in my fermenter this evening.. when I wrote the recipe I didn’t appreciate just how much tea that was :) just shy of two full packets.. I guess I’d better order larger quantities from the in-laws next time!

Today marks my 25th brew day and should be pretty chill, making a stout and it’s one which I’ve created the recipe for from scratch, trying to apply some knowledge that I’ve acquired through previous brews and through my course to properly design the recipe and brew schedule for it.

I love stouts and I feel that they are very forgiving of mistakes (can handle undesirable flavour compounds a little better than lighter beers etc.) but it is so damned tempting to throw in cacao nibs and coffee beans.. must resist! This is to be a beer upon which future stout recipes can be developed.

Scottish Beer Awards tonight. Whilst I’ll never get a chance to participate I am considering establishing an annual Shikoku Beer Awards event.. which I think would be a lot of fun.

Having a quick look at some open source software for my in-laws' online tea shop etc. as I try to wake up this morning.. opencart looks pretty nice.. looking at plausible for analytics and wondering how well they play together.. I can feel additional strain being added to one of my SBCs soon..

Just made a very spicy tofu dish and sat down in front of the TV with some very tasty home-brewed beer.. noticed a Danish detective programme and we immediately decided to watch it.. The Chestnut Man..

.. noticed some similarities with The Killing (original not US one) and figured that it’s the same writer.. according to themoviedb.org it is.. woohoo, result.. looking forward to this and subsequent series..

So, as it happens I am a big fan of Flight of the Conchords, I saw them in Edinburgh in 2003 when they were shortlisted as finalists for the Perrier award (still not sure how they didn’t win)..

..they scratch an entirely different itch than Tim Minchin, or The Scared Weird Little Guys for that matter..

..anyway, I always struggled to pick one of their songs as my favourite, though probably “The most beautiful girl in the room”, but I recently caught up with their reunion tour and I think, for now at least it is “Father and Son”

https://piped.kavin.rocks/watch?v=i8iK1rhfYpI

Somewhat predictably the insomniac insomnia’d but coffee consumed, suited up and under no pressure can recall most of the prepared interview answers from memory..

T-36minutes..

Driving lesson done, time for a beer and feet up before an evening of interview preparation.. life is tiring just now..

What I want to be doing today: trying to memorise prepared answers and focus on prep for the interview which is now less than 24 hours away..

What I will be doing today: Learning to drive a car for 6+ hours..

Well, at least I’ve got the day off work..

Now that my assignment is submitted, my wife has wasted no time in presenting me with 10 potential interview questions to prepare for ahead of Wednesday’s early interview.

I’ve answered them as best I can, so awaiting corrections then I have a day and a bit to commit them to memory and hope that they don’t ask me something else randomly!