The Sourdough Chronicals - Part I

The search for a simple sourdough recipe began easily enough. All I wanted to do was create a sourdough starter that I could keep alive for years and years and and years. You know...something that I could pass down to my boys. Right.

The recipe was easy. 1 cup of raisin water and 1 cup of wheat flour. Mix and leave in a open container, somewhere warm. Raisin water, in case you don't know is water that has been soaked in raisins. Supposedly all of the nooks and crannys in a raisin contain some kind of natural little beastie that will help our little culture grow. I placed the container on top of the fridge and waited.

I fed it daily as instructed. Throwing out half of it, and adding a 1/2 cup of water and 1/2 cup of flour. I kept this up for 4 days and like the recipe said, rite on the button, my started, started to bubble. At this point I had a culture growing. I could now cover it with some ventilation and keep in the fridge only feeding it once a week and I would be good for life.

After a couple of days, I decided to try my hand at my first sourdough loaf. According to the directions, I made a sponge by adding 1 cup of flour and 1 cup of water and letting it sit for a couple of hours. Then I mixed in basically some of the sponge 2-3 cups of flour, 2 tbs of oil, 1 cup of water and salt. I went to kneading and right away I noticed something different. The dough was very very stiff. It was very tough to knead and almost felt like play dough. I reasoned that I didn't hydrate it enough. However adding water didn't really seem to help.

After letting it rise, as you can see, it didn't really double in size like I'm used to seeing. The ball of dough just kind of sat there...staring at me. Mocking me.

I asked my bride to take over and punch it down and shape it and prepare it for the oven. I thought I would let it rest and rise again for another hour and perhaps her delicate touch would coax the glutinous mass to come out and play nicely. Even after waiting for a time, it did plump up a little bit, but I was not holding out hope.

You know that feeling you get when you just know something isn't going to turn out. Kind of like when you were in little league and you just knew that ball was coming your way and you knew you were just going to drop it no matter how hard you tried? Yeah, that's what happened with this loaf.

During baking, the bread did rise, but the taste was just kind of underwhelming. It was a very dense bread, kind of like my first loaves when I didn't knead enough.

I reasoned that in this loaf, I could have waited longer for the sponge to grow, even over night as the recipe suggested. Next time, in part two we'll visit the longer sponge time and longer rise to see if we improved on the sourdough. Oh, by the way, did I mention, NO tangyness what so ever. There was nothing sour. I wanted like the pictures on the Thefreshloaf.com, with the cool irregular holes and fantastic taste.

Wisconsin heresy? Propose beer tax hike

Madison - Two Democratic legislators today vowed to try again to raise the $2-per-barrel beer tax, which has been unchanged for 38 years, despite a warning they are taking on a "sacred Wisconsin beverage."

"I am not predicting it's going to pass," Democratic Rep. Terese Berceau of Madison said of her proposal to boost the $2 tax to $10 per barrel to fight drunken driving and treat alcohol addiction. "I'm kind of fooling around with holy water here."

Her beer-tax increase would raise the tax on a six-pack from 3.6-cents to 18-cents. Overall, it would cost beer drinkers between $40 million and $48 million more a year, she said.

The Assembly leader of her own party has panned her proposal, however.

Senate President Fred Risser (D-Madison) defended the increase, noting it essentially was indexing the beer tax for inflation since its last hike 38 tears ago. In 1969, Risser voted to raise the tax from $1 per barrel to $2, and he said none of the predictions then that it would devastate the state's economy came true.

Wisconsin's $2-per-barrel tax is third lowest in the nation, behind the 59-cent levy in Wyoming and the $1.86 tax in Missouri, home of Budweiser. Legisaltors said the highest beer tax in the nation is $33.17 per barrel in Alaska.

Michael Miller, a Madison-area physician who heads the American Society of Addiction Medicine, said Wisconsin's history, culture and politics has treated beer like a "sacred Wisconsin beverage." Raising the tax is needed and overdue, Miller said.

Miller commended Berceau and Risser for "walking directly into the mouth of the lion," comparing their effort to trying to raise the tax on wine in California or the tax on bourbon in Kentucky.

Other groups calling for the increase included Mothers Against Drunk Driving, the Mental Health Association of Wisconsin and the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill.

A Shandy Beach...

This weekend I was talked into trying a new beer against my better judgment. I say this because, it was described to me as the new Leinenkugel's, which for the record makes some incredible beers. There was a twist on this one, it is their Weiss beer, mixed with lemonade.

"It's very popular is Europe," I was told. So is eating your french fries with tiny wooden forks and mayonnaise, but you don't see us yanks doing that. Either way I immediately thought of that man law, "Don't fruit your beer." And I'd like to think that I don't participate in this barbaric act. But what do I do when my beer comes with the fruit already mixed in?

I tried to remember my time in jolly old Germany, next to Wisconsin, the Mecca of all that is good and right with beer. You wouldn't find Lemonade in compliance the German Beer Purity law. However, as I hope Patrick can help clear me up, I do recall stopping at a convenience store, and situated right next to the shiza porn were a whole slew of soda infused beers.

It would seem that by doing a little research, a Shandy is a term used to described any beer infused with either soda or lemonade. So, I gave it the old college try, and you know what, it wasn't that good. No sir, not in this beer snobs opinion.

The beer was definitely one of the lightest I've ever seen. One could say almost like the colour of lemonade. It tasted more like a hard lemonade that was trying to act like a beer. A hard lemonade in beer clothing if you will. The taste was ho-hum and didn't give any kind of crisp refreshing taste normally coming from a Leinenkugels. The after taste was dry and slightly bitter, my tongue was wishing for something to cling to. I immediately gave some to my lovely wife who I knew would enjoy this kind of beer, and I was right. However, in her defense she would rather drink this kind of beverage than a beer.

The head retention was weak, and there was barely a trace of it. Its smell was over powered by the lemons where it should have been a nice clean Weiss, with a hint of lemons. Over all, I couldn't see my self buying this beer for any kind of enjoyment or pleasure, but rather to say, "Hey, did you try that lemonade beer? I did...it tastes like lemonade mixed with beer."

Time to move back to Wisconsin

State Senate OKs free beer samples at the store
The Associated Press

MADISON — Beer lovers of Wisconsin, rejoice! Thanks to the state Senate, you’re a step closer to getting a free (yes, free!) half-can of beer.

The Senate today approved a bill on an unanimous voice vote that allows grocery and liquor stores to hand out samples of up to 6 ounces of free beer per day to people of legal drinking age. The Assembly was expected to take up the measure later today.

Current state law allows wineries, but not grocery and liquor stores, to offer up to 6 ounces of free samples.

Sen. Pat Kreitlow, D-Chippewa Falls, home of the Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Co., is the bill’s main sponsor. He said the measure is designed to help beer manufacturers compete with wine makers.