Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Scientific Jargon For Dummies.


Einstein was not only a genius but also a poet.

I believe  God, Who reveals Himself in the lawful harmony 
of the world, not in a God Who concerns Himself with the fate and
 the doings of mankind.

All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree. All these aspirations are directed toward ennobling man's life, lifting it from the sphere of mere physical existence and leading the individual towards freedom. It is no mere chance that our older universities developed from clerical schools. Both churches and universities — insofar as they live up to their true function — serve the ennoblement of the individual. They seek to fulfill this great task by spreading moral and cultural understanding, renouncing the use of brute force.
The essential unity of ecclesiastical and secular institutions was lost during the 19th century, to the point of senseless hostility. Yet there was never any doubt as to the striving for culture. No one doubted the sacredness of the goal. It was the approach that was disputed.

The moral decline we are compelled to witness and the suffering it engenders are so oppressive that one cannot ignore them even for a moment. No matter how deeply one immerses oneself in work, a haunting feeling of inescapable tragedy persists. Still, there are moments when one feels free from one's own identification with human limitations and inadequacies. At such moments, one imagines that one stands on some spot of a small planet, gazing in amazement at the cold yet profoundly moving beauty of the eternal, the unfathomable: life and death flow into one, and there is neither evolution nor destiny; only being.

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Its a dull day again today.
We shopped for a curtain rod to put up a few panels in the dining room to give it a homey look.
The pumpkins are starting to come out. Almost want to buy a few to bake.

I found my frozen grape fruit juice. It was only 57 cents a can. I want to try out my home made wine
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 It's a recipe I found under Science Experiments
http://www.warpbreach.com/6/6.html

1) 3 cans of 100% frozen grape juice (I use Welch's 100% grape juice concentrate). In total, the cans should make 144 fluid ounces of juice when properly prepared. We aren't properly preparing it, so that number is only relevant in determining how concentrated the juice is. Cost: Roughly $2.00 a can. Total: $6.00.
    2) 1/2 cup of sugar. I purchased a huge bag of sugar for $2.00, so I probably only used a dime's worth in this project. You can even steal packets of sugar and use them if you are REALLY, REALLY CHEAP. Just don't try to use a sugar-free sweetener, because it won't work.
    3) A 1 gallon container. I use a milk jug because it is free. You can buy an expensive container if you want to, but then why not just spend the money on an expensive bottle of wine instead? CHEAP is the idea here!
    4) Balloons. You'll need ONE unless it breaks. These cost a few pennies each, or you can get a bag containing dozens for $1.00.
    5) Water. Distilled water is a no-no, but almost any other type that is healthy will do. I use tap.
    6) A pin. You'll need to poke a few small holes into the balloon later.
    7) Magic Fairy Dust - AKA yeast. We'll talk more about this in a moment. You can purchase packets of baker's yeast at any grocery store. It will run about $0.75 to $1.50, though you will usually get more than one "packet" in a strip.
    In addition to these items, I'd also recommend a measuring cup, a rubber band, a siphoning hose (any small, thin piece of tubing will do), and a funnel. You don't NEED these items, but they'll help.
    Once you have all of the ingredients, place them together on a table and stare at them. You will be turning these common items into wine very shortly. But first...

Yeast eats sugar and water and excretes alcohol. Yes, you read that correctly - alcohol is basically fungus piss.  lol

Now thaw the concentrate and POUR IT INTO THE GALLON CONTAINER. Mix in TWO cans of water for each can of concentrate - NOT THREE as the packaging indicates. Because the yeast will eat a lot of the sugar, we need more concentrate than normal juice to make the concoction even remotely sweet. Thus, we use less water.

Once all of the juice and water is added, cap the jug AND SHAKE IT UP. Not only does this greatly improve how well-mixed the juice and water are, it will also put air into it. This is called AERATING THE MUST in proper winemaking terminology (the must being the juice). Just FYI.

Step 3: Add the Sugar.
    Dump that 1/2 cup of sugar into the jug with the juice. It is a lot easier if you use a funnel. After that, SHAKE VIGOROUSLY WITH THE CAP ON. Don't let the sugar settle at the bottom, or else there may be flavor problems later.

The concentrate, sugar, and water have all been added.

Step 4: Prepare and Add the Yeast.
    Preparing and adding the yeast is more complex than just ripping open a packet and dumping the powder into the juice. If you want the yeast to work properly, you need to HYDRATE it first. Follow the directions on the package in order to do this properly. If you're too lazy to follow them precisely, just pour some warm water into a cup and then dump the powder into it. DO NOT STIR the yeast right away - For best results, give it time to hydrate on its own before messing with it.

The dry yeast begins to hydrate.
    Once the yeast is completely hydrated, add a few spoonfuls of sugar and stir. How will you know when the yeast is hydrated? It will look like this:

The yeast is now MOSTLY hydrated.
    Wait for the yeast to foam up. And when I say "foam up," I mean FOAM! It is not uncommon for the yeast to foam up at least an inch. Pour the yeast into the juice once this happens and again SHAKE VIGOROUSLY WITH THE LID ON. Quickly move on to the next step once the juice and yeast are properly mixed.


Step 5: Add the Balloon.
    Here's an activity that may make a few readers nervous: Get a pin and put 3-10 holes in the top of the balloon. These holes will allow the gases the fermentation process creates to escape, but are so small that they will mostly close when the pressure of fermentation decreases.
    Once the holes are made, pull the balloon around the top of the OPEN gallon container. You don't need the lid for a while, but make sure to keep it around so that you can securely "seal" the finished wine in a few weeks.

A properly closed jug of grape juice begins its transformation.
    When placing the balloon around the opening, do your best to push it "down" into the container. It shouldn't stick up.. YET. If you want to make sure the balloon doesn't pop off during fermentation, place a rubber band around the bottom of it or tape it to the jug. Tying it with string also works.

Notice how the balloon is hanging downward?
    Congratulate yourself! Once the balloon is on, you've completed your part of the deal! Make sure the jug is in a warm place where it will not be disturbed and LEAVE IT ALONE.

Now It Is Time To Play.. THE WAITING GAME!
    Probably the hardest part of this whole process is allowing the yeast to do their work of convert the sugar to alcohol. How will you know if the little guys are doing their job? Within 12 hours, VISIBLE and AUDIBLE signs of fermentation should appear. These include seeing small bubbles rising inside the container and hearing a hissing sound. Even more obvious should be the balloon.

See the balloon? Fermentation has begun to occur in this jug.
    When the balloon begins to inflate, you know the yeast is working! If it hasn't started to inflate within 24 hours from the time you poured in the yeast, the fermentation has probably stalled and you need to try adding new yeast.
    It usually takes between one and two weeks for primary fermentation to stop. You'll know this has occurred when the balloon deflates considerably. Place the jug into a cool place like a refrigerator at this time. Also, put the cap back on the jug once the balloon deflates almost completely. These two steps will protect your alcohol's flavor, especially if you don't drink it right away.
    Once primary fermentation has stopped, the alcohol content should be sufficient for you to get a good buzz from the wine. If you want to improve the taste, though, you'll need to let it sit for a month or two before drinking it. If you REALLY want it to taste good, transfer it from the current container (called a "fermentor")  into another container, making sure to leave all of the gunk on the bottom in the previous vessel. This gunk, called "sediment" or "dregs" by most, is primarily made up of yeast cells that have died from alcohol poisoning (you try swimming around in your own urine for a while and see what happens!). Though usually not poisonous (at least not any more poisonous than alcohol normally is), they give the wine an odd flavor. To get the wine out without disturbing the dregs too much, siphon the wine out. Siphoning just means you take a hose and suck the wine from one container to another, leaving a lair of wine and sediment behind. If you don't want any saliva to contaminate the wine, rinse your mouth out with Listerine or vodka prior to siphoning and then use an aluminum foil tip on the end of the hose. Pull the foil OFF of the hose just before the wine gets to it and you should be fine.

And the Results Are...
     By the end of this process, you should have the equivalent of two VERY drinkable bottles of wine for the low-low price of about seven dollars (that's three dollars and fifty cents a bottle). Sure, you can get wine CHEAPER than this at some stores, but it is usually REALLY BAD wine that has the alcohol content of tap water. If you want to lower the price even more, you can try adding less juice and more sugar, or use a cheaper brand of juice. With science, the possibilities are limitless!

Have a great day  and remember to look up
 http://www.warpbreach.com/6/6.html 
and have some fun. 

xoxoxoxoxox

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