May 21, 2008 at 6:21 am · Filed under Brewing
With a score of 38, my Altbier won 1st place in the Amber Hybrid Beer category this last weekend in the 26th Annual Oregon Homebrew competition. I felt this has been one of my best beers to date, and I’ve gotten quite a bit of feedback from friends about it as well, so it wasn’t a huge surprise that it did well in competition.. but to take first place was very cool!

May 20, 2008 at 10:01 am · Filed under Tailbone Pain, Technology, Complaint
In case you want to know the status of your doctors license restrictions in Oregon, check out http://www.bme.state.or.us/search.html.
I’m hoping there is a national search for doctors status/history. Let me tell you a quick story;
A friend of mine had a back surgery performed by a neurosurgeon in the area, his surgery went really well and he’s had great results for the past couple of years. I’ve been in the midst of medical tests and such trying to figure out what is wrong with my back (bulging discs, sciatica, coccydynia, etc) and recently met with a doctor to get another MRI. While in the office waiting to be seen, we had a short discussion with a lady who had a botched surgery and is in litigation against the surgeon who messed up her back. Long story short, it was the SAME guy who did my friends back surgery.. Now, I accept that statistically there are going to be a few bad experiences along with all of the good experiences. But we came to find out that this surgeon has since had his license revoked and is in drug rehab for methamphetamines…. if that’s not scary enough, we also came to find that he had the same thing happen 2 or 3 times in Arizona!
While I realize that he’s human like the rest of us and could get caught up in meth, I’m a bit shocked that he could lose his license 2 or 3 times in another state but still be able to practice somewhere else.. I’d like to think that maybe people in a position like this (having patients lives at stake) would get 1 warning, but to make this sort of mistake multiple times should be punishable by having his license revoked permanently. As a potential patient for surgery, I would like to think that if a surgeon is employed by a hospital and has a state license then you shouldn’t have to question thier standing or history.. but apparently I’m quite naive. In searching the Oregon Medical Board link I pasted above, I see no reference about his history in other states… and this is what led me to post this topic.
Is there a single place to search for this information (since it is public information!)? Should a patient have to search every state individually to find this information?
May 18, 2008 at 11:34 am · Filed under Brewing
Wendie and I spent an afternoon hanging out with our friends Lorrie, Buddy, and family! The weather was really nice, topping around 90f in the mid-afternoon.
Witbier
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Brewer: Josh Gum
Style: Witbier
Batch: 5.25 gal, Mashed
Characteristics
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Recipe Gravity: 1.050 OG
Recipe Bitterness: 15 IBU
Recipe Color: 3° SRM
Estimated FG: 1.012
Alcohol by Volume: 4.9%
Alcohol by Weight: 3.9%
Ingredients
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Belgian pilsener 4.00 lb, mashed
German wheat 4.25 lb, mashed
Flaked oats 1.00 lb, mashed
Rice Hulls 0.33 lb, mashed
Goldings 0.25 oz, whole, 60 minutes
Willamette 0.50 oz, whole, 60 minutes
Coriander (ground) 1.00 unit, .33oz @ 5min
Black Pepper 1.00 unit, 1/4tsp @ 5min
Orange zest 1.00 unit, 2med oranges @ 5min
WLP400 Belgian Wit Bier 1.00 unit, 600ml starter
Notes
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Recipe Notes:
Batch Notes:
mash @ 152f for 60 min
ferment at 69f for a week in primary
Collected just shy of 5ga in primary, my volumes were a little low but the gravity was great!
May 6, 2008 at 12:44 pm · Filed under General
This just looks like fun to me.. out in nature checking out the beautiful scenery. :)