So what’s a moderate wine-drinking, whisky-sipping Scot to do?
Make Your Own
Home brewing has something of an image problem, but tough times mean it has never been so popular. Indeed Adrian Green, director of The Home Brew Shop, says he is doing a roaring trade.
If you love to homebrew but live in an area where temperatures get too hot for proper fermentation you can resolve yourself to wait to brew or you can build a badarse Arduino Nano-controlled UberFridge which will maintain temperatures set to a tenth of a degree and can be monitored or controlled using a custom webapp. If you have a spare working fridge the build will cost around $US100 in parts.
Netherlands-based Electronics hacker Elco Jacobs designed the UberFridge as temperatures in his city are hot enough to ruin batches of homebrew. By adding two temperature sensors (one for the beer, one for the fridge) to a Arduino Nano that controls the climate with an algorithm designed by Jacobs. Current data can be found on an LED display on the fridge or from a webapp that gets information from a USB connection going from the Arduino to a DD-WRT linux-enabled wireless router.
If you’re serious about your beercraft, this should be a great weekend project. The ideal fermentation temperature for most beers is 18°C and unless you have a basement it may be hard to find those temperatures during the summer unless you go crazy with your air conditioning. Full schematics of the build, tutorials on how to link the various systems, and the open source code for the UberFridge webapp can all be found at the source link below.
UberFridge [Elco Jacobs via Hack-A-Day]
Read more: http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2012/05/do-it-yourself-uberfridge-controls-homebrewing-temperatures/
Brent Betterly, Brian Church and Jared Chase have been charged in an alleged NATO summit terror plot. CPD photos.
Chicago Police have charged three men with conspiracy to commit terrorism, providing material support for terrorism and possession of an explosive or incendiary device.
The three men, Brian Church, 20, of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.; Jared Chase, 24, of Keene, NH; and Brent Vincent Betterly, 24, of Oakland Park, Fla.; were among eight arrested Wednesday in a raid of a Bridgeport apartment by police attorneys for the men alleged was illegal.
Police Department sources told the Chicago Sun-Times and ABC7 they seized “several Molotov cocktails” in the raid. Sarah Gelsomino of the National Lawyers Guild, which is representing the three men, disputed that and said what police actually confiscated was homebrewing equipment.
“Although some accusations of Molotov cocktails have been made by police, they have provided no evidence of criminal intent or wrongdoing on the part of the activists,” she said in the statement. “On Thursday, when asked about the raid at a press conference, Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy knew so little about the alleged terrorism investigation that he said he would have to gather further information before commenting.”
Gelsomino also said the charges against Betterly, Chase and Church is part of an ongoing pattern of harassment by police directed at the three.
Betterly, Chase and Church were also in a car that was stopped by Chicago police last week. Video of that incident alleges police tried to intimidate and harass the men.
UPDATE 2:45 P.M. — Prosecutors say the three men had planned attacks on the Obama campaign headquarters, Rahm’s Ravenswood home and a police station. The three have been charged with conspiracy to commit terrorism and possessing an explosive device. They are being held on $1.5 million bond.
“My friends Zoe and Bill live in the apartment. They’re home-brewing enthusiasts. They brew their own beer. You have materials like that,” Occupy Chicago’s Rachael Perotta told ABC7.
Read more: http://chicagoist.com/2012/05/19/three_nato_protesters_charged_with.php
If you love to homebrew but live in an area where summer temperatures get too hot for proper fermentation you can resolve yourself to wait to brew or you can build a badass Arduino Nano-controlled UberFridge which will maintain temperatures set to a tenth of a degree and can be monitored or controlled using a custom webapp. If you have a spare working fridge the build will cost around $100 in parts.
Netherlands-based Electronics hacker Elco Jacobs designed the UberFridge as summer temperatures in his city are hot enough to ruin batches of homebrew. By adding two temperature sensors (one for the beer, one for the fridge) to a Arduino Nano that controls the climate with an algorithm designed by Jacobs. Current data can be found on an LED display on the fridge or from a webapp that gets information from a USB connection going from the Arduino to a DD-WRT linux-enabled wireless router.
If you’re serious about your beercraft, this should be a great weekend project. The ideal fermentation temperature for most beers is 65 degrees Fahrenheit and unless you have a basement it may be hard to find those temperatures during the summer unless you go crazy with your air conditioning. Full schematics of the build, tutorials on how to link the various systems, and the open source code for the UberFridge webapp can all be found at the source link below.
UberFridge | Elco Jacobs via Hack-A-Day
Read more: http://lifehacker.com/5911685/diy-uberfridge-controls-beer-brewing-temperatures
UPDATED 05/18/12 12:05 p.m.
CHICAGO (CBS) — Three anti-NATO protesters were planning to attack police stations, Mayor Emanuel’s home and President Obama’s campaign headquarters will Molotov cocktails during the NATO Summit, police sources said on Saturday.
The three, who have been charged with possessing explosives to commit terrorist acts, were witnessed by undercover police investigators making the fire bombs inside an apartment in Bridgeport. They have been under surveillance for several days and arrested on Wednesday.
Lawyers for Brian Church, 20, of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.; Jared Chase, 24, of Keene, New Hampshire; and Brent Vincent Betterly, 24, of Oakland Park, Fla., say the only thing inside that apartment was beer-making equipment.
Police sources said the plan was to attack four police stations and police cars in an effort to divert attention from planned protests during the summit. They also were allegedly planning to attack Mayor Emanuel’s house, President Obama’s campaign headquarters and financial institutions.
Sources said the trio was part of the Black Bloc method of violent anarchist protesting/rioting that began in Europe in the 1970s. In the Black Bloc method, protesters often dress all in black and cover their faces, as they destroy property and try to pick fights with police officers.
Sources told CBS 2 that this Black Bloc group had late night training sessions and part of their efforts could have included improvised explosives, swords, hunting bows, throwing stars and brass knuckles.
At one point, one member of the group allegedly said: “The city doesn’t know what it’s in for. After NATO the city will never be the same.”
All three are being held on $1.5 million bonds, Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez said: The people charged today are self-proclaimed anarchists.”
RELATED: Arrested Protester Charges Mistreatment After Police Raid Apartment
Sources said the men were suspected of building Molotov cocktails in an apartment at 32nd and Morgan streets.
The three defendants were among nine protesters arrested in a controversial raid at the Bridgeport apartment, in which several people complained that police mistreated them and violated their civil rights.
Photos showed the door to the apartment broken, and items ransacked. The photos also show fermenters that the occupants say were home brewing equipment, but police believe otherwise.
An attorney for the suspects, Sarah Gelsomino of the National Lawyers Guild, denounced the charges.
“The National Lawyers Guild deplores the charges against Occupy activists in the strongest degree,” she said. “It’s outrageous for the city to apply terrorism charges when it’s the police who have been terrorizing activists and threatening their right to protest.”
According the the NLG, the three men were surrounded by several police squad cars outside of a CVS last week, not far for the Occupy Chicago headquarters on 500 West Cermak. The group posted a video that shows police questioning their activities and possible plans for the NATO Summit.
One occupant of the apartment, Darrin Annussek, says he walked to Chicago from Philadelphia to participate in Occupy protests, only to be seized by police in the raid.
“For 18 hours, we were handcuffed to a bench and our legs were shackled together,” he said. “Some of our cries for the bathroom were either ignored or met with silence.”
Annussek was released Friday morning along with four others reportedly suspected of preparing Molotov cocktails. At least one other detainee was released several hours later Friday.
Kris Hermes, also of the National Lawyers Guild said: “There is absolutely no evidence of Molotov cocktails or any other criminal activity going on at this building.”
A tenant who agreed to host the out-of-town protesters says the police did seize his home-brew making equipment, including buckets, beer bottles and caps.
“If anybody would like some, I would like to offer them a sip of my beer,” said William Vassilakis.
Other protest groups have also rushed to the defense of the four suspects.
Clown Bloq, a group that has made headlines for its plans to throw pies during anti-NATO demonstrations, put out the following tweet late Saturday morning: “We are very concerned for our friends who have been charged with Beerorrism. We are waiting for the FEDS to get us on Clownspiracy.”
Occupy Chicago said it planned to protest the charges by marching from LaSalle and Jackson to Daley Plaza at 3:30 p.m. today.
Annusek told the Sun-Times Media Wire he was held for 18 hours without access to a restroom, and some protesters soiled themselves. He also told the Sun-Times an officer wrote “ID 1968” on his hand, a reference to the Democratic National Convention that year that remains infamous for violent clashes between protesters and police.
CBS 2’s Pam Zekman asked Annussek if police would be able to latch onto any previous arrests. He told her, “Myself, I have no arrests.”
However, CBS 2 confirmed Annussek was arrested in December in connection with another Occupy event, in Raleigh, N.C.
Three NATO Summit protesters have been arrested and charged with possession of an explosive device and conspiracy to commit terrorism, police said.
Sources said the protesters were suspected of building Molotov cocktails — bottles filled with flammable liquid that are used as firebombs. The three men were identified by police and their attorneys as Brian Church, 20, of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.; Jared Chase, 24, of Keene, New Hampshire; and Brent Vincent Betterly, 24, of Oakland Park, Fl. They were charged early Saturday as dozens of dignitaries from around the globe are heading to Chicago for the NATO Summit. The men have a noon bond hearing Saturday, their lawyers said. The men have been each charged with three felony counts: possession of an explosive or incendiary device, conspiracy to commit terrorism, and providing material support to terrorism, said Harrison District Police Lt. Kenneth Stoppa. Outside the Harrison District police station on the West Side early Saturday morning, where the men were being held, their attorney, Sarah Gelsomino, of the National Lawyers Guild, said the arrests were part of the continued harassment of the three men, who were pulled over by cops while in a car last week near a CVS pharmacy and questioned about their protest plans. They posted a video of the incident online, she said, “We cannot say enough that we believe that these charges are absolutely … very trumped up charges,” said Gelsomino, “clearly in an attempt to continue this intimidation campaign on activists. Charging these people who are here to peacefully protest against NATO for terrorism, when in reality the police have been terrorizing activists in Chicago, is absolutely outrageous.” The three men were among nine people that were collared Wednesday night in a raid on an apartment building in the 1000 block of West 32nd in the Bridgeport neighborhood, she said. She said in a written statement released later Saturday that at 11:30 p.m., “police broke down doors with guns drawn and searched residences without a warrant or consent.” Gelsomino said she still doesn’t know the details of the charges. “Although some accusations of Molotov cocktails have been made by police, they have provided no evidence of criminal intent or wrongdoing on the part of the activists,” she said in the statement. “On Thursday, when asked about the raid at a press conference, Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy knew so little about the alleged terrorism investigation that he said he would have to gather further information before commenting.” Chase’s uncle, Michael Chase, said Saturday that his nephew had drove up to Chicago from Miami in late April with Church and other protesters who had been taking part in the Occupy movement there. He said Chase had had a job at a restaurant in Boston, but quit to take part in that movement there, before traveling to Rhode Island, Washington D.C. and Miami to live in tents and take part in Occupy. He said he believed Chase had been arrested before for minor civil disobedience, but nothing this serious. “He told me he was going to be protesting,” said Michael Chase, of New Hampshire. “He gets a little carried away and does a little elbow bumping with police but certainly nothing like you’re describing. “… I’m quite shocked. He’s not above doing dumb things but nothing like this.” On Jared Chase’s Facebook page, he lists other protests he was involved in, including a May 1 event when demonstrators blocking the entrance to Bank of America downtown. He also references his time in Miami, when Occupy protesters were allowed to move into a rundown apartment complex in nearby Overtown. In March, he wrote a typo-ridden post about the complex being raided by authorities: “We got raided by FBI Miami Swat last night, everyone detained like terrorits , yet no arressts were made. I was zip tied , and the only one put in a cop car ( f— you pigs ).” Chase also posted a photo of himself holding a sign with the word “Oakland” on it, apparently to show solidarity with the protesters who had highly-publicized clashes with police there. “He said we are supporting the Oakland Occupy people because a bunch of them had gotten beaten up [because of] police brutality,” Michael Chase said. “ … He said it was confrontational and they were showing his support for those guys.” Jared Chase had planned to return to his home state of New Hampshire to take part in a ceremony for his father, who passed away in over the winter. “He said after the NATO protest he would be up the following week,” Michael Chase said. “I’m sure he hadn’t planned any major criminal activity that would get him arrested and charged and stuck there like that.” Six of the original nine who were detained had been released by late Friday night. One of the released protesters, Darrin Annussek, of Philadelphia, said he didn’t see bomb-making materials in the Bridgeport apartment. Lawyers for the protesters said there was only brewing equipment there used to make beer. Michael Vassilakis said his brother William was hosting the protesters and his beer equipment was confiscated. Gelsomino met with the men who were charged late Friday and said their faces “really lit up when they heard” that about 40 protesters had come to the station in support. About two dozen remained after midnight, chanting, “Forty-eight hours is at it’s end, now it’s time to free our friends,” and “Our passion for freedom is stronger than their prison.” They started marching around the block, but police stopped them and said it was too late to chant so loudly in a residential area.
Gelsomino argued the Bridgeport search was illegal and that protesters were mistreated while in custody. Annussek, who was arrested and released, said he was only told he was suspected of being part of a conspiracy. Annussek, 36, said he’s a laid-off social worker who started hiking in November as part of the Occupy Wall Street movement. He said he walked to Atlanta before starting a trek to Chicago in February. After he was arrested, Annussek said he was held at one location for 18 hours without access to a bathroom. Some protesters soiled themselves before they were moved to the Harrison District, he said. Annussek also claims an officer wrote “ID 1968” on his hand. That year, Chicago hosted the Democratic National Convention, which was marred by violence between protesters and police. The Chicago Police Department and Cook County state’s attorney’s office would not comment on the arrests Friday.
Like every great hero, the latest addition to DuClaw Brewing’s arsenal of craft beers has a sweet origin story and even some “super Powers.”
The Harford County craft brewery announced Monday that they had a winner in their second annual H.E.R.O. homebrewer’s contest—a chocolate chipotle stout brewed by Nottingham’s own Vince and Suzanne Powers.
The beer will be brewed and bottled by DuClaw Brewing and available at retailers sometime later this year. The best part? All of the proceeds, not just the profits, from the sale of the beer will benefit a charity.
The Powers’
Vince Powers, 39, and his wife Suzanne, 38, are united both by marriage and a love of craft beer.
Suzanne said that she’s always been a fan of good beer. Her passion shows in the odd names she says she’s given to all her pets over the years.
Currently they have a Chesapeake Bay retriever named Clipper City after the Baltimore-based brewery and a dog named Sierra Nevada. Their daughters’ two cats are named Theobroma and Chicory after a pair of beers from Dogfish Head.
The weirdest one ever? Suzanne said that she had a German shepherd and wanted a German beer to name him after. A call to Harford Beverage Company yielded an unusual one: Hacker-Pschorr.
“When I had my first son I told the people at work I was going to name him Samuel Adams. They believed me,” she said. And she almost did—instead his name is Seth Alan, which she would point out to you has the same initials.
Daughter Sydney got away without a single beer-related reference to her name though.
“I guess I just didn’t have anything clever,” Suzanne said.
Vince said that he first got interested in beer during his time in the Navy.
“I was never a beer drinker, but when I was stationed in Europe I’d go out with the guys and they’d buy you a beer, it’s just what you did,” Vince said.
His first love was Murphy’s Irish Stout and to this day, he’ll drink a pale ale, but if he had to drink only one style it’d be something dark: a porter, he said.
Back in the United States, Vince took an interest in homebrewing—he learned from a friend who was brewing regularly and became a member of the Wootown Homebrew Club, based out of The Thirsty Brewer in Baldwin.
That was five years ago and now Vince is regularly brewing batches to share with neighbors and friends on block parties and camping trips.
Before this year, though, he’d never submitted his beer for judgment by anyone other than his friends.
“It was my first competition and I knew I wanted to do something unique,” Vince said.
So he turned to his wife.
The Origin
DuClaw’s H.E.R.O. contest places special emphasis on creativity, and Suzanne, who loves to bake, knew that chocolate and chipotle were made for one another in the culinary world.
Before they moved on to brewing, Vince wanted to make sure that the flavors would work together in a beer.
“So I just tried it one night,” Vince said. “I took a Guinness that we had on hand, added some chocolate syrup to the glass and a little chipotle spice and tasted it. I thought, ‘Yeah, that’s it.’”
That was just before the inaugural H.E.R.O. contest last year but the couple wasn’t able to brew and submit the beer before the April 1 deadline. Back in December he decided to brew it anyway.
The beer, which will be called H.E.R.O. ’12 when it’s brewed by DuClaw, started like any other: as water, grains, hops and yeast.
But how do they come together? Glad you asked.
Vince is happy to show off his brewing set-up: two half-kegs with the tops cut off, two propane burners, a cooler, a pump and some hoses. It goes a little like this.
Water is heated in one of the kegs to a specific temperature and then pumped into the cooler (called a “mash tun” in brew-speak). The water and grain steep in the cooler producing a sugary “tea” called wort, which is then pumped into the second keg where it comes to a boil.
Once the wort is boiling, all the things that flavor a beer are added: in this case, hops, dried chipotle peppers and a chocolate extract for brewing and cooking. The boil continues for anywhere from an hour to two hours, then the hot liquid is cooled.
Yeast is introduced to the cooled liquid and begins going to work on the sugary wort—processing the sugars into the alcohol that gives beer its punch, and carbon dioxide.
After fermentation, which can take anywhere from weeks to months, the beer is bottled or kegged and soon after it’s ready to drink.
So, what does the finished product taste like?
“I left two of the chipotles whole to get that smokiness and cut two open to get some of the heat,” Vince said. He explained that the heat and smoke are balanced out by notes of chocolate at the end. “I didn’t want it to be overbearing.”
The Showdown
Vince’s chocolate chipotle stout was crowned the winner out of the 50-or-so beers submitted to DuClaw’s homebrewing competition, explained Duclaw Brewing President Dave Benfield.
Beers are ranked by a panel of seven judges in a blind taste test.
“We have a coordinator who knows what each beer is and makes sure that they’re grouped together by style so that we don’t have a golden ale (light beer) next to a stout (dark beer),” Benfield said. “But we are blind other than that.”
The judging process for this year’s contest consisted of three rounds, Benfield said. In the first round, each taster gave a simple ‘thumbs up’ or ‘thumbs down’ vote to weed out the beers with “significant flaws”.
Then the remaining beers move on to the next round where, along with the up and down votes, the panelists talk about the merits of each brew and argue why they should or shouldn’t move on.
In this year’s contest they were left with seven concoctions after the second round and had to eliminate two more before moving onto the final round, where beers are ranked by each judge on a scale from 1 to 5.
“It actually came out to a tie between the first and second place beers,” Benfield said. That is, Vince’s stout and a “S’more’s” porter.
“We felt heat from the pepper that died out when the chocolate finished up,” he said. In the end, Vince’s beer “eked out” the second place beer because the judges felt the use of chipotle peppers was unique and difficult to pull off successfully.
The judging criteria are somewhat nebulous and vary from taster to taster, but Benfield tried to nail them down.
“Number one is: does the beer play to the style,” he said. “That means if a beer should have a full-body, it shouldn’t be too thin for example.”
“Number two is: we look for creativity—what sparks the imagination. What will people hear and think, ‘I’ve got to try that’. A really well brewed porter wouldn’t make it in just for being to style; we’ve got to be able to answer if someone asks ‘why did you make this beer?’”
“Number three is drinkability: we look for a beer that’s not going to be a ‘one-and-done’; even with the peppers we felt like you could just keep drinking it, it wouldn’t overwhelm the palate.”
Victory!
So there you have it—Vince and Suzanne Powers’ chocolate chipotle stout won the second-ever H.E.R.O. homebrewing contest and so joins the DuClaw Brewing arsenal alongside last years’ winner: a chocolate peanut butter porter.
Benfield said that because of its style, Powers beer will likely be brewed for a September or October release. In the meantime, though, the brewery has to decide which charity will receive the proceeds from this year’s sales.
“We don’t give just the profits, we give every dollar that’s spent—that means we’re actually losing money on this beer after packaging costs,” Benfield said. “It felt so good to set that example and raise awareness.”
Last year, Benfield explained, they donated around $15,000 to the Cool Kids Campaign based in Towson.
“We want to be able to offer support to individuals who are going through hard times,” Benfield said. Last year’s decision was driven by a group of families with children who had cancer.
“We were going to give directly to the families but they told us they’d rather see the money go to Cool Kids,” he said.
They’re taking suggestions by email (hero@duclaw.com) and by phone through the end of June. Benfield said they’d prefer to keep it local and give to a cause that would ordinarily have trouble raising funds.
“We want to help out someone who doesn’t have the resources the United Way might have to raise funds. We want to make sure the money goes somewhere that it will have an immediate impact.”
Read more: http://parkville.patch.com/articles/nottingham-s-powers-make-a-h-e-r-o
Brewing Cream Ale
courtesy of timomcd
This is another in a series of articles about homebrewing in the DC area by Carl Weaver of RealHomebrew.com. Want to learn about making your own beer? Keep an eye out for Friday homebrew features.
I wrote about cream ale before. It is a good beer for the coming summer, light and refreshing, not too bitter, and easy-drinking – a perfect companion to while away the time with as you enjoy the evening whir of insects or traffic, whichever is more pervasive in your neighborhood.
The American Homebrewers Association recently had what they call $12 Cream Ale as a homebrew recipe of the week. I just about howled at the moon, I was so excited. $12 for a whole batch of beer? Sign me up! It sounded almost too good to be true. I looked at the recipe, and I am sure it would produce a fine brew, but the only way this is a $12 recipe is if you get half the stuff for free. The grain alone, 11 pounds of it, will cost nearly $2 per pound at Northern Brewer. Even if you buy a giant sack of it at 50 Pound Sack, it is slightly more than $1 per pound. That’s almost $12 right there.
Maybe if you are buying in bulk at wholesale prices, you can get down to almost $12. I priced it at my local-ish homebrew store (yes, they ship too, and have great prices, as does Derek at My Local Homebrew Shop) and it is a little more than $30 before tax. Northern Brewer could get me everything for more than $40. Even if I malted my own regular supermarket barley, that is $1 per pound at the cheapest. No way this whole brew is $12.
In short, unless you rob someone, I have no idea how you can make this homebrew recipe for $12. All the same, it looks like a good recipe. Nothing complicated, just good, honest beer. I bet it tastes great. It won an award, so I am guessing the judges know what they are talking about. Honestly, I can’t wait to try this.
Here is the recipe, copied from the AHA website. Do you know how to make this for the amount in the title? Please share the secret if you do.
11.0 lb (4.99 kg) Briess two-row malt
0.75 oz (21 g) Willamette pellet hops, 4.7% a.a. (60 min)
0.5 oz (14 g) Willamette pellet hops, 4.7% a.a. (30 min)
0.25 oz (7 g) Willamette pellet hops, 4.7% a.a. (0 min)
White Labs WLP051 California Ale V yeast
2.6 volumes forced CO2 to carbonateDirections
Mash grains at 154° F (68° C) for 60 minutes. Mash out at 168° F (76° C) for 10 minutes.
I recommend a 60-minute boil, following the hop schedule. If you are not force-carbonating the brew, use about 5 ounces of priming sugar at bottling time.
As my friend Reggie would say, “Easy peasy lemon squeezy.” I am not sure exactly what that refers to, but this is not a complicated recipe. Sometimes the simple ones produce the best results, though. Let me know what you think when you try this.
This post first appeared at RealHomebrew.com.
Be the first to like.
Read more: http://www.welovedc.com/2012/05/18/homebrew-dc-12-or-so-cream-ale/
Back here in Chicago, there are around 2,000 nurses packed into Daley Place, their green-clad heads bobbing in unison to an eclectic mix of feel-good pop songs.
The group marched south from their meeting point to the place, where a stage and, of course, a medical tent have been erected.
Tom Morello is the big draw here, and as 12 approaches – the scheduled time for the beginning of the rally – the nurses are being joined by an influx of younger demonstrators.
All members of the National nurses united union are clad in rakish green Robin Hood-style hats, by the way, a reference to the Robin Hood tax campaign’s call for a tax on financial trading which would raise billions.
National Nurses United rally at Daley Plaza. Note “Robin Hood” headgear #nato twitter.com/AdamGabbatt/st…
— Adam Gabbatt (@AdamGabbatt) May 18, 2012
The French delegation has arrived at Dulles airport in Virginia for the G8 summit.
The French delegation arrives at Dulles airport in Virginia. Photograph: Jacquelyn Martin/AP
At the bottom of the stairs is France’s President Francois Hollande, followed by Hollande’s partner Valerie Trierweiler, and France’s Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius.
Our Washington correspondent, Ewen MacAskill, reports that Hollande is at the White House for his first meeting with Barack Obama since his election. Hollande campaigned on a pro-growth strategy, one which chimes with Obama’s desire for European stimulus strategy.
Hollande offers the US a useful ally in Europe, one in favour of a pro-growth, stimulus approach to the eurozone crisis. They are also discussing a compromise on Hollande’s election pledge to withdraw French troops from Afghanistan at the end of the year. The US is pushing for these troops to be switched to a training role. At the end of their meeting, the two are to make brief statements to the press but are not scheduled to take questions. Hollande then heads for lunch with secretary of state Hillary Clinton and then on to a meeting at the British residency with David Cameron.
In the tiny Maryland community of Thurmont, a small number of protesters have gathered to protest the G8 summit at Camp David, a few miles down the road, Ryan Deveraux writes.
Early this morning, Richard Ochs and Donna Plamondon set up a staging area near a local grocery store where they laid out signs and banners condemning war, foreign military occupations and genetic food modification.
“I’m here for social justice in general,” Plamondon said. “We gotta get the money out of politics…put some of that money back in schools.”
The demonstrators, mostly middle aged, represent Occupy camps from around the country, including Baltimore, Tuscon and Washington DC. Their numbers are small, presently about a dozen, but more are expected to turn out as the day progresses.
Demonstrations will be held until sundown today and tomorrow, and are expected to include large drone replications as well as the participation of Ethiopian expatriates and an anti-nuclear Buddhist monk.
Police plan to keep protesters at least four miles from the presidential retreat, where leaders from the world’s wealthiest nations are meeting with Barack Obama. A no fly zone is in effect over the area and local law enforcement agencies are not taking any chances.
Flags of the G8 nations decorate a square on Main Street in Thurmont, Maryland, near the summit location of Camp David. Photograph: Win Mcnamee/Getty Images
The National Lawyers Guild has rejected claims that Molotov cocktails were recovered during the pre-emptive raid by Chicago police on an apartment where Nato protesters were staying in Bridgeport.
ABC7 reported on Thursday night that a “police source” said Molotov cocktails were seized during the raid, during which nine people were arrested. The NLG said this report was wrong.
The National Lawyers Guild refutes claims by the Chicago Police Department that Molotov cocktails were recovered in last night’s house raid in Bridgeport.
Police confiscated home brewing equipment – not Molotov cocktails – and are falsely claiming that Occupy activists were involved in criminal activity.
I spoke to the main tenant of the raided apartment at the “no Nato” convergence center in the north of the city late last night.
William Vassilakis, who moved into the apartment on 1 May, said that all nine people arrested had been staying with him.
“We were putting them up,” he said, adding that the nine, whose ages ranged from 17 to people in their 60s, had travelled to Chicago for the Nato summit. Vassilakis, 25, said he had returned to his apartment on Wednesday night after a Nato protest meeting to find police cars outside. He did not enter.
I spent the night elsewhere and spent the whole day [Thursday] in terror. I thought I could host people, and this is what happened.
When Vassilakis did return, he found that police had seized home brewing equipment and a laptop. He told the Guardian that four of the people arrested had been in a video posted to YouTube last week which purported to show police “intimidating” protesters. In the video, recorded by protesters as police conducted a traffic stop on their vehicle, police are overheard asking protesters if they are heading to Occupy Chicago and whether they “have something planned for next week”.
After a back and forth exchange over the 1968 riots in the city an officer is heard to tell the demonstrators: “Wait for the protest day. Save it up for then,” adding: “We’ll come looking for you. Each and every one of you.
So what can we expect from the G8 summit at Camp David, Maryland? David Cameron, writing for the PoliticsHome website, has listed four things he wants to accomplish at Camp David, which he describes as a “perfect venue for the kind of free-flowing and personal interaction that leaders need”.
“We have a lot to talk about,” Cameron says. In a nutshell, his discussion points are the world economy – “getting global trade moving again”; supporting “the march of democracy and freedom” in the Middle East; encouraging non-G8 countries to “to step up and contribute to the future of Afghanistan”; and encouraging nations to renew their commitments to aid contributions.
But how can the G8 converse and move forward on these issues when Vladimir Putin will not be present, asks Dr Evgueni Novikov in an opinion piece on Fox News, arguing that Obama’s attempts to “reset” America’s relationship with Russia has been “both naïve and counter-productive”.
Novikov, a former communist party official in the Soviet Union, wants Obama to get “tough”.
Russians have most respected the US when it leaders demonstrated strength and clarity of purpose. To be respected, leaders must be tough. And it’s doubtful that Obama’s “hot mic” comments to then-President Dmitry Medvedev that he’ll have “more flexibility” on US missile defense after the elections inspires much fear or respect in Moscow.
Cameron was explaining his stance on morning television in the UK on Friday. Not sure what the girl group The Saturdays thought about it, though.
David Cameron meets The Saturdays on the Daybreak morning TV show. Photograph: Ken McKay/Rex Features
“Interesting poll in the Chicago Tribune where the headline and first paragraph says exactly the opposite to the numbers,” writes my colleague – and Windy City resident – Gary Younge. ‘The headline reads ‘Global policy hit at home.’
The intro reads: “Chicago-area voters strongly support two of the Obama administration’s major foreign policy priorities”, but then the Sun Times’s own poll – on which the article is based – says the exact opposite. The figures suggest Obama’s policy in Afghanistan is seen as something of a dud. The president plans to keep troops in Afghanistan until 2014. Only 33% support that. 42% want the troops removed immediately. And 20% want them to stay longer. How is a policy a hit when 62% of people don’t support it?
Protesters staged a night march in Chicago on Thursday after “pre-emptive” raids on an apartment in the city led to the arrest of nine anti-war demonstrators.
Scores of protesters, many of whom had recently arrived at the “no Nato” convergence center in the north of the city, marched through the streets, some reportedly chanting “fuck the police”.
The impromptu action came after nine people were arrested when police raided an apartment in Bridgeport, according to the National Lawyers Guild (NLG).
Kris Hermes, from the NLG, told the Guardian that the organisation had spoken with “a number of witnesses” to the raid, who were “pretty terrified” and did not wish to be named.
The NLG said police had initially entered the building without a search warrant, before producing one which was missing a judge’s signature.
Chicago police had initially refused to say where the arrested protesters were being held, Hermes said, but lawyers from the NLG had since been able to visit the detainees in Chicago’s organised crime detention centre.
“They were stressed out and confused about why they were being detained,” Hermes said, adding that the nine had their wrists and ankles shackled when the NLG lawyers saw them.
Four of the protesters have since been released, but five remain in custody and are expected to appear in bond court at 12pm today. We’ll have an update when we know more.
Good morning. Today is the first day of the G8 summit at Camp David, where Barack Obama will host the leaders of the world’s wealthiest countries.
Russia’s president Vladimir Putin will not be present, but the remaining seven leaders, including France’s newly elected president Francois Hollande, Germany’s Angela Merkel and David Cameron from the UK, will still form the largest single gathering of world leaders ever received at Camp David.
The agenda will focus on the continuing showdown with Iran and its refusal to abandon its program to produce nuclear weapons, CBS news reports, with a focus also on the standoff with North Korea. G8 leaders are set to focus on economic issues first thing Saturday morning.
Perhaps with that in mind, Barack Obama is due to make a major speech in Washington ahead of the rendezvous, announcing at least $3bn in private sector funding to tackle hunger in developing countries, mainly in Africa.
My colleague Ewen Macaskill reports:
Aid agencies are likely to react with mixed feelings to the pledge to find funding from the private sector, with charitable groups sceptical funding from the business world can replace the kind of funding governments traditionally provide to the world’s poorest countries.
But given the present austerity measures in Europe and in the US these appear to be drying up and instead Obama is putting the focus on the private sector.
Anti-war protesters will gather in Thurmont, six miles east from Camp David, and Frederick, further south, to register their disapproval with the summit. The Guardian’s Ryan Devereaux will be reporting from the scene.
I’m here in Chicago, which was to have hosted the G8 before it was moved in March, but which will still welcome 51 world leaders and thousands of dignitaries and journalists at the Nato summit from Sunday. Protests are also planned here, with the National Nurses United slated to hold a rally in the city’s downtown area.
Follow here for live reporting on all the latest summit developments and protests, with links out to the best-of-the-rest coverage online.
Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/us-news-blog/2012/may/18/nato-chicago-summit-g8-camp-d?newsfeed=true
Courtesy Photo
Trey Fletcher (in orange hat) and Giuseppe Bonfiglio contemplate the vines of Bien Nacido Vineyard, overlooking the Santa Maria Valley.
An Independent Editor’s First Experience in Santa Barbara County Winemaking
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When you’ve written about drinking wine for more than a decade — and have at least a passing alcohol-producing background due to a few years of homebrewing beer — there comes a time when it’s best to put down the pen, put on the boots, and learn about the process of winemaking from the ground up. Thanks to a couple of gracious vintners, namely Nicholas Miller of Bien Nacido Vineyards (biennacidovineyards.com) in the Santa Maria Valley and Peter Work of Ampelos Cellars (ampeloscellars.com) in the Sta. Rita Hills, I’m doing exactly that in 2012 along with my more farm-minded friend Giuseppe Bonfiglio, who works in the avocado business.
Since early March, we’ve been visiting each vineyard as much as possible to get our hands dirty and heads educated, and will be following our grapes all the way through to the bottle, which we look forward to uncorking sometime in 2014. We’ll be taking Independent readers along for the ride, with the hope that you too can learn more about the seasons, steps, and strategies that enable Santa Barbara wine country to be one of the best in the world. To bring you up to speed, here is what we’ve been working on so far.
By Courtesy Photo
Ampelos Cellars owner Peter Work (in red shirt) shows some of his vines to Giuseppe Bonfiglio.
PRUNING: The first step in the vineyard each year is hacking back last year’s wood growth to leave the vines with the base that you want. Since we started our project in March, we missed this Christmas-February phase the vineyard. We’ll experience it at the end of the cycle instead.
Courtesy Photo
The author’s son Mason helps thin shoots at Ampelos Vineyard in the Sta. Rita Hills.
PICKING VINES: After discussing our desires with Bien Nacido winemaker Trey Fletcher — who recently came to the area after celebrated stints all over the world, most recently at Littoria in Sonoma County — he led us to the nearly 40-year-old planting of pinot noir known as Q Block. Only a fool wouldn’t jump at the chance to work with those grapes, so Santa Maria Valley’s oldest pinot it is. At Ampelos, Peter Work’s Sta. Rita Hills pinots are popular, but I’ve always been transfixed with cool-climate syrahs, so he found five rows of the Rhone grape for us to tend, perhaps with some grenache thrown in toward the end.
FROST WATCH: With late March temperatures dipping toward freezing, Bien Nacido vineyard manager Chris Hammell had me on frost watch one evening, so I slept on the couch with cell phone near ear, waiting for news that the mercury dropped to the crucial point. Had I gotten the call, I would have driven up to the vineyard in the middle of the night and been in charge of Q Block’s sprinklers. It sounds counterintuitive to spray water on grapes to fight the cold, but the process of water turning into ice actually produces a small amount of heat, and protects the crop. But the temp never dipped low enough and the call never came.
Courtesy Photo
Andres Lerena teaches Giuseppe Bonfiglio about how to thin the shoots of emerging grapevines.
SHOOT THINNING: Wine grape-growing seems to be all about finding the balance between stress and strength: stress forces the vines to make interesting fruit, but you must also direct the energy so that the grape growth is strong enough to deliver a harvest. Much of the stress part comes from picking the right sites and soils, and then the strength comes in the form of processes like shoot thinning, where roughly two shoots are left per spur on each section of vine so that the plant can focus its energy on the parts that matter. In early May, we learned all about this intense, back-bending work at Ampelos under the direction of vineyard manager Andres Lerena, who made my day when he looked at my vines and said, “Nice shoot thinning.”
FLOWERING AND TIPPING: Last Friday, Fletcher summoned me to Bien Nacido to see Q Block flowering, where each potential grape bud shoots out many stamen and one stigma to self-pollinate. During this time, vineyard workers “tip” the vines, whereby the newest shoots coming from the top of snipped off, so that the vine strength can be focused on the reproduction process rather than more shoot growth. “Instead of having it walk and chew gum at the same time,” said Fletcher, “we just want it to chew gum.”
Next up in the vineyard will be fruit set and more work on the canopy. Follow along at independent.com/wine2012.
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Read more: http://www.independent.com/news/2012/may/18/my-first-vintage/
