So this recipe is as follows, for a 1 gallon batch (Ingredients in color):

Preheat oven to 250 degrees.   Scrub, dry and peel 1 grapefruit (I did two grapfruits, actually) and bake the peel on a baking sheet on the lower rack until dry – 15-20 minutes – or until the peel begins to brown.  (this took me more like 80 minutes – I had it in the oven basically the whole time I was mashing, and then during the boil too)

MASH:  2 quarts water, 1.35lbs English Pale malt, 0.1lb Victory malt, 0.1lb Caramel 10 malt, 0.1lb Caramel 20 malt, 0.15lb torrified wheat

mash for 60 minutes between 144 and 152 degrees.  I did this step in the same 2 gallon Igloo cooler that I partial-mashed my OldSpeckledHen Clone in, but this time I had an issue because there was much less liquid and mass in the cooler – it didn’t hold its temp as well, but I hope it got the job done.  In other words, I treated this mash just like I treated the partial mash in my previous recipe… Was this wrong?  Seems reasonable to me – I just didn’t execute it very well due to the smaller mass of grains.  I think I needed more water too – my mash was very very thick.

BrooklynBrewShop’s recipe says to keep it on the stove and maintain a temp of 150 degrees, stirring every 10 minutes.  I didn’t do this.  I did open and stir once, and swished the cooler around several times during the mash too.   I had the crushed grains loose in the cooler this time, not in a bag.

SPARGE:  heat 1 gallon of water to 170 degrees.  Strain the mash into a strainer (I used the paint strainer bag from last time), then pour sparge water over the grains.  Recirculate the wort through the grain once.   I also let the bag of grains soak / tea-bag in the wort for a minute or two.

BOIL:  heat wort, reduce heat to slow rolling boil when it begins to foam.  Add Columbus hops (0.1 ounce).   After 30 minutes, add 1/2 the Amarillo hops (I used Cascade, as my brewshop guy told me that Amarillo is out of stock through year end at least).   0.1 ounce of Cascade at this point in the boil.   After a total of 55 minutes, add the grapefruit peel (dried in the oven).   Add another 0.1 ounce of Amarillo (Cascade for me) hops at 59 minutes.   At 60 minutes, turn off the heat and add 0.2lbs of  clear Belgian Candi Sugar (I used the amber crystallized variety, not clear – which should make it darker and maybe a little more flavorful), and 1/4 cup honey (I used generic Hannaford’s brand).  Stir to dissolve.

Place pot in ice bath in the sink and cool to 70 degrees, pour into fermenting bucket (I poured through the paint strainer bag again), and pitch 1/2 packet of Safale s-04 yeast.   I actually didn’t have much trouble cooling this 1 gallon batch in a sink ice-bath.  I changed the ice once and it took less than 20 minutes.   Ferment 2 weeks, then bottle using 3T of honey as a priming sugar.

I checked the original gravity and came up with 1.052.   It’s actually somewhat of an issue to check gravity with a batch this small – it will put a serious dent in my output if I check the OG and then take two final gravity readings.   I’ll probably just take 1 final reading, and maybe even pour that sample into one of the bottles that I’m bottling into.

Stay tuned.

-KD

I highly recommend this book, as it avoids the kind of intimidating instructions like “you have to keep the mash at 153.38975 degree for 71.5 minutes, then vorlauf with a spfitzter screen for 15 more minutes at 168.3 degrees”  that just make me want to walk away.  Instead, Brooklyn Brewshop’s book simplifies things with enticing recipes.  In the back of the book, after their 52 beer recipes, I noticed a recipe for dog biscuits, made out of the spent grain in the mashing process.

When you’re done making beer, if you used grain (as opposed to just malt extract), you have “spent grain” leftover.   One thing I did with it was feed it to my chickens, who went apeshit over it.  The other was to make cookies for Oscar & Mr. Griffey, who also went apeshit over them.  Recipe is as follows:

2C spent grain

1C peanut butter

1C flour

1/2C canned pumpkin

1 egg

mix it all together, form it into little balls, flatten them a bit, or create whatever shape you like, then bake:  350 degrees for 30 minutes, and 225 degrees for several hours more until they dry out.  The book says 8 hours.  I did about 6.  The key is to dry out the biscuits so that they don’t mold.  Alternatively, store them in the fridge.

Your dogs will thank you.

-KD

We get a weekly newsletter called the New Hampshire Market Bulletin.  It’s a single fold sheet of paper (ie, 4 pages) with information on agricultural happenings, market prices of feed grains, eggs, livestock, etc, and classifieds.

This week, one classified in particular caught my eye (I’ve blurred out the phone numbers so that you sickos don’t prank call these poor farmers:

Six months....

Now I immediately started wondering: does the inclusion of “some Holstein semen” make the price of the tank higher, or lower?  Is that a bonus – free inventory?  Or a nuisance – requires cleaning?  Is there a Holstein semen arbitrage opportunity here – buy the semen tank “w/some Holstein semen,”  then sell off the semen and the tank separately (a la Mittens Romney) for profit?  Quick tangent:  would you be surprised if I told you that bullsemen.com was a real live website where you could buy, yes, bull semen, online?  I’m afraid to search for availability on Amazon.com, as I don’t want the search for bull semen to influence my future Amazon recommendations…   In any case, the mere fact that I laughed at this ad is further confirmation that I am still a city boy.

I think that the video accompaniment here is obvious – Kingpin:

-KD

Cliff notes:  David Einhorn’s Greenlight Partners was a major shareholder in Punch.   Punch was considering raising money and their investment bank called Greenlight.     Greenlight declined to sign an NonDisclosure Agreement, said that they  “had no interest in becoming an insider,” and that they would be “happy to talk to management, but not interested in receiving information to trade stock.”

Greenlight ended up selling a portion of their stock in the next several days before Punch’s offering.  The stock fell 29% on the news of the offering.

Now, the first thing you have to do if you want to comment on this issue is to read the FSA’s explanation from the WSJ.  Next,  go read Matt Levine’s Dealbreaker post on the topic.   He breaks down the issue of “crossing the wall,” and becoming ineligible to trade stock.   Finally, go read Julia LaRoche’s Business Insider post which has more comments from Einhorn.

Now, as I’ve mentioned previously, in my prior career we were always trained to not even come close to walking fine lines like this.   The golden rule was “If you have to ask if it’s ok, just don’t do it.”   In other words, at my former firm, Einhorn’s defense of “We did not enter into any confidentiality agreement, we explicitly requested that we not be given confidential information, and we do not believe we were given any such information“  probably wouldn’t fly with my compliance department (which is not to say that it would be illegal, just that Compliance doesn’t want to deal with the headache of arguing about it).

The news that Punch was considering equity financing certainly seems (to the casual observer) to be confidential, material, and non-public.   That fact alone, however, as we’ve discussed in these comment threads previously, does NOT mean that Einhorn violated insider trading rules.

Have at it.

Matt Levine’s Dealbreaker Post

Julia LaRoche’s B.I. post

WSJ’s FSA Statement

previously on Kiddynamitesworld:  Berkshire & Lubrizol

Levine’s Dealbreaker follow-up

The Actual FSA Ruling

-KD

EDIT:  Matt Levine has a follow up post explaining what I also see as a key issue:  the FSA’s statement seems to be making a big deal out of the fact that Einhorn didn’t check with compliance first.  I mentioned that in my prior trading role we would talk to compliance and generally take a “just say no” attitude – but that’s mostly to avoid bad optics for the firm, and to avoid peons doing anything that might screw up the firm’s reputation.  Einhorn is saying that he’s the man at his firm, he knows the rules, and he doesn’t need to check with compliance.  In essence, Einhorn is saying DYKWTFIA???

The problem for me (little old NOT A LAWYER me)  is that even though Einhorn declined to be wall-crossed and declined to sign the NDA and asked not to be given confidential info, it seems as if he WAS given that info anyway…

1) sarcasm:

2) sad but true:

true story

3) Fast Fact retweet:

4) Taxes?

And finally, after @allstarcharts described this earnings call as American History:

In all seriousness, Apple is rewriting the rulebook – it was previously impossible for megacap companies to put up growth numbers like this.   Amazing.

-KD

disclosure: no positions

The entire Q&A is worth a read.

-KD

ps – the Fed’s goal here is something that was always kinda counter-intuitive to me.  In essence, I disagree with the theory that placating market assumptions about interest rates in the future – reassuring the market that rates will stay low for a long time -  will make it more likely for people to want to borrow NOW.  Let me explain:  right now, one appealing factor of home buying/selling decisions is that interest rates are very low – you can afford to buy more house.   If I think that interest rates are going to remain low for a long period of time, I will be in no hurry to lock in this low rate on the debt I’m borrowing – I will be in no hurry to go out and buy a house….. Same for issuing fixed rate debt:  if I’m a company looking to expand and I think interest rates will be going higher, I have more incentive to borrow money NOW, at this low rate.   But if the Fed assures me that rates will be low for a long time, then I have no reason to rush my borrowing (and subsequent spending) plans.   It seems to me that by assuring the Market that rates will be low for a long period of time, the Fed is giving borrows an excuse to NOT borrow (and thus not spend) now with any sense of urgency.

Let me give you another example:  we all know that a marketing ploy for sales of all types (furniture, electronics, cars) is to promise low financing rates if you buy now – buy now, and you’ll lock in this low rate.  But if you have low financing rates all the time, or at least for the foreseeable future, you remove incentive to “BUY NOW.”

I think it was the combination of  “retirement”  “obesity” and “everglades snakes” that struck me as especially poetic – never mind the assortment of Ladies of Interest, and Napoleon Dynamite.

Unrelated:  If you haven’t seen the Paula Deen Health Food Cookbook, you’re missing out.

-KD

I have cable from Comcast ($CMCSA – no positions).   My bill is huge – cable + internet + premium channels + 2 HD DVRs adds up to over $200 a month.   I also just realized that included in that number,  they’re charging me $7/month to “rent” the modem from them.  Aiyahh!   Anyway, I got a customer service call from a nice gentleman at Comcast the other day explaining that my base package rate (cable premiere + internet) was $164.99.   He said they could give me the Triple Play (includes phone, plus a higher level of internet service) for $159.99/month for a year, plus the first HD-DVR would be included – saving me another $15 – and I wouldn’t even have to use the phone part if I didn’t want to.   After a year, the rate goes to $179.99, but the HD-DVR is still included, so I’m still breaking even vs. the current plan.

So I switched, and then guy wants to set up an installation appointment.

“What?”  I was legitimately confused. “Why?”

“Oh, we can send you a self-install kit in the mail if that’s easier,”  he countered.   Ummm. yeah.  I can plug a modem in, DYKWTFIA?

“Just send your old modem back to us, we’ll include a UPS slip,” he explained.   Cool, no problem.

So the stuff comes via UPS yesterday – 2 boxes – a big box with the new modem in it and a bunch of cables/cords etc, and an empty box – for me to send the old modem back.   They shipped me a friggin’ empty box – separately.

Mrs. Dynamite, who has an MBA in operations management and specialized in logistics, immediately flew into BAJUNGI tilt.

“THAT IS WHY OUR CABLE BILL IS SO HIGH!” she ranted. “BECAUSE THEY SHIP YOU EMPTY FUCKING BOXES!”

Indeed…

-KD

ps – I have Vonage ($VG – no positions)  for phone, and I like it.  Comcast Voice is probably pretty similar, except that Vonage has a cool Simul-Ring feature where you can set it up so that the incoming call rings on several different numbers (ie, home, cell, wife’s cell) and whoever answers first gets connected.  I may end up switching to Comcast Voice at some point – we’ll see.

“There have been rumors for over a year that the Comex (owned by the CME group) is going to go bust on deliveries of gold and silver that can’t get filled.  There have been reports also that huge cash settlements have been made in lieu of physical metal.  In the sky there is an almost exact opposition between Saturn  (demand) and Jupiter (supply) January (premium content). This will be the last opposition between Saturn and Jupiter for 12 years.  The opposition between these planets has made it’s mark just prior to a major move up with the metals in August 2010 and then again in March of  2011, just prior to silver almost reaching $50.   There is most likely mounting tension at the Comex to go to greater extremes to manipulate the inventory numbers and stop another run on silver.”

But it gets worse!

“The Comex may be challenged (subscribe for dates) when Saturn and Jupiter form an inconjunct that could bring (like a boomerang) a serious challenge to the Comex”

Holy crap!  An Inconjunct Boomerang Challenge?  That sounds like serious shit.   We’d better get Harvey’s opinion…

If all else fails, there are some longer term predictions too:

“The most severe challenge to the Comex will be in April – August 2013 and again in the Spring of 2014 where it could go bust, or be taken over.”

Of course, if you REALLY want the details, you have to fork over some fiat cash to get the dates that the premium subscribers get!  As the disclaimer at the top of the post notes:

“If you find this information useful and would like the actual dates provided to subscribers, click on the links below to subscribe.”

What comes to mind here is the quote from Vegas Vacation (click for WAV file):

“Why don’t you give me half the money you were gonna bet, then we’ll go out back, I’ll kick you in the nuts, and we can call it a day.”

Kick You in the Nuts

Seriously: send me half the money you were gonna pay for these astrological Comex Bust forecasts, I’ll call you an idiot, and we’ll call it a day.

-KD

disclosure:  I have a long position in $SLV, and I also have a pairs trade of long $PSLV vs short $SLV.  These positions may change at any time, and readers should have no expectation of receiving timely notice if and when they do.

Post secondary, pre Shoe:

Post Shoe:

Look at the shares outstanding, ounces held, and cash from yesterday and from today (which as you can see is really last night’s data) (just like we did yesterday), and you can see that the Shoe was exercised – the shares outstanding increased by the amount of the Shoe: 3.45 MM.   We can repeat the process outlined in yesterday’s post and calculate the price that the 1,300,000 ounces of silver to back these new shares was purchased at.  I come out with $30.70, implying that it was done yesterday.

Now, it sucks that the Trust had to pay more for the Shoe silver than for the Secondary silver, but if you work out the math, you’ll find that it was still accretive to NAV (by a sum total of TWO cents!) due to the fact that even when you include the underwriting fee, the shares were sold above NAV.

Related:

Jan 20th: Did JPM Bring Down EK in a Desperate Attempt to Plunder Silver?

Jan 19th: Paper and Physical Silver Prices Are Not Decoupling Yet

Jan 18th: PSLV’s Premium to NAV is Lower Than You Think

Jan 17th: PSLV Announces Secondary Offering

Nov 22nd: PSLV will not go out and buy $1.5 B in silver imminently

Nov 16th: Sprott Physical Silver Trust Files Shelf

Oct 12th: Sprott Sells 1MM PSLV

Sep 30th: Sprott sells 1.5MM PSLV – The last of the hedge fund shares

Sep 19th: Sprott sells 1.754MM PSLV

Sep 12th: Sprott sells 1.827MM PSLV

Aug 26th: Sprott sells 1.6MM PSLV

Aug 11th: Sprott sells 565k PSLV

Aug 2nd: Sprott sells 700k PSLV

July 23rd: Sprott sells 1MM+ PSLV

July 14th: Sprott sells 700k+ PSLV

April 28th: Sprott sells 1.6MM PSLV

March 12th: Sprott files to sell his PSLV shares

March 8th: “Misinterpreting PSLV’s Premium to NAV”

July 18th: “Ask Eric Sprott Why He Won’t Buy More Silver for PSLV”

-KD

disclosure: long $PSLV vs short $SLV pairs trade.  I’m also long $SLV unrelated – net long silver.