I know it’s been awhile since I posted and as such, one might think I haven’t been doing anything…couldn’t be further from the truth. While I was off the bike I managed to brew up a number of things and all of them ended up going over well with the family. After our family reunion I quickly found that I was completely out of IPA with only a small amount of Raspberry Wheat and Belgian Wit left. Since I’m an IPA man, I needed to get cracking.
A couple of weeks ago I tried my first partial mash, which is basically all grain brewing on a much smaller scale. I tried out some Rye grain for the first time and ended up making a Rye IPA. The Rye tends to give a spicyness that you don’t get from hops, spicy, but not bitter. If I did the beer again I’d probably add a bunch more hops for aroma, but I really wanted to see what the Rye tasted like. So I’ve got it kegged and 3 liters of it hanging out in the main fridge.
Also, last weekend I had a few people over who wanted to see what the whole homebrew thing was about. Since one batch of Rye IPA isn’t enough IPA, we brewed up the “From Away IPA” and it should be ready for dry hopping on Saturday. I probably should brew another batch of this just to have around so I can see what it actually tastes like as it ages. The last batch was gone in under 2 weeks…thats one month from brewing to gone. I think everyone had a good time brewing, hopefully they learned something. I tried to get across that homebrewing is as easy or as hard as you make it. I generally take a lot of shortcuts, yet all my brews have come out pretty good. Maybe I’m lucky, or maybe I just can’t taste the difference yet.
Monday night I had my first go at solo all grain brewing. Built a mash tun for about $15 in parts I got from the local McLean Hardware store, which also sells the cooler I’ll eventually be moving into. The experience was mixed…it’s a lot of work and my cobbled together system isn’t the best. In between my first runnings and my second runnings the screen managed to unscrew…which means theres nothing but grain and liquid to get stuck in the ball valve. Luckily I got it back on pretty quick, but who knows how it will turn out. I did manage to come out with exactly 5 gallons though, so that was cool and I think I nailed my gravity. I just brewed the Mary Pale Ale so it would be a fairly easy recipe and it was a good thing.
I’ve also started using a program called QBrew, which is a free opensource software for building recipes. Now I guess I’ll have to start building a recipe database..
DT
I missed the first W@W race and almost missed the second one. I’ve been on my mountain bike one time since I crashed, that was Monday a week and a half ago with my boy Gary. He can tell you how bad I was hurting… Bad enough to not want, but need to stop 3 times on one lap of a 3 lap race course. A couple of times I just laid down on the trail and thought about how much ass I suck.
So this past Wednesday we had the return of the race series to Wakefield. I ended up working a little late in MD and struggeled to get home, get my stuff together, and throw a tube/tire combo on the new front wheel I’m borrowing from our team stash of sponsored gear. I made it to the registration desk literally as the race was supposed to start, 6:50 PM. They had me do a quick fake registration, took my cash and I hauled ass down the hill to the start, just barely cutting in front of the experts about to leave and getting in with the sport cats.
A minute later and we were off and up the gravel hill. I stayed on the outside, missed a pile up wreck and got to the singletrack in the middle of the pack. Hung pretty tough on first lap giving it everything I had. Even managed to make a pass on the big log…it’s either a make it or don’t situation and well I made it and it felt damn good! I launched good enough to get a nice smack of the tires as I touched back down on the dirt, completely clearing the log. At the end of the lap I started to fade a bit. At this point I hadn’t stopped, but that would all change as I hit the timing tent. I had to stop and grab some Old Dominion Lager from Stoner before I was on my way back into the woods.
The second lap turned out to be pain lap. I tried not to walk, but at the pace I was moving I might as well have been hiking out there. My second lap was a full 5 minutes longer than my first or third. Nothing exciting this lap, just amazing the range of emotions you go through in the thick of a race. Nervous, excited, stressed…it can all be summed up this head conversation - “Damn these pump trackesque curves are bomber! I think I’m going to puke.”
So while I didn’t finish on the podium, I did manage to get DFL with some style points…clearing log in first lap, beer at start of second lap, and getting some air on the rollers on my third lap.
Damn it felt good to feel the burn and push myself hard again. The dirt tasted great and the sleep came soon after..
Oh yea, check out Gary’s photos here. Check me out here and here.
DT
I wrote this almost 2 weeks ago…
Last night was my first time riding the mountain bike in a couple of months. My form is shot to hell and any built up toughness has left my body. I entered the pain cave and didn’t exit for almost an hour. It was one of those 90 degree days with enough humidity to make the air hazy.
DT
Latest Comments
RSS