Black Friday Amber Pale Ale Brew day

While the mad dash to go shopping amongst thousands of nut cases has never drawn me in, I do find it fascinating. Wake up at the crack of dawn, stand in line shoulder to shoulder with tons of people to save what you spend on Starbucks in a week? I digress. Set out to brew a darker style amber with the hops we had on hand. Brew day went as planned with the exception of over oxygenating the wort and over flowing the conical. Excited to see what some of the lesser known to me hops taste like. I scored about 20oz of free hops at the Homebrew shop a few weeks ago, mostly European but some common ones as well.

First casualty of the brew stand also occurred, the HLT prob cord got a little toasty and started malfunctioning. At $75 for a new probe I decided to cut off the melted section and perform a bit of surgery. It appears to be a standard USB with temp shielding. The plan is to place a female USB end up high and use a USB extension to make the run past the burner in the event it happens again. The cord is shielded, has a red and black and three sub shielded pairs carrying data. Utilizing a USB extension will also give the ability to make this cord run around the heat source and minimize the chance of future issues. I will perform the cord surgery this week and post a short video of the repair.

Other Brewery tasks completed:

  • Juice Box NEIPA was Kegged and placed on tap.
  • All Kegs cleaned, sanitized and purged
  • Ordered a second Tilt Hydrometer. These are great and a good way to monitor fermentation from afar.

Anchor Christmas in large format was consumed, it was OK this year. Definitely was not my favorite year for it or my tastes are going away from spiced beers. Nonetheless it has become a tradition at this point so I will endure on.

Brew Stats for the Pale Ale (Euphoria Pale) brewed

https://www.brewstat.us/share/2473/euphoria-pale

Juicy NE IPA

 

Looking forward to welcoming winter with a chilly brew day.  We will be brewing a NE style “Juicy” IPA with homegrown Hops on Saturday.

11/06/2017 Brew day was a success!  10g of a home grown hopped NE style IPA is in the conical and the yeasties are going nuts.  Being the first time brewing in almost a year it was a little chaotic at first but like riding a bike, it comes back pretty quick.  I was pre occupied with trying to squeeze in truck maintenance on the same day but it all worked out.  The weather was kinda nuts for the beginning of November, snow all weekend.  Looking forward to trying this brew in 7-10 days.  Cheers!

https://www.brewstat.us/share/2349/juice-box-ipa

 

 

Memorial Day 2015 BC Trip

We headed out Friday afternoon with a destination of Harrison Hot Springs to camp where ever we could find.  We stopped at Bob Burgers and grabbed a burger before hitting short line at the border.  Right after crossing the boarder we hit a fresh market that had a great selection of snacks for the night.  After loading it all in the Zega’s we pressed on to Harrison to look for a camp spot.  Sasquatch was the intended target but luck was not playing in our favor and it was packed.  We did find a provincial campground on the way up the forest service roads before the last gas stop.  While it was a decent camp spot they have a screwy way of charging.  We had 1 spot with 2 tent and 4 bikes, which all fit inside the same site… They charged us for 4 cars so lucky for us we just set up in a $70 campsite.  Naturally the host was a rule czar so we payed and bitched and moaned while we cooked dinner.
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We left camp mid morning and headed up the West side of Harrison Lake, destination was Pemberton for dinner and camp just north of town.

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We made it up the lake and river without any issue except for a flat on the Sertao about 15km from Hwy 99.
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About 15-20 min and a gallon of sweat later we were on the way with a cold beer in Pemberton waiting.  We fueled up, filled the water bags and headed toward The Wood for a great meal.  The food never disappoints and is a must stop when we are in Pembe.  After dinner we headed up Portage Rd looking for a camp spot near Gates Lake.  About 10 min outside of Birkin lake I lost Morgan in the mirror and pulled over to wait, thinking god he is slow today I turned around.  Turns out he blew the front shock on his water boxer and it was making some cool noises on the rebound.  We limped it to a great spot Whispering Falls Resort good views and hot shower that we were not expecting.  After a late night with Lagavulin we got around made Bacon and left over french fry breakfast burritos and headed toward D’Arcy for the Highline Rd to Lillooet.
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We assessed the shock situation in D’Arcy and decided to split up and meet in Lillooet we take the dirt and Morgan and Tamara will take the scenic section of 99 and we will take the dirt.  The dirt was good and the scenery was amazing, the views are stunning.  The road winds up and gives some great overlooks and then drops down into Seton Portage.

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From there it winds up and over the mountain and comes down on to Carpenter lake.  By this time the storm was almost in full effect and we were pretty deep in the woods.

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We crossed the dam, took some pictures and saw a bear.  After a few distant pictures of the bear we pressed on though the rain.

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The road from here is pretty much a gravel road that over looks the river on the east side.  All was good and Lillooet was in sight on the GPS and out of nowhere there was a hooded figure on the side of the road.  We slowed to get a better look since it was quite a way from town, glad we did.  When I lifted my helmet she happened to look up and was all bloody, her truck went over a pretty steep ledge about 500m down.  She was ejected from the truck and somehow climbed back up.  We rendered first aid and debated how we were going to get her into town.  She was in what appeared to be shock and was bleeding from a few spots on her head.  Considering the conditions and remoteness we thought about moving bags and letting her hitch a ride on the back.  After more thought we decided not since she could pass out and fall off, making things worse.  Luckily a interior road crew truck was coming up the road to clear a mudslide and he happened to have a radio to call and aid car.  We left her in his hands to wait for the aid car and we continued into town.  We made it to town and stopped for some hot coffee and to dry off a bit.  About 20min later we saw the RCMP and an ambulance head up the road, hopefully she recovered well.  We waited for the rain to let up a bit before heading to Kamloops for the last evening.  Given the relentless rain we decided to grab a hotel in town and have a warm shower.  They let us park under the front overhang which was nice and even better when we saw a few Hardly Ablesons roll in and have to park outside, the poor chrome.

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Next morning after some Tim Hortons we headed back down 5 toward the border.  We made it back without issue and headed to Aslan Brewing in Bellingham for some fish tacos and beer before riding Chucukanut home.  It was a fun trip and can’t wait to do more BC riding.

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Weekend Update: Smokers at Walker Valley

Another great weekend in the Pacific Northwest.  We headed out to Walker Valley ORV Park in Mt. Vernon, WA for some woods riding on the 2 strokes.  At was a great time for all and we ended the night with some great friends around the campfire.  Sunday was brunch, a short ride and oil changes in the smokers so we are ready for the projected sun next weekend.  IMG_3282

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