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

September and October Hikes

Have gotten a little behind on the ol’ blog, been busy.  Looking back its been a little motorcycle heavy so here are some hikes that have been had lately.  Epic views rain or shine.  Its hard to beat what the northwest has to offer as far as scenery.

Gothic Basin-
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Early spring riding in the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest

Since we didn’t have a winter this year early mt. riding came sooner than normal.  We took the 2-stroke out and explored all the trails we could get to out Mt. Loop Highway.  Up green mountain road, down all the side shoots and across the closed bridge.  We found everything from sun to hail but any day on the bike is a good day for me.

We also attended the Tanks and Helmets show at Nuemos in Seattle, great art and cool bikes.  The burnout was great this year.  Stay tuned, more posts and riding to come.

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Weekend Update

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While the northeast has been getting slammed we have had an extremely warm and dry winter, I guess you could say its payback for the Super Bowl.  Saturday I headed out early to catch the 8am ferry out of Edmonds to do some riding on the Olympic Peninsula.  Trails were fast and empty for the most part, despite the nice day, most people hiking/biking close to town.  It was a short day due to some time constraints but it was fun.  Sunday Ashley and I slept in way to late with Ham, he is quite the Sunday snoozer.  Coffee and Breakfast were made and the afternoon was spent scrubbing the mud from previous weeks off the noble steeds.  Next weekend looks wet for now but, Ham is crossing his toes for sun since we are headed to his Frenchie Frolic with his smush face crew at Magnuson Park.

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Goat Lake Hike

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With a sunny day in early March and the bikes out of commission for a few days we set off to check out Goat Lake.  Located about 31mi east of Granite Falls out Mt. Loop highway, nestled between Foggy peak and Sloan peak.  Approach is fairly level with a slight gain as the wide trail winds into the valley before forking giving you an option on what trail you want to take.  We took the upper approach headed in and the lower river walk on the way back.  There wasn’t much hiker traffic but more than I expected due to how far out it is.  As you approach the lake the trail meets up with Elliot Creek, the outlet to the lake, for some pretty waterfalls.
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The lake is very picturesque, as are most of the alpine lake in the region, partially frozen it was very calm.  The mass of logs near the outlet makes a great picnic spot to take a load off before you start your decent.

Make sure to keep a lookout for the fork in the trail as it is easy to miss on the way down, I would suggest taking the opposite fork on the way back to get more bang for your buck.  While not the hardest hike in the area its very doable with spring unconditioned legs. 1400′ feet in total ascent and 10.5mi in length.  Put it out your spring list.