IPA 1/30/09

Mike tapped out my IPA so I thought I should start working towards replacing it. Wanted to make a slightly smaller one, after all this is the beer I drink most. A "smaller" version would make mornings easier and be cheaper too boot. Also, tried a new hop varietal - amarillos. Target 1.058 with 78% efficiency in a 10 gallon batch.

for beer geeks. 16.5 #canadian 2 row, 1.5# crystal 40, 2.0# munich light, 1.0# each biscuit malt and flaked barley. Water 1t gypsum/5 gallons. Kettle schedule: 70 minute boil, 60 min 2 oz amarillo (9.5%) and 2 oz Magnum (14.65%), 40 minutes 0.75 oz each amarillo and cascade (6.6%), 20 minutes 0.5 oz each amarillo and cascade, 10 min irich moss, 5 minutes 1 oz amarillo. Chill and pitch directly onto the 1056 yeast slurry from the stout (from previous week).

Pitching so much active yeast let fermentation start instantaneously and by the morning it was spewing out the airlock! I guess that's good and bad. Gave me a chance to smell the fermenting sludge thouhg. Smelled wonderfully - citruses and fruity. Hopefully the grapefruit won't be overpowering! I just had an amarillo hop bomb at the rogue issaquah and it was almost offensive. Time will tell with this one.

OG turned out to be 1.058! Not too often I get that close in a ten gallon batch.... of course I did make 11 gallons instead of the normal miscalc of volume for 9 gallons.

Stout Stout Stout

With the post ski beer reserves dwindling (kind of) I wanted to resupply. Attempted to make a dry stout with some extra body and umph, so yeah, not really a dry stout. 10 gallon batch assuming 80% efficiency.

For beer geeks: 10 # marris otter 2 row, 6.5 # canadian 2 row, 0.5# each 40 and 120 crystal, 1 # each flaked barley, flaked wheat, and choc malt, 2# roast barley. Tried something new with the grain. Since I typically get a stuck sparge with that much roast barley, I steeped 1 pound of it separately. During the sparge, after gettting the grain bed set, I added it to the top of the grain bed. --- no stickage in the sparge this time. Mashed at 150. Water 0.25 burton salts/5 gallons. 2.5 oz willamettes in the boil and 2 oz fuggles at 10 minutes. Put the beer right on the 1056 yeast cake from a previous batch.

Unfortunately I only got 9 gallons or so out of the boil (not 11) so the gravity was very high, but the sweet wort was delic! Hopefully there will be a great roasty character left in the final product. ... and bigger is better, right? OG 1.066 (not the 1.055 target I was going for) TG I'll let you know.

So this concluded a massive "catch up on beer" session where I bottled a ginger mead, bottled a plum wine, bottled a russian imperial stout, kegged a rauchbier, racked 2x reds to secondary, kegged an ESB, and brewed 10 (or 9) gallons of a stout all in less than 36 hours. Anyone want to embibe?

Granite Mountain - 1/17/09

With snow packs stabilized after the flooding rain and a classic inversion leaving the mountains warm and sunny, Lucas and I went out for a quick excursion - either Granite peak or Kendall peak via Kendall lakes. En route Granite peak looked a little bare so we continued to Kendall, which was socked in. Fed up with Seattle gloom and not knowing when (or if) the fog would burn off we back tracked to Granite. We were greeted by a biting wind while patchy bare spots from the rains made us boot for the first 1200 feet of elevation or so. We then skinned up mostly following the summer trail -easily discernible with the low snowpack - into the clearing. Once in the clearing, we stayed on the a steep rib, which accompanied with the snow conditions caused much ski slippage and frustration. We finally decided to boot it about 900 feet from the summit, which was another source of frustration - post holing, no traction on mixed vegetation and tallus. The biting wind returned, spitting ice pellets at us and trying to use my skis as a parasail to take me back down the mountain. After my little tirade from frustration we made better time and made it to the summit. We were greeted with beautiful views, including the always scenic I90 with its patented roar of automobiles, on a picture perfect day. Lucas on the right with Rainier backlit in the background. The I90 summits just below: Kaleetan being the rocky "tower" towards the left, chair peak just to the right and Snoqualmie just to the right of that, with glacier peak poking its head out between Snoqualmie and Chair.

We stowed the skins and skied. The top was a nice mix of slightly hard crust with beautiful spring like corn. The slopes were awesome with the sable snow pack. Below, the snow was nice, but heavy making rock dodging a bit difficult for me. This then led to survival skiing in the trees followed by a 800 ft hike out to the car. An awesome day filled with cursing and frustration. .... but I have nobody to blame but myself for the route selection and the rear I took. We even stopped at the Iss. Brewhouse and made it home before dark. .. Now onto the lecture that I have been procrastinating. Elevgain/lost - 4050 ft.

Heather Ridge

Lucas and I headed out into the bc across from Steven's pass - Heather Ridge. There was pretty much a highway laid in the snow so the going was initially easy. We climbed to the high spot on the ridge (~5450'), had lunch, and dug a pit. The snow was soft powder on what appeared to be styrofoam as far as the shovel dug. Everything appeared to be stable so we skiied down into the back bowls for pretty much my first run of the season. We saw some sweet looking terrain across the valley (pictured on the left during the ascent) towards the west so we skinned up and around the bowl towards it. We finally made it to the open slopes which put us a little on edge (wind loaded and open with a bunch of new snow). We hung out on the ridge for a late afternoon snack (lucas pic'd approaching the rest stop) and had a superb run back into the valley below. The area had about 6-12 inches of light powder on top of a relatively solid base (aka styrofoam). A quick jaunt back to the ridge and down to the parking lot. All in all a great day, but the realization that I am completely out of shape. About 2800' gain and loss for the day. But hopefully this will be the first of many outtings getting me into far better shape!