Something Yummy

Since bike rides aren't happening as frequently as I'd like, I've had to keep myself busy in other ways.  About a month ago I mentioned that I started brewing beer again.  I made a nice little session ale just to ease myself back into the process.  After bottling it and waiting for a bit, it was time for the taste test.

It actually came out better than expected.  It's been so long since the last time I made beer that I was a little worried.  It was all for nothing though, since this brew is great!  Light, but with plenty of flavor.  It will be perfect for these upcoming Summer days, and I look forward to drinking it.  The rest of the batch still needs to sit a bit longer, but I will share with anyone that happens to be around when it's completely ready.  So those of you that know where I am...

Not one to rest on my laurels, I started another batch a short while later.  I used a bunch of Centennial and Cascade hops that I got at a brew supply store in Asheville and got the process started.

A cauldron of yummy.

I didn't plan to stop there.  I'd been reading about different ingredients for homebrew, which prompted me to look in the cabinet for something I'd wanted to use for a while.  You see, my Great Uncle (who's in his 90s) gave us some honey from his bees.  So I used some (well, most of it.)

I'd always heard that honey is a good additive, and after adding it to the wort I had high expectations.  After the fermenting was complete (which took longer due to the added sugars from the honey), I took a sample for a taste test...

It looked good, but it tasted even better.  A nice aroma of honey, with a slight honey flavor on the finish.  And yeah, plenty hoppy too.  When I bottled it, I instantly came up with a name for my latest creation.

MuddHoney IPA.  Since my uncle and I have the same last name, it made perfect sense.  It's a family beer I guess, and quite possibly the best one I've made so far.  And yes, I haz plenty...

It's not ready yet.  This one will take more time to be perfect.  Will I share this one too?  Probably.  You know, since I'm pretty damn proud of it.

Now, it's time to come up with another brew creation.  Stay tuned.

Now I Wait

Since I tasted my “sample” home brew da udda day, I was itching to try one of the “real” bottles.

This was supposed to be the good stuff. Cream of the crop and all that. I'll admit that I was nervous, especially since I've been telling everyone how good the sample was. I poured it into a glass,and it looked just like the other glass I poured.

I smelled it, took a sip, then took a bigger taste. Holy shit. Hoppy, perfectly carbonated, and actually beer-like.

This just in: I still know how to make beer.

I had another bottle the next day, and the results were the same. Now I just gotta keep out of it so it will last. Tuesday night, I gave a bottle to Eastwood and one to Good Guy Greg. I wanted an outside opinion, so now I have to wait until they drink it so I can hear all about it. I have few more to give out (including one for Dicky if he wants one), so hopefully it's good. I mean, I liked it. If they don't then more for me. For now though, I'll ration it so it doesn't all disappear.

Since I don't want to drink all my own brew, I'm making a point to try some different stuff. Tuesday night after our social ride I had a “Wake Up Bitter” IPA from Olde Hickory Brewery. It was a coffee IPA, and I was pleasantly surprised.

At first, it was like drinking coffee with hops in it. After a while though, it turned into a strong IPA with a little coffee mixed in. The only downside was the caffeine. It doesn't usually affect me, but I was up half the night from it. I tossed and turned for hours, no doubt from drinking “coffee” so late in the evening. I'll keep that in mind for next time.

Anyway, if you have the means, I highly recommend picking one up. It's probably available here locally wherever fine beverages are sold. If you're not a local, you might me shit out of luck. If you try to mix coffee and beer as a substitute, it may not work as well.

If it does, let me know. You may just win a prize or some shit like that.

In other news, you may not be into beer. That's okay. We can still be friends. If you want to read about bike stuff, check out this story over on Bikerumor:

The Rise of Enduro™ in NC

It's all about riding here in North Carolina, some local companies that do rad shit, and of course, Enduro™.

Don't say I never gave you anything (or linked to anything cool on The Internets, whatever.)

All In For Beer

It was finally time to check the home brew I made a couple of weeks ago.  After bottling all the good stuff to wait it out, I took what was left in the fermenter to use for a taste test.  I keep an old root beer bottle around for just that purpose.  It ain’t pretty, but it holds beer.

The bottle was rock hard, meaning that it was fully carbonated.  That was a good sign.  I refrigerated it for a couple of days, and finally got a chance to try it out.  I slowly poured it into a glass, and not surprisingly it looked just like beer.

I didn’t pour much in the glass, because I didn’t want all the sludge that was in the bottle to end up in my glass.  Since it came from the bottom of the barrel (I mean that quite literally), it was full of hops and other stuff you really don’t want to drink.  The second pouring shows this.

The first glass I poured though, was fucking excellent.  Very, and I mean very hoppy.  Bitter as all get out, perfectly carbonated, and delightful to drink.  The alcohol content was pretty high, and I immediately felt the effects.  Not bad for some guy making that shit in his kitchen I suppose.

It’s been quite a while since I’ve brewed beer.  So long in fact, that I thought I might have forgotten how to do it.  Now I have sixteen bottles (bigger than the old root beer bottle) to share.

Or to keep all to myself.

Nah, just kidding.  I shall share.  I have a few folks around here that will get a taste, and I plan to bring a little across state lines when I travel to Florida in a few weeks for Mr. Shepherd’s wedding.  We’ll see if I can make it last that long.  It’s so good that I’m not sure if I can stop from drinking it all myself.

I made good beer.  See?  I’m actually good at something.

And Now It’s About Beer

First, I’ll just say that I have too many “hobbies.”  Well, not so much “hobbies” as things that take up all my spare time.  I ride bikes when I can and play the guitar even though I can’t, which leaves little time for anything else.  Once upon a time I made beer on a regular basis, but somehow that had fallen by the wayside in favor of buying it in its already consumable state.

I got the itch finally, so I scratched it.

It was the perfect storm of opportunity.  I was tired and sore from riding Pisgah, Lunchbox was sleeping, and the little lady was in the hills on her own mountain bike adventure.  While rummaging around the kitchen I realized that the dishwasher was completely empty.

A perfect opportunity to clean my bottles.

With the bottles going through the rinse cycle, I decided that I had plenty of time to brew up a batch of my not yet famous IPA.  I gathered the ingredients (which I had readily available for just this very moment), and got to work.  With a little fresh spring water, a big pot, and all of the rest of the shit you use to make beer at my disposal, I got busy.

It was magical.

I used cascade hops during the boil, adding them every so often (actually on a specific schedule) until I was ready to throw everything in the fermenter.  I added the yeast and stepped away.  That’s it.  Now I’ll check it in a few days and hopefully in a few weeks I’ll have a super bitter, high-ass alcohol content IPA to share with my closest of friends.  And since Dicky was kind enough to return one of my bottles from a previous batch, he’ll be one of the first to have one out of the new brew.

Speaking of bottles, I found this when I was gathering up everything.

Yes, I found a dust-covered bottle.  Actually, it was one I hid from myself many moons ago so I wouldn’t drink it (I have to do that sometimes.)  You see, sometimes the beer just tastes better when you let it age a bit, but I think maybe two years is a bit much.  I cleaned off the dust and put it in the fridge, and hoped that I wouldn’t poison myself in a few days when I tried it.

It looks like beer.  And yes, it tasted like beer.  The alcohol content was high, and the flavor was quite delightful.  It was almost the perfect beer, although I wouldn’t recommend  storing beer that long for future consumption.  Still, I was impressed.

When this new batch is ready, I’ll sit on some of it for a while (not two years though), but most likely I’ll share it as soon as I’ve done a few quality control checks.  It’s almost the same recipe as the last batch I made, so if I still know what I’m doing then it should be splendid.

We’ll see about that in a few weeks.

I Found Some Beer

It’s always a good day around here when I stumble across beer I’ve stashed away.  Not surprisingly, sometimes I have to hide it form myself to keep from drinking it all.  In this case, I went out to check on my brewing supplies in anticipation of making another batch of home brew.  It’s been quite a while since I brewed beer, and something told me that it’s time again.  While I was checking the status of my empty bottles, I found a case of my last batch of IPA.

Damn, I can’t believe it sat there untouched for so long.  That batch was damn good too.  In fact, it was the best I’ve ever made (it was even Dicky approved.)  The thought of stashing a few bottles away so they can “mature” may have crossed my mind, but I didn’t think I actually did it.  Sometimes I surpise myself.

So, the two bottles pictured above are sitting in the fridge for a few days, and I will drink them when I’m damn good and ready (I'm ready now, by the way.)  The rest of the bottles remain untouched, to be consumed in a few weeks I’m sure.

If I recall correctly, I hopped the shit outta these.  I want to say that I continuosly added hops for an hour, and dry hopped it afterwards.  The result was a smooth, yet bitter IPA that rivals a lot of my current favorites.  I wrote down what I did (somewhere), so next time I can duplicate it.  Out of all the batches of beer I’ve even made though, this has to be the longest I’ve let them sit before drinking.  I’m really curious to find out how they taste.

Maybe you are too.

I’ll let you know.

 

Meanwhile I’m gonna keep stocking up.

Mental Health Day

Sometimes you just gotta get away. After stressing over the little bit of friendly competition in the Winter Series and have a shit week at work, I had to do something about it. Getting out for a solo ride always seems to do the trick. Because of the rain over the weekend though, my local options were limited.


After much deliberation (which really came down to not wanting to drive too far), I headed out to Sherman Branch. I wanted a ride that wouldn’t challenge me too much, but keep me interested enough to want to turn the pedals. At first I regretted my decision, but after arriving in the parking lot I discovered that I would pretty much be alone out there.





I took it easy, but since I was on the single speed I had to work a little bit. It was a perfect ride. Nice, comfortable temps, great trail conditions, and best of all, solitude. I couldn’t hear anything else except the sound of my bike rolling through the woods.


It was just what I needed.


In other news, I busted out the “test bottle” of my home brew and poured it in a glass.



Looks and smells like beer, so it must be beer, right?


It was actually pretty good, but it’s not quite ready yet. It has a good flavor, a strong, hoppy bite, but it needs a little more time to condition. I figure that it needs about a week or two more and it will be highly drinkable. Well, it’s already drinkable, but I’m striving for perfection.

That's all for today.


Today’s post is shorter than usual, because well, I feel like making it shorter. You got something better?

I Have Plenty Of Beer

So why do I still think that I need more? Obviously my beer fridge stays fully stocked with a fine selection of yummy brews, but every once in a while I still crave something different. It’s been a while since I’ve mentioned that I actually brew my own sometimes (which means that I haven’t done it) and I pretty much tell y’all everything I do. There’s a reason I’ve put away the brewing equipment for so long though, and of course I’m gonna tell you.



For a most of the year, I was brewing (and drinking) my own beer non stop. I had a lot of fun seeing what I could come up with; especially since I can pretty much make whatever kind of beer I wanted. Since my favorite kind of beer is an IPA, I decided that I would make an extra hoppy one for the very first time. Up to that point I’d made a few pale ales, but never an IPA. I went crazy with the hops on that first batch, and it wasn’t too bad. Well, at least some of them. Out of the batch of 16 bottles, only about 5 of them were any good. I gave one to my good pal the MadSS to try, and he was less than impressed. When I asked him how he liked it, he said, “It wasn’t good.”


I knew I messed up somewhere in the bottling process, and that resulted in most of my brew not being carbonated. I was so discouraged that I stopped making beer for a long time. It wasn’t the MadSS’s comments that made me stop, but rather the fact that I knew I screwed up. Something changed for me the other night though, when the sudden urge to brew some beer hit me. I decided to take some baby steps this time and do it the simple way.



This is a pre-made beer kit, which was given to me by Little Miss Sunshine back in the summer. She took a trip to New England and decided that she would bring home some old-timey beer for me to make. I was in a self-imposed beer-making hiatus at the time, so I parked it on the shelf for a while. Finally I decided that I would give it a shot, since it seemed like the perfect way to get me back into making beer. All of the ingredients are pre-measured, and I didn’t need any of my fancy equipment. I started by mixing in the barley and hops (creating the wort):



Next step was to simmer it for a while:



After about 45 minutes or so, I cooled the pan of wort and got ready to ferment it. The directions said that this will make about a gallon of beer, so I used (per their recommendation) a gallon jug of spring water. After mixing the wort with the remaining water, I added the yeast and mixed it up. I topped off the bottle with the stopper and airlock:



Yeah, I know it doesn’t look much like beer. If you’ve ever brewed your own, then you’ve seen this before. It will look better by the time I drink it though (hopefully.) Now I just have to let it ferment for 5-7 days, then I can bottle it. I guess I’ll let y’all know how it turns out in a couple of weeks. Hell, maybe I’ll be drinking it for Christmas if I’m lucky. I hope it’s good.


Since it’s been a little too cold for me to get out on my bike, I guess I’ll be stuck doing “inside things” for a while. Maybe I’ll whip up another batch of beer while it’s still cold outside, or I could just finish off what’s in my beer fridge. So much for my “offseason” training program.