Racked and dry hopped.

=

Fat Tire Finale!

This was a most unexpected finale. I really did think it would be raining at some point during this whole thing but we actually had solid weather for the duration. 

The destination today was Confluence Brewery which is near Gray's Lake just outside downtown Des Moines. We got a private (as a group) look and tasting session before the public grand opening. This place isn't joking around - large capacity and way bigger than any other brewer in the nearby area.

Multiple kettles.

Heading back to El Baitshop to wait for the bike raffle.

...I don't know what this is.

After the raffle (didn't win), we went looking for some offroad trails to ride. We had 2x CX bikes and one road bike?

Not many pictures of the trails (as I was working to keep my road-bike upright on wet dirt) but this one dead-ended in some construction.

Found some ultra-fine/dense sand that my bike easily stood up in.

Preparing preserves

My bourbon-cask stout is finally about six months old, so I bottled it up. I'm not sure why, but there seems to be no pictures after washing bottles. Oh well - the whole batch made 46 bottles after the neck popped off of one. It also became apparent that I can't cap the big clay Rogue bottles without a bench-top capper, which was a bummer. I need to make sure and use some regular bomber bottles next time. Time for some more cooking at any rate - all the carboys are empty!

The Great Explodini

Ever wondered what happens if you fill a carboy waaay too full when doing a primary fermentation?

Wonder no more!

I didn't see this happen so I'm only left to put the puzzle together. It must have been quite something - there was beer half way up the nearby wall. Ah well, it'll still be delicious.

Long time with no post again, I'll go with "work has been a zoo and I didn't feel like it". There, I knew this picture would come in handy for something. This isn't a real big zoo though, we just have a giraffe, elephant (possibly goring something?), and a bean-stalk. 

Brewing has been going well - this was the third batch and used up all remaining ingredients we had. I now have five gallons each of nut-brown ale, cream ale, and some sort of tarted Belgian ale. There are LOT more steps than wine-making but it all goes so much quicker (no waiting for months and years), plus it's fun to do some actual cooking with it too.

A handy by-product of brewing is the spent grains, which birds seem to be a big fan of. This pile is even bigger now and there definitely aren't enough birds around to eat it. It doesn't seem to be spoiling yet so hopefully it'll last a while.

Plus it just makes you feel good to know that these baby birds are being fed with only the freshest beer grains.  

I have no idea what this fungus is. It's been on our garage for a little while now and if ever I might have seen a magic mushroom, this would seem to be it. 

Got some video of the out-flow from Red-rock this past weekend. It's about 22k cfs here. Should be at 30k by tomorrow I believe. This is still low enough that none of the camp-grounds or roads get consumed. The forecast looks to be somewhat drier moving forward, so that should help.

Corrine and I had a picnic (Arby's) dinner on the beach Friday night. The weather was about perfect and the sun kept peaking out every now and then. It becomes more obvious to me all the time how much I need outdoors and open spaces. Just this short trip really filled me up and made everything feel great again. I need to make a point of getting out away from town more so I can get some photography inspiration going again. 

Paddling, Brewing and Birdwatching

Saturday morning was cool and cloudy. I left the house with long-sleeves and a coat on, never imagining I'd get sunburn like crazy. We went for a float on the Des Moines with friends and it wasn't far down river before the sun peeked out and temps warmed right up. It turned out to be a perfect day to do this. We definitely had a great time and after finding the tiniest little rapid near the end, the whitewater bug has certainly latched on and isn't going anywhere. First I think we'll find a vessel other than a Sears "Free Spirit" lake raft that I bought at an auction for $2.

Here I am powering the Free Spirit. It really didn't work too bad except that roughly 75% of energy expended goes into directional control and 25% is for forward motion. Do my sunglasses look messed up on my face? Yes, they do only have one temple. No they are not comfortable. I can't believe they made it to the end without falling off in the water.

Using the Free Spirit's cavernous space to take a break from direction control.

This is a retired rail bridge that has been a single-lane car bridge as long as I can remember. One end of it is still held up by wooden pylons. You can see its replacement in the background. The old bridge was still in service until just few years ago when this highway was redone.

The latter half of Saturday was the big day. Brewing time! I've got the new kettle heating up here. Everything was a success thus far and it's fermenting nicely in the house right now. There are a LOT more steps than making wine, but it's really not any harder. It definitely needs more equipment and a larger variety of ingredients though. This was a five gallon kit and I've got two more kits to go after this one. Anyone need lots of beer?

Monitoring a boil.

Storm after storm after storm it would seem. This one rolled through while I was at work yesterday and as I sit here typing this, another fairly severe one is passing over.

We usually have mourning doves hanging around our house but I've never seen them act this tame before. Corrine was working in the backyard and they just stayed right here while we walked around and talked about them. Perhaps they knew the storm was coming - I may have looked for better cover though.

Sunset from last week sometime I think? Saw it left over on the SD card and thought I'd post it.