Friday

So the ski patrol party is this weekend, and I'm on a roll with brewing. I can't decide if I want to bail on the party and brew beer Saturday night. Oh, whats a brewer to do?

Moving day

Strange day today, I awoke hoping to get out for a run, but lacked the time to go the distance. Iz had a breakfast meeting at 7:00am and I was in charge of dropping the kids of today. So no run, but I did get some work done at 5:30am this morning. Good thing because I found out at lunch today that my office was going to be moved after lunch. WTF? Good thing I'm flexible.
It's the end of the month so all the typical crazy month end shit is starting now. EEK! Maybe I'll try to swing making some beer in the next few days. It's nice to have my inventory up for a change. Still working on that Imperial Stout. I'm also considering an Amber ale with some nice Centennial, Cascade, and Northern Brewers hops to throw in it.

Haiku Wednesday

Fog eats at the snow
Delicious Spring Conditions
No sunshine Tuesday

Another fine Spring Day

I spent yet another fine Tuesday at the Mountain today enjoying some splendid Spring conditions. Today for a change I was caught on film in the fog.....on Ripcord. This is a video of Sam and I making turns on the cord. Thanks Mooie!

kindergarten registration

This morning we registered Winter for Kindergarten. How exciting is that? We even submitted a letter requesting her placement at the Green Street School. Time seems to be ripping by so quickly I'm afraid to blink.
By the way my new toy arrived today, It's the ice ax I'll be using to earn my turns up at Tucks in a few weeks. Stay posted as that adventure unfolds.

Spring skiing with Winty

Winty and I headed over to Mt. Snow today for some fine homestyle spring skiing, complete with mashed potatoes, and a dummy downhill. This was Winter's fourth day out this season. We may get one more day in before the mountain closes. Who knows maybe we'll make the trip to Killington for some late April fun if time permits. Anyway this will be her final season in the harness. Next year she's off to Snow Camp for the learning experience of a lifetime. I think I have been able to give her the taste she needed to get hooked on this wonderful sport. Next season, Grace will be carving up big turns with the purple/pink harness.
Despite her inability to make the Pizza wedge it was a terrific morning complete with some nice turns. No Manzo sightings this weekend, but I did run into his brother Scott, friend Lanna, and Lanna's son Nikita before cashing it in and heading over to watch the dummy downhill and meet up with Iz and Grace. Did I mention it snowed another 3 inches at the mountain last night? Winter just can't seem to let go, and I'm okay with that.

Got my JooJoo on in the brewery Saturday night

Tonight was an epic night in the basement brewery. I racked 30 gallons of beer in various stages of fermentation all while brewing some Pale ale. I racked the American Pilsner to kegs last night. Now I have them conditioning in my lager chamber. I racked the Altbier that I brewed last week to secondary fermentation. I may end up cold conditioning this beer prior to putting it into kegs. As I briefly mentioned above I brewed an English style Pale Ale tonight. No shortage of hops here either. This baby went into the books with 45 IBU's and 1.5 ounces of Challenger hops at knockout. I fell short on the gravity for this one, which is no surprise lately.
My target was a lofty 1.060, and I ended up with 1.056. Despite my shit for efficiency, it will still be a fine beer. I'm going to invest in a new mill soon to remedy this situation and hopefully improve my efficiency. Right now I'm running at approximately 55%. With a more efficient roller style mill, I am certain that I will be a able to get my efficiency up to 80% which would not only be ideal, but permit me to brew higher gravity brews without maxing out my mash tun.

Taking full advantage of my time in the basement also afforded me a complete cleanup of my gear ready and prep it for the next brew session. I'm already thinking about my next batch. Maybe we'll shoot for a dark beer like a stout just to balance things up around here, as well as bring additional diversity to the beer selections on tap.
Coming to visit us soon? Something you would like to taste? Let me know, and I'll see what I can brew up. haha! Unfortunately no Belgians will be brewed until that new mill arrives.

Grace goes alpine

Grace got her first taste of alpine skiing on Saturday when we headed over to Living Memorial park to ride the T-bar and make her first gravity fed turns. We made three runs and then headed over to the park for some freestyle play followed by a trip to the Chelsea for some strawberry ice cream for her alpine efforts.

Busy, busy, busy

I have been incredibly busy at home and at the office the past few weeks, as a result I really have not had much time for blogging. Here is what I do know. The Spring skiing/riding right now is exceptional here in Southern Vermont. I took off on Tuesday, well um.....actually every Tuesday in March except the 13th to work the rescue gig over at the mountain.
The brewery has seen a surge in production lately. I brewed an altbier last week that I'm planning on racking to secondary fermentation tonight,. The Pilzner's brewed recently hve turned out terrific. I was going to brew a Pale ale tonight, but I'm feeling a little under the weather, so I'll lay low and just do some prep work in order to get the brew done sometime this weekend or Monday night. I haven't seen much of my partner this week either, so some QT with Iz would be nice. I'm also in the process of planning the Tuckermans Hajj.

On a side note I had a great conversation with my friend Dave Watson today, whom I haven't spoken to in ages. He's headed to Newfoundland with Meathead films in a few weeks for some backcountry skiing, getting married to Audrey in May, moving to Minnesota, and planning his third trip to summit Everest. He also gave me some good insight on picking theright ice ax for my trip to Tucks. Thanks Watson, and good luck!

Haiku Wednesday

A brilliant blue sky.
Mid-Winter ski conditions.
-Vernal Equinox

Out with the video camera

I brought the video camera to the mountain on Tuesday. Here is some choice footage of Tony and Chris ripping it up on Jaws. JC and I were also playing in the glades which BTW was hip deep in places.

Haiku Wednesday

Bitter Cold March Day.
Sun is getting high in the sky.
Tuckerman's is getting near.

Trout said...

It was cold today, and I believe him. We were living the dream today with -16f on the summit. Ripcord was ripping, as well as the Rock Garden, and Sap-tapper. WE skied mostly stuff that isn't on a current trail map. Amazing how much snow can actually blow around the mountain and manage to fill everything in. It is estimated that the temps on the summit were -50f with the wind chill. If you see Tony, ask him what he thought of Ricpcord on Tuesday.

Monday changes

So the controller of the company that I work for is officially leaving for another job. I have worked for Kim for 4.5 years, and will certainly miss her. She was a fine person to work with. We celebrated her new endeavor with a field trip to Burdicks for some chocolaty-doccolotty treats, and coffee. I'll wave as we pass in opposite directions down the highway.

Sunday Riding

When my daughter and I left the mountain Saturday morning it was snowing. When we arrived home, it was sunny out. Later on it rained in the afternoon. Sunday morning, I cam to find out while it was raining in Brat, it had been snowing at Mt. Snow. My first run down started with some warm up turns on Freefall into PDF. The mountain was blessed with at least six inches of pow. This did not include all the windblown drifts. Wow, what a day. It actually snowed all day Sunday, until it was time to go home. Another brilliant day of riding. Things did get a little hairy at the end of the down on Olympic. That turned out well for everyone. Whew.

The Harness

We hit the mountain early Saturday morning for some fine turns in the corduroy. Well I made turns while my daughter made French fries. We enjoyed Deer Run, Rusty Nail, and Fairway. Trout and Lila showed up and we all got to ride lift number 3. It was an action packed morning, followed by an even more exciting adult oriented evening.
The Manzo threat came to fruition, actually it was a double Manzo sighting. He, and his brother showed up in VT, along with Scott's friend Lanna. Iz, and I met them all for dinner at Shin-La. While we intended to have sushi, it turned into a full tilt night at Peter Havens, complete with a detour to the wine bar, and seven degrees of separation.

Classic New England Storm Today

Today in Vermont we are enjoying a classic New England snowstorm. This came complete with snow, sleet, freezinain, and just plain old rain. I checked in with my friends over at the summit of Mt. Snow this morning and they reported 12 inches of pow-pow. When I called around three pm It was reported to be raining, and everything was icing over, READ: hard and nasty. It should be switching back to all snow in the next couple hours, so with some creative grooming everything should be in good shape for the weekend, except the woods!!!
It's raining now so I'm bailing out of work early to get home before it switches back to freezing rain then snow. Enjoy your weekend, I know I'll be ripping it up on the slopes, and in the backcountry over the next few days.
I friggin love for this kind of weather.