Boys night out

Iz and the girls went to Lowell for the night. I got to hang with B, Murph, and Mr. Fuller. We checked out some Stone smoked porter from the roof of the Riverview and fished our night off at Murph's house watching the Sox get swept by the Rays.
Murph let me borrow a helmet for the ride home.

Three Carbouys in Less then Thirty Days

It happened again last night. Another carbouy bit the dust. B was racking the Hefeweizen to final packaging and was preparing a five gallon carbouy as a precaution to deal with any excess volume issues. Well there were no volume issues, but while he was cleaning the carbouy it slipped and broke. Funny how glass and water always win. I'm now down to four
He cut himself pretty good. Luckily no stitches required.

The Saison fell slightly short of the target gravity, but landed well within range for the style. It came in at 1.063. We are going to ferment it on the high side with hopes to produce some nice esters from the WLP 565 yeast that we used. Due to it's relatively moderate rate of attenuation It will likely sit in primary fermentation for around three weeks and then get finished off with a dose of WLP 550 to dry it out.
Due to warm temps and capacity issues this will likely be the last brew for a few weeks.

Summer Sasion

B and I are brewing a summer Saison today. I got all the malt measured up last night, along with the orange peels, ginger, and whirlfoc. I completed the final calculation for this beer today, and he going to mash in around 2:00 pm. I'll be blasting out of the office around 3:45pm on my bicycle for the ride home. At this rate I may fit in another hundred miles this week.
Brilliant!

The Hosfeld Rebound

Mattie stopped by on his way back to PA today. We had originally planned on getting out for a road ride, but due to the copious amounts of thunder and lightning we decided to rack to beer and hit the Top of the Hill Grill for lunch.

A Hundred Mile Week and a Beerfest

I managed to get in ~115 miles on my bike this week. It feels good to be getting mileage like this in. Today I'm hooking my friend Ray up by serving his beer at the Green River Brewfest. It is likely the first time that I will ever go to a beerfest and return home sober.

Gile Mountain Loop- Blue Ribbon Trail

Friday morning Mattie and I had plans to meet the weasel in Norwich to ride the blue ribbon trail. Iz arranged a play date for Grace with some friends in Norwich.
We rolled out at 10:30 for Norwich. I dropped Grace off, and we met up with the crusty weasel and his friend Jim. We commenced the ride, and some very nice suffering, and singletrack. Matt was looking somewhat green and ended up booting on the climb. It must have been that "How about a nice greasy pork sandwich served in a dirty ashtray" comment that sent him over the edge.
We enjoyed two hours of singltrack bliss, with a nice easy spin back to the car.
Maybe you had too much to fast?

Long Weekend but no Brewing scheduled

I have Friday off this week. All my primary fermentation vessels are full, so I'm pretty much at capacity right now. I had considered making some more chocolate stout this weekend, but for now have opted to simply take the weekend off from brewing.
Friday I'll be mountain biking with Matty and the Weasel.
Saturday I'll be doing a little bit of work for my friend Ray, by serving up his beer at the Greenfield Brewers Festival.
Sunday is up in the air. So, maybe I will end up making some beer this weekend after all.

More brewhouse damage

I was inspecting the second five gallons of APA in Secondary fermentation on Monday night and noticed a hairline crack in the carbouy. This makes the second casualty in less then two weeks. WTF?

Fathers Day Fifty

I had a slight change of plans on Sunday morning. Instead of the original plan of going for a mountain bike ride, Murph and I ended up cruising down Greenfield to drop off my Brother in laws cellphone before he headed back to Boston. It turned into my first 50 mile ride of the year. I had some close calls in May, but no Fifty milers. It was a brilliant ride.
We enjoyed dinner with the Eagle family. I even broke down and enjoyed about 12-16 oz beer yesterday. At around 9:30 last night I was finally able to reach my dad to wish him a Happy Fathers day. He's a good guy, I just wish he wasn't so opinionated.

Double Decoction at Dawn

I brewed up the Super Pilz this morning. Winty and I woke up around 5:45. I rolled out of bed, made some coffee and doughed in at 6:40 am. I wrapped things up by 2:30pm today. It was a big day in the brew house for a big beer.
My original plans were to brew up the Bohemian Pilz, however after performing a double decoction I determined that I was going to be overshooting my gravity in a major way. As a result I adjusted the Hop profile to meet my new target gravity, and voila The Super Pilz was created. It's fermenting away happily in the lager chamber.

I have a brewing problem

It certainly doesn't look like a drinking problem. Seems to me I have more of a brewing problem. I am compelled to brew to maximum capacity. With that said, I have had to make some minor adjustments to the styles I will be brewing in the next few weeks. The temps have jumped to around 73-77 in the basement. This is well beyond the acceptable fermentation range for almost any beer.
As a result I will be making use of my lager chamber. Saturday morning I plan on making some Bohemian Pilsener. Fortunately I can still make lager beers in this heat. The downside is it takes almost three months to complete the process.

There is one style that seems to fair well in with higher fermentation temperatures. This anomaly is the Saison , which is sometimes more commonly know as a farmhouse ale. So with that said as long as the temps in my basement stay above 70f, I'm going to brew some Saison. I'm in the process of growing up some yeast to an acceptable pitching rate, and expect to have my first Saison in primary fermentation sometime next week.

Spontaneous HefeWeizen

Winter was home sick for the third day in a row today. Iz was also home for the third day and desperately needed to get into the office to get some work done. I seized the opportunity and left work early to be at home with Winty. I also seized the opportunity to make some beer. Nice Summer beer. So Lickity split, I was mashing in, and brewed up a nice super light wheat beer. With an OG of 1.043 this easy drinker will chime in around 4%. The perfect summer session beer.

I also had a chance to rack the Beach Blonde to final packaging. This is slated to beer I'm taking on vacation for the whole family to enjoy. I moved ~5 gallons of APA to cold conditioning, and ran out of room in the conditioning chamber. Inventory is looking up.

The cow parade

The strolling of the Heifers took place on Saturday. Astrid and Buddy joined us for the event. It turned into a full on dairy feast complete with cheese, milk, yogurt, and of course ice cream.

Casualities in the Brewhouse

While racking the APA to secondary last might I managed to break one of my carbouys. This is the second carbouy that I have managed to break in the past eighteen months. While I did escape injury, I did not emerge unscathed. While cleaning out my conical I managed to slice my middle finger. This is the second time in less then ten days that I have managed to cut myself while working down in the brewery. I guess it's time to get a basic first aid kit down there so I can stop bloodying up the towels.

On a postive not I did order two additional five gallon cornies this week. They should be in by Friday. This will bring the cornelius keg inventory up to nine, thus enabling me to have up to forty-five gallons of packaged beer. It's not a hobby, it's an obsession.

Temperance

Starting today I'm embarking on a three week cleanse. Iz is doing a three week cleanse and abstaining from Alcohol, caffeine, sugar, and wheat. I'm sure I probably forgot something in there, but you get the point.
I'm going to give up alcohol for the next three weeks. Yes, you heard it right, no beer for Glib. As for those other things... I aside from alcohol my consumption of those others is rather limited. With that said wish me luck sailing the SOBER seas for the next three weeks.

The Classic APA

I brewed up a classic American Pale Ale for my Memorial day mashing session. I dumped the cooled wort on the yeast cake from the blond that I brewed last week. I nearly sliced off the tips of my index and middle fingers on my right hand when my 14.6 gallons conical fermenter slipped out of my hands. Oh the ouch, and the blood. Luckily no stitches were required.
Close call.
This evening we enjoyed a cookout over at Carl's house with some great BBQ and some fine Belgian Ales.

All fun and games til Granddad shows up

My father and brother showed up and surprised me last night to help me celebrate my 40th birthday. Hank, Carl and my sister also showed up as well as my in-laws. Much fun was had by all. As you can clearly see the girls were quite excited to see their Grand Dad.

Meanwhile, I got to blow some candles out, eat some ice cream cake, and enjoy some fine Belgian style beers for Rob Todd and the fine brewers at Allagash.
Thomas, Grace, Iz, and I also went to all-school sing this morning to hear Winter's class perform "Hang on Sloopy".

Forty it's the new thirty

At least that's what it said on the inside of the birthday card from my Sister this week. While it sounds cliché, there apparently is some merit to this statement. As the photo albums came flying out on Saturday night everyone had an opportunity to review the kodachromed documentation of my forty year history. While reflecting I can honestly say I have enjoyed very many rich experiences in this life with minimal scat.

I guess I'm very fortunate to have a loving family, and have made many good friends over the years, as well some very good beer.
So after two children, and nearly ten years of marriage I'm full on back into brewing and riding my bicycle, as well as my snowboard.

Joyeux anniversaire!
Here's to forty more years of enjoying the ride.
By the way if forty is the new thirty, I certainly hope that I don't try and pee in my closet tonight.

Yeast Harvest

I top cropped some 1056 American Ale yeast of off the Blond tonight. The Trub tripel appears to be done. The krausen has finally subsided. What to make next?

Sunday brew

I was planning on brewing the blond over in Bennington on Sunday, but this party go in the way. Instead I decided to brew at home. I had everything ready to go. I ran into a few small obstacles like finding a mouse turd in the mash water, and running out of gas while heating my sparge water.

After dumping the water and cleaning the kettle I was ready to brew. I always keep a spare tank on hand. It took a few minutes to swap out the propane tank, and we were back in action. My friend Dave and his kids stopped by, and ended up coming back for dinner with the rest of his family. Funny thing about this weekend was I didn't get my swerve on until Sunday night. With that said I was a little worn out this morning.

The blond came out great. Hit my gravity, but missed my volume. I'm losing almost a gallon of wort to trub. I will need to come up with a false bottom in my kettle so I can reclaim more wort out of kettle. My ghetto set-up continues to evolve.

A suprise for me

It poured buckets of rain Friday night, so Carl and I decided that a road ride would be in order instead of the originally scheduled mtn bike ride. We rolled out at 1:00pm from Greenleaf St. and headed towards Collins Road in West Halifax. Thirty seven miles later and 2500 feet of climbing we rolled back to Carl's house to hose off and sit in the hot tub.
We got cleaned up and then headed over to my house for dinner. Well much to my surprise when we arrived there was a party waiting for me. I'm turning forty in a few days, and Iz decided to throw me a low key party. It was a perfect event complete with BBQ from the Top of the Hill and Beer supplied by my friend Ray. Needless to say I would not be joining my friends in Bennington to make beer Sunday.

National Bicycle Week

Along with it being national bicycle week, today is National Bike/Walk to Work Day. While I didn't ride in today, I will be riding home. I usually take the bus Fridays so I can slip in a ride home on Thursday or Friday. I'll be heading out for my first mtn bike ride of the year with Carl Saturday, and then big plans to brew beer in Bennington on Sunday with my scary internet friends

Mothers day Mayhem

All fun and games until Grammy gets the accordion out. We spent Mothers day down at Grammy's house enjoying a cookout, fine music, good beer, and naturally the marakas.

Another stone in the wall & some racking

My good friend Jim and I rebuilt the granite retaining wall out in front of the house today. We are in the process of landscaping it. With some more love and hard work the house will slowly become an asset to the neighborhood again.

I did get down in the brewery today for racking and final packaging. I put four gallons of the Belgian Strong Golden ale on tap and finally racked the Trub Tripel to secondary fermentation. It's present gravity is at 1.020. I'm hoping to get is down a few more points. My friend Emily's father is going to let me borrow his floor corker so I can bottle up these beers later on this summer. The Tripel will likely remain in secondary for a month or two,and then will be cold conditioned for another month. So it will likely be around August when this gets bottled.

Stalled operations

I decide to hang with Winty instead of brewing on Wednesday. Needless to say my brewing operations have stalled out this week.

The Blonde

I'm brewing up a classic Blonde ale this week. Wednesday I will attempt to brew after I pick up Winter from school. This can get very tricky, as I will also need to pick Grace up and make dinner Wednesday night. As long as my mash doesn't get stuck I think it will all work out. It's certainly is nice to see the fermenters filling up again.

Tripel still in active fermentation

I checked the gravity on Trub Tripel Saturday and it has dropped to 1.030. I'm hoping this will finish out somewhere between 1.010 and 1.014 before it gets racked to an extended secondary fermentation. I have a very good feeling about this beer turning up as a medal winner.

Otherwise it was quiet in the brewhouse this weekend. Mostly cleaning up and racking beer to final packaging. I had big plans for a Blonde Ale on AHA homebrew day Saturday, but lacked motivation so I'll likely brew this one up on Wednesday this week.

Farmers Market in the rain

We ended up walking to the farmers market in the rain . I converted the bike trailer into stroller mode and we took off to get the greens. They had a maypole set up and Winter's music teacher was orchestrating the maypole dance. The maypole isn't so much fun in the pouring rain.
My sister showed up and chased the girls around while Iz grabbed the greens and I got everything in order for this years CSA.

Recipe Designs

I have recently found myself branching out beyond the usual ales & lagers I typically brew. This has lead to an increased interest in brewing more German style beers that may include one or more decoctions. As a result I have found myself researching and reading up on brewing styles that I haven't tinkered with. It seems I can never get my hands on enough brewing literature.

Four

Grace hit four years today. Wow, hard to imagine how quickly they grow.
Happy Birthday Gracie!

Trub Tripel Going Ape

So anytime I ever use a five gallon glass carboy for a primary fermenter, I always stick a blow off tube on the cap. In the end I'm always pleased with the results. The fermentation of these beers seem to always go crazy. I went down to the basement for some airlock sniffing this morning and found the catch basin for my blow-off tubes overflowing. This is a really good sign of some healthy fermentation going on. It looks like the yeast are really enjoying the trub. Go yeast go!

Trub Tripel

I went ahead and brewed up a Tripel on Sunday. It seems as if I have been working on this recipe for a very long time. Well it all came to fruition today. Iz got called to work at the coop, and I had some free time to kick around in the basement since I wasn't going to be riding my snowboard today. I ended up dumping the wort on the cake from the Belgian Strong Golden Ale that I recently brewed with the WLP 550. I also added a tube of WLP 500 to one of the five gallon carboys just to see what would happen with addition of another yeast.
The brew session didn't come off hitch free. As it turns out there were several small children playing in the basement. As a result my attention was turned periodically to them. While transferring the chilled wort to the carboys I ended up with a little more trub then I wanted. So much so, that i became gravely concerned with the possible outcome of having to much trub in the fermenter. I did a little research on this, and discovered that trub is good. Yeast like it, and apparently people like the end result as well.
So there you have it my Trub Tripel. This sucker might be ready to drink by the new year. See link for recipe.

Butterfly Conservatory

Winty, Grace and I made a trip down to Deerfield today to visit the Magic Wings Butterfly Conservatory. We saw very many different butterflies, ans well as some poisonous frogs and a bearded dragon. If you have an opportunity to visit this place, I would highly recommend it.

Sushi experiment

Grace and I made sushi last night. It turned out quite good, and oddly enough it was painfully simple to make. Grant it I didn't use any of that fancy fish. I'll need to quiz up the fish monger for the right tuna to use.

First Rate Week

This past week gets my overall vote for the number one rated week of the year for me. I got to go on a date with my wife, ride my bike, make beer, get to Fenway, play with the kids, and ride my snowboard. More brewing on the docket this week.

Laps on Ripcord

I did laps on ripcord and jaws this afternoon. The riding is still stellar! Hopefully Tuckermans next Sunday.

Fenway Fun

Saturday evening I headed down to Fenway with my friend Todd and his neighbors Clover and Scott for some baseball action. Todd scored some standing room only seats which translated into a nice view from some seats in section nineteen. Manny cracked a two run homer in the bottom of the eighth inning tonight which turned the tide helped give the Sox a win over Texas. This was his 496 career home run.

Riding Pips Wheel

I ran into Pip on the way home Thursday. He let me ride his wheel for a few miles before dropping me like a sack of potatoes on the climb to the Putney town line. Now if I could only figure out a way to brew more beer, get some skiing in, and fit one more ride in during the week.

Strong Golden Ale

I brewed up ten gallons of a Belgian Strong Golden Ale yesterday. On Wednesday's I pick up Winty from school. Today I decided to try and fit in a late afternoon brew session. It turned into a success, and now I have a total of forty gallons in the fermenters. This is great news since my kegerator has been dry for over a week now. Winty helped with the mash in today, and Gracie helped me pitch the wort.














Ah beer glorious beer!

The return of the Belgian Golden Ale

I made a yeast starter on Sunday with plans to ultimately brew a Tripel. Instead of ramping up the yeast from the get-go I'm planning on getting a few lower gravity beers out of this batch of 1st generation WLP-550. So with that said I'm going to revisit a brew session the Belgian Golden Ale this today, perhaps a Dubbel to follow shortly after, and then the Tripel. With that said at the end of the summer I should have a massive stockpile of Belgian Beers for consumption. Now if I could only find a corker!

Commuting home

I certainly do enjoy the commute home on Tuesdays and Thursdays. It's early season, so I usually run into Pip heading North while I'm on my way South.
Only two near death experiences today due to clueless douche pilots.

Souther Tier Beer Dinner at the Sierra Grille

Iz and I attended the Southern Tier beer dinner tonight at the Sierra Grille. This ended up being a rather spontaneous event for us. I happened to be perusing the Beer Advocate forum last week and noticed that the Sierra Grille was hosting one of their quasi-monthly beer dinners. This month the Souther Tier brewery was being represented.

Until last Wednesday I had never heard of this brewery. Initially my enthusiasm to attend was lukewarm. Then I remembered O'Brian's impeccable tasted for fine food and fabulous beer. This became a no-brainer beer adventure into the unknown. A beer dinner with a host of beers made by a brewery I knew virtually nothing about.
Well the dinner was great. The food was great, and the service extraordinary as usual.
One of the courses included a deviled egg with cheese, and pepperoni. Since I abstain from red meat we decide to have fun with the pepperoni. I present you with shiny happy meat.

Amarillo Pale Ale V2.0

I brewed up my Amarillo Pale Ale this morning. After making the best of Friday evening's unfortunate circumstances I mashed in bright and early this morning. I did overshoot my gravity a mile, but eventually attributed this to coming up short in my final volume. I came up a gallon short today. I'll be able to backfill this batch with some Pale Ale that has been cold conditioning in the basement for several months. Next up on the schedule will be a Belgian Pale. Here is the Grist composition from this mornings brew This grist has pretty much become the base for my standard Pale Ale recipe. It makes a fine beer.

	Malted Wheat	8.333%
	Crystal malt	8.333%
	Munich malt	8.333%
Pale Malt		75.00%

Along with the Hop Schedule:

Hop, addition and the IBU's

Perle-Kettle		20
Centennial-Kettle		10
Amarillo- Middle		10
Amarillo- Late		5
Amarillo-Knockout		0
Amarillo- Dry Hop		0

Passive roller failure in the brewery

It rained most of the day today, and Thomas and Co. were bailing out of VT end retreating back to New York. This meant dinner plans would be canceled. This also meant Iz was going to be headed to Chemslford for the night with the girls. I took advantage of this gift from Iz, and seized the opportunity to get brewing in the basement.
It all went according to plan until the passive roller on my mill stopped spinning. I was dead in the water Friday evening with 20 pounds of malt left to run through the mill. Bollocks! I had to remove all the un-milled grain from the hopper, and disassemble the friggin roller assembly. Talk about a major PITA. I broke the roller assembly down, cleaned it, gave it a little lube love, re-assembled it, and it still wouldn't turn.
I ended up backing the rollers out as far as they would go, and tossed a handful of grain into the rollers. It worked! I slowly dialed the spacing between the rollers to .038 and hooked up the power drill. The rollers were now spinning with the drill attachment on the mill. I then put the hopper back on the mill, and finished milling the grist for the next brew. This unforeseen project almost two hours to complete. With this time lost, there was no way I was going to be up until 1:00 AM making beer on a Friday night. Instead I decided that mashing in at 7:00 on Satuday would be a better idea.

Belgian & American Pale Ale

It surely looks like rain on Friday and Saturday. With that said, I'm going to pull out all the stops and shoot for making some pale ale. Recipes to be loaded soon.

Commuting success

I enjoyed the first bike ride of the year yesterday. It's so nice to just get out on the bike and pedal circles. I guess I'm almost ready to let go of Winter. My brother is supposed to visit this week for some spring skiing fun. If we get washed out this weekend, I'm planning on squeezing in two brew sessions. A Belgian Pale ale and perhaps an American Pale Ale. Gotta get them fermenters filled!

Back on the bike.

I'm please to announce I'm getting back into my routine of riding home twice a week on my bike. Oh, what joy and delight this brings me. I'm very excited that Spring has finally arrived in Vermont. We'll enjoy some fabulous Spring like conditions for the next few days. I'm going to take advantage of this. Here's to reducing my carbon footprint.

Winter's first backyard goal

Astrid was over for a play date this afternoon. The girls were kicking the soccer ball around, and Winter managed to score her backyard goal today.

Chocolate Stout Redux

I brewed up the Chocolate Stout clone again this weekend. I aimed a little higher on the gravity. My target was 1.062 and I ended up somewhere around 1.068. The wort hadn't completely cooled to pitching temps when I checked the gravity it came in at 1.066 at ~78f. In order to compensate for the hydrometer's calibration set at 68f, I would need to add at least .002 points for accuracy. I'll have to dig up my calibration guide and double check this for accuracy.

This brew session went okay. While everything worked out fine today, I felt somewhat disorganized. I think I need to sit down and rethink the brew sculpture setup. I need to figure out a method that requires less lifting. Perhaps one of them fancy pumps should be added to my wish list.
I also picked up some Centennial hop Rhizomes today. This will be most excellent as I am looking forward to having my own hop flowers on hand.

Friday Snow event

It's snowing again today. Gotta love it. Unfortunately it will turn over two mixed precipitation before going to an all rain event later today. It's Gallery walk tonight and both of the girls are having their artwork showcased at different exhibits. They having already been begging for naps today so that that may go the distance tonight. Astrid and Suzanne are also going to join us tonight.

Burnsie Sighting

Burnsie was in town for his class on Tuesday night. We enjoyed a few pints over at Ray's place. We managed to throw some darts and engage in deep conversation with some interesting characters.

Sidd Finch

The story of Sidd Finch is probably the best April Fool's hoax I have ever had the opportunity to get sucked into. I remember reading the article in Sports Illustrated while sitting in Don Midway's Sociology class in high school. It is a classic, and I highly recommend checking it out.

Manzo sigthing in Southern Vermont

Manzo showed up in town on Friday afternoon. We consumed copious amounts of homebrewed beer and homemade Thai food on Friday night, followed by a liberal dose of skiing and riding on Saturday. Aside from Ripcord being closed, the conditions at the mountain couldn't be better for the tail end of March. I expect we will be enjoying the delight of lift serviced downhill fun at Mt. Snow until the end of April. Yahoo!

The Reggae fest went off Saturday night without Toots and the Maytals. It was fun, but just not the same without a big name act like Toots. Isabel, Manzo and his friend Billy, I all got to hang out at the fest while I worked rescue for the event.

Creamy!

Creamy turns were had today! I really must do something about that trailing hand.

More Pow on the way today

It started snowing overnight, and we are looking a total accumulation of 5-10 inches today. So with that said I'm enjoying my final Friday off in March with some fresh Spring pow. With that said the Manzo threat has been elevated to Orange today. We'll see if he actually shows up this weekend.

Celebration Ale redux

I brewed up my Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale clone Saturday morning instead of riding my snowboard. Hit the gravity just fine, but failed to hit my volume. I added about 1.5 gallons water to make my volume and reduced my gravity to 1.055 instead of 1.060. A small price to pay for a little more beer. I'll need to check my numbers and see where I may have run into issues affecting my final volume.

Friday Face shots

I worked at the Mountain Today. I enjoyed my second face shot of the season. It was simply brilliant. With all this snow it's hard to imagine it's the end of March. It has been one stellar ski season. By the looks of it, we may not be wrapping things up here until the end of April.

Grace at the office

Grace's preschool is closed today. As a result she got to come into the office with me for the morning.
She sat quietly engaged in coloring and playing with puzzles. We even did some slam dunks with the Nerf hoop I have set up here.
I'm off Friday and will be working at the mountain.

Winter weekend hat-trick

Well I pulled it off this weekend. I skied Friday, and got to ride my snowboard on Saturday and Sunday. I spent Friday with friends and family at Stratton, and then followed up it up with two days at Mount Snow working and riding my snowboard. Now I just need to fit in some beer making, and get on my bike.

Friday Family Fun

I got out and skied Stratton today with my brother and sister. Aside from taking my daughters out skiing, my alpine skis don't see too much action anymore. My arches seemed to remind me of this after just about every turn. It's not often I get to hang out with my siblings.
Jerry, Hank and Suzie also skied with us today. I'm back on the snowboard tomorrow.

Where has this week gone?

Tom and Jerry are visiting for a few days for some Spring skiing. I'm taking Friday off to head on over to Stratton. I'm even going to be two planking it with the Salomon Pilots. Thanks for the skis Manzo!

Spring?

Despite the mountain of snow outside, Spring must be on the way. I actually heard birds chirping this morning. How much snow is in your backyard?

Who are these moe.rons?

Michael and I headed down to Northampton last night to meet up with Al & Vinnie to see their band play at the Calvin. We stopped at The Dirty Truth for some pre-show lubricants and a snack. After enjoying several beers we had to work our way in to the show through a sold-out crowd.
I got to catch up with Vinnie very briefly, as it turns out his daughter Marley joined him for the last two shows of the tour, and apparently his car got towed in Albany Friday night.
Here is the review from the show.

Time to Brew again

Yes, it's time to discuss beer again. I have several empty kegs that need filling and we simply can't leave an empty fermenter lying around. That would be an exercise in inefficiency on my part. I'm on the fence about brewing the Chocolate stout again, or the revised version of the Celebration Ale.
At any rate I'll need to see Ray for some Crystal and Cascade before I can make this happen.

We got video too

I got some video of Powder Trouter and Porecca Head making them Tele-turns on Jaws Saturday morning.

No friends on a powder day

Mark P, Finn, Trout , and Myself ripped it up this morning at Mt. Snow.

Boston Museum of Science

Winter is off from school this week. I took some time off this week to hang out with Winty and provide Iz an opportunity to get some work done at her office. Monday night we headed down to Chelmsford and stayed with my sister-in-law. This made for a quick strike into Boston on Tuesday. We took the Commuter line into North Station and then the Green Line to Science park. The children enjoyed riding the trains.
Rosey, Little O, Maya, Grace, Winty and myself met up with cousin Brad at the Museum of Science for some big science fun. There was a great snake and reptile exhibit which opened up on February 17th featuring the largest display of Reptiles in New England. The Kids also enjoyed the the mock-up of the Apollo command module, the dinosaurs, and, and various other wonderments in the museum.

Final swim lessons until Spring

The girls enjoyed their final swim lesson this past weekend. Grace got promoted to level two, while Winty is going to work on her skills in the level one program again this Spring. Next up is Gymnastics. The girls are very excited to do some tumbling to through the rest of this Winter season. We celebrated the end of swim lessons with a trip to The Chelsea for lunch.

Last Total Lunar Eclipse until 2010

This is the last total lunar eclipse until 12/21/2010.

Reading stories

Uncle Tommy got to read stories to the girls before bed last night. It all went mostly well, except Winty didn't exactly like Tommy's pronunciation of Wabbit.

Uncle Thomas and Austin

Yet another impromptu visit from Thomas this week. He's bringing Austin with him, and they will be hitting Okemo, Stratton, and Mt. Snow. Unfortunately I'll be stuck in the office for the remainder for the week.

A few days off

I have been enjoying a few days off from work. It's so nice to be able to break up my vacation time and take a few days off here and there. I worked at the Mountain on Friday & Monday, and we a fit in an overnight trip to Chelmsford to visit Teresa and her family. I even found some 2008 Bigfoot.

Fab Floaters

A visit from Cousin Aaron

Cousin Aaron was in New England this week. He popped in Thursday night and we had take-out from the India Palace. It has been a long time since we last saw him. It was the first time he got to see the basement brewing operation since we plumbed the basement sink back in 2005.

Happy Valentines Day!

I just realized I'm not wearing any red today. Oops. Winty has the day off again today due to all the ice out there. So, all those Valentines we worked on this week will have to wait until Friday. Travel conditions today are still marginal at best. Have a great day and don't forget to shower the one's you love with smooches today.

Seven days later

I finally got my appetite back last night. I felt famished when I got home. That Tofu and refried bean burrito was oh so good. The pale ale I enjoyed with it was equally as yummy. Appetite, I'm glad your back. The sky is puking again today. We got around 6-8 inches of really nice white fluff, only to be topped of with sleet and freezing rain, followed by a downpour. It took two changes of gloves, and snow pants before I got the driveway totally cleaned up this morning. Man it's a mess out there. Speaking of messes, I tried to burn the kitchen down this morning after I started a piece of bread on fire in the toaster. Tragedy was narrowly averted when I removed the flaming toast and threw it off the porch into the snowbank.
Did I mention Cousin Aaron may be coming for a quick visit this week?

Still no appetite

I'm feeling much better today, but still no appetite. I have had to force myself to eat. What a PITA this is. I really love food but have no desire to eat. Bah, more noodles, and toast today.
On a side note, my mechanic called, and they need to replace the catalytic converter on my Subaru. Holy Friggin 700.00 expense. I guess I better get on top of filing my taxes.

Sunday Pow

I awoke Sunday morning feeling much better then the previous three days. I was able to roll out of bed, grab a snack and make some coffee. I packed up my snowboarding gear and headed over to Mt. Snow to work the rescue gig for the day. Ahhhh, at last I was finally off my back and out into the fresh air for a day of snowboarding.
Shortly after my arrival at the mountain, the skies turned from deep blue, to blowing snow. It was a brilliant day of fresh turns, and plenty of pow. It feels good to be recovering from this bout with the flu.

Oh, you don't know the shape I'm in

I heard about this debilitating flu bug going around. Today, I'm officially recovering from it. I have been laid up since Wednesday. I have spent the past three days either in bed or on the couch. I was so ill that my eyeballs ached. I can't remember the last time I was so sick that anything hurt so much. So Aside from missing a day of work, I missed two days of snowboarding. Just to add insult to injury it snowed Thursday, and it is snowing today. I'm finally feeling a little better and will get at least one day of riding in this weekend. I haven't been this horizontal since 95 after I picked something up on the airplane on my way back from Hawaii.

Friday Glissading

I got out of bed twice Friday. The first time was to take the girls to school. The second was to pick them up. I had the camera with me and was able to document the girls glissading as they made their way home. It's amazing how a five minute walk can turn into an hour long adventure.

Pffffffttttt!

No skiing or riding for me today. I came down with a fever yesterday and barely made it thru the workday on Wednesday. I was laid up in bed all day today. No Stratton, no turns, no Thomas, No Roddy. It was just me and my pillow today. I'm resting up so I can hopefully recover for some skiing this weekend.

Winter R&R

It's official I'm taking some time off. It's once again that time of the year, where I will start to work those four day work weeks. As some of you may or may not know I'm an avid Snowboarder. Starting Thursday this week, I'll be off at least one day during the week for the next eight weeks so that I may support my gravity fed habit. I'll start this all off by meeting up with my brother and some of his friends for a day a Stratton. From the looks of the weather, we may get to enjoy some pow.
Ain't life grand?

Haiku Wednesday

Very moist outside.
Calling for some snow tonight.
I want Winter back

The Amber Rye IPA Hybrid

Iz and the girls decided to go to Chelmsford on Monday to visit her sister. They would ultimatley surprise their cousin Buddy. I seized the opportunity by going directly to the basement after work. After a month off, I finally got a brew in the fermenator last night. I had been planning on making a Rye IPA. For some reason I had 1% chocolate malt included in the grist, so as a result the beer is more of an amber color then that of a true pale ale. I seem to be blurring the BJCP guidelines a bit these days, but what they heck I'm an alchemist and I deserve to do my own product development.

The original gravity rung in at 1.060 which was slightly short of my target gravity (1.062). Close enough for a basement hack. This was my first experiment with Rye. I plan on monitoring this beer closely to see how it turns out. I'd be very pleased to come up with yet another arrow for my brewing quiver.

No joy in Mudville.

McNeill's hosted the third annual Family Garden super bowl party last night. This is the third year that I have organized this fundraiser for my youngest daughter's pre-school/daycare center. It's a fun family oriented event. We all had a blast. I'll try to dig up a photo to post from the fun.

Hands Free Leaping

Grace paddled up a storm this weekend. Winty is still happy using the marshmallows to keep her afloat while she kicks.
Enjoy this footage of Grace jumping into the pool all by herself.

The sky is puking!

Looks like the weather is going to take a turn for the heinous today. School is getting out at noon. I think I'm going to cut out early myself since they are calling for a half an inch of ice in my neighborhood.
What's it doing in your neck of the woods today?
No alpine sports for me this weekend. We'll probably hang out at the pool Saturday and Sunday.
There is also the option to brew some beer. Hey! I think I'm on to something here.

It's been a month since I brewed.

I just checked my brew logs, and it has been over a month since I last brewed. Life is good though, as I have a several kegs on tap, as well as a nice assortment of beer conditioning. I really need to get around to making that RYEPA. It's nice to take some time off from the brewery. I think I may consider doing this every January. It seems like a nice way to ease into the new year.

Haiku

Early Morning run
Under light of a full moon.
-Frost beneath my feet

Brewers night out

Saturday night I hosted a non-brewing event with some (mostly local) homebrewers. Typically we get together a few times a year and make beer. Saturday night was all about drinking the beer. We started the afternoon off by meeting up with my friend Ray who gave us a tour of his new facility.
Afterwards we returned to my house for dinner and more beer, and even more talk of beer, followed by some fresh air and a visit to Flat St. where we were promptly cut-off after our second round. Honestly I'm surprised they even let us in to the place. If you see Ray ask him about the DFH 120. I don't think he had any idea of what he was getting into.

Paddling Solo

Grace made her first unaided strokes today. Way to go Gracie!

Thursday Night Pizza Party

Thomas, and Roddy were in town Thursday night for a pizza party. We had quite the houseful. We even made some new friends.

Wednesday Night Indulgence

I accidentally got my swerve on last night. While I was down in the basement racking beer, and listening to the latest Dead podcast on my ipod I overindulged and managed to get my swerve on. I'm paying for it this morning. I swear I didn't have more then four or five pints! I must have been all that sampling while I was getting the beer into final packaging.