Home Brew....part duex

Sticking with the SquamyBrewLLC organizational goals we have begun another brew in order to have it bottled and ready for consumption at this years narolakerage. I believe this time around we are going with an English Pilsner, a typical english 'pub ale' i guess. Guy who sold it to Jomo said it was a good one to put a lemon slice in which it what we are all about in the summertime here at SquamyBrewLLC.

This brew was much easier than the last kit..dont know if thats a good thing or not. all it was was boiling water, adding malt syrup, and you're done...no grains, no pellet hops. but it is just a light pilsner beer so i guess thats all you need.


Here is the current blow-off tube setup. I went with a bigger tube this time around to try and clear more of the foam so cleaning the carboy will be easier.

Clearing wicked foam guy.

**UPDATE** The beer is bottled and ready to go. Had to prime it with table sugar because the special 'brewer's sugar' that we got in the last kit didn't come in this kit. I read around and some say table sugar is okay some say its not, but thats all i had. Didnt bother taking hydrometer readings this time around...kit says it has potential for 4.5-5% and thats good enough for me. made 54 beers this time around (well 55 but gina cracked the neck off a bottle while capping it with her She-Ra strength).

**UPDATE (again)** I tasted the 2nd batch last night...and I think it will be a good beer for narolakerage. I think the guy who sold the kit to jomo was right and it will probably be pretty good with a lemon or orange wedge. Still didnt have much head on it but hopefully another week of conditioning will take care of that. Its still a bit cloudy but I think i may have screwed up the pour a bit. all in all i think our first batch was better, but for the simplicity of this kit and it being a very light beer i think it came out good.

EFTA #5 The Horror at Harding Hill

"Riders in the past claim that our course combines the best of single and double track riding. Several areas of the course are techincal while others allow you to grind it out."

this was the quote on the race flyer for this course...here is what it should have said:

"Do you love fire roads? Do you love climbing? Is that all you love? would you rather do that than anything else while you are riding a bike? Then come to Harding Hill! (except dont bring a single speed, cause that would suck)"

so yeah i guess technically it does combine double and single track just at about a 90%/10% ratio respectively and several areas are technical, but they only last .25 mile combined and the rest of the race defenitely was a 'grind out'.

I rode pretty well, climbed better than I thought i would late into the race (even though all my leg muscles were cramping something wicked) and came in just over 2 hours, which for about a 20 mile course with that much climbing, I am very happy with. Came in 5th (AKA last, once again jipped by DNF'ers) about 5 minutes behind 4th. Once again i get a bit faster so all is well....

except for my legs which are quickly getting stiff. Tomorrow morning is gonna be awesome. Im looking forward to a few weeks off from racing AND to some sweet R&R up in MAINAH

c'mon

EFTA #4 All Out In Moody Park

Wicked pre-race meltdown guy.

i forgot socks AND my helmet. no idea what was going through my head this morning. socks, not a huge deal i can manage...no helmet = show stopper. lucky for me I have met some of the mtbmind.com guys and since sport was before expert there were a few guys that had already raced but were staying around to watch the experts. So I got a helmet that BARELY fit and was able to race. (many thanks to Dave Michaud for the hook up)

Race itself was fast and dry. I broke 2 hours for the first time on a 18+ mile course at 1h:56m, came in 6th (AKA last)...but i chipped some more time out of the rest of the group and only finished about 10 mins behind some very fast guys. 10 minutes is still a lot, but last year it was 30 minutes so thats good. and i think i might have been a bit faster if it wasnt for some drivetrain issues halfway through my third lap. My chain was clicking real bad and I was worried it was going to snap so I had to baby it in spots, which on a SS doesnt really work, at one point i even stopped for a minute or two trying to fix it.

so yeah im getting faster, but apparently i am also getting retarded. Hopefully lesson has been learned and i wont forget my helmet ever again.