SquamyBrew 1st Edition

In an effort to stay modern and relevant manarea.blogspot.com is diversifying. 'Custom' is the name of the game nowadays, I've applied it to bikes and now I'm giving it a try with beer. An epiphany at work turned into our first brew in about 2 weeks...pretty good turn around if I dont say so myself. Went with a basic starter kit and for the first brew we just bought a Pale Ale kit to get a feel for ingredients. ('we' = SquamyBrewing LLC. look for it on the NASDAQ under SQBR).

The actual 'first brew' went pretty well, i thought. Considering it was many of ours first foray back into chemistry/biology/cleanliness for a long while. No boil overs or other catastrophies. Transfering the wort to the carboy went well. Hopefully we were as 'clean' as we thought we were...only time will tell.

The picture below is brew day +21 hours.


Here we are at about brew day +45ish hours.

**UPDATE**
4/12 - Gina and I took another hydrometer reading and it came in at 1.010. I couldnt resist so I drank the beer we used to get the reading. Tasted like good beer gone warm, I was amazed.
alcohol content is a weird thing, the US does it different than everyone else (go figure). we do alcohol by weight and everyone else goes by volume. so right now our beer is 4.31% by weight and 5.49% by volume. typically yeast eating priming sugar will add another .5% during conditioning. which will put us around 4.8% by weight and 5.99% by volume all said and done.

SquamyBrew LLC has a bright future. c'mon

monoCOG

Finally finished my new race whip this weekend. I am 100% excited to find out how this thing rides. Built it up for just under $800 all said and done. I would spec it out like most people but nothing on this bike matches and much of it is custom rag tag 'frankenbike' built up stuff....The Chopper Reborn.

I think i might post race results and recaps here as well as my projects cause i think the 2-3 people who check this blog will probably enjoy my stories about trying to race a single speed bike (rigid no less) against guys who put, on average, 30-45 minutes into me last year.

Little do they know ive been watching a lot of MacGyver....


**UPDATE: So its been awhile and this bike has changed a bit. This pic sums up all the changes pretty well. Carbon bars and nice cushy Oury Grips to absorb more chatter while I was still riding rigid and the latest addition is a Marzocchi MX Comp 29er Fork....cause one season riding ironman is plenty believe you me. Already cant wait for next year.

Stretch('s) Limo

Shaun has requested that i bring this behemoth to life so he can cruise the coast of Nantucket by himself and to get to the climb where we are gonna be bike hooligans during the Montreal - Boston Tour....both noble ventures. little does he know i will force him to also ride the mt washington century with me and adam on this bike and we will also go on sweet touring rides around the dirt roads of bridgewater and most likely have a run in with some sweet NH hicks, deliverance style. wicked 12 speeds 4 life.

DUN. Built up for $44...well $43.99 to be exact. Thats $3.66 a speed. Probably will get some upgrades, but thats a pretty cheap/sweet dumpster ride.

Piece of Nishiki

Ashland Dump find #1. Metal Pile front and center with my name alllll over it. This bike is pretty much totally thrashed. all the components are pretty much shot....bent crank, seized cables, seat destroyed, wheels pitted with lots of rust damage. The frame however is in wicked nice shape. I will probably have to junk just about everything on this bike except the frame. soooo i think this is going to be an experiment with paint bike. Im gonna try and get real steezy with some rattle cans and then just wait to get parts over time and then build it back up.

I'll have to inspect it more to find out just what kind of Nishiki this is...everything on the frame is worn off except the paint...no decals anywhere.

The PUCH

PUCH. (rhymes with Hutch, or at least i wish it did. it would be way more funny that way. my guess is its probably more like rhymes with Swoosh though.) Originally a Austrian machining company back in the day that dabbled in bikes. went the way of eventually being bought out and being built either in the US or Taiwan for Sears. Although I think the company that was originally Puch kept making bikes under another name, Austro-Daimler or something like that. This is a Puch Alpina, made in Austria before the Sears days...not sure what year (yet).

Yet another of my bikes connected to Scott, this one was his ride from back in the day but had been chillin back at the rents house doin nothin, but will now be reborn into a sweet touring ride.


the PUCH rides again....except not quite yet cause its really windy and cold today. but as soon as i have the cojones enough to ride outside this baby is going for a spin. dirt roads here i come.