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.

EFTA #3 Assault on Clifford Park

This year was much better than last year as far as course conditions go. Course was primarily dry and the weather was great.

I thought I had a pretty good ride, i cut 20 mins off my time from last year on the same course, which i think is fairly impressive considering how technical this course is and I rode it with suspension last year and without it this year. (my hands are probably the sorest thing on my body right now) We had the biggest SS class i think i have ever seen in my short EFTA racing career. Over 20 SSer's started this race!

race itself was pretty uneventful for me, no major crashes or anything else funny to report so i just cover some quick facts:

Ben Moody is so fast i think he might be an alien.
casualties were very high, i think there was something like 40 DNF's out of around 150 people starting.
Adam was doing awesome but ended up flatting.
i kept my bike working, rode all the technical stuff clean and came in at 2h:15m, give or take a minute, I think only about 15m or so off the winner.
during the race i felt like i was about mid field in the SS class (it was hard to tell with all the traffic on the first lap) but turns out I think I came in sixth (maybe results were kinda still screwy when i left) out of only 7 finishers in the SS class (remember when i said casualties were high? (over 20 SS starters down to 7.....)
this leads me to my next rant: I'm tired of people DNFing and making my results look less impressive than they are. this happened at this race last year as well. I was not 6th out of 7, I was 6th out of 20+. If they couldn't finish that probably means they chose bad lines and flatted....i chose better lines and finished = i beat you and I will include you in the results so that I look more cool. that is all.

EFTA #2 Sterling Sizzler

Watch out....I've got a taste for PODIUM.

Thats right race fans, I came in 3rd. (but dont worry, my streak is intact....there was only 3 of us haha)

I came in 20 minutes after the winner and about 10 after the guy in second and got $15 for my efforts...probably just about paid my gas to get down there. Still showing improvement, i used to come in 40 minutes after the leader.

Course was brutal, guy who won SS was riding a full suspension that was converted. Def the bike you needed for this course. actually a dirt bike would have been perfect which is what these trails were for. Course was highlighted by the mud creek we had to ride UP, with mud puddles that were knee deep in spots, and a 200-300yd gravel fire road climb where when you got to the top you turned right around (literally) and came back down. oh and then there was the rest of the course that shook the shit out of me and was so rocky and rooty that i can safely say i never found a rhythm and probably hike'd a bike for at least 1-2 miles per lap (of a 5mile loop)

needless to say im sore as hell and have some sweet battle scars on my legs, but I could care less cause I scored some awesome points and got my first (default)podium.