Dry Hopping 101

 Hops! Wet...dry...I don't care.  I've never actually done any dry hopping to date so this was a first.  Crudest way to accomplish this is to just dump the hops into the secondary fermentation loose but I'm better than that so I did some research and found a relatively easy and more refined approach.  And as a bonus this method involved marbles, or in my case some 'glass gems'.

 just don't drink them

Glass gems basically just act as sinkers to weigh the muslin bag down so that the hops remain fully submerged during the process so you get their full essence.  Lots of homebrewers claim that if they are floating on top you loose some of the goodness.  Took me about 10mins all told.  Just sanitize everything: gems, muslin bag, thread to tie it up.  Put the gems in the muslin bag or marble sack, whichever you prefer, followed by the hops.  Tie the bag off, tie on your thread or fishing line, jam into your carboy and VOILA! Dry Hopped.

 marble sack ready for deployment

fully submerged hops dry hopping away.

I'll let this chill out for at least another week.  Might bottle it next weekend depending on my schedule.  I think I'm going to need to pick up some more tall boys.  I think my inventory of bottles has finally depleted below one batches worth.

2012 Race Schedule

This is more out of blog withdrawal than anything else.  2012's winter weather hasn't been lending itself to worthy skiing recaps/reports to date.  I've got all these new GoPro bits just waiting to record hijinx from all kinds of angles and we just haven't been able to get into the woods yet.  Such is life...so I suppose I'll try and get myself somewhat organized for the next race season.

Slightly better than tentative schedule for 2012:

• April 28th - Singlespeed-a-palooza: been on the radar for awhile, seems like an appropriate time to finally do it.
• May 20th - NECS #1 Weeping Willow: love the course, a top 10 WILL be mine this year.
• June 3rd - NECS #2 Big Ring Rumpus: maybe. doesn't suit me AT ALL. but a great day of training and real close to home.
• June 17th - NECS #3 The Pinnacle: c'mon. best course around. I'll be gunning for this one, HARD.
• July 8th - NECS #4 Moody Park: great course for me...when its dry. fingers crossed.
• July 22nd - NECS #6 Harding Hill: never love this race but I always seem to show back up...
• July 28th - SSUSA2012: Hard telling when this race will be back in the area, seems like a "grab the opportunity while it lasts" type moment.
• August 19th - NH100: A real 100 mile version this year. So scared.
• September 22nd - Bradbury 12: Another one that has been on the radar for awhile. Plenty of teammates to pick from for a 3 or 4 man team now! 

I'm open to suggestions...what other kind of trouble should I be getting myself into??

Call me Curmudgeon

In my end of year gear post I made mention to me waffling back and forth between upgrading to a carbon fork or getting hydro brakes.  I was having a hard time figuring out what I wanted to do for next year.  Each option had their pros and cons and I would randomly talk myself both in and out of each decision quite frequently for awhile.

I thought I had figured it out at the time of that post and hydro brakes it was.  Then Bully told me to man up and get the carbon fork and for a bit I was waffling again.  Then today I realized that I wasn't actually waffling between two choices, I was at odds with both choices independently at the same time...get it?

I have always been somewhat of a no-nonsense racer/rider.  Always err on the side of simplicity and durability.  I think that is why I took to SS so readily.  Investing large sums of money to drop weight and increase maintenance has never really jive'd with me.  I would much rather have a solid fork that works just fine and I know can take a beating and brakes that work just fine and I can fully service myself quickly and cheaply.   I don't want to worry about applying the correct torque to a carbon steer tube and have to bleed possibly corrosive DOT brake fluid if my brakes go wonky...at least not right now.  I've upgraded to a tubeless config for this year, that is going to be my tech advancement for this season.  I am going to master the crap out of that so that I can fully and easily maintain it from my shop.  We'll see what that does for me this coming year and if I get fast enough maybe then my curmudgeoness will fade and I will demand the finest and most expensive tech.

In the mean time I put my BB7s back on, mounted the rotors on the new wheels, cabled everything up (quickly and easily) and threw the new grips on.

As is it comes in at about 22lbs even (just using a little home scale with me shouldering the bike).  Not the most accurate measure but probably a good estimate on reality.  It will be rideable with pedals, a chain, cog and cassette spacers which at most will add another pound or so.  Not too shabby and as is I am about $400 richer without one of those upgrades on the horizon.  That means plenty more funds for actual race fees, or gas or nutrition.  So maybe I won't be going quite as fast as I could but I'll be able to easily afford to go slow way more often.  Besides this is just more motivation to work harder...didn't end up spending the money to drop an extra 1000g?  Better HTFU.

Black IPA...India Black Ale...Cascadian Dark

To date I had been calling my next homebrew endeavor a Black IPA but as I have done some of my due diligence to familiarize myself with the style I have found that there is still some contention in the upper echelons of the Brew World as to appropriate naming and characteristics.

I had heard lots of chatter lately about this somewhat newer style that was making the rounds and I was intrigued.  Seemed like a interesting mix of styles that I like.  Turns out this is still pretty cutting edge as far as brewing goes and the community appears to still be 'hashing this one out'.  Only analogy I can think of that more people might understand is dog breeds and the folks at Westminster.  Just about everyone knows that there are 'x' official dog breeds as far as the governing body is concerned and every other dog is just a 'mutt'.  Beer is kind of the same way.  People mix and match styles all the time but every now again some sort mix differentiates itself for whatever reason and those characteristics are deemed desirable enough to want to repeat and over time new breeds or brews are declared 'official'.  Its in that declaration that things get tricky.

Who mixed it/bred it first? What exactly should it be called? Should it be named by the founder or original brewer/breeder or by the governing body?  Who the hell governs beer?  Who really cares about any of this?

From what I can tell there is one camp who says a style that pretty much matches with this type of beer has been being brewed up in the Pacific Northwest for some time now which those folks have been calling a Cascadian Dark Ale.  Some people have gone with the simple Black IPA because most of the style adheres to IPA qualities with the main difference being that it is black and not pale.  Problem is the P in IPA stands for Pale.  So that obviously leads us to removing that P for Pale and inserting a B for Black...India Black Ale.  Seems the most logical thing to do to me.  And don't get me started on the folks who think all this hoo-haa is really just an Imperial Stout in a fancy dress.  So call it what you will...a rose by any other name right?  Bill Shakespeare knew what was up.

6oz of 4 different types of hops: Cascade, Summit, Centennial & Chinook

I can't wait to go through this whole tirade every time someone asks me what I'm brewing currently or when they ask me what they are drinking.  Maybe I'll just whip up some business cards with a QR Code that links to this post.  What do you think Shaun, does that jive with your inbound sensibilities?  Maybe yes, maybe no but I can guarantee it will be inbound to your stomach come Spring time.  Sneak some up to Cannon and toast one on the deck in early April?  See you there.

End of Year Gear Extravaganza

Christmas has come and gone and now its time to look ahead to 2012 full force and mess with all my new gear of course!

I've got a full week of 'forced vacation' to mess with new toys, brew some beer, ponder upgrade choices, finally get some time on the slopes, etc., etc.

My race bike has begun to take its new form for next year, the bike shop has moved into the basement this year on account of I hate working on bikes in a 20 degree shed.  FYI metal gets real cold when it sits out in the cold.  I got a few new bits for xmas this year to get me rolling.  I bought myself some new wheels before the holidays, my Dad got me a new crank/bb, and Gina got me a new stem and grips.

Wheels are Stan's ZTR Crests, running tubeless with some Maxxis Ignitors on there right now, I stuck with the 180mm Stylo cranks and a new Stylo Race stem.  Not sure what makes a stem 'Race' but I'm sure I'll be faster now.  I had contemplated hard about going to a full carbon fork but lately I have been waffling on that a lot.  The fork I wanted was pretty expensive and I'm having a hard time mentally qualifying spending that much money in essence to just drop some weight and maybe increase some chatter absorption.  I think dropping the weight in my wheels as well as running tubeless now with be enough of an improvement in that realm and I feel like spending some of the money I was saving for the fork on a nice set of hydro brakes might be a better investment.  That way I improve the bikes weight and ride feel as well as its stopping power.  Now I just need to figure out which brakes I am going to go with...

I am really liking the bikes weight right now and most of the stuff I need to add isn't very substantial weight wise: cog, chain, pedals, brakes, grips thats it.

I also scored all kinds of GoPro accessories.  Very much looking forward to doing a bunch more filming this winter.  I got the vented helmet mount for another angle while biking, a grab bag full of various mounts to mix and match and some of the moisture absorbing strips to try and combat those issues I had while filming the Mighty Chicken vid. 

I'm also running a fairly hilarious inventory of Cytomax now as well as Clif Bloks and Stinger waffles.  Or more appropriately murder juice, murder bloks and murder waffles.

As for beer, its been a long time coming but this week I will finally be getting my next batch going.  A Black IPA with a full 6oz of hops!  YeeHaaaaa, can't wait to drink some of that after a sweet day of spring skiing in a few months.