Gingerly

Work hard. Play harder.

My Ginger Minger & Scott Paisley MTB just before a clean & lube.

I worked hard this weekend. Friday was the biggest retail day of the year. I sold a bunch of bikes, got folks accessorized, and thoroughly worked my ass off. Following busy working days like these, I usually just rest on my next day off. But not today.

Today, I played. I took the Scott Paisley mountain bike out to the woods near my place. She rode beautifully. It was my first time riding the trails out there. It was fast & fun. I rode for and hour and a half and explored all the different loops on my own. I can't believe I hadn't done this sooner.

I had forgotten how important play is to me. I'd been wasting my days off, just napping & watching the boob tube. Then, I got hooked up fishing. I found a friend that makes jigs and has taught me quite a bit about fishing in the creeks and lakes around here. I caught the fishin' bug from him, and have been fishing several times a month on my own. I caught three bass two weeks ago, just a 5 minute walk into the woods from my place.

The woods are my new sanctuary. On my days off I can take my dog out there for a walk, grab a fishing pole and pull up some perch, or sling my bike down and tear up the trails.

I feel really good again. It's a high of 75F today, unseasonably warm for this time of year here in Dallas. After riding today, I came back, cracked my latest homebrew, cleaned my bike, and cranked the online stream of WTJU on TuneIn. The folks at WTJU always remember to give me a shoutout.

Oh - my latest homebrew. I was quite disappointed with it... until this week. I call it Ginger Minger. It's a basic pale ale recipe I took and played with a bit. I added a bunch of shredded ginger and fresh mint for the last 15 minutes of the wort boil. It was intended to be a late autumn beer... and it's perfect for that. Perfect for today. Play is rewarding.

Good things come to those that drink good beer...

Rachel won a New Belgium 2011 Fat Tire cruiser from an online drawing! We picked it up from Jerry, a New Belgium "Beer Ranger" today. This is our 7th bike in our one bedroom apartment!

New Belgium Cruiser made by Felt.

Rachel poured us some help.

We did the assembly quickly. Very painless.

It really is a very comfortable bike. It rolls smooth, albeit quite heavy. It looks like aluminum... but that's all steel! Great for a flat place like Dallas.

"Shotgun Wedding"

...that was the name I gave to the New Belgium Saison clone at my wedding last week. It went quickly and was hands down the favorite of the crowd, due to all that orange peel, cardamom and coriander! Definitely wish I had brewed more of it, though I'm sure I'll brew it again once relocated to Dallas with an all-grain setup. I named the Fat Tire Amber clone "26 x 2.95" for all those bike nerds that attended. That clone definitely had some off-flavors, but was still enjoyable. Matt said we had an airlock malfunction with that one, apparently because the Better Bottles aren't rigid enough to prevent airlock water from getting sucked into the fermenter when they're moved. It's definitely the small things that can make or break a beer.

Bride, Brewer & Beers

The beer was very successful, so a big thanks to Matt Lockaby for the brewing equipment, brewing help, and showing up to set up the dispensing! I need to also thank a good & crazy friend of mine, Charles Locke. He piloted our post-ceremony bicycle rickshaw ride!

Look at the creepster in the car taking pictures of us!

That rickshaw ride was great. Charles and I used to work for Happy Rickshaw together and wrench side by side over at Charlottesville Community Bikes. Well, the Rickshaw fleet in Charlottesville was slowing down and was eventually sold to a group in Delaware, so Charles ended up buying a bike shop (Syklo) from Ken Margolius. Charles closed doors about a year later, and instead joined Will Canup in a local bike rickshawing venture. Oh, hey, Will, are you going to be back in town soon so we can do another beer tasting with my sick new glassware?! (Check out Will's blog from Italy: romestrong)

So needless to say, I've been busy. I'm hoping to actually start working on the Rockfish F-1 BMX in a meaningful way before the end of the year. I've been giving it some serious thought, and I've determined I need a Sachs 3x7 hub on the back. Yep, that's three gears internally and seven externally. Unfortunately, they're going for top dollar on eBay these days...

Currently drinking a Saranac Summer Ale out of a new Lenox Brandy glass!

Ah, Guinness.

There are some people in my life that try to tell me Guinness is a great stout. In my opnion, it's probably the lightest stout I've ever had. And, if it's really so awesome, how come the Queen of England won't drink it, even when given the perfect pour by the Brewmaster?



But in all honesty, English royalty are just stuffy & antiquated snobs, well-deserving to be robbed of their riches and titles.

Wedding Beer

If you haven't heard, I'm getting hitched in June. And for such a festive occasion, it's only proper for there to be copious amounts of beer on premise. I have a friend in town that can help me pull off three batches of homebrew, all New Belgium clones. Matt's great at brewing. He really knows his stuff. He'll be helping me brew my first all-grain batches with his equipment, introducing me to liquid yeast, and lending me kegging setups. It'll be nice not to bottle 15 gallons of beer. The recipes and ingredients will be from Austin Homebrew Supply. Check out the beers on Beer Advocate:

10 gallons of New Belgium's Fat Tire Amber Ale

5 gallons of New Belgium's Farmhouse Ale

Oh, and I had two bottles of our Belgian Tripel last night. At 9% ABV, I could have spaced them apart a wee bit more...

A Word on Anal-Retentive Beer

Hilarious and disgusting video from Brewmaster Griz from San Francisco Brewcraft:



What else could you want? I pretty much agree with his sentiment: details make character, but don't be a slave to them. Maybe that's why I've never been into restoration projects and I'd make a horrible plastic surgeon.

A New Year's Realization for Bikes & Beer

Please read this post: Something has been weighing heavily on my mind for the past several weeks and as we've entered a new year. The more bicycle grease that I wipe on my shirt and the more my breath smells like hops, the more I realize that there is something askew with bicycle and beer geeks. This thing that's askew... it's something that's always been there, but I've begun to notice its prevalence with the more blogs I'm following, the more beer documentaries I watch, and the more I bust my ass to ride to and from work in this winter's cold & snow.

I fear that as bike and beer enthusiasts, we often forget the simple happiness that first sparked our geekeries. We're sometimes so caught up calculating gear ratios and measuring IBUs that we completely miss the simple and unifying pleasures of bicycles and of beer. These two things exist as the pinnacle of the good lives to which many of us are privileged. Please, let me explain:

I have a co-worker who often commutes via bike about 3.5 miles each way. The other day he mentioned that riding his bike to work is a "means to an end" - namely, just getting to work. And while I can appreciate the idea that a bicycle is great transportation tool, I wholeheartedly reject that over-simplification of its place in life. I believe that riding a bicycle is the greatest manifestation of a simple, yet profound, happiness. We forget that riding a bike is, in itself, a great source of joy. For those bike-commuters out there, we must see our jobs as a means to an end - namely, having the personal wealth and a somewhat legitimate reason to ride a bicycle across town every day. Even if we have to fight every car and granny-gear up every hill (with a headwind the whole way), it's always an adventure truly worthy living.

And to you beer geeks out there, don't forget to get drunk. Yes, there I said it. Sure, talk about flavor profile all you want, but don't forget that beer is brewed to create alcohol, you know... that stuff that gives you a warm fuzzy feeling, loosens you up in social situations, and makes you laugh a bit louder! We know there is good beer and bad beer out there, but that doesn't mean we need to be snobs and obsessive over it. Drink up and enjoy the simple pleasure of sharing the inherent merriment of beer with friends and family.

There's a quote that may have come across, that, with a little personal revision, sums up my little rant.

Nothing compares to the simple pleasure(s) of a bike ride (and drinking beer).

~John F. Kennedy & Thomas

Beer #1 = Almost Done & Extract Kit #2 = Frustrating

 Recap on beer #1, Brewer's Best European Bock.

1 liter Hacke-Pschorr mug and a gusher on the right.

Nate drinking a birthday gift.

Working on my part.

Filled these mugs from a 2-liter Blue & Gray growler.

Had nothing important to do yesterday, so it turned into a brew day with Brewer's Best Dortmunder extract kit.

Paperweight.

Steeping grains.

It was really cold outside.

This time the brewing was frustrating. Everything that I should have learned from the 1st batch, well, I didn't. I boiled with the lid on most of the time, which you're not supposed to do to prevent DMS (dimethyl sulfide) buildup. It also took forever to cool the wort in the ice bath (or maybe my thermometer is busted). Oh, and I added too much water to the wort so it falls outside of the original gravity range. It's at 1.04 instead of the 1.05-1.054 range in which it should lie. I think all of this stems from weak preparation and impatience. Also, I don't think it helps that I have to run through every room of the apartment to brew either. I store my equipment in the utility room, sanitize it in the bathroom, boil the wort on the patio, chill it in the kitchen sink, pitch yeast in the kitchen, move to lager fridge in the utility room. I swear I can see an LME (liquid malt extract) trail on the carpet.

RDWHAHB
relax,
don't
worry
have
a
home
brew!

Beer & Ride Report

So my first homebrew batch ever is... a little over carbonated, but drinkable! It's sweet & malty, even for a Bock. I didn't reach my target final gravity, so the ABV is about 5.1% instead of the 6.2% that the recipe should have reached. The over-carbonation may be due to the fact I had extra fermentable sugars in each bottle from an incomplete primary & secondary fermentation. However, the over-carbonation definitely cuts the sweetness and allows the beer to be more palatable. Overall, I'm very excited that I'll be able to celebrate great recent events with my family over my first homebrewed beer.

The Old, Fat & Slow ride today at Walnut Creek was also great, although I did have a mechanical in the last mile:

A RockShox suspension seatpost cam failed

The bold pulled the threads right out of the cylinder cam.

So, I rode my Scott Paisley MTB the rest of the way without my seatpost.

'Twas most fun.

Stolen Bike, Walnut Creek OFSMBC, First Taste

Yesterday, I received a pretty crappy phone message from Will Canup. He had his bike stolen over at UVA. Most people that see this blog are in Charlottesville, so I figured I'd pass it along. His craigslist post:

I had my black Trek fixed gear stolen from on grounds at UVA sometime in the last 48 hours. It was a black frame with black rims and camo handlebars. The right side of the carbon fork had a huge crack down the middle so it may have been ditched somewhere.

Let me add that he didn't have horizontal dropouts, instead had a magic gear with kinda loose chain tension. Here's a picture, but it no longer has a steering wheel:

Good luck Will. I'll keep my eyes open.

Onto good news, riding over at Walnut Creek with the Old, Fat & Slow Mountain Bike Club tomorrow morning. Really it'll be just 3 of us. Can't wait to get back on the mtb. It's too fun with the current setup.

Cracking open my first homebrew ever... NOW...

RtD Recap, Bad Beer, and Old Fat Slow

The Ride the Divide film event at the Paramount was a hit. Supposedly about 235 tickets were sold, so Charlottesville Community Bikes made some money! Waiting on the total $. The film itself was a bit of a downer. It really exposed the true limits of human strength and psyche in a 2700 mile back country mountain bike race. I'm glad I saw it, but mainly because now I know not to recommend it or ever watch it again.

Chris invited me to ride with the Old, Fat & Slow Mountain Bike Club (OFSMBC) today. You must be at least one of those things (Old, Fat, or Slow) to ride with that crew. I'm slow. 9:30am today, Biscuit Run. I'll bring Rachel's camera. Last night I worked on my Scott Paisley mountain bike for the ride today. It's a 26" rigid, fillet brazed, early Hope mechanical floating caliper disc brakes, set up right now as a 1x7 with a Dave's Crud Buster:

Scott Paisley mountain bike, rigid (minus seatpost) 26"

DCD - Dave's Crud Buster

Hope mechanical floating caliper disc brake.

I'm excited about my Hope brakes a bit more as of yesterday morning. I've had the hardest time finding good info on them, and came across a current retrobike thread about them.

Now, time for less talkie talkie, more ridie ridie.

Bottling Night

 

Special thanks to Rachel for all the good shots and help filling the bottles! It was messy enough that I had to wash the kitchen floor afterward... fun. Collecting, washing, sanitizing, filling, and capping all the bottles is quite a bit of work. Now I know why home-brewers often move on to kegging.

Paranormal Activities

BRAINS

This Saturday is the 2010 CRC Paranormal mountain bike race in Earlysville, VA. It's always a great 6 hour endurance race with beer, costumes, beer, camping, beer, and best of all - it starts at 4pm and is dark after 3 laps. I've done this race for the past three years, twice with Charlottesville Community Bikes in the shop category, and once solo. I'm not really that great of a mountain biker, so I've never made it more than three laps personally. Also, it doesn't help that I don't have a great light set for riding single track in the dark.

If you wear a costume to the race you are awarded a 2 minute head start. Last year was the first year that I went solo and decided to go all out on my costume. Swine flu:

Turn your head and cough.

I even wore a curly tail.

Charles wielding a sharp weapon as usual. Will as a Donnie Darko skeleton.

In 2009 I raced on my 26" rigid Scott Paisley mtb (to be salivated over on a later post). But this year I'll be converting my rigid mountain bike commuter into something viable. It has a 3 speed Sachs Torpedo internal hub in the back, two rings on the front, and a front generator hub to power a headlight. To convert my commuter I'm swapping out my slick tires and spring saddle to knobby tires and a racing saddle, adding another water bottle cage, and removing the rear rack, light, and fenders. This bike, too, is a rigid 26":

So tonight I'll be re-suiting my commuter for the race and rebuilding a rear mtb wheel for Chris. He has had the worst luck with spokes breaking, so I've convinced him to go with double-butted Wheelsmith spokes. They should be fun to build with.

If anybody in the Charlottesville is looking for a teammate that can drink better than he can bike, drop me a line and we can ride some beers together at the Paranormal.

The chickens go BOCK

I'm currently brewing my very first beer, a European Bock, using a Brewer's Best extract kit. I'm 4 weeks into the fermentation process as of today:


That's the inside of a mini-fridge that I've converted into a temperature-controlled fermenting chamber. What you can see is my 7 gallon glass carboy, a bung on the top, a piece of blow-off tubing emerging from the bung, and a small bottle of clean water tucked into the back right. The blowoff tubing allows gaseous byproducts of fermentation to escape the carboy and carries it to the water bottle. The water allows the gas to bubble out and prevents anything from traveling back up the tube into the beer.

The beer is currently in the secondary fermentation process, meaning I've already transferred the beer from a primary fermenting bucket in order to remove off-flavor-creating trub and to promote beer clarity. I've cold-crashed it and now it's lagering at around 38F.

In order to accurately control the mini-fridge temperature I picked up a Johnson Electric temp controller from Northern Brewer. It's the blue box on top of my fridge:

The temperature controller is great because it controls the on & off cycle of the fridge to maintain a specified temperature range. It has its own thermometer probe to slide into the fridge for an accurate temp reading. It has a small simple display, but is invaluable for being able to control lagering temperatures.

Also, big props to Northern Brewer. $8 for shipping really isn't bad for 3 large boxes by FedEx Ground arriving on a Saturday within 3 days. Thanks!

I plan to bottle the beer Nov. 7. It should be carbonated enough by Thanksgiving.