up the poudre

Memorial day weekend camping time! Since I've had the past several months off, I headed up to Fort Collins early on friday to search out a good spot until the rest of the gang arrived. Lots of folks had the same idea, and for a while I got stuck in traffic behind the truck painting lines on the road. All the obvious spots were pretty much filled up, but more ground became available the further I went. I finally found this bridge that led to a dirt road with lots of secluded areas.

I settled on this one spot a short hike downhill from the road - even though we weren't near the river we had total seclusion. Luckily I had had cell reception if I stood on top of my car so I could radio my location to the others. I set up camp and started a fire, and when they arrived we got our fajita dinner started up. The weather started taking a turn from the nice sun we had earlier in the day, and we wound up with a cold drizzle the rest of the weekend - not what we had hoped but oh well! Luckily some psychos had cut down a ton of trees so firewood was bountiful.



Saturday afternoon we explored our surroundings on a hike.



We checked out the local fauna.



And came across a fresh deer hoof.



Likely food for whatever bear was using the trees as a scratching post.



We busted out some snacks and continued fueling the fire. Later that night we had a pasta dinner. By sunday morning we were ready to split, which was what we had originally planned. We stopped off in downtown Fort Collins at a brew pub for some lunch before heading home.



Chillaxed and aired out our gear sunday. Had a BBQ at hillside on memorial day proper.

bee boy braggot funpark

Friday I met up with Jacq for coffee and to give her b-day gift which finally arrived. The I ran a bunch of errands in the crazy weather which included wiping a pile of hail off my car. Then I met up with Steph at Boulder Beer for happy hour on our 6-month anniversary.

Saturday morning I started straining the honeycomb Renn had given me last week. It was a much slower, and messier process than I had anticipated. The day was beginning to get away from us for brewing the actual braggot, so I made a quick run to Sunflower to make up the difference in honey weight we still needed for my recipe.





The day was beginning to get away from us for brewing the actual braggot, so I made a quick run to Sunflower to make up the difference in weight we still needed.



Once the boil began and we added the malt extract and honey, a swarm of honey bees descended upon us on the back porch. They were harmless and really just going nuts at the smell of the sweet honey and malt boil. Once I added the hops they dissipated a bit. But we now had mascots and a name for the brew = Bee Boy Braggot.



Later that night after we were done brewing, we cooked up a rack of ribs for dinner and watched The Tourist, which was ok.

Sunday Steph had a bridal shower in the AM, but when she got back we met up with LauRenn at the NoBo Funpark to take advantage of some groupons - 36 holes of mini golf, 2 rounds of go-karting, and some skiball - fun fun fun fun.





For dinner we tried out the new place at 29th Street - ZPizza, and we had a darn good Tuscan pie. After the Sox Cubs game ended, we watched Game of Thrones and Treme.

brew crazy revisited

A nice rainy night on wednesday I went to my first meeting of the Indian Peak Alers, and invite I received from John whom I'd met at the AHA party last week. This group usually meets at Lefthand, but tonight they were at the Tasty Weasel at Oskar Blues - both surprisingly just a quick jaunt down 287 in Longmont. The theme for the night was cask & wood aged beers and luckily I still had some of my french oak chip aged IPA Rocktane to share with the group. Considering that it was only my second brew ever, I was surprised at how well received it was. On the night, I also tried samples of a chaiPA, oak aged imperial stout, pliny the elder clone, apricot wheat, and a couple more I cannot recall. The guest speaker was a brewer at OSB who spoke about cask aging. One member had made some pretty sweet coasters out of bamaboo as a thank you for a big brew day they had done last saturady and I scored ~4 lbs of pale malt which was extar from a large buy they had done. All in all a pretty solid group of about 35 folks. I think I'll visit with them again.

Thursday I bottled the Red (Sox) RyePA, since it was bout a week overdue and next month's aler's meeting theme was IPAs.



It had been raining all week and friday was the first day I had a chance to cook my Kiwit. I was beginning to worry about the 4 pounds of kiwi I'd purchased the week prior, but it turned out just fine - they were a bit easier to peel after having ripened a bit. What a messy brew - my first foray into brewing with fruit. This should be a perfect summer sipper!



Steph was out of town with her sister until sunday. So saturday I headed over to 3959 to meet up with Jacq & Andy before we went to Ryder's 2nd b-day at the park of Violet. It was once again cool & rainy, but it got damp cold as soon as we showed up to the park. No one was ready for such a soggy chill, so after about 45 minutes the party was called a wash. We went back to 3959 for some margs and some sotring through Andy's newly acquired terabyte of choons to pick things out I thought they might groove on. Then on my way home I swung by LauRenn's to pick up some honey from Renn's hives for a braggott I plan on making soon. When I got back to Milo I finished up watching the Bruins (loss) and the Red Sox (win).

Sunday when Steph got home we watched Middle Men which was a surprisingly good film about the precursor to paypal. And then we went shopping for some dinner ingredients and Steph whipped up a sweet fresh tortellini dish. Nom nom nom.

party to the 4th power

Friday I battled my way through campus graduation traffic and picked up Steph then headed to NoBo park for Jeff's graduation party. They were a bit late getting there and set up so we drove to a couple of other nearby parks just in case we had the wrong one. Alas we did not. Once we got under way, he had quite the food spread and of course grilling action. But perhaps, most important was the tapping of the 4Cs IPa keg we had brewed only ~3 weeks ago. Jeff had added some extra priming sugar and with the CO2 tank, she was ready to go. Quite tasty and well received as the 5 gallon keg was tapped by the end of the afternoon.



After Jeff's party, Steph & I grabbed some coffee at Trident to gear up for our next event - the National Homebrew celebration party at the Brewer's Association rooftop. Lots of unique and tasty beers on tap - india dark kolsch, peach ipa, porter, wee heavey - and those were just the kegs. Many folks had brought some of their specialty beers in bombers and there were plenty of exciting pours to be had. I met a whole bunch of folks who invited me to join their brew clubs which I'd never really explored before. I hope to take a few of them up on the offer!



Saturday, we went to a Kentucky derby party at Bridget's loft over by the pepsi can. We had a solid spread of apps and mint julips & mojitos were the signature drinks on the day. For the race, we all chose horses names out of a hat - mine are below. After the 2 minute race, Matt wanted busted out the grill and we had BBQ dinner.



And on Sunday, Jacq hosted a mother's day party for Meg & Jane with a spread from Panera's. Lauren also whipped up a salad recipe from ModMarket, and Steph brought over more of her mint julip cake which was a big hit at the Derby party as well.

Whew - busy weekend!

mogwai

Last night I finally got a chance to see Mogwai. Steph had class so I headed out solo to the sold out show at the Bluebird. Scored a sweet print when I walked in, and got a sweet spot near the front off to the side - double sweet. Errors opened the show and they were very mathy sounding, but decent. Their drummer was playing double duty with both bands since Martin was unable to make it stateside. Mogwai was downright superb, and I will likely never miss another show if I can help it. Apparently video was not allowed so here's the one minute I snapped before I was told to cease.



Set:
White Noise
Friend of the Night
Rano Pano
Death Rays
I'm Jim Morrison, I'm Dead
San Pedro
Mexican Grand Prix
How to Be a Werewolf
New Paths to Helicon Part 1
You're Lionel Richie
George Square Thatcher Death Party
Mogwai Fear Satan

E:
Auto Rock
Hasenheide
Batcat

jacq's b-day '11

We all met up at Tahona on saturday for Jacq's birthday celebration. Of course the weather was rainy per usual, and it even snowed for 20 minutes.



After happy hour was over, a smaller group of us made our way over to the West End and we sampled a bunch of their big brew selection on tap.



Sunday I watched most of the first season of Justified while Steph did homework.