DNK Brewery Update - July's End

In a case of being busy and or simply extremely slack I have only now finally bottled the Dunkel and boy was I LAZY! hheehhe. The OG came in a bit high at around 1.009 giving this batch a revoltingly lower Alcohol content of like 4.2% Eeesh! Anyways it smells pretty good but it also came out a bit lighter than I wanted.

In the end its beer, has alcohol, and will taste better than cheap schwill. So I shall share and drink it as opportunity's present themselves.

In other notes, I noticed that this will be my 100'th post on here. Kinda funny with how long I've had this. I barely use my other blog account/service much anymore. Not that I use this a lot either.

Biking wise not much new, did a quick hit yesterday on an unplanned day off taking an hour and change to ride Cabin John. Gotta remember I can get into the trail without going all the way up to the main park off Tuckerman Lane.

Previously about a week and half ago I got to the LB Friday Night Lights Ride, unfortunately I flatted out with about 15-20 mins left and had to push it the mile back. Dave the ride leader led me on the short path back. Otherwise I would have gone what amounted to a VERY long way.

Headed to the coast for a few days early sunday hoping to get in a good bit of touring around the area on the bikes.

Self at WatW #4

Thanks to Antony for taking and posting a photo.

Oy

Pain and Misery were my companions today doing my 2nd lap at Rosary. My back was hurting after only 3 or 4 miles in, I musta already been tired, which lead to bad posture, and that led to sore lower back requiring stretching stops every 15 mins after that. Alas I didn't set any real speed goals out there either. On the first lap the TTF's section/loop tired me out and I was dragging after that plus keeping an eye on the tired Single Speeder with us.

Good group of people out there including Tom, Tony, and a bunch of other guys.

Here's the link to the motionbased track for the ride.
Tour de Rosary 7-13-08

Beer time tonight!

WoW Results Revisited.

So today they posted the raw unadjusted times for the first 3 WatW's. With no week 1 for me, this is how I broke down.

Week 2 Start Time Total Lap 1 Lap 2
24 - Beg Male rlowe 853 18:08:00 0:43:19 0:20:19 0:23:00
Week 3
27 - Beg Male rlowe 853 18:08:00 0:43:41 0:21:37 0:22:04

Positives -
2nd Lap Time was much better all around and I only lost 30 seconds off pace, not 3 minutes.
Negatives -
1st Lap Time was a full minute slower.
Goals -
Be More Agressive about passing, no hanging out for longer than a single tight section, ask and pass!!!!
Don't get stuck in the back at the start without picking better line up the gravel hill so as to avoid stopping.
Get a time of Say 41 Minutes.

WoW Results - Week 3

Raced Week 3 of Wednesdays at Wakefield today, and I simply didn't feel like I gave it my all once again, I spent too long on my first lap hanging off a guy's rear wheel when I should have asked to pass early on and driven myself forward. My stomach was a bit out of it, I think do to a mix of the race jitters and a bit iffy lunch of leftovers.

I'll post more later when I can get the data out of my GPS and see how it really went, my time on my cyclecomp and GPS showed a total time of around 44:30'ish. So we'll see later on how I actually did. A LOT fewer riders by my estimation in beginner.

Paul of the Rosaryvillians must have crushed me this week, I never saw him after the pile up at the start near the top of the hill! Ugh. But big props to him. Hope Eric did well also. While racing I think both JoeP and Ricky on single speeds passed me this week.

WatW Week 2 Results

Final Results - 24th Place at 42:45. Not bad and boy their were 18 more racers and the times/competition really improved over the first week, that time would have been 12th place. Vs this week, 12th place was at 38:50. Eeesh.

This week if we can race, I'm going to try for a 40'ish finish. We'll see if that happens, my rain danger sense is going off very firmly right now.

Went hiking up at Sugarloaf Mtn sunday and it was neat, though the wyf twisted her ankle and is angry due to having to take it easy for this week.

We hit the vineyard just below the mountain and they have some great wines to taste for $3. Also some very posh goat's cheeses from a local shop in Boyd's MD.

Also apparently you can ride the yellow trail at Sugarloaf during the summer, during the weekdays, so I may go hit that next monday.

WoW - Week 2, Race 1 for Moi

Well today I did my first race, Wednesday at Wakefield Race 2. It was a lot of fun, and its a damn hammer fest. I felt like I had a good first showing, adn by my cyclocomp I finished in around 44 minutes for 2 laps of 3.8 miles for a total of 7.4 miles. But boy was I plastered, a third lap would have been the end of it. A 22 minute average for me is damn nice.

Based on last week I'd have been in 14th or so place and just 1 place out of receiving a point for the series, not enough to win, but still respectable. I suspect this week it will be harder. I certainly wasn't last, and thats good enough really in my book, though I now have a CRAZY urge to race again next week. We'll see. My placement doesn't have a lot to due with it, more just time and finances, I'll definitely try for the final.

I felt like I could have been stronger and with a bit more agressive attack I might have been able to cut maybe a minute or two off and finish a few spots better. I think only 3 single speeders passed me. Gotta carb load a bit better the night before, I don't think I had enough in my for optimal fuel in the tank.

Well off to the showers.
Cheers to all the other racers out there.

To Race or Not To Race

Competition scares me. Or rather I'm hesitant to compete, and that sucks even in my opinion. Damn stupid childhood. I can only question myself in this and try and understand why I dislike it.

I guess I can see parts of it back in High School, especially during team stuff in Phys. Ed. I can clearly remember how frustrating I was in thinks like volleyball and soccer, with how I performed inconsistently, or when my teams would slack off. Funnily I remember not being upset for things like running competitions, or physical work.
In recent years, excluding perhaps Kendo/Iajutsu I've found myself avoiding competitive activities.

So where am I going with this you ask, today after work I headed out intending to ride. As I was driving away I had a random thought that it could possibly be the first Wednesday at Wakefield, but I dismissed it and headed on. Low and behold. I pull in and it's bike city, I head out to the far softball lot and gear up, a quick trip to the race area and I determine that I don't have any cash, so no racing today, which might have been better if I had! Less of a chance to wimp out!

So instead I rode about 16.7 miles of accotink. Nice hills and a few descents that are a bit fun. All the while pondering what would it be like to race, if I could fully set aside expectations and just go out with a desire to win, to ride my butt off and try and do as well as possible without getting frustrated at my placement. I still don't know if I can, I do know I WANT to and thats half the battle.

Afterwards I did go back to the race area to hang out. I got to see the kids awards ceremony and I saw a few folks I know but they were mostly talking with other people, the experts were riding when I was there but they were running fast and I only saw a few groups pass through.

I'm not even going to look at the results for this week regardless. And as of right now I am PLANNING on racing next Wednesday, but we'll see.

In beer news, the beer appears to be fermenting nicely, with a nice foamy head and the airlock was bubbling, pretty well.

DoesNotKnow Brewery Open - Dunkelweizen 1.0

Well, tonight I've finally reopened the brewery. And on tonight's menu, is my home grown Dunkelweizen. It's a bit of a mix in that I've taken some pieces from various recipes and a bit of advice from the local Homebrew Store.

I started out with this recipe

3 Gal - Distilled Water
6 oz - Muntons Crushed Crystal Malt - Lovibond 64.0
4 oz - Weyermann Chocolate Wheat - Lovibond 500/EBC 1000
6.6 lbs- Muntons Wheat Malt Extract (2 Cans)
1 oz - Mt. Hood Hop Pellets - Alpha's at 5.0 - Full Boil, 60 Mins
.7 oz - Mt. Hood Hop Pellets - Alpha's at 3.7 - Final 5 Mins
19 IBU Total

1 Gal Distilled
1 Gal Spring
+ Additional Distilled for 5 Gal after boil loss, spills, etc. - 3 Quarts plus a half cup.
Waste - 3.25 Cups of Wort/Hop Residue/Tube Flush
OG Sample - 1 Cup
Plus I may have overfilled originally by a cup or two.

Wyeast 3056 Bavarian Wheat BL (15Apr08) - I am a bit worried about this as this packet sat in the fridge during a 36 hour power loss, it stayed cool, but not 40's. Unfortunetly I didn't apparently slap hard enough to break the nutrient pack. Lesson learned, final temp of the wort was 74 degree's F.

OG unadjusted is 1.049. Gotta adjust for temp

Rosary in the Rain

Went out to Rosary for a nice evening ride, got out and got about 4.5 Miles out when it started sprinkling, by 5.5 it was raining. By 6 I heard rumbling and soon after occasional lightning! Ugh! But I flew like the damn wind and shaved probably 10 minutes of my previous best Rosaryville time with a finish in around 56 mins, though I did cool down for 3 or 4 mins. Another group was out also, the fast guy caught me around mile 6.5/7 and then the other 2 caught me near the end at almost 9. Oh well I still am happy as hell, the only downer was the rain, it was SOOO nice out, even after the rain, I was up for doing at least ANOTHER LAP. But instead I was good, spared the trail and went home to prep for our trip. Oh well.

Soon I will break 50 minutes out there!

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/6023914

Eeesh, where does a Month Go????

The end of May and the beginning of June were OVERLOADED with stuff to do, between J's performances, a trip, and both of us being sick last week its been crazy.

In biking area's I've gotten in a few good rides lately, 2 weeks ago I did a mini-epic at Schaeffer and Hoyles Mill. I didn't quite make it to Black Hills but was pretty close, but a fall on Hoyles Mill tired me out and it also had some poison ivy. Ugh so I aborted soon after with about 25 miles traveled. This Friday I did the FNL ride out at Black Hills and did 12.5 miles, it was a great ride. Today I went out this morning and hit Schaeffer and did a quick 15.5 miles. Beat the rains by just a bit, I'll hit the gym tomorrow then finish the week with a big evening hopefully out at Rosaryville on Wednesday, before we leave for FL on Thursday.

In the beer realm, I've been so damn busy I haven't had a chance to brew beer. Ugh. It's been either hot or rainy and today continues the trend or I might have brewed this afternoon. Hopefully after FL I'll get a nice shot at brewing.

I did pick up 2 AWESOME FRICKIN BEERS!

Bells Oberon - A summer brew, wheat based, but more like a White/Whit, nice orange hints, and mellow flavor, but at 5.8% Alcohol it gets the job done with a better punch.

Troegs - Troegenator - Doublebock - A malt monster doublebock, that rocks up and down. Nice smooth toasty malt goodness, a bit sweet mix on the nose along with the hops. Tasty.

Off to make the dinner.

Muahahahaha!

New components retrieved from the homebrew shop. Soon the next beer will be underway, and I'm stoked. It'll be a partial mash, but the recipe is fast and loose and i'm curious to see how it turns out.

10.49

10.49

That is the defining number of this month. No, not my mileage (Thankfully, more like 37'ish). No, that is the amount of rain for the month so far, with a regular AVG of 4.42 inches. Oh. Once again we've doubled our monthly average, and this time in under half a month. FUXOR!!!!

More brewing on the horizon, looking at maybe starting planning for the Dunkelweizen officially tonight and maybe try brewing sunday or monday.

The Cure

Saw the Cure last night at the Patriot Center out at GMU. First show of their new tour, for their new album out Tuesday. This was a rescheduled show from last september, when they wrapped their tour early.

We missed most of the opening act, only getting a quick peek in at them before their set ended. We got J at T-shirt, but damn that was expensive. Picked up some snacks and the show started around 9:10. The main show went for almost 2 hours, a lot of their more radio popular stuff during the main show with some new stuff, but we didn't know much of it as j and I both hadn't really listened to any new cure since wish in 93'ish. They then took a long break before the first encore, we almost thought they weren't gonna come back out. After 5 mins they did. They ended up doing 3, 4 song, encores. The final one was awesome and ended on Killing an Arab. Great show, they played for 3 hours almost and at the end. RSmith at the end thanked the crowd that stayed and said they enjoyed their first tour night and blah blah blah. Can't remember really. I'm pooped, on about 4 hours of sleep now at work.

Maybe more later. If not, oh well. We've got a friends birthday tonight and Radiohead in the rain probably tomorrow.

Wow!

Wow, I was out for a ride at Wakefield today after work and was SHOCKED at how many more people are out and out on bikes now that the weather has cleared, there musta been 30 or so riders all out in different size groups. The weather was awesome, out under the powerlines there was an nice breeze. Down near the creek the bugs were out pretty bad, no glasses is going to have to change soon I think, I kept getting the buggers in my eyes. I did a nice solid 14.1 miles and averages out a solid 9 mph and I did the hell climb 3 times and rode the back side of the bowl 3 times to in addition.

But it was great to see so many riders out enjoying the trails and all of em were pretty cool, no real churlish behavior though one guy did insist on riding up the berms while a bunch of us were waiting at the top. Oh well, we all kinda laughed about it as he made his way up.

The bike is in need of some tuning on the shifters the rear is starting to get a bit balky. I guess I should go pull the rear wheel, clean the chainset, and full clean the chain but it looks like its gonna rain for a few days, so no real hurry.

DNK Brewery - Impreza Black Porter - Update

The porter is now in the bottles, a bit later than I wanted, but yet I think its fine. I tasted a bit of the run-off/drip off from the filler rod. Nice, a bit coffee'ish, with a nice maltiness. Maybe a bit sweet even, I might want something hoppier if I do a similar brew again.

Next up I will probably start a dunkelweizen, the weekend after next. I doubt I'll have the gear or time to lay it down this weekend, though honestly, I really only might need some additional malt, and a partial mash kit. Who knows, I don't even have a recipe yet, so it's hard to say. I do have 2 cans of Muntons Wheat LME waiting on the shelves very patiently.

Bottling went REALLY well till about 2/3rds of the way in when I knocked over 1 or 2 bottles and made a mess, otherwise my new washing prep and bottling setup plan worked like a charm to me!

At least my basement smells good right now, even after I gave the spills (1 little one in primary area, the big one was in capping area).

Gotta figure out if I'm gonna ride tommorow afterwork or not, might just do a light day at the gym and then hope for Thursday holding out for good weather. Time to grill some fish and asparagus.

Chinco de Mayonaise

We celebrated el chinco de mustard yesterday by having friends over for dinner and having some awesome mexican style chicken fajita's from Bobby Flay's grillin cook book. Awesome, I drank a couple of pacifico's and a big one of my hefe's. Needless to say I was quite sleep by 11 PM.

Ahh the dulcet tones of the ice cream truck are audible in my neighborhood. Summer time is really almost here and spring has sprung. No rain this weekend led to what probably 23 miles for me in the last 2 days.

Today I ground out about 18.5 miles with a out and back to Cabin John, this time I went south from the Tuckerman Ln park all the way to river rd. A few sections were a bit rough or the blazes were nearly gone leading to some long stretches of looking for the trail. On the way back going up tuckerman lane I witnessed a wreck. The first car was waiting to turn left and may have been waiting on me to pass an intersection but I was still 50 or more ft away and grinding up a hill. A school bus had to stop short and didn't hit the first car, unfortunetly a jerk in a mercedes SUV plowed into the back of the bus at probably 20 mph or so. The kids weren't hurt just a bit shook up. Within 50 minutes the cops had taken statements and the kids were gone on another bus and the rear ended bus was driven back to the shop with barely any damage. The guy's suv was pulled off the side of the road and traffic got flowing again. Oddly enough they didn't want or care about my statement since I guess it was such a clear case of tailgating/failure to stop. It's a good thing the bus wasn't about to unload kids either!

Man, pacifico is such better beer than corona.

Great Morning

Took a short ride down into downtown Bethesda for bagels and a bit of misc hardware at the local hw shop. It was a beautiful morning only detracted from by my dieing from allergies, nice breeze, sunny. And no sign of frickin RAIN! YES!

Hoping to get out to Schaeffer tommorow afternoon, but we'll see.

Back to cleaning up for me, we have friends coming over tonight and I'm grilling. Yah!

Also finally cleaned up my disaster area of basement and the organization is quite pleasing to me!

IRON MAN!

Iron Man FRICKIN RULES!!!

Make sure you stay till the end of the credits, you get a neat scene for your patience.

Rainy Weekends.

It's been a cycle the last few weeks of rainy weekends and clear'ish midweeks. It sucks a lot, but I've gotten in SOME rides at least.

Yesterday I went and did the Rosaryville Night Ride, nice group of 10 folks. Held up a solid pace for me of a moving time of 1hr 4min. Honestly I could have done a 2nd lap but it was time to get outa the park. Maybe some other time I'll get out there early enough to do a pre-lap. Night riding in the spring is so different than winter with all the leaves back on the trees! Neat! And not wearing 10 million layers is sweet!! I got to the park at 7:10 ish and was changed and ready to go in 15 mins or less vs usually 30 mins in the winter.

Wednesday I hit Fountain head again. Had a moving time of 1hr 15m though I did retry 1 hill so drop a min off that. I also made it up a couple of hills I hadn't on first try and only pushed up 1 hill. And I estimate a total time of like 1:25 which is much better than the 2 frickin hours or hour:45 it had been taking. Ugh. FH kicks my butt.

May try and sneak another ride in Saturday if the rains hold off till the evening like they are saying.