Rock and Roll will never die.

Last week we finally got a chance to catch a concert at Red Rocks.

It was Ted Nugent, REO Speedwagon, and Styx.

We scored killer 11th row seats and would have had even better seats if not for some trouble logging into the Ticketmaster system.

What can I say except all three bands sounded perfect. I've see Uncle Ted as well as Styx many moons ago and I'm hear to tell ya, they sounded perfect. REO I had never seen but likewise they sounded like you could have taken a time machine back to the day and not known these guys are like senior citizens now.

They all delivered the goods. Stranglehold, Blue Collar man, and to see Ridin' the storm out at Red Rocks and hear the story that the song is actually about the band hiking in Estes Park and getting hit by a storm.. it was really something.

Speaking of really something sitting next to us was a total maniac Troy and his new bride Melissa. One of the first things we found out about our new concert buddies is that Melissa was able to smuggle tons of tiny bottles of booze into the concert in her big bra.... If you ever meet Troy he will explain to you that doing shots together is not optional. Between the shots of cinnamon whiskey, the concert, and watching Troy work the crowd as well as his "appreciation" for the big boobs that smuggled in the shots it was a freaking blast! I took some pics and at 6 freaking 45 the next morning I get a text that says

 "send me some pics. T with a Roy" 

I'm thinking how in the hell is this dude awake? He was about 29 miles further down the road to drunksville than we were and I certainly did not want to be awake so early I've got no idea but it was really fun meeing somebody what that much lust for life. You know how to enjoy the moment T With a Roy, you really do and I would not mind meting you again down the line somewhere, Rock on!

For the bands Ted was rock freaking solid! I was very impressed with how tight the band was and he rocked it out at 100% there is no doubt about it.

I don't want to mention any names but I've seen some bands that are still touring today that honestly should have stopped a long time ago. It's almost like stealing money to sell tickets but can't deliver a fraction of the sound the fans are expecting. Not the case here Ted kicked off the show with a grand slam.

REO was up next and they actually did do something odd by deciding to play a few songs I'm pretty sure nobody wanted to hear.. Not sure why they did that but they did and the crowd politely sat through them waiting for the songs they know and love. The hits were BIG hits at the show and Roll with the Changes as well as Ridin the Storm Out were serious fun.

Styx hit the stage like it was the last time they would ever get to play again. Tommy Shaw was like a sprightly freak! He was leaping around, doing high kicks and I felt like asking him if anybody told him how old he was because obviously he was about to throw out his hip or something. Initially I was not sure if Styx would be the right choice to close this show but they decidedly were. They brought the smackdown and even added some heft to some of the classics. I remember telling Angie at one point "Man, I really don't remember Lady rocking like this". They did not come to play around.

Anyhow, if these geezers can rock like this I'm forced to agree...rock and roll will never die.

Spyderco and Avery

This is the kind of thing I find humorous...

After running some errands today I thought it would be cool to go over to Spyderco in Golden and after that head up to Avery and we could try Eremita III the third addition to the Eremita sour series.

I've been wanting to get a Spyderco for a Looooooong time and I've been wanting for Angie to try Eremita for a while as well. So today as we pulled into the parking lot and saw what intersection we were sitting at I had to laugh.

I started out with a hunch but here is a bonafide sign.. Spyderco way and Avery street.. Hahaha.

After carefully looking at several models I selected the Spyderco Native. I dig it!

Then (because fate gave us a sign) we had to visit Avery for a sour and a couple of dry hopped IPA's.

Cool Wed afternoon.

Spiffy road trip

With a few days off and a great groupon deal we decided to take a little road trip.

Destination (one of them anyhow) Ridgeway Colorado. What I knew about this place is was two things 1) It is close to Ouray - a town that we love. 2) It is home of Colorado Boy brewery - a brewer that I thought was pretty good at last years GABF and I made a mental note to remember if I was ever in Ridgeway.

So a few days ago we hit the road for a trip that would take many unexpected twists and turns. The first twist happened a little over an hour and a half in when we made our first of 19,000 bath room stops and I realized that I needed some coffee. Road coffee is just about always a horrendous experience but for me a necessary evil that must be suffered.

This day however we took a random exit that had the bathroom sign before the exit and that is when I saw the last thing on earth I expected to see at a random freeway exit and my hopes were raised instantly.

With Blue Bottle coffee, #2 ceramic pourover cones and the water poured with good technique from Hario kettles... I could not have been much happier with a cup of road coffee. This place is one exit past Vail in Avon...Stop there if you are ever driving past Vail.

We got to our Destination of Ridgeway and it is an unmistakable mountain town. These small towns like Ridgeway, Ouray, Silverton etc..are obviously gold rush towns and they would have to bulldoze them to the ground and rebuild with Stucco for you not to see it. Our crash pad was the Chipeta Solar Spa and it is a rustic mix of adobe, a crackerjack box, and luxury. It's an instant conflict of shabby meets magical and while in some ways I would recommend it most highly I'd also not be able to recommend it at all. It's really just a jumble of wackyness and magic that I have a hard time explaining.

First off the goal of this place is relaxation period.

When we got there we had about 40 min until our massages were scheduled and I tried several times to ask the spa director for instructions of what we should do next. She calmly and politely told us to relax and do whatever we wanted. If we wanted to do a sauna, hot tub, outdoor soaking tub..whatever we wanted. Basically they will not give you any structured instructions at this place. I enjoy knowing what I'm doing next and this idea of relaxing and not giving it any thought made me a bit anxious. Long story short they had robes for us in our rooms, extra robes for us in the spa area and wherever we went we would not have gotten lost..they were gonna track us down wherever we went.

Anyhow, relaxing "unconditionally" is a skill it turns out I was not very well versed at....yet.

We opted to hit the outdoor soaking tub...totally awesome!

During our soak the spa director found us and said we had 6 min until our massage and we could leisurely make our way over to the spa. See John...nothing to worry about. :)

Two awesome massages later we dashed over to Colorado Boy for some nice pints and some Artisan pizza... And then we met with a real life Wally World moment.

 Un freaking real!

Well, we were just moments away from the second great twist of fate.

We asked around and got recommend a burger place. We selected a nice beer on tap only to find out their taps were out of order. I guess I should say that this is about the time we began to understand mountain life is a little different as far as things being closed and running out go. The 24/7/365 supply of city life does not apply here. You either adapt to it or I guess you get off the mountain.

Anyhow the only other interesting choice was a rye pale ale from somebody I've never heard of Telluride Brewing. We tried it and to explain what we thought about it I can just say that after breakfast we headed over to Telluride to go see them.

At Telluride Brewing we met Gavin and Fish. Proprietor and Master Brewer. We hung out, talked, walked around the brewery, and enjoyed a few pints. These guys have only been open for 6 months but Fish is a well established pro brewer and I predict you will see them soon. Not too soon because they are controlling distribution tightly in house right now and they don't want to outpace quality. We actually talked a lot of brewing business stuff as well as brewing in general. I laughed about the 1oz packets of hops I use while Fish was scooping pint glasses full of hops our of a 44 lb box of the same pellet hops us home brewers use. It is exactly the same process only scaled up to the size of the 500 gallon batches they are making at Telluride or the much larger batches we saw last week at New Belgium.

Great time with the guys at Telluride, great beer, I wish them all the best!

Next we blasted over to Ouray to revisit a guy we met last trip Mr. Grumpy Pants. Grumpy pants also brews good beer and is a very interesting guy. In a second Wally World moment Grumpy was closed... By now we were used to rolling with it so we slipped across the street to the coolest bar stools in the world. The swing chairs at Ouray Brewery. We talked to the owners here and when they asked us where we were from they said "ya know we have some beer on guest tap".. and they didn't have to say more. We know exactly where it is. It's at one of our regular spots.  It was an it's a small world  moment.  

Ska had a Pale on guest tap and we enjoyed it while swinging away at the bar in Ouray... Unbelievable.

Then for dinner we made another lucky break by stopping at a Mexican restaurant/resort/youth hostile. This place is called The Adobe Inn and simply put if you ever pass Ridgeway Colorado and you don't eat here you have made a serious life error. It's totally amazing Mexican food that I can't place Regionally. It's not Tex Mex, New Mex, Mountain Mex, Border Mex.. I can't tell exactly what it is other than freakishly delicious. If you are EVER in Ridgeway you must stop at the Adobe Inn.

After that we did another good long soak back at Chipeta. The sun was going down and a light mist was coming over the mountains as steam plumes were coming off the water because the temp was dropping. I tried to take a picture of a Modus Hoperandi on the soaking tub edge to capture this conglomeration of clouds, steam, mist, and light but it would not work out.

I forgot to mention how you could hear every tiny sound made in the Chipeta Lodge but this is part of the love/hate thing. We finished up the awesome soak with an off and on sleep because of waking up with every door opening or toilet flushing. It's such a strange place....

And then just as quickly as it started it was over and our groovy little road trip brought us full circle back to Headquarters Littleton.

Now we put the thinking caps back on to plan the next adventure......

New Belgium, Left Hand, and Ribs

We toured New Belgium yesterday and simply put it far exceeded my expectations.

I mentally place them just below macro brewers and on our first stop of the tour they poured us a Dig PA and explained this point straight away.

Micro brewers are less than 15K barrels and craft brewers are under a couple/few million barrels  (If I remember correctly). Both must be independently owned and this is probably the more important part and limiting factor because the trend is for macros to buy up micros now and attempt to gain that market.

Our tour guide told us that New Belgium is the third largest craft brewer (they are too big to be a micro now) and that they might become the second largest some day overtaking Sierra Nevada. They do not project to ever be as big as Sam Adams the largest craft brewer.

After looking at the size of this operation and realizing it is in the category of Sierra Nevada and Sam Adams on production and taking a closer look at their offerings and quality in the glass I walk away more impressed with them than I expected.

I don't think I'll return to being as big of a buyer of their product as I was years ago but all things considered they run an impressive operation as far as I'm concerned and we enjoyed all our samples from the nice profile of the Dig Pale, to the fresh off the bottling line and zesty Somersault, to the Belgian double, the lips of faith Farmhouse ale, to the oak aged brown sour. They were all interesting, tasty, and well... "good" beers.

The mash tuns were freaking beautiful. They have interior lights as well as viewing glass up top and we could see mashes in various states between doughing in to lautering. Stunning looking mash tuns...the most impressive of any brewery I've seen so far.

New Belgium has a core philosophy that is very evident in all you see here. They strongly believe in being stewards of the environment and use all sorts of solar, wind, and other green energy sources. But it's more than that in their internal culture... I'll sum it up by saying they appear to care about more aspects of life/business than just making money and walking around it there assures you it isn't just lip service. They operate on a philosophy that feels legit.

After that we realized we were pretty close to Left Hand brewing so we stopped into the tap house for a pint. I grabbed the nitro pour stout and it was fun watching them pour my glass. I had never watched a nitro pour done before and it's an interesting process. Several people managed to belly up to the bar after my beer was starting to get poured and they all got served beers and set on to drinking long before my beer was finished getting topped off many times atop the massive Guinness effect pours that would settle down to make room in the glass.

Super creamy goodness.

After that it was some very above average BBQ at The Rib House in Longmont. I've got to say that I'm not sure how or why this place ended up in Longmont in the awesome yet almost creepy Disneyland like neighborhood it's in. Seriously fantastic BBQ at this place and I can give it my highest recommendation.

All in all a fun day of beer and BBQ.

IMAG2327

IMAG2327, a photo by waxteeth on Flickr.

Dig

Nice coffee day.

Today was just the type of coffee day I wait for.

I roasted a random blend of beans about a week ago that I'll never be able to duplicate and used 95% of that coffee for pourover. Looking at it this am I thought I had enough to pull a few shots so I clicked the little magic on button of the machine and set after it.

Somehow the first sniffs off the grinder I knew something cool was about to happen.

My intuition was right and the first pour came out like this:

Very well balanced shot and it didn't exhibit any singular dominant features it was just really good from start to finish.

I decided to have another go at it....less luck on the art this time at bat so you get the "artistic" look at this one. ;)

 

 With this shot I figured out what was going on. It is a delicate espresso in its punch into the milk. It's coming in on a very narrow slice of presentation that isn't super common. The balance of the shot itself and its balance with the milk is creating something of a super balance. 

These two shots made me really happy and I think most people would appreciate their expression. 

Half way into the first one I was thinking about how simple it was to make those shots and then I thought a bit on just how hard it really was to get to the point of it being so simple...

I thought about one of those saying that goes something like "it takes a lot of hard work to make it look so easy" or something like that. Maybe "luck is where hard work and preparation meet".

One of those things came to mind but really I was just enjoying those cups and instead of them being transportational type coffee they were more gravitational in that they really pulled me into the moment here and now.

The here and now of livin the dream that is. :)

 

 

Thank you Alton Brown

For about 50 things actually but today in particular I finally got around to making a steak the Alton Brown way.

I watched the steak show years ago but the reality is that I don't cook steak very often. Probably for these reasons:

1) The cuts of meat I normally had access to were never worth the effort.
2) My cooking techniques left room for improvement.
3) Adding the above points together = chewy leather steaks.

Some grass fed NY strips caught my eye today and I figured, why not? Might was well try the Alton method on some quality cuts and see what happens.

And I figured I'd place odds on my bet by crumbling a little Maytag blue cheese on top and throwing the dice.

Winner on the line!!  ;)

I did manage to fill up the place with a big cloud of searing steak smoke that wafted out the patio door and onto my neighbours so they could curse me for living the grass fed steak dream.

For sure the best steak I've ever cooked myself.

Light coat of canola oil, salt and pepper (I also used to Montreal).
Sear each side for 30 seconds in a blazing hot cast iron skillet.
Blast each side for 2-3 min in a 500 degree oven (in said skillet).

Easy, smoky, and pretty damn impressive results.

Thanks Mr. Brown!

My new obsession

Irish coffee.

And..

I've had Irish Coffee before...in an Irish Pub no less but I'm positive they didn't have coffee as good as this fresh roasted Papua New Guinea Peaberry I used, the organic raw sugar, the Organic cream that I whipped by hand 10 seconds before serving...

Most of the examples you get in a bar are probably using an auto drip machine and pre ground beans as well as a spray can of whipped cream.

To be honest I'd order an Irish Coffee as the last drink because I realized getting some coffee in my body was probably a good idea. It was as much a tactical move as anything not that I was digging Irish Coffee.

Well all of that changes when you control the ingredients and process.

I think this is a genius drink now and it's very enjoyable as an after dinner drink/event. The layer of cream is not only delicious it's actually a source of amusement in drinking the coffee through the cream and picking up the precise amount in each sip as you would want if you had some way of measuring it out.

Irish Coffee.... Genius!


I love it.

Gitomer is good.

I had a chance to ask Jeffrey Gitomer a question earlier today.

His answer was pretty freaking helpful first off and secondly it's given me something to think about for the past 10 hours.

The specifics of my question and his answer are not important to this post but some interesting generalities are.

I think back to the editors cut of Pulp Fiction in a scene from Mia's house that did not make the final cut. Mia asks Vincent; In conversation to you listen or wait to talk? Vincent thinks about it and says "I have to admit I wait to talk, but I'm trying harder to listen.

Something Gitomer talks about is listening with the intent to understand. Following this advice and like Vincent Vega I've been trying harder to understand lately when talking to people. Sometimes it's hard, especially when they are flowery talkers and take forever to say the extra words (that I've already figured they were going to say) but it's something I'm actively working on.

Anyhow, this is one point of my reason for bringing this up. When I asked Gitomer my question he answered it from what was obviously a firm position of really trying to understand me/where I was coming from. I know this because the answer is just too fitting for a person that does not know me. People that know me know how I operate. They know my motives, ways, and so on. To have somebody "size me up" so fast in just a few words was pretty interesting.

One of my goals for this year is to continue to work on listening until it becomes a habit for me. Obviously we all listen to people when we talk to them or no communication would go on. I'm just realizing that there is a much deeper level of information being passed on during conversation than I was aware of before. Like a lower sound frequency that you have to tune your ear to if you want to hear it.

Yeah, I suspect there is a LOT of information being passed that goes under the radar because we capture enough detail to formulate our best response and the rest gets lost in white noise.

I think being like Vincent Vega and trying harder to listen is a pretty good idea. Leaving your gun in the kitchen instead of bringing it to the bathroom....not such a good idea.

Firestone Walker XV

I had a whole plan to do an update post covering all the big changes over the last month or so and some of the things I've been up to but when I decided to crack into my Firestone Walker XV things changed.

It requires a post of it's own, I will try to do the bigger update post tomorrow.

Right now all attention is on this amazing beer.

Let's start with the fact that I am notoriously hard on dark styles. Next I'd like to say that my first homebrew club was the Foam Rangers and the club style is Barlewine. Suffice it to say I have have probablly had (other than other Foam Rangers) more Barleywine than most people will ever see in their lifetimes.

XV is a Barlewine...sort of... it's a blend of barrel aged beers that the majority of in Barleywine. It also has some Imperial brown, DPA, Oatmeal stout, DIPA, and the absolute best RIS I've ever tasted in my life the phenomenal Parabola.

The first thing I'll say is that fully understanding this beer in one 22oz bottle is impossible. All I can do is try my best to convey as much as I can in this session.
It's likely this will be my only XV so here goes....

First for the pedestrians I'll say this;

Big barrel character is evident. The predominate force in the first sips are almost unrecognizable or difficult to place. I think it's because the oak and barrel taste from the bourbon and brandy barrels is not in your immediate taste library for beer. If you settle into it the barrel taste is screaming at you with other things waiting in the background. As you dig in and explore you will find some roast notes, a little fig, huge chocolate covered cherries, hay, leather... don't worry about that but hay and leather, toffee and then it just gets so complex that you can't retain focus anymore.


Long story short it's unbelievable!

I also followed the recommendations from FW and filled a wine glass half way and warmed up to 55F.

 

For those that won't get too freaked out by the transport read on for those that don't get it ignore what follows.

I drink this beer and I'm forcefully thrown into a stable type setting. I see a large flat wagon. This setting is obviously hundreds of years ago. I can see large wagon wheels and a flat wagon with nothing on it. I'm not too sure what the difference between a barn and a stable is but maybe this is a barn. There aren't any animals in it so I really don't know what type of structure this is but there is the wagon, hay or straw... long straw(s) are under the wagon wheels and there is this straw/hay stuff laying around. I'm laying on the straw "bed". I want to say it's France but I've really got no idea. It's the time when when men would wear very skinny swords. I know because I've got on tall leather boots, a Sienfield like puffy shirt, and have a long skinny sword. Nice summer day, very comfortable temps, and in this moment life is good.

Present moment... I've just finished the last bit of the XV and feel lucky to have had it for the brief moment I did.

Totally awesome!!

I don't think much of the Firestone Union Jack but both Parabola and XV have blown me away. Angie tasted it and walked over to the sink to spit it out. Maybe most people won't care for this type of beer. I'm reminded of my buddy Luke who reminded me just a couple weeks ago how much he hated the awesome Sour ale from Avery we had some months ago. And that the beer world has a large range of offerings. Everything isn't for everybody. Barrel aged blended Barelywine beer might only appeal to a small group of people....

I'm glad I got a chance at it.

First stout

I got a little busy and put off bottling my first stout for a couple weeks.

All in all I'm glad I did because I've always wanted to try a little bit longer of a primary but I get impatient. What better to try it out on than a dark style like this?

Anyhow, this is a style some people call a breakfast stout because I put some oats in it as well as some coffee. We tasted a sample at bottling and it's pretty good right now...I'm very curious to see where we end up after bottle conditioning.

With this batch it's official... I have a LOT of beer on deck! I figure I'm set until summer when I plan on doing a batch of Rye IPA.

And this is good as well because we have 5-6 months until next climbing season so it's time to shift attention to the work up for our annual July climb of Beirstadt. There has not been enough snow this year to do get as much snow shoe action as we planned and it's not icy enough for micro spikes either. The plan was to hike all winter but I can see now that each winter might offer different conditions. Next year we will have an alternate plan to go with the snow shoe and spikes....mud hiking isn't exactly appealing so by then I'll have a better option.

Anyhow... Beer! A pile of 220z bombers.

 

Mediocrity

Mediocrity.... I hate you.

I've been thinking it over and I realize that you have co-opted your partner in crime comfort zone and together you have been conspiring to kill me.

Be advised I have come out of the ether now and have designs to destroy you.

I've become an inhospitable host....I see what you have done. I'm coming for you!

A call to tea

Yesterday we enjoyed this tea.

It came to my mind that the contemplation of tea is so much different than coffee. I really have no idea why I have not taken note of this before. I think it's possible that I lumped contemplation together and had not made the distinction. Forces of nature and fate being what they are and the forces of coffee and tea being what they are this day I started making that distinction.

I'm not prepared to add much detail just now, only that maybe tea is a more introspective type of contemplation and coffee is more of an outward expression.

In any event this is all to say if you have not had a nice cup of tea in a while....have one. ;)