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. ;)

Vacation post

Vacation was a few weeks ago but I really had to think about the climbs before posting.

Here goes..

The first stop of vacation was Arches national park and my prime target was Delicate Arch. I've always wanted to see this famous arch up close and doing it proved slightly more difficult than I thought it would be. You don't just drive up, jump out of the car and stand next to it. There is a hike involved and warnings about bringing enough water. We were ill prepared and had to go back to the gift shop and buy a nalgene bottle to be on the safe side.

It was a hot climb and a lot of it was on bizarre tilted rock at a nice incline. Really gives you a strange visual perspective against the sky. Anyhow you hustle up there and this is my shaky vid of how Delicate Arch looks up close. It's humbling to stand next to and I'm glad I got the chance.

 


Next up was Angel's Landing in Zion park. I thought about this climb for a couple of years. I read about it, imagined it, and after a lot of waiting got a chance to step up to the trail head to make a summit bid.

The first 80% of this hike is more or less on a paved trail. There is elevation gain but zero scree or anything so you can pretty much cruise right on up to point where it's "decision time". We started hiking with a 3 group party I called the Sweeds. They blew past us early and I didn't think we would see them again. Later on we caught up and the leapfrog game was on up until the chain section where a decision has to be made by all who go any further. More on that in a second but here is a look at the start of the chain section.

Well, I mentioned that I'd thought about this for a couple years so I knew all about the chains, made the decision months before this day so I hit it full force and left the Sweeds trying to decide on a game plan. I didn't think to take any more vids between here and the summit because I had my head totally into the climb. I would NOT recommend this hike for anybody with a fear of heights. There is some serious exposure on this climb. People do die out here and I can see if fear set in how people could get stuck out here. I got in the zone and made the climb. Speaking personally the climb up was the point for me. Next is the obligatory summit vid and while it is super cool up there my reason to do this one was more about putting myself into more exposure than I am used to and seeing how I would react. Here we are topside.

 

After soaking it up for a while it was time to go back down. When I was almost back to the start of the chain section I found the Sweeds. They were clinging to the side of a rock down very low and desperately hanging on to each other. The bad part is that they could not have known what was coming next and if they were rattled here the intense exposure ahead would be sure to provide them total panic very soon. I mention it because in climbs there are always things to learn about yourself. On first glance and watching earlier in the day it is unlikely I'd be passing them on the way down and knowing they were not going to summit this day. Yet there I was and there they were on the verge of pee meeting pants at any moment. You just never know how things work out...

I could post a bunch of beer pics now but suffice to say we hit many, many breweries after this point and the highlights were Ska in Durango, Dolores River Brewing in Dolores Co, and Mr Grumpy Pants Brewing in Ouray Co. Ouray was a super cool town and I'm sure we will go back. The "Million Dollar Highway" between Durango and Ouray is an outstanding drive and we just love that south west corner of the state.

Also Vegas! We decided to make a trip down to the Fremont section of Vegas this time. We have always stayed on the strip and in all our trips have never even seen Fremont. Old Vegas does not command the same hotel rates as the strip so for the same price as a normal room we were able to score a corner suite and Rush Tower. The room was phenomenal! Two big flat screens, a giant couch, king bed decked out in incredible plushness, MASSIVE soaking tub, really really nice room. The street is loud until about 2am and maybe that also makes the price nice but these corner suites are killer. I would not hesitate to stay here again again and we get a free upgrade next time so no telling was a full on baller suite is going to look like but I look forward to it. Turns out we like old Vegas. We like it a lot. It's much more party where the strip is more upscale shopping now.

We did have one nice meal on the strip at Spago. The food was crazy high quality and the ambience is only as it can be while sitting at Spago looking up at the Cesar's  sky...

All in all we had an amazing time and there are tons of things I've left out like learning about a new favorite Hawaiian dish called Loco Moco, to the world class brick oven pizza they make in the tiny town of Dolores, to discovering the Meadery in Palisades Colorado....many fun things that make up a catch as catch can road trip the way we do it.

It was hard to come down off this cloud.

GABF 2011

As I sit here with coffee and start to piece together the event from last night I find that there is only one way to describe it......awesome!

The GABF is simply awesome and I'm probably going to start thinking about tickets for next year just as soon as I'm done with this blog post. ;)

If you know me you know my favorite beer style (far and away) is a well crafted IPA. I expected to find a lot of good examples at the fest and there were several. I also expected to have my top 3 beers of the event be IPA's but I was wrong.

Best beer of the night for me was easily Firestone Walker's barrel aged Russian Imperial Stout Parabola. 

This beer is glorious. Upon tasting it you will say "Damn!" pause for a second and then say"That's good". You won't say much else for a while and others drinking it will understand why you can't add much more than 3 words to describe the amazing beer you are drinking because it has 37,000 miles of depth to explore and you only have so much time to explore them.. It's a stellar beer deserving of as much praise as I could give it and the $25 per bottle you might pay should you ever see this beer out in the wild. Killer stuff!

Second best beer of the night Avery's barrel aged sour ale Immitis.

 Maybe this is a difficult style to get into because the guys I was with both hated it but this was an easy walk away second best beer for me. It would have been #1 had we not discovered the Parabola. The RIS was simply world class beer and demanded the #1 slot. This Sour was amazing and for me it grabs the second place of the evening. Super complicated ale with green apple and cider explosiveness to lead in and a finish that grabs your attention as if it's saying "Look at me when I'm talking to you"...like the Parabola this is also a limited release that is difficult to buy. A guy was telling me you have to go to the tap room and enter into a lottery system to get a chance at it. Later on when I came back for more it was gone and one of the Pouring guys told me he didn't get a chance to taste it. I feel lucky that I did get a chance.

And 3rd place for the night an IPA...finally! ;)

Bear Republic's Cafe Racer 15

Ah yes....what's better than Racer 5? Racer 15 of course. Can you run down to your corner store and grab some unlike the limited release rare brews listed above? Nope..of course not. This is the beauty and the curse of the GABF. You get to taste awesome beers you will likely never get to taste again. I didn't grab a pic of the Racer 15 but what I can say is that it was fantastic. We had many, many, IPA's and some were rather simple, some were not quite up to snuff, most of them were good-great but this one knocked it out of the park. Very nice beer.

In case you wonder what it's like wandering into a room with more craft beer than you can possibly drink, like I started with..It's awesome! I had a freaking blast. Aside from the beer the crowd was all having fun and there are some things I didn't know about that experience will help with on future visits to the GABF. 1
1) Pretzel necklaces. Whoever came up with this idea was a genius. 
2) Crowd participation. I kept hearing people start yelling at random moments. Eventually it happened close enough to me to figure out but when somebody drops a cup you yell AHHhhhhh! at them. not just you but everybody within 80' as to let them know the world saw what they did and we are not letting it slide. All in fun and why not? There is a huge "we are all in this together" vibe and it's a load of fun. Somebody spilled beer on me, I threw beer all over some girl, I tried to get Luke to shoot a pretend gun made with his own index finger and thumb at somebody and he wouldn't do it (man that was funny). At some point we were asked to take a pic of a group of friends and I told them we would not do it unless I could also have a picture of them and apparently they agreed because here they are and I'd say if a picture is worth a thousand words I feel confident in closing this post right here.

Let the brewing begin!

I've missed brewing beer.





When I sold my last set up I had amassed (what was for me) a pretty spectacular all grain set up. I had everything I needed to brew anything I wanted and I did! :)

Life brings changes and these days small space apartment living looks like it's going to be our standard operating procedure for the foreseeable future. This lifestyle is good for a lot of things but not so good for the type of brewing I was doing in Texas.

With no yard, garage, garden hoses, outside space and considering the much different weather changes from Sugar Land, TX to Littleton CO if I wanted to brew here I'd need to do a total system revamp.

After a lot of silent contemplation on my part we were sitting in the Avery Brewing tap room about 3 weeks ago next to the coffee roaster that provides coffee for their coffee stout and Angie says something like;
 
"Ya know, this beer tastes pretty good. You roast coffee and brewed beer, you should make something like this".

:o

I needed no further encouragement! After scouring the various brew forums for info on "apartment brewing", "all grain counter top brewing", and so on find myself these few weeks later looking at this glorious sight this fine Sunday morning.

Airlock activity.....let the brewing begin!

Quandary

We got a chance to climb Quandary with our friends Luke and Prudence yesterday.


The weather was about the best I've ever seen when climbing and not to spoil the story but we were able to hang out on the summit for a long time (a couple of us longer than the other two but I'll get to that in a bit). Yeah, normally afternoon storms are building when we summit and after just a few moments to soak in the accomplishment and snap a few pic it's time to get moving. Not the case this day...we lounged around the summit for a good long time enjoying it all, watching a mountain goat and dog get to know each other, and just taking in this summit that offers a really nice 360 degree panorama of views.

Unlike some hikes this one gives you great views as soon as you break the tree line and it just never stops getting better.


There was one thing everybody was talking about and it was rocks...the trip reports we read did not mention how much loose rock was on this hike. If I do a report for 14ers.com I'm going to mention the loose rock is brutal on the way down and just about ever person you meet on this fairly crowded hike will be talking about it.

Between the rocks, the sun, and negotiating with mountain goats for trail space like with this guy right here...

We were wiped out at lunch. All the spots we missed with sunscreen were blasted, we were drained and banged up pretty good from dealing with the rocks but it really was a beautiful hike and up top you don't care about the beating you are about to take to get down.

Ok..back to the thing about some of us gaining the summit first. My cardio was horrible yesterday. I'm not sure why some days it's better and some days it's worse but my goal for next year is cardio. My legs are fine and I'm good to climb again (maybe not today) but next weekend no problem...but the cardio, it was weak yesterday so we took some breaks so Luke and Prudence went on ahead to scout the summit for us. In the vid I had to poke a little fun at it. Prudence was not within earshot yet so.....here is how it went.

 

At lunch we were zombies...we ate some food and drank some beers but honestly I didn't taste much of it. We were simply toast.

An awesome day like this one sometimes saps your energy and I'd say we had an awesome time because we were all sapped.

Great day up on Quandary!

Lucky 13 alt

Well...one thing is obvious, this isn't an altbier. I think this is just a brewers beer. One that fails to fall into any style (at least by my taste).

In the glass this beer is very interesting. I was recently complaining about an experimental IPA that was overly sweet but the sweetness in this beer is welcome..very welcome. It's not sugar sweetness or residual sweetness. I've got it figured but hold up a second..

Aroma is light grapefruit, taste is also light grapefruit on the front that morphs into a middle of tangerine and finishes on that sweetness that is a nice pineapple. Malt weight is hanging in there pretty nicely giving a good body to this beer. I would not call it balanced exactly as it sort of moves around a bit but the effort is there and it's very pleasing.

I've got to say that Lagunitas hits at a very high %on their limited release beers. The bad part is that they are scarce. I really wish I'd bought 10 cases of that Imperial Red a few years back as it was amazing but yeah...they really crank it on they limited brews in my opinion.

No exception here, I like Lucky 13 Alt. It's sweeter than I like in my IPA's and it's lighter than I like in my maltier styles but the pinch of this and dash of that really works for me in this glass whatever style it's supposed to be or gets identified as.

I like it!

Flat Iron I

This is a hike of Flat Iron I in the Flat Irons in Boulder.

Once again Boulder delivers the goods!

In the last vid I think I've incorrectly identified the rock right over my head as Flat Iron I but once we climbed out and looked back up I was able to get a better perspective of the range. We were very close to the actual peak of FI1(and above 2 & 3)  but you would have to rock climb to get there....still, the rock over my head is still freaking cool! ;)

But before we got topside there was this surprise boulder field to discover. It is literally hidden around a corner and you have no idea it's there. It wasn't too bad really but it is a bit shocking when you first see it. There is also a small section where you need to do some hands on rocks scramble and there are actually plenty of places on this hike were you could fall far enough to get a bad boo boo.

And again the trail data was impossibly wrong. But if this was actually the 1.5 mile hike we thought it was going to be it would not have been nearly as much fun.

Short vids of the boulder field from bottom, top, and the spot where the trail ends somewhere between FI1 and 2.

 

Eelment of suspicion

What do you do when faced with something confusing enough that it makes you question yourself?

Do you figure you could be wrong....something hinky is going on....maybe you should reconsider....

Well.... Here is such a case and it's no to hard to make the call, it's just weird is all but I've got to go with what I'm getting even if it doesn't make sense.

Left Coast Brewing Hop Juice.

What is confusing me about this beer is everything written on the bottle about what this beer is supposed to be... I hardly find any of what the brewer claims to be showing up in my glass. This beer drinks like an English Ordinary Bitter to me except that it's over twice the Alcohol content of that style. As the beer warms I get some pine but cold....and I drank 80% of it cold the pine was washed out for me and I was getting was nondescript bittering hops. Maybe English hops... a little earthy.

Anyhow, the brewer says it's an IBU monster and unless I have a cold nobody told me about it's just not as aggressive as I'd expect a double IPA to be and it's not west coast style for me at all in this bottle.

It's really like an ordinary bitter that somebody screwed up by adding extra bittering hops and dumping some Sugar in to boost the Alc content. Making it a  hot/alc extra hopped bitter.

On a positive note I sort of like it but it's an odd duck. This would make a good party beer where getting trashed was in the plans. It's like a session beer way to hot for session drinking.

I can't help but wonder what adding some darker "bready" malt into this beer would do for it.

Anyhow, I think it's a decent beer. It does not fill any slot or rise above enough other beers to make it into my normal rotation but it's not bad. It's out of style to my taste but hey, who's fault is that?  ;)