Busy With Beer

Tonight was a busy one in terms of what we had to do with two of our beers. First was bottling the Irish Stout. It was a beautiful dark brown color and we set a record with how many bottles we were able to get out of the batch--48. We probably could have gotten close to one more, but we couldn't tell how much was left in the bottling bucket, so we poured it into a glass. It would have been close. We decided to give it a taste. It was warm and flat, but the flavor is there. Paul chilled it for a while to try it again and while it was better cold, it's still lacking the necessary carbonation to really taste "right." And, as we suspected, I don't like it. It's good if you like that type of beer, but I just don't. It's too bitter for me. Fortunately Paul thinks he'll really enjoy it once it ages a bit. Score!

After we bottled, we cleaned everything and then racked the Pumpkin Ale from the primary to the carboy. It is also a beautiful orange/gold/amber color and while the spice aroma didn't overwhelm us, it was there--just subtle. I hope the flavors come through once it's aged.

It will sit in the carboy for about two weeks before it's ready to be bottled. Just another typical Thursday night in the brew house. : )

Carboy and Bottles

Paul Racking Stout

Pumpkin Ale Racking

A Food Photo Obsession

I know others do this, but recently Paul and I (me more than him) seem to be slightly obsessed with taking photos of our food. It's gotten to the point where the camera seems to have a semi-permanent home on the kitchen table. I just love taking photos of food. Maybe not quite as much as I love eating the food, but still. We have a whole folder on our computer dedicated to food. We must really have issues. Anyway, I felt it needed addressing and would love to hear if anyone else is as obsessed in this department. Also, I thought I'd share some of my favorite photos...Enjoy!

Bowties with Pesto

Biscuits with Homemade Raspberry Jam

Raspberry Crumb Bars

Crepes

Soft Ginger Cookies

Oh, The Home Brewing You'll Do--Part Two!

I wanted to get something for Paul to thank him for being so supportive of my running. He's driven me all over the place, watched me run while standing in the rain, listened to me groan about my aches and pains, and he's done this all without complaint. He really is a gem. : ) What better way to say thank you than to buy him a beer kit? Paul's favorite beer is Guinness and I wanted to see if I could find a kit that would be as close to Guinness as possible. I ran onto an Irish Stout kit and surprised him with it. He was anxious to try it and I was excited to brew it. It's become a favorite hobby for us both.
The kit was like the Summer Ale kit in terms of steps. Heat the water, steep the grains, bring to boil, add the malt, return to boil, add the hops, etc...I'm probably boring you guys with my details. ; ) The roasted barley, black patent, and dark malts really worked their magic in transforming plain old water into a deep, rich, dark chocolate color that smelled delicious. We put it into the fermenter and decided to start our next project: a white wine.
Why not get two things going the same day? Paul's dad had expressed interest in a batch of wine or beer. Since we know he tends to drink more wine than beer, we suggested making him a batch of white wine. We selected a Pinot Grigio kit since we were without juice. The process was exactly the same as for the Malbec. That didn't take long and we kept an eye on both over the next few days.
For whatever reason, the stout didn't start to ferment when it should have. We were concerned that maybe the yeast was dead or that something was wrong. Patience indeed is a virtue and while it was slow to start, it finally did. At the appropriate times we racked both the beer and wine to their appropriate carboys and are planning on bottling the stout this Thursday--19 August. It will be at least 2-3 weeks from then before we'll try it. The truth is that I don't even like Guinness. I wish I did, but it's just a little too much for me. I will still try this one, but honestly, it's more for Paul. And anyone he chooses to share it with....IF he chooses to share! ; )
The Pinot needs to be racked and clarified next weekend and should be ready to bottle by the beginning of September. For now, it continues to ferment. A few weeks ago I discovered a wonderful brew supply store in Austin, Texas. Their website is phenomenal. They carry so many products and Paul and I nearly drooled over their offerings. One large order later and 44 pounds of supplies arrived at our doorstep. It was like Christmas! We only waited a few days before we brewed our first Pumpkin Ale. We did this just last Saturday. This method is called partial mash brewing. It's a step up from extract brewing so it takes a little longer as there are several more steps involved. From start to finish took us just over 5 1/2 hours. That includes pumpkin baking time, sanitizing, etc. The best part of the brew was the last 5 minutes of the boil when we added nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and some dried orange. The home smelled absolutely amazing. Into the primary it went and it's been bubbling away since then.
Next up will be our Holiday Ale. We want to give it plenty of time to age and improve before the holiday season! : )

Irish Stout Boiling

Pitching the Yeast into the Pinot Grigio

Pumpkin Ale Grains

Pumpkin Ale Boiling

Oh, The Home Brewing You'll Do!

All it took was a taste of our first home brew for us to become hooked. Since we had picked up equipment for wine making in Ohio, we figured that would be our next endeavor. We decided to start with a wine kit, since it would be difficult to get fresh juice in May. Fresh juice comes here from California in September. We decided on a Chilean Malbec. Both Paul and I really enjoyed the Malbec he brought home from Argentina and we hoped this wine would have similar qualities.

Making wine is quite a bit easier than making beer. There is no cooking involved. The short of it is that you add juice, add some bentonite clay (to help settle proteins), add some water, give it a stir, take an original gravity reading with a hydrometer (to help determine fermentation status and alcohol content later), add some oak chips, and throw in the yeast. That's it! Simple, right? Hard to mess up when everything you need comes pre-measured in the kit! Of course everything has to be cleaned and properly sanitized, etc. And then--you wait! After about 7-10 days we racked the wine to a carboy and let it rest there. About a month or so later we followed the kit instructions for stabilization--adding potassium metabisulfite and stirring/aerating the wine. K+ meta not only acts to protect the flavor and color of the wine, it also inhibits the growth of organisms like wild yeast and bacteria. The next step is clarification, but because I'm a vegetarian, I didn't want to use the clarifying agent that came with the kit. It's a product that is made from shells of, well, shellfish. Supposedly the product does not remain in the finished wine, but I just didn't want to use it. We contacted the kit company to ask about an alternative and they said to just let it rest and it would (hopefully) clear on its own. And it did! We even got to taste a little when we stabilized. It was good, but it definitely needed time to mellow!

Bottling day came just about two months after we started. We wound up with 27 bottles of lovely Chilean Malbec! The bottles are aging as we speak down in the basement. We're doing our best to wait until around October before we try it. The longer we wait, the better it will be! I'm sure our patience will be rewarded, but it's difficult to wait!

Since we knew it would be a while before we could enjoy the Malbec, we figured we'd brew up our Cherry Wheat beer kit that we picked up in Ohio. We did this 11 June. It was a relatively easy process, as it was all extract brewing--no grain steeping required. It sat in the primary fermenter for 5-7 days before we racked it to a carboy and then added canned cherries (from the kit) for a secondary fermentation. Another 7-10 days and it was ready to bottle. Granted, it needs to sit in the bottle for a minimum of 2 weeks before it's ready to drink and even it gets better sitting around for a while. Fast forward to July and we first tried the Cherry Wheat with Henry in Long Island. It was good, but it did have quite a bit of sediment in it. It wasn't necessarily as clear as I'd hoped and I hoped for a little more carbonation. Still, it was a nice, refreshing beer. Fast forward to now (August) and since it has settled more, it has improved quite a bit. The beer is very clear now. It has good flavor and decent carbonation though still not as much as the Summer Ale. We do like it, but Paul likes the Summer Ale the best. Oh, there's more to come....but I'll split it up into another post!

Cherry Wheat & Summer Ale--Cheers!

In Goes the Juice

Bottles Lined Up!

In the Bottling Bucket

A Taste

Corked and Boxed

Miscellaneous

I've been doing my best to catch up here by writing individual entries for some of our "bigger" trips. That certainly doesn't mean that's all we've done since February! We spent a weekend in the Adirondacks. There were other races, like the Chenango Forks XV and Smithville Day 5k. We celebrated two lovely weddings (Paul's cousin Emily's marriage to Chris and her sister Jen's marriage to Jim). We paddled the canoe on Cayuga Lake for the 4th of July. We've been home brewing a ton (more about that in a new post!). So see? We've been busy. It's just me that's been slacking off in the blog department! : )

The Trail Begins

I Love Me Some Trees!

Summit of Hurricane Mountain, Adirondacks-20 March 2010

Chenango Forks 15k-28 March 2010

Cayuga Lake-4 July 2010

Emily & Chris' Wedding-22 May 2010

Jen & Jim's Wedding-7 August 2010

Cali Recovery

You'll have to please forgive the fact that these posts are out of order. I've been trying to update the blog and I tend to bounce around with what stories I write about.
In my Niagara Ultra blog post, I mentioned I strategically planned a trip to California after my race. I thought it would be a great time to go home. I headed out the Tuesday after the race, sans Paul. After Argentina, the vacation balance was low and we wanted to conserve days for a possible Cali Christmas. So, a solo trip it was.
I had lengthy layovers in both DC and Denver, but I was super excited to get to Denver because one of my best friends was planning on meeting me at the airport for lunch. I couldn't get out of the airplane fast enough once I got to Denver. Liz met me downstairs and we decided on a brew pub for a burger and beer. Funny (or not) story about lunch: I ordered a barley burger. Food comes and I look at it. It looks like beef, but hey, some veggie burgers really LOOK like the real deal. I took a bite. Took another bite. I wasn't sure! I know that sounds ridiculous, but heck, I haven't eaten beef in over 8 years people! Anyway, I had Liz take a bite. Even she wasn't sure. The waiter came over and sure enough, it was beef! : ( He felt bad and brought me a barley burger which in fact looked nothing like beef. I tried not to let it bother me and ruin my time with Liz. I thoroughly enjoyed my visit with her. We even went outside to sit and talk and I appreciated breathing fresh air for the first time since I left Binghamton that morning. My 3+ hour layover went by so quickly and reluctantly I said goodbye to Liz and headed back through security to wait for my flight home.
It was a long day of travel and I was thankful once I landed in San Jose. My dad picked me up from the airport and we headed home. I was excited to see my mom and to meet the newest addition to our family--our Australian Shepherd puppy Sophie.
My (our) beloved Aussie--Mae--was diagnosed with liver cancer in April and we had to put her down. She had been my dog when I lived in Alabama, but I'd had to send her to my folks in California when I moved from a house to an apartment. So really she was just as much my parents dog as she was mine. Still, I always joked with my dad about whose dog she was. : )
After a while, we started a search for a new puppy and I ran onto a breeder in Southern California who had a blue merle female available. Long story short, we welcomed Sophie into the family!
We pulled into the driveway and I was so glad to be back home. Big hugs from my mom but uncertainty from the little blue girl until soon we became best friends.
The week went by so quickly. I helped take care of the puppy (it's a full time job right now!) and helped my mom around the house. We made lots of good food, we worked out in the yard (I miss that!) and I soaked up some much needed California sunshine. I gave Kelli her annual haircut--she looked so cute--just like a puppy again. I also tried to rest as much as I could. I was still exhausted from the ultra and this was my "recovery" trip. But, before I knew it, I had to return to NY. I often have a difficult time leaving home. Usually Paul is with me and that helps, but since I was flying solo (literally) I had no one to help take my mind off things. It was really hard to leave this time.
Dad dropped me off at the airport and I caught my first flight to Denver where I had a long layover that became longer because of a mechanical problem with our airplane. Unfortunately, Liz had a class for work that she couldn't miss, so I was stuck waiting it out by myself. I grabbed a coffee and stretched my legs. I wondered if Denver International had free wireless, so I pulled out my laptop and found that they did! High five DIA! I got online and checked email and then I texted my mom. She got online and we played some games together and chatted. It really helped pass the time and it was nice to have her company.
We ended up getting another airplane and changed gates before we finally left Denver bound for Washington DC. Another lengthy layover there before I eventually arrived back to NY to my favorite engineer in the world. It had been a very long day of travel for me and it was late, so we didn't visit too much, but instead went home and to sleep! It takes me a few days before I'm back on the right (or left) time so I was thrown off for a bit, but the homesickness part stuck around longer than usual. It's always there to some extent, but it definitely ebbs and flows. I'm not very chipper the first few days back in NY, that's for sure.
Back into a routine and back to "normal" life. Normal NY life, anyway. : )

A Best Friend

The Little Sweetie

Sophie vs. Broom



Sophie & Jack--A Meeting



Sophie's First Pool

Meet Us: The Long-Island Stalkers

Paul and I have been talking about going out to Long Island to visit his brother and his family for a couple of years. We finally were able to pick a weekend that worked for everyone so we headed down Fri, July 23. The drive down wasn't too bad. We were concerned that traffic leaving NYC for the Hamptons might be a problem, but it was a non-issue.
We arrived at about 9pm and the kids were already in bed, so we spent some time catching up, eating snacks, and sharing some of our home brew. We decided we'd head out to Montauk the next morning since I'd never been there before.
The next morning I heard footsteps coming toward the living room and turned over to see Kyle peeking his head around the corner to see if we were awake. He came down for a quick hug and to show us his Buzz Lightyear toy with a broken leg. Poor Buzz! We got up and soon after the house was full of the activity. Henry went for bagels and came back and made smoothies for a yummy breakfast. Keara gathered up stuff for the kids and I made sandwiches for lunch. And, while we had wanted to leave at 8:30, we didn't hit the road until 9:30. Right on time, as usual! ; )
The drive out was nice. We stopped for an iced coffee at Dunkin'---thanks guys!--and drove through the famous Hamptons where rich New Yorkers have summer homes and spend their summer weekends. It was definitely slow going in some spots.
H & K pointed out where The Barefoot Contessa (Ina Garten) shops for flowers, bread, and fish. (She lives in East Hampton) I recognized the storefronts from her show on Food Network. That was exciting. K called her sister who told us how to find Ina's house. We decided we'd save that for the trip back home.
Onward we drove until we reached the easternmost point of NY--Montauk Point! The lighthouse was beautiful, the sun was shining, and it was hot! And humid! We went for a quick walk, then decided to head back to the van for lunch. After lunch it was back out to walk on the rocks around the lighthouse. The breeze close to the water felt wonderful.
Once on the back side of the lighthouse, we found a sandy beach. I didn't have my suit on, but I was going to get in as far as I could regardless! It was hot, people! As we walked down, I asked K how the kids liked the ocean. She said they hadn't ever really been in it before. I was hopeful that they'd enjoy it.
Down to the water I went and my feet were in the Atlantic in no time. It felt cold at first, but it didn't take long before I was used to it. I didn't even feel hypothermia setting in like I do when I'm in my beloved Pacific! : )
Everyone else joined in and the kids absolutely loved it! We took photos and videos to document the occasion and we thought it was adorable at how cute they were giggling and screaming about the waves and water.
It was hot for all of us, so we hopped back in the van and started on our way home. It was a sleepy ride for the kids and for Paul too! : ) Ok, ok, me too even! My eyes didn't want to stay open for some reason. Once back in East Hampton we drove down Ina's street where we could see her big barn and part of her house. There were cars in the driveway. I don't know why we didn't stop to say hello! Such stalkers we are! Fun!
Back home we cleaned up and made dinner. Later we went out for Italian Ice, yum! You only had to look at Kyle's face to know which flavor he had--priceless! After H &K bathed the kids and put them to bed we talked and snacked the rest of the evening.
Sunday morning K had to play at church, so we held down the fort while she was gone. H made some fantastic blueberry pancakes and we all enjoyed breakfast. Kyle and I built a make-believe lighthouse, set a trap for Big Baby, and then he played with his Hot Wheels cars with Paul, Henry, & Meredith. Once K returned, we decided we'd head out to visit Ikea and go have lunch before we went home.
We managed to buy just a few things at Ikea (love them!) and had a tasty lunch at Chipotle before piling into the car for the ride home. Fortunately we didn't hit much traffic on the way through Queens and made good time on the ride home.
We had a really great time in LI and enjoyed catching up with H, K & the kids. Can't wait to do it again soon!


Long Island-July 2010

Utica Boilermaker 15k

The Boilermaker 15k (9.3 miles) in Utica, NY is a pretty famous race. I'm not really sure why that is. Utica isn't a big town. It's not really close to any big towns either. For whatever reason the race draws people from everywhere. Maybe it's because of the free beer at the after party?!
I ran my first Boiler in 2008 with Paul. We opted not to do it in 2009 because it was too close to my marathon. Since I'd pretty much gone crazy registering for races this year, I signed Paul and I up for the race once again.
To be honest, by the time the race arrived I was pretty burned out. I wasn't sure I wanted to run it at all. Paul felt the same and when our alarm went off at 3-ish am on Sun, July 11th, we looked at each other like "why?" : )
I have to say the only reason I got up was because Paul got up first! If he would have stayed in bed, I think I might have too. Big props to him for that. We got ready to go and hopped in the car and had a sleepy drive to Utica. We decided to park near the finish and found a great spot close to where the buses pick up runners to transport to the start area. We only had to wait a few minutes before we were loaded up and taken to the main start area. We picked up our packets, attached our bib numbers and chips and had a while to wait. It was a warm, humid morning, but thankfully it wasn't as extreme as the high temperatures experienced earlier in the week.
We waited in our corral and noticed that more and more and more people were filling up the empty space around us. We quickly became like sardines packed in a can--arm to arm with our neighbors. The governor of NY made a quick speech. He ran the race in 2008 and while unable to run it this year, wanted to wish us all luck. Paul and I tried to get ourselves amped up and off we went. We really didn't want to push ourselves too hard. After all, it had only been a couple weeks since my ultra. My leg still hurt and I wasn't sure I had much to give.
It was crowded with all of us running down the streets but we were able to get a little room and broke out in stride after mile 1. We wondered how we'd do with the "big hill" near the golf course as it was a struggle the last time we ran the race. We both were surprised when we found it to be easier than the first time and we used the long downhill afterward to our advantage.
We definitely picked up the pace and I'm not sure why I was so concerned with time. I guess it must have been that I wanted to better our 2008 time to make me feel as though I (we) have improved. It was a fairly comfortable pace for most of the run and we finished strong, hand in hand. : ) And, to our surprise, we did run a faster race. We finished in 1:21:02 for Paul 1:21:03 for me. We crossed together, but WHATEVER! I mean, I'm not bitter about one second or anything! ; )
We headed over to the finish area where we got some water, our goodie bags, etc and promptly made our way to the car. We just didn't feel like hanging out for the after party and we didn't even get any free Saranac beer this time! Party poopers!
Once we got home we stuffed our faces, showered, and laid down for a lovely nap. "So much for taking it easy on the race," Paul said! Ha! He should know me by now! ; )