Early morning Annadel ride with Aaron

Aaron and I met up for an early morning single speed ride thru Annadel. Thankfully, Aaron took it pretty easy so we got to enjoy the ride together. It was perfect timing, since as we were finishing up coming down Canyon Trail, the masses were just heading up. There were lots and lots of tree limbs and bigger stuff scattered across the trail from the windstorms the few nights before.

Here is a picture of Aaron climbing over a fallen tree on Ridge Trail.

Here is a link to our loop.


- Posted by Chaz

An 8 hour day

Well, I just finished up an eight hour brewing session. That is for 20 gallons of beer, so it is basically two 10 gallon batches. These were numbers 50 and 51, not that I'm counting.
The first batch was is a good old fashioned IPA which my wife is quite fond of. What made it different this time was that I used some whole leaf Cascade hops that Craig, a customer of ours at the bike shop, gave us a couple of months ago. I had dried them and stuck them in the freezer. I had ended up with 13 ounces or so. Here is a picture of what 2 ounces of whole hops looks like next to 2 ounces of pellets.

I ended up using 12 ounces of the cascade along with 2 ounces of Magnum in the 10 gallon batch.
Here is the recipe:
28 pounds 2-row
2 pounds caramel malt 40l
1 pound carapils
2 ounces magnum at mashout
2 ounces cascade at 60 min
2 ounces cascade at 45 min
2 ounces cascade at 30 min
2 ounces cascade at 15 min
2 ounces cascade at 5 min
2 ounces cascade at 1 min
I am still up in the air about whether I will dry hop in the secondary. I dry hopped once before with whole hops and it wasn't much fun.
The O.G. came out at 1.070


The second batch of the day was one of my old stand byes. It is an English ESB. I have made this three or four times and like it a lot more than other folks do. It is a lower alcohol and much less hoppy. After visiting many pubs in England last summer, I developed a liking for some of their beers. I do like mine carbonated and a little cooler though. Here is the recipe:
22 pounds 2-row
2 pounds caramel malt 60l
10 ounces brown sugar
3 ounces Fuggle at 60 min
1 ounce Fuggle at 5 min
2 ounces Fuggle at dry hop (WHAT????)
I know, this is my first try at some dry hopping in this beer. Remember, my wife is English, I'm not.
This came out a little higher O.G. than I had planned at 1.060.
For both beers I made a yeast starter from a store bought culture. That saves money and makes things a bit faster in the primary.

No knead sourdough

For years I would put aside an entire afternoon to make 5 or 6 loaves of bread. I would start a day or two beforehand feeding my starter and getting it good and smelly. Now I find myself just making a loaf every couple of days. It takes about 10 or 15 minutes of hands on labor and about 45 minutes in the oven.


- Posted by Chaz

Paradise Royale

We finally got The Hub Crew up to The Lost Coast to do some mountain biking at Paradise Royale which is located about 3.5 hours North of Cotati, a little longer if you are riding with Aaron. This is an incredible 12 mile loop of pure single track designed by mountain bikers for mountain bikers. Here is a link to the trail map. Aaron, Raphy, and Sonic Yannick went up a day before Claire and I so that they could scout out the trails and arrange to have sausages on the campfire for Claire and I when we showed up Sunday night after getting our butts kicked at the shop that day. We stayed at the Tolkan Campground that night which was very quiet, and very dark. Aaron, Raphy, and Sonic were in a great mood when we arrived at 9:30, and had even waited to start eating until we showed up. That was quite a feat considering that Aaron had done the loop twice that day and that all three of them had spent a couple of hours doing some downhill runs right at the edge of the campground.


Aaron was a little worried about Sonic's appetite since he had started gnawing on some firewood, but everyone survived.

The next morning, after a breakfast of Poptarts, eggs, and sausage. We headed out for the loop. The five of us did the entire thing with no major mishaps. The trails were very well marked, and except for some creek crossings, very rideable. Aaron and I were foolish enough to do a second loop.


- Posted by Chaz

A Saturday tandem ride

Claire and I decided to play hooky from the bike shop today and get out for a rare weekend ride. We did a relatively flat 46 miles through Windsor and Healdsburg. Except for a flat with 7/10 of a mile left, it was a pleasant ride. Here is a link to the ride.






- Posted by Chaz

A couple of good loops

I just thought I would post links to a couple of good road rides that I have done recently. The first one is from the bike shop. It is a good 20 miler on some less traveled roads in the Sebastopol hills. Here is the link.

This next loop starts out in Forestville and finds lots and lots of hills as it heads out towards Occidental and then into the Sebastopol hills again. Here is the link to the ride.


- Posted by Chaz

Drying the hops

Well, after three days of drying, the garbage bag full of hops condensed down to 13 one ounce bags. I had been a little concerned about the lack of a real pungent "hoppy" smell, but after stuffing the sandwich bags full, the aroma of fresh hops filled the basement.

I plan on using at least half of the hops in the next batch of beer. Probably start out with some Magnum hops for bittering and then distribute the Cascade hops thru out the rest of the boil.




- Posted by Chaz

Homegrown Hops

Bag of Cascade Hops

So we were greeted with a nice little surprise from one of our customers when we returned to work on Thursday.  A customer of ours had grown his own hops, and knowing of my interest in beer making, brought by a bag full.  

This is my first experience with raw hops, so I did a little research and set up a "drying table" in the basement using an old screen door.  I set up a dehumidifier next to the hops and have been stirring them every 12 hours or so. 

Cascade hops drying in the basement

One of my favorite loops

This ride is definitely an adventure.  It is perfect for a cross bike, or if you want to ride your mountain bike, pump the tires way up or get some narrower tires.  I did this ride yesterday with Bill, and thank goodness he rode his mountain bike.  The ride is probably around 80% on road, but it has some great singletrack in the middle which is relatively smooth compared to Annadel State Park.  Make sure you are prepared for anything out there, because it is quite remote.  Last time Aaron and I did this loop, he managed to rip his rear derailleur off part way through and we had to cut his chain and he rode home on a singlespeed.  We met Claire in Guerneville for some great Mexican food.