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