Old Caz Loop

I hadn't posted anything in ages, so I thought I would just post a random ride. This is one of our favorites. We parked at the bakery in Cazadaro and took Austin Creek Road out to the highway. We then headed towards Guerneville and made our way over Duncan Road. The pictures are of the top of Old Cazadaro Road and of the descent into Cazadaro. Here is the link to the Garmin Map.





- Posted by Chaz

Beer making day, finally

It has been a busy couple of months with the move of the bike shop, so I have not had the chance to make any beer since September.  In fact, except for some chocolate stout, we have run out of beer for the first time in 4 years.  Since Monday and Tuesday were our first multi-days off since the middle of November, I dedicated Monday to making two batches of IPA.

For the most part it went very smoothly.  I did have to chase down a Fed Ex driver who had driven over the top of my wort cooler.  That caused a little excitement during the second batch.

Checking the mash temp

Where it all happens

Chasing the FedEx Van

Beer #	52
Date	Jan 12, 2014
Description	Just a good solid IPA with the Magnum hops doing the bittering work and some "citrus" hops for the aroma.
Yeast	WLP #001 CA Ale Yeast
Grain Bill	Quantity	Grain
	28 lbs	2-row pale malt		12.7 kg
	2 lbs	Caramel Malt (40L)
	1 lbs	Carapils
Hop Schedule	Quantity	Hop		Schedule
	2 oz	Magnum		Mashout
	2 oz	Magnum		1h
	1 oz	Cascade		15m
	2 oz	Crystal		15m
	2 oz	Citra		5m
	2 oz	Citra		Dry hop
Alcohol %	OG	FG	%
	1.064
Notes	Everything went pretty smoothly. I had the mash at exactly 154 degrees, but I may not have had my water temp up high enough during the lautering.

Beer #	53
Date	Jan 12, 2013
Description	Racer 5 Clone with some extra hops here and there
Yeast	WLP #001 CA Ale Yeast
Grain Bill	Quantity	Grain
	26 lbs	2 row
	4 lbs	American Wheat
	2 lbs	Caramel Malt (20l)
	1 lbs	Carapils
Alcohol	OG	FG	%
	1.060
Hop Schedule	Quantity	Hop		Schedule
	1 oz	Columbus		1h
	2 oz	Columbus		20m
	2 oz	Cascade		20m
	1 oz	Columbus		10m
	2 oz	Cascade		10m
	2 oz	Amarillo		Dry Hop
	2 oz	Columbus		Dry Hop
	2 oz	Centennial		Dry Hop
Notes	I haven’t made this one in a long time.  I was a little low on the mash temperature, but that was the least of my problems.  Just before mashout, the Fed Ex driver drove over the top of my wort cooler.  I only noticed it when I walked out to check some temperatures and I saw it smashed in the driveway.  I ran down the street and chased her for about 4 blocks before catching up with her.  Luckily she was lost.  I confronted her and she said that I should not be leaving it in the road and that she was concentrating on street numbers and not what was in the road.  Anyway, she was not to sorry about the situation.  We called Fed Ex and lodged a complaint.  Anyway, when I got back after the chase, the sparge water was way too hot, I had to add some cold water to cool it down.  The mash was also at the end of its time, so I had to rush.  I think it is okay.  I was able to straighten out the wort cooler, but it has some extra leaks and some of the tubing is on the verge of cracking.

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