Boulevard turns 21, makes a special beer to celebrate

Boulevard's info on the beer right here.

It's fresh, hoppy without being overpowering with enough malt to back it, complex, using six hop varieties and three malts. There's plenty of subtle flavors to pick out, and with the 750ml form factor, plenty of beer to have a few glasses and try to find them all. Mostly citrusy, but with some piney and peppery flavors mixed in, with a strong malt back, is the basics, the rest, well you really have to taste it. Despite the abundant hops, and the fresh name, there's only 40 IBUs, though you'd never guess that low just from a taste. Whatever process they're using to fresh hop this, it works like crazy, and delivers a beer that tastes amazing. $12-ish per bottle is a bit steep, but worth it, at least once. Not sure I'll drink this especially often, but as it's a limited release SmokeStack and won't cellar well, I might not even get the chance. Definitely worth picking up at least the one time, go find it, it's out now.

Race report + new beers

This past Friday night there was a night time cross race, next to a bar. It was a ton of fun, despite a pretty small/short course, that was super twisty and fairly technical. They called it Oakley Night Cap Cross, and Rob (from Oakley) and Scott (from BikeIowa) did one helluva job putting it on. I raced in the Cat 4 mens, which ran concurrently with the master's (35+ and 45+) and juniors. All these races going at the same time meant 99 people on the course at the same time. The first several laps were a mosh pit of asses and elbows, with lots of congestion as the slower/less skilled took bad lines, crashed, and otherwise held up faster riders. After the first couple corners, almost no one passed me. Seriously, maybe 3 people all race. After about lap 4, I'd found a groove, and focused on catching whoever was in front of me, and grabbing an extra gear when I could. With so many people on the course, I was constantly catching guys in front of me and having to corner hard and pick interesting lines to pass people. The course was fun but tough, with plenty of space for the crowd to be heard, and with the race being almost inside the bar, there were tons of spectators, and they were loud. Aside from one hilarious crash, the race itself went well for me. I came around a corner in traffic approaching the low single barrier, which I'd bunny hopped the last 5-6 laps. Somehow my stabbing the pedals to get some speed, and my timing on the hop were not good enough and I almost got over it, but got tipped forward and rolled to a stop, nowhere near my bike. I was fine, but it shot my confidence to hop it for the rest of the race. I tried to keep the hammer down the whole time, but I know I was losing steam towards the end. The last 4-5 laps I was pretty shot, but knew it would be over soon. That said I had no idea when the last lap was, or what the hell was going on with such things. When I crossed the start/finish line for the final time, the tape was broken and lots of riders (not in my race) were standing on course, waiting to do a warm up/ test ride lap. Not saying I could have picked up the pace even if i'd known, but maybe a tiny bit. No biggie, I was happy with my race and thrilled with how fun everything was. Officially, I'm 12th of 68 Cat 4 racers, but my newish coworker Bret was 4th, and I'm 110% sure I beat him. So is he. I've got an email to the concerned parties, and they're reportedly working on it. I must have done an extra lap at the end, but whatever, I had fun.

I've also (as always) been drinking new and exciting beers. Some recent notables are an unflavored lambic, and revistiting a Smokestack I didn't pay enough attention to the first time.
Cuvee Rene. Tried this at the Red Monk the other night, at it is super interesting. It is an unflavored lambic, so it's a wild fermented ale, that did not have fruit added to it. There's a killer lactic flavor, a tangy sourness and gets more intense, but also more pleasurable as you keep drinking. I was surprised that this beer is from Lindemans, the same people who make those really sweet fruity lambics. While maybe not as intense or as complex as a Flemish sour or nonsweet lambic, it is very very good, and an unusual beer.

Seeyoulator Doppelbock, from Boulevard's Smokestack Series, is a very nice beer that I admittedly have had before, but did not fully appreciate. A buddy was talking about how amazing this beer was, and I was like "yeah i've had it, it's pretty good. so what?" His enthusiasm encouraged me to buy more, and give it another shot. It is really good. It's a standard doppelbock, but aged in cedar barrels and bottle conditioned. Smooth with a spicy, earthy finish. Check some out.

bike together, new beers, streetlight down

Finally got my cross bike all together just in time for Wednesday's practice. I did not have time to get a chain retention system figured out, and subsequently dropped the chain several times, until midway through practice, it blew it up. Ripped it right in half, and had to sit out the rest of practice. Anyhoo, here's a photo of it the next day, still without a chain:
From the front:

Aside from cross, I've pretty much only been riding to and from work. All very humdrum, of course. I have seen this on the path for over a week now (Oct. 11):

A downed, small light post that was laying more in the way earlier in the week. Obviously got hit by a car, and shattered everywhere. Zero effort to clean it up by the city or anyone else. At least someone gave it a nudge so it wasn't 3 feet into the path. Pretty weak, Ankeny.

On a more fun side, I've been going out quite a bit recently, and that almost always means new beers.
Monk's Cafe, Flemish Sour. Officially a personal top 10. Amazing stuff. Reportedly made by the same people who brew Piraat and Gulden Draak, for a bar in Pennsylvania or something. Too lazy too look it up right now. If you see this beer, buy it. I paid $19 or it at the Red Monk, 100% worth it.
Cornucopia from Iowa based PeaceTree Brewing. Pretty great farm ale made with some corn. It was pretty good, pretty affordable, and a slightly different flavor on the traditional farm house style.

Some friends went to Oktoberfest in La Crosse, Wisconsin and returned with several New Glarus beers to share. So far I've tried the Staghorn Octoberfest and the Stone Soup Abbey ale. Both are pretty good, but Stone Soup being a very nice Abbey ale and the Staghorn being okay, but not tremendously memorable. If you're in Wisconsin, buy some of this stuff, it is worth your time.

Major update(I get my CX frameset)

So yeah, super long time, no blogging. My bad, got busy and distracted. Been drinking too much and riding too little and having a helluva time keeping the shop together while the boss was in Vegas for Interbike.

I finally got my Specialized Crux frame. My rep called up and said, "Hey Mark, you know I've always got your back, right?" I'm thinking that something's gone wrong with something and he;s had to go to bat for us, and bad news is coming. I tell him that I understand he's got my back, and ask what was up. "That big, pink, cross frame is here and waiting to be shipped. You still want it right? I'll get it out the door today." I was elated. What dorky bike thing got me that excited?

This.

Specialized has finally built a race oriented cross bike. Their previous offering, the tricross, was too much of a touring bike, and did not have the right geometry nor the lighter build to be a true race bike. This frame set is race ready, comes with the sweet carbon post, and has tons of tire clearance for fatter tires on gravel rides, or mud clearance in cross. Plus the color is completely insane, especially in a giant 61cm size.

It is a brighter pink than I thought it'd be, but I love it.

I spent a good chunk of today building it up, mostly with parts off my touring bike, and took it out to practice, I did not have time to snap a pic, I will fix that in the near future. The 1x9 setup worked pretty well, and the 42T should be a good gear for the front, but the hasty build left me with no good chain watching solutions, and I dropped the chain several times. Then about halfway through practice, I snapped the chain in half. Seriously, just straight up murdered the chain. So my day was done, no biggie. I really really need to ride more, I've been on edge for weeks, and I have no idea what I'm so stressed about. I think the problem is I don't do much. I work, I ride sometimes, I drink. Sometimes on the weekends I play board games with people in Ames. I've got a pretty solid routine, that is enjoyable, but I get in a rut. Maybe the new bike will help motivate me to get my ass out and ride more.