Stone 14th Anniversary Emperial IPA

The color is highly accurate.

Fact: Stone makes several mighty fine IPAs.
This is an extra fine one. Brewed to commemorate the brewery's 14th anniversary, they've used all British ingredients to really outdo themselves. The flavors are well balanced, and overtly hoppy. Piney, peppery, earthy, with a scant whisper of citrus, the hop character is big bold and nearly overpowering. A strong malt profile supports the 100+ IBUs, and is noticeable in the middle of the tasting. Hops up front, malty middle, and a bitter and lingering finish.

If you see this beer, buy it.

JingleCross race report and (as always) more beers

Last night (Friday November 26) I went to Iowa City to race in Jingle Cross Rock's night race. Being a lowly category 4, my race took place during daylight hours, but by the end of it, the lights were on and I was glad they were, as parts of the course were getting pretty dark.

It was pretty chilly (low 20s with some wind) and the course was pretty tame (we skipped the monster hill), but overall a twisty, flat, quick fun course. Because I didn't know how I'd feel, nor how the weather would be, I didn't register ahead of time. This turned out to be a mistake. Riders were lined up six wide in the order they registered, so I was almost dead last. I'm 99% sure I in the last or second to last row of guys. With 70 or so people in the race and a short starting chute, followed by a fairly large amount of tight turns, the first lap was a total mess full of little passing and lots of traffic. After that though, it opened up a bit and I started passing scads of people. Eventually I worked my way up to 11th which is where I would finish. Other than keeping it upright over the sketchy gravel corners, the highlight of my night was catching a couple guys down the finishing straight towards the start of the second to last lap, and another shortly thereafter in the twisties, and the announcer said something like "and a good ride out of Mark Fiddelke, passing a couple three guys right here in front of us, he started well at the back." Not only did he say something cool about me, he pronounced my last name correctly. Awesome. One thing that stuck out as I talked to other people was that a local area junior racer finished 4th. He was the second person registered so he started front row. I am a bit faster than this kid, and if I'd registered a week ago, I coulda been in contention. Nothing I can do about it now and due to my lack of training and general not fastness I figured I had next to no chance to even be more than packfill, but mildly frustrating.

More about the course: it was mostly flat and twisty, with some dicey corners around the gravel paths/roads in the fairgrounds. The stairs/ramp/overpass thing was awesome and really tricky. I was sad we had no barriers other than that, and the Cat 4 skipped the big hill (dubbed Mt Krumpt), which is what they've done every year, but I could have made tons of ground on it. Plus I rode it once in my warm up laps and while slippery and bumpy, it wasn't unreasonably hard. It got worse later as the temperature dropped and the ground firmed up with an almost icy top layer. Verdict: fun but coulda been a little more technical.

After the race I hung out with the guys from World of Bikes in Iowa City. Both the guys from the shop and a few of their customers, all kinds of fun yelling at the other racers (including the pros), and drinking a few beers. Great buncha folks, glad I was a part of it.

I currently have no photos because I obviously couldn't take any during my race, and after my hands were too cold to use my phone to take any. Plus everyone else did a great job of it I'm sure, and most of them aren't back yet from the three day event. That said, check out the little coverage VeloNews did about Friday's night race, with some photos: go here.

One thing I do take pictures of: beer.
New Glarus's Wisconsin Belgian Red. It's a classic Belgian style ale with a bunch of tart cherries in it. Bordering on a sour, this beer is tart, fruity, and utterly drinkable. Sadly, unless you're in Wisconsin or are passing through, you will not find this beer. They only distribute in their home state, and have no plans to up production to meet demand.

Anchor Brewing has released their 2010 Holiday Ale. They change the recipe up a bit year to year, and as always, this one is a good one. Spicy, rich bodied, smooth, malty, everything a cold weather, and particularly a christmas, beer should be. Out now until mid-January, grab some if you see it. Totally worth it at $9-10/six pack.

Thoughts on different ride mental states

First, let me say that many of us ride bikes for fun and to get some exercise. Many/most of us notice a better mental state post ride as well. Not just a post workout high, but a deeper and longer lasting reduction in stress and worry. Problems seems smaller/easier to deal with after a good ride. Hell, when I've been busy and in a bad mood for a couple days, my wife damn near boots me out the door.
My two rides on Wednesday made me practically a new person. I felt great for a couple days. I thought about it later though, and realized that road and mountain biking are effective in these ways for totally different reasons.
Mountain biking is about being intensely in the moment. Every second is about the thing you're doing and the immediate next thing, cornering, making it up and over a log pile, hitting a jump or drop smoothly. This type of focus blocks everything else out, and if you can completely ignore a worry for a couple hours, how bad can it really be? Mountain biking is also seriously fun, with the opportunity for lots of small challenges that as you complete each one give you a minor self esteem boost, which can only help if you're feeling a little down or stressed or whatever.
Road riding is more of a time to ride hard and let your mind wander, see other angles to problems, and just destress. The physical workout helps with the stress but the meditative quality to simply allow your mind to wander completely is what really does it for me.

You know what else helps you destress and relax?

Booze. And for me at least, specifically beers, the fancier the better.
This weekend I went to downtown Des Moines and some of my favorite bars: El Bait Shop and the Red Monk. I sampled a delicious Java Stout from Bell's:
Very strong coffee flavors, smooth if bitter finish, definitely one of the better coffee related beers I've had. I really like the deep coffee flavors, lots of beers half ass the coffee and have "hints" or "subtle touches" which for most beers is a dumb idea. More coffee flavor = better.

I also had a beer I had only recently seen in stores, usually for $20/4 pack, Delerium Noel. Fancy spiced holiday ale from the Huyghe Brewery. Plenty of spices are involved, but my average pallet could only pick out a few, nutmeg features prominently, and the whole experience is really really good. Look for the pink elephants in Santa hats:

Currently (Sunday night), I'm enjoying the hell outta a Widmer Brothers Barrel Aged Brrrbon. A fine entry into the current popular trend of whisky/whiskey/bourbon aged beers. It's smooth and surprisingly sweet, but has a solid bourbon bite, with a lingering sweet caramel finish that dries the longer you let it sit. Not as good as a Boulevard Smokestack that's been aged in something, but a solid option. Plus, it comes in a box:
Things like higher end scotch come in boxes, why not a fancy beer?
The beer is actually a deep red color. Digital photos being what they are, it came out a bit darker than it actually is, but trust me, the color is great, the smell is even better, and the taste is very good as well.

Wednesday rides

As many of you central Iowa (or even midwest in general) people can attest, the weather has turned. This week was awesome, until today. Wednesday is my day off, and I took big advantage of what would likely be my last good day to ride for a while. I got up and out and headed down to the Center Trails in the middle of Des Moines. Conditions were outstanding; dry, fast, hard, every single piece of trail was ridden in, and excellent. The temps were in the mid to upper 60s. I wore a short sleeve jersey. That's how nice it was, summer weight clothes in early November, absolutely perfect. Check it:
I rode ever spur of every trail I could find. Spent a hair over 2 hours on the bike with several loops through Hillside in particular because it's the most fun and has the most flow. So much fun. I had a goofy grin on my face most the day.

After such a great ride with such great weather, I knew only one thing could be done that afternoon: more bike riding.
I generally ride to Ames on Wednesdays to drink fancy beers for not much money and do a team trivia thing at a bar, then take a car home from Ames with my wife, who's in Ames everyday for grad school anyway. This week was no different, save they finally finished R38 (pictured above). R38 is the road that runs north/south through Slater and has a bike lane on it. Before recently it was closed near Kelly, requiring a detour and several miles of gravel. Not a big deal but a minor hassle, and I'm glad they've opened the road. As you can see it is super smooth, and in great shape. With a tailwind, the ride was fast and fun, and ended with me at my favorite bar, with some of my favorite beers, all for $2 or less. Welch Avenue Station absolutely kills it on Wednesdays with any beer in the building for $2 or less. This includes things like Sam Adams winter lager, Spaten Optimator, Sierra Nevada Torpedo, etc etc. They have 19 beers on tap, about half "good" and quite a selection of bottles. I had 3-4 fancy beers for less than I would have paid in a grocery store. It was awesome.
Only minor problem I had was that I had wanted to brew some beer between bike rides, but I ran out of time. Oh well, like I said, minor problem.

more mountain bikes and beer

This morning I not only enjoyed an extra hour of sleep, but I got up and out, and rode mountain bikes. I went with a few other guys to the center trails. Squirrel has been pimping the condition of these trails on facebook for several weeks, and I know he's been putting in tons of work keeping them in great shape. He wasn't lyin'. Holy hell, these trails (all of 'em: denman's, hillside, rollercoaster, everything) are in incredible shape. It's been years since I've been down there, and everything is outstanding. Hillside in particular was in great shape, and more fun to ride than I remembered. I might have to get down there on Wednesday. Usually if we're going to ride mountain bikes, we just go up to Boone, and ride as Seven Oaks because from Ankeny, both places are darn close to equidistant, at least time wise. Sadly, I failed at taking pictures of our ride, but I did not fail at taking a picture of this excellent new beer I'm enjoying:

New Glarus Abt

This beer is a darker abbey style ale with dark candi sugar, complex but smooth flavors, and a nearly 10% abv punch. Not much else to say other than it is very very good. Check out their info: http://www.newglarusbrewing.com/Headlines.cfm?NewsID=165

mountain bikes + new beer

Last night I rode Sycamore with several other folks, most of us (myself included) on cross bikes. I failed at getting pictures because I was trying to keep my relatively skinny tires upright. The trail itself is in great shape for the most part, Rob, Squirrel, and some others did a bit of trail work today, and reportedly made everything even better. If you live in the area, go ride it now. Winter is coming, the trail is finally in good shape, so get out there. Back to last night: we started around 5:30, and rode from the north end. Once we got to the paved trail that connects the north and south ends of the trail it was getting dark. With lights on, and sand everywhere, we braved the Targhetto side of the trail. It was brual. Slow, sandy, tons of dead fall, pretty sketchy to ride Lame. The north side is definitely the part to ride. Definitely gonna try to get back (on a mountain bike this time) in the next few days.
Interestingly, I've already got plans to ride mountain bikes at the Science Center Sunday morning. Should be a fun time, and the weather is amazing for November.

And to more interest to most of the few people reading this, I drank a new beer. It's a newly available (to Iowa at least) beer in the Lips of Faith series from New Belgium, Sahti. From the label,

"A Sahti is a Finnish rye ale brewed with juniper. A settee is a seat for more than one. A soiree is enjoying this cascade and amarillo hopped, orange and lemon peel spiced, hazy amber sahti on your settee with your sweetie."

This is a pretty complex beer, whose complexity becomes easier to discern as you work through the bottle. The rye is apparent at first taste, as are the citrus flavors, and the hops are there too, but not strongly represented, at least not up front. Interesting and complex, but not inaccessible.