Turning 30, trail update, and assorted rambling thoughts

Earlier this week, Tuesday in fact, I turned 30. There's supposed to be some change, or at least long introspective period, I'm quite sure everything is pretty much the same. I don't really feel any older, but rarely has a birthday given me that feeling. When I feel older is when people somewhat older than I am treat me as an equal instead of some neophyte who doesn't know much, or perhaps when I'm trying to do something I did routinely in college, but failing this time. Anyway, thus far, being 30 isn't anything terribly new and different. The day itself was uneventful, I worked, came home, ate dinner, drank a couple beers, and went to bed. The following day was Wednesday, my standard day off. I rode. I was hoping for 30 miles, and despite the wind and colder than predicted temps, I got there.

As you may recall, I wrote a week or so ago about the condition of the High Trestle Trail and how it was still pretty snowy.
A bad example, but things have changed. Aside from 40 yards a bit past Irvindale, the trail was mostly clear. Though if you look closely at that photo, you'll notice some very large tire tracks, probably from a truck or four wheeler. I was confused and mildly annoyed that someone had been driving on the trail. That was short lived.
Look at that nice clean edge. Someone plowed a section of the trail. It was awesome. After the initial snow piles, there was nary a bit of snow for 3-4 miles. Not sure who the mystery plowman was, but thank you.

I rode from my place in northwestern Ankeny past Slater a few miles then got chilly and turned around. The weather forecasting folks told me it'd be 44F or so, and only a light breeze. It was fairly windy and maybe 35. It wasn't the best conditions, but with the proper gear it was tolerable.

No photos of fancy beers this time. I've been drinking many of the same fancy beers I've already written about. Maybe some great understanding or introspective revelations will come to me in the next weeks, but so far my 30s started the way my 20s ended; mildly confused, hopeful but cautious, and with a beer in my hand.

In the past couple weeks for reasons I cannot put together, and definitely not having to do with my aging, I've reconnected with some friends I'd lost touch with years ago. It feels pretty great. Catching up with folks I've only seen in passing or not at all for literally 5 years, it has really reminded me about the importance of friends and not letting friendships wither without reason. Both of these folks (they know who they are) were never super close friends, but people I thought about sometimes, and thanks to facebook, at least knew they were doing okay. But there's no substitute for a good conversation and a couple beers to reconnect with someone.

Raving thoughts about my bourbon beer: liquor in my beer? holy hell, yes please. I've liked beers aged in liquor barrels for ages now, and jumped at the chance to make my own. The kit was easy enough to follow, but called for soaking the included oak chips in 16 oz of bourbon. That seemed like a ton of booze to me, so I halved it. I was thinking about reducing it and a couple buddies who brew councilled me, and we collectively figured 8 oz should do it. Turns out that was about right. I coulda gone for a touch more, but regardless this beer is awesome. You can taste the bourbon (duh), but also the oak and some smokey hints too. I've super glad I bought this kit. Now I just need to get a spring/summer beer started so I can have a nice refreshing beer to come home to when the weather gets warmer.

Bell's Wild and New Glarus Belgian Red

This is Bell's Wild One Ale:
Linkage. You'll have to click on specialty, then find Wild One in there. But it's basically a blend of 20 different batches fermented in oak barrels with wild yeast. They all bring a little something different to the party, and the result is awesome. I snagged this at a Des Moines favorite: El Bait Shop, which is without a doubt one of the finest bars in America. Yes, yes, your favorite bar is awesome too, but this place has more craft brews than damn near any place in the world and specializes in American craft/micro/awesome beer. Plus it's a chill place to hang out, and despite the fancy beers, is not pretentious. Anyway, the beer is tart and sour like any good wild fermented beer should be. There are lots of extra flavors in there, mostly oak and hops, but other harder to pin down hints are in there too. I don't pretend to be able to tell you what they are, but they add up to a great Michigan made Belgian style sour ale. Reportedly only available on tap, so hopefully your local beer bar has it.

Not terribly long ago, I wrote about the raspberry tart/sour that New Glarus made. At the time I mentioned that I had also purchased the cherry version, which I'd had before. I also promised to review/compare them. Here goes nothin.

New photo offered as proof.

This beer is tart, sweet, sour, almost sticky but not in a too sweet kind of way. A very excellent entry into the wild-sour-fruit category. If you're in Wisconsin, get some.
Now to compare the raspberry to the cherry. Basically the cherry is somehow better. Not entirely sure how, but it's more tart in the right way and the wild yeast twang comes through a bit better. This thought is weird to me because I like raspberries a helluva lot more than cherries, and I generally like raspberries (and indeed most other berries) as a flavor in general over cherries. Pies, candy, the fruits themselves, pretty much everything raspberry >> cherry. Maybe the tart cherry flavor works better with the barley and hops? I'm not sure and until I'm in Wisconsin and can get these beers in significant quantities, I'll likely not be able to put my finger on it. And if I am in Wisconsin for enough time to pin that down, it'll be awesome.

Warm days and a new Smokestack

The last couple days have been part of the slight warm up we've been having, and both days topped 60F. It's been wonderful. Lots of snow has melted, spring is in the air, and I'm not the only person out there on a bike. But I know spring isn't starting now, this is Iowa, and it's still mid-February. We'll get more snow, more cold, more terrible weather before spring actually sticks around. Having said all that, I still got out for nearly two and a half hours on my day off, yesterday, Wednesday the 16th.

I headed, as I often do, up the High Trestle Trail northward. Then this happened:
Just past Irvinedale on the northwest side on Ankeny, a really long and unrideable drift. So I bailed and went north on the road for a bit, then started weaving around on gravel roads enjoying the warm sunshine. I came across the trail again, and thought it looked much more promising:

A much shorter drift with plenty of clear pavement beyond. So, I hopped on the trail and rode north. Things went fairly well for a while. Sure there were some small drifts that I was largely able to ride through, but then there was also this:
Super long, pretty deep, and entirely miserable. It was easily a half mile long, and hard to walk on. My feet sank in a little on most steps, but every 5th or 6th step would sink in to mid calf. When I got home my shins were a little scraped up from the icy snow tearing at them for not just this section, but another one that was nearly as bad too. So two huge hiking sections in a 20-ish mile ride? Not horrible. I jogged/shuffled/tried to treat it like a cyclocross work out, and that worked pretty well for 30 or so yards at a time. It sure was tiring.

I actually made it all the way through Sheldahl, and stopped when another monster drift reared its head between Sheldahl and Slater. The sky clouded up a bit as I got closer to Ankeny and almost looked like rain, so I tried to push it even more, this only sorta worked. I was extremely spent when I finally got home. Not bad for an outdoor ride in shorts and arm warmers (and a jersey too) in February.

In one of my cursory trips through the beer section of Hy-vee (I always walk through, even if I'm well stocked, you know, just in case) I saw a Smokestack I hadn't had before. I of course bought it, and congratulated myself on the good decision to make the trip down that aisle, despite having quite a bit of beer at home. Here's what I found:

Chocolate Ale

Boulevard partnered up with KC treasure and nationally known chocolatier, Christopher Elbow, to make a really great chocolate beer. Not a stout, and not drippingly syrupy sweet like some more dessert oriented beers can get, it's a medium bodied ale that is bursting with chocolate aromas, and not as much chocolate taste as you'd expect. The nose is full of sweet smells of cocoa, caramel, vanilla, with a whisper of hops. The flavor is lightly chocolatey with a fruity hint in there as well. This beer is a Valentine's Day limited edition that Boulevard has decided to make into a seasonal, so if you missed it, look for it next year. I'm really excited I snagged this, and hope I can find more interesting things in my habitual walk throughs.

50 degrees and sunny

This was my way to work today. Well, it's this way everyday, but today the snow was melting and it was 50F by the time I had to go in, 1pm. This is our first taste of spring, and a welcome one at that. The rest of this week is supposed to be above freezing, which means snow will melt and everything will be damp and sloppy for the near future. I'm also sure we'll get more snow, maybe not a bunch but spring doesn't start in mid February in Iowa. The temps will also drop and I'll probably have to deal with below zero wind chills at least once before spring is actually here, but today I rode to work in a t shirt and was fine.
That is the look of a man who's trying to take a picture of himself using a phone. It's harder than I thought it would be. Anyway, I've got new beers to try (haven't yet, I've been drinking the rest of six packs you've already read about), new wheels to build(stay tuned), and fenders to buy and install. Until next time, get out and ride, and keep it rubber side down.

Hoptimum.

Sierra Nevada Hoptimum.

Follow that link. Do it. Do it now. Highlights for the lazy or those who will "do it later": 100 IBUs, 5 kinds of hops, including a proprietary variety, massive gravity numbers, 10.4% abv, hops added in as many ways as possible.

All that adds up to the one of the best beers I've ever had. This redefines the megahopped IPA in my book, and hopefully everyone else's book too. Sierra Nevada has raised the bar. I've had plenty of really big IPAs, and they're all good in their own right, but the depth of the hop flavor here is incredible and something I've never had before. I've tasted all these flavors in beer before, just not in a single sip. It's like I was drinking the hops entire lives, from first bud to harvest. There are fruity citrus notes, deeper pine notes, floral flavors drifting in and out, I am struggling to find the words to explain this. I need to get more of my friends to try it, and enlist their help in explaining this. Damn near every hop flavor that can be achieved is present. I'm actually a little surprised there's only five different kinds of hops involved.

The body is sufficiently malty to withstand that hop barrage, and in fact supports the rest of the beer really really well. The finish is where you finally get a bit of malt flavor but that's supplanted by more hop bite, and it lingers and totally works.

Go drink this beer. I need to go find more.

Supposed to be a BRR ride report

So, here we are on Super Bowl Sunday, one day after the Bike Ride to Rippey, and a few days after the weather has warmed up somewhat. We're now in the 20s and 30s instead of the single digits, and there's significantly less wind. I planned on riding BRR yesterday, got up a touch early, had the day off of work, etc, but when I awoke I had a migraine and other physical problems that kept me in the bathroom or on the couch for most of the day. I'm understandably pissed off about this, but it's an impotent anger (like most of my anger), so I can basically just shrug and look to this afternoon and try to enjoy a football related party, that should be fun.

While I was too ill yesterday to ride, earlier in the week I was still commuting. Tuesday night in particular was rough. Snowing a bit, crazy headwinds that drifted that snow, and a -15F or so wind chill. While such weather is nigh impossible to take a picture of, I tried.

That is the huge flag at the Kum n Go next to the bike shop. It's maybe 30 yards away, and without the blowing snow, should be easier to see. If you enlarge that image, you can see the rope being pulled well away from the pole. The wind was 30+ mph at this point. The actual commute was pretty rough, but I only had to get off and hike maybe a combined 300 yards, not horrible considering the conditions. Granted I was pedaling really hard, and was exhausted when I got home.

I have had some new beers in the past week too. First up is Fort Collins Brewing's Wheat Wine Ale.
Very similar to a barely wine, but with a malt bill that's a full 50% wheat malt. It's interesting, grainy, bready, smoother than you'd think, but not super smooth, which is actually just right. It's big on flavor with lots of fruity notes hiding in there if you can get through in complex malt hit. The smell reminded me of a slightly sharper wort smell, that wonderful aroma that fills your house when home brewing. It is pretty great.

2011 Bigfoot is out! This is one of my favorite seasonal offerings from any brewer. Sierra Nevada makes a wonderful barley wine every spring/late winter, and it's always great. This year is no exception. And of course, I lack the will power to save a bottle of two from last year to see what's different/how it ages. So I cannot give that kind of comparison, but it's really good. Hefty barley/grain flavors with a serious hop backup and a punch (it's about 9%abv), and you can kinda taste the alcohol, but in a good way. I'm so excited about this beer. Go get some.