Airport drinkin', travel thoughts, tweets, plus some new wheels.

Sitting down to write this post I wanted to talk a bunch about Oregon and brag about my incredible intake of fancy beers, but I quickly realized that a) that's a dick move, and b) such a post would take ages to write and ages too read, I simply drank too many beers and had too much fun for a single update. So I'm going to break it up by category , or at least into some categories that make sense in my totally unhinged brain. So, seeing as my first beer was in an airport on this trip, I figured I'd start with a little write up about drinking in airports.

I know what you're thinking, "drinking in an airport? no thanks. expensive crappy beers, with the only company either serious drunks, executives with big expense accounts, or both." And in some cases you'd be right, but not always, and in some airports, quality beer at non-insane (is that sane?) prices can be found. My first drink this trip was in a place called Ike's on Summit in the Minneapolis/St. Paul airport. They're a place that features the Twin Cities' own Summit Brewing's beers. With no booze prices listed I braced for the worst, but I had a 3+ hour flight ahead of me, and was pretty hungry, and few things wash down mediocre airport food better than decent beer. I ordered a Maibock and asked for a menu.
I was in the place before 10 am, so they were still serving breakfast, I picked out a nearly $10 breakfast burrito, figuring it would be fairly large, I was wrong. It was mediocre and small. At least the Maibock was clean and refreshing. To get the burrito taste out of my mouth and out of my brain, I followed those two with an extra pale ale.
I don't think I've written about this beer before, but I drink it semi-often, as Summit six packs are regularly on sale for $6 or 7. Anyway, it's pretty good, fairy hoppy, on the dry side of an already dry style, and very clean in the finish. It sure did the trick. On the down side, each of these beers cost me about $8. Incredible. Stupid expensive airport beers. Plus the guy next to me sat down, ordered the "largest and strongest bloody mary you can make" and asked what the fasted meal he could order was. He heartily polished off his drink while on the phone with the office and waiting for his food, asked for the check when his food came, and hardly touched his food. He mighta been there for 20 mins total.
MSP airport bar, while quite and kinda nice inside, was stereotypical on so many levels. I sadly, had no time to have a drink in another airport on my way out to Eugene, so airport drinking would have to be put on hold until the return trip.
Luckily for me, I had a little over 90 mins in the Portland airport, which has a Rogue Public House, which happened to be literally right next to my gate.

Bam?

I sat down around 1:15, and pretty quickly thereafter had a 20oz beer (only $1 more than a pint), a pretty awesome sandwich with tots (only $1.50 more than fries). The beer pictured is Rogue's Half-e-weizen, pretty solid and refreshing wheat beer, I followed it up with a Juniper pale ale, not pictured, but pretty good. The John John pale aged in spruce gin barrels is the beer I want the juniper pale to be. . This is how an airport bar should work $5.50 pints of high quality beers, $8 sandwiches, and classic pub atmosphere. All told, even with tip by bill was well south of $30. Thus ends my tale of airport drinking, really just two bars with wildly different approaches, i guess I'll have to wait until my next trip to compare more bars, but it's gonna be really hard to top the Rogue Pub in PDX.

Another thing I did on/for this trip was start Twitter account. I figured I could just tweet pics of all these beers and save myself a huge blog update, but alas, 140 characters is somewhat limiting. Anyway, you should totally follow me because I post beer and bike stuff fairly often, plus I'd like to think I'm interesting. My handle is @2wheels1cup. Hell, I'll probably follow you in return.

Upon my return I finally finished building some sweet new wheels for my commuter bike. I know, I know, sweet wheels on a commuter is a waste, but I got a great deal on the rims, and I built them myself, plus my old wheels were so worn out, I needed new wheels anyway.
Velocity B43 rims with the Halo reflective powder coat laced with DT Swiss spokes to Velocity high flange flip flop hubs. Check them out once installed:
They're about a jillion times stiffer and stronger than the stock (probably original) 27 inch single walled crap wheels that were on there. The frame is a 1976-ish Motobecane Grand Jubilee, a pretty nice lugged steel frame. So far I'm pretty exited about these wheels. I couldn't get a picture of the reflective powder coating in action, but check out Velocity's page about it here: click here, stupid. If i can figure it out in the future I'll probably post a photo.

Oregon recap, one last snow commute, and a new one from New Glarus

Sunday night I returned to Iowa from 9 days of riding bikes, drinking beers, and general adventure having in Eugene, Oregon. I don't have the time, nor the energy to recount my whole trip, and especially not all the beers I drank. Executive summary: had a ton of fun, drank a ton of new craft brews, many/most local to Oregon. When I was there in August I drank 37 different beers, this time i managed 49. If I'd known it was 49, I woulda definitely had one more to make it an even 50. Oh well, at least I've got a goal for the future. I will definitely write more about that in the future, and the Eugene and Portland riding we did, but for now I lack the brain power.

Today, I awoke to a couple inches of snow on the ground.

Lousy Smarch weather.

The pavement was clear and slightly damp, it was actually kinda pretty, but an unwelcome sight in late March, especially with the nicer weather we've had in the last few weeks (at least on and off). Anyway, I'm still riding in my big boots and most of my gear. Definitely ready for spring and hopefully some more riding, especially mountain biking.

Right before I left for Oregon, my buddy came back from a quick trip to Wisconsin. He brought back some more New Glarus stuff, including a new entry into the Unplugged line up: Smoked Rye Ale.

Smokey like you would not believe. Definitely a strong entry into the rauchbier category, though I tasted very little rye, the meaty smokiness probably covered the rye right up. Honestly this thing tastes like some fancy slow smoked beef. It was incredible. Yet again, New Glarus hits it out of the park with an "experimental" beer. Good for them. If you can get anything from New Glarus, you already know. If you can't, well, that sucks.

Quick update from Eugene Oregon

I am currently at a friend's house in the rainy and very green city of Eugene. I've been getting around almost exclusively via bicycle, and having to use plenty of rain gear, which has reinforced Endura as a good choice for such things, but more about such things later. Just out here for a visit, but I've been taking advantage of the large amount and wide availability of craft beer. Not just regional/local stuff either, there's plenty of national beers here that I can't get in Iowa. Last August when I visited I enjoyed 30+ beers which I kept in a list on my phone, that I meant to post here but forgot to make that happen before I left. In fact, I'm making this post with a blogger app on my phone, and it's working surprisingly well. More about all this later. For now, behold the bounty of the Pacific Northwest.

Slush ride + new beer from Sam Adams

Wednesday I went for a ride. Tuesday night we had the weird, heavy, wet snow I previously blogged about riding home in. It kinda stuck around, but with temps hovering around 32F, this was all slush. While it's hard to show on here, it was up to 2 inches deep and did not cover as much of the trail as I thought. The above photo is one of the worst sections, there were places that had no snow/slush, just a little water for hundreds of yards. All this slush and not exactly frigid temperatures made for a sloppy ride. My rear derailleur got a pretty nice build up on it, but still functioned just fine. I guess conditions were bad, but not as bad as they could have been.

Pretty crusty.

Another tricky part of the ride was layering. I knew I couldn't go too heavy or I'd sweat to death, but I also knew I had to be as waterproof as possible. Plus I was riding the High Trestle Trail, and as is often the case, going north was a headwind, so I had to account for the extra wind chill and extra work. I went with no headgear save my snowboard helmet + goggles, a wool jersey, my regular heavy-ish Endura shell, bib knickers, with my commuting pants and Pearl Izumi winter boots. This set up worked pretty well, my legs and feet did get a little cold after about 45 mins and I turned around and was home in under 30.
The day itself was also very gray. Rarely have I been out riding when everything has been so monotone. The small amount of snow mixed with the gray sky, with the ground almost showing through was strange. Little bits of brown and black made everything look almost like some old photograph. I tried to capture the landscape and colors of the day, but I don't think it turned out too well.

Later, as is my custom, I was in Ames at a bar drinking a few beers with friends. I noticed a tap handle I hadn't see before, so I of course had to order it.
No, not the Fat Tire. The Limited Release Sam Adams Revolutionary Rye Ale. It is revolutionary in name only. It tastes like an average copper ale with a bit of malt, a bit of hops, and an overall pleasant, but not terribly exciting flavor, but it has a whisper of rye involved. Possibly the most bland rye beer I've ever had. Rye brings such a spicy and deep flavor to the party, I don't understand what they've done here. There's hardly any rye flavors in this beer. While maybe you don't want to make a beer where it's the star of the show, here it's damn near an understudy. Sam Adams generally makes solid beers, that are good examples of their respective styles, even if they aren't the most inventive or risk taking brewery out there. This isn't a good example of anything. If you're hankering for a rye beer, there's plenty of other better options, but if you're new to rye, new to drinking better beers, or just want to try a tremendously average beer, by all means, purchase one of these.

Snowy commute, a fun photo, and thoughts on beer related things

This is me post commute. Note the build up of snow on the edges of my goggles. I had to wipe them off 5-6 times in the course of my commute. Never had to do that much "upkeep" on the goggles during a ride, huge, sticky flakes were no good for visibility. March weather is terrible and unpredictable, tonight was no exception. Big, soft, wet, flakes mixed with a tiny bit of rain, a little breeze, and a surprisingly warm temperature. Temps were around 32F for much for the evening, and are predicted to stay there overnight. Hell, it's still snowing and 1-3 inches is predicted. With any luck the ground will stay warm and everything will melt right off, or at least keep the roads clear. I'm already half planning a ride along the High Trestle Trail for tomorrow depending on weather and my motivational levels.

That right there is a cut away SRAM Red cassette. Our rep stopped by with a case containing the new SRAM Red Black group, and while it looks sharp(and maybe better than the current, mostly grey color), it isn't functionally any different, and the part I'm still enamored with is the cassette. A single piece of steel machined out to make a cone of awesome that makes a bike go, freakin' great. Sadly, it is also very expensive, but cool as hell nonetheless.

I'm currently enjoying the hell out of another Hopslam. This beer is so good. Smooth yet bitter, hoppy but not overpowering. The smell is probably the biggest attraction for me. I wish someone made a perfume that smelled like this beer, it would definitely attract me, if not other men. And I am clearly the only man women need to worry about attracting. Someone get on that. I've also currently got a Bourbon Barrel Quad (or BBQ as the kids call it) in the fridge chillin'. This is one of my all time favorite beers, and Boulevard has graciously made it a seasonal of sorts in their Smokestack series. I'll do a full review when I get a chance, but short version: if you see it, buy it, and if you don't like it, I'll punch you in the dick.

Getting in ruts, nothing new, and up coming westward trip

So I sat down to write something after a bit of a gap in posting, and found that aside from talking about how everyone who's tried my bourbon beer has liked it, there is nothing new in my world of beers and bikes. Sure there's new stuff showing up at the shop, but nothing I care enough about to share here, and I'm drinking all the same stuff I've already written about. Finishing 12 packs of beers already tried, and making a dent in my stacks of homebrew is all I've really been drinking. Riding has been commuting but the weather hasn't been anything to bother talking about, either or good or bad. Crummy spring weather with a little rain, a little snow flurry, and plenty of clouds. Soon I hope the weather will turn and I can ride mountain bikes again, but until then, I've been mostly commuting. Hell, this weekend I was given a can of Gubna by a friend who tried it and wasn't a big fan, so he gave me one. I was going to do a little write up about it, then figured I probably already had. Sure enough, I went back a checked, and there it was. Even super awesome fancy beers that I can't buy in Iowa aren't new.

This recent rut of sorts I'm finding myself in is actually something I consciously try to avoid. There's such a huge world out there of new beers, new booze in general, new ways and places to ride bikes, doing the same thing, or drinking the same thing all the time, seems horribly short sighted to me. Sure, I love drinking a quality beer I've had before, it's familiar, still good, and some beers you can only really get a handle on after you'd tried it a few times, see me and Hopslam. But people who show up at a bar and always order a Bud Light or Sam Adams, or hell, even fancier offerings weird me out. Variety is half the fun of drinking beer. Same goes for riding bikes. Sure it's incredibly fun to rail a corner you know very well, it's a ton of fun to find out what's around the next corner of a trail you've never ridden or at least haven't ridden much. I guess I'm only really adventurous in booze and bikes, fields I know pretty well. The rest of my life isn't terribly adventurous. Upon reflection I'm not sure why this is, nor how I feel about it. Maybe being adventurous in a few choice aspects of one's life is enough. Maybe the guys that only drink Bud Light have super exciting existences outside of their drink of choice and they find a familiar comfort in it. Hrm.

The only other news I've got to share is that towards the end of this month (18-27th) I'll be visiting the Seager's in Eugene, Oregon. As many of you know, the pacific northwest is effectively the promised land for my people, bicycles and craft beer and plentiful and celebrated. To more effectively keep track of the beers I consume I'll of course be taking photos, but I'm pondering finally getting on this Twitter thing I keep hearing about. Not sure on a user name, but I'm open to suggestions. So far the best one that's been suggested is 2wheels1cup. I kinda like but I'm not sold on it. Until something more interesting happens to me riding and/or drinking, bottoms up.

Madhouse Coffee Stout

New coffee beer from an Iowa brewery, Madhouse. While this is certainly better than the coffee stout I made, but not by a huge margin. The coffee here is well flavored, smooth, complex, and only slightly bitter, while mine has one note of dark roasted bitterness. The stout body is smooth, clean and mates will with the coffee.The malt body holds up to the bitter coffee well, and lends a solid body to the effort.

Now I'm not saying my coffee stout was awesome, I sure wasn't, but neither is this. It is an acceptable offering from a local-ish brewer, but nothing to write home about. Hopefully Madhouse will get a little more creative in the future, as this is only their third offering to date, and the other two are an American wheat and a pale ale. Not a bad start for a small brewery out of Newton, Iowa, but they're going to have to set it up a bit to make any name for themselves.