Beer and brewing

Here's another thing I haven't done for a few months now. No, I drink plenty of beer, I'm talking about brewing beer.

I started homebrewing the first time back in 1994 or so. It was a way to have a hobby at home with a new baby here. Cycling took way too much time away. I did 4 or 5 batches and they came out pretty good as I recall and they never lasted. You get about 2 cases per 5 gallon batch and while that sounds like a lot, well it just isn't. I could brew late in the evening, once my son was asleep. Bottling was done over a two evening stretch, one to sanitize the bottles by soaking in a bathtub full of bleach, the next to actually bottle. Each session, no matter which aspect of the process I was doing, somehow always ended up taking 2 hours.

This time around, I started up doing it as a science project for my daughter. Thinking I had all the equipment already, I'd just get an ingredients kit. But of course the years in the basement didn't do the stuff any good, and then I couldn't find a number of items so I had to go buy another brew kit. I drove out to Islip L.I. and bought everything I needed at once. We brewed the beer together, took measurements together, and she helped with the bottling. The science part was measuring the specific gravity and timing the bubbles, to show fermentation taking place. The beer was an English Pale Ale, and it was really good. In fact it was so good I started making more batches.

So far I've done the Pale Ale, an Extra Special Bitter, a German lager, an IPA, a Hefeweizen, and a nut brown ale. The nut brown was a bust but the others were pretty good. I'm running out of most of them at this point.

So my next brew is going to be ??? I may try another lager since it is getting cold again outside, which means I have the natural refrigeration needed to do one. This time I want to keep it very cold, the last one has a bit of a banana ester flavor to it because it was a little too warm. I'll have to go online and order a kit. It'll be a post-holiday thing to brew again.

Cycling, or not cycling

It is December after all. I haven't been on my bikes in over a month now, and I'm definitely having withdrawal. I like cycling. It is freedom.

I've been riding a '10 speed' since I was 15, or maybe even younger I can't quite place the date, when I bought that white Peugeot that was all the rage back then in 1969 or so. Since then I've owned an Atala Grand Prix, an Austro-Daimler Inter-10, a Raleigh Competition, a custom built Davidson, a bike from Italy built for Zilioli, a Trek 8000 MTB, a Kuota Kharma, and now a Kuota Kredo with all the parts from the Kharma. I still have 4 of the last 5 mentioned there, the Kharma I crashed.

My regular rides are in Prospect Park, around and around, until I can't stand it anymore. This I do on weekdays after work, sometimes on weekends too when I don't have the time to go further. The other favorite is going to Piermont and Nyack, just like almost every other NYC cyclist. The only difference is that Brooklyn is a bit further. It is 70 miles r/t to Piermont, 75 or so to Nyack. The ride always includes hills, at least one coming back, and throw in the Alpine climb for good measure.

I do the more casual NYC organized rides, like the 5 boro, and the Tour de Bronx. I've done the 5 boro with the kids and they always have that sense of accomplishment when they're done. My son used my Trek, which is mostly his now, and one of my daughters rode it on her Specialized Dolce Vita, an all out road bike. The TdeBx is one of my favorites, but this year it was a bust. Oh well.

I'm going to do the indoor computrainer class again this year. I'll have to get my partner to do it with me again, although we have the hardest time coordinating. It took two months to figure out a time to ride in the park in the spring. And now in the fall she bought a beautiful new bike, and we've been trying to coordinate a ride and after-ride homebrew, but it hasn't happened.

Plans for the spring include doing more of the NYCC STS rides, maybe finally giving up on being an "A" rider as I get older. Maybe I can do the Seattle to Portland ride this year, but maybe not. It costs a small fortune to get there, find hotels, etc... I'll register, and then sell the entry if I can't use it. It always sells out and there are people begging to get in. This is the longest ride I've ever done, and I did it fast, but I was much younger then.

Enough for now, I've wasted enough of your time, and my time too...