Sunny Dayz

I feverishly rub my eyes.....[blink, blink]....could it be.....[blink, blink]....was the forecast actually right...[blink, blink]....It's a GLORIOUS sunny day in Portland! The glowing orb of gas found light years away is blanketing Portland with its tingling rays of warmth....could Spring be here??

I rush over to keggy to celebrate and pour myself a pint of I.P.'Heeeeey'. [at 9 am..that's OK, right?] I feel almost guilty...how many other people are still laying in bed this morning and don't know of the sunny weather. I rush to wake up the dog and we frolick to the nearby dog park. Daphne loves all types of weather, but she really smiles when the sun it out. Today will be a day filled with lazy walks in the sun, lounging under the shade of a tree, biking along the waterfront, and a pint here and there. As a treat, I will take Daphne to Washington Park. I'll bring along her best friend too....Mr. Squeaky Ball. As a treat for myself, I will go to Bartini....it's all day Happy Hour on Sunday and they have a outdoor patio...a match made in heaven.

Cheers

Yeast......OK, I know.......yeast is boring. However, it's one of the 'magic' ingredients to beer. Without it, beer would be non-alcoholic, very sweet...and boring. So this weekend, I took a trip out to Wyeast labs near Hood River, Oregon to pay them a visit. This is one of the major yeast facilities in the USA. I actually use their product every single time I brew beer. They have these great things called 'smack packs'. It's a package that has your yeast and a small amount of sweet beer (inside another little packet). When you are ready to pitch your yeast into your brew, you 'smack' the pack to mix the yeast and sweet beer together. A few hours later, the smack pack expands from the CO2 being generated. This means that your yeast is good and you can toss it into your beer. It's wonderful! Back in the day, only dry yeast was available (like the kind bakers use). You would never know if the yeast was good or not and often times the strain of yeast was inconsistent. Yeast plays a major role in the final taste of beer. You can brew 2 batches of the same beer with different yeast and get two totally different tasting beers.

Back to the tour...Wyeast is located in the middle of the burbs..yep, there are houses next door and people pushing their babies in strollers. I have to admit, the facility wasn't the biggest and brightest thing I have ever seen. I guess I was expecting to drive over a green hill and in the distance Wyeast would be shimmering under the soft glow of a rainbow....Not quite. But then again...it's Yeast.....boring. The QA Manager gave me a tour of the facility. He had a few microscopes set up so that I could see 'healthy yeast' and "yeast gone wild!". The healthy yeast was round, oval, and happy. The infected yeast had string-like bacteria floating around, looking evil, and laughing at me. I wasn't allowed to see the packaging line....confidentiality stuff (and I was planning to set up a yeast facility in my closet! Darn!). However...after the lab tour, we did go upstairs where they had a stainless steel 2 tap kegerator set up! Glorious! If I worked there, how would I ever get anything done! We sipped a few pints and chatted about ... yeast. In the end, it was good to see the facility where 'yeast' is born....but it did live up to its name...yeast is boring!

Shamrock 5K

It's coming....if you listen closely, you can hear the pitter patter of people's feet pounding the pavement training for the infamous Shamrock Run in Portland. Truth is, most people will just stretch a little bit before the race, do a few jumping jacks, and pray that they can finish the 5K run without falling over (your's truely). Held on Sunday March 15, 2009 in downtown Portland, this race hosts about 15,000 people. To help motivate the runners, the good folks at McCormick & Schmicks are giving away free clam chowder and Widmer will be pouring some of their legendary beer at the finish line. Need another excuse to run.....well, the St. Patricks Irish festival will be happening at Kells at the same time. This event alone is legendary....people travel far and wide to attend and clank pint glasses with each other. Kells Portland has been ranked the #1 Irish pub in the nation. Still need another excuse....a portion of the Shamrock run proceeds goes to support the Doernbecher Children's Hospital Foundation. There you have it...no more excuses. Anyone can wake up and jog a little over 3 miles in the morning. See you there.... slackers!

Feb 15, 2009 will go down in history as the 'Worst Day of the Year!" Have no fear though, this was actually the name of the 18 mile urban bike ride that happened in downtown Portland Oregon today. Historically, mid February is both the coldest and wettest day in Oregon history; -54 degrees in 1933 [Ukiah], and 28 inches of rain in 4 days in 1996. In reality, it was a crisp 42 degrees with a few clouds overhead and 3,000 friendly cyclists. It began at about 10 am at the Lucky Lab pub on Hawthorne Sreet. This is a great pub...delicious craft beers, tasty food, and dog friendly! I highly recommend you check them out!

There were all sorts of characters participating in this bike ride......a group of folks dressed as bumble bees, an ape, butterflies, beer cans, M&Ms, pumpkins, and just about anything that would stick to a bike helmet or shirt. The camaraderie was great! No one was in a rush....just out for a leisurely Sunday cruise. The volunteers were wonderful cheering everyone on and keeps us all on track. Along the way, there were plenty of rest stops with all sorts of food: bagels, cookies, fruit, water, and graham crackers.

This video highlights some of the stages of the race. Overall, it was my favorite race so far in Portland. I think it had to to with the fact that it started and ended at a bar. The nice thing about this is that it is a loop course and everyone tends to relax at the end to have a beer or two and chat. No one was in a rush and lots of people dressed up too. I'll be doing this race again next year....see you then!

The OBC...no, it's not a silly teen drama series TV show on FOX. It's actually much better than that....it's the Oregon Brew Crew. This homebrew club is located in Portland, Oregon and is one of the largest and oldest clubs out there. Last night was their monthly meeting. Typically, they hold these meetings at a homebrew store, F.H. Steinbart's. The store itself offers a wonderful selection of grains, gadgets, and beer geeks...my version of utopia. I highly recommend you check them out.
The OBC meetings are fantastic. It offers a chance for beer geeks to come together, share some homebrew, talk about upcoming events, share some homebrew, meet new members, share some homebrew, and if there is time left, share some homebrew. Typically, there are about 100 people at these meetings. The menu style was Fat Tuesday (Creole and Cajun), and there were about 4 different delicious keggies on tap and tons of growlers. One of the beers was an Imperial Stout that had been aged 4 months in a bourbon barrel. It was incredible! The beer totally picked up the scent and taste of the bourbon and was a tad sour. Another beer was a Dry Stout on nitro (like Guinness). The brewmaster that made this one works at FH Steinbarts and brews about once a week. His beers are always great. I sampled some Oktoberfest, IPA's, and even a beer fermented with ginger root. The great thing about these meetings is that there is such a variety of beers. People are always willing to share their story about their beer...how they made it, what hops they used, and alcohol percentage (ironically, people seem to do the Tim Allen grunt for anything over 7%). At the end of the evening, we all say our goodbyes, wish each other luck on upcoming homebrews, and reluctantly try to flag down the number 20 bus to take us out of our idyllic paradise and back to the real world.

Brew Day!

As mentioned before, I got to brew some beer behind the scenes at a pub called Rock Bottom this past Saturday. The goal of the session was to see all the commercial equipment used to make a batch of beer, the various types of ingredients added, and to sample some different types of beer. There were 20 'brew hounds' that were part of this class. Our beer for the day was Fire Chief Ale (A nice, mildly hoppy, red ale). This particular Rock Bottom was located in downtown Portland and they sold most of what they brewed on site. They offer a variety of different beers, from bitter IPA's to creamy stouts.

Brewing beer is a relatively simple procedure and involves just a couple of ingredients : water, barley, hops, and yeast. The barley is sent through a grinder to crush it a bit to crack the grain and separate it from the husk. It is then dumped in a big stainless steel vessel where 151 degree water is added. This soupy, oatmeal looking mixture is then stirred and left to rest for about 90 minutes. It's during this time that the magic of brewing happens as the heat causes the starch in the grains to be converted to sugar (this sugar is eventually gobbled up by yeast, and the byproduct is alcohol and CO2). After the mixture has soaked for 90 minutes, all the delicious sweet and colorful wort is strained into another tank (this is what is happening in the video). Once there, it is boiled for 60 minutes along with some tasty bitter and aromatic hops. It takes this long for the hop oils to be broken down and comingled with the wort. Many of the hops used today were grown right here in the northwest, about 30 minutes south. Next, the wort is sent through a chilled cooler to get it down to 68 degrees as fast as possible (in this case, it took 10 minutes to cool 250 gallons). The cooled wort is pumped into the fermentation vessel and the yeast is added where it devours all the sugar over a few days. Soon afterwards, the beer will be pumped into serving tanks and carbonated with CO2. Ta Da!!! Beer has been born!

Worst Day of the Year....

This is my ride, my cruiser, my way to get around. It's an Azor Opa...a burly bike from the Netherlands where they know all about building ultimate utility and commuter bikes. It's made for - all weather, jump on and go - cycling and is built like a tank. One of the coolest things about it is the upright posture you have...no more hunching over, eyeballing the ground below. You sit completely straight, so your back does not get sore, you have better visibility of things, and cars can see you easier. This Sunday, I registered for the Worst Day of the Year Ride. The rumor is, that Feb 15th is historically the worst day of the year for weather in Portland, Oregon. However, the last couple years, it has been sunny, blue skies that day.....So far, the weather forecast is showing a few showers with a high of 45...That is actually pretty nice cycling weather! However, the weather can change...it did snow here yesterday. I would actually like it if the weather was just horrible...it would prove to myself that I could cycle in anything and motivate me to bike more. Either way, the 18 mile course starts and ends at a pub. This should give me motivation to 1) show up and 2) to finish the thing. Cheers