Last day of winter. First day of spring. Super Moon? It seemed like a good time to go bicycle camping. John, Jamie and I packed up the bikes, parked in Estacada and started riding the 40 uphill miles to Bagby hotsprings. We were hit with hail and rain along the way. At the top, there […]

Back in 2007, I got my hands on some of the elusive Bhut Jolokia seeds and grew a single plant. We got a few peppers, but the yield wasn’t great – so, I decided to not waste the room in my small garden during  the following years. But now, we have a huge garden with […]

This is the third batch (in 3 weeks) to be dumped on the same yeast. First we had the Cream Ale, then an Evil Red. Ranger Recipe This awesome IPA is one of the few New Belgium beers that I really like. It is crisp and clean and very hoppy. Here is the original recipe. […]

Last week, we brewed up the Cream Ale and used a some yeast culture (WLP 001)  that had been sitting in my fridge for over a year. Regardless of the age, fermentation started out strong and smelled clean. So to reward these awesome yeasties, I decided to dump on another batch of beer once the […]

I brewed a batch last year, but substituted the corn sugar for more 2-row. It turned out well, but a bit too sweet. Let’s follow the recipe this time to replicate the award-winning original: Kiwanda Cream Ale This is for a full 12gallon batch: 15.5 lb – pale 2 row 1.25 lb – Cara/Pils 1.25 […]

The first set is from December. You may recognize that second one. These next photos were just taken on the 1st of February:

Oat Heaven GF Stout (aka ‘The Glütard’) Inspired by ryanbrews.blogspot.com 10# Oat malt (1.5 – 2 L) 1.5# Oat malt wet roasted to match Crystal 120 (120 L) 1.5# Oat malt dry roasted to match Chocolate Malt (350 L) 0.2# Oat malt dry roasted to match Roasted Barley (500-600 L) 1.5# Flaked Oats (perhaps more?) […]

Remember the spruce ale that I started at the end of November? Brew log Update About a week ago, I racked both carboys in preparation to bottle. However, the dry hopped version was still quite cloudy – so, it went into the fridge for a cold crash. Yesterday, I pulled it out of the fridge […]

With the bathroom somewhat reassembled, we decided to attack the upstairs: Now, this wasn’t just for fun… The upstairs has absolutely no insulation. Currently, with temperatures below freezing, you can see you breath. In a few hours, we had one of the bedrooms down. Here are some of the highlights: We did find a few […]

As a good friend recently told me: “Nothing like a deadline to get projects started” So with a baby on the way, we have decided to start tearing apart the house. First up? A vent fan for the bathroom Our downstairs bathroom (the only one with the shower), gets rather steamy. Lucky for us, there […]