We started keeping bees this year. So far, it has been fun and rewarding. The hive is doing well and our garden is fully pollinated. I didn’t expect to harvest honey this year, but the girls were packing it in so well that we decided to steal two frames. Since we don’t have an extractor, […]

Note: this is from 2013. You might also be interested in the 2014 breeding, 2015 breeding… Oregon is an optimal place to grow hops. They take up a lot of space, but are very gratifying and economical to grow. At the local homebrew store, hops will run $2-3 per ounce. Last year, with 7 mature […]

MAKE is an awesome magazine published quarterly by O’Reilly. Each issue focuses on DIY culture and contains dozens of projects that you are encouraged to build yourself. I have been a fan since Volume 3, when they featured plans for a potato cannon. So, when Mark Frauenfelder spotted this humble blog post and asked if I […]

We just got back from a week of backpacking with our 14 month old. Living in the Pacific Northwest, there are so many wondrous places to go that we had a difficult time deciding. However, the Three Sisters is one of our favorites. It has a bit of everything from alpine streams to obsidian lava […]

Last weekend, we took our one-year-old daughter out backpacking. You can read about the entire trip on her blog: day 1, day 2, day 3 … but, I wanted to take a moment to share a few other photos. Panorama I took some time to climb the ridge to the top of Zigzag valley – […]

Often, when I think about the technology of the future,  fantastical inventions like flying cars come to mind. However, it is easy to overlook how fantastical todays technology really is. Can you guess where we went? This morning, my parents sent me the following photograph with simply: “can you guess where we went?” They do […]

A few weeks back, I entered the Wil Wheat beer in a local competition. I knew that it was off-style when I created the recipe, but was interested in some feedback. Surprisingly it took “runner up”. The judging notes (below) reflect that it was a very well made brew – just too hoppy for a […]

Our friend Joe has been really interested in brewing lately. In fact, he volunteered a bunch of time to help out during the Barrel Project brew day. We decided to get together and split a 12 gallon batch. Just by chance, Cascade hops went on sale. I grabbed 2 lbs and we decided to brew […]

Anyone want to join in on a brew project? My good friend Jamie picked up a full size Bourbon barrel. Now the plan is to fill it with Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Ale (clone) and let it oak age for a year. If you haven’t tried Rasputin, you really should – it’s a smooth, delicious […]

Pondering a super high gravity imperial based on the 16 ton stout that we brewed for the wedding. 25 lb – 2-row 1 lb – Barley, Roasted 1 lb – Chocolate Malt (could be 50% light) 1 lb – Caramel/Crystal Malt (80L) 1 lb – Cara-pils 1 lb – Kiln Coffee Malt Plus specialty grains […]