Good weekend. Hung out with friends and went to a house party called Kink for a Cause on Friday night. Subjected myself to spanking and did some of my own to raise money for surgery for the hostess's dog. Quite an interesting time.
Saturday, kegged our IPA which is fucking delicious. Will taste it fully chilled and carbonated tomorrow. Worked roller derby doing stats for the Rose City season opener. Didn't go to after party. Just hung with friends at a new place, for us, after for food and drinks.
Sunday was chill. Just watched football and took then my son for indoor rock climbing.
Took today off since the kids were out of school. Went to the science museum then for dinner at My Brother's Crawfish. Mixed on the place. First time there. A couple of Vietnamese guys from Houston doing Cajun/Creole food here in Portland. Being from Louisiana, I was OK with it. Po boys were overdone. The crawfish etouffee was a bit overdone but decent. Sad thing is I can get way better for a fraction of the cost in Louisiana. I can get better Po Boys at the Po House in Portland. They just don't have crawfish there. Will have to go back to MBC and try the boiled crawfish. They do fly them in from Louisiana. Been a long time since I had some boiled crawfish. My son did surprise me and ate alligator meat. Without asking. He is mainly a cheese and pasta guy. Eats some steak, chicken, and pork chops. Will even eat my pot stickers, which are bomb anyway. It completely surprised me today though.
Saturday, kegged our IPA which is fucking delicious. Will taste it fully chilled and carbonated tomorrow. Worked roller derby doing stats for the Rose City season opener. Didn't go to after party. Just hung with friends at a new place, for us, after for food and drinks.
Sunday was chill. Just watched football and took then my son for indoor rock climbing.
Took today off since the kids were out of school. Went to the science museum then for dinner at My Brother's Crawfish. Mixed on the place. First time there. A couple of Vietnamese guys from Houston doing Cajun/Creole food here in Portland. Being from Louisiana, I was OK with it. Po boys were overdone. The crawfish etouffee was a bit overdone but decent. Sad thing is I can get way better for a fraction of the cost in Louisiana. I can get better Po Boys at the Po House in Portland. They just don't have crawfish there. Will have to go back to MBC and try the boiled crawfish. They do fly them in from Louisiana. Been a long time since I had some boiled crawfish. My son did surprise me and ate alligator meat. Without asking. He is mainly a cheese and pasta guy. Eats some steak, chicken, and pork chops. Will even eat my pot stickers, which are bomb anyway. It completely surprised me today though.
Kegged our IPA yesterday. Tasted a few ounces from the thief. Probably our best yet. A good bitter and aromatic balance. Chilling and pressurizing. Will taste it Tuesday or Wednesday.
Worked for the Rose City Rollers season opener last night. Went well. First time at the Memorial Coliseum. Much better than the Expo center. Their big bouts will be there this year. The Guns N Rollers are going to have a long season. Lots of new skaters. Blown out twice last night. High Rollers will likely repeat as champions this year. They probably have the fewest new skaters and their top players didn't switch to travel team only.
Worked for the Rose City Rollers season opener last night. Went well. First time at the Memorial Coliseum. Much better than the Expo center. Their big bouts will be there this year. The Guns N Rollers are going to have a long season. Lots of new skaters. Blown out twice last night. High Rollers will likely repeat as champions this year. They probably have the fewest new skaters and their top players didn't switch to travel team only.
We racked the Citra IPA over to secondary for dry hopping and brightening. It went well in fermentation and had good attenuation. Sitting at 6.8% with a nice lemony flavor. Will keg in a week and half or so.
Made a Shrimp and Sausage gumbo today. Came out well but slightly charred. Had to run get a new hard drive for this desktop. It crashed a couple of weeks ago. Installation went well. Up in running in no time. Will have to use a Knoppix boot disc to recover my files from the other drive since Windows can't read it. Have already checked the files before I bought the new one.
Made a Shrimp and Sausage gumbo today. Came out well but slightly charred. Had to run get a new hard drive for this desktop. It crashed a couple of weeks ago. Installation went well. Up in running in no time. Will have to use a Knoppix boot disc to recover my files from the other drive since Windows can't read it. Have already checked the files before I bought the new one.
We brewed up a new batch of our Citra IPA. Some differences from the last recipe. Expected more hops flavor in the wort. These citra hops are really strong. Fermentation is going well it seems. Quite the churning going on inside there. The beer will bot be ready for New Year's. It'll be maybe a week later. We should have two more going by then.
Doing the Master Chef audition has rejuvenated me in the kitchen. Working on experimenting more again. Trying some new things. Playing with some old dishes. I would say I'm enjoying cooking again. Friend is over tonight making Indian food for her video to send in. I wanted her to audition and that was the main reason I agreed to go. Not that I wouldn't have wanted to make it.
Again I've been around but nothing to say when I'm here.
I auditioned for the Master Chef TV show on Saturday. Made Grilled Salmon with a Tomatillo Sauce, Cilantro Lime Rice and a Mexican Slaw. Didn't get accepted but I at least received some good comments from the Executive Dean Master Chef of the Le Cordon Bleu school. He was one of the judges and that's where the audition was held. I mainly did auditioned to get my friend to go. She is awesome and they did like her more. She knows her food for more than I do. I usually learn from her but she does get some things from me.
We need to brew again. It has been awhile and our last two came out well. One was a porter thrown together from leftover ingredients. A nice session porter only about 4.5% ABV. The Belgian IPA was enjoyed by many. Our IPA recipe with a Belgian yeast that I had picked up for a contest but never used. We will do our Citra IPA recipe soon but tone down the hops a bit. Plus I want to do some anniversary versions of our stout and cda. We have improved our processes a bit.
I auditioned for the Master Chef TV show on Saturday. Made Grilled Salmon with a Tomatillo Sauce, Cilantro Lime Rice and a Mexican Slaw. Didn't get accepted but I at least received some good comments from the Executive Dean Master Chef of the Le Cordon Bleu school. He was one of the judges and that's where the audition was held. I mainly did auditioned to get my friend to go. She is awesome and they did like her more. She knows her food for more than I do. I usually learn from her but she does get some things from me.
We need to brew again. It has been awhile and our last two came out well. One was a porter thrown together from leftover ingredients. A nice session porter only about 4.5% ABV. The Belgian IPA was enjoyed by many. Our IPA recipe with a Belgian yeast that I had picked up for a contest but never used. We will do our Citra IPA recipe soon but tone down the hops a bit. Plus I want to do some anniversary versions of our stout and cda. We have improved our processes a bit.
Bottled our Citra IPA and Russian Imperial Stout tonight. The IPA is AWESOME! Can't wait to drink the finished product. The stout is tasty but not exactly what it could be.
Super Bowl Party at my house on Sunday. My Saints have finally done it. Must find a Colts voodoo doll.
Super Bowl Party at my house on Sunday. My Saints have finally done it. Must find a Colts voodoo doll.
More beer events. That is about all I'm doing lately. We bottled our Cascadian Dark Ale last week. Should be ready for tasting on Super Bowl. Hosting a party since my New Orleans Saints are in it. Making a huge pot of gumbo or etouffee. Haven't decided yet.
We racked our Citra IPA over to secondary on Friday. It seems to be going well. A good drop in gravity put the alcohol around 7%. Strong grapefruit aroma and taste and we're dry-hopping it like mad now. It is going well in secondary so it should finish well.
Sunday, we brewed an Imperial IPA based on the Citra recipe. Put in Fuggles also and calling it CitraFuggle Force. It is bubbling away in fermentation. Off to a good start. I also did a gravity reading on the Russian Imperial Stout that has been in there for a month now. The gravity is at 1.031 now. The original gravity was 1.097. Alcohol is around 8.7%. And it will still be going for a bit longer. Trying to get down around 1.025.
We racked our Citra IPA over to secondary on Friday. It seems to be going well. A good drop in gravity put the alcohol around 7%. Strong grapefruit aroma and taste and we're dry-hopping it like mad now. It is going well in secondary so it should finish well.
Sunday, we brewed an Imperial IPA based on the Citra recipe. Put in Fuggles also and calling it CitraFuggle Force. It is bubbling away in fermentation. Off to a good start. I also did a gravity reading on the Russian Imperial Stout that has been in there for a month now. The gravity is at 1.031 now. The original gravity was 1.097. Alcohol is around 8.7%. And it will still be going for a bit longer. Trying to get down around 1.025.
So just finished up another brew session. A Citra IPA. A fairly new strain of hops that is really citrusy. Hence, the name. Everything went well. My kitchen now smells like hops which is a good thing. Tasted the wort when we did the original gravity reading and good and sweet.
I also took a sample from the Russian Imperial Stout that is a couple of weeks old now. The reading put it at 7% alcohol and it was also tasty. Still has a bit to go but it is all good now.
I also took a sample from the Russian Imperial Stout that is a couple of weeks old now. The reading put it at 7% alcohol and it was also tasty. Still has a bit to go but it is all good now.
Yep...been slacking here. Don't pop in for long. To finish up in CA where I left off, I went on a beer pilgrimage of sorts. My last night in the Bay Area. My friend and I drove up to Petaluma to visit Lagunitas Brewery. Had some delicious cask ales. I had a cask Hairy Eyeball and a cask Reuben and the Jets. Had the Hairy Eyeball on regular tap when it was first released and it was a tough drink. Aged and cask was awesome. Had not tasted the Reuben before. It is the last of their Frank Zappa Anniversary beers. Very tasty. From there we drove up to Santa Rosa, CA to visit Russian River Brewing. They make such delicious beers. Absolutely the best IPA, hands down. Blind Pig IPA is the best. Brought a growler of Pliny the Elder back to Oregon with me. That is their double IPA if you didn't know.
Brewed an IPA with a friend back in October and it actually turned out well. Not exactly what we want but good. And I am critical of my product. Way more critical of my cooking than the people that consume it. Same with my beer. Got a good bit of brewing stuff for Christmas. This weekend we made a Cascadian Dark Ale (Black IPA) on Saturday and a Russian Imperial Stout on Sunday. Saturday when we were done, we drank one of our original IPAs. It was tasty. Good light amber color and nice bitterness. I hope these work out. The CDA is going slow in fermentation. Augie will pitch more yeast in tomorrow. We had such a high gravity, it likely needs more. The RIS is kicking. Bubbling away. Pitch two vials of yeast in it. So maybe I can sleep tonight. Was too worried about the fermentation last night.
There is the Cheers for Belgian Beers Festival here in Portland in May. Want to enter the homebrew competition. The yeast is selected. Everyone uses the same yeast. Thinking about a Belgian Dark Strong Ale. It has to be ready by April 23. It's $10 per entry and you get free entry to the fest which is $10 so might as well throw a beer on the table.
Hope everyone had a good holiday.
Brewed an IPA with a friend back in October and it actually turned out well. Not exactly what we want but good. And I am critical of my product. Way more critical of my cooking than the people that consume it. Same with my beer. Got a good bit of brewing stuff for Christmas. This weekend we made a Cascadian Dark Ale (Black IPA) on Saturday and a Russian Imperial Stout on Sunday. Saturday when we were done, we drank one of our original IPAs. It was tasty. Good light amber color and nice bitterness. I hope these work out. The CDA is going slow in fermentation. Augie will pitch more yeast in tomorrow. We had such a high gravity, it likely needs more. The RIS is kicking. Bubbling away. Pitch two vials of yeast in it. So maybe I can sleep tonight. Was too worried about the fermentation last night.
There is the Cheers for Belgian Beers Festival here in Portland in May. Want to enter the homebrew competition. The yeast is selected. Everyone uses the same yeast. Thinking about a Belgian Dark Strong Ale. It has to be ready by April 23. It's $10 per entry and you get free entry to the fest which is $10 so might as well throw a beer on the table.
Hope everyone had a good holiday.
