Dirt, Rubber, and Fire Chief

Spring.  What comes to mind when you think of spring?  Is it cool afternoon rain showers?  Is it flowers?  Could it be the excited anticipation of the long days of summer?  Well, what could go down as a perfect weekday afternoon would be my mountain bike, a good hard ride, and a couple of beers afterwards.  Luckily, my spring was kicked off the right way last night.  A good buddy of mine and I decided we needed to get the mountain rigs properly christened for the spring of 2011.  We both took off from work a bit early and headed down to White Ranch just north of Golden; a trail system neither of us had ridden.  I'd heard from some guys on the team that it started out with a pretty good climb, so I was curious as to what exactly a "pretty good" climb was classified as. I'd ridden most of the trails around Boulder as well as the mountain roads, so I knew what those 'pretty good climbs' were like.

Just as we left the parking lot, the rain started to fall.  Light drops speckled the dirt as we started the ascent, and with every turn, the trail could be seen slowly disappearing as it meandered it's way up the mountain side.  An hour went by, and we were still climbing.  By the time we got to the first 'summit', the rain had picked up a bit and we made our way to another set of trails.

All of that climbing was now starting to pay off; the descent had begun.  I led and with water bars intersecting the trail, we were able to jump a bit.  The rain had made all hard surfaces slick enough to be dangerous.  Any root, rock, or man-placed lumber was turned into a place to respect; too many times I've gone down due to a loss of traction on wet trails.  Down some more, and along side a small creek we went.  Lush ferns, and fresh grass lined the trail and spring was definitely in the air.  A bit of climbing greeted us as we had to recover some of the elevation we had just lost before we met up with the main trail back to the lot.

Once on the 'highway' back down the hill, I adjusted my suspension, and off I went.  Dirt and mud flying with a chilled Colorado wind in my face, I couldn't help but smile.  Jumping every little rise I could, I made my way further down.  Just as I had doubled back I heard Scott yelling at me; damn, a flat.  He had to run his bike back (not wanting to use my extra tube).  Down to the car I went, and the rain picked up.  I threw the bike on the roof and waited for Scott's arrival.  Once he showed his face, it was time for me to head back up to Boulder to meet up with another buddy in town.

I'm sure you're now wondering what this story has to do with beer.  Well, we settled down at a table in the bar at the Walnut Brewery for a round of post ride beers.  The Fire Chief is still on tap but is to be replaced tonight by their Daylight Rye.  There's nothing quite like a good tall beer after a couple of hours in the saddle...

Biere for Spring

Winter is finally behind us (I think), with the temps creeping up in the 70s and 80s.  Last weekend's snow kept things on the chilly side, albeit for a short bit, but at least I was able to get a batch of beer done whilst wearing shorts to boot.  Anyway, the arrival of spring means the arrival of one of my favorite styles of beer; Biere de Mars or you might see it's close relative the Biere de Garde.  I remember the day I found this particular style, I was about 25 and a buddy and I were at the Liquor Mart in Boulder.  I was wanting to try something new and New Belgium was still producing 6-packs of their Biere de Mars so I picked one up.  That, I think, just might have been the beginning of my love for craft beer.  Fast forward a few years and finding this gem had been just about impossible.

A hair over a year ago, I made a trip up the road to the New Belgium Brewery for some sampling and to see what was going down.  They had done some more remodeling since the last time I'd been, and the energy was, as usual, high with people hanging, and all enjoying some good conversation and great beer!  After settling down at a table, the tasting list slid to a stop in front of me.  After my first glance, I immediately saw those three beautiful words, "Biere de Mars"!  What a great thing to see after such a long break since my last taste!  Their Lips of Faith Series had just been started and this baby was luckily a part of it!  After going through my samples and some good company, I had to stock up on some bombers of my favorite lost love.  I coveted those babies and only brought them out on special occasions.  Well, tonight as I was in my beer fridge, I saw the last one was chilled and awaiting to be consumed.  Tonight was as good of a reason as any to enjoy my last one, right?

The bio:
New Belgium Brewery's "Biere de Mars" (Lips of Faith)
6.2% ABV
22 IBUs

So after popping the top, I poured a glass, and man, what a sight!  It had a nice burnt orange color (Hook 'em!).  This is quite possibly one of the prettiest beers to be seen!  The head poured a nice cream-white and about a quarter-inch thick that stuck around for quite a while.  Actually, after about 10 minutes there was still  nice lacing which was pleasing to the eye.  The nose had a bit of citrus, and the longer I let it sit/breath, I got a touch of mango, then the hops started making their presence known.  Now for the taste; the first splash on my tongue gave a bit of wild yeast sourness.  Those of you who have an aversion to sour beers, don't let this scare you away; it's not enough to say this would be a 'sour' ale, but there's enough to recognize it.  The 2nd 'act' in flavor is a slight citrus taste that has a small 'bitter-sweet' note that is typical of citrus peel, which also makes it's Belgian heritage known.  There's also a bit sweetness of oat malt and a warm alcohol feeling on the exhale.  At 6.2% it's not enough to push through all of the other flavors, but as the beer warmed up, the alcohol profile was more apparent.  Another note that presented itself as the temp rose was the hop profile.  Lightly hopped, I wouldn't even say there's a punch of bitterness, but enough of that flavor to know it's there; it definitely did not get in the way of all of the other flavors.  If you ever find this at your local liquor store, definitely give it a go!

Some others to try would be Southampton Publick House's Biere de Mars, Ommegang's Biere de Mars, Glacier Brewing's Biere de Mars Montana.

Same 'ole Decent Lazy Eye

I was driving home from the HBS yesterday, and my damned iPod had died so I was having to listen to the beloved radio.  As I flipped through the stations, I heard a new found favorite of mine, Silversun Pickups' "Lazy Eye".  The sunroof was open, as were the windows, and the semi-warm spring air was invigorating my being.  My travel partner for the trip (ingredients for a spring favorite, Rye ale) had to suffer through me belting out the end of the song, but at least beer ingredients won't complain at the quality of my singing.  I got back to the house and the 'brewery' was ready to be setup.  I'd just cleaned the garage on Saturday so it was nice to have plenty of space to spread out and get the kettle going.  As for the beer, this makes the 2nd time I've made the Rye.  Inspiration for this one originally came from the Walnut Brewery.  Rod makes a batch every spring and has quickly become one of my favorites.  They're tapping this year's version on the 21st, so swing by for your free pint at 6pm.

This version is going to be a bit 'stronger' than my last batch.  I accidentally added 4.5oz more Rye malt than I needed to, and I upped the hop bill by about an ounce.  We'll see how this turns out, hopefully it'll be a good 'accident'!  Things went fairly smoothly, the only hiccup was that I was tending to my hops plants and was gone a minute too long.  I had a small boil-over as I was getting the temp up for the first hop addition.  All was good though, and everything went well after that.  After getting things sanitized and the wort temp down to 75, I pitched a batch of Wyeast 3333 (German Wheat) yeast and as of this morning, alcohol was being made.  My starting gravity was 1.066 with starting sugar at 8.75%.  I hope to see the final ABV at 6.5% so check back in a week to see where it's at.

If only you could smell the sweetness...