Boise Brew Minute (episode 67) – Chris at Highlands Hollow talks about carbonation methods. First we discuss the common method, force carbonation, which pumps CO2 into the beer in very small bubbles. Next we talk about a more traditional approach, cask conditioning, where yeast create the CO2 that dissolves into the beer.
Also, don’t miss Chris’s previous interviews.
Boise Brew Minute (episode 66) – “Beer Matt” at the Co-op talks about a collaboration brew between them and Woodland Empire. They’re making a gruit or hop-free beer based off an 800 year old recipe. This gruit uses mint, celery seeds and rye to balance the sweet malt flavors. It also has souring agents which are becoming more popular now but almost certainly would have been in beer 800 years ago due to less sterile brewing environments. The beer will be released at both locations for International Gruit Day on Feb 1.
This week I’m trying something new with the Boise Brew Minute. I had a great talk with Jake that lasted about 15 minutes, way too long for Radio Boise, so I opted to cut two versions. One is the regular four minute version for the radio and the other version is our full interview. Let me know what you think of this format. I won’t do it every week, but if there’s interest, I’ll continue to do extended interviews occasionally. Thanks.
Boise Brew Minute (episode 65) – Jake at Cloud 9 talks about amylase and how starch gets converted to sugar for brewing. This usually involves holding the mash at a specific temperature but can happen in other ways for drinks like chicha and sake. In the extended interview, we discuss the impact of temperature and mash thickness on the alpha and beta version of amylase. Finally, we hear about the new rye IPA he’s brewing with Idaho 7 hops, a hybrid developed in Idaho.
Radio version:
A few years ago, I read about the Runner’s World Holiday Streak and thought it sounded interesting. Back in high school and college, I ran six days a week, but found my body had trouble at that level. The idea of running at least a mile a day for 30-40 days seemed impossible. I tried it and managed about 10-12 days before I got a cold and felt I couldn’t run. I tried once more with similar results.
Last summer, my work schedule changed and life has been a bit more flexible. I decided it was time to try again. My goal was to beat my previous record and run at least 15 days in a row. That was on Oct 8. Since then, I’ve run in three states and two countries in temperatures ranging from 5 to 98 F (-15 to 37 C).
When I hit 12 days, I decided to go for 30. As 30 approached, I realized 100 was a great number and as of yesterday, I hit day 100! Now I’m wondering what it might feel like at day 365.
Boise Brew Minute (episode 64) – Eric Antink from Heinous Homebrewing (and cycles) talks to us about his latest experiment, aging a porter on different types of wood. Rather than use oak barrels, he is using mostly wood chips in a glass carboy. Will the apple flavor come through? What wood should he try next? Check his last interview as well.
Several years ago, I started getting back into running. I have been running (somewhat competitively) since I was about 12, but after leaving my college cross-country team, I didn’t really run much for fun. When I began to increase my miles, I was worried about knee and ankle injuries I’d had before.
I heard anecdotes about other runners changing their form and reducing injuries so thought it was worth a try. I shortened my stride, increased my cadence and started landing more on the ball of my foot. It felt funny and my calves screamed. My thinking was that I was transferring the impact force from my knees to my calves. My sister-in-law is a physical therapist so when I cornered her at Thanksgiving, I asked what she thought about it. “Well, that could be what’s happening, but there’s not much research on the topic currently.” I’m pretty sure that was her kind way of say “Wow, your family has so many crackpot ideas about health and biomechanics, I don’t know where to start, but keep doing it if it makes you happy”
Since making the switch, I haven’t had any real issues with injuries related to running. A few niggles here or there, some road rash from falling and a broken rib which slowed my running, but so far, no ankle or knee issues.
I was content just knowing that forefoot running was working for me. If new runners asked, I’d mention that I made the change and that it seemed to be helping with injuries. I’d also discussed it with my dad who is the other family member throwing biomechanical questions at my sister-in-law. Then last week, I stumbled on a study (PDF) about running foot-strike and injury rates.
In terms of the general category of repetitive stress injuries, the pooled sample of RFS (rear foot strike) runners was 2.6 times more likely to have mild injuries and 2.4 times more likely to have moderate injuries. When moderate and severe injuries are pooled, RFS runners had an overall injury rate that was nearly twofold higher than what FFS (fore foot strike) runners had (P = 0.04).
This study is a few years old now and I’m sure there will be more research on both sides of the argument in the next few years, but it’s exciting to see some research backing up what seems to be holding true for me. Plus it will give me something fun to discuss at the next family gathering. š
Boise Brew Minute (episode 63) – Bethany at Pacific Brewing and Malting in Tacoma, WA walks us through the malting process to help us understand the importance of enzymes in brewing, especially when brewing with grains other than barley. Also briefly discuss the different aspects of the kilning and roasting process.
Boise Brew Minute (episode 62) – Beth at Bear Island Brewing talks about hops. We discuss the history of hops, the importance of hops in beer for balancing the malt flavors and why they were first used in beer several centuries ago. Finally we talked about Triple Tater, a new beer Bear Island is releasing on New Year’s for the Idaho Potato Drop.
Boise Brew Minute (episode 61) – Becca at Wingman Brewers in Tacoma talks about kettle souring and how it differs from barrel souring. We also discuss how they use kettle souring to give flavor to their recent Cranberry Sour Ale.
Before traveling to any city it’s a good idea to look it up on the web to see what cultural icons, places of beauty or other must-see sights are on offer. So like a good traveler I looked up Jeddah before arriving. Many cities around the world have TripAdvisor lists of the top things to do while visiting and Jeddah was no exception. Unfortunately, when I checked the list, three of the top 10 are malls. Not sure how you feel about malls but, for me, they definitely fall under the category of things I wish the US had never exported to the rest of the world. So clearly I had no interest in visiting those.
The next site that jumped out at me was a huge bike sculpture. Some of the reviews were underwhelming, such as “Just a big bike in the middle of busy road.” and “This is nothing special a bicycle in the middle. You will see when you go past driving. No need to stop.” That was a little disheartening, but it was close enough to my hotel to try to find it on one of my runs. Unfortunately, I got a little turned around and missed it. After reading more of the reviews, I decided it probably wasn’t worth going back for.
Another one of the sites is the World’s Tallest Unsupported Flagpole. So… it’s basically a stick in the ground? I had to read the reviews to find out how a flagpole becomes one of the must-see sites in a city of several million people. The first review that jumped out at me was “It’s a really big flag! That’s it!” I guess they really like things to be big in Jeddah. Many of the others explained that the flagpole is part of the gateway to Mecca and Medina which has religious significance. I can understand that, but the flagpole ranks several places higher than the gateway itself which seems odd. By far the best comment however was “You can see it while you riding your cat.” I’m disappointed to say I never saw anyone in Jeddah riding their cat.
The first of the top ten sites that I did get a chance to see was King’s Fountain, the world’s tallest jet fountain. I admit the same argument could be made about a tall stream of water as a tall flagpole or large bike, but somehow in my mind, this is cooler. I didn’t get a chance to hangout and watch it. Like many of the landmarks in Jeddah, you get a nice view of it from the car (or cat) driving by. With more time, I would like to have watched it for a while.
There were large tanks and small with everything from banded coral shrimp to sharks. Although the students visiting were most excited about the large sharks and rays, I was most excited about the sea horses and sea dragons they had. These small, seemingly delicate creates are so ornate that they don’t swim very fast. On a reef, they seem likely to be prey to anything that wants an easy meal, yet they continue to 
survive. I’ve only seem them in the wild once and when we spotted one, I spent most of my air floating near it, just watching.
The other creature at the aquarium that I could sit and watch for hours was the jellyfish. There’s something mesmerizing about their simple movements and hunting technique. I’ve noticed more aquariums starting to have jellyfish displays and each one catches my attention.
Overall, I felt like I missed some part of authentic Jeddah. I never found a bustling market or people excited about the local food culture. Other than coffee/hookah bars and ice cream shops, I didn’t see people hanging out, enjoying each others company in the evenings. This seems like such a universal habit that I assume it was happening somewhere, but clearly not where I was. Perhaps next time I visit I’ll have a little more time and be able to find just such a place… If I don’t spend the whole time watching the jellyfish or riding my cat.
A Runner's Ramblings 