Boise Brew Minute (Episode 4) – Ian from Payette Brewery discusses So Fresh & So Clean their latest fresh hop beer and explains what fresh hop means in a beer. We also discuss upcoming beers including Wet & Wilder and Bonanza and his disappointment that BSU has not asked him to brew a school beer for them.
Well it’s time to brew again. This time for me rather than for the Discovery Center. My wife (not so subtly) suggested I brew a vanilla bourbon porter. It’s a recipe I’ve brewed several times before. As soon as it starts to cool off, this recipe comes out again. The bourbon flavor comes from pouring several ounces of bourbon in when you keg. It has a subtle vanilla flavor from one vanilla bean in the secondary. It’s a great beer for winter and should be ready just in time for the cooler weather.
The other nice thing about this beer is that it is allowing me to test out the new retaining wall I built yesterday. The reason for the wall was to prevent the back fence from blowing over, but it also helps keep the hillside from sliding onto our patio and is the perfect height for resting spoons, bowls of hops and a the beer I’m drinking while I’m brewing. Can’t wait to try this beer.
Boise Brew Minute (Episode 3) – I speak with Kevin and Paul at Sockeye Brewery about their Galena Gold Kölsch and the upcoming release of Winterfest Old Ale. We also discuss how they each got into brewing. This episode also includes new music at the start and end of the episode.
Have you tried the Galena Gold? What do you think? How does it stack up against other Kölsches?
This weekend I volunteered for the Foothills Frenzy, a 50k running race in Boise. It was the first time I volunteered at an ultra. Since the event was going to last 12 hours, I thought I’d get an afternoon shift (definitely not a morning person). It turns out, there really isn’t an afternoon shift, or a noon shift, or a morning shift, there’s just an all day shift… that starts at 4:40am.
I packed my bag the night before and as I biked to Fort Boise, I asked myself several times, why did I think this was a good idea? From there, we car pooled up to the trail head on Rocky Canyon road and started hiking into the aid station we were working. It was still dark out, but the city lights made for some great views. The woman who organized the aid station brought her children along and I hiked with her 12 year old son. On the way up, we stopped to notice the shimmering and twinkling of the city lights and briefly talked about Schlieren lines. Always fun to geek out with kids and see their excitement about science.
We got to the intersection to set up the aid station at the same time as the ATVs that were delivering the tent, table and water. We unloaded and set up in the dark with plenty of time before the first runners. When they did arrive, it was an eerie site to watch the soft glow of headlamps bouncing along the hillside. We were at mile 6.5 and the last of the runners were coming through as light was starting to pour over the horizon.
If we were only running the 6.5 mile aid station, we could have packed up and I probably would have gotten home in time to be in bed before I normally would have gotten up, but the course looped back to us at mile 24. Then came the waiting.
It took a long time between the first light seeping over the horizon and the Sun actually rising. As it did, the first runners came back through our station. The hills were glowing orange and these runners were more concerned with their pace than getting water or snacks, so it gave me a chance snag a few photos before the surge of runners arrived.
Soon, more runners started to arrive and we helped them fill their water bottles, get snacks, gave them a few encouraging words and sent them on their way. Most were doing well (or as well as can be expected 24 miles into a 31 mile race), a few were hurting and one almost dropped out. He came limping into the station. We gave him a sandwich and he slowly limped back out, but within five minutes, he had turned around and was coming back in. I’m fairly certain that if he could have gotten a ride home from there, he would have dropped out of the race. It was evident in his face and his movements that he was no longer enjoying any part of this endeavor. Unfortunately, we were still two miles from the closest road. He sat for a while, stretched and used a foam roller. After 10 minutes, he was back on his feet. Again he limped out of the station, but this time, it was clear that he was making it to the finish.
Slowly, the number of runners coming through dwindled and the time between runners lengthened. We had more waiting to do. The two kids started playing tic-tac-toe in the dirt with anyone who would play them and the younger one showed off her gymnastics moves. I asked her if she could do a handstand and she spent several minutes trying to show me one. The rest of us talked about work, hobbies and anything else we could think of, but the recurring topic was, of course, other races people had done. It was pretty inspiring. Most of the people I run with think it’s crazy to run any distance longer than 26.2 miles, so my handful of 30-35 mile runs is way too long. With this group, I might have been the only one to never have run a 100 mile race. I must add it to my list.
Eventually, the sweepers came through to let us know the course was clear and we could pack up. We gathered all we could carry, leaving the tent and table for the ATVs. The organizer and her kids waited for the ATV drivers to return. As we headed up the hill, I looked back to see one more attempt at a handstand.
It was a fun way to spend a day. The runners were so grateful that we were there and, after a plenty of sleep, I decided it was worth getting up early for. Next year we’ll have to find additional ways to make the aid station eccentric, silly or whatever it takes to help distract the runners from a small amount of pain their feeling. That said, I think we did an ok job this year.
Have you ever volunteered for an ultra or any other event? What was your experience like? Any ideas for what we could do next year to make the aid station even better?
Every other month, the Discovery Center has an Adult Night where we invite in breweries, wineries, food trucks and anyone over 21. Each Adult Night has a different theme from Cycling to Whitewater to Sex with experts coming in to discuss the topic. In September, the topic was Beer. Visitors to a previous Adult Night were asked what flavor they though the Discovery Center would be and the answers were all over the map: explosions, bubble solution, “sticky kid hands”. The most popular answer was PB&J Sandwich so I attempted to brew that flavor into a beer. I had very low expectations. It didn’t even sound good to me and I was making it.
For some inspiration, I picked up a copy of Brooklyn BrewShop’s Beer Making Book at the library to see if they had any similar recipes. They had a peanut butter porter so I used that as a starting point, then added some blackberry syrup they had at the homebrew shop for the jelly. Finally, I changed the grain bill to make it a bit darker (I wanted a stout) and added some biscuit malt for the bread flavor.
At Adult Night, I was set up near the front, offering samples. The beer turned out much better than I feared. I still wouldn’t want to drink a whole pint of it often, but the point was to create an interesting (and drinkable) beer and it was that. It was well received by the commercial brewers that night and by the homebrew club the next week. Even so, I don’t know if I’ll brew it again. If you would like to, the recipe is below.
This is one of the strangest beers I’ve made. The other one had chipotle peppers in it, but I’ve seen those in several commercial beers recently. So, what’s the strangest beer you’ve brewed or drank?
| Style: | American Stout | Batch size: | 5.0 gal |
| Original Gravity: | 1.057 | Final Gravity: | 1.013 |
| Bitterness (IBU): | 35 | Color (SRM): | 31.1 |
| Alcohol By Volume: | 5.8% |
Boise Brew Minute interview with Kris and Adam at Crooked Fence. We discuss Rusty Nail Pale Ale, their first commercial brew, as well as their upcoming huckleberry beer and the adventure of buying 12 pounds of huckleberries out of the trunk of some guy’s car.
I was recently invited to a “Learn to Curl” session at the local ice rink. I had never really thought about attempting to curl, but then again, how often does an invitation like that come up? I decided to give it a go and invited others from my running group, Boise Area Runners. There is definitely a lot more to it than I gave it credit for. It feels like so many other finesse sports (golf, darts, even slacklining to some degree) where you occasionally do just well enough to convince yourself that with a little more practice, you could be great. Then another ten terrible attempts before another good one. With more time in my life, I could see myself getting into it. For now, I’m not sure if I need another hobby, but I’ll probably go back out again.
Here’s a video another runner made of the event. Don’t we look amazing?
The following article is one I wrote for Edible Idaho South, all about a wood-fired pizza oven I built in the backyard. It was published for the Winter 2013 issue.
During the hot summer months, few things are better than homemade pizza on the patio and few things are worse than turning the oven on full blast while trying to keep the house cool. This was my realization two summers ago while starting to sweat standing beside our 1950’s cast iron oven as it radiated heat into a relatively cool house on the hottest day of the year. There had to be a better way to make pizzas without melting.
Before moving to Boise, I lived in Ironbridge, England for a couple of years. There, my partner worked for a small woods organization that offered classes on how to make everything from “green wood” furniture to foot-powered lathes. Once a year, they taught people how to build wood-fired earth ovens. At the time, we didn’t have enough outdoor space for one, so, although fascinating, we never signed up. Waiting for the pizzas to finish cooking and warming the house, I decided building an earth oven was an important project before next summer.
I am a maker and have been all my life, preferring to create things rather than buy them. I enjoy making bread and beer, but also trebuchets and robots. There’s something intrinsically fun about the act of creation. The euphoria of envisioning a new project; the excitement of seeing it take shape and (unfortunately less often), joy of finishing. This project appealed to me because it would give me something challenging to build and once finished, would allow me to make delicious food.
We started building the oven in the Spring, as soon as it was warm enough to comfortably work outside with wet sand and clay. We started by forming a sand mold for the inside of our oven as our fingers went numb. Once that set, we mixed “oven mud”. It turns out that mixing 30 lbs of clay, 120 lbs of sand and water is quite the task. We didn’t have a cement mixer which would have made the process much easier, so instead, we put down a tarp, poured on the materials, took off our shoes and jumped in. Jamie, our dog, even decided to help by digging. The cool gray mud oozed between our toes and feet grew heavy. After about 20 tiring minutes of dancing, digging, folding and jumping, we were exhausted and the oven mud was ready. We scooped the thick mud onto the sand mold to create the main walls for the oven.
The following weekend, the clay was dry so we dug into the cold sand to remove the mold. Our oven was now a small dirt igloo. We should have added an layer of insulation but we were too anxious and excited about our first firing to wait. We read that when cooking with an earth oven, the objective is to use residual heat stored in the walls and floor to cook food rather than direct fire. This should provide a more even heat. With that in mind, we built a fire and let the oven warm. At the same time we grabbed tomatoes and basil from the garden; rolled out the dough; and piled on the toppings. After an hour of heating, I touched the outside of the oven and my hand jumped away from the scalding clay surface. We scraped out the glowing coals and put in the pizzas.
The first pizza cooked for seven minutes and came out golden brown. Amazing!
After second one cooked for 20 minutes, the crust remained soft, white dough. The savory aroma of the first pizza made me so hungry, I was no longer concerned with the right way of cooking in an earth oven. I removed the pizza, built a small fire in the back and threw the pizza back in. It did not cook evenly, but it cooked and was almost as tasty as the first one.
As with most Makers, or hobbyists in general, once a project gets to the good enough stage, interest wanders to the next project. As a result, the oven sat there for months in its state of semi-completeness.
We would have friends over, build a fire, make pizzas and just leave a small fire in the back while cooking. This worked but meant the pizzas were always at risk of crossing over from delicious dinner to charred catastrophe. Finally we decided to add the insulation layer. Again, we pulled out the tarp, clay and sand, but this time we also mixed in wood chips and straw. After more dancing, digging and folding, the insulation was ready. We added the new layer and built a roof above the oven. After all this work, we didn’t want rain dissolving the clay and washing the whole project away.
One hour into our next firing, I quickly and gingerly touched the top of the oven. This time, it felt as cool and sandy as when we started. I reached inside the oven and the intense heat singed the hair off my hand. We removed the coals, let the residual heat cooked all four pizzas and it was still hot enough to bake a loaf of bread. We then looked around for other things to bake. A cobbler went in next and the oven was still warm. I also roast coffee at home and decided to see how green coffee beans would do. They roasted nicely and got a slightly smoky flavor. Finally, we threw salt into a pie pan and added wood chips for more smoke. Unfortunately, the salt only acquired the slightest hint of smoke but we’ll try it again next time with more wood chips to see increase the flavor.
Although it took longer than expected, it was a successful project. We are now able to make pizzas on the back porch during the summer and not heat the house. It’s been fun to have friends over to make pizzas and now with summer behind us, we’re starting to look for other foods to bake in the oven. Perhaps some winter vegetables from the garden or a shepherd’s pie… so many possibilities, but for now, they will have to wait. I’m too busy thinking about my next big project.
Tonight was the first episode of the Boise Brew Minute, my radio show about the beer scene in Boise. I was pretty excited about it and I think it went well. For this one, I interviewed Jake from Cloud 9. You can listen to it below. I plan to post future episodes here when they air.
Anyone who has been interested in ultra running for more than a month or so has heard the name Scott Jurek. As a vegan and a runner, I found his story fascinating despite only knowing a little about him. When I saw “Eat & Run” by Scot Jurek at the library, I decided it was worth checking out.
The book started with his experience at the Badwater ultra which has to be one of the legendary stories within the running world. Being flat out on the pavement, over heated to the point of being unable to stand and only about half way done with the race. Then standing up and running the next 70 miles faster than the first 70… Insane! The book tended to focus on the pain and difficulty he was facing (which seems like the obvious thing to focus on), but it does that throughout. When he was in good shape and won a race without excessive pain, the race was hardly mentioned. It was only when he go through it by sheer force of will that the race warranted comment.
The main take away was that above 50 miles, racing isn’t about being fast, it’s about having the will to keep going. It was a fascinating look behind the headlines at a runner I knew about, but hadn’t heard much of his perspective. The only real draw back was that he had a co-author and, for one reason or another, the flow seemed a little choppy. On the other hand, some of the recipes he gives at the end of each chapter look delicious and will soon make it into my list of running meals. At the end of the book, Scott Jurek no longer felt like an unbelievable legend. He seemed much more human and although I’d still be very interested in talking with him about running, I’m now more interested in talking to him about food.
A Runner's Ramblings 