Brew #11 : IPA #1

Brewed a new batch of beer today even though it was freaking hot outside!

IPA #1
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Brewer: Josh Gum
Style: American IPA
Batch: 5.50 gal, Mashed

Characteristics
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Recipe Gravity: 1.060 OG
Recipe Bitterness: 62 IBU
Recipe Color: 11° SRM
Estimated FG: 1.015
Alcohol by Volume: 6.0%
Alcohol by Weight: 4.7%

Ingredients
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British two-row 10.50 lb, mashed
German wheat 1.00 lb, mashed
British chocolate malt 0.10 lb, mashed

Cascade 1.00 oz, whole, 60 minutes
Amarillo 0.75 oz, whole, 45 minutes
Amarillo 0.50 oz, whole, 30 minutes
Amarillo 0.25 oz, whole, 15 minutes
Amarillo 0.25 oz, whole, 5 minutes

White Labs California Ale Yeast1.00 unit,
Gypsum 1.00 unit, 1tsp in strike water and sparge water
Irish Moss 1.00 unit, clarifying

Notes
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Recipe Notes:

Batch Notes:
6/24 : OG = 1.057
mash effeciency = 95%!
Strike water was 5 gallons of 164F
Sparge water was 4 gallons of 168F
Mashed at 152F for 60 minutes
Collected 7 gallons of wort, boiled down right to the 5.5 gallon mark!

7/8 : FG is 1.010, dry hopped with 1/2oz Amarillo and kegged. Force carbonating at 28psi for several days and then letting sit to age until I can’t bear it any longer.. then the consuming will begin.

We’re back..

We made it back at around 2:30 this morning.. we had a delay in San Francisco for an additional 2 hours which made for a long day of flying. We got back and visited with Malina and Shoobie for a few minutes before hitting the sack. We woke up at about 8:30 and have since mowed the lawn and pulled the weeds.. To give you an idea of how tall our weeds in backyard had gotten (some topping 5ft), basically, we filled our empty yard debris container chalk full of lawn clippings and weeds. It’s nice to see all of the other plants all in bloom now! Ah, the bamboo in back has sent up a new generation of cane, this generation is probably 15ft tall.. and the culm is probably 2/3″ diameter. Anyhow.. our bags are unpacked and laundry is in process.. Oh, here’s a pic of “Prodo” the next door neighbors ferret which I hope does not visit again. :)

Kauai Day 6

Another great day in Kauai.. we did quite a bit less traveling today in favor of checking out Wailua Falls, a little shopping in Lihue, and finished the day off with a hike up a mountain called “Sleeping Giant”.About 10 minutes south of us in Kapaa is the Wailua Falls viewpoint. We drove down this morning just in time to catch some pictures before about 18 people showed up as we were leaving.. seems like we’ve been pretty lucky for the most part like this, leaving right as everyone shows up. :)

Wailua Falls is just a couple minutes outside of Lihue and we needed to stop by the ancient hawaiian Walmart for a duffel bag to carry all of our goodies on the plane trip back. We did the deed as quickly as possible, and then drove around to check out Hilo Hatties and to pick up a few “Red Dirt” shirts. As the story goes, after a serious storm (or hurricane?) this stores roof had been ripped off and their shirts were stained red from the red dirt that Kauai is well known for. To the owners surprise, the shirts sold well..and thus the “Red Dirt” shirts were born. Now the shirts are made, agitated in a bath of red dirt, washed, and sold… The instructions say that the shirts must be washed alone for the first three washes to avoid bleeding into other clothes. After these shirts are washed several times the color changes slightly and they feel super soft… I had planned on getting myself one and glad we tracked it down.

Next up we headed to the trailhead of the “Sleeping Giant”, in the picture below I’m sure you can kind of see the giants head and chin. The trail is just over 2 miles and gains between 1000-1200ft of elevation depending on whether or not you go all the way to the top of the forehead..which I just had to do.

We hiked for probably an hour before we reached the picnic tables just at the base of the chin. Exhausted and damn near death, we took a break and some pics.. At first this is the furthest we had planned to hike because our guide book says to continue up the chin and forehead is super dangerous… it turns out it wasn’t all that bad, narrow trails surrounded by several hundred foot drops, but not like death defying.

Wendie and I at the lookout near the picnic tables at the base of the chin.

The short, but steep, trail up to the chin and then onto the forehead.

A picture from the very top of the forehead, facing the ocean, with the chin just about in the center bottom of the picture.

This was an exhausting and excellent hike.. a great way to cap off our vacation to Kauai as we’ll be flying out tomorrow around 1pm local time. We busted our asses to get up that mountain and it wasn’t without some serious dirt, scrapes, blisters, and of course sun! I’ll likely post an entry sometime Thursday with some final thoughts and final pics.. after we get home and get some sleep from a long day of sitting on airplanes.. Our return trip is to be from Lihue to San Francisco and then on to Eugene. Cheers from Kauai!

Kauai Day 5

Today was another awesome day in Kauai! We started our day off with coffee while we watched the clouds roll through and the rain pour until about 9am. It continues to rain off and on, but it typically doesn’t last long and it actually turned out to be a beautiful day this afternoon!Our first stop was at the Jamba Juice down the street for a smoothie on our way north to the Kiluaea lighthouse. We opted out of driving down to the lighthouse grounds to check out the lighthouse itself in favor of taking in the views from the viewpoint and continuing on with our day. Check out the viewpoint!

Our next destination was to the Hidden Beach and Hidden Lava Pools just north by another couple of miles. We hiked down a half-mile steep and muddy trail to the beach, but it was well worth the hike back up! As the lava cooled some many thousand or more years ago, it forms these beds of black rock with some sharp edges and little pools in which sea water and wildlife is collected. We saw plenty of these pitch black crabs scurry into their hiding spots as we walked by. The Hidden Lava Pools are mostly small, with a few that are big enough for two or three people to swim and snorkel in. The surf is pretty rough here, but that didn’t stop a few surfers and body boarders from doing their thing.

Just up the road another mile or two, along side Princeville Golf Resort is another, more popular, lava pool called Queens Bath. It too was another steep and sloppy hike, but only a quarter of a mile this time. We hopped along the lava beds for a hundred yards to find the pool. About a dozen people were swimming and snorkeling so we just took some pictures, wandered around a little bit, and hiked back up to the car to continue on our journey. This place really is beautiful and provides some excellent views of Hanalei Bay and the NaPali Coastline in the distance. If it wasn’t so crowded I definitely would have stayed and swam for a bit.. I’m cropping out a third of the Queens Bath because it was basically where all of the people were doing their thing and doesn’t really make for a nice picture.

Following Queens Bath, we decided to head up the road another couple of miles to Hanalei. The picture below is a view of the mountains towards the center of the island just outside of Hanalei. It must be rough living here, having to take in these beautiful views everyday! :)

We shopped for a bit and had lunch here. Wendie lucked out finding the zip-up hooded sweatshirt she was looking for, and it was in her favorite color no less! Score! This town is tiny, about the size of Holley, Oregon, (3 or 4 city blocks!) and is a real charming place. The people here are super nice and you can really tell they love to be here. Hanalei is about 4 miles from the furthest north you can go on Kauai and hugs right up next to the NaPali Coast.

On our way back to our room, we had planned on stopping by Anini Beach to do some snorkeling. We read that there was some great snorkeling at this beach and just had to check it out. We’re both really glad that we did, and as luck would have it we ran into and swam with three sea turtles, all together! Wendie had swam with sea turtles in Oahu several years ago and was really looking forward to maybe doing the same here! In the picture below you’ll see that the surf breaks several hundred yards out, leaving a huge expanse of shallow (6 or 7 feet at the deepest parts) reef area prime for watching wildlife! This snorkel trip easily beat our snorkeling trips in Cancun and Cozumel during our honeymoon in 2002. Here we saw tons of natural reef, and probably a couple hundred or more brightly colored fish in their natural habitat. I really couldn’t have asked for more, but I had no idea of the surprise I was in for. We snorkeled for about an hour and got a couple hundred yards from the beach by the time I turned to Wendie and asked that we head back in because I was getting tired. She agreed and we turned and headed back. To our surprise, about a hundred yards from the beach we both spotted a sea turtle, about 2 feet in diameter, just sitting on the ocean floor. Shocked and surprised, we both hit each other and pointed at the turtle at the same time! Our plans of heading back in were put on hold, as I’m sure you could guess. We swam there and watched this turtle, doing pretty much nothing, for a good 10 minutes. By this time he decided to come up to the surface for air (very cool to watch by the way!) and then decided to slowly swim away from us. Of course we’re both overly stoked at this point so we follow him. Swimming within about 5 feet of this turtle, we follow him for about 50 yards and encountered another huge surprise! He led us right to another turtle his size, and a third turtle which was about 3 feet in diameter! My goodness, this really was a treat! I have never seen a sea turtle in the wild, only at the coast aquarium or on television or in pictures. To be within about 5 feet of these turtles, watching them munch on seaweed, swim up to the surface for air, and just be turtles was spectacular. They didn’t seem to mind or even notice that we were there gawking at them! The design of the shell and their body, particularly their face, was a real trip! Their eyes were perfectly round and black and I was just amazed.. I was within a bodies length of the biggest turtle as it went up for air. I followed it up and watched as its little head poked out of the water a few times and got some air.. that was really neat! I would have never guessed that we would run into three turtles in the wild and have the chance for just the two of use to swim right next to them and watch them do their thing.. WOW, what a treat! I wish I had one of those under water cameras to capture the moment… not a big deal though, I certainly won’t be forgetting this anytime soon. The picture below is Anini Beach, and about a hundred yards out from the man in the white shirt is where Wendie and I swam with the turtles.. highly cool.. I’m sure you can tell I’m all jacked up about it! :)