BBB

Homebrew Recipe | Smoked Stout

More smoke! Love this Briess cherrywood malt, and decided to toss it into a stout. Went bold on the smoke, and received a lot of hate (some love for the flavor). I love bold brews so this was right up my alley. Blind tasting showed it as the winner in a few cases, but the dead last loser in others. Plan to make it again this winter! Recipe is below or can be found here.

ABV: 6.1%

Fermentables

12.0 oz Dark Munich Malt (15.5 SRM) 10.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) 8.0 oz Black Malt (500.0 SRM) 8.0 oz Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) 5.0 oz Roasted Barley (300.0 SRM) 9 lbs 8.0 oz Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) 1 lbs Cherrywood Smoked Malt (4.0 SRM) Grain 7

Hops

0.3 oz Magnum [14.0%] - Boil 90 min 8.00 oz Malto-Dextrine (Boil 60 min) 0.2 oz Warrior [15.0%] - Boil 45 min 0.2 oz Perle [8.0%] - Boil 5 min

Misc

1.00 Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 10 min) Misc 11

Yeast

Homebrew Recipe | Smoked Red Ale

This was my first… all-grain, that is. Wanted to start off with a little experiment and ended up tasting great. Obviously had the distinct home brew flavor many of us know early on in the hobby, but was happy with efficiencies and very drinkable. Recipe is below (or here) in case you fancy something to drink while sitting near the fireplace.

ABV: 6.0% 

Fermentables

8.0 oz Boortmalt Dark Crystal Malt (57.0 SRM)   4.0 oz Smoked Malt (5.0 SRM)   1 lbs 8.0 oz Ashburne Mild Malt (5.0 SRM)   1 lbs Wheat, Torrified (1.7 SRM)  4.0 oz Carastan Malt (35.0 SRM)  4.0 oz Pale Chocolate Malt (197.0 SRM)  8 lbs Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM)

Hops

0.8 oz Magnum [14.0%] - Boil 60 min 1.0 oz Styrian Goldings [5.4%] - Boil 10 min

Misc

0.25 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10 min)

Yeast

MAKERS Part 2: Beam & Anchor | Made in Portland, OR

Boundary Waters Canoe Area | Moose River to Agnes Lake Loop | 26.32 Miles

Ahh, father and son. Just a couple of guys schmuckin' it up in northern Minnesota. Took a different approach than we normally do, camping in one place. How weird, we get to work less? Sounds good. Getting to our spot was a bit difficult though - rain came and we were racing a few groups on the lake for the last spot. Pirates by canoe you could call it - we won. Filled up with great fishing and beer  (yes we packed growlers in and drug them behind the canoe to keep cool).

Highlight of the trip: Our last night we felt like packing up the tent for an early start the next morning. Weather was perfect, not a cloud in the sky - great thinkin'. Strung the hammocks for some zzzz's under the stars and at about 4:30AM I start to feel some water hitting me. Sure enough, rain was coming fast and we had NO SHELTER. Figured out a way to jimmy two hammocks on top of each other and strung our own tarp. Kept dry and slept great.

I would  recommend hitting the Boundary Waters before the first week of June or after August - the bugs and crowds are awful in between.

Boundary Waters | Lady Chain Loop | Memorial Day Weekend 2013 | 25 Miles

37 degree waters, sure let's swim. This would be the highlight of our trip, FOR SURE. Ranger told us after we left that the lakes were covered in ice just a week before - smart thinkin'.

This trip was great though. Pulled together some good buds for a little Memorial Day Weekend trek. Dogs, beer, and the heaviest amount of food I've ever packed with. We ate better than I do at home. In four days we experienced many different kinds of lakes, terrain, and fish. Distance on this loop was about 25 miles.

Superior Hiking Trail | Winter Camping | Highway 1, Silver Bay to Silver Bay, MN | 11 Miles 

The hardest/shortest trip I've had the displeasure of experiencing. We found ourselves in the above average weather conditions at the backend of winter which made the snow, well, not snow. Couldn't hike and couldn't snow shoe. We hoped to make this a 25 mile trek, but only accomplished 10 miles in two rough days. Ended with icy Summit Pale Ales and greasy pizza.

Tettogouche State Park to Cove Point Lodge | 22 Miles

As another portion of our SHT trek has completed, we're starting to making some progress on this 289 mile beast (not really). Either way this was a great trip; we found ourselves hammock camping in lower 20 degree temps, and made some good ground in two full days.

Leaving Minneapolis late on Friday night put us in Silver Bay, MN around 10PM. Picked up on Saturday morning at Tettogouche Trailhead where we managed about 7 miles on our first day. We voted to stay at Bear Lake which was an absolutely perfect campsite (minus the temps). Enjoyed a long day of rain, struggling fires, and good food. The night was especially different as none of us had anything more to sleep under than a rain fly. I ended up stringing my fly up as a lean-to shelter and managed to stay pretty warm.

Sunday was our fun day logging roughly 12 miles past Beaver Bay nearly to Split Rock River. Our group had no trouble sleeping on our last night, and we managed with little sunlight to get almost 10 hours of bunk time.

Refreshed on Monday, we backtracked to Cove Point Lodge where we enjoyed some ice cold New Belgium Rangers and fresh coffee followed by big burgers at Fitgers in Duluth.

Best Made | American Felling Axe

Get your flannel and beards out, and chuck some wood. Don't forget to pick up the Best Made Felling Axe for the cleanest cut woodsmen can create.

From their Team, "Our company was founded in 2009 by Peter Buchanan-Smith who saw a need for a better axe: an evocative tool that played an indispensable role in his life working on cattle farms and paddling and portaging the lakes of Northern Canada. Peter knew that a well made axe — the oldest and most invaluable tool known to mankind — could not only function as a lifeline in the wilderness, but at home it could be a magnificent window into that wilderness and inspire people to reconnect with their hands, craft, and nature."