chowdesign

Seems to be a pretty popular thing around here.

We went out last month to try to fill our tag. Didn't get one, but it was a great experience anyways.

Weather came in overnight.

Didn't let up all day. Made for some pretty awesome scenery. Wife also got her first try at winter camping.

The trees were still bare the last time we went out, but this time the aspens were in their full summer coat.

We moved our camp up into the hills and were rewarded with a nice view out over the valley.

There is also a reservoir nearby for fishing.

Our pale ale just finished so we cracked one open for Memorial Day.

It turned out quite well, if a little stronger than expected. The changes to the hops additions seem to have worked. There is good balance, without any of the of intense bitterness. Strangely enough the aroma starts of slightly hoppy and takes on strawberry notes as the beer warms. The orange peel and coriander aromas that were so strong in the wort have mostly faded.

Haven't found a place around here that makes these, so I figured I would just make some myself.

Ah, the taste of home. Turned out pretty close to what it should be. It is a simple enough recipe:

- Rice flour (sweet)

- Water

- Sugar

- Sesame seeds

Went camping over the weekend. A little early for the Aspens, but in a month this area will be perfection.

Bottled up our Short Batch Pale Ale a few days ago.

Been a while since I have had something to post. We just finished up a batch of Feta and are getting ready to bottle our Short Batch American Pale Ale, so I figured I would share.

This is our Feta. It is a 50/50 goat/cow milk blend cheese. We store it in brine to preserve it and help equalize the salt content.

It is a very creamy cheese (probably due to the high fat content of whole goat's milk), but still crumbles well enough for salad topping. I really like the way the goat character comes through without being overpowering. I am glad we cut it with cow's milk. It has mellowed out some now that it has been in the brine a week (it is dry salted during drying so it was very salty on the outside). This is an easy cheese to make, and I highly recommend it for anyone interested in getting into cheesemaking.

Here is our beer in the carboy. It is a fairly traditional Pale Ale (2-row, Vienna, Crystal 20l, Safale-05) to which we have added orange zest and coriander. Hops are Centennial pellets. Recipe target was 38 IBU, but we wanted to cut the bitterness a little in favor of aroma, so we shifted a bit of the 60 and 30 minute additions to dry hop in the carboy. 

The reason we named it Short Batch was because it was supposed to be a 1 gallon BIAB, but I made a mistake in calculating the water lost to the the grain. We still managed to hit the 1.051 target OG, but ended up a bit short on volume.

I recently designed this ring as an anniversary present for my wife.