This is the last of my vacation posts.
We actually visited one more brew pub in Seattle. However, it was so bad that I will not even mention the name of the place. Two of the beers we had had so much diacetyl that they tasted like sticks of butter. Butter just does not belong in a stout. The service and food were not much better. You know it is bad when you leave beer on the table.
Anyway, here is a picture of my friend Brian and I tasting beer at the unnamed place:
My good friend Brian, who lives in Seattle, took us the Pike Place Market, a famous shopping area in Seattle. Every time we passed a place that sold fish, we would ask, "Is this the place where they throw the fish?"
"No," he would respond.
Finally, he took us to a place right below a sign that read, "Public Market."
"This is the place where they throw the fish."
Here are some pictures:
Julie, standing next to some fish.
Julie, standing next to more fish.
Both of us -- even more fish.
Fish, fish, everywhere. Dammit, we had to buy some. In Seattle, at Pike Place Market, we visited The Pike Brewing Company. It was quite crowded, so it took a while to find a seat.
After finding a seat at the bar, we tasted six beers. What stood out about their beers is that most of them were big beers at 6%, 7%, and more ABV. In fact, they only had one beer below 5% ABV.
The stand out favorite was the Double, which they called the Tandem. After we finished the sampler, we ordered another round of just the Double.
As we were finishing our beer, a tour group wandered by, and I snuck into the tour, and became known as the "random guy." By the end of the tour, however, I'm sure that I was known as the know-it-all, as I was asking beer-geek questions like, "What kind of sanitizer do you use?"
Here are some pictures:
This is the first of two posts about breweries we visited on our trip. In Vancouver, we stopped at Granville Island Brewery, near the Granville Island marketplace. There I sampled six beers. All were quite good. However, two really stood out: the hefeweizen and the stout. The hefeweizen had that perfect balance of wheat, clove and banana. The stout was a sweet stout. I could taste the chocolate notes balanced with the roasted barley.
We did not have time to take the tour. However, our server was happy to answer our questions, and the ones she did not know, she was able to ask the brewer, who was behind the glass working the brewery. Speaking of which, it was brew day at the brewery. I could see the steam coming out of the boil kettle, as they opened it up.
We had a good time.
Here is a picture of me tasting the beer:
On our second day in Vancouver, Julie and I rented bicycles. The bike shop, called Spokes, was close a multi-use path that went all the way around Stanley Park -- about 12 km or 7.5 miles.
Our ride took around the sea wall. The east side of Stanley Park was more crowded, with many places to stop along the way, and the bike lanes were nice and wide, with plenty of room to pass. The west and southwest sides had narrow bike paths, with no room to pass, with large boulders bulging out into the bike lane at times. There was also a cold wind coming off the water.
Here are a few pictures from our bike ride:
Julie, on her bike, on the east side of Stanley Park, near a marina.
Me, standing next to my bike, on the east side of Stanley Park.
One of our stops on the way was at some totem poles, where we got someone to snap our picture.
This was taken on the west side of Stanley Park, at one of the few pull out stops along the way. We stopped to let some riders pass.As I mentioned before, we took a Holland America cruise from San Diego to Vancouver, with a stop along the way in Victoria. Unfortunately, seas were quite rough for a couple of days, so the ship had to slow down. As a result, we got into Victoria late, and were not able to exit the ship. We will have to visit Victoria another time. Other than that, the trip went well. Here are a few pictures:
This was during the safety drill where we had to put on our life vests and go out on deck.
We took a tour of the kitchen, were they prepared all out meals. The kitchen was huge, and all stainless-steel. Here a chef is carving watermelons. 
Here is Julie's dad at the blackjack table in the casino.
Julie and I at dinner the first night.
Julie, holding the elephant they made out of towels and left in our room.
Julie and I in the bar at the crow's nest.
At dinner, on formal night.
Here are all of us, Julie's dad and mom, and Julie and I, catching a show. 
They called for volunteers to go on stage, and Julie volunteered.
The entertainer at the show, who called himself Edge, who was kind of a comedic juggler, found us in the bar after the show and bought us all drinks.
Julie, dancing with her father.Note: This post has been scheduled to post while we are vacation. We will be back May 10th.
One of the hardest things to master is consistency. As a result, one of the best things you can do to help this along is brew the same exact recipe over and over again. In doing this, try to match the flavors of the last batch. This can be difficult because of all the variables: mash temp, hop variation, grain variation, fermentation temperature, and so on. By brewing the same beer over and over again, you will learn a lot about your brewing process and how it affects your beers.
After that, try changing just one thing: an ingredient, mash temp, and so on. Learning how these changes can affect a brew can be invaluable.
Julie and I will be on vacation next week. We are taking a Holland America cruise from San Diego to Victoria and Vancouver, visiting our Canadian friends to the North, aye. As a result, there will be no updates until we get back. When we get back, I should have a post or two about our trip. See you all the week after next. Until then, bon voyage.
We bought a new computer. In doing so, I had to move a bunch of files from the old computer to the new computer. Of course, it was a trip down memory lane, going through all the old competition documentation, pictures, and so on.
In doing all this, I came across a file entitled "beercart." Upon opening it up, I found a diagram I did a couple of years back for a cart to bring to SCA events that holds two corny kegs of beer. I never built the thing, as it was too expensive. Buying the wooden wheels, beer faucets with shanks, oak barrel, picnic cooler with a plate chiller in it, just proved to be too much. Just chalk this one up to "maybe someday."
To be honest, I'm not sure the thing would even work, as it required me to cut a hole in the side of an oak barrel big enough to fit the tops of two corny kegs. To do this meant cutting the metal hoops that holds the barrel together, and I'm pretty sure it would not stay together after that. Those hoops keep the staves of the barrel in place.
Regardless, I thought that I'd post it here. The two top diagrams show a view of what it might look like, while the two bottom diagrams show sort of an x-ray view, including placement of the picnic cooler with chiller plate in it, two corny kegs, and C02 bottle and regulator. Click on the image to see a larger version of it. 
