Cudas Draft

After giving this some careful thought, "4-Hop Draft" while accurate in description, really doesn't reflect what the purpose of this particular beer is. Therefore I am renaming it "Cudas Draft". Partly because my Fantasy Football team the Cudas will be drafting in two weeks but mostly in honor of the original Cudas owner, my good friend, Ron. Here's to you Ron... Prost!

4-Hop Draft

Fantasy Football draft day coming up so what would be better then to have something to share.

Malt is the soul of beer... and yeast gives it life... but the kiss of the hop is the vitality of that life!

When you make home brew you are dealing with a living organism. It is alive - and because it is alive, it feels. Every person's brew has its own distinctive characteristics that carry through each batch. The entire process of beer making depends on one's thoughts and attitude and equally on the lives of millions of tiny organisms called yeasts.

The magic of making home brew can only come from the magic given it: magic as simple as the space you occupy.

Charlie Papazian

Imperial Citra IP

The new brew is the prettiest and clearest brew yet. It's defiantly an IPA, my personal favorite, but very, very smooth. It's getting cold now and I'll carbonate tomorrow. I can hardly wait for it to be totally done.

Baron Marcus Griff Gilchristskitt of Longviewford (my royal name which I’ll use when I introduce myself to the Queen at THE wedding)

Uh Oh

The IPA is gone. I feel a brew coming on.

Saturday Fun

Saturday Good Rat Marie (by marriage) and I took the VW in for it's 20K service and they gave us a loaner diesel Jetta for the day.

I promised GR Darren I would make a Nut Brown for his St. Patrick's party so we picked up the supplies at Bader Brewing in Vancouver.

I'd been to the Widmer Pub/Brewery just a week before for the first time and noticed that they offered free tours and I had called ahead to make reservations for the 12:30 slot. We got there at 11 and had a very nice lunch with an IPA for me... diet coke for Mrs. GR. After lunch we had a little time to kill so we walked around the neighborhood. We both agreed we wouldn't want to be walking there at night time. Then it was upstairs to the Widmer banquet room where we each received a Widmer bottle opener. There was a short video followed by a sampling of 4 or 5 of their brews. We walked across the street with about 18 other people to the brewery. No one was working so according to the tour guide it would be quiet and no one would have a problem hearing her. At the end we each received a Widmer glass. The tour was no more than 45 minutes and it might be something all the GR's would like to see.

January 2011 Good Rats Trip

The Good Rats finally got around to scheduling another trip and it wasn't a light one. A number of GR's said they wanted to go but only GR's Patricia, Darren, Todd, Kelly, Mike, Brad and I made it. Not to say that wasn't enough to have a good time because we had an awesome tour of Portland's east side. Also, this was a "short good bye" to Good Rat Patricia who is leaving us for a few months.

We met on Sunday January 30th at 1230 hours. I brought the old family van which is really just an extra vehicle that the kids use when they are home from college. No one really wants to drive it but it makes for a great GR's bus. It is now the official GR mobile.

Kelly insisted on driving so I took a back seat to his insistence. As the driver he had a lot of control over where we went and when we got there. Duh! But to all of our surprise our first stop was at none other than the Kelso Safeway. What possessed him I don't know but GR's Kelly and Darren left the rest of us to wait. To our surprise and somewhat disappointment GR Kelly brought us a six pack of Rolling Rock. Why? He said he wanted us to get a head start on the days imbibing. It was a hoot sneaking sips from the green bottles as we passed other cars. The only saving grace in all this is we were better able to appreciate the rest of the beer we consumed that day.

Before the trip I created a map of places, all in a logical order, that others said they wanted to visit. As it turned out, not only did we visit all the places on the list, there were a few surprises in store as well.

Not counting the Kelso Safeway our first stop was Hopworks Urban Brewery. There's no way I can remember what all I let alone anyone else had to drink that day. Hopworks IPA is my all time favorite right now but I resolved to branch out and try other things. I'm not sure, it may have been an ESB. Anyway, the brews were great and the food was good although the service was VERY slow. But after leaving Hopworks we went to New Old Lompoc Hedge House. This was an interesting place that was literally used as a house at one time. We sat on what was esentially a deck enclosed by heavy plastic and warmed with a propane heaters. Then it was to the Lucky Lab Brew Pub. Then it was just up the street to Cascade Brewing Barrel House. Now, Cascade Brewing was a little bit different from what most of us are used to when it comes to beer. They brew sour beer. GR Kelly and I didn't mind but others in the group were... well... a little dismayed. They were calling it "bitter beer" and other detrimental names but really, it's just another style that some don't care for. We then moved to Horse Brass Pub. The Horse Brass is a British style pub that you really have to experience. The place was packed and we had a good time. Sadly the next day or two after our visit, founder and owner Don Younger passed away. I only saw Don once but what an experience that was. I'll never forget it. Before heading out on our trip GR Mike told us we needed to stop at Columbia River Brewing. This was a great place with good food and we all agreed that it should be recommended (Thanks GR Mike for telling us about it). It was here that GR Kelly (I think) told us about Sam's Hollywood Billiards and we walked there for more beer, billiards and pin ball. Sam's is where GR Mike caught up to us after getting off work. Then off to Amnesia Brewing. Amnesia was supposed to be our last stop but GR Mike suggested we go a short distance to Saraveza. Now Saraveza is a true neighborhood bar. Not only did they have beer on tap but they had all kinds of beer by the bottle. Despite being a self proclaimed beer snob, I had a Hamm's. Yes the beer refreshing. I'm not sure that it was but my taste buds were so shot by this time that wasting a good beer on them was just out of the question.

I don't think I forgot any place we stopped. Amazingly no one got totally out of control but I guess that's because it took us about 10 hours to get through all of this. It was nice to see GR Mike again and sad to see GR Patricia leave us but we're hoping she has some good beer to bring back to us (again).

Prost!

It's Cold, It's Carbonated, Its

Alrighty then. Here goes my first REAL taste of the Firestorm... A light chipotle aroma, slight smokey flavor followed by a slight burn of peppers in the back of the mouth. I'd say it's beer. I look forward to drinking this with a good Mexican dish.

Chipotle Ale

This was a fun one to brew. I like the Rogue's Chipotle Ale and wanted to try to make one that was close. On brew day it had a hint of the chipotle. After the fermentation was done it had a stronger chipotle taste but also had a funky smokey tone that I didn't really like. After almost two weeks of conditioning I tasted it again and it had smoothed out considerably. It's in the keg now and I bet in a few more weeks it will be even better.