Mountain Brewers Beer Fest :: IO and Grandpa

While Eric and I escaped to Idaho Falls for the Mountain Brewers Beer Fest (which I highly recommend), Isaac got to spend time with Grandpa M.

Photo highlights of last weekend:

Isaac and grandpa had a blast while we were gone. Highlights were going to the movie theater for the first time together and the children's festival at city park.

Meanwhile, Eric and I enjoyed the Brewers festival (how can you not!). It's affectionately known as "Utah's best craft beer festival"... in Idaho thanks to conservative liquor laws in Utah, of course.

September (5 posts in 1)

Where did September go? Here's what we've been up to:

Park Silly Sunday Market & (almost) weekly festivals around town:

Lots of hours spent at City Park:

Visitors!

Don (Eric's Dad) visits for the weekend, and a quick afternoon visit with Oma, Lynn & Rick

 Oktoberfest at Snowbird Resort

Great fun for adults and kids, alike

 And what little boy doesn't love a ride on the fire truck?

And of course, more photos in our picassa album.

Father's Day 2011

Father's Day at WA Brewers Fest June 19, 2011

We celebrated Dad's Day at the WA Brewers Festival at St. Edwards Park.  We met up with a few friends and braved the crowds & lines.  Eric enjoyed the large selection of beer to sample, Isaac enjoyed the hundreds of other kids there and I enjoyed chasing after Isaac as he ran after all those kids.

It was a long afternoon, and he fell asleep on my back by the end of the day: 

Out Cold

I admire Eric for the great Dad he is.  I just love:
- Watching Eric make Isaac laugh hysterically with his "hand monster/tickle monster" moves
- Seeing Isaac light up and say DaDa when Eric walks in the door
- Hearing Eric read quietly to Isaac before bed-time
- Overhearing the silly songs Eric makes up at bathtime
- The plethora of nicknames he's made up for Isaac... he's the king of clever in this household.
And it melts my heart when Eric says casually,  "Having Isaac was the best decision we've ever made".

Thanks for being a great Dad to our son, Eric!

Edgefield Get-Away / Weekend with Grandpa

Oh, where to start in describing this magical place called McMenamins Edgefield?  It's hotel/brewery/winery/spa/distillery/food haven all on one campus just outside of Portland, OR.  Think summer camp meets spa meets winery.   Think awesomeness.

Anyway, our friends Heather & Jesse invited us there to celebrate her birthday last weekend.  Seeing as it's basically an adult playground (ie lots of booze), we decided to leave Isaac with a babysitter for the weekend. Eric's Dad happily agreed to hang out with the little dude while we had a weekend away.

And what a great weekend it was!  I had a lovely massage and Eric played countless holes of golf (I tried it too). We spent a few hours in the spa's soaking pool, enjoyed exploring the property and being with good friends. We ate a lot of good food and tasted even more great wine and beer.

It had been many months since we'd been away from Isaac overnight, and we missed him a lot.  So we were all excited for the reunion on Sunday. We came home to a happy baby, grandpa & doggy!

Here are a few photos from our weekend:

Friday lunch at Gorditos before leaving town

Part of the group at Friday night dinner (Alex, Heather, Andrew, Pam, Christina & Eric)  There were 16-20 people in our group!

Wine tasting Saturday with the ladies

Tasting Scotch

Golfing! (Eric's found a new hobby!)

Isaac & Grandpa had a pretty sweet weekend too; we're told they spent countless hours playing in the back yard and Isaac sure was talkative on Sunday.  So, we have no doubt it was a great weekend for everyone!

Grandparents, Parties & Rauchbier.... Oh My!

Grandparents
Debi (Grandma), Don (Grandpa) & Mary (OG) came to visit on Saturday.  They watched Isaac while Eric and I had an afternoon date (we went for a massage and to lunch... but that's a whole other story...).

 

Parties:

Isaac went to his first birthday party on Saturday; Wyatt (son of Nick & Heidi) turned 2!

We were so proud of Isaac at the party -- he was super-social and curious with the other kids (there were probably 10 other kids there, ages 6months-3years). It was fun to watch him navigate playtime, and he had fun trying out new toys.

We also ate great this weekend at MANY restaurants, including Aventura Mexican restaurant on Friday night, Coopers Ale House Saturday for lunch, Snoose Junction Pizza for dinner on Saturday with Heather & Jesse, Sunday breakfast at Patty's Eggnest and take-out Sunday (Vietnamese sammies for lunch and Thai food for dinner). I think that sets a record for us!

Rauchbeir:

Eric & Don brewed up a rauchbeir on Sunday (a smoked lager...think bacon-beer).  Lisa & Justin came by to see Isaac (and us) too.

It was a rainy day!  good thing we were prepared with a covered canopy!

It was a great weekend and we're pooped!

Sunday Brew Day

Today we finally made the jump to all-grain brewing! I'm excited to have a new level of control over the process, and excited to share the pictures from our first day brewing with the new equipment.

A quick primer for those who aren't familiar with what all-grain brewing is: all-grain is the same method that professional production breweries use to brew beer. Basically, instead of using malt syrup that is manufactured from grain, you use 100% grain to make your own malt syrup (although it's not reduced to a syrup-like viscosity).

Today we brewed a Bohemian Pilsner. Very simple, just four ingredients: Pilsen 2-row grain, Saaz hops, lager yeast and water. Don't let the simplicity fool you - this is the itsy-bitsy bikini of the beer world - nothing to hide behind. Crossing my fingers and hoping it turns out well!

This is the mash tun with the false bottom. The grains sit on this and steep just like a tea, but at precise temperatures.

This was a triple-decoction brew. What does that mean? Glad you asked! In the most basic terms, you pull out about 1/3 of the mash (grains+water) and boil it for a bit, then throw it back in the mash tun, raising the temperature. Repeat three times, and you have a triple-decoction. But the better question is: why?? Well, a bunch of science-y chemistry stuff happens, and creates flavors that you just can't get any other way. It's a pain, but worth it (I hope...)

Boiling the 2nd decoction. Smells like a bakery. Yum.

All done! Time to sparge (rinse the grains and get all the good sugary stuff out). Pouring hot water on top of the grains and rinsing them thoroughly will result in the wort, or pre-boil beer.

The spent grains in the mash tun. Cows love this stuff.

I love this new 15.5 gallon brewpot - it's huge! We finally get to boil the whole 5 gallon (or even 10 gallon!) batch in one pot instead of adding water at the end. This pic is one of my favorite parts - adding the hops. Smells like heaven, if heaven were a brewery. Hallelujah!

Neighborhood, you are welcome for the awesome smells you are smelling.

On to the cleanup - I've got a little helper for this task. He's very interested in the big pot - even more interested in the big spoon that goes with it.

I can't wait to help my dad homebrew soon! - Isaac

Weekend with Grandma M & OG

We can't think of anything much better than seeing family, and then leaving Isaac with them to go and play.  And by play we mean drink beer. This weekend, Debi/Grandma/Eric's Mom and Mary/Other Grandma/OG (Debi's best friend) came to visit.  We had a wonderful time seeing them.  But more importantly, Isaac had a blast!

Isaac and Grandma at breakfast, at home and sporting a new headlamp!  (thanks, Lisa & Justin for the awesome Little Dude shirt, too...)

For our date on Saturday, we visited Columbia Winery, Black Raven Brewery and American Brewing (a new brewery in Edmonds).  Many of the breweries in Washington were having open houses, as part of Washington Beer Commission's Open House 2011 day, so we got to sample some rare beers and have access to the production areas.  One of my favorites was a pairing of Black Raven's barley wine and Stilton cheese. YUM-O.

Per usual, more photos in our February Photo Album. Cheers!

Fremont Brewing, Play & a Hair Cut

Just a few photos from our weekend:

Here's our little trooper in his car seat, ready for some weekend errands (we like to call his car seat his 'super cool racing seat').

 Playing at Fremont Brewing:

 

Playing at home -- he is starting to 'get' this toy. Before he just tried to eat it. Now he plays with the beads, and only chews on it periodically.

And lastly, here he is playing at Tony & Amanda's on Sunday night. He was pretty pleased with himself when he found their basket of remote controls.  You might also notice that he got his first haircut this weekend!  Eric used the clippers to trim the back and sides.  Here is his shorter hair-do (not all that noticeable from the front...)

"I heart remotes"

Homebrewing: Dunkelweizen

One of our passions is homebrewing (Yes!  It's legal!).

On Sunday we had two buddies over to brew a dunkelweizen (dark wheat beer).  We made a large 10 gallon batch.  Blake is quite the skilled photographer and took some great photos of the home brew process.  Here they are, combined with my snapshots...

The boys ready to brew! Eric, Isaac, Blake & Joe

The wort (photo by Blake Montgomery)

Outside set-up (photo by Blake Montgomery)

Boiling the wort (photo by Blake Montgomery)

Stirring the wort (photo by Blake Montgomery)

Done boiling! transferring to the primary fermentor (photo by Blake Montgomery)

taking it all in! (photo by Blake Montgomery)

Mr. Serious says "this would be more interesting if it was MILK"

Ok, there's a smile!  Isaac & Blake

Bumbo & Fremont Brewing Co.

We borrowed a 'bumbo' seat from our friends Nick & Heidi, a molded chair that helps infants learn to sit.  Isaac seems to dig it! And, it's great because he can hang while Mom or Dad works in the kitchen. I wish I would have heard about them sooner---  I highly recommend it!

"How do I get thing into first gear?"

Since I work from home in the morning on Fridays, and since Eric is off by 3, it's becoming a tradition to get 'out and about' on Friday afternoons.  This week we went to Fremont Brewing Co. They have a kid and dog friendly tap room!  We tried the cask IPA (dry hopped with centennial hops and thai basil), the summer solstice ale and their regular IPA and pale ale.  The summer solstice ale and cask IPA were our favorites!

The 'urban taproom'

An attempt at a family picture

 A "first"! Riding on Daddy's shoulders