10k and Beer Brewing

Wow, has it really been 3 months since we posted on the blog? Oops. Well, here goes. 

Not much has been going on lately. We're been working a lot. We spent all day cleaning, and our house looks pretty presentable. I have taken up two hobbies lately, running and beer brewing. 

This is Steve's brewing keg. This is what got me interested in brewing. Steve's setup is much nicer than mine. He's been brewing about 5 years. About 2 months ago, I went over to his house to help brew a batch with him and had a blast. So I asked for a starter kit for my birthday and Mirav came through. 

This is my beer kit. This is what it takes to make 5 gallons of beer. 

This is me pouring in the malt extract. This is the beginner way of making beer. You only have to boil some of the grains this way. Eventually I will be using all grains and boiling them myself for better recipe control. But for now, we'll stick with this. 

About to put in the hops. This is what makes beer bitter. 

Siphoning the beer from primary to secondary fermentation after a week. This clarifies the beer. 

Now to the fun part! I have been training for about 3 months to run my first ever 10k with a guy from work. The run was called bridge to brews. The race is sponsored by Widmer Brother brewery. You start and finish at a brewery. 

Editors note: It seems that most of the things I'm talking about revolve around beer. Don't worry, I still don't drink all that much of it. Just like to participate in activities that involve beer. 

This is the Fremont bridge. It's a very long, very major freeway, and also part of what I ran for my 10k. We started on the east side of the river, ran across the Fremont bridge, then back across the steel bridge.

Strangely enough, the race went right by our apartment. So I got to see Mirav and the puppies about 2 miles into the race.  That's me in grey, running like an idiot.

There I go, like lightning. I almost won the race, but 1600 people finished just ahead of me. 

So picture this. It's Sunday morning, 10am. You have just run 6.2 miles. What are you in the mood for? That's right, beer. Free beer I might add. This is me and Morgan at the finish drinking our finisher beers. All in all it was a fun morning. 

I have another run coming up in 4 weeks so I have to keep running. I'm still pretty sore after my 10k. 

Bottling Day!! This is what my fermenter looks like. I had it sit in secondary about 2 more weeks before bottling. 

Finished product. 5 gallons of beer ready to be bottled. 

This is what I ended up with. 25 22oz bottles and a 6 pack of 12oz bottles. If you make it to Portland in time, you can sample my inaugural batch of Autumn Amber Ale. 

Now onto my second batch or spirituous beverages. 5 gallons of hard apple cider for Mirav. This went in last night. Should be ready in about a month. 

Honeymoon Balloon Ride

Just a quick update for everyone. Mirav and I are exhausted after the greatest night of our lives on Sunday. We feel blessed to have family and friends like all of you to share this special time with. Thank you all so much!

We are down in Tucson at our hotel, which is amazing. This is my first mobile post, so bear with me.

We showed up and we're greeted with margaritas courtesy of Wendy and Marty Kaye. They were delicious and refreshing.

This morning we had to be up at 6 to catch our sunrise hot air balloon ride. It was great, we got above 4000 feet and saw the while Tucson valley. I attached some pics below.

More to come

Oregon Coast Trip

Mirav is in San Diego for her bachelorette party. So it's just me and the dogs this weekend. We're getting really close to the wedding and things have been crazy. Mirav has been back to work already. We are looking forward to seeing everyone two weeks from today for the big day!

We have a few friends that have birthdays around the same time. This year they decided to celebrate by renting a beach house and inviting everyone down for a long weekend. 

This is the house we stayed in. It was in Lincoln City about 2 hours outside of Portland. The house was great. 

We had a nice view from the enclosed patio on the second floor

Mirav's birthday was a few days after this trip, so she got in on the birthday action. 

Nate is our friends Steve and Kim's son. He's getting so big. He came down to the coast to hang out with everyone for the weekend. 

This was our third try at a good photo of Mike and Steve. 

The first night there was a lot of Cake and drinking and playing of the board game Risk

The pictures end a bit early the first night because everyone else went to a casino and I fell asleep on the couch. 

Lindsey and Nate say it's time for breakfast. Mirav and I made a potato and egg fritatta. It was demolished by 14 people staying in the house. 

After breakfast we put together a few games of badminton. One side of the court smelled like a cat box so we alternated sides. 

In the afternoon, Steve, Brian and I went clamming. We used a big tube to pull up chunks of sand to find clams. We spent about two hours tossing around sand and found four clams. I am told it's supposed to be easier and more fun than it was. I tried to eat one of the clams that we caught and cooked. It was FULL of sand. Not enjoyable. 

After the clam fiasco, I took Mirav into town for her birthday present. I got her a glass blowing class. Unfortunately all of these pictures on on our other camera which is in San Diego right now. Update coming. 

The second night we had a taco party. 

Zack, feeling empowered by tacos, decided to bench press Steve. Steve is not small. He's probably 6'3" 240lbs. Which makes this pretty impressive. 

After some effort, one rep was completed. 

That was pretty much all that happened. It was a fun weekend and a much needed vacation. I probably have some more pictures from the little camera. I will post those when Mirav comes back.