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.