Brew Day - C4 Chocolate Stout

Brewed 8/7/12

Ingredients

Steeping Grains

• 1 lb Chocolate Pre Malt
• 1 lb Belgian Chocolate Malt
• ~3/4 cup Old Fashioned Quaker Oats

 6.6 lb Munton's Liquid Malt Extract
1 oz NZ Super Alpha Hops (60 min)
1 oz Fuggle Hops (10 min)
4 oz Nestle Cocoa Powder (0 min)
1 lb Chocolate Nibs? (John forgot to write down the amount...) (Secondary)

Wyeast 1332 - Northwest Ale

O.G. ~1.049
F.G. ~1.018
A.B.V. ~4%

Steeping Grains

I could explain every step that we went through, but that wouldn't be fun. We aren't scientists (well, John is, but he's not a beer scientist). We just want to get together and see how good of a beer we can put together. So times and temperatures aren't controlled down to the second and degree. We try to stay as close as we can, but hey, things

Part of the fun is naming our concoctions. We've had multiple named in reference to Ian, John's son, one based off of a nickname that Vanessa doesn't like, and another an old inside joke based off of the name we gave another (it would take too long to explain). It seems like half the time we just start throwing things out there, and this one of those times. Originally it was supposed to be a double chocolate stout. What one considers a double chocolate stout is up to their own definition, but as we were trying to think, one of us mistakenly said it should be a triple chocolate stout due to using three different kinds of chocolate. We then had to point out that there were actually going to be four different applications of "chocolate" (thought chocolate malt is not at all chocolate). So after a couple of failed attempts to combine chocolate and four into a phrase, we "settled" on C4 (not the explosive... never use explosives while brewing... ever).

It'll be ready in a couple of weeks, I'll let you know how it turned out then!

1149 miles, 21 weeks

Today during a very long and uneventful meeting at work, I put together the training plan I'll do my best to stick to for the next 21 weeks. Thinking back to the first training plan that I put together 5 1/2 years ago, it differs pretty drastically. That training plan for the '07 Madison Marathon had weeks with multiple hard workouts, and just about every week had a midweek long run. This plan focuses most of its mileage on the weekends with the back-to-back long run, which are obviously meant to simulate the stress of running a half and full marathon on back-to-back days.

Here are the highlights (lowlights?)

147 days
121 days running
Four races before Goofy's Challenge (two half marathons, one 10k, and one 5 mile)
1149 miles

Today's run: 9 miles - 65:15 - It has to start with one run...

Tri 4 Schools - A Volunteer Report

As many (if not everyone reading this) know, I cannot swim, so likely seeing the word tri in the title of this post confused you until you got to the word volunteer. Last Saturday, August 4th, Vanessa and I volunteered at a kids triathlon in Middleton. There were likely close to 300 kids ranging from 3-14 participating in the event, which helped raise my hopes that at some point this country may overcome its obesity epidemic.

I was originally scheduled to stand out on a bridge on the run course to make sure trolls didn't eat the children, but as only the 11-14 year old age group came by there, I was done pretty quickly. Vanessa was supposed to be medical help at the transition zone, but failed miserably when the only "emergency" came up... (A band-aid was needed.) To pass her time she handed out water to kids as they started the run. Upon getting back to the start/transition area, I helped V hand out water and helped direct kids from the swim to the transition zone. The later of these provided me with the opportunity to see some hilarious looks on kids faces as I was around for the 3-6 year olds. The quickest way to sum it up is that below 5, the kids have no clue what's going. To them it had to have been, "Mom told me to stand in line and then swim across the pool on a noodle. Okay, now dad wants me to go for a bike ride? Ok ok... Running? Why am I running now? Hey water! Where do I put my cup?".

In the end, I don't have much else to give. I can't comment on the course or how I felt that day. All I can really say was that it was a beautiful morning to be outside seeing some kids have fun and being healthy.