Author: Steve Block
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Farmhouse ale for summer
Spring is here, and warm weather is becoming normal now despite the occasional cold wet day. My last brew, an IPA based on Bell’s Two Hearted, is a good style for warm weather. But I also love wheat beers and strong effervescent ales in warm weather. One of my favorite strong bubbly ales is the…
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Comparing a real Two Hearted to my clone
As I wrote a couple of weeks ago, I tried to brew a decent clone of Bell’s Two Hearted Ale, one of my favorite beers, during my last brew session. Now that the beer has carbonated, and I have gotten past my awful spring cold, I was able to compare the real thing to my…
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Trying to clone Bell’s Two Hearted Ale
My latest brew is an attempt to clone Bell’s Two Hearted Ale. Bell’s is one of my favorite breweries, but I can’t buy their beer out here in Colorado. Instead I buy a bunch every time I head back to Iowa, but it doesn’t last forever. Of Bell’s beers, their Two Hearted Ale, an American…
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My first trip to Spain
I had the opportunity at the end of January to travel to Spain for a series of meetings and site visits related to a wind project I am working on. The business parts of the trip went well but are not terribly interesting to write about. But it wasn’t all business, and I did get…
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I’ve been running
I decided to start running late last November. I don’t think I had any specific reason, but a few weeks before I started I played a pickup football game with my cousins and realized just how far out of shape I was; it was far more than just being overweight. I could hardly breathe partway…
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A New Year’s Update
I took a long and sorely needed break for Christmas at the end of the year. I drove I70 across Kansas to the Kansas City area the week before Christmas and stopped for two nights at my aunt and uncle’s in the charming little town of Weston, Missouri. The big snowstorm happened the night before…
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Christmas beers are bottled and ready
I brewed beer twice in the past few months. I wanted beers to share with family and friends this Christmas. One is meant to be a warming and flavorful high gravity beer and the other a tasty session beer. I settled on brewing a robust porter for the former, and an ESB[1] for the latter.…
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Lightroom and Fuji X-Trans sensor raw files
Adobe, I need your help. I finally decided which of the new breed of mirrorless cameras to buy. I’ve been looking for almost a year, and since April I’ve rented and tested four of the most interesting mirrorless cameras on the market: the Sony NEX-7, Fujifilm X100, Fujifilm X-Pro1, and Olympus OM-D E-M5. The choice…
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Racking the porter and preparing for an ESB
There is a lot of brewery action happening here in Denver this weekend. The dunkelweizen I bottled 2 weeks ago is ready to drink, and appears to have turned out very well. Good carbonation and great head retention, with the right color and a very nice flavor. I’m quite happy with my first wheat beer.…
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Trying to commit to riding to work
OK, I’m the first to admit my timing is poor. We’re well into fall now and winter is fast approaching. Although the days are nice, the mornings are cold, and the sun sets earlier every day. An early October start Last week was the start. I made it 4 days that week, and the only…
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