Day at the Gorge

I managed to get to the Gorge on an absolutely perfect Friday (4/24). Got to the trailhead about 10:30 and temps were right about 50 and no clouds. Started up the Douglas trail to explore Eagles Point, by the time I was 30 minutes from the from the car, I needed to take off my fleece, never needed it again.

Falls from Below

An "eagle" from the bottom of the falls

A seep about half way to the top

From Eagles Point

Looking down at Eagles Falls

There were lots of birds, not much doubt where the name comes from. I spent a lot of time just watching the birds soar and enjoying a beverage.

Based on this picture, I think the eagles are actually vultures

Surprisingly, there were not many wildflowers, I saw one iris that was just beginning to bloom and a couple redbuds, and these unknowns. (edit:Thanks to "copper creek" on kywilderness.com I now know that the purple flower is wild geranium and the yellow is ragwort.)

The Red River looked very inviting, but it was cold.

Based on a previous visit, I think these are otter tracks.

A redbud and a "white" tree near Copperas creek

I took my tripod so I could play with shutter speeds a little more than last time. The falls were still impressive, but the creek was a lot lower than a month ago.

I passed a couple groups of backpackers that almost certainly ended up wet if the weather in the gorge on Sat. was anything like Lexington, still a perfect Friday is hard to beat.

Saison #1

 Saison #1

The first of many saisons in my attempt to figure out what works and what doesn't.

Brewed 2/4/15
5.5 gallons
Intended SG: 1.046
Actual SG: 1.046 @ 5.2 gallons
IBU: 27 (modified Tinseth)

Grain
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Weryerman Bohemian Pils - 8#
Weyerman Munich (6L) - 1#

Total - 9#

Hops
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Wilamette (5.3%)
1oz @ 60 mins
1oz @ 10 mins

Yeast
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Starter cultured from Dupont

Mash @ 148 for 60 mins
Mashout @ 168
Fermented at 75 degrees
gravity dropped to 1.003 in 7 days

Bottled on 3/7
1/2 got Orval dregs and 1/2 plain


4/26: Just mowed my lawn for the first time this spring. This must be how a field worker in Belgium felt 100 years ago :)

5/12: The Orval version in a Duvel tulip
A: Very nice almost perfectly white head, it eventually drops to a thin film leaving no lace.
S: Hint of spice, slight graininess, very muted.
T: Very dry with a slight Pils malt sweetness, the Dupont yeast is there, but the Orval dregs have not done too much, even though this has been in the bottle for 2 months.
M: Started with a lot of tingly carbonation, but that has faded by then end, very dry/lingering on the tongue.
O: A good, but definitely not great saison. I will happily finish off these bottles, but definitely needs improvement. Maybe a higher fermentation temp and another pound of Munich.

My ugly burner stand

Based on this thread (or something similar) on homebrewtalk.com I decided to build a very basic stand to hold my, at the time, new hurricane burner.

Here are a couple of pictures. Homedepot and Lowes did not have the correct right angle connections that I needed and the online place was temporarily out of stock as well. They did have right angle connections with an "extra" side that sticks out, but I decided that this was going to be ugly no matter what I did :)

I used two 90 degree angles, on three sides to support the burner, it is not attached, it just sits on top of the connected angles.