The No Post Post

[mashani]

It's alive!

[berryman]

As of right now I have 4 kegs in the Keezer. One is Apple cider and drink on sparingly, 10 ABV., a nice light amber that is almost gone now, a Maibock lager that haven't taped yet and a S/N PA clone that isn't carbed yet. Think my next beer will be a big IPA, I am ready for that now again.

[Yankeedag]

Just put one in the keg.
Got another cold crashing.
One is still Berklin in the fermenter.
Might brew again next week

[berryman]

Wanted to post some pics on what you are drinking post but tap a talk not working yet and the only way I know how to do it. We got a lot of snow again here now............ My LHBS is closing and in April %30 off, going to speend some money next month.

[Yankeedag]

It’s sad when a brew store clises

[berryman]

It’s sad when a brew store clises

Yes and the owner is a good guy, friend and only lives a couple miles from me but his store is in town about 15 miles. Hard to compete with online anymore. He had a nice shop but in a high rent area.

[berryman]

I have not brewed anything this month of April and most likely won't now, but have all the stuff to do a fresh squeezed clone, a Dunkelweizen and a
Munich Helles..............

[berryman]

Anyone notice how the price of Star San has jumped up?

[Beer-lord]

I've not looked lately. Got a 32 oz jar about 4 months ago that I haven't opened yet but will last me a long while.
What hasn't gone up? Sacks of grain are up $10. Hops are slowly inching up too. Inflation is double what the administration says it is, that's very easy to see and I see no end in sight. Even more of a reason to buy in bulk I guess (that's what I tell myself).

[mashani]

I've not looked lately. Got a 32 oz jar about 4 months ago that I haven't opened yet but will last me a long while.
What hasn't gone up? Sacks of grain are up $10. Hops are slowly inching up too. Inflation is double what the administration says it is, that's very easy to see and I see no end in sight. Even more of a reason to buy in bulk I guess (that's what I tell myself).

This is why I actually started buying "kits" again sometimes. If I get a discount coupon and especially if it stacks with a seasonal 20% off kit that I like, then the kits are actually costing less than buying the ingredients, which at least for me has never been the case before.

[TonyKZ1]

Yep, that's one of the reasons I buy recipe kits too. After I added up the ingredients in some of the recipes (looking at the Midwest Supplies Simply Beer series for example), it was cheaper to buy the recipe kit than to buy the ingredients by themselves. They've gone up somewhat now, like everything else, but they were $19.99 for one of 6 5 gallon recipes for a long time. I've bought several of them along with more expensive recipe kits from them and other vendors. I need to place an order again as it's time to brew some IPAs, or something besides the stouts I've been drinking.

[berryman]

I use to get a lot of stuff from midwest, but lately almost all from morebeer. I also buy the kits for the same reason, I like to put my own recipes together but if I find a kit that is close to what I want, usually less money and can always change it some to my liken.

[berryman]

looks like I hit the double post, so will say haven't brewed much lately, but going to soon and have been BBQ cooking alot and making some good food outside even in the cold and snow on the ground.

[berryman]

Going to rain here all day tomorrow, so it's going to be a brew day. Got the grains milled, water in the M&B and the sparge heater, pump hoses hooked, now just got to set the timer for morning.

[bpgreen]

Things didn't go exactly as planned.

I'm not a morning person, so I try to get as much as possible done the night before, so that all I need to do is transfer a few things from the fridge to the car and leave. I also figure out when I need to wake up so I can set the alarm. I like to build in a little wiggle room, because I don't like to cut things too close.

As I was getting everything ready last night, I discovered that I had somehow managed to lose the cap to my backpack water bottle. A quick trip to REI fixed that. An inauspicious beginning, but since I was getting ready the night before, I was able to recover just fine.

Part of my night before prep is figuring out when I need to leave. I hate mornings, but I like giving myself extra time for unforeseen circumstances. I figured I should leave at 5:30, so I set an alram for 5 (planning to actually leave at 5:15). I set a backup alarm for 5:30 just in case (that would be cutting it close, but if I got up and got going, it should work).

I paid extra for a VIP pass that got me my packet early in the mail, saving me a30+mile trip on Thursday. The instructions I got said that I could park at the Rock Cliff Recreation Center. But they also said to just follow the signs to the VIP lot. Google maps had Rock Cliff Nature Center, which was about 10 minutes longer than Jordanelle. So, since the name was slightly different, I figured I'd go to Jordanelle and follow the signs. Plugged that into Google maps so it would be ready when I got in the car.

For some reason, I was slower than I expected to be getting ready, so not only did I not leave at 5:15, I didn't leave until about 5:40. But that's ok. I built in some wiggle room just for things like this.

But I have my checklist, so I know that at least I have my helmet, my goggles, my water, my electroloytes. And my towel (which is about the most massively useful thing one can have).

I get on the frontage road and get to the stoplight where I'll get on the on ramp to the interstate.

And

It's blocked. Which I don't notice until Im right there because I'm not 100% awake. So I pull into the other lane. And since I'm not fullly awake, I pull into the left lane to pick up the interstate at the next on ramp instead of pulling into the right lane to take legacy highway.



But it's ok. I add some extra time for contingencies. although that extra time is getting eaten into.



So I get to the next on ramp. You're probably familiar with Murphy's law. There are several versions of it, but I think it's known well enough that I don't need to resstate it.



But I've always consideerd Murphy to be a bit of an optimist.



This on ramp was also closed. I'm now getting a little concerned that maybe I didn't give myself enough wiggle room.



So I get on the frontage road and *FINALLY* find an open on ramp.



I should still have enough time. Might be a little close, but not too bad.



15 miles or so on the interestate, I notice that my bike is at an odd angle. So I pull off the interstate to fix it.



That eats away at a few more minutes of my wiggle room time. But I should still be able to get there, follow the signs to the VIP parking, get my transition stuff set up, get marked up, get my setuit on, and get to the start. Maybe not a lot of time to spare, but I should be there.



I get to Jordanelle and see no activity. AT ALL. So I pull into the nearest parking lot and go to the building. Which is closed.



So I pull up google maps. If it's 51 minutes to Jordanelle and 1 hour 4 minutes to Rock Cliff, that must mean it's 14 minutes to Rock Cliff, right?



Oops. Not so much. There's no way I can make it there before the race starts. Actually, I could probably get to the parking lot before the race starts. I might even be able to make one trip to the transition area before the race starts. But I need 2, maybe 3 trips. And that just gets my stuff there. It doesn't get me set up, and it doesn't get me in my wetsuit.