Rack & Roll...

One week away...

Raise a Pint...

...against the dying of the light.

Today is the birthday of Welsh poet, ale drinker, screenwriter (Me and My Bike), and cycling enthusiast Dylan Thomas.

This Sunday, the light dies an hour early...

All My Heroes Are Dead...

Ivan Illich (pictured at left, channeling John Cassavetes—also dead—via some random legerdemain of the lens), Guy Debord, Pierre Bourdieu, Bertrand Russell, Charles Bukowski, Jack Kerouac, Charles Baudelaire, Jorge Luis Borges, Ernest Hemingway, the list goes on. Dust, all of them. Jean Baudrillard’s still sucking air and pumping blood, yes, well, fine, and believe me, I’m grateful, but he’s pushing 80 now, so how long can that last? And who will rise up to fill the deepening void, to illumine the inky abyss?

Dead or dying all too soon, alas...

But the yeast lives, for now, resurrected this evening in the body of my Broken Cherry Stout (speaking of inky entities) by the gentle racking to the secondary, a glass carboy that, for all its notorious shortcomings, I love to death purely for its nostalgic qualities (and gas impermeability). Yeah, it’s fragile and heavy and cumbersome to clean, yes, exposed it lets in sunlight to poison the brew, and okay, dry-hopping in it is a pain in the ass. Still, few things instantly embody the essence of homebrewing like the sight of a carboy. So it will remain in my lineup. (And an old pillowcase with a hole cut in it becomes an excellent carboy condom against that intrusive sunlight.)

Stout is looking good, thick and rich and so chocolately, like black tar smack or liquid obsidian, redolent of Victory’s Storm King Stout, something that may change as the cherry puree lends its essence to the mix during the alchemy in the secondary. Two weeks in the carboy, another two in bottles (most of its life spent in glass houses), and then it’ll be ready for pouring. Of course, an ale this complex deserves some aging, which it’ll get if I can stay away from it long enough to let it fully mature. This one is too late for the Bliss, but I'll try to keep a bottle around for next year. That is, if it's as good as it smelled this evening.

Deus ex Mashina...

Hmm, I sense a divine influence here. Has Bacchus awakened from his centuries-long slumber to once again plunge the world into liquid decadence? Harlan Ellison, in the introduction to his speculative fiction collection Deathbird Stories, wrote "when belief in a god dies, the god dies." Perhaps belief had only passed out. How else to explain this coincidence of metaphysical proportions?

Seems that if we’d held the upcoming Bootlegger’s Bliss event on the original date (the day before its newly rescheduled date), a day that was more or less randomly chosen, we would have been swapping homebrews on a little-known annual international thing called "Teach a Friend to Homebrew Day.” TFHD is an event that sprung from the wet brains of the American Homebrewers Association, and its goal is similar to that of our own little event, minus the offroad ride component.

Speaking of which, my Broken Cherry Stout (concocted and decocted too late for the Bliss) is spitting CO2 bubbles like bullets from a gatlin gun, gurgling with the rhythm of a metronome; the yeast is bombed on an endless sugar buzz, the gods are in their heavens, and the Bliss, well, the Bliss is on...


POSTSCRIPT: Sierra Nevada's excellent Celebration Ale is on the market now here in the northeast, tipping the scales at a healthy 6.8% abv.

Seems to me to taste a bit hoppier than last year's release, but I've been assured this is only a chimera, the product of an overzealous imagination and an amnesic palate. An excellent IPA that I'll reach for again and again this time of year over my usual favorites. Bonus? As with all of SN's offerings, the screw-off cap means never having to use your pedal for anything other than spinning a crank.

Light Show...

Dawn tints the morning sky over Chocolate City. A view from the Custis Trail.

Yeast-Beast of the East Is On!...

BOOTLEGGER'S BLISS UPDATE, LA PARTIE DEUX: DATE CHANGE

To those of you who have been following the developments surrounding this event, we have a date change.

We have decided to move the 1st Annual Bootlegger’s Bliss event to the NEXT DAY, SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 5th. Like flocculated yeast that has drifted down into the trub, this matter is settled.

The reason for the one-day shift is simple: as one rider/brewer pointed out, the venue will likely be swarmed by hunters if we hold it on Saturday. Since we don’t want to have to dodge buckshot, bullets, musket loads, arrows, BBs, pellets, hatchets, cleavers, shivs, blackjacks, ninja throwing stars, nunchakus, sharpened sticks, flinty rocks, etc., while we are barreling down some aggressive terrain, we think SUNDAY would be a better day. Better to have head on the beer and not on the trophy wall.

Email just went out to the list with full details, including time and location; check your inbox.

John Barleycorn Must Ride...

UPDATE: I scouted the site and part of the course yesterday. Here's a bit more information...

1. There will be park grills on hand for use, plenty of picnic tables, and a large shelter in case Lady Nature turns spiteful.

2. Along with your brew, BRING FOOD, as suggested below.

3. If you have a set of fatties, throw 'em on the bike. Your ass and rims will be happy you did.

Not much else to say. If you contacted us earlier, look for an email from us within the next day or two. The email will state the location and time, along with some other details. If you're interested, will have homebrew ready in time, and haven't contacted DT, shoot him an email.

Okay, the Bliss is on. Venue has been determined. Date is set at Satyrday, November 4 Sunday, November 5*. We can't be contained.**

If you're interested and haven't yet reached out, shoot an email to DmofoT and we'll get back to you with details. If you don't get an email response immediately, be patient, we'll get to you. Just make sure your beer is ready and we'll do the rest. To those of you who have already responded by email, look for a reply with the location and other details early next week.

Like most local gatherings, this is a free event. That's the point. From a philosophical standpoint, the Bootlegger's Bliss was conceived as a small step outside of commerce**—a tick in the matted hide of mass-production—and as an appreciation of highly personal craftwork against the backdrop of some sweet singletrack. It's a celebration of use value, that immeasurable quality that fills the soul with a sort of natural, ineffable satisfaction too seldom felt in the cold void, the funereal absence, the blanched banality that clings to exchange value like stench to carrion. A modified potlatch: give a beer, take a beer...and ride a bike. It's a good thing.

Simple stuff. And yet...

Alright, enough with the pretentious prose, thanks for suffering through it. Onto the fine print. Since using the word "rules" would be antithetical to the philosophy of this event, I'll simply call the following "strong suggestions." You will do well to heed them.

1. Bring a bike suitable for offroad use.
   
2. Bring a six pack or growler or equivalent of homebrew that YOU brewed, either by yourself or with the help of as many friends as it takes. In lieu of bringing your own homebrew, you may instead bring a friend who homebrews and who brings a six pack or growler or equivalent of homebrew that HE or SHE made. Said friend should also bring a bike suitable for offroad use.
   
3. Bring your BEST homebrew, something you'd be proud to take home to Ma. There will be a moment of judgement, so front your finest.
   
4. Bring a glass...the vessel and the matter from which it's constructed. Plastic is for shitty beer, and hands make horrible receptacles.
   
5. Bring other people who meet the first four requirements above and who don't have a problem with the whole concept.
   
6. Bring enough food for yourself and, if you're nice, a wee bit more for sharing. HOMEMADE FOOD IS BEST, even if you're only cobbling together commercial ingredients. There should be charcoal grills on site; we'll confirm this on Sunday, October 8, and we will report shortly thereafter via email. There will likely be a camping gas grill as well, but if you have one, bring it; no such thing as too many grills.
   
7. YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR OWN WELFARE. Makes sense, right? Remember: mountain biking is inherently dangerous; drunken mountain biking can be downright foolish. Both are tacitly—but NOT expressly—encouraged, in keeping with the principle of "think for yourself, drink for yourself."
   
8. The beer-tasting piece will likely occur in the middle of the event to discourage those who drive much better when they're drunk from doing so. After all, we want you to come back next year.
   

That's pretty much it. Anything else is fair game.

POSTSCRIPT: The title of this post was suggested by a folk ballad.

* Date Change: The date for the Bootlegger's Bliss was changed to avoid hunters in the area.

** Thanks to The Make-Up for each four-word phrase preceding the referential double-asterisks. Don't mind the mind...

Which Thing Doesn't Belong?...

Custis Trail, Roslyn, on a weekday.

If Johnny Law is watching for red-light runners, that's a helluva place to sit. One, cyclists coming down the hill can't see oncoming cyclists—who are forced to pass the squad car in the opposite lane—until late in the action, and two, what's going to happen when J.L. stomps on the gas to catch a violater at the same time that a cyclist or jogger is passing by? And if J.L. is stationed there for that purpose, he's in no position to actually prevent someone from running the light and, maybe, taking out a cyclist or jogger. Witness, yes, ticket, yes, chalk an outline, yes, but not prevent.

Third time I've seen this irresponsible behavior. You can be sure that if there is a collision, J.L. won't be at fault, no sir.