It's Stout Weather

Very excited to be brewing a chocolate rye stout. Put together the ingredient list myself based upon a similar recipe I found online. I hope it comes out good! We'll see in about 7 weeks. 

It snowed almost the entire day while I was brewing. That's totally unacceptable.

Everclear Fireballs

Been a bit quiet out here, eh? My apologies. Spent the last 5 days in Boston trying to play catch-up. Saw lots of great people, drank plenty of great beer, and got a little rowdy. 

Backyard skate ramps...

Jake's bar was getting rid of some old, water-damaged goods. This included 5 bottles of grain alcohol. Far more fun and healthy to make fire with it, rather than drinking it.

Epic Fireball photos taken by Brendan Coughlin.

Fall Is For Fermenting And Climbing

With a full kitchen I've decided that I want to try and ferment everything. I've started with yogurt (with fresh raspberries from the garden) and kombucha. I don't even know if I like kombucha, but it intrigues me. Next up: a coffee rye stout and sourdough bread. 

Not only are my friends all still working, but they're all renovating too. Helped out a tiny bit with Christian and Keira on their siding and then Mike and Liza with their new home. Manual labor in exchange for food is right up my alley!

Rumney is starting to get a bit cold! Woke up to frost on the windshield on Saturday.

Matt, Koti and I had a great Saturday session climbing hard stuff and losing skin.

Hello New England Fall

Made it back home!!

But, not without first stopping in Madison to see Jenna. T'was great catching up and taking in some Wisconsin culture before it gets blisteringly cold there.

The goal was to surprise people once I got home. First stop was my Dad's annual Spike It For Life volleyball tournament which raises money for breast cancer care. The whole family was there and successfully surprised them all. 

Then surprised some friends at one of their awesome camping trips at the Northfield cabin.

And since then, I've basically been climbing nonstop while the weather in New England is perfect for climbing up rocks and coming back down.

Here's Koti on the very heady (but awesomely fun and exposed) climb Jolt [5.10] at Rumney. The foliage is unreal right now. 

I also went to Great Barrington with Tim and Steve. I very unexpectedly sent my first outdoor V7 boulder and Steve was awesome enough to capture it on film! Boy does it feel good to be back home for a bit.

11 Mile Canyon

My buddy Aaron invited a bunch of people to go camping and climbing near his family's property in South Platte, CO. The climbing was awesome and the entire area is super beautiful.

Nice foggy morning.

Camping is always made better with a bunch of sparklers.

The next day we spent some time exploring the rocks on Aaron's property and establishing new routes. I put up my first ever first ascent. It was a really cool crack that we thought felt like 5.10b and I called it "Up From Here". 

Those Flatirons!

Some plans fell through and I reached out to my friend Vicky (we met at WNEC and she recently moved out to Boulder) to see if she'd be interested in climbing one of the flatirons soon. Turns out her and a friend were planning on climbing it the next morning! 

The flatirons look extra special in the morning light.

Coming in at exactly 5.0 in difficulty, the second flatiron makes for a great morning cruise.

Summit reflection.

BONUS PHOTO: Sometimes moths see the light in my car and decide to hang out. Sometimes I get really bored in my car at night and have an impromptu photoshoot with guests.

How To Entertain Yourself

With so many friends in Colorado, it's a goal of mine to see all of them while I'm here. However, these friends of mine all have jobs and responsibilities so I have to entertain myself from time to time.

Usually my go-to entertainment is breweries and Colorado has plenty. Vision Quest is a fairly new brewery in Boulder. They sport a lot of tasty and somewhat unique styles. Highlights included an American style brown ale brewed with chocolate malts and a coconut IPA brewed with 25 pounds of toasted coconut and dry hopped with Fantasia hops.

Found a cool dive bar in Downtown Boulder with lots of games in the basement. Ended up talking to a guy that installed the entire canning line at Treehouse Brewery as well as many other big breweries in New England. He was drinking a Budweiser (wtf?).

Per Vicky's recommendation, I headed to Boulder Creek to clean up then take an afternoon nap in my hammock.

Found a great disc golf course in Boulder. I'm still terrible...

Live bluegrass at Cerebral Brewing in Denver. Their IPAs have been the closest to "New England style" that I've tried thus far. Not quite there, but close.

Lumpy Ridge

My new buddy Jonah told me that the solo climbing at Lumpy Ridge was really good. I needed to verify this claim.

The climbing was really good and the views were even better!

I cruised my way up Batman and Robin, a fun 4-pitch 5.7 and connected it with Summer Breeze, a 2-pitch 5.7 to get me to the top of the Batman Rock. The views of Rocky Mountain National Park were worthy enough of a selfie...

Cookin' In Colorado

Yeah, I really need to get a job...