Sunday, October 14, 2007

Support Your Local MicroBrewery

I'll start with the non-bike stuff first. Yesterday afternoon Melissa brought me to Sprecher Brewery to go on the tour and sample some beer for my birthday present and I had a great time. Xavier tagged along so that he could drink all the soda that he wanted as they had unlimited soda for the kids in the beer garden as well. The tour was fun, not too informational for anyone looking to get some info on beer-making in detail, but learning the history of Sprecher was pretty neat. Sprecher makes some of the best beer around, and one, possibly two of their beers are in my top 10. I especially enjoy their Pub Ale, and their Russian Imperial Stout is in or near my top 10 as well. They make some very popular beers amongst my friends, such as the Black Bavarian, the Dopple Bock, and OctoberFest, but I was surprised to hear that their Special Amber is their best selling beer. I don't think I've ever been out with friends where any of us ordered the Special Amber and the guys at work are pretty high on the beer as well and none of them ever mentioned that as one of their favorites. I'd think that between my friends and the guys at work, that they would be a good sample of the beer drinkers in the state, but I guess not, we're just not into Amber I guess. So anyways, after I got my souvenir glass and drank my 4 beers we went in to the gift shop and I picked out enough beer to last me a while. I got a case of mixed bottles, mainly the Pub Ale, Imperial Stout and of course OctoberFest, but a few others as well. I also splurged and got a couple of special bottles that I can't drink for a while. I got one of their Bourbon Barrel aged Scotch Ales, and a Premium Reserve bottle of the Russian Imperial Stout. The Imperial Stout is a bottle that I can't drink yet as it needs to be stored for about 8-10 months to let it age a bit, this bottle is like a fine wine, it will only get better (and for the price I paid I'm sure it will). I also got a nice T-shirt and a Stout glass as well. All in all, it was a great b-day present because I sure do love my beer.
So, on to the biking stuff. I picked out two routes this weekend that would give me 7 hours total over the two days, but unlike last week where I had a 4 hour day and a 3 hour day these routes would be split 3.5 hours a piece. Yesterday I went and did a nice endurance pace ride through Muskego, Big Bend, Mukwonago, Waukesha, and then finally back to New Berlin. I felt really good on the bike, no sore ass this weekend, my knee pain was manageable, and although it was a bit cool, only 37 degrees at the start of my ride, I was still warm and comfy. So after getting the first ride done yesterday I was really looking forward to today's ride but when I woke up at 6:30 to eat breakfast I heard the rain coming down and sure enough I looked outside and it was coming down pretty good. I decided to head back to bed, get some extra rest and wake up at 8:00 to try again. So up at 8:00, look outside, still raining. Crap. I checked the radar, saw lots of rain in the radar and in the forecast and decided that it's a trainer and roller day today as the rain isn't going away. It's 11:25 now, so at noon I'm going to turn on the Packer game, get the trainer set up and do 2 hours on that during the game. I'll take a little break after the game and get some stuff done around the house and then tonight at about 7:00 I'll pop in a movie and do another hour on the rollers just to work on my pedal stroke and form. 3 hours total inside is more than enough for me, I really don't care to do any more than that this time of year. I'll save the 4 hour trainer rides for January when it's really cold and snowy out. Tomorrow is a rest day and I'll do some stretching and ab work and then depending on how busy work is I'm hoping to get some outside riding in during the week as I've got my light system all charged up and ready to go. If time doesn't allow then I'll just be hitting the trainer this week for 75 to 90 minutes Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Well, that's it for now, check out some pics from the brew tour.....and the really bad lunch I had right afterwards, good thing I had a long ride. Until next time......

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