New CITA Banners

Two new vinyl CITA Banners, just in time for the Annual Meeting at el Bait Shop, 4 PM Saturday, February 9th.

Support Lift the Limit

Help support Lift the Limit initiative. Contact you state representatives and tell them to Lift The Limit. Below is the email that I sent. It is not the best, but feel free to use it.

Hi. I am contacting you to voice my opinion on the need to change the definition of BEER in Iowa’s Alcoholic Beverage Control laws. Currently, Beer is limited to 5% alcohol by weight. This is very antiquated and incorrectly classifies many craft and micro brews as liquor. This law forces beers with higher alcohol content to the state’s distribution system for liquor. While this system may work well for liquor, it does not work as well for beer. As it stands, the current legislation is both cumbersome and oppressive. Many breweries will not distribute their beer to Iowa because of this system. It is not uncommon for beer aficionados to stock up with craft beer when visiting Omaha, Kansas City, Minneapolis, and Chicago, all of which have less onerous legislation for the distribution of beer. Iowa breweries and brew pubs are put at an unfair competitive disadvantage because of this legislation.

While I am not an attorney, I believe that revising this legislation would be rather easy. Chapter 123 of the Iowa Code deals with Alcoholic Beverage Control. Sections five and seven speak to the break point of alcohol that differentiates beer from liquor. Changing five percent to fifteen percent in these two sections would correct this archaic legislation. Perhaps there are additional sections of the Code that will need to be changed. Anyway, I am of the understanding that Iowa District 31 Representative Ray Zirkelbach will be introducing such legislation during this session.

Regards,

Randle Boyd

MLK Holiday

Too many snow days. All my pics over the last 2 months have been of snow trails. I tried to mix it up last weekend. Saturday I did a hard ride on the rollers. Sunday I did spin class at the gym. Today it was warm enough to get outdoors. There wasn't any ice at Center. The trails were ridable, but not very fast. Looking forward to warmer weather. Anyone planning to do Snow Bike #1 this Saturday?

Rogue Monk Madness

Rogue Monk Madness is an American Brown style ale. It is reddish copper in color and hazy. The head is a light tan, very small bubbles, and lasts for a long time. The beer has a malty, licorice, honey, molasses smell (Special B malt), with just a slight smell of citrus. The taste is very malty, with the dark fruit flavors of raisins and plums. There is also a slight vanilla taste. While there is no good hop taste ( think Stone Ruination), there is the hop bitterness and the alcohol warmth in the back of your mouth.

This is not a bad beer, but it doesn't do a lot for me. I like the malt, but I am not a huge fan of hop bitterness without hop aroma or hop taste. With such a malty beer, it might be difficult to obtain a hop aroma or hop flavor. However, I think the hops should have been added much later in the brewing process. Dry hopping during fermentation would have been the way to go with this beer.

Winter Black Label

I wanted to do something a little different today, so I rode roads and trail for about an hour and forty minutes. It was a little colder than I had anticipated, with a slight breeze from the NW.

From my house I went down Fuller, to Valley Junction, to the trail head at Quick Trip on Railroad and First, out past Wall Mart. Between Wall Mart and 86th Street, the trail changed from being plowed to being snow and ice covered. At this point I turned around and backtracked to Ingersoll, up to 42nd st, then back to the trail and home. Total around 20 miles. I don't know exactly, as I rode my Cross Bike, which is not equipped with a cyclo-computer. Still looking forward to riding some Gravel.

Thinking about doing the Snow bike in Ft. Dodge. Anyone else thinking of doing this race? Anyone know about Loomis Park?

Liars Weight Club

Monday, I began receiving emails with Liars Weight Club (LWC) in the subject line. These came from, and were addressed to, a small subset of the DMCC race team. While some people would be offended to be included in such a group, I am thankful. Given my current weight of 15 stone, I can use all the help I can get to slim down to about 13 stone for the upcoming season. Since becoming a LWC member, I have dropped 3 pounds. While I enjoy riding, I have never been very good at avoiding the extra piece of pizza or chocolate chip cookies. Hopefully, the LWC will guilt me into staying on the straight and narrow.

As for riding, I rode J-11, Denmans, Squirrels Nest (x2) and Rhythm (x2). Denmans was icy, with about 1/8 inch of snow covering the ice. Squirrels Nest and Rhythm were both excellent. I saw Pete Basso and Cam in the Parking lot. They are riding Center tomorrow morning at 8:00 AM. I saw Rich Wince and Dave Ertl on the trail, both returning from the 10:00 AM DMCC ride. After my ride, and back in the parking lot, I talked with some guy riding a Redline 925, single, with studded tires. Sweet.

I would like to get in some gravel, but the road conditions concern me. All the gravel around here is very hilly, 35 mph descents. I don't have the nads to ride that when traction is questionable.

IBU Thursday, January 17th

Thursday, January 17th, the IBU will be having its first DRAW of 2008. The DRAW will be at Court Avenue Brewing Company beginning at 4:45 PM. Mike Guthier, the brewer at CABCO, has been brewing up some excellent beers. He may even have a couple of surprises for those attending the DRAW.
Immediately following the DRAW, you can walk the couple of blocks to el Bait Shop, where Thursday evenings mean Jimmy Carter Happy Hour. IBU President, Brian Sabus, will be pouring one of his creations.
So come on out and support CABCO, el Bait Shop, and the IBU, all while drinking some excellent beer with some fellow beer geeks.

Tuesday Night Indoors

Tuesday night indoor training for the Des Moines Cycle Club Race Team. One hour workouts at Team Fitness in Urbandale. This workout was led by Dave Ertl, a Level 1 Certified Cycling Coach.

Valley West Wipe Out

Here are some pictures of the Valley West Wipe Out roller race. Yours truly rode his single speed, 42 x 16. Started out well but faded. I was hoping for a 6:55, but got a 7:08. Not too bad. Not the slowest Cat 5, but definitely not the fastest. My reasoning for riding the single was that 42 x 16 would be about the largest gear I could push. I also knew that if I had anything smaller, I would use it once I started hurting. And hurt I did.




I saw Steve Fuller in the crowd, sporting his CranksGiving t-shirt. He was talking about riding gravel. I did a little gravel last year, but plan on doing more this year.

Snow Melt at Center

Got to the Center Trails a little before noon today. I couldn't get up early enough for Squirrels Bacon Ride. Anyway, it was quite nice for January in Iowa. The snow was getting a little bit slushy.
I rode J-11 and Denmans. I planned on ridding Squirrels Nest and Monkey Pit, but there was no broken trail. There were about 50 different sets of tire tracks, but no two of them rode the same line. With the snow getting softer by the minute, I decided to take the trestle to the Black Label and head to visit my mug at Court Avenue Brewing. Mike has a very good Abbey on Reserve and the specialty is the Winter Ale. Tomorrow is the first Roller Race of the season, at Valley West Mall.

Ski Biking

Downhill Snowbike Races - The Downhill Mountain Bike Race will take place on Saturday February 2nd at 11:00 a.m. at Sleepy Hollow Sports Park ran by Greg Rasmussen of Rasmussen Bike Shop. Dual Slalom snow bike racing is a great head to head competition down a man made course usually with gated turns (much like ski racing). The course is man made with obstacles such as berms, jumps and bumps. The courses are short, with a single run lasting around 30 seconds. Two racers compete down nearly identical/parallel courses at the same time.
The runs are timed and the same racers then switch courses and make another run. The combined race times are then compared and the slower racer is eliminated. The faster rider then moves up into the next round to race a winner from another set of race runs. The races and eliminations continue until the final two racers are left. Their race is the final and it determines 1st and 2nd places. The last racers that the finalists had beat then run a set of races to determine 3rd and 4th places.

http://dmwintergames.com/Eventscontinued.htm

SSWC08

I didn't get into SSWC08, which isn't all bad, since it conflicted with the Squirrels Nest/Sycamore TT at the Center Trails and I am not even in 'neighborhood championship' shape, let alone 'World Championship' shape.


Thank you for your interest in SSWC08. Unfortunately registration filled up prior to receiving your form. We had over 800 people interested and only 350 spots to fill. We hope you will still consider coming out to Napa, CA for the race festivities and to cheer on your fellow single speeders. There will be various rides around the Bay Area the week leading up to the race and afterward too, so it should be a lot of fun. We will be posting a blog soon to keep everyone up to date on what's going on. Thank you.

SSWC08 Team

There is a roller race this weekend, but the temp is supposed to be in the mid 40's, so I am more than a little torn about which to do. I am kind of leaning towards riding outdoors, perhaps a gravel grinder.

IBU Open - Saturday March 8th

Iowa Brewers Union Open

Homebrew Competition & Annual Potluck 2008

Judging: Saturday, March 8th, 2008

Entry deadline: Sunday, March 2nd, 2008

• $6.00 per entry.

• Two (2) bottles per entry.

• Only brown or green unmarked 10-16 oz. bottles accepted.

• Limit of two (2) entries per BJCP category. Each entry must be uniquely different.

• Competition Specific Category: IBU Challenge. For you hopheads, the only

requirement for this category is the beer entered must have 1 IBU of bitterness per 1 OG. Example: 1.045 OG must contain no less than 45 International Bittering Units.

• All Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP) styles will be accepted including mead and cider. The Director of Judging may combine categories with limited entries if necessary. Style guidelines are available on the Internet at http://www.bjcp.org/style-index.html

• Judging will take place Saturday, March 8th beginning at 10:00 a.m., at the Walker Johnston Shelter House at 9000 Douglas Ave. in Urbandale. Come take a look!!!

• Entries must score a minimum of 25 points in order to win a category.

• Bottles will not be returned.

• Pick up your entry forms at Beer Crazy, Heartland Homebrew Supply or on-line at

www.IowaBrewersUnion.org.

• Forms may also be faxed or e-mailed to you by e-mailing: ronaldgstaab@yahoo.com.

• Please provide payment and have entry forms attached to bottles with a rubber

band. Drop off/shipping sites are on-line at www.IowaBrewersUnion.org.

Medals will be awarded to winners of each category, Best of Show and

IBU Challenge Champion!