More Wedding Photos

Photos are up! Kendal started posting photos late this past week and more are on their way. Take a look at her site and make sure you login using the password provided. Once you're logged in click the 'first look' link on the right side of the page to view photos.

The entire wedding party at Mount Sunapee - Labor Day Weekend 2011

Unseasonably warm temperatures and plenty of sunshine here in the Willamette Valley made for a stellar weekend of activities. We spent Saturday in downtown Portland with our friends Rose and Scott Horton. Our adventure started at Mother's Bistro & Bar, a local brunch hot spot in the heart of downtown that we've heard about for a number of people. After a leisurely meal we reemerged to find that the sun had burned off the morning clouds and the mercury had climbed into the 60's.

We crossed the river and parked by the Morrison Bridge where we unloaded our bicycles and prepared for an afternoon mystery ride around the east side. OK, so it wasn't a total mystery. The game plan we had put together over brunch was pretty straight forward: ride our bikes around the east side stopping at breweries along the way. Not unlike a pub crawl, Scott would later dub this a pub spin.

It's football season and I'm a loyal Patriots fan so every Sunday during the NFL season I'll don my Wes Welker jersey (yes, I appreciate the irony in it) and cheer on the Pats. As a proud Texan Nola seems to appreciate football being watched in the house - something that reminds her of home I suppose. I wasn't content to sit on the couch watching the game and instead decided to break out the brewing equipment and whip up a batch of imperial stout for the cold months ahead.

About halfway through the game - and brewing - we got hungry so I threw some brats on the grill and some kraut on the stove. Gotta love Boars Head for game day provisions. As we chowed down on stadium-style wursts on hoagie rolls with mustard and kraut we agreed that sitting on the couch and watching from home was far superior to paying $8 each for stadium food. Besides, the beer at home is better too ;)

Today's game was a sloppy mess but ultimately a victory for the Patriots. Not to be outdone, brewing also turned into a sloppy mess which reinforced that it's time for me to get a larger brew pot with an outdoor propane setup. This point was driven home as I scoured wort off the stove, burners, floor, cabinets, counters, dishwasher, and Nola. Yup, not even my lovely wife could escape the mad brewer and 4 gallons of hot sticky beer. Hopefully the beer will also prove victorious. With an OG of 1.094 I'm shooting for an ABV of 9.5% - stout enough to chase off the coldest, dampest winter days here in Oregon.

4.25 Gal of beer in a 4.5 Gal pot

Beer, beer everywhere and not a drop to drink

More on the pub spin later this week. I've got to pull some photos off Facebook and my phone to complete that post and it's already late. Love to everyone

-Nola & Gordon