Camping and Fishing 8/22-8/24

I am back and alive. Replete with 9 different rashes, but a ton of great memories.


First fishing while I still remember.

Zach M and I fished Thursday, covering close to 7 miles on foot in 12.5 hours. It was amazing day, overcast and then thunderstorms. Smallies upticked when it rained and went nuts. I got 103 smallmouth bass to hand- loads of dinks, but plenty of nice ones too. ( 18.25", 17.75", 17", 4-16", 8-15") 11 other fish of 7 species total on the day. Zach added 48 (19.25, 18", 17"). We both lost a couple other large fish. Mixed it up quite a bit, square billed crankbait was on fire.
18.25":

17.75" in the rain:

18":

19.25":


BT 103 SMB  ( 18.25", 17.75", 17", 4-16", 8-15") 11 other fish of 7 species total on the day
Zach 48 (19.25, 18", 17")




Waded with Mr. Doddridge Saturday, covering 3.7 miles in 7.5 hours everything was again coming up gold for me. I finished with 50 SMB (19.5", 18.75", 18.25", 17.5", 17", 4-16", 9-15") Matt nailed 19 or so. He just couldn't get his favorites going. Ran into Ben at the end of the wade.



18.25":



19.5":


BT: 50 SMB (19.5", 18.75", 18.25", 17.5", 17", 4-16", 9-15")
MD: 19

18.75":


Saturday after 10-11 beers the night before, I parked at the first available bridge and went out solo. Sun was bluebird and intense. Fishing was not great , but I managed some nice ones and lost a couple more.



18.99":


17 SMB (18.99", 18", 17", 16", 15")



The true star of the weekend was an unexpected square bill style crankbait at 1/2oz.

More 18-20" fish caught than I can ever remember amoungst the INSA CF crowd.

 

Green Beer Bottles-Suck

But not if they are fully hidden from sunlight in a nice fully enclosed  box. Got a 12 of Spaten Optimator, Spaten lager, and Franzikaner Weisse Bier that was terrific, all three were excellent. I had all but written off Spaten as green bottle skunk water, but excellent on tap. Problem solved. Hope they keep selling this, or switch to brown bottles. Oddly enough, wheat beers don't seem to be affected by the green bottle thing.

BTW, if you just read any of that, get a hormone injection!

Quick bunch of beer reviews

Upland Schwarz- not a huge fan of this black lager. Though I do love Schwarz Bier in general. The German versions are better, like the Sam Adams better. Nice smokey bacon flavor that comes and goes as you drink. Not that enjoyable overall compared to other brands. Worth buying if the selection is domestic. C+

Founders Breakfast Stout- another overly concentrated, over flavored microbrew stout. COFFEE. CHOCOLATE. Motor Oil. Drink one. B

Stone Russian Imperial Stout- Read the above add heavy taste of alcohol. C+

Steelhead Extra Stout- Like this stout a lot. Coffee, chocolate, smokiness, nice complex flavor without the syrupy thickness that makes it hard to drink a bunch. Drinky, drinky! A-

Rougue Dead Guy Ale- B

Victory Hop Devil- Hoppy but Bleggh. Did not finish. Not what I wanted that night. D

Samuel Smith's Oatmeal Stout- Not what I expected at all. Way too sugary, without much bitter or hops, or flavor. Poured it out, and I rarely do that. Could have been a bad one. F

Schneider Hefe Weissen- Love this beer, brownish wheat beer with lots of floaties. Oh so good. A

Spaten Oktoberfest- Good drinking Oktoberfest that I am sure I had a better version of somewhere. Spaten's beers all seem to have a slight 'Spaten' metallic flavor. Price was right, different enough to be enjoyable. C+

Breckenridge Vanilla Porter- Liked this one- a subtle vanilla flavor porter wanted to drink more. Wish it had more carbonation or thickness to it B

More German Brews-Köstrizter Schwarzbeir and Gaffel Kölsch

Köstritzer Schwarzbeir: (Black Lager)
Excellent malty, smokey, surprisingly light, and smooth drinking. Blacker than night! Claims to be the beer with the black head and blond soul. Fitting. Get some.



The opposite end of the color spectrum is Gaffel's Kölsch. Kölsch is a type of beer only brewed in Köln (Cologne), Germany. Crisp, refreshing, like champagne minus any sweetness. An excellent beer for summer after cutting the grass or for people who think they don't like beer. Get some.

Paulaner Salvator DoppelBock

I am buzzed off some 7.9% Paulaner Salvator Doppelbock. Brewed in Munich, Germany. It is one smooth Doppelbock. Almost a light dopplebock. It is a good beer to have with friends when you want to get stupid with a smooth drinking beer. Deceptive. Nothing negative about the taste, but it also doesn't take any risks. The usual carmel maltiness that doppelbocks are famous for without the thickn sugaryness or any bitter flavors. Nice. I like it a lot, but not for the same reason Schneider Aventinus is a masterpiece.

Definately go get some if you like Doppelbocks

Favorite brewery: Weihenstephaner

Observant readers will have noticed the links to two German beer breweries on the sidebar. It's no secret, Weihenstephaner is my favorite.

The Bavarian State Brewery Weihenstephan. Nearly one thousand years ago it was the monastery brewery of the Benedictine monks, then the Royal Bavarian State Brewery. Today, as a regulated enterprise of the Freestate of Bavaria, it is a company run according to the precepts of private business. As the oldest existing brewery in the world, our brewery occupies an exalted site atop Weihenstephan Hill in the Bavarian city of Freising, surrounded by the comparatively still very young Weihenstephan science centre of the Technical University of Munich. Yet it is precisely this unique combination of tradition and custom, proven knowledge, and modern science, which gives the brewery its incomparable identity and permits it to brew beers of the highest quality. And, of course, we're more than a little proud of that.

The brewery claims to have been started in 1040. Tasting the fine beers now made by the state of Bavaria, I can see why. Here's Freising's location on the map.


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My first sampling was the Hefe Weissbier. My favorite. Go. Run. Speed. Buy some. So good. Give this beer to a beer hater and you'll have an instant convert. The beer is like eating cold sunlight. Amazing. Widely available in the US for 2.20-3.50$ a 17ounce tall bottle.


One point, Hefe Weissen's should be poured in a special way:

1. Take a Weissbier glass and a bottle of Weihenstephan.
2. Rinse Weissbier glass with clear water, do not dry.
3. Open Weihenstephaner Hefeweissbier.
4. Hold wet glass at an angle, almost horizontal, and pour.
5. When the opening of the bottle dips into the beer, slowly tilt the bottle up until it is vertical.
6. Keep a little beer in the bottle; use a circular motion to rinse the yeast from the bottom of the bottle and pour.
7. Prost!

And don't stop there. There is a dark Hefe, the Vitus, Korbinian etc... all awesome in their own way.

Schneider Aventinus Doppelbock- Simply Fabulous

Here's what I am drinking a lot of lately:

Aventinus wheat doppelbock. Bavaria from its strongest side.
Dark-ruby, almost black-colored and streaked with fine top-fermenting yeast, this beer has a compact and persistent head. This is a very intense wheat doppelbock with a complex spicy chocolate-like arome with a hint of banana and raisins. On the palate, you experience a soft touch and on the tongue it is very rich and complex, though fresh with a hint of caramel. It finishes in a rich soft and lightly bitter impression.

Dark-ruby colored, wheat doppelbock
Complex spicy chocolate arome
Pure top-fermenting yeast
Original bottle fermentation
Created in 1907
Creator: Mathilde Schneider
Wheat doppelbock 8.2 % vol. alc.
Original gravity 18.5%

This stuff is potent and GOOD. Oh so Good. Surprisingly widely available in the US.