Brewing beer and smoking salmon

When the rivers are blown out from too much rain and I am feeling in the dumps from a lingering cold, it's time to do something fun. That something was smokin' salmon and brewing beer.

The first is something I have done several times with some good success. The second is something I know little about and wanted to learn. Of course, both have wonderful rewards and really take about the same amount of time for success. On the fish side, the salmon and trout I was smoking were caught the previous summer. I also spent the previous 24 hours preparing the fish with a dry mix of organic brown sugar and Kosher salt.

The beer, or rather a wort, is prepared in a little less time than it took to smoke the fish. Once the wort is finished, it ferments and ages a month or more before it is ready to drink. My guide for the brewing process was my buddy Kevin who is a great salmon fisherman. 

He is also a great brewer and after evaluating a production IPA and a local amber ale, Kevin opened his fridge and shared his Jubelale and double IPA. Both were great and I needed to watch my intake to make sure I was not impeding my body's attempt to get rid of the remnants of my cold.

The best discovery of the day was that fresh smoked fish and homebrew go great together. And, I am looking forward to enjoying a pint after a (hopefully) successful day of kayak fishing which will continue the cycle of brewing beer and smoking salmon.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Starting The Season With A New Fleet

Image
The blog has received little love over the past year, so it was time to write a post. It's not that I have been fishing less, it's that I haven't taken the time to post and work on the videos. The 2022 salmon season was not nearly as epic as the 2021 season especially with the limited fall salmon season. This was mainly due to a unique hatchery Tule Chinook salmon return where the Spring Creek Hatchery upstream of Bonneville Dam had about 100,000 Chinook return - twice the average. The Tule is an endangered species in the rivers below Bonneville Dam and due to some complicated issues,  caused a closure in the lower Columbia River during the height of the season. Hobie PA17t The 2023 salmon season is off to an unseasonably cold start with winter holding on and March coming in like a lion and going out like a lion. No lambs this year. Hopefully better days await in April and beyond. I did reorganize my fleet buying and selling some kayaks while still ending up with a tandem, ...
Read more

A Productive Salmon Season in a Year of Low Returns

Image
This year has proven one of my best yet for putting salmon in the kayak. After a slow start in March and April, I hooked eight and landed six spring Chinook "Springers" on the Willamette River. All were hatchery fish and most were 30-plus inches. They were all caught with my red and orange hand-tied spinners and Pro-Troll 360 flashers. The Springers were caught in May and June, typically the end of the season. These two months seem to be my most productive. Two years ago, I landed six, and had two, two-fish days. This year, I never hooked two fish on the same day, although I had more days catching fish. Most days were spent focusing on the tide changes, and I was usually off the water by noon. I was fortunate because the run was about 25 percent lower than expected and many anglers had a rough season. I spent July fishing for smallmouth bass in the Willamette and Columbia, and spent a few days in August anchored in the Columbia fishing for fall kings. The fall season p...
Read more

Looking towards 2021 while glancing in the mirror.

Image
A limit of springers caught in July! As the fall salmon season was coming to a close, I anxiously waited for another disaster in 2020 while hoping to catch one more fish on the kayak.   Starting with a pandemic, the year seemed like it was forged in strife with racial injustice protests, political conspiracies, hazardous air quality, massive hurricanes, melting glaciers, financial disasters, and finally an election where unproven accusations and lies caused the first breach of our nation's Capitol in more than 200 years. Yep, 2020 was certainly a year we got a clear view of our country's past, present, and future.  Through most of the chaos, I enjoyed many days on my home waters fishing for salmon with my buddy Mark. The kayaks proved a great way to social distance and the Willamette and Columbia Rivers offered opportunities for salmon, steelhead, bass, sturgeon, and shad close to home.  The first half of the salmon season was tough and it wasn't until May that I fin...
Read more