The weather here on the farm has been remarkably pleasant for December and I had high hopes of taking the camper out for a few days. 

 The kids and grandkids are here on the farm for Thanksgiving.

All of the towns in the area are out of power.  I wonder how many turkeys are sitting half cooked in electric ovens. 

Happy Thanksgiving. 

I was 13.  I remember it well.

Saturday I took the camper to a nearby lake to test out the recently installed batteries and inverter.  I was the only one in the camping area and it turned out to be a 65º day.

The trails were perfect for the electric bike and I was able to charge the bike battery from the inverter.

The only glitch turned out to be the Dish satellite connection.  I was able to connect to only one of the two satellites, so it will take more testing of the carry out antenna to find out why.  Depending on the weather I may be able to make a couple more camping trips.  It's getting freezing at night, so I may just have to park in one of the sites with power to run an electric heater to keep warm.

While the weather is still nice we decided to hitch up the camper for a quick trip into Iowa to try the Keg Creek Brewery in Glenwood.  It's 90 miles from the farm and even though we had to jog around one detour it was an easy drive.

(Side note: My dad served in the Navy during WWII and used to say, "Red sky at night, sailors' delight.  Red sky in the morning, sailor take warning."  Right again dad.)

Keg Creek is relatively new and turned out to be a comfortable setting.

We were pleasantly surprised with the number of beers they had on tap and I was especially happy to see they had three stouts to choose from.

We picked up a pizza on our way into town, which was perfect with the Keg Creek beers.

Because of the enjoyable facility and selection of beers this is certainly a go-to brewery.  Best of all the pints of beer were $3.50 during happy hour!

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Because I'm someone who can't leave well enough alone,  I've been making some upgrades to the camper.  The latest razzle dazzle in the camping world is the recent trend towards 12 volt refrigerators to replace absorption 3 way refrigerators.  They are compressor driven and reportedly are roomier, quicker to cool and more efficient.  Anyway, that's the claim and they have been getting good reviews.  The word is that during Covid RV manufacturers couldn't get the propane refrigerators and 12 volt were plentiful.  Our new camper came with a 12 volt refrigerator. 

The camper also came with one group 27 FLA (flooded lead acid) battery, to which I had a second one added.  We haven't fully tested the capabilities of the batteries with the refrigerator running, however I doubt one battery would keep up and even wonder about two.  It seemed to me that with everything else in the camper running off these two FLA batteries when boondocking it might be a problem.  So, to that end, I added two group 31 AGM batteries in parallel and connected them to run the camper.

That left me with the two FLA batteries.  The other problem was no outlets to run plug in items, like the Dish satellite, when off grid.  I had a barely used 1000 watt pure sine inverter sitting around and ran dedicated wires from the two FLA batteries in parallel to the inverter.  It required drilling two holes to feed the main camper wiring to the AGM batteries in the storage compartment and the wiring from the two FLA batteries on the front of the camper to the inverter.

From the inverter I ran a remote wire and a power strip to an inconspicuous wall in the camper.   The inverter will easily run the Dish satellite and any other plug in items, including charging the electric bike battery.   I still need to clean up some wires, but it at this point it is working.

The camper came with a 190 watt solar panel on the roof and a solar plug on the frame, which will charge the AGM batteries when off grid.  While I was at it I added a solar plug on the battery box for the two FLA batteries on the front of the camper.

We have two 200 watt suitcase solar panels and along with factory roof mounted solar panel that gives us 590 watts of solar.  My guess is that the roof solar panel will keep the AGM batteries charged, however if we are in a shaded area I can plug in a suitcase panel on a cord and move it around.

I'm planning to take the camper out this weekend off grid and run the refrigerator, Dish satellite, television and lights to max out the system.  I'll also take the electric bike out and charge the battery from the inverter.  I'll see how it goes.

This past weekend we hitched up the camper and went to an NRD (Natural Resources District) campground with no hookups near Valley, NE.  It is late enough in the season that we were the only ones in the campground, which will close for the season on November 1st.

Our camper has one factory installed solar panel and we also use a folding panel.  The camper came with two group 24 batteries and even with those there are limitations.  Makes me wonder if a couple of AGM batteries may be a better choice.  Also shown is the recent purchase of a Lectric ebike to use on the craft beer quests.

While there we checked out two more brewpubs on my continuing quest to find the best craft beers.  On day one the first brewery was Jukes, located in Elkhorn.

Jukes has a modern and comfortable decor with a full kitchen.  

While they did have a reasonable selection of beer, they did not have any stouts.  I had their dark lager, which was very good.

  

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On day two we went to Heavy Brewery in Gretna, NE.  Heavy Brewery is best described as a "Chuck-E-Cheese" for adults beer hall, set in a large industrial building with arcade games and food.

There was a reasonable selection of beer, however once again no porters or stouts.  The  Hefeweizen was the alternative choice. 

They have a substantial pizza oven which proved to be a perfect fit with the beers.

The only drawback to the trip was the outrageous price of fuel as big oil continues to line their pockets.

Our weather is making a dramatic shift with freezing temps on the way and a forecast of snow for the weekend, which meant it was time to winterize the camper water lines with antifreeze.  We'll see what that portends for any more camping.  Bummer.

This past week was a continuation of the craft beer quest.  On the first visit I was solo and traveled to Wayne, NE (pop. 5990) to the Johnnie Byrd Brewery.

The taproom of the brewery is in a rather narrow room with a minimum decor, albeit comfortable.

There was a good selection of beer and I appreciated that they had some traditional beers to offset the flavored beers.

While I did sample their wheat and the Marzen I found both to be lacking in body and flavor of others I have tried.  I would have liked to have tried the pilsner, unfortunately it was flavored with cucumber (why?!).  Same goes for the porter, which they flavored with honey!

I did notice they offered a milk stout, however labeled it as being coffee-vanilla.  Happy to say that any flavor added was so mild that it turned out to be a very drinkable stout.

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The next trip was with my wife and a return of sorts to the Stone Hollow Brewery in Beatrice, NE (pop. 12,000).

I say return of sorts because I had given up on the brewery from past visits.  They had transitioned from having traditional craft beer to mostly flavored, included pickle flavored, vanilla wheat, tropical fruit wheat, honey kolsch, watermelon lager, smores stout and cookie porter.  They usually have a light lager and an IPA, neither attractive to me.

I phoned the brewery and learned that they currently have a Milk Stout on tap.  They confirmed that no additional flavors were added, so off we went, camping at the municipal park.

The brewery is located in a nicely renovated brick building, which is a major plus for visiting.

They do not serve food, however allow food to be brought in.  The milk stout was perfect with a pizza.

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On the drive home while passing through a small town we noticed a sign on a building indicating the pending opening of a craft brewery.  I've wondered how long this trend may last with the number of craft breweries starting up, including rural towns.  Many are open only a couple days a week and most don't open until late in the afternoon.  I wonder how long before the craft brewery bubble bursts. Until then I'll continue the quest to find the perfect craft beer in the perfect craft brewery.