Colorado Kitchen Brew

The beer that began life at a brewing party has finished fermenting and bottle conditioning. My estimated Final Gravity for this beer was 1.011. It came in a hair lower at 1.010. The ABV is a modest 5.4%. To say this beer wasn't brewed in a controlled environment would be a mild understatement. It's easy to get distracted from the task at hand with a bunch of friends around. Once I got it home, fermentation took place at a relatively consistent temp of 70F. As I previously reported, the yeast I used worked fast. The final gravity was lower than I expected, given this yeast's reputation. Enkel pours a hazy amber hue. The head is small, but firm and leaves nice lace. The nose has a lot of fruity esters from the yeast in the form of banana and bubblegum. Caramel, pepper and cut grass are there too. In the mouth, caramel and plum sweetness from the CaraVienne and Special B malts is out front. Bitterness is about what I expected. My goal was a good sweet/bitter balance an...

A good friend and fellow blogger asked for a Dark Saison to drink while gardening. Little Farmhouse on the Plains is what I came up with. It's loosely patterned after Widmer's Dark Saison (which my friend loves), but with my own twist. The wheat will give the beer a little crispness. The specialty grains should impart a nice toasted sweetbread flavor, plus a hint of coffee. At 36 IBUs, the hopping is fairly modest, but the beer's bitterness will be more prevalent than what's in Widmer's brew. If you read my Surly Cynic blog, you'll notice that this is the second go-around for Wyeast's French Saison. I liked what it did for that beer, so I'm hopeful I'll like it here too. Plus, repitching yeast from previous beers is a huge money saver over time. The recipe below is for a 5 gallon batch: Grains: 8 lbs Belgian Pilsner 1 lb Vienna 1 lb Torrified Wheat 8 oz Special B 8 oz Pale Chocolate Hops: 1 oz Northern Brewer: 60 min 0.5 oz Saaz: 7 m...

The mash emerges from the oven. Now that we're finished with Part 1 and Part 2 of this series, it's time to Sparge. As you can see from the photo, the grains have absorbed a lot of liquid. In a traditional all-grain setup, your Mash Tun has a valve at the bottom to release the first running of Wort. The grains are then rinsed with the sparge water to extract any remaining sugars. My stove-top method doesn't afford such luxury, so a different method is called for. The grains have gained a little weight. There are a couple of choices at this point. One choice is to lift the grain bag out of Pot A and place it into the sparge water in Pot B to steep for 10-15 minutes or more. The other is to lift the grain bag up, put a colander under it and slowly pour the sparge water through the grains into the original pot. I prefer the former, because I get a better extraction rate from my grains. All that absorption means that the grains weigh a lot more than they did going i...

I promised that the next one of these articles wouldn't be Belgian, or contain candy sugar. I've kept my promise and present to you an English IPA. If you're following my Kitchen Brewing series, this is the beer that I was making in all those pictures. This beer has a simple grain bill, but a heavy dose of two of my favorite English hops: Fuggles and Kent Goldings. The finished beer won't be the citrus bomb that is the typical West Coast IPA. This one should turn out earthy, floral and slightly woody. IPAs were made strong and heavily hopped to survive the long journey from Britain to India. With a target ABV of 6.4% and four hop additions, mine covers both bases. Here's the plan for five gallons: Grains: 12.5 lbs Maris Otter 8 oz Victory Hops: 2 oz Fuggles: 60 min 0.5 oz Fuggles: 20 min 0.5 oz Kent Goldings: 20 min 0.5 oz Fuggles: 7 min 0.5 oz Kent Goldings: 7 min  0.5 oz Fuggles: Dry Hopping 0.5 oz Kent Goldings: Dry Hopping Yeast: Wyeast 1469...

I promise that Part 3 of my kitchen brewing article is coming soon. In the meantime, I'm hopeful that this will tide everyone over. Tripel-Dubbel is the followup to my The Dubbel that was a Tripel article. After a few weeks conditioning in the bottle, it's time for the big reveal. Tripel-Dubbel pours a gleaming peach color and has decent clarity. As you can see from the picture, there's not much of a head on this one, but there's adequate carbonation. Very weird. The hue looks about right for a beer that's straddling two styles. In the mouth, the beer has a deceptive lightness that isn't at all watery. It also has a wine-like dryness. Bitterness is touch lower than I was expecting, but pleasant and slightly peppery. There's a nice coriander spiciness from the yeast at work too. From the sweetness angle, there is a healthy dose of plum and pear, plus a hint of caramel. At 7.2% ABV, the beer isn't particularly strong, but the alcohol is noticeable....

Always start your session with a beer. Now that the equipment is together from Part 1 , it's time to start brewing. I'll be brewing an English India Pale Ale for my demo batch. The beer's details will be out in a future blog. Ingredients ready to go. I'm lucky to have a homebrew shop with a grain mill, so I've crushed my grains at the store. The hops have also been measured out ahead of time to keep things simple. You don't have to do this, but I recommend it. My setup. My stove-top setup is pretty simple. Two kettles, a grain bag and a metal spatula are pretty much it. I also like using a hop bag (available for around $5.00), but it's completely optional. If you're doing all-grain brewing, canning pots work best for batches of 2.5 gallons or less. Anything larger and you'll be battling spill-overs. They also work well for partial-mash batches of up to 5 gallons, where you can top off your wort after the boil. We hav...

The whole premise of this blog is economical brewing. I figured it was about time I wrote a blog about it. My process is largely influenced by an article I found at Homebrew Talk , but I made a few changes along the way. My kitchen brewhouse for all-grain beers is very simple and uses a lot of items most of us already have. First off, you need a basic brewing starter kit. Most homebrew stores carry them for $70-$90. The kit should include a fermentation bucket, bottling bucket, siphon hose, hydrometer, fermentation lock and bottle caper. Some kits also contain bottle caps, a bottle brush, a racking tube and other goodies. You can buy bottles too, but you might as well save them from the beer you buy at the store. One word of caution: you can't use screw-top bottles for your beer. The standard kitchen items are a large metal slotted spoon (your low budget Mash Paddle), mesh colander, kitchen timer, food scale and a digital or floating thermometer. If you don't have any of...

I was invited to my first brewing party a few weeks ago. A bunch of people would be brewing beers and I wanted to get in on the action. With only one brewing station setup, I knew the KISS method was important. With that in mind, I threw together this simple Belgian Abbey Enkel (Single) recipe. Enkels; usually seen in the US as an Abbey Blonde or 6, have a lower strength than their Dubbel, Tripel and Quad cousins. Mine is at the lower end of the Single strength scale, with a target ABV of 5.4%. Here's the recipe for a five gallon batch: Grains: 6 lbs Pilsen Light LME (Liquid Malt Extract) 12 oz CaraVienne 4 oz Special B Hops: 0.5 oz Sterling: 60 min 0.5 oz Saaz: 20 min 0.5 oz Saaz: 7 min Yeast: Safbrew T-58 Extras: 1 lb Clear Belgian Candy Sugar Original Gravity: 1.052 Estimated Final Gravity: 1.011 Fermentation Schedule: 3 Weeks Primary 2 Weeks Bottle Conditioning Cost: $15 per case Rough Commercial Equivalent:  Avery Karma : $29 per case Savings: $1...

Sometimes, a beer just doesn't turn out as expected. Even the most experienced of us is bound to have a bad batch. Such is the case with my Dunkelweizen. As you can see from the photo, it looks brilliant. It has a cloudy chocolate hue, a dense head that sticks around and the aggressive bead this style demands. The mouthfeel is good too. There's a nice chewiness and vigorous carbonation. Then, there's the fact that you can smell and taste it. When I think Dunkelweizen, I think chocolate banana bread with a hint of spice. This is none of the above. The chocolate malt that I apparently used too much of to add color also gave a roasted edge to the flavor. I used a proper Weizen yeast, but the banana and clove are MIA. Overall, the flavor is off. Every brewer will tell you that sanitation is the key to always brewing good beer. I think something may have made it through the cracks this time. Still, the stuff is drinkable. I just won't be pawning it off on my friends...

Some of my favorite beers are Belgian Abbey ales. A good Dubbel, or Tripel makes me very happy. In this installment of In the Fermentor, I've brewed a beer that mashes (pun fully intended) the two styles together. When all is said and done, it should have the sweetness of a Dubbel, the hoppiness of a Tripel, plus a hue and strength that splits the difference. First, here's the recipe: Grains: 10.5 lbs Belgian Pilsener 8 oz Crystal 45L 8 oz Special B 8 oz Carapils Hops: 1 oz Hallertauer: 60 min 0.5 oz Crystal: 7 min Yeast: Wyeast 1388 - Belgian Strong Ale Extras: 1 lb Amber Belgian Candy Sugar Original Gravity: 1.060 Final Gravity: 1.004 Fermentation Schedule: 2 Weeks Primary 4 Weeks Secondary 2 Weeks Bottle Conditioning Cost: $18 per case Commercial Equivalent: New Belgium Abbey : $31 Savings: $13 I hit my target Mash temperature of 152, which made me happy. The Original Gravity wasn't as high as I expected, but the yeast did their thing ...

It seems fitting that my first real post be about the beer that inspired this blog. My son appropriately named it Golden Spark. It's a Belgian Strong Pale Ale (BSPA, for all you beer nerds out there) that weighs in at 9.8% alcohol. In the future, my "In the Fermentor" articles will list the recipes for my beers, but I'm making an exception this time. Golden Spark is a Partial Mash recipe that can easily be converted to all-grain. The following recipe is scaled up to make the traditional five gallon batch of homebrew: Grains: 4 lbs Rahr Two-Row 8 oz Crisp Crystal 15L 4 oz Briess Carapils Hops: 1 oz Hallertauer: 60 min 0.5 oz Saaz: 20 min 0.5 oz Crystal: 20 min 0.5 oz Saaz: 7 min 0.5 oz Crystal: 7 min Yeast: Wyeast 1388 - Belgian Strong Ale Extras: 6 lbs Briess Pilsen Light DME (Dry Malt Extract) 12 oz Clear Belgian Candi Sugar Original Gravity: 1.077 Final Gravity: 1.002 Fermentation Schedule: 2 Weeks Primary 4 Weeks Secondary 2 Weeks B...

Welcome to Colorado Kitchen Brew. This site is inspired by my quest to brew great beers economically, using simple setups that anyone with a little time on their hands can duplicate. Over time, I will cover brewing all-grain and partial mash beers on the stove-top, growing hops, making your own specialty grains, culturing yeast and anything else I, or my friends come up with. "In the Fermentor" articles will chronicle the fruits of my kitchen adventures. "Out of the Bottle" provides tasting notes on the finished products. Reviews of commercial brews will pop up from time to time as well. I hope anyone who stumbles upon this site enjoys what I have to offer.