Colorado Kitchen Brew

After much waiting, my Old Ale is finally ready for the light of day. It looks great coming out of the bottle. Clarity is good and there's a nice dense head that leaves a fair amout of lace behind. I can tell right away that I went a little nuts with the number of grains I used. There are six of them in all. They each bring a different flavor to the party. Throw in the brown sugar and hops, and the beer gets busy in a hurry. I'm not saying I don't like the result, but this beer won't be winning any subtlety awards. The overarching theme is that of toffee and rum that's been bolstered by tobacco and black tea. There's a bit of a roasted note too, but it's in the background. The sweet/bitter balance is good. Even with an ABV of around 8.5%, the alcohol is well masked and doesn't add much warmth. The beer's body is dry, slightly heavy and has nice soft carbonation. The black tea and toffee flavors linger through the finish. My overall assessmen

Following in the footsteps of my Westvleteren XII inspired Quad is this Tripel recipe. If you look at the hops, yeast and grain-bill, you'll notice that they're essentially the same as what's in the other beer. Although the Tripel dials up the bitterness just a touch with a larger first hop addition, the real difference is its switch to clear Candi Sugar. In the end, I should have two very different beers, despite them sharing all but one ingredient. On a side note, my Mash efficiency was much better than usual on this batch. Normally, I get a little above 70% with my stove-top setup . This time I was just shy of 80%. Because of that, the Original Gravity of this beer is extremely close to what I got from my Quad. Comparing the two beers when they're done should be very interesting. Here's the five-gallon recipe: Grains: 7 lbs Castle Pilsen 6 lbs Castle Pale Ale Hops: 0.5 oz Magnum (14.9% a.a.): 90 min 1 oz Styrian Golding (3.8% a.a.): 20 min 1 oz St

I recently looked at my calendar and realized that St Patrick's Day is only a few weeks away. Thankfully, I have just enough time left to throw together a quick Irish Stout for the occasion. My favorite Stout from Ireland is Murphy's . I greatly prefer it to the old standby of Guinness. I did a fair amount of research and put together this recipe for five gallons of Irish joy. I doubt it will be anywhere near an exact match, but I think it will be tasty nonetheless. To help circumvent the chance of astringent flavors from the roasted grains, they were added after the Saccharification Rest. I also added a teaspoon of Irish Moss for the final 15 minutes of the boil. The five gallon recipe is below: Grains: 7 lbs Crisp Maris Otter 10 oz Crisp Roasted Barley 8 oz Crisp Chocolate Malt Hops: 0.5 oz Galena (13.4% a.a.): 60 min Total Boil Time: 60 min Yeast: Safale S-04 Mash Schedule: Saccharification Rest: 150F for 60min (Maris Otter only) Mashout: 168F for

It's the middle of Winter and time to brew a nice Weizenbock . My take on the style leans toward a heavier Dunkelweizen in character, but doesn't contain a massive alcohol bump. However, it should still have a nice, dense liquid-bread effect on the palate. Last year's Dunkelweiss had a very complex grain bill. In keeping with my 2013 resolution of doing more with less, this beer is much simpler. An even split of Dark Wheat and Munich Malt, plus a little Dehusked Carafa II for a hint of chocolate is it. I've broken the rules a bit, in that wheat makes up only 49% of my grist, rather than the German minimum of 50%. But what's 1% between friends? Rounding things out, Opal hops provide mild bitterness, but should add little to no flavor. With a projected ABV of around 6.5%, the finished beer will be on the lighter end of the recommended Weizenbock ABV scale. Having Bock in a beer's name doesn't always have to equal an alcohol bomb. I've not had th