Colorado Kitchen Brew

I've decided to make a change with how I handle my Out of the Bottle articles. As much as I like to bloviate about my beers, I feel it will be much more useful to present tasting notes from the family and friends who actually drink them. Some of them are craft beer aficionados. Others are perfectly happy with one of the Big Three on a hot day. Of course, I drink my beer too and will continue to give my thoughts. However, I feel hearing what others have to say is much more useful to me and hopefully to readers. I recall hearing a quote from Michael Jackson a few years back about how brewers should brew beer that they’re passionate about. For homebrewers, that’s great advice. I’m not a huge American IPA fan, so I rarely brew one. On the other hand, I’m obsessed with Trappist beers and frequently experiment with them. Mr Jackson's advice is all well and good. But to me, brewing is more than just following my passions. That’s because I see beer as a very soci

I don’t often brew on a dare, so I want input from the outside world before this one actually reaches my brew pot. This recipe stems from a humorous back-and-forth on Twitter between fellow beer blogger Eye Beer Holder and me about what beer to drink one night. At the time, I had three of my homebrews in the fridge: Irish Stout , Prohibition Bock and Wit . He suggested I drink all three, which led to a discussion of what would happen if I poured all three into the same glass. Thus the Stouckit was born. Ryan figures we could make a fortune by brewing this radical new style. I simply have a morbid curiosity about what this concoction will come out tasting like. The recipe takes the classic elements of three very different styles and mashes them together. We have Maris Otter, Roasted Barley and Chocolate Malt from my Irish Stout. The Wit brings Coriander, Orange Peel, Pils Malt, Flaked Wheat and Belgian Yeast to the party. The Bock contributes Munich and CaraMunich Malts, Nob

2012's Dunkelweiss was so fun that I had to make another one for 2013. Unlike last year's beer, this one uses a much simpler grain-bill (four malts instead of seven), in addition to a Single Decoction Mash . I've also switched to a liquid Weiss yeast, in hopes of getting stronger banana and clove phenols. As before, there's mild bitterness from Opal hops and no aroma or flavor hops to get in the way of the yeasty goodness that is Dunkelweiss. An important note here is that I feel it's important to use German Munich Malt. The North American Munich Malts I've employed in the past just don't seem the same as their German counterparts. In six short weeks, my work shall be rewarded. Here's the recipe for five gallons: Grains: 3 lbs Weyermann Dark Wheat 3 lbs Weyermann Pale Wheat 3 lbs Weyermann Light Munich 2 oz Weyermann Dehusked Carafa II Hops: 0.5 oz Opal (6.3% a.a.): 60 min Total Boil Time: 90 min Yeast: White Labs WLP300 - Hefeweizen

The weather is getting progressively warmer and I'm officially suffering from what I call "Big Beer Burnout." Although Colorado's spate of April snowstorms provided cold nights of inspiration for bottles of warming Barleywine , Quad and Tripel , I'm ready to shift gears to lighter beers. Heavy, alcohol-laden brews have officially fallen off my radar. I have quite a few of my big beers left that I can store in the cellar until Winter. I'll drink and write Out of the Cellar blogs about them when the cold returns. With that in mind, nearly two cases of my big beers from this year and last have been boxed up and put into cool storage. Unfortunately, this leads me to my latest dilemma: bottles. A few months ago I recycled a huge quantity of them. The reason I did it, is because I had just re-inherited several cases of old-school returnable and swing-top bottles from my brother. I figured that with those in the fold, I was never, ever going to fill every bot

It's May and my Prohibition Bock is ready for Spring. Let's see how it turned out. I must say that I really like the look. The beer's clarity is excellent and its chocolaty hue is topped by a dense cream cap that does a nice job of sticking around. The beer leaves a bit of lace behind too. So how would I describe the aroma and flavor? Chocolate Alt with an American twist. Baking chocolate and caramel are the central theme. The overall effect wasn't quite what I expected, but I'm pleased and so are the friends who've tried my beer. The sweetness is well balanced by a mild bitterness that has a certain rustic (that's a flavor, right?) edge that seems to come with American Cluster hops. The yeast is clean, but all I could think while drinking was Alt. This is a beer that definitely rides the line between Lager and Ale. Rounding things out, the finish carries a lingering sweetness, while the beer's body has a nice heft to it. Overall? Not a bad li

Sometimes you just want to throw together a quick and easy beer. Malt extracts are a great way to accomplish this. The mess will be minimal compared to all-grain, plus you'll be done in a couple of hours. That's a pretty good deal when you want to brew, but don't have a lot of time to devote. For this beer, I'm making a nice and easy drinking Cream Ale. According to the BJCP style guideline for Cream Ale , a combination of two-row and six-row malt is common. To get my two-row/six-row malt blend, I'm combining Briess' two-row based Pilsen Light extract with their six-row based Golden Light extract. Together, they should hopefully give me the malt profile I'm looking for. A small dose of Cluster and Willamette hops provides just enough bitterness, while a clean American Ale yeast handles the fermentation. A couple of weeks of cold bottle conditioning will provide a little extra smoothness. Where I'm veering off script is in the use of sugars and

2013: Same beer. Same glass. Today is the first anniversary of my blog, as well as the first anniversary of the first beer I ever wrote about: Golden Spark . Certain strong beer styles age very well. The Belgian Strong Pale Ale ( BSPA ) is one of them. With that in mind, I cellared the last few bottles of my beer and patiently waited for it to evolve. Has it changed much since last Spring? In a word: Yes. Here's what I had to say in May of 2012: "After two weeks in the bottle, the beer had great carbonation and a nice dense head. Due to my forgetting to throw in Irish Moss during the boil, there was as a fair amount of chill haze, which didn't bother me. Pears and apricots dominated, with a hint of spicy bitterness. Fast forward to a month plus in the bottle and things have changed. The fruits have faded and let the bitterness through. The mouthfeel is extremely dry and deceivingly light." To keep things interesting, I poured the beer into the sam