Colorado Kitchen Brew

I'm doing a 4-for-1 with this installment, and will be bundling my finished beers going forward, rather than writing a blog for each.  That should leave me space for more brewing oriented posts. This month, I've got beers I posted the recipes for back in November, December and January. First out of the gate is Enchanted Nightmare Imperial Stout. This beer is an amalgamation of extra grains and hops I had that were combined with some 2-Row and additional hops to create a 9.95% ABV Stout for the depths of Winter. So what if it wasn't actually ready until the Spring Equinox arrived? A beer like this can't be rushed. My beer pours nearly pitch black, and has nice ruby highlights. The head could stand a touch more staying power, but is appropriately dense. In the mouth, the body is a little lighter than I expected. The carbonation is very soft, and feels just about right for this beer style.  When I bottled this beer, I was slightly worried that the whiskey and oak were a li...

While 2020 was easily my worst year ever, all of those weeks cooped up at home meant I had more time than usual to brew. One of my final brew days of 2020 was devoted to this Barleywine.  My beer is loosely based on various takes I found on Great Divide's Old Ruffian , which is a beer that used to be a regular member of their lineup. That's not the case anymore, which is why I decided to tackle my own.  The main area where I've diverged from what I came across online is with the specialty malts. I've bumped them all up just a tad. In addition, my homebrew store doesn't stock Crystal 80, so I went with Crystal 77. I'm fairly certain my hop schedule is different as well. To finish my beer off, I'll be adding an oak spiral toward the end of secondary fermentation. This beer won't be ready until mid April at the earliest, so I have quite the wait ahead. My 5 gallon brew is below: Grains: 17lbs Rahr 2-Row 12oz Crisp Crystal 77 12oz Briess Victory 8oz Briess F...

Mine My Red Chair clone attempt is ready to go. It's time to see just how close I got. A report on the outcome of a clone-brew wouldn't be complete without popping open a bottle of the real deal. With that in mind, I grabbed some Red Chair from the store to drink side-by-side with my beer. Let's start with appearances. My beer is a bit lighter than the Deschutes brew. Both have dense caps that stick around nicely and leave good bits of lace behind. Moving onto what really matters, there are a surprising number of similarities between the two brews. Most noticeable is the bitterness profile. Although the Deschutes brew has a touch more grapefruit to it, the level of bitterness between the two beers is almost identical. Citrus is the overarching theme, with a touch of pine in the background. The bitterness of both beers lingers through the finish, where they get a little peppery. Their's In other areas, things veer off course. My beer is more malty and c...

I'm not a huge fan of trying to clone commercial beers. I did it once with Samuel Smith's Taddy Porter , but haven't tried since. However, I'm all for a challenge. When a friend of mine asked me to try and clone Deschutes' Red Chair Northwest Pale Ale , I decided to grant his wish. Thankfully, the Deschutes website happily lays out what's actually in the beer . What their site doesn't do is tell you what lovibond Crystal Malt to use, how much of each malt to use, which maltsters provided their malts, and what yeast strain they ferment with. I did a little hunting and found all sorts of conflicting information about Deschutes' yeast strain. The only consistent thread was that they use a proprietary yeast, rather than one of the strains most homebrew shops carry. Multiple sources (including the bastion of reliable information that is Wikipedia) stated that Ringwood Ale is the closest commercial strain. Yet another source said to use London ESB .  I...

It's Election Day! What better beverage is there to imbibe while watching election results than a glass of White House beer? My take on White House Honey Porter is right on schedule and ready to drink. The finished beer has a deep mahogany hue with a dense cream head. The nose is heavy with molasses and coffee, plus a slightly minty herbal note. In the mouth, the beer has nice density and is slightly syrupy. I'm guessing the honey has something to do with that. Despite there being no roasted barley in the recipe, the black and chocolate malts bring a heavy roasted edge. They also provide the burnt bitterness I expect to find in a Stout. Where the beer departs from that style is in its additional layer of herbal bitterness from the hops. The honey in the recipe can be sensed way in the background. The beer finishes dry and slightly acidic. Overall, this is a pretty nice little Porter. I'm not sure if I'll brew it again, but I'm glad I gave it a whirl. As a...

Election Day is coming up soon. What better way to celebrate our democracy than with the White House's own beer? White House Honey Ale and Porter are the two beer recipes recently released by the White House. I decided to brew a variation on the Porter. The original recipe is extract based. I practiced my 1st Amendment rights and replaced the malt extract with Colorado Pale Ale malt to make an all-grain beer. The White House recipe doesn't indicate what variety of hops to use for bittering. It only states that 10 HBUs (approximately 35 IBUs) are needed. I went with some Crystal hops that I had on-hand. The very patriotically named Liberty descendent of Hallertauer hops completes the picture. Here's the 5-gallon plan. The beer should be ready just in time for November 6th: Grains: 9 lbs Colorado Pale Ale 1 lb Crystal 20L 12 oz Munich 6 oz Black Malt 3 oz Chocolate Malt Hops: 1 oz Crystal (6.2% a.a.): 45 min 1 oz Crystal (6.2% a.a.): 30 min 0.5 oz Liber...

My Beer My attempt to clone Samuel Smith Taddy Porter is ready to pour. For a change of pace, I've picked up a 4-pack of the real deal to compare and contrast against my efforts. Since I'm not exactly an impartial judge, my girlfriend agreed to blind taste test the two beers side by side in identical, unmarked glasses. I've mixed her notes in with mine. First off, I must say that the beers look remarkably similar. Taddy pours with a slightly larger head, but the beers share the same deep garnet hue. Mine has a bit more carbonation going on. Both beers have good head retention and leave some lace behind. My girlfriend's first comment was that my beer was very similar, but finished quicker than the Samuel Smith. She also noted that the Samuel Smith is slightly more bitter, with more depth of flavor. The first thing I noticed was that my beer has a more roasted edge and is a bit nuttier. It also lacks the unique dark fruit esters that I sense in all of the Samuel...

Samuel Smith Taddy Porter is one of my favorite beers in the whole-wide-world. Famed beer writer Michael Jackson even coined it “One of the world’s five best beers.” It was one of my gateway beers back in the early 90s and has stuck with me ever since. Although I'll be hard pressed to truly duplicate Taddy Porter, it never hurts to try. After some extensive internet research, I've formulated this recipe using entirely English malts and hops, plus a yeast strain that's supposedly the one used by Samuel Smith. The finished beer should be nutty, roasty and slightly sweet, with a mild bitterness. Here's the plan for five gallons: Grains: 7 lbs Maris Otter 1 lb English Brown 1 lb English Medium Crystal 12 oz English Chocolate Hops: 1 oz Fuggles (6.0% a.a.): 60 min 1 oz Fuggles (6.0% a.a.): 7 min Yeast: Wyeast 1469 - West Yorkshire Mash Schedule: Saccharification Rest: 151F for 60min Mashout: 168F for 15 minutes Original Gravity: 1.048 Estimated Fin...