Colorado Kitchen Brew

I'd never even heard of Poland's Grodziskie, until I read about it in a Zymurgy article. Not content to simply read about the beer, I've decided to go ahead and brew one. Besides, who wouldn't want to try a beer made entirely from Smoked Wheat? I've mostly followed the plan laid out in the Zymurgy article. The Mash schedule and hop addition times are as prescribed. However, I don't have easy access to the Lublin hops used in the magazine brew, or the correct yeast strain. In place of the Lublin hops, I've used Polish Sybilla. The beer also calls for a clean ale yeast. I've turned to White Labs ,Dusseldorf Alt yeast to fill the role. In a few weeks my efforts will be rewarded. Here's the five-gallon brew: Grains: 5 lbs Weyermann Oak Smoked Wheat Hops: 0.75 oz Sybilla (6.4% a.a.): 105 min 0.5 oz Sybilla (6.4% a.a.): 30 min Total Boil Time: 120 min Yeast: White Labs WLP036 - Dusseldorf Alt Mash Schedule: Acid Rest: 100F for 30 min ...

Well, that was easy. After only five short weeks, the Bitter I brewed based on suggestions from Twitter was done. Having consumed quite a few bottles while doing research for Grad School, I figure it's high time I finally write about how my beer turned out. My goal was for a Session Beer and that's what I got. With an ABV of around 3.5%, this is a beer you can drink several of (a Session's worth?) without fear of getting loopy. The body is light and refreshing, although a bit too tingly for a proper Bitter. But how does it taste? Not earth shattering, but pretty decent. The nose is primarily earthy hop, plus a bit of a toasty aroma. I was expecting some fruitiness from the yeast, but there isn't much there. The flavor is light, but interesting. Next time, I'll dial back the Amber Malt. It's a little too prevalent and doesn't quite balance the toffee undertones at work. Bitterness is just right and brings a black tea bite to the beer. It lingers thro...

I was asking around on Twitter about what beer style I should brew with some of my lingering grains, hops and yeast from 2013. The finalists came down to a Mild or an Ordinary Bitter . I've decided to combine both into a brew with the flavor of a Bitter, but the low ABV session beer goodness of a Mild. Since my goal was to brew without taking a trip to a Homebrew store, everything in the beer below was already on hand at home. My hop quantities are a little odd, because I was trying to use up open Challenger and EKG packages. The finished beer should have a nice sweet/bitter balance and an alcohol content of around 3.5%. Here's the 5-gallon recipe: Grains: 5 lbs Fawcett Optic Malt 8 oz Briess Caramel 80L 8 oz Fawcett Amber Malt Hops: 1 oz Challenger (6.9% a.a.): 60 min 0.5 oz Challenger (6.9% a.a.): 20 min 0.75 oz East Kent Goldings (4.5% a.a.): 0 min Total Boil Time: 90 min Yeast: White Labs WLP002 - English Ale Mash Schedule: Saccharification Rest: 1...

My Dark Session Saison is ready. It's closely related to my Session Saison from a few weeks back, so I plan on doing a bit of compare and contrast this time around. It is also one of the five beers I brewed for my friend's birthday, so I have some pretty decent feedback too. Let's start with the pour. The beer has a nice pale chocolate hue and a dense cap. Head retention is good and a nice amount of lace is left behind. Compared to its Session Saison brother, this beer adds a distinct baker's chocolate bite on top of that beer's biscuits and bitterness. However, the Cara Munich malts didn't cut through with sweetness as much as I thought they would. A little bonus time in the bottle allowed the yeast to do its thing. It adds some sourdough and light earthy funk aromas that balance, rather than overpower. Like the lighter Saison, this one has a body that's more dense than an ABV of less than 5.0% would normally produce. As far as tasting notes...

My Session Saison is ready. Having recently moved to the mountains, I've come to learn one thing about brewing beer here. Even in the middle of summer, the evening temps drop into the 40s and 50s. This is great news for keeping the house comfortable. Open the windows at night, let the temp in the house drop, close the windows in the morning and have a nice cool house all day. This isn't the best scenario for a Saison, unfortunately. Most of the "city folk" I know brew Saisons during the Summer months because the yeast actually likes high fermentation temps. As in 80 degrees or more. I could wrap my fermentors in blankets in the warmest part of the house and never reach those temps. Of course, I could buy extra equipment to warm my fermentors, but that goes against the grain of what I'm trying to do here: brew great beer with cheap gear . With all that background out of the way, it's time to see how my Saison did. First off, the clarity of the beer...

I've been asked to brew all of the beer for my friend's Birthday. It's in mid-August, so I have to get everything going right now . There will be five beers in all: Dunkelweiss, Wit, Saison, Dark Saison and Kölsch. Rather than post all of the recipes at once, I'm going to spread them out into separate posts. My Session Saison and SMaSH Kölsch were already underway before I was asked to brew the other beers. The Dark Saison below is an extension of the Session Saison. I've expanded the original recipe to make a darker beer. CaraMunich Malt adds a little caramel sweetness, while Carafa II brings a light dark chocolate edge to the brew. The rest of the beer is as it was before, with the same hops and yeast. Adding extra grains does push the alcohol content up a bit, but the beer still shouldn't break the 5% ABV mark. I'm anxious to try my two Saisons out side by side and taste the difference that two extra grains can make. For five gallons: Grai...

It's been awhile since my last Saison , so I'm taking a stab at a new one. The beer below is a fairly straightforward take on the style. However, like I did with my Abbey Blonde a few months back, this beer is serving as a base for another beer that I'll be writing about in a few weeks. Let's take a quick look at the recipe. The beer's grain-bill is nice and simple: Pils Malt, plus a little Aromatic Malt and Flaked Wheat for character. Since I intend for this to be a late Summer beer, my Original Gravity is below the bottom of the BJCP Saison guidelines (not that really care all that much). If the yeast doesn't go too nuts, the beer's alcohol content will clock in at around 4.5%. That's just abut right for a beer meant for drinking while plowing the fields, rather than for getting plowed in the fields. Styrian Celeia hops provide a nice floral quality. The bitterness will be prevalent, but not overpowering. As I did with last year's Saiso...