Colorado Kitchen Brew

My latest Wit was a hit at my friend's birthday party. He especially liked the beer's citrus components. Others found it to be light and refreshing. I heard no Blue Moon comparisons, which actually made me quite happy. Compared to My Wit's End , this beer is much closer to style. Unmalted Wheat is part of the reason, as there's much less grainy sweetness at work. Instead, the beer is crisp and dry. The bitter orange peel really does its thing. The peel's sharp flavor melds nicely with the sweet orange peel I also used. Coriander pushes the beer's spicy character along. If I were to change anything, it would be to dial it back a notch or two. Some light sourdough aromas round out the flavor and aroma. Despite the relatively low ABV of right around 5.0%, the beer sports a fairly hefty body. Overall, I'm quite happy with this Wit. Next time, I'll hold back on the coriander. Maybe I will even take a shot at a Turbid Mash, which sounds like a great sub...

I stake no claim to being the Greatest Homebrewer in the World TM . There are plenty of homebrewers out there who have been at this longer than me. They have brewed many a fabulous beer. All I'm doing is showing people how to brew really good beer without taking out a second mortgage. A simple setup , proper sanitation and practice, practice, practice are all it takes. Having admitted I'm not an AHA master, I like the beers I brew (with the exception of this one anyway). Some beers come out better than others , but I have yet to dump a batch. In addition, I've made plenty of friends and colleagues happy. With the backstory out of the way, I'd like to focus on what I call the Freshness Factor. Over the years, I've reviewed several kegs worth of beers on Beer Advocate . Since I returned to brewing, a pattern has emerged. The scores I give now are generally lower than what I used to give. I don't think this means I've suddenly become a BJCP...

I was wandering through the liquor store the other day and noticed just how inexpensive 30-Packs (a.k.a. Suitcases) of really cheap beers are. Especially if they're on sale. I've seen some suitcases for as low as $13 before tax. That's roughly 43 cents per beer. Call me insane, but I became curious. Could I go to my local homebrew store and buy the ingredients to brew my own beer of similar strength for the same price, or less? Saving cash is part of this blog's ongoing theme , so I had to find out. To meet my challenge, I decided to think light (not Lite). No big Belgians or Barleywines here. A refreshing, mildly hopped and easy to brew Blonde Ale should do the trick. The prices below are what my local homebrew store charges, rather than the absolute lowest prices I can find. Usually to get discounts, you have to buy in bulk. Since there are no grains that I use an entire sack of in a year, or hops that I need a pound or more of, I didn't pursue that route. ...

I've read more than a few times online that SMaSH (Single Malt, Single Hop) beers are boring. They're more of an experiment that helps the brewer get to know certain grains and hops than they are great beers. How could a beer made with a single grain and hop possibly be interesting? More ingredients equals more excitement, right? I'm pleased to report that less really can be more. My SMaSH Kölsch proves it (not that I'm biased or anything). Bready malt, light floral bitterness and a touch of white wine sum things up nicely. This beer isn't in your face. Instead, it's delicate and therefore leaves imperfections no place to hide. Clarity is excellent. I promise that the haze in the picture is sweat on the glass due to the recent spate of rainy weather. A soapy white cap has good staying power and leaves some lace behind. The nose is dominated by cut flowers and pale fruits, plus a hint of fresh cut grass. That theme flows nicely into the flavor. Fresh b...

Wheatwines are a style that I've just started looking into. I've only a had a couple of them and that was enough to pique my interest. For my brew, I've decided to to take what's essentially a Hefeweizen on steroids grain-bill, toss in some CaraWheat malt for a touch of sweetness and then hop it to American Barleywine levels with American hops. A clean Ale yeast, plus the high bitterness will make sure no one mistakes this creation for a Weizenbock. Since my canning pot setup doesn't allow for huge amounts of grain, I've taken the partial-mash approach and added Malt Extract to push up the Original Gravity. Although it feels a little odd brewing a big beer in August, something this strong needs at least 3-4 months to mature. I'll be back around Thanksgiving with a final report. Here's the five gallon brew: Grains: 8 lbs Rahr White Wheat 4 lbs Rahr Pale Ale 8 oz Weyermann CaraWheat Hops: 1 oz Galena (13.4% a.a.): 60 min 1 oz Falconer...

Near as I can figure, Sours are to the 2010s what American IPAs were to the 1990s. They're the hot style in the US beer world and every serious beer drinker I know covets them. I'm personally not obsessed with Sours, but that doesn't mean I'm not anxious to brew one. My favorite Sour beer style is Flanders Red . More specifically, I'm a huge Duchesse de Bourgogne fan. I love the tart Red Wine quality it brings to the glass. While I'm not going to attempt to clone it, I am aiming for a beer that's similar. In keeping with my 2013 goal of doing more with less, my recipe is pretty straightforward, while still checking off all the style guideline boxes. In addition, I'll be adding an ounce of oak cubes to the secondary for a little extra something. The oak cubes will be soaked in Oloroso Sherry first to simulate the effect of the Casks that are used for one of my favorite Single Malt Scotches . Having done a fair bit of research on Sours, I...

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...