These Can Only Mean One Thing...

Trip to Odell and the Latest

As many of you know (see previous posts), Muddy Huddy was chosen to be brewed by Odell Brewing Co. for an entry into the Great American Beer Festival. At the beginning of August, I drove up to the brewery and brewed my beer on their brewery. It was an absolutely awesome experience and a really fun day....really makes me want to open my own brewery soon.

Started out with over 500 lbs. of malt!

Here is the system I brewed on, can make about 8 barrels (252 gallons)  of beer on it (we made about 6)

Muddy Huddy mash!

Morning sun coming into the brewery...beautiful, right?

Well, one month later, we took a family trip to Odell to try the finished product. It came out pretty good!  A little lower in alcohol, 5.9% vs. 7.5% that I brewed. All and all, it is very tasty and we'll be taking another trip up with friends to sample it again.

Tap Room beer list...that's right...uhhuh

I actually wrote the description for Muddy Huddy

Cam is so psyched

Wonderful wife..she doesn't like stouts, but said she liked this one!

Cam is really impressed with the brewery...

The day after the brewery visit, I brewed up two beers. The first was a Saison that will have 20 pounds of Colorado Western slope peaches added to it at the end of fermentation. The other beer was a wet-hopped harvest ale that was made with fresh hops from the backyard and Micah's yard. I had mostly Chinooks and Micah had CTZ. It will be a lighter beer at 4.6%, but it should have a good wet-hopped taste and aroma.These beers will be the first of the Harvest Series brewed each fall.

 

Had to hire workers for the harvest (Olivia loves the smell...while drinking a Muddy Huddy, how fitting!)

The Hop Harvest:

The fresh, wet hops thrown into the last part of the boil.

So, this is the time of year where I want to have nothing but autumn seasonal beers on tap. I have the Oktoberfest lagering until October. The saison and wet-hopped ale will take two more of the taps in 2 weeks. I will most likely still have Bellamy Amber on tap at that time too. I also worked up an Imperial Pumpkin ale recipe tonight! Although, I don't have enough fermentors! Space will free up in a couple of weeks and maybe I can brew it then. Have fun sipping your favorite fall seasonal craft brews...

Brewing with Dad

This past Saturday, I brewed with my Dad! Along with my Mom, they are the newest residents to Colorado! We're extremely excited that they now live here. We brewed a Belgian Blond that will be around 5% ABV and will have a bunch of noble hop aroma and spiciness. We also brewed my first rye beer, a Rye Pale Ale. I used about 30% Rye in the mash and it was heavily late-hopped with American hops...it will finish up around 5.5% ABV. The wort had a slight taste of rye bread that I think will pair nicely with the hops. Both brews are bubbling away as I write this.  We did manage to wreck some parts of the brewery with a melted sight-glass and burnt temperature probe...those can be easily replaced though. The beer is going to be great and it was really nice to have my Dad go through an almost 12 hour brewday with me, learning what I am so passionate about!

Dad manning the spray bottle to prevent the boilover! Hi, Mom! (in the reflection)

Here is a tiny glimpse of the project I undertook the day after I had knee surgery and was laid up. I etched my brewery glassware with the Lowell Brewing logo..too much? I'll post a clearer picture at another time, but this one was neat with the reflection bouncing off some Vernalis at dinner the other night.

I also have to get on planning my Oktoberfest brew since it will have to lager for 2 months after fermentation. I think I have the recipe about figured out. And, who knows, maybe I"ll brew a pumpkin ale this year in the spirit of autumn...if this blazing inferno of a summer ever passes!

Muddy Huddy is going to the GABF!!!

I entered a home brew competition this past weekend with a handful of my beers. Out of that handful, I won 2 gold medals and a silver medal! Muddy Huddy (American Stout) and Mug (English Barleywine) won gold and Pops' Old Ale (English Old Ale) won silver! Very exciting stuff and it will give me some more decorations for the tap room. There was another tidbit of good news from the competition....

Muddy Huddy is headed to the Great American Beer Festival! 

Out of the almost 600 entries and subsequent gold medal winners, Odell Brewing Co. from Fort Collins, CO chose Muddy Huddy to brew at commercial scale and enter it into the Great American Beer Festival as a ProAm entry! Huge news. I'm extremely excited.  It is still undecided when I'll head up there to brew the beer at their brewery. I believe the beer will also be on tap at the brewery until it runs out as well as being served at the GABF. This is one of my favorite breweries in the state and I like everything they do there...from the brewery to the beers that come out of it. If I could have chosen one brewery to brew with in Colorado, they would be it...funny how it worked out.

www.odellbrewing.com

Some information on the ProAm Competition:

GABF Pro-Am entries are brewed by professional craft brewers based on award-winning homebrew recipes from American Homebrewers Association (AHA) members. Homebrew recipes are scaled up and brewed at a craft brewery for submission into the competition.

Check out the festival...it's kind of a big deal: http://www.greatamericanbeerfestival.com/

I'll keep you posted, but this is hands-down the coolest thing that has ever happened to me with my brewing! Should be a great ride...really, really cool

And We're Back!

After a little hiatus from brewing, I was finally able to brew again this past weekend (thank you, wonderful wife)! I brewed up a Belgian Pale Ale (only my second Belgian beer) and an IPA. The BPA will be a toasty and biscuity beer with a slight Belgian yeast character and a bunch of late noble hop flavor and aroma. 34th St. IPA will be an easy-drinking (@ 5.5% ABV) IPA dry-hopped with Amarillo and Centennial hops. Here is the brewery in the early morning and the cooler at the end of the brew day with two 10 gallon fermentors full of soon-to-be beer!

Here's some brewing geekiness for you. This is the actual yeast culture I used to brew the Belgian Pale Ale...that's right, science is cool!

Before the brew day, I also installed some new burners that will make brewing a little faster. They are huge, 10 inches across and about 15 lbs. each. Cool.

And finally, my proudest accomplishment! Cameron Calloway Lowell....born February 28th, 2012! He is amazing and I love him more everyday. I don't usually throw my family life into this blog, but I think he is worth mentioning!