Told you that American Saison was Delicious

Thank you to the 35+ entrants that participated in our 2nd Lil' Brewer Buddy Competition! Without further adieu, our winners are....

First Place: Mike Rivera - IIPA
Second Place: Brett Dilley - Termination Dust Ale
Third Place (Tie): Andrew Lowell - Western Side of the Pond Saison
Third Place (Tie): Brandon Jones - B.A.

We look forward to tasting what Mike & Brewmaster Bryan Selders come up with for their collaboration brew! #PostBrewing #PostLilBrewerBuddy

American Saison

...is looking and tasting wonderful. A great blend of fruitiness from the yeast and a tropical fruit and citrus from the Mosaic and Citra hops. It also drinks with a very light mouthfeel and is effervescent.

I named it Western Side of the Pond Saison.

No, don't allow Colorado grocery stores to sell full-strength beer and wine

 


Once AGAIN, this issue is up for debate in our legislature and it is a BAD idea. The only people that win in this scenario are the large out of state grocery chains. Privately-owned liquor stores and craft breweries will be hurt badly.

Mosaic Hops

I recently had a nice and early brewday at around 4:45a. I knew it was going to be a long one, so tried to get at it early! Its always so nice in the brewery when the sun comes up ans shines in.

I brewed a saison with an American twist to it. With all of the new American hop varieties that are coming out, I decided to use some of them to pair with a saison. I used Inland Island's French Saison strain which is very similar to Wyeast's 3711. A yeast that produces a good balance of phenols and esters (pepper and fruitiness) along with nice citrus notes. Therefore, I paired this yeast with Mosaic and Citra hops, both give flavors and aroma of tropical fruits and citrus. At first taste, this one came out very well. It is lower in ABV than my previous saisons at around 6.3% ABV, but it finished bone dry at 0.5 P. Very nice and should be ready next week...just in time for warmer weather. I also brewed an American pale ale (which I rarely do) with Mosaic and Centennial hops. If you can't tell, I haven't used Mosaic hops before and wanted to see what they would do! The grain bill was simple with mostly pilsner, maris otter, and crystal malts. I tasted this last night and it is extremely drinkable and refreshing. I think this is a good alternative to the enamel-dissolving IPAs that we sometimes encounter. This pale ale gives you the hops that you need along with a light malt backbone. It's great!

My next brewday will involve brewing beers for my sister's wedding this spring. She is getting married in Lyons at an outdoor venue, so her and Charlie will be helping me brew a refreshing citrusy blonde ale and a hop-aggressive IPA that is not bitey but has huge hop flavor and aroma. Special brews for a special day!

Wow, talk about a neglected blog

Since it has been well over a year since I posted on the blog, I guess there is a lot to catch up on. I feel like this is similar to when you haven't seen someone in over a year and they ask you, "What's new?". Let's see. In the brewing world, I continue to keep my taps full while entering some competitions from time to time. I won a ProAm spot in the 2014 GABF with my Mayan Chocolate Stout (chocolate chili stout), but unfortunately the collaborating brewery dropped the ball and missed deadlines for applications. Therefore, I was not able to get my beer into the festival. No worries, there was other stuff going on. In the midst of remodeling my kitchen and getting a new puppy (don't ask), we had a handsome baby boy in September! Everyone is doing great and he is a funny character. He is now starting to laugh and giggle at us...a very special time.  So, I guess that kind of answers , "What's new?". 

Some of the more interesting beers that I have brewed lately have been a gluten-free blonde, vienna lager, and a great IPA. I think this will be the last time I brew a gluten-free beer :) I brewed my award-winning Blonde recipe (Micah's Blonde) and then added White Labs clarity-ferm (given to me by my gluten-intolerant neighbors) at the beginning of fermentation. I am a very big supporter of White Labs yeast and all of their products, but I'm not sure I'll use Clarity Ferm again. The beer turned out very flat in flavor and extremely light/thin in body...not very nice to drink. I'm not sure what happened here as I have brewed this recipe many times before. Regardless, I think I'll keep the gluten in my beer and offer wine or spirits to those that are gluten-intolerant in the future. 

Gluten-free blonde (Remodel Blonde)

On that note, I did make some hard cider as well. this year. Our apple tree in the front of the house had a HUGE crop year and we had more apples than we knew what to do with. With no crusher or press, I smashed the apples with a 2x4 and rung them out in a muslin bag by hand....actaully got 4 gallons this way :) It came out OK and I actually aged it a bit on oak. It tastes closer to a chardonnay now than cider. 

I also had a good homegrown hops crop this year. My Chinooks came in nicely, but not as good as the plant I gave to my Dad last year, We harvested two 5 gallon pails of hops from his plant. In all, I ended up with about 3 lbs. of dried hops. I will never be able to use all of them!

I am in the middle of trying out a new temperature controller as well for my fermentations. It is a BrewBit (www.brewbit.com) controller. I like it because it can accept 2 inputs and has 2 outputs. Therefore, I only need one piece of equipment to control my 2 fermentors at the same time. This is relevant since my brew days are always double brew days. I can also monitor the fermentations online or on my phone from anywhere which is nice. The touchscreen is a nice option as well. I like it, but I still need more time on it to make a true decision if it was worth it.

Brewbit Profile

Well, that's all for now,  I'll try to be a little more attentive to the blog in the coming months. I hope everyone is well and happy holidays!