Tag: brewing

  • Colorado pale ale (or is it an IPA?)

    My first beer of 2014 is what I call a Colorado style pale ale. To me this is defined by Dale’s Pale Ale from Oskar Blues in Longmont and Colorado Kind Ale from Mountain Sun in Boulder. It’s an amber to red American pale ale that could be considered an IPA. I don’t know what…

  • Northern English Brown Ale

    I decided that the Old Ale I have aging in the corner needs a bit more time to mature. Instead I will bring home a nice brown ale and the rest of my Farmhouse ale for Christmas instead.. As I learned from my SMaSH English Bitter a simple recipe can make a lovely been when…

  • Another Brewing Update

    Yes this is another post about beer. I’d apologize but I really enjoy brewing and I like sharing my hobby with others. I have two brewing things to cover today: an update on my SMaSH best bitter and a new batch of old ale I hope will be ready for the Christmas holiday. SMaSH update…

  • My SMaSH Best Bitter

    I have noticed a recent trend of brewing beer using a very simple set of ingredients. The extreme end of this is what is called SMaSH, Single Malt, Single Hop. These beers really try to explore the individual characteristics of the chosen malt and hop variety. This type of beer restricts what the brewer can…

  • Twin Cities Memorial Day

    ,

    It was time to take a few days away from work, so I flew off to the Twin Cities to hang out with Ben, Sam, and Liz instead. Memorial Day weekend seemed like a good time, and I took two days of vacation to make it a 5 day trip in total. I thought that…

  • Farmhouse ale for summer

    Spring is here, and warm weather is becoming normal now despite the occasional cold wet day. My last brew, an IPA based on Bell’s Two Hearted, is a good style for warm weather. But I also love wheat beers and strong effervescent ales in warm weather. One of my favorite strong bubbly ales is the…

  • Comparing a real Two Hearted to my clone

    As I wrote a couple of weeks ago, I tried to brew a decent clone of Bell’s Two Hearted Ale, one of my favorite beers, during my last brew session. Now that the beer has carbonated, and I have gotten past my awful spring cold, I was able to compare the real thing to my…

  • Trying to clone Bell’s Two Hearted Ale

    My latest brew is an attempt to clone Bell’s Two Hearted Ale. Bell’s is one of my favorite breweries, but I can’t buy their beer out here in Colorado. Instead I buy a bunch every time I head back to Iowa, but it doesn’t last forever. Of Bell’s beers, their Two Hearted Ale, an American…

  • Christmas beers are bottled and ready

    I brewed beer twice in the past few months. I wanted beers to share with family and friends this Christmas. One is meant to be a warming and flavorful high gravity beer and the other a tasty session beer. I settled on brewing a robust porter for the former, and an ESB[1] for the latter.…

  • Racking the porter and preparing for an ESB

    There is a lot of brewery action happening here in Denver this weekend. The dunkelweizen I bottled 2 weeks ago is ready to drink, and appears to have turned out very well. Good carbonation and great head retention, with the right color and a very nice flavor. I’m quite happy with my first wheat beer.…