We Must Rebuild. But Who Will Lead Us In the Rebuilding Process???

60 mile an hour gusts. Tornado Warnings 15 miles away. Small hail and heavy rains. This is what happened. This is my story:

On a hot yet normal July 15th, I was watching the re-run of the Tour de France and started to hear the rumble of thunder and the howling of high winds. The dog comes rushing into the house as I hear the spear-pellets of hail start to crash down on my rickety back patio cover. The computer was on so I went to turn it off since the crashing of lightening was coming closer and closer......"come on, come on!" I said as the hail was getting louder and the winds were now rattling the screen doors and slamming opened doors. As I rushed out of the computer room to try and save what was left of my house, I notice something very heart breaking and devastating not only for myself but for all Southern Colorado. "Oooohhh.......God Dammit!!" I whisper shouted as the tears started to roll from my sweaty cheeks. Oh well. Enjoy!
-Bulge

A Whole New Season

I've delayed too long! The hops are up, and have been up, for over a month now. I was in the Springs in early March and they were already breaking ground. And now....well now, some of them are 4 feet tall. Further, Ryan sodded his backyard juxtaposing the hop garden between his patio and the lawn. Although I've only seen pictures (the ones below), it looks awesome. The Chinooks are doing exceptionally well and so are the Hoods (no surprise).

South West Brewers Gold(Above)

South Mt Hood

South East Chinook

North West Chinook

North Mt. Hood

North East Fuggle

The New Sod!

East Newport

New Years Strawberry Ale

Well, as the hops season wore down, so did my motivation to write up here. That is, until two weekends ago. I was in the Springs over the Black Friday weekend, and Ryan and I decided it was time to use some of those hops we ordered in bulk. Using both Bravo and Cascade Hops we brewed a beer similar to Ryan's first pale ale. All ingredients equal aside from the hops. Furthermore, Ryan has intentions of dry hopping the pale ale to get as much Cascade as possible into it. I left exited to brew again as I haven't since the failed all grain we made in the summer.

I figured I'd get back to something that I not only felt confident in, but knew would work. When Matt and I started brewing we were fresh into college and had received the oh-so-horrible Mr. Beer kit. You know, the can of goo and packet of dry yeast? That year, I took whatever the light can of goo was added strawberry jam and created something not completely terrible. In addition, it was super boozy and ready just in time for New Years. Although I usually brew the Blackberry Stout for New Years, I thought that I would try to brew something up that most people would drink instead of just a few dudes.

So, last Friday evening, with a growler of Cream Ale from Fort Collins Brewery, Matt and I brewed up the Strawberry Ale. I'm praying it's better than Mr. Beer. Unfortunately I spilled a bit of yeast after waiting an hour and half to pitch it. I figured I'd have to go get another vial, but after about 36 hours it finally started taking off. When I left the house this morning the air lock was furious with activity. Ahhhh what a relief! At 8 bucks a pop, I'm starting to think that yeast is a bit overpriced. Might try to save what I have and get a starter going for the stout.

I sent the invitations for New Years out this morning promising an alcoholic beverage, so no matter how the beer turns out, I don't think I can be called a liar. Here's the recipe if anyone cares:

.5 lbs Pale Ale Malt
1.5 lbs Crystal Malt
.5 lbs Munich Malt

7lbs Light Liquid Malt Extract

1 oz. Cascade @ 45
1 oz. Cascade @ 15

6lbs Smuckers Brand Strawberry Jam @ 30

Wyeast 1056 - American Ale - Pitched at 75 degrees Farenheit

Guesstimated ABV. 8-10%

This was easily the thickest and stickiest Wort I've ever made. I worry that by adding the jam at 30 minutes into the boil, that a lot of the strawberry goodness may have been steamed out. Also, the pectin in the jam may be of concern, but as long as it's fermenting, I'm gonna go with it!

Hops Season Over

Well, I guess we're calling the hops season over. We ended up getting a usable amount, and threw them into a pale ale we brewed at Ryan's house a couple of weeks ago. Ryan already has the beer on tap, and said it turned out really well.

Realizing that hops are the most considerable cost when brewing I decided to seek out a cheaper alternative than purchasing them at my local brew store. It doesn't help (the store) that the employees of the shop are yuppie assholes either. Anyway, after doing some mild searching on google, I found a farm in Oregon who sells hops by the pound at a considerably lesser price than the local brew store. Bingo! I bought a pound of Cascades which seem to be a good hop for just about everything, and a pound of a high alpha bittering hop. I'll let you know how my experience goes with them. It ended up being about $1.60 an ounce or so, which to me is a huge difference.

If I get the hops this week, I'm gonna try and brew at my house this Sunday. I'm torn between doing an IPA or something a bit more seasonal. I wanted to do a pumpkin beer, but that seems like a tired idea. If anyone has any ideas please feel free to comment with suggestions. Also, if anyone is interested in my blackberry stout for Christmas time let me know. Debating if I should make 10 gallons as it was consumed very quickly last year.

It's Been Too Long

Well, A lot has happened over the past month. There was brewfest in Fort Collins, which was, despite the super long lines to get in, a ton of fun. My goal initially was to only drink beers that I had never had before...but that kind of went out the window. In fact, the opposite happened and I only drank beers that I like. Whatever, I'm open minded but it's hard to lay off beers you KNOW are good. So I had 808 from Greeley's own Pitcher's, 1554 from New Belgium, Compass IPA from Bristol, and a couple of other beers I normally enjoy. Overall, I'd say it was a blast and will be excited to do it again next year.

Ryan's Colorado Springs Pale Ale was a hit and is now gone. I didn't get one! That's how it goes though. I also helped friends Claire and Adam brew their first beer (an amber) which has since fermented and been bottled. After talking with Adam I fear that the wort may not have been stirred enough and burned a bit at the bottom. Alas, they've name their beer 'Burnt Children' (in a good way). I guess the slight burnt flavor is a positive.

I have the igredients in my fridge to attempt our 2nd all grain beer, just need to find a good day to do it. It'll be a belgian wit and contain a slurry of inappropriate ingredients. Speaking with Ryan I found that the hops' growth has remained pretty stagnant. I guess that was to be expected eventually and since neither of us know a ton about hop farming we're both telling ourselves this is normal.

The good news is that 4 of the plants have hops growing on them. Even though they're quite small, this is exciting stuff. In addition, the brewers gold plant (one of the 3 late additions) has been growing quite hardily.

Here's some pictures and I'm also going to put a link to Jake's Deck Blog over on the right hand side:

1st Brew of Summer & 8 Functioning Plants

Since I wrote last the hops have continued their awesome first year progress. All three of the replacement plants have broken ground and appear to be healthy. Colorado Springs has, like the rest of northern Colorado, gotten crazy amounts of rain, hail, and tornado warnings over the past few weeks. No matter. The hops still look great and the southern most Chinook is nearly 6 feet tall. With no reference point, I'm unsure as to whether this is as amazing a feat as I make it out to be, but (!), I think for this being their first year they're doing quite well.

Two weeks ago saw the first brewing of the summer (a pale ale) and just shy of two weeks later it's going into Ryan's newly purchased Corny keg. He said it smells great and I don't doubt that. I'm really excited to try it next time I get down there. Also, this past weekend saw the second brewing of the year. We tried our hand, with Jake, at brewing an all-grain beer.

Last year, Matt's dad helped (read: completely built) us build a freezer conversion tap system. It holds 2 cornys comfortably and maybe 3 if pushed. He likes Hefeweizens, so that's what we did brewed. Ended with an O.G. around 1.032, which was a bit low for our grain bill, but hell, it was our first all grain beer. Give us a break. At last check ferentation had completed, so I will probably try to get it kegged tonight or tomorrow. Here are some pictures I got from Ryan yesterday:

E-Rod's E-Rock E-Rocked. Beer Time!

It's been a while since the last post, and you can thank the Elephant Rock Ride for that. But after recuperating on Monday, Ryan and I brewed a pale ale. His first homebrew and my first out-of-town homebrew so it was a pretty special moment. Hopefully it turns out well and we can get it into a keg. Trying to use a hop bill that could be replicated with our own once they start producing, we used 2oz. Cascade (still have one plant left in Greeley), 2oz. Chinook (winning the race to the top), and 2oz. Centennial (not planted). We went with a partial mash and used an American Ale yeast. We'll see how it turns out.

Afterwards, we headed over to the Bristol Brewery for beer and shuffleboard. It was sweet. After brewing a pale ale, I wanted something hoppy so I tried their Compass IPA which is brewed with 6 different hops. Bristol is cool enough to have a large chalk board hanging up showing what hops, malts, and adjuncts they use in each of their beers. The Compass was good, and I wish I had brought one of my Cornys when I saw some dude getting his filled up. If ever in the Springs, go check out Bristol Brewery.

After not having seen the hops in a while I was super excited when I finally did. They have grown like crazy. The Hoods are bushy and the Chinook is tall. The Fuggle that's left isn't struggling, but definitely not as prolific as the others. Ryan is doing a killer job and treating them like they are his own children.

Two of the three replacement rhizomes (replaced cascade and 1 fuggle) have broken ground which is great. Hopefully they do ok this year and kick ass next year.

Here are some pictures from 6/9/2009:

Mt Hood #1

Fuggle

Chinook #2

Mt. Hood #2

Chinook #1