August style Marzen/Oktoberfest

I've sent an email specifically to my Green Team about the tasty brews we need to provide at the August meeting, but I figure it wouldn't hurt to share the little bit of research I've done with everyone and see if anyone has some more beer to contribute. (and this way I should be covered if my first email happened to end up in my team members' spam folder)

Wikipedia

BJCP 2008 Style Guide

German Beer Institute

My Summary: Basically, back in the good ole days they couldn't/wouldn't make beer during the summer months. Beer production stopped in March and the batches were stored in caves with ice blocks. To last through several months of storage, the beer was often strong or well-hopped. Before the brewing season opened up again—got hopping ;)—in October, they had to throw a party to clean out the barrels and get brewing again.

The style is characterized by a medium to full body, a malty flavor and a clean dry finish.

I was really surprised at the extensive list of examples in the Wikipedia link above. Check it out.

Feel free to reply if you've got something that you want to contribute (and if you can't make the meeting, I'd be happy to schedule a pick-up---within reason I know this is going out to the internet). That way we can try and get a broad sampling.

Happy Beer Hunting.
Go Green, Drink Beer. (Top Green, Beer Drinking Tips)
Prost! Laura

Untitled

I wanted to send a quick update and let everyone know that we're still working on our July Geek Night date. I talked with Mike Musgrove and he needs to brew a batch of beer, too, so we will almost certainly brew two all-grain batches as our Geek Night next week, probably on Tuesday night, July 19. I will send out final details later this week.

15th Annual Colorado Brewers Rendezvous in Salida this Saturday

One of the best beer festivals of the year comes up this Saturday at the beautiful and shadetree-laden town park in downtown Salida. A number of us HOPS members as well as dignitaries from Pagosa Brewing Co. are heading to Salida to check out the festivities. You should think about going, too!

You can head up from Pagosa to Salida on Saturday morning as the festival starts at 1 pm and it's only a 2 1/2 hour drive to Salida from Pagosa. I recommend getting a hotel room or staking out a camp site in Salida as the festival does end at 5 pm but there is always a nice after-party where you can hang out with lots of brewers and other industry mavens. And at only $25 a ticket to sample libations from more than 50 primarily Colorado breweries, what more can you ask?

Get more info at http://coloradobeer.org/?p=141 and contact me or Randy Schnose (randy@speeddirect.com) if you have any questions.

First Thursday Out: July 7, 2011f

I'm sending a reminder for our First Thursday Out this month at Farrago Market Cafe at 175 Pagosa Blvd in downtown Pagosa Springs. We will meet at 6 pm on Thursday, July 7, 2011, to enjoy beers (they have Hop Trash from Three Barrel Brewing in Del Norte...great IPA!) and conversation and maybe even some dinner.

Get more info at http://www.yelp.com/biz/farrago-market-cafe-pagosa-springs and we'll see you Thursday!

July Geek Night Changes

We had good feedback from several of you regarding our July Geek Night and we're going to move the date for the event. Why? Two main reasons:

  • Salida hosts a fantastic beer festival this weekend and many of our members are attending and can't make a homebrew session in Pagosa on Saturday
  • I'm probably going to attend the Salida festival so it would be difficult to host the event

I'll update everyone on the date but it will most likely be a week from today on Tuesday, July 12. Brewing an all-grain beer on a weeknight will require us to begin around 5 pm but it will be a good session and we should finish up around 9 or 10 pm.

Untitled

A whole group of Geeks, brewing and geeking out together. Almost brings a tear to my eye! Just a reminder that July 9th is also the Salida Brewers Rendezvous, so I know a small handful of us HOPS heads will be out of town for that event. It's one of my favorite beer fests! 
 
Randy

July Geek Night/Day and All-Grain Brewing

We've been talking among club members for some time about hosting a monthly geek night where we really dive down into technical details about homebrewing. Our friends in Cortez with the Mesa Verde Mashers have been doing a geek night for some time with great success and we'd like to emulate their model here in Pagosa. Geek night content will include discussions on everything from varieties of malts and hops to understanding how to nurture and reuse your yeast from brew to brew to looking at different homebrewing gadgets. Serious nerds only, please! ;-)

I'm thinking about doing the inaugural Geek Night during the day on Saturday, July 9. How's that for ironic! Why am I thinking about doing it this way? Two reasons:

  1. I'd like to introduce the concept and play with the format on a non-week night so we have a little more time and attendance.
  2. I have 2 lbs of oats and 15 lbs of milled grain plus yeast and hops ready to go to brew an all-grain stout. What better way to introduce Geek Night/Day than with an all-grain brew of a tasty summer stout!

If you're interested in attending this Saturday event then comment on the post and let me know. I can be flexible here and I have no issue with moving Geek Night to another weeknight of the month. I will be brewing on that Saturday, though, and all are still welcome to join.

Cheers!

Jason

June HOPS Meeting Wrapup

We had a great meeting Monday night and sampled many fine meads and a few not-so-fine mead/wine blends. Sulfites can really hurt a mead don't you think! We also got to try Kevin's first homebrew, an IPA, and we encouraged Kevin to keep pursuing his homebrewing hobby...he's got a heck of a first brew!

Thanks to everyone who attended the meeting and helped make it a success. We will send out information soon about color group assignments and the upcoming styles of the month along with some guidelines for bringing beers to sample each month.

Enjoy the long holiday weekend over the Fourth and remember: Relax, don't worry, have a homebrew!

Cheers,

Jason