Star Liquors Home Brewers Newsletter 10-29-12

The latest arrivals from Star Liquors in Durango:


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Oliver Gamble <oliver@starliquorsdurango.com>
Date: Mon, Oct 29, 2012 at 11:50 AM
Subject: Star Liquors Home Brewers Newsletter 10-29-12

Hello Home Brewers and Beer Lovers!

            We are moving into stout and porter season, I have quaffed enough fall beer to build up a great thirst for the big hearty stouts.  Age them in a barrel, throw in some chocolate or coffee.  I am even loving the dark lagers.  I just need a beer to stave off the cold that is beginning to creep into my bones, snow is just around the corner and I am not ready. With that lets get started with a monster winter warmer.

Brew Dog from Scotland has released a HUGE Imperial Stout “Tokyo”, with the usual blather on the side of the bottle, what matters is this monster is 18.2% ABV.  Tokyo is aged on toasted French oak chips and brewed with jasmine and cranberries, then dry hopped with a ton of Brew Dogs favorite hops.  A huge amount of flavor is stuffed into this .330ml bottle.  Sweet and bitter, roasted malt and coffee flavors are enhanced with the fruitiness of the cranberries and hints of jasmine.  Lightly carbonated and velvety on the tongue, the alcohol is present like a fine brandy but blends well with the cacophony of flavors.  Limited release and hard to get, this is a beer worth trying.  The $12.99 price tag is hefty for this beer but I think it’s a must try for the stout lovers out there.

Stranahans Well Built ESB from Breckenridge has been released again, very limited quantities have made there way past the mountains but we secured a case for your enjoyment.  Stranahans had been producing one of Colorado’s most sought after whiskey for several years now and has banded with Breckenridge to create this fantastic beer.  Aged for 6 months in the used whiskey barrels this small batch ESB really hit a home run.  7.8% ABV is blended well with sweet earthy molasses and hop bitterness.  Vanilla and wood are rounded out with a nice whiskey flavor that permeates the whole beer.  Warm on the finish with a nice lingering bitterness the Well Built ESB is a fitting name for a very solid beer.  $15.99 for this .750ml bottle is fantastic and with the great graphics on the bottle.  A beer that will catch your eye in your cellar or look great with your empty beer bottle collection.

Hopping the pond to Belgium Bavik-De Brabaddere has a lovely barrel aged pale sour.  Aged in oak casks for over 20 months this sour is really given an opportunity to develop in it’s home turf.  No cellaring needed to bring out the funk in this beer, the grapefruit, barnyard and delicate oak qualities blend together with the 7.3% ABV well.  Sweet malt up front is swirled away by a hearty sour wheat profile and finishes dry.  A .330ml is a steal for $4.99 with the amount of time it spends in an oak barrel.

Last but not least we are still in the fresh hop time of the year and Deschutes is brewing a new Bond Street Series “Chasin’ Freshies”.   Hops picked from the vine and rushed to the kettle hit a home run in the fresh hop style.  Pine, citrus, honey and lightly sweet malt carries the hop profile to the palate with perfection.  Bright and fresh with a pilsner malt flavor on the finish, this 22oz bottle is $4.99, and worth every penny.

I am waited with baited breath for the winter warmers to land, a few have trickled in but many more will arrive very soon.  I will review several next month as well as some of the gems I am trying to get my hands on.  Deschutes is the Beer of the Month for October and $6.99 a six pack is a price you can’t beat for this outstanding brewery.  On a last note Magic Hat has landed in Colorado, with their flagship #9 leading the way.  It has met with great success and I am being praised for getting my hands on this East Coast iconic brewery.  Stay warm out there and have fun drinking those great dark beers!

Cheers,

Oliver

-- Oliver Gamble Beer Manager Star Liquors, Durango, CO. 970-247-2258 oliver@starliquorsdurango.com www.starliquorsdurango.com

Re: HOPS Brewsletter - October 2012

This latest Brewsletter really made me want to drink a beer right now. Perhaps it was all the talk about finding peace from the ever piling demands on my time and thereby my life. Thanks Randini, for turning on the flashlight in the dark forest of what I call my "schedule".  ~gets up and walks to the fridge~ A toast, to putting time on pause. ;)

HOPS Brewsletter - October 2012

HOPS – Homebrewers Of Pagosa Springs

 

Hiya HOPS Heads,

Well, lucky for you, it has been a while since my last Brewsletter (hold the applause, please). I’ve been a bit busy, as I am sure most of you can relate. Staying crazy busy is a funny thing. I think many of us create our own self-inflicted insanity. I mean, I don’t have to drive old VWs that need constant tinkering, have stupid chickens that need taking care of, have an insane beer fetish that keeps me brewing, bottling, cleaning and kegging for hours on end, but I do. All these ‘little’ things can add up to one big pain in the asparagus. My other problem is that I’m about as organized as a trailer park – post tornado. That certainly adds to my insanity. I figure if I could just get my poop in a group maybe I wouldn’t be so frazzled. But the thought of restructuring my organized chaos is daunting enough to make me want to drink beer. And in case you didn’t notice, motivation seems to fly out the window with the consumption of boozes. It’s a nasty cycle. It takes time to save time, but who has time to apply? That’s why I love beer. It’s like time stands still when you drink beer. Gazing deep into your pint glass you take a sniff. The slight, gentle aroma of hops lightly whisks your nose like a run-away Fruehauf smashing through a concrete barrier on Wolf Creek Pass. (Now that’s my kind of beer!) That first, flavor-blasted sip goes down so nice and refreshing. You slip away into beer-vana. Sure, all the crap of life continues to pile up in the background like a Texas freeway in an ice storm, but at this point, who cares? You have found peace, and somehow you have been removed from the insane world out there, which now seems to be in some way placed on mute. Ahh, for the love of it all – can’t I just stay here in my hoppy place? I think I’ll grab another beer and try…

 

Until next time, cheers and happy fermenting ~

 

Randini the Beer Spammer

 

Quote of the Day:  “There are three intolerable things in life: Cold coffee, lukewarm champagne [or beer], and overexcited women.” – Orson Welles

 

Tech Tip of the Day: Transferring beer using CO2 rather than a siphon (safer than carrying around glass carboys!): http://archive.maltosefalcons.com./tech/CO2_racking/

 

 

 

HOPS Meetings:

 

  • HOPS – New Business:
    • Next Meeting: Tuesday, the 23th is the next HOPS meeting, Pagosa Brewing Co at 6:00 PM. The YELLOW COLOR GROUP is up, so if you are in this group, make sure you have been in touch with your Color Group Leader to find out what is in the pipeline.
    • Style of the Month: Sour Beer (Oh yes, I’m serious!)
    • Discussion: Some ideas we want to go over include the following:

A)   Donated Homebrew Supplies – Raffle?

B)   Learn To Brew Day – November 3rd (Anyone want to host?)

C)      Other upcoming events found below.

 

UPCOMING LOCAL NEWS & EVENTS:

 

Mark Your Calendars:

 

  • October 23th – HOPS Meeting at Pagosa Brewing Co, 6:00 pm. Well, I guess we don’t really get going until 6:30, but come anyway.

 

 

  • November 3th : Learn to Homebrew Day! Let’s get together and brew some swizzle. Anyone interested in hosting?

 

NEWS:

 

  • For those of you that don’t already know, Eleanor and the Great Randini have a business where we sell spruce tips (new growth on spruce trees) to the beer brewing industry. We had a huge order from Goose Island Beer Co in Chicago this summer and they made a video about it. You may recognize a couple faces in there too… Check out the silliness here:
    http://www.gooseisland.com/pages/gran_g_s/314.php

 

  • Beer News Around Durango – For the latest news on the beer scene in Durango, check out http://beerat6512.blogspot.com/. Our neighbors to the West have a great beer town, along with some great writers and this is a fun place to check up on the happninz. Erich Hennig, my brew-brotha-from-anotha-motha just joined the team. Check it out – I think you will enjoy it!

 

 

Pagosa Brewing Company News / Events:

 

 

 

  • ~ Halloween Saturday ~ : 4pm - Tapping of Special Pumpkin Beers: Pumpkin Ale & Pumpkin Stout

 

5pm - Regular Menu & Dinner Specials

* Vampire Soup:

- Rich vegetarian tomato soup - $3.99/cup or $5.99/bowl

 

* Sloppy Boo's:

- Housemade sloppy joes using our Grass Roots Angus Beef served on a Garlic Toasted Bun w/ a side of Onion Rings! - $8.99

 

* Pumpkin Cheesecake:  

- Served with Whipped Cream - $5.49 

 

5pm - Kid's Coloring & Costume Contest (prizes)

8pm & 9pm - Adult Costume Contests (prizes)

 

 

 

FRONT RANGE & BEYOND NEWS & EVENTS:

 

 

 

 

 

 

FOR SALE / FOR FREE / WANTED:

 

  • Wine Bottles – We have some extra bottles around if anyone needs them. Most have been de-labeled. Contact The Great Randini at randy@speeddirect.com if’n ya wannum.

 

  • Interested in some new stainless steel homebrew kettles? Check out the email below if you are: 
    Good afternoon,
    My name is Ben Caya and I'm the owner of Spike Brewing LLC. I wanted to drop a quick note to your home brew club. If you're not aware, we make stainless steel home brew kettles. I just graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. Over the past year my 'part time' business throughout school has turned into a full time job. We are a vendor on HomeBrewTalk.com and have been very well received thus far but I'd like to expand our reach to local home brewing clubs. I would really appreciate it if you could pass along information on Spike Brewing to your members. All our kettles can be seen and purchased on my website which is www.spikebrewing.com. As an token of our appreciation we have set up a 5% off coupon for any product we sell. To redeem the coupon members would only need to enter the discount code "Colorado" in the discount code section during checkout. Thanks for your time and if any members have questions or comments I would be happy to answer them personally.
    Ben Caya
    Owner - Spike Brewing LLC
    ben@spikebrewing.com
    262.370.4616
    www.spikebrewing.com

 

  • WANTED – Refrigerator that can be used for a kegerator.

 

 

Anybody else have anything you want to list? Beer related or not, just lemme know and I will circulate your stuff around the universe. Well, my universe…

 

 

Links:

 

  • Homebrewing News – A website started by our buddy Bill Downs here in the Four Corners area that focuses on product reviews and more: www.homebrewingnews.com

 

  • Local Beerlover Networking Website: Check out www.brewerfest.com for a social beer lover’s networking site. It works kinda like Facebook, only without all the loser teenagers counting how many totally irrelevant “friends” they can amass proving how completely lame they are. This site is actually cool! (Yes, a big fan of Facepuke here…) Joseph from Pagosa Brewing started this one up and it has some great photos of HOPS junk, plus it is free to join! Sign in and rock out with your beer out.

 

 

 

UNSUBSCRIBE – Wait, do you hear that? It sounds like a Fruehauf that is about to crash through your computer and spill your beer! Run away! Run away! (You can unsubscribe later…)

Liquor Stories – New Arrivals At Local Liquor Stores

Liquor Stories:

 

      Our tribute to local liquor stores that like beer - and not just crap beer, I mean Real Beer! Not all of them are cool enough to contribute to our kick a$$ club, so be sure to treat the ones that do with some extra business. You might even get a discount!


*** Come Press Time, Silver Dollar was all that contributed this month. Please note that this month the beer style is "Sour" and they have a great selection to chose from!

 

 

 

Silver Dollar

 

Silver Dollar Liquor Store

 

New 6pk of the Month

 

Stone Brewing                          Sublimely Self-Righteous

                                                            -Not really new but now in 4pks instead of Bombers

                                                            which is nice

 

Alaskan Brewing                                  Winter Ale

                                                            -Ale brewed with spruce tips

 

New Bombers of the Month

 

Three Barrel Brewing                            Black Copter

                                                            -American Export Stout

 

                                                            Hop Trash

                                                            -IPA

-I love this beer and if you have not tried it you need to grab a btl

 

Deschutes Brewing                               Chasin’ Freshies

                                                            -Fresh Hop IPA strait from their Bond Street Series

                                                            -Made from a Heirloom strain of Cascades Hops

 

Elevation Brewing                                 Apis IV

                                                            -Belgium Quad brewed with fresh honey

-This new brewery, in Ponchoa Springs, was introduced to my by Jason Cox and now I cant get enough and have to stop twice every time I go to Denver.  I have been bugging them so much that they finally got me a couple of cases to sell and if you have not had this beer I can’t recommend this beer enough!

 

6pk of the Month (always $1 off)

 

*I try to stick to style but since there is no real 6pks of sours I am going to do IPA again!

 

Deschutes Brewery                               Inversion IPA

-         $7.39

 

Bomber of the Month (always $1 off)

 

Sierra Nevada/Russian River                 Brux

                                                            -Wild Ale

                                                            -$8.79

 

Sours/Wild/Berliner Weisse/ Farmhouse/ Lambic in Stock

 

Cuvee des Jacobins, Supplication, La Folie, Bret Beer, Brux, Decon Struction, Shenanigans, Snarling Badger, Lindemans (Cuvee Rene, Peche Lambic, Framboise Lambic)

                                                           

 


 

Research Interest in US Homebrewers

Interesting survey that the Brits would like us homebrewers to take. I went through the survey this morning and it took about 10 minutes. Some of the questions were a bit redundant, but whatever. If you are a homebrewer and would like to give them some feedback, see the email below. If not, yeah well whatever...
  
Randini

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Alessandro Biraglia <bnabi@leeds.ac.uk>
Date: Wed, Oct 17, 2012 at 4:04 AM
Subject: Research Interest in US Homebrewers
To: bnabi@leeds.ac.uk


Dear Sir, Dear Madam

my name is Alessandro. I am an Italian HB and Doctoral Researcher at Leeds University, United Kingdom. With my colleague Vita we are very interested in examining the US Homebrewers’ Community.
The objective of this survey is to evaluate the role of entrepreneurial characteristics and behaviours in the intentions of starting a business.
We would really appreciate if you could kindly fill in our short and interesting survey by following this link

https://www.survey.leeds.ac.uk/homebrewing

We would also like to ask you to circulate our survey among the members of your club or putting it on your discussion forum, Facebook group or Twitting it.

By helping us with this research, you will provide a vital contribution to the
theoretical and practical advancement of the entrepreneurial marketing field. For further information do not hesitate to contact me at the email address bnabi@leeds.ac.uk

Thank you very much for you kindness

Regards

Alessandro Biraglia

Vita Kadile

Doctoral Researchers

Leeds University Business School