HOPS Pagosa

HOPS – Homebrewers Of Pagosa Springs

Hello HOPS Heads,

Ahhh yes. Another beer, another memory. Sometimes our little homebrewed concoctions can become part of us, in good ways and in bad. Have you ever sampled a beer that made you question your worthiness of being a “Beer Taster”? Holy crap man, I brewed such a brew-hah-ha. My wife and I concocted a dark ale that tossed before me a liquid Right of Passage, a test of will and a down right challenge of my ability to fathom greatness, all at once. It may not have been the greatest beer ever brewed, but it was certainly a tribute, if you catch my gig. I peered into the bottomless, malty abyss within the pint glass and asked myself: Am I man enough to drink a beer this complex? The answer was clearly NO. I tried but was found lacking. I grew my goatee to unreasonable lengths and shapes, trimmed my toe nails with a cutting torch, ate nothing but lumber and peat moss for a week and even head butted a moose or two. The beer chuckled at my failed attempt at manliness. I was defeated and embarrassed. You would feel better about yourself if you tried to kiss your sister through a single pane window. EEEWWE. (Ya’ll aint from ‘round these parts, now iz you?) Yes, sometimes we unknowingly achieve a beer-magnitude to the point we have outdone ourselves. Will a beer like this ever be appreciated? Can any plain multi-celled organism called a human ever be capable of grasping a brew this complex? Perhaps not. But someday, my friends, someday, I will tame this slobber-hurling beast called… wwhuh? Where am I? Awwwe, it was all just another beer soaked dream (and a delightful one at that)! Well, while I try to figure out the recipe for “The Best Beer In The World Tribute”, I’ll quit rambling and get back to what is really important: Beer and other fun fermentables.

Until next time, cheers and happy fermenting ~

Randini the Beer Spammer

Tech Tip of the Day: Don’t be an A-Hole. – Eddie Vedder

Quote of the Day: “Don’t be an A-Hole.” – Eddie Vedder

HOPS Meetings:

• HOPS – New Business:
• Next Meeting: Tuesday, the 22^nd (TONIGHT) is the next HOPS meeting, Pagosa Brewing Co at 6:00 PM. The GREEN 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: Bock              
• Discussion: Some ideas we want to go over include the following:

A)      Aztec Homebrew Club Gathering on June 2^nd – Road Trip!!!

B)      Other upcoming events found below.

UPCOMING LOCAL NEWS & EVENTS:

Mark Your Calendars:

• Tuesday, May 22^nd – HOPS Meeting: Tonight is the HOPS Meeting (the fourth Tuesday of the month). We will meet at Pagosa Brewing Company at 6:00 PM. This month we will be going over some of the upcoming events and agenda items above, along with the Style of the Month. This time is Bock. For more info on these styles, check out the descriptions listed on the BJCP website here: http://www.bjcp.org/2008styles/catdex.php. Check out the posts from local liquor stores on our website at www.pagosahops.org to see what is in stock.

• First Friday Out, June 1st – The first Friday of the month we like to drink beer. Ok, we like to drink beer more often than that, but we usually get together somewhere around town, and this time around we will meet at The Pines at the Golf Course. See you there at 6:00!

• Aztec Homebrew Clubs Gathering, June 2^nd – The Celtic Brewers are putting on a fun shindig in Aztec on Saturday, June 2^nd. If you did not see the post on our website, be sure to check it out at www.pagosahops.org to see what is involved. We will discuss this more at the meeting, but this will be a good one! The details for this event are listed at the bottom of this Brewsletter.

• Hooch Brew Off, June 16^th in Durango – The event that throws a wrench in your typical judging – this is more like a prison party without the convicts. Brew up your own hooch and bring it to this one of a kind event. For more info go to: http://pagosahops.org/#!/houch-brew-off-on-june-16th-durango (Then scroll to the very bottom of the page)
  Here are some more details:
  Getting tired of all the BJCP sanctions, all the category guidelines and beer-snobbery that comes with brewing? Actually, I'm not either, but that doesn't mean we can't branch out and have some fun exploring different 'not-so-snobbish' forms of fermenting. And so I present to you the 'Houch Brew Off' brought to you by our friends from Worth Dreams. This is a new (actually, no, it's quite old) take at fermenting hooch. Basically, take some fermentable matter and turn it into alcohol, just like they do in prison! (You can even use a toilet to ferment in if you so desire.)
  This event will take place at Durango Brew Supply on Saturday, June 16th. Please see the attached flier for more details (I hope I can figure out how to attach this thing). Ferment whatever you want as long as it falls within the guidelines in the attachment. There is no charge per entry and you can enter as many as you want. The guys at Durango Brew Supply will probably 'cellar' your entries for you if you can not get to the competition / hooch party the day of. This sounds like a lot of fun, though 'judging' this could be a risky undertaking... 8-{

• Archuleta County Fair, August 2-5 – Be sure to keep in mind the beer competition for the Fair this year!

For the Calendar:

• May 22: HOPS Meeting – Pagosa Brewing Co at 6:00
• June 2: Four Corners Homebrew Gathering – Aztec
• June 16: Hooch Brew Off – Durango
• June 26: HOPS Meeting – Pagosa Brewing Co at 6:00
• June 21-23: National Homebrewers Conference
• July 14: Salida Brewer’s Rendezvous
• July 24: HOPS Meeting – Pagosa Brewing Co at 6:00
• August 2-5: Archuleta County Fair – Beer, wine and mead competition
• August 4: Mead Day
• October 11-13: Great American Beer Festival - Denver
• November 3: Learn to Homebrew Day

NEWS:

• Hop Rhizomes Available – If you are looking to grow your own hops, Tony with Pagosa Brewing Co has sent some information on getting a wide variety at pretty good prices. They normally take about two years to get established. If you are interested in getting some let me know. They are about $2.50 each (unless you order 40 ormore) and they have a wide variety to choose from.

• 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:

• Now on Tap! – Check out some of the new brews on tap at Pagosa Brewing Co:

- Double Black
Imperial Black IPA - One of the most extreme, and yet deceptively quaffable IPA's we’ve ever crafted.  As such, we call it Double Black and it’s not for the faint of heart.  It’s got an amazing balance of black malts and hops with an intense depth of character of rich malts, but not too heavy.  First featured during the Opening Reception at the Big Beer Festival in Vail in January 2011. 

- Peachy Peach

Champion Light Beer - San Juan Brewfest '11

Gold Medal Fruit Beer - Colorado State Fair '10

Our Peach Wheat is a real treat.  Brewed as an American Wheat, it's got amazing aromas of real peaches and a wonderful balance of light beer and peaches in the flavor.  Peachy Peach™ is exceedingly quaffable and one of our top sellers in the warmer months.

• Also, Open Mic Night has started up again for the summer. I believe it starts at 6:00 PM on Tuesdays, but check with Pagosa Brewing Co to be sure on that!

• Salida Brewer’s Rendezvous – July 14^th (One of the coolest beer fests in CO if you ask me. And yes, I heard you askin’.)

• Great American Beer Festival – October 11-13. http://www.greatamericanbeerfestival.com/

• Win A Seat In A Siebel Brewing School Course - MoreBeer! Is giving away a seat at the Siebel Institute of Technology's Advanced Homebrewing Program!  For each issue of our "Brewing Techniques" magazines ordered, you'll receive one entry for your chance to win!  This class will run for one week, from July 23rd - July 27th.  See below for contest and class details.Siebel Institute of Technology is a well respected school that attracts thousands of brewers seeking a higher level of brewing knowledge.  Siebel has been teaching brewers the "secrets of brewing" for the past 140 years, and continues to gain popularity.  These students don't only fly in from across the country; They're flying in from across the world!  If you're looking to work in a brewery, become a brewmaster, or open your own brew pub, Siebel is a great place to start.  In fact, to show some lucky brewer out there just how great this place is, we'll be running a contest during the next 4 weeks for a chance to go to one of these courses!  For more info go to www.morebeer.com for more info.

FOR SALE / FOR FREE / WANTED:

• Fridge (Great for a Kegerator) – If a HOPS member is interested in building a kegerator I found a free fridge that would be great for the job. Email me for more info – randy@speeddirect.com. Again, don’t reply to this email or you will send it to every beer drinking fool on the planet. Really.

• Wanted – Looking for desperate people willing to work long hours in the sun for minimal pay in dirty, unforgiving conditions. Seriously, I need help picking lots of spruce tips for my side business. Must be willing to work for beer and potato chips out in the forest. You are allowed to bring a lawn chair, but the more you harvest the more beer you get paid with, so you may want to consider putting casters on your lawn chair.  Desperate high school kids would be perfect (over 21 of course) because they need to fix their Yugo and are hurting for beer money. If there were college kids here I would try to wrangle them but there aren’t any. So I’ll try to wrangle homebrew club members instead. (Hey, sometimes they are trying to fix their Yugo and are desperate for beer money too!) And yes, I am using the club brewsletter for my own personal spamming. Hey, it has to do with beer – the spruce tips are for brewing man! Interested? Contact me at randy@speeddirect.com. You know you want this job…

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.

• Looking to diversify your homebrew? Check out a couple of these links for sharing and browsing tons of different homebrew recipes. Kick it up a notch – BAM!
  www.brewtoad.com
  www.hopville.com
  http://www.tastybrew.com/newrcp/styleview.html

Details about the Homebrew Clubs Gathering in Aztec on June 2^nd:

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: CELTIC BREWERS <celticbrewers@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, May 12, 2012 at 2:01 PM
Subject: Home Brew Clubs Gathering June 2nd
To:

Hello Home Brewers. The Gathering of the Four Corners Homebrew Clubs is ON! Saturday June 2nd at the 4CCHBC World Headquarters 121s Main, Aztec. Doors open at noon, talks start at 3pm. 

The Head Brewers from Carvers (Jeff Albarella), Ska (Patrick Jose), 3 Rivers (Peter Fieweger), and Steamworks (Ken Martin) will be giving short lectures on varies aspects of brewing, followed by a Brewers Panel where they will answer questions from us homebrewers, each giving their take on it, so write down any questions you have on brewing.  We will be giving away swag from the Breweries.

This is a Potluck event. Bring whatever beers you would like to share, we have 6 open taps if you want to bring a keg.

Please pass this along to your brewclub members and anyone else that may be interested. If alot of you brewers can make it, I think the Breweries will continue to support a Gathering and it would be great to make this an annual Event having a different club host it each year.

Starting at 7pm in the same building, the San Juan Scottish Fiddle Society will be having a Ceilidh (Gaelic for social gathering) with a live Celtic band, more food and beers and ceilidh dances. This is a fundraiser for the Aztec Highland Games and Celtic Festival in October, a $5 donation is suggested if you can stay for this event.

There are some cheap places to stay in Aztec for you out of towners who want to stay for the ceilidh and spend the night, or crash at a brewclub members place, just ask.

Also,  Aztec Fiesta Days are going on on this day, just a few minutes walk away, you know the traveling fair thing with rides, games to win stuffed toys, cotton candy, elephants ears, tattoos. Bring the kids!

UNSUBSCRIBE – But if you do, your sister will try to kiss back. FREAKY!!!

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!

Silver Dollar

New 6pks

*summer beers are beginning to show!

New Belgium                           Somersault

                                                -An easy drinking summer ale, with hints of apricot and ginger

Odell Brewing                         St Lupulin

                                                -Extra Pale Ale named after the archetypal hophead

Breckenridge Brewing                        Imperial 72

                                                -Imperial Chocolate Cream Stout

                                                -Low alc. for a imperial Stout at only 7.2% but it is tasty

Grand Teton Brewing              Howling Wolf

                                                -An Unfiltered Baravian Hefe

Sweetgrass

-American Style Pale Ale made with columbus, Galena, simcoe and cascade hops, than dry hopped with Bravo.

Bitch Creek

-Extra Special Brown

-”Like the Stream from which it is named, our Bitch Creek is full of character.”      

New Bombers

Marble Brewing                       Double White Ale

-A Belgian style Pale Wheat Ale

Port Brewing                           Old Viscosity Ale

-Blurs the boundaries between Porter, Stout, Old Ale and Barleywine.  A blended beer with 80% from this seasons beer and 20% from the previous batch that has been aged in bourbon barrels         

6pk of the Month (always $1 off)

Paulaner                                  -Hefe-Weizen

Bomber of the Month (always $1 off)

Jolly Pumpkin                          Calabaza Blanca

                                                -Artisan White Ale

Hefe’s in Stock

Paulaner Hefe, Howling Wolf

From Star Liquors in Durango:

Hello Homebrews and Beer Lovers!!!

                Summer will be here before we know it and beer drinking is all the rage.  Cold crisp beers for work in the yard and richer beers for after dinner, Yeah Beer!  This month we are looking at a wide spread of styles.  One of my favorites, barrel aged ales, to the craziness of Rogue and their Voodoo Doughnut maple bacon beer.   Without further ado let’s hop into some great beers.

Breckenridge worked with our own Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory here in Durango to brew Imperial 72, an Imperial Chocolate Cream Stout.  On draft and in 12oz 4 packs for $10.49, I really enjoyed this beer.  An opaque black color with a light tan head, the nose is milk chocolate with roasted malt.  The palate delivers much of the same, roasty up front with a milk chocolate mid-palate and a bitter-sweet finish.  Roasted malt and darker chocolate hang on for a long finish, definitely sweeter and creamier than most, but a great after dinner sipper.

One beer I’ve been excited about is the .750ml Abbaye de Saint Bon Chien, an Abbey in Switzerland that has a strong brewing history. This sour ale is brewed year after year with a label change that shows the vintage.  After a fair amount of looking I determined the 2007 was the most interesting and got a case of six bottles.  At $25.99 I thought that only true beer aficionados would be interested in trying the spectacular beer.  Barrel aging provides woodiness on the nose with dark fruit and wisps of tropical fruit with a vinegar backbone. The palate is vinegar that is balanced by sour fruit, vanilla, and caramel notes from the barrel.  Prunes and raisins make themselves known, sweet tones swirl around, but the finish is dry.  An awesome beer that really has a huge amount of complexity, worth trying with friends, this beer will also cellar well for years.

Rogue recently released Voodoo Doughnut outside of Oregon, and we got our hands on the only cases in the territory.  This is a unique offering, maple and bacon are the dominate flavors and boy do they ever dominate.  Voodoo Doughnut is a doughnut shop in Portland Oregon that is famous for their quirky doughnuts and most noted is the bacon maple doughnut.  A standard maple doughnut with a couple of slices of bacon on it, Rouge was inspired and made the beer happen.  To the horror of some and love of others this beer really captures the doughnuts true intent.  Maple syrup dominated the nose, a heavy smokiness hits your tongue hard followed by sweet malt.  The smoke really lingers and the beer finishes with more maple.  Unique in its bright pink bottle, this offering comes in a 22oz bomber for $11.49.

Right here in Colorado we have Great Divide Brewing which has created a great Double IPA Hercules.  I tasted this beer when it was first released as a four pack of 12 oz beers and was not impressed.  But they have quite clearly tweaked the recipe and have created a truly lovely DIPA.  Hercules has beautiful amber copper color with a grapefruit, pine and sweet malt nose, good balance with a hearty malt bill and pungent citrus hops.  Tropical fruit shows on the finish with strong lingering bitterness.  Good balance makes this 22oz bomber for $7.49 a very easy price for a great beer.

Another personal favorite Jolly Pumpkin released their E.S. Bam, Farmhouse style with nice barnyard flavor is countered this time with a hearty dose of hops.  Citrus and brett combine with a peppery flavor that leaves a long tart bitter finish with barnyard animals dancing around.  Not a beer for everyone, this example of a bitter is mixed with a sour and will stick with you a while.  22oz of this summer sipper is $10.99

Funky Jewbelation has been blended together by Hebrew brewing.  A blend of six ales aged in 73% rye whiskey barrels and 27% in bourbon barrels. The blend consists of of 3-month Jewbelation 15, 9-month Vintage Jewbelation, 1-month Bittersweet Lenny’s RIPA, 14-month Origin, 7-month Reunion Ale ’11, and 14-month Messiah.  Wow!  What a blend, dark fruit, sour sweet, carmel, vanilla and bourbon all mix together to create a fantastic beer.  22 oz is $11.49 and I am almost positive we have the only case in the area.  The bottles a keeper too, it just looks Funky!

 Irelands Porterhouse brewing has a beer I have been after for years.  Most people look at me like I am crazy, and even beer partners here at Star won’t try it.  Oyster Stout, a stout actually brewed with oysters.  I tried this just last week and found it wonderful; the oysters added a fresh ocean brine flavor that married with the roasted malt very nicely.  No fishiness or off flavors, the finish was roasty and slightly salty.  If you have not tried an oyster stout, this is one of the best ones made and I would say, go for it!  .330ml for 4.49

Last but not least this month we will discuss Harvistoun Old English Oil Engineer’s Reserve.  An old ale with a rich dark color and little head, roast, chocolate and coco with a hint of grass on the nose.  Burnt malt, chocolate, licorice and coffee blend together to create a full flavor, all this and the beer is still surprisingly smooth.  A little sweet on the finish with smokiness lingering, 11oz of this import is only $6.49 and a great after dinner drink.

A few other things before I go, our beer of the month is Unita Brewing out of Salt Lake City Utah, I know who would have thought Utah would have a thriving microbrewery, but surprise surprise they do!  6pks are 6.99 and going fast.  Hoodoo is a Kolsch, Wyld a Pale Ale, Hop Notch an IPA, Baba Black Lager and Hyve Summer Honey Ale are rounded out by a variety 12pk for $13.49.  We also still have the ever popular Ska Mexican Lager 6pks for $6.99 and Durango Brewing has just released Blueberry Wheat, for $8.49 but I hear a rumor it’s going on sale for Memorial Day Weekend. 

That’s about all I have for you today beer lovers, as always if you have any questions, comments or cool beer to hunt down, I am available at Star, email or the phone.  I have also listed our other new beers in the store below for your enjoyment.

Cheers!

Oliver

John Smith 4pk 16oz can $6.99

Pyramid Hefeweizen pk btl $7.49

Alaskan Summer 6pk btl $7.49

Avery Karma 6pk btl $8.99

Stone Imperial Stout 22oz btl $6.49

Marble Brewing Reserve Bourbon Barrel Ale 22 oz $12.99

Sam Adams Summer Ale 6pk btl $7.99

Howdy HOPS Heads! We are meeting this evening at 6 pm at the Pagosa Bar, aka PB, for our monthly First Friday Out gathering. In addition to being the oldest and most historic bar in Pagosa, the PB is managed in part by on of our own club members. The bar has a good tap selection including Ska Euphoria Pale Ale, Durango Dark Lager, Pagosa Pale Ale and Guiness. There is also a nice selection of bottled and canned beer.

The PB does allow smoking indoors so please take this into account if you have allergies or are sensitive to cigarette and cigar smoke. We'll see you tonight at the PB!

Cheers,

Jason

We’ll have final information on the upcoming Durango Pub Crawl in the next day or so. Brian with the Animas Alers has been working on logistics and it looks like we’ll meet up in Durango around noon on May 12 and then go from there. I had hoped to reserve a block of rooms at the Durango Lodge but it looks like they’re already sold out that night so it might be easier to look at the Night's Inn, Days End or EconoLodge a little north of downtown.

We will probably have around 10 members from HOPS attending. It should be a good time and final details will come through shortly.

Cheers!

Jason