HOPS Pagosa

HOPS – Homebrewers Of Pagosa Springs

Howdy HOPS Heads,

Do you ever wonder where you fit in our own cultural spectrum? Are you an average Joe? What is ‘average’? I wonder these things. I mean, where do I stand? Does having teeth automatically place you in a certain league, like having your own Leer Jet would? Does having one trailer make you utilitarian; yet having three or four trailers makes you into your own redneck trailer park? I’m sure some would say yes, others maybe not so much. I guess it all depends on where you’re coming from. For example, if I were, say, down South and was told something like “ ‘Em boyz up nort gotta hankerin fer a shinding the likes ya never seen. ‘Course, dat ‘ignert Yank comalong an dunno doodley squat, talkin’ ‘bout huntin bars ‘n such. His cornbread aint done, if’n ya know what I meanz, from sippin’ shine an’ tonic. That ol’ dog don’t hunt no more, he’s a sandwich shy of a picknick. Face ugly as a mud fence, probly could eat a corn cob through chain link.” Yeah, I wouldn’t really know what he said, so my lack of understanding and social prowess would put me at the bottom of the totem pole in that locale. Of course, if I were to talk to the same person about the effects of complex sugar compounds and yeast consumption rates during fermentation, well he could probably talk circles around me on that one too from all the moonshine he had produced. Again, I find myself at the bottom of said totem pole. At least beer and other methods of fermented fun keep all men equal. Finding such an equalizer on this diverse planet is scarce as hen’s teeth. So for now, me and my Southern friend will do our best to stay socially refined  with exercises like trying to avoid fishing coins out of public toilets (especially when others are present), refraining from bringing coolers to church and we’ll try to stop talking to characters on the movie screen. And we will raise a glass to each other as the social totem pole seems to slip down into the earth below us.

Cheers, and happy fermenting ~

Randini the Beer Spammer

Tech Tip of the Day: Don’t drop your friend’s teeth in the brew kettle. Or his coon hat fer that matter.

Quote of the Day:  

“Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms should be a convenience store, not a government agency.”

 - Unknown

HOPS Meetings:

• HOPS – Old Business:
• Not much business was had. Unless you are in the beer drinking business that is.

• HOPS – New Business:
• Next Meeting: This coming Monday, the 26^th is the next HOPS meeting, Pagosa Brewing Co at 6:00 PM.
• Style of the Month: Specialty Beers (this could get interesting)
• FTO (First Thursday Out) – Feeling spicy? The first Thursday of October (the 6^th) we will meet at the bar upstairs of Ramon’s.
• Discussion: Some ideas we want to go over include the following:

A)      GABF Trip! Who’s with me?

RECAP OF PREVIOUS EVENTS:

• September in CO is/has been the month for brew fests. We had the Pagosa Band & Brew festival, followed by Oktoberfest in Durango the following weekend. This weekend is the Ska Anniversary brew fest with 20 breweries, and then next weekend is the Great America Beer Festival in Denver. And you can’t beat that with a stick!

UPCOMING LOCAL NEWS & EVENTS:

EVENTS:

• Monday, September 26^th – HOPS Meeting: This coming Monday is the HOPS Meeting (the fourth Monday 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 the intriguing category 23 – Specialty Beers. As Eleanor, the Red Colorgroup Honcho stated: "This is explicitly a catch-all category for any beer that does not fit into an existing style category. No beer is ever “out of style” in this category, unless it fits elsewhere." This will be a fun one!

• September 1^st - First Thursday Out – The first Thursday 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 bar above Ramon’s. See you there 6:00!

·         September 24^th - Ska Brewing's 16th Anniversary Party & Brewers Invitational - Saturday September 24th, 4 - 9pm, Ska Brewing World Headquarters - 20 breweries,3 bands including the Toasters, all the beer you can drink. $25, tickets at: www.brownpapertickets.com

• September 30^th - San Juan Scottish Fiddle Society Ceilidh - 8-1am. SJSFS World Headquarters 121s Main, Aztec. $5 donation. Big'ns will be rockin the house with there celtic drinking songs and 4 Corners Celtic Brewers will be serving up over a dozen brews including: Pumpkin Porter, Wee Heavy (13% alc), Scottish Brown Ale, IRA (India Red Ale), IPA (Ska Modus Hoperandi Clone), Heather Ale, Irish Dry Stout on nitro, Coconut Porter, Milk Chocolate Oatmeal Stout, Kumquat Wit, Hefeweizen, Chai Stout, 90/-, Apricot Ale, Belgian Sour Brown Ale, Pomegranate Cider, and Homemade Rootbeer. Must be a Brewclub Member to imbibe, join at the Ceilidh.

• November 5^th – Teach a Friend to Brew Day: National Teach and Friend to Homebrew Day is a great opportunity to have a brew party. Anyone interested in hosting?

NEWS:

• Barley Pop Betties Article – An article in the Durango Telegraph featuring local brew girls was printed with some of our own HOPS girls interviewed. Read the article here: http://www.durangotelegraph.com/index.cfm/second-section/barley-betties/

• Brew for your Pooch - This is Colorado, a dog friendly state. So keep man’s best friend satisfied with Kwispelbier (Dutch for "wagging a tail."). This is a very bizarre beer approach and one that some might never understand. This is actually a non-alcoholic beer that is made for dogs. It is a combination of beef extract and malt, which means that it is safe for human consumption but probably not recommended. The bigger problem for this Norwegian beer is that your dog might be drinking better than you because these beers are three times the cost of a Heineken. You know you want to try some… and maybe even give some to your dog! http://beeradvocate.com/forum/read/917115

• Latest News from Southwestern Breweries: Check out all the latest news from breweries around Durango, Farmington, Cortez, Silverton and beyond at Beer at 6512: http://beerat6512.blogspot.com/. Latest news includes info about happenings in the Durango and Silverton areas.

Pagosa Brewing Company News / Events:

* Our FallFest Bier for our annual Oktoberfest Party on 10/8
* Our annual Single Hop beer will be ready for the Albuquerque HopFest on 10/22
* Our national champion Nipple Mountain Nip 5-year vertical tasting for our 5-Year

Anniversary Party on 11/11/11.  

Liquor Stories:

      In case you didn’t see it last month, this is a new little section we have come up with to fill you in on what’s available and happening around the Pagosa liquor store scene. Different stores from around town are welcome to submit what new beer & wine they are bringing in, their take on products and anything else they want to share with the local drunks er… enthusiasts I mean. This month we have both the Silver Dollar and Plaza Liquors contributing:

Silver Dollar Liquors:

New This Month

Paulaner Oktoberfest Wien

-1 Quart Can with beir Stein (remember your 10% off HOPS discount works towards it)

Ayinger Ur-Weisse 550ml

Sante Fe Brewing Happy Camper IPA 6pks

Sante Fe Brewing Chicken Killer Barley Wine Bomber

            -Not an over the top Malt Bomb but very smooth and great price

Ska Brewing Local Series #19 Sethvletern 8 Belgian-Style Dubbel Ale

            -“Although there’s not an Abbey in Erie, we will consider Seth a Brother.  Brewed from a recipe by Seth Townsend, Sethvleteren 8 is the winner of our 3^rd Annual GABF Pro-Am Homebrew Competition.  Our 19^th Local Series.”

Beer of The Month starting on September 26^th

            -Leinenkugels Oktoberfest  8% off till the following meeting

Bomber of the Month

            -Ayinger Ur-Weisse 20% off till following meeting

Plaza Liquors:

New arrivals for Oktoberfest are here! The latest newbies are:

Paulaner Oktoberfest (a 1-litre can and mug for $9.99 – a great gift idea, even if you are giving it to yourself!) Also available in 6-Packs

Sam Adams Oktoberfest

Breckenridge Autumn Ale (Oktoberfest)

Sierra Nevada Tumbler

Spaten Oktoberfest

FRONT RANGE & BEYOND NEWS & EVENTS:

• Enter to Win GABF Tickets - The Great American Beer Festival (GABF) sold out faster than anyone (including us) could have imagined. If you were quick on the draw and have your tickets, then we'll see you in Denver. If not, we have one last chance for you to win not only tickets, but also travel and lodging for the 2011 festival. All you need to do is register as a user on CraftBeer.com for a chance to win. Already registered? Not to worry, the drawing includes all previously registered CraftBeer.com users.

• September 29-Oct 1^st – Great American Beer Festival – The GABF is the biggest, baddest beer fest in the solar system. Unfortunately standard tickets are already sold out, but there are still some specialty tickets available. Or, see the bullet above to try to win some! Hope to see you there. http://www.greatamericanbeerfestival.com/

• Front Range Brewery Tours- There is a new company in the Front Range that gives weekend brewery tours. Price is $199 per head and they drive you and a bus full of your new best friends around to breweries for a weekend. Trips cover Denver, Ft. Collins, Boulder, & Colorado Springs and include round trip transportation, 9 breweries (dependant on which town you are in), breakfast, lunch & dinner, and lodging in Marriott hotels. When you consider it, that’s actually quite a deal for 2 nights lodging, food and transportation. If you are interested in more info, lemme know! I’ll send you the flier I received.

FOR SALE / FOR FREE / WANTED:

• Local Wild Hops Available – I have a source for some wild hops growing out the Snowball Road area. You need to pass onto private land, but we gotz connectionz in this club. Let me know if you are interested. Now is prime time for harvesting hops for a fresh hop brew!

• Free Bottles - Need bottles? We have LOTS of extra around these parts. Let me know if you need any beer or wine bottles. For you, for free.

• Resource for Finding Brewing Equipment - So you have been looking for good beer equipment and can’t take the time to search Craig’s List every day, right? Check out this new website. It’s like a Beer’s List. Good stuff getting added daily: http://primaryfermenter.com

• WANTED – Mountain Bike - Randini is looking for a good mountain bike for the wife. I figured the Classified section is stagnating, so we might as well put other stuff in here too!

• FOUND – Fridge for Kegerator – If a HOPS member is interested in building a kegerator I found one that would be great for the job. Email me for more info.

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…

UNSUBSCRIBE – Y’all needunt be persnickety ‘bout such whutnots…

Have a piece on me. I’m in Kauai but will see you the week after.

Don't forget that tomorrow is the first Thursday of September and it's time for our monthly FTO (First Thursday Out). We will get together at Diorios South Pizza (DSP) in Pagosa in the City Market shopping center at 6 pm to swap a few tall tales, drink a beer and admire the beautiful bar built by our own club member Mike Musgrove. DSP has a great lineup of pizza and beer so you can't go wrong!

Bill, I am judging this weekend. Homebrew results should be available this afternoon or Saturday since we judge today.

Randy, Eleanor and I will be at the Colorado State Fair in Pueblo this weekend for the Foam Fest festival (http://www.coloradostatefair.com/uploads///2011%20GE%20Special%20Contests/foamfest11%20poster.pdf) on Saturday night. I’m surprised Durango scheduled its festival for the same weekend but I guess most folks who will attend Foam Fest will be from the Front Range.

This is a pretty neat article on the origin of lager yeast. For all you beer geeks and anthropologists out there, the key seems to have been Christopher Columbus's discovery of the new world that allowed lager yeast to emigrate from Argentina to our monk friends in Europe. Hooray beer!

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_18736691

Just a reminder there is a HOPS meeting tonight! Everyone is welcome and encouraged to come. Style of the month is Hefeweizen. See you at Pagosa Brewing Co at 6:00!

Randini

Just had a refreshing Hefe from Carver's @ Tony's on the way home tonight. Hopefully he'll still have some on tap for Monday's meeting. Also, just picked up Pyramid's Haywire Hefe & Franziskaner Hefe-Weiss Hell. Mmmmm beer...have a happy beer-filled weekend, and we'll see you all on Monday.