HOPS Brewsletter - November 2011

by Jason Cox

HOPS – Homebrewers Of Pagosa Springs

 

So Eleanor and I recently got back from a road trip to Glacier National Park, which was beautiful by the way. On the trip, we managed to bag 14 new breweries. Breweries are popping up all over the place and MT is no exception – and good ones too! But with all the new breweries on the scene you have to get good at your treasure hunting skills. These things aren’t always easy to find, you know. Sometimes you find yourself in sketchy situations like almost getting hit by a train or a front end loader (both of which occurred on separate occasions on this trip). Or what if you find yourself in one of those dimly lit alleyways? Ah alleys – the dirty underwear of any city, and the preferred locale of select authentic Asian Gastro-Bars, Night Clubs, overflowing dumpsters and the potentially unsavory like me. Some alleyways even house an occasional micro or nano brewery. Reminds me of the old days searching for Mogollon Brewing Co in Flagstaff, AZ on a cold, snowy night walking the alleys. Eleanor says something along the lines of “Wait, here’s a short cut.” Yeah, I know how that can end up. Those NAU kids frighten me…

In the ‘cleaner’ cities I like alleys. Aside from the occasional homie, big pimpin’ his psycho crazy gumby gold necklaces, cane and feathered hat, you can infrequently meet other culinary adventurers willing to brave the not-so beaten path on the back side of shined-up business facades. Don’t get me wrong, some of these adventures lead you to a place with food resembling whatever you just passed by and smelled in that overflowing dumpster, leaving you hours later, desperate, in your hotel room in a groaning, farting, semi-conscious heap. But that’s rarely the case and I’m willing to take my chances. How far are you willing to go to find that next kick ass pub or brewery? It may be lurking down that dark alley that you and your sweetie were peering down, right before you declared with clinched teeth and a furrowed brow: “Lovey! Quickly, cross the street – that alley contains more adventure than we can endure!” Or something lame like that…

 

Cheers, and happy fermenting ~

 

Randini the Beer Spammer

 

Tech Tip of the Day: Brewford Dunkeldink asked about why he was getting so much astringency in his all grain batches of beer. Astringency is kind of a drying, puckering or tart sensation that is different than bitterness and hop flavor. Well Brewford, the astringency of your all-grain beers may be due to tannin extraction from the grain husks as the pH increases during sparging. If the pH of your water is a bit high (like it is around Pagosa) even if you adjust your pH for the mash, once you start sparging the pH will increase and possibly start stripping the tannins unless your sparge water is also adjusted. I would suggest adjusting the pH of your sparge water also to about 5.5 or so with phosphoric acid or another low-flavored acid.

 

Quote of the Day:  Don’t judge a mash by its color!  - Eleanor

 

 

 

 

HOPS Meetings:

  • HOPS – Old Business:
    • Is there every any business going on? Rarely…

 

  • HOPS – New Business:
    • Next Meeting: This coming Tuesday, the 29th is the next HOPS meeting, Pagosa Brewing Co at 6:00 PM. We are switching things up a bit this time around.
    • Style of the Month: Porters – a great style for cold nights.
    • FFO (First Friday Out) – This has been changed to Friday nights for the winter season. The first Friday of December (the 2nd) we will meet at Plaza Grill at 6:00.
    • Discussion: Some ideas we want to go over include the following:

A)      Lots of Yeast! Joseph Read with Pagosa Brewing Co gave HOPS a $212.00 gift certificate for White Labs liquid yeast. The problem is that it is only good for one (1) 7 barrel pitch. That’s enough for approx 47 five gallon brews. Sooo, that’s alodda yeast, man! Let’s talk about what to do with this, but basically it means free yeast for the entire HOPS club, and beyond! Put your brew hats on…

B)      Upcoming events listed below, like a group brew day? Big Beers, Belgians and Barleywine Festival in January? Homebrew competitions? Yeah, we’ll cover it all.

 

 

RECAP OF PREVIOUS EVENTS:

 

  • Due to nasty weather we cancelled the Learn To Brew day on Nov. 5th. Sounds like a good reason to reschedule?

 

UPCOMING LOCAL NEWS & EVENTS:

 

EVENTS:

 

  • Tuesday, November 29th – HOPS Meeting: This coming Tuesday is the HOPS Meeting (normally the fourth Tuesday of the month, but not this month). We changed from Monday to Tuesday to help Pagosa Brewing and their schedule. 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 Porter. Perfecto for cold nights I say.

 

  • December 2nd - First Friday Out – 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 the Plaza Grill. See you there 6:00!

 

NEWS:

 

  • Gluten Free Homebrewing – I have had some requests on information about gluten free homebrewing. I have some information about the details on such if you are interested in locating ingredients, etc. I will bring it to the HOPS meeting on Tuesday, or email me at randy@speeddirect.com for more info (rather than replying to this email and spamming the entire universe). That’s my job! :-D

 

  • New Homebrew Club in D-Town: There is a new club in Durango called the Animas Alers. Now that’s progress – from no club and no homebrew supply shop, to having a homebrew club and a homebrew supply shop! Nice work Durangoite-ian-ers. (?) I believe they meet the third Wednesday of the month at Ska Brewing at 6:00, but I need to verify this. If you want more info, email me directly at randy@speeddirect.com. Here is a nice little article about them in the Durango Herald:

http://www.durangoherald.com/article/20111113/NEWS01/711139872/Do-it-yourself-suds

 

  • 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.

 

 

Pagosa Brewing Company News / Events:

 

·         Coming Right Up - The debut of Single Hop Ale.  Brewed as a strong Pale Ale with a different "single" variety of hop each time.  This Fall, we're using a special hop blend called, "Falconer's Flight" created by our friends at Hop Union.  It's got unique Northwest-Style grapefruity aromas & flavors.  Special "Citrus Food Pairings" are in the works.

 

·         Thanksgiving will mark the beginning of our, "Imperial Series."  We'll featuring new Imperial beers both Housemade & Special Guest.  In-House beers includes:  Imperial Red, Imperial IPA, Imperial Stout & Imperial Black IPA!  Guests beers include:  Dry Doc Imperial IPA, Mountain Sun Nihilist Imperial Stout & more to come.  Special "Imperial Food Pairings" are in the works.

 

·         December:
The long-awaited return of our Wassail Ale.  This year's version is a Brown Porter aged in a Frangelico barrel and has an amazing aromas and flavors of hazelnut and vanilla.  Special "Solstice Food Pairings" are in the works too.

And, of course, more Imperial Beers!  

FYI - By the end of December, we may perhaps have our Winter Warmer and/or a Pale Mild as well as the seasonal return of Eagle ESB.  Looks for classic "English Pub-Style Food Pairings"!

 

 

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 this kick a$$ Brewsletter, so be sure to treat the ones that do with some extra business.

 

Silver Dollar Liquors:

 

New 6pks This Month

 

Dixie                            Blackened Voodoo

                                    -Lager

 

Sierra Nevada              Celebration Ale

                                    -Fresh Hop Ale

                                    -

Left Hand                     Milk Stout Nitro

                                    -infused with nitrogen, no nitrogen canister like Guiness

 

Odells                          Mountain Standard

                                    -Double Black India Pale Ale, now in 4pks this year

 

New Bombers This Month

 

Port Brewing                Santa’s Little Helper

                                    -Imperial Stout, could only get one case so it may go fast.

 

New Belgium                Prickly Passion            

                                    -Saison brewed with prickly pear and passion fruit

 

Van Steenberge            Witches Brew

                                    -Belgium style golden ale

                                   

 

6pk  and Bomber of the month

 

Avery                           Elle’s Brown Ale

                                    -American Brown Ale              

                                    -Beer Advocate rates it a B+

-medium body, sweet notes, a very nice toast flavor, malty flavor too, dry finish, and some hop aftertaste

 

Samuel Smith’s Nut Brown Ale

                                    -English Brown Ale

                                    -Beer Advocates rates it a A-

                                    -Creamy malt, brown sugar and sweetness. Can't complain.

 

 

 

Plaza Liquors:

 

A good selection going on down there too, but I didn’t get the latest come press time. Yeah, like I have a press… more like I’m the one being pressed. Pressed for more beer!

 

 

 

 

FRONT RANGE & BEYOND NEWS & EVENTS:

 

  • Big Beers, Belgians & Barlywine Festival, Vail Jan 5-7: This is the event for you if you are into imperial beer, Belgians, barley wines and anything else that gets the job done in a big fat hurry. I have never been to this event but have always wanted too. It’s not cheap but you could cut the cost if several people got together on hotels, etc. Anyone in? There is sooo much to do, including beer / food pairings, seminars, a homebrew competition (anyone interested?) and so much more. Lets kick this one around at the meeting.

http://bigbeersfestival.com/

Video on the goods:

http://www.bigbeersfestival.com/big-beers-events-schedule.html

 

 

FOR SALE / FOR FREE / WANTED:

 

  • 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.

 

  • 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 – randy@speeddirect.com. Again, don’t reply to this email or you will send it to every beer drinking fool on the planet. Really.

 

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 – Right now I am sucking on a fresh brewed mug of Honey Vanilla Brown ale. If I see anyone unsubscribe, I may blow this frothy goodness out my nose. And that, my friend, would be alcohol abuse! Don’t do it man!