Batch #121: Coriander Rye Pale Ale

With Summer right around the corner, here's a thirst-quencher, made from Rye grains raised in our Roaring Fork High School edible forest garden.  Don't worry, the high school students don't get any of the beer, but they did get some of the grains for baking bread.

The label photo shows part of the high school "Growing Dome" greenhouse in the background, which was nearly surrounded by our grain trials, all non-GMO and Organic, of course.  The Rye grain adds a subtle sweetness to the Ale, and is combined with floral tones added by ground coriander seed.

We're back into weather conducive to outdoor brewing, so this is the first 10-gallon, all grain brew of 2012.  Here's to a productive Summer!

MT

Batch #120: Habanero Red Ale

After retiring the "roller-coasting monks" from my Habanero Ale labels, I searched for a new subject to grace this popular hot pepper beer.  In a series of Google searches including the term "hot stuff" this little devil kept showing up, so I let him strut his hot stuff for this batch.  I thought it appropriate to use something of a "cartoon character" for this one, because I got a little silly when deciding to amplify the "red ale" appearance of the beer by steaming a red beet until I had a bright red broth in which to dissolve my bottling sugar.  The result is a bit surprising, to see a beer with a pink head, a red body, the flavor of a habanero pepper, and the nutritional characteristics of a 6.5% abv homebrew.

The devil's in the details!

Enjoy!

Batch #119: Pumpkin Ale

I have brewed pumpkin ales for some time now, and my fellow homebrewers at the Roaring Fork HAMs Homebrewers Club have voted this one my best to date.  I used to brew this with pumpkin pie spices in the boil, like cinnamon, cloves, allspice and nutmeg, and back in 2009, I made a batch that was half spiced, and the other half not.  The latter was the Club's overwhelming choice.  This year, using one of the large pumpkins raised in my backyard with heirloom seed harvested from 2009's crop, I roasted the pumpkin most of the way to soft in my oven, then finished roasting it on my charcoal grille, adding a bit of smoky flavor.  The flesh of the roasted pumpkin was then separated from the skin and frozen, to be used at my liesure for beer brewing and other culinary adventures, until the 2012 pumpkin crop is ready to harvest.

Cheers!