Batch #151 ~ Belgian Saison Farmhouse Ale

I hope this ale is not my final batch for the year, but I brew outdoors with a large propane burner, and don't have an exhaust hood large enough to do it indoors.  Perhaps I'll relocate my brewing gear to the greenhouses at CRMPI, where there are always days in the 50's and 60's, and plenty of plants to soak up the CO2, but carrying full carboys on that gnarly road, home to ferment, keg and bottle, might be too adventurous for me.  We'll see.
Now that I am rigged for, and finally somewhat skilled in the art of kegging homebrew, it has become apparent that I cannot afford to take the Winter off from brewing, and deplete my stock of bottles or buy from the beer store.  We don't want to run out of homebrew, or there will be mutiny!

Cheers,

MT

Batch #150 ~ Pumpkin Ale

Contrary to the label photo, which I shot at the highway rest stop on Vail Pass last Winter, this Pumpkin Ale is made without spices of any kind, just grille roasted pumpkin boiled with barley malt and hops.
As for the crow, it looks abundantly fed, at 11,000 feet elevation in the middle of Winter.

Cheers!
MT

Batch #149 ~ Diesel Stout

My first ever batch of stout dates back to 1999, and I named it "Diesel Stout", after "The Diesel Lounge", a bar near Yale University, created by my younger brother Daniel's friend Brian Gilhuly, and still going strong today.  Brian is (was) a welder and metal sculptor, and he built much of the bar furnishings himself.  I am told by Daniel that Brian still has a bottle of my diesel stout on the back bar, which would make it the oldest unopened bottle of my homebrew, if the cap's still on.
Came across this photo on the internet, and couldn't find the name of the photographer.  If that is you, email me a high resolution file of the photo and your ups address, and I'll send you a few bottles of the 48 I filled and labeled (limited edition liquid poetry).  Deadline is December 31, 2015, when the last of these bottles will have been freely shared with my friends and family.

Here's to you, Diesel Lounge!

MT

Batch #148 ~ Imperial IPA

I wanted to see how high an alcohol content I could reach with my ten-gallon brewing system, and this here's the limit for 2015, an Imperial India Pale Ale at 9.0% a.b.v., brewed with Cascade and Citra whole leaf hops, and dry-hopped with a small amount of Willamette leaf hops.  I need to serve this one in 4-ounce beer glasses.
I served a short keg of this ale at Sustainable Settings Harvest Party in September 2015.  The food was incredible, and also serving their delicious fermented (and distilled) beverages were Aspen Brewing Co., Jack Rabbit Hill Winery and Peak Spirits from Hotchkiss.
The tatter-winged honeybee in the photo had been dining on dandelion nectar at my feet during a pruning workshop there last Spring, so I gave her this label.

Cheers!

MT