Batch #125 - Summer Pale Ale

I admit that I'm a fan of bicycle road racing, and this July is the 99th annual Tour de France.  I'll catch up on my sleep in August!  Last year, British rider Bradley Wiggins crashed out of the Tour, but this year he came back with a well trained Team Sky, including great British riders Chris Froome and Mark Cavendish, to not only win the overall race, but to make history as the first British team to win this prestigious Bike race.  On Saturday July 28, they will race again in the London Olympics, hoping for a 2012 sweep of the best prizes in bicycle racing. Go Team Sky!
Summer must have at least one Batch of Pale Ale, and this is the first one.  Before the Summer gets away from us, I'll have to brew another!

MT

Batch #124 - The Mudman Returns!

What's a Summer without some good Bitter Brown Ale?  For this batch, I've resurrected the "Mudman" label from Batch #95, back in 2009, as well as the recipe.  In spite of the distasteful label, the beer is very tasty!

MT

Batch #123 - Fire Roasted Pumpkin Ale

My 2011 backyard pumpkin crop, shown in Batch #119 below, had to be pretty widely given away because I ended up with 9 pumpkins,  180 pounds worth, of the two varieties I planted.  I saved 50 pounds of charcoal roasted pumpkin flesh, frozen in 5-pound bags, to use for the next couple of years before I need to think about planting another crop.
I saved the seeds from two heirloom pumpkins, a "Cinderella" variety and a "Lakota Sioux" variety (in this label), that I found in a couple different farmers markets in 2009, and grew them out last year, enough pumpkin to take care of pies, beer and soup for awhile.
Yum.

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!

Champagne Cider 2010

This is an even-numbered year, which for me means there are no apples on our local trees.  How is that?  Old apple trees without much human attention will grow into an every-other-year fruiting strategy.  In a given year, there may be a hard frost right in the middle of blossom stage, and all the buds will die off, leaving few, if any, apples on the tree.  This generally affects all the apple trees in an area, at the same time.  That summer, with no pollinated fruits to pump full of juice, the roots of the old apple will have plenty of energy to create more fruit buds for the following year.  As the next spring arrives, the old tree will have a brilliant display of blossoms, which the bees will be very happy to have.  If the attending human fails to climb up in the tree and knock off half of the blossoms, or to knock off half of the tiny fruits soon after pollination, then the tree will have a full load of fruits to inflate that summer, and will have little energy left to create fruit buds for the following year, when there will be few, if any blossoms at all.
Since I have been brewing champagne cider, this pattern has been the norm for all the old apple trees in our valley, which are now on an odd-numbered-year fruiting cycle.  When I can get to a tree in time and thin the blossoms or the fruit, then I get an every-year crop of fewer, but larger apples.
This year, there was too little fruit to bother picking, so I bought cider wholesale from Big B's Cider Mill in Hotchkiss CO.  After offering the discount to the Homebrewers Club, I bought 60 gallons for 12 brewers, including me, and we'll all compare results this winter, as our brewing efforts bear fruit.
MT

Batch #109 - Winter Porter

He's BACK!  Our Angel of Snow Removal has returned to help keep the Skinner Hut outhouse clear, for our New Years Eve Hut Trip.  Earning his Wings, always earning his Wings.
After the smoked porter had me worried that I might not have much to give away (picture me, taking all winter to sheepishly consume the bacon-beer, not wanting anyone else to taste my mistake!), I decided to brew another winter porter, in a far less adventurous manner.  Now this is a porter!
MT

Batch #108 - Flying Pig Smoked Porter

Trying to imitate the wonderful flavor of the HAMs Team Brew, "Whiskey Barrel Baltic Porter", I brewed a 10-gallon batch of Smoked Porter, using 2.5# of smoked barley malt grains, in addition to 18# of 2-row malt and 1.5# of pale chocolate malt.  Upon first taste, I was frankly appalled - my porter tasted like . . . like . . . well, like BACON!!  Oh no!  How could I expect my friends to enjoy drinking liquid bacon, unless I promote it as a breakfast beer?!  I was so embarrassed that I declined to bring a two week old bottle to the November Homebrewers Club meeting, offering instead a half-dozen bottles of previous batches.  When I explained my reluctance to the members, Ken Jones, master brewer at the Glenwood Canyon Brew Pub, soothed my fears by suggesting that I just let the bottles age, and that in a couple of months, the smokiness would probably subside a bit.  Well, we'll see, but for the time being, I'm labeling the beer and hoping for the best.  If Ken's right, it will be drinkable, but I still fear that my friends will like it, if only pigs could fly.
MT

Batch #107 - Fresh Hops Ale

Late August was the perfect time this year for harvesting fresh hops, and I gathered these from a couple of my favorite patches along the Rio Grande bike path, then I brewed with them the following day.  I hope you like the way they flavored this late summer ale.  Tastes as fresh as new January snow!

MT

Batch #106 - Apricot Summer Ale

A secondary fermentation with 1/2 gallon of organic apricot mash directly into the carboy set our Strong Ale Yeasties off for another week of party time, and a final week to calm the heck down for bottling.  Definite fruity background, and crisp tasting like a summer ale should be.  This one will celebrate "Indian Summer" because it won't be naturally carbonated until after August 31.  I hope it will be worth the wait!

Batch #105 - Electric Dawn Copper Ale

I slipped in a batch of Ale made with liquid malt extract, because of a sale at Midwest Homebrewers Supply, and a desire to brew quickly.  With all the other projects going on that week, particularly the tasks around completing the Roaring Fork High School Growing Dome, I couldn't spare a whole day for an all-grain batch, so here you go, a 5-gallon batch of Copper Ale, made with Sterling Leaf Hops and my American Ale Yeast.
The label for this Ale celebrates the dawn of a new energy era, or perhaps just my deep longing for an era of energy production that is clean, and that doesn't destroy ecosystems nor contribute to the alteration of our planet's climate patterns.  Now that the BP Deepwater Horizon well leak has finally been capped, experts estimate that 5 million gallons of oil was released into the Gulf of Mexico, and widely distributed throughout the mile-deep water column, so that it is irretrievable, and must be absorbed by the ocean ecosystem.  It will be many years before we understand much of the effects this spill will have, but we can be assured it will be responsible for severe losses in marine life, and very likely further species extinctions.
For those of my friends who believe that human activities have little or no effect on climate change, who believe that climate change is a hoax, I must point out that 5 million gallons of crude oil disbursed in the ocean is a mere 25% of the daily oil consumption in the USA, and a mere 6% of the oil consumed by the entire world in a single day.  This means that the global human population daily spews the carbon from combustion of 85 million barrels of oil into our atmosphere - that's 17 times the amount of oil spilled into the ocean by BP's carelessness, daily!  How can this possibly have no effect on climate change??
We must get this right: Quit Oil, Coal and Natural Gas, and Embrace Clean, Renewable Energy - STARTING NOW!

batch #103 - Heather Ale

Here's to SPRING, and the happy appearance of flowers everywhere!  This batch of my Heather Ale landed 78 bottles and one 5-liter keg in my cellar, all best tasted after May 25.

Due to Noah's request, I am beginning with this batch, to post my recipes in the messages area below each post.  Let me know how it turns out, if you brew a batch yourself, and please save me a bottle!

MT

batch #102: Mountain Winter Trappist Ale

A new Trappist Ale Yeast has come to live in my carboys, and I'm feeding them some wonderful barley, hops, and mountain water.  I keep them happy, and yes, they will keep me and my friends very happy also!
Cheers!

53 bottles

batch #101: Holy Habanero, THEY'RE BACK!!

Yes, the rollercoaster monks are back, this time cruising in to visit Pandora, the magical planet in the recent blockbuster movie, "AVATAR". I wonder where they'll be heading next?

Cheers!

40 bottles

BATCH #100! - Yak Porter

Here's to the end of a long winter drought in my homebrewing practice. This Porter has a rich nutty flavor, and a significant kick, at 8.3% abv. Have yourself a nice, cool water chaser! I borrowed this Yak porter photo from JKirby's Travelpod.com blog. This label is in honor of a local Yak herd at Sustainable Settings Ranch in Carbondale, CO.

38 bottles

Champagne Cider Season 2009

Cider pressed from three different trees this Autumn:

Grange Cider Apple is from Billy's front orchard, small yellow-red cider apple on the highway fence line, picked in the peak of ripeness in October;

Zordel Cider Apple is from Mary Lou Zordel's yellow delicious apple, picked and pressed in the peak of its ripeness in October;

ICE Cider was picked and pressed in late November, from Joan Remsbecher's cider apple tree in the rear yard of Butch's Seafood Bar, when the apples had frozen hard and thawed several times.  This was the sweetest cider of the season, and I hope it will be among the best champagne ciders I've ever bottled.

Cheers!

Pumpkin Ale! Happy Thanksgiving! - Batch #99

Big Kahuna Apple Ale - Batch #98

My good friend's son wanted to learn how to brew beer, so he helped me with the brewing of this Ale. As we were completing the mash and getting ready to begin the boil, I said to Tait, "Do you think we should put in some cider?"

I had been pressing cider from "Mo", my backyard apple tree, and I was thinking of saving the rest of the grain mash to regenerate a couple of yeasts I had propagated from earlier batches of Ale. The cider replacing some of the grain mash, I thought, would increase the complex sugars in the beer, resulting in a higher level of alcohol, and impart a unique background flavor.

"I don't know, I suppose so," was Tait's response, as I poured a gallon of freshly pressed apple cider into the boil. I admit to some apprehension since then, wondering if I might have made a mistake. Well, after a few weeks in the bottles, I am pleased to report that this Ale is delicious, and quite a "high-test" brew.

The "Big Kahuna" label celebrates Mo's response to my pruning and fruit-thinning regimen, resulting in some big, beautiful apples. Finishing hops are local, still growing where a prohibition-era farmer planted them 70-some years ago.

Enjoy!

Scottish Ale and Return of MUDMAN Saison - Batch #97

The MUDMAN is back, for my Saison Farmhouse Ale donation to the Homebrewers Ball Oct. 17. My Scottish Ale yeast is back to work here, brewing a classic 90-Shilling Ale in honor of one of my heroes and founder of the modern environmental movement, Scotsman John Muir.

Habanero and Heather Ales - Batch #96

Here are a pair of unlikely cousins, born from the same mash, but fermented with different yeasts and bottled with different adjunct ingredients. The Heather Ale was bottled with essence of heather flowers, an old Celtic recipe I imitated from Fraoch Heather Ale, an historic Scottish Ale. The Habanero Ale is a popular recipe I developed years ago, with just a taste of the famous Habanero Pepper, the hottest little pepper in the world. The monks on the label are from a greeting card I found. That's the Helix Nebula behind them. Where you goin', guys?