What's Brewin' News

January/FeBREWary Newsletter

For a printable version of this newsletter, click here (PDF, 70KB)

Hoppy New Year, Fermenting Friends!

Break out those brew kettles, fire up your burners, dust off those fermenters and pour yourself a tall glass of your favorite home-made beverage, because it's time for an exciting edition of the What's Brewin' News.

CONTENTS:
* Southern Sun Stout Competition Winners
* International Mead Festival
* New Grain: Rahr 2-row
* January Tasting Session
* February Events Schedule
* Mead Making Class
* Mead Recipe

Southern Sun Stout Competition Winners

The results are in! The Southern Sun has announced the winners of the stout competition, and I say "winners" because the entries were so good that they had to choose two winners. We are very proud to call both winners regular What's Brewin' customers. We would like to congratulate Adam Boggs who won with his Coconut Cream Stout, and Scott Overdorf who won with his "Oak Stoked Stout", good job guys! We would also like to congratulate everyone who participated in the competition, for giving the local homebrewing scene such a good image by being involved and making some really good creative brews. According to Brian Hutchinson (Brewer at the Mt. and Southern Sun, and Stout Competition organizer), "It was a very difficult judging process, and we are honored to have received so many entries. We tasted some fantastic brews, and the homebrewing community proved that they are on the cutting edge of the craft brew scene." Hutch says that with the competition having so much success, they will definitely turn it into an annual event. So keep working on those wild and crazy brews because you might be the next competitions winner.

International Mead Festival

It's coming up next month, on Friday and Saturday February 9th-10th, so if you are interested in going you should get your tickets soon. This year the Mead Fest will be held in Lakewood at the Sheraton Denver West Hotel, for tickets and more info go to www.meadfest.com. This is an event that I highly recommend going to if you are even remotely interested in mead. There is always an incredible array of meads from all over the world, and an assortment of different honeys to try. Most of the meadmakers are there serving the mead, so you can actually talk to the pros and get advice or inside info on the mead and so on. There are also mead seminars, usually hosted by professional meadmakers, which are very informative. It is a much smaller and more personal event than the Great American Beer Festival, so if the insanity of that festival freaked you out, don't fret, this event is like what the Beer Fest would've been like 25 years ago when it was still a small primarily insiders festival. The fact that this year they have moved the Mead Festival from a small venue in Boulder to a much larger one in Denver, is a pretty good indicator that it is growing in popularity fast and could feasibly get huge in the next few years. The bottom line is that if you have been thinking about whether or not you should go, the answer is go now while the event is still fun, before it gets huge and turns into an overcrowded frat party like the Beer Fest has.

New Grain: Rahr 2-row

We have decided to try out a new bulk 2-row malt. Rahr Malting is an industry standard in the commercial brewing world, and it is now available to homebrewers for the first time. According to the brewers at the Mountain and Southern Sun, who just switched to Rahr 2-row from Great Western 2-row, it has a better yield and a more refined malt flavor. This should mean better efficiency for you all-grain brewers, and supposedly a better malt flavor. I encourage everyone to give it a try in their next mash and see what you think. We will still carry Great Western 2-row in 50 lb. sacs and we still have Great Western Pale malt and Briess 2-row and Pale malt in bulk. We get a good deal on the Rahr 2-row, and are able to pass the savings to you, at $1.00/lb it's our least expensive grain.

January Tasting Session

If you had your heart set on the December tasting session you're probably a little heartbroken that the blizzard ruined the plans. That just means that this months tasting session should be an extraordinary combination of the fun we planned on having last month with the excitement of the first tasting session of the new year. We had promised a fairly exceptional session for December, so this month will just have to be that much better. We are still planning on having some gourmet cheese and crackers along with some of the sensational beverages that Brian and I have made in 2006. We highly encourage you to bring stuff that you've had hiding in your barchives for just such an occasion. The session will be on Wednesday, January 24th, 2007, here at What's Brewin' at 7pm. Just remember to bring a homemade craft beverage of your own, and a glass, don't forget to bring a glass.

FEBRUARY EVENTS SCHEDULE

Beginner Brewing Class

Wednesday, February 21st, 7:00pm.
- Remember to sign up for the class in advance here at What's Brewin', or you can call to sign up. Also remember to tell your friends and bring them with you to learn about the exciting craft of homebrewing!
- Classes are free, fun, and you get free beer, so what are you waiting for, come and learn about homebrewing!

Tasting Session

Wednesday, February 28th, 7:00pm.
- All you need for this is a home-made craft beverage, this event is free and open to the public, it's also a lot of fun.

Mead Making Class

Thursday, February 15th, 7:00pm.
- We've decided to cater to an ever growing interest in meadmaking.
And with the International Mead Festival creating a "buzz" within
the local brewing community there is an even greater interest than
before. So for all of you who've been curious about dabbling in
the ancient art of meadmaking, now is your chance to learn.
- Brian will go through the entire meadmaking process right here in
the shop, just like in the beginner brewing class. This class will
probably only be about an hour long because meadmaking is just
so easy and much quicker than beer brewing.
- This is a free class, and we will be serving mead. We are limiting the class to 14 people. This class will fill up fast so call and reserve a spot ASAP!

Mead Recipe

With the International Mead Festival coming up, we're already feeling the "buzz" here at What's Brewin', and can't get our minds off mead. Brian decided to share this deliciously different mead recipe with all of us, to help everyone catch the buzz. This unique recipe is the perfect aphrodisiac for lovers of chocolate and mead alike. And no activity is more likely to bring cupid to your Valentine's Day then making a batch of mead with your honey (ha, ha, I just couldn't help myself). This recipe is for 1 gallon of devilishly good mead.

Valentine's Delish Mead

3 lbs Orange Blossom Honey
1 packet Lalvin 71B-1122 Narbone yeast
1/2 tsp each Yeast Nutrient and Yeast Energizer
1-2 oz Raspberry Extract
2 oz Cocoa Powder (Unsweetened Bakers Cocoa)

Directions:
Heat 3/4 gallon water to 170ºF, then add honey and pasteurize at 160ºF for 30 minutes. Add nutrient and energizer 10 minutes before the end of pasteurizing. You have just made a must. Cool the must down between 90º and 100ºF, add to fermenter and aerate, then pitch the yeast. Ferment in primary for one month between 68º and 80ºF. When you're ready to transfer to secondary you'll need to basically make hot cocoa to add the cocoa to the mead. Just dissolve the cocoa powder in one cup of hot water (not boiling), then put it in the secondary first before transferring the mead on top of it. You can add the raspberry extract at any time during the secondary, just keep in mind that it has the possibility of fermenting out, so the later you add it the stronger the flavor will be. Secondary in the same temperature range as primary for at least six months, but try and hold out to bottle about a month before Valentines Day 2008.

Well that's it for this edition of the What's Brewin' News. Keep those fermenters full, and remember we are what's brewin'!