What's Brewin' News

October 2007 Newsletter

For a printable PDF version of this newsletter, click here

Howdy 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:

• October Schedule
• Great American Beer Fest
• Teach A Friend to Homebrew Day
• AHA Rally
• New Products & Products Back In-Stock
• October Recipe

October Schedule

There's a lot going on in October, mainly lots of alcohol being made (and drank), so we have some schedule updates to share with you.

First we will be CLOSED on Saturday, October 13th, for the Great American Beer Festival.

Starting on Wednesday, October 17th, we will be increasing our hours to:

Wednesday - Friday 11am-7pm
Saturday 10am-6pm
Sunday 10am-4pm
Monday & Tuesday CLOSED

Great American Beer Festival

What can I say? This is it, the event we've all been waiting for. This year the Beer Fest will be held Thursday, October 11th through Saturday, October 13th. Like I always say, if you haven't been, then you need to get yourself there if you have any interest in beer what-so-ever. To get complete details on this event and a lot of other cool events go to www.beertown.org

Teach A Friend To Homebrew Day

Every year on the first Saturday in November, people all over the world encourage their curious non-brewing friends to learn about the exciting craft of homebrewing. This year Teach a Friend to Homebrew Day is on Saturday, November 3rd. What's Brewin' encourages all of you avid homebrewers to get your curious non-brewing friends to join in the fun and make a batch of beer to participate in and support this great event. For more information on this event and to register an official Teach a Friend to Homebrew Day brew site, go to www.beertown.org

AHA Rally

Also on Saturday, November 3rd, will be an American Homebrewers Association membership rally from 1pm-4pm at the Boulder Beer Company. If you are already planning on teaching a friend to homebrew, don't worry about missing this event because the AHA has them all the time. If you are planning on checking out the Rally, you can get complete details at, guess where, www.beertown.org

New Products & Products Back In Stock

I realize that some of our stock was getting pathetically low or just out all together. But don't you worry because we are back to a full stock of pretty much everything and we got some new stuff too! The big items that many of you will be happy to hear are back in stock are:
- Bulk 1 Step Sanitizer
- Cascade Pellet Hops
- Lalvin 71-B Wine and Mead Yeast
- 20qt & 30qt Stainless Steel Brewpots
- Stainless Steel Brew Spoons
- Stainless Steel Siphon Canes
- 3/8" Autosiphons
- Rice Hulls
- Premium Wine Corks
- Lots of Winexpert Wine Kits
- Grommits for Bucket Lids
- Carboy Caps and Handles
- Mix-Stir Wine De-gasser
- Dial Thermometers
- Lots of Rubber Stoppers All Sizes
- Nut Brown Ale Kits
- Sacred Herbal Healing Beers (book)
- Cider, Making, Using & Enjoying (book)

New Products:
- 15 gallon Glass Demi-John
- 15 liter Glass Vinegar Cask w/spigot (perfect for Kombucha)
- Glass Wine Thief
- Winexpert Crushendo Series Wine Kits (these are the best of the best)!

October Recipe

This is a classic recipe for this time of year. If you want to make it a true pumpkin ale, you can add pumpkin to the secondary. Canned pumpkin pie mix works great, just make sure it doesn't contain preservatives. If you want to be totally traditional, you can use the smaller pie pumpkins (not the big jack-o-lantern pumpkins that are good for carving). Just cut the pumpkin in half, scoop out all the seeds and goo, and bake face up in the oven at 350ºF until soft (about a half an hour). Then scoop out the softened pumpkin, put it in a sanitized steeping bag, and put it in your secondary at least one week before bottling.

Tricky Treat Pumpkin Ale

Extract:
7 lbs Pale Syrup
1 lb 75L Crystal Malt
0.25 lbs Black Patent Malt
7.6 HBU's Willamette Hops (bittering)
2 tsp each: nutmeg, allspice, and cinnamon (flavor)
1-2 TB shredded ginger (flavor)
Wyeast 1056 American Ale yeast, or White Labs WLP001 California Ale yeast.

Heat 6 to 8 quarts of water to 155º-160º F. Remove brewpot from heat. Put grains into a grain bag, then into the brewpot, cover and steep for 20-30 minutes. Remove the bag of grains and discard, put the brewpot back on the burner and bring to a boil. Once boiling, remove from heat and dissolve the malt extract into the brewpot. Bring back to a boil, once boiling add bittering hops and set your timer for a 45 minute boil. 15 minutes before the end of the boil add the spices and ginger. At end of boil remove brewpot from heat and cool the wort. Put the wort in your fermenter and top off to 5 gallons. Aerate well, and pitch yeast. Ferment at standard ale temps.

All-Grain:
10 lbs 2-row or Pale Malt (I recommend Maris Otter)
1 lb 75L Crystal Malt
0.25 lbs Black Patent Malt
6 HBU's Willamette Hops (bittering)
2 tsp each: nutmeg, allspice, and cinnamon (flavor)
1-2 TB shredded ginger (flavor)
Wyeast 1056 American Ale yeast, or White Labs WLP001 California Ale yeast.

Mash at 150º-154º F for one hour. One hour before the end of the boil add bittering hops. 15 minutes before the end of the boil add the spices and ginger. At end of boil cool wort, aerate like crazy, and pitch your yeastie beasties.

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