Group Grain Purchase

Trying to get together a bulk grain purchase - need to get a minimum of 500# to make the shipping worth while. Contact me for a price list. We can split a few sacks of specialty grain if we can agree on a particular type or 2. I can get just about any Maltster: Breiss, Crisp, Castle, Durst, Global, Gambrinus, Maltexo, Rahr, Simpson, Weyermann.

Let me know!

Jeff

Snowmass Chili & Brew Festival: KUDOS Homebrewers!

Dear Editor:
The signature summer kick-off event, Snowmass Chili Pepper & Brew Fest, June 5-6, was a smashing success! It couldn't have been such an enjoyable, entertaining, and tremendous weekend for all without everyone's dedication, hard work and community support. It was so great to see friends, families, locals, media, and out-of-towners enjoy the frothy brews — over 100 different flavors — delicious chili — over 50 different kinds, and amazing music — the best of the best, rock on Fanny Hill! Despite the rainy weather on Friday, the die-hards still danced through the night and Saturday couldn't have been better with sunny skies and mountain music to celebrate.
We have so many individuals and groups we would like to give a huge thanks to: The Aspen Skiing Co. for all their hard work on the site-set up, the talented Alchemy sound crew, the extremely organized ticketing office, Lamas Events clean-up crew, the bar staff, the TOSV Police and Fire Department, TOSV Transportation Department, RFTA free bus service, TOSV Planning & Public Works Department, the local ticket outlets, local newspapers‚ support, our extremely talented and devoted marketing company, Promotional Concepts, the entire Mountain Groove Productions Inc., the enthusiastic and talented Town of Snowmass Village Marketing, Special Events and Group Sales team who worked together to produce an remarkable event.
The volunteers this year were better than ever and we are so appreciative of all your hard work and getting involved with a signature town event. We can't thank you enough!To all the local cooks and homebrewers who participated this year, it was so much fun to have you as part of the festival Saturday.
Cooks: We love the returnee cooks and also, the new ones every year, your chili was delicious.
Homebrewers: It's such a great component to have you involved and this year we had more participants than ever! A special thanks to the Roaring Fork HAMS Homebrewers Club for gathering your homebrew enthusiasts and your excellent display of home-brews.
The Sixth Annual Snowmass Chili Pepper & Brew Festival was a success because of each and every one of you! We had a wonderful turnout, phenomenal responses about the beer, chili, and most importantly the music, so thanks again for your efforts and contribution of time. Our biggest heartfelt THANK YOU to everyone who attended the weekend, we loved seeing you enjoy yourselves in our gorgeous Rocky Mountain town!
Cheers till next year!
Josh Behrman
Aspen

Snowmass Festival This Weekend!!!

All,
The Snowmass Chili Pepper and Brew Fest is this weekend, Friday and Saturday the 5th and 6th. It's always loads of fun, and there's lots of great beer, music, and Chili to go around. The homebrew competition is on Saturday this year, instead of Sunday. There will be lots of us there with the tap station and some great beers. Hope to see you all there!

Brewing this weekend!

Hey everyone!

Sorry I havent made it to any meetings lately. I have meetings that run late on Mondays, and start early on Tuesdays, so my schedule is a bit full.

I am still (trying) to Just Brew Something, and will be this Saturday starting at about noon. This is going to be a 10-15 gallon batch of IPA in preparation for the Snowmassw Beer and Chili Fest coming up in June. If anyone wants to swing by and check it out, please do!

939 Wheel Circle in Carbondale. Comment on this post or email me if you need directions.

Big Beers Festival

The 9th Annual Big Beers Belgians and Barleywines festival is January 8th through the 10th in Vail. It's always a great time, hope to see you there!
www.bigbeersfestival.com

Homebrewers Ball 2008

In partnership with Roaring Fork Outdoor Volunteers, the HAMS put on a great display of 15 disctinct, delicious beers this year, while RFOV filled table after table with incredible appetizers and desserts. Brewers designed beer labels for each of their creations, which we hung on the wall behind the taps, and on the taps themselves. One taste of any beer told you these homebrewers aren't fooling around. Serious beer you can't buy anywhere, times fifteen!
David Hamilton and the RFOV team of volunteers manned the entry positions, the food tables and some displays of the fine work they've been doing for 14 years, repairing, maintaining, and building many miles of trails we all love to hike or ride on. They served platters of shrimp, meat balls, desserts, and even Eileen Wysocki's famous "Nut Balls"!
For all of you who attended, our hearty thanks for your continued enthusiasm and support. We hope to see you all at our 2009 event, to be announced.

Brewing this weekend

Hi y'all,

I'll be brewing this Saturday starting at noon or so. 10 gallons all-grain SNPA clone more than likely. Swing by if you like to say "hi" and help drink some of the leftovers from last weekend!
939 Wheel Circle in Carbond-ALE. Call me if you need directions - 379-9864.

Jeff

Showtime - Homebrewers Ball, Saturday Nov. 8

BREWERS!
Here’s the Drill for next Saturday (on the blog also):
4:00 pm – the Gym is ours until midnight. RFOV is supplying our tables. We move in with our taps station, two jockey boxes and Tom’s “Chaz-mobile” 4-tap station. That makes 15 taps.
Wes is coordinating CO2 tanks, manifolds. He still needs stuff, if anyone has parts to lend;
We need 3 – 4 more feed buckets or plastic trash cans for kegs on ice, and two “shallow basins” for bottled homebrew on ice.
Wes and I estimated we would need 20 twenty-pound bags of ice. RFOV will supply ice.
We need three 5-gallon Gatorade coolers for water, one per table. MT will supply two of them, anyone have a third?
We need 3 – 5-gallon buckets, one “spittoon” per table.
Ken Jones will supply six water pitchers for rinsing glasses, two per table, and bring sampling glasses (5 boxes) from the Brew Pub (these go to the guest sign-in tables).
Everyone’s keg(s) should arrive at 4:00 pm, chilled and charged. Wes and Jeremy are in charge of hooking up the kegs, they’ll coordinate help from fellow brewers.
MT will print poster-size beer labels to tape on the wall above the taps, as well as labels for shirts and for tap handles. Will need 3 helpers and a ladder (check with Eric @ Rec Center) to put up all the labels.

7:30 pm SHARP – doors open, taps ready, homebrewers help keep order around the taps, clean up spills, keep water pitchers filled, help people sign in and display “Guest Beer Labels”, manage voting by guests for “best label” and “best homebrew”, and help keep party rolling smoothly ;
9:30 pm – Announce voting closes at 10:00, introduce RFOV (if they want to announce anything);
10:00 pm – tally votes;
10:15 pm – Thanks you’s, Announce label contest winner, best homebrew winner, thank everyone for coming, announce buses;
10:30 pm – Close doors, begin cleanup (sorry we can’t come back the next day!)
12:00 – finished.
Questions? Suggestions?
MT

My trip back east!

My family and I just got back on Tuesday from a week long vacation back east. For those who don't know, my wife and I lived in Delaware for a while, before returning to Colorado. There was a reunion of sorts last week for my wife at the Aquatic Resources Education Center where she used to work. It was also a retirement party for Captain Bob, who was her boss and is the guy who performed our wedding ceremony. I actually asked my wife to marry me in the middle of the boardwalk at the center, overlooking the salt marsh and the Delaware Bay in the distance. It was great to go back and see all the people and places that we knew. A lot has changed in the area over the 8 years since we left, but the friends were still as great as ever. We also took the time to spend a couple of days in DC, since I managed to not have gone and seen any of it in the time we lived there somehow. It was really cool to see many of the monuments and buildings that we see in literature and on the news, and is certainly a very different experience in person. Many of the sights are very powerful, if you've never had a chance to visit, such as the eternal flame and the Vietnam wall. Sitting on Einstein's lap is also really cool and is a must-do for all you scientific types like us.

The real part of this that makes it HAMs Blogworthy is the visits to the breweries though. While out there I got to visit several breweries, and sample some truly great beers.

The first visit was to Capitol City Brewing while in DC. The one we visited is located in the Postal Museum, which is right across the street from Union Station. Here I am pictured in front of the copper serving vessels, which are located prominently in the middle of the restaurant with the bar wrapped around them, also pictured is the immense sunday we had after our meal. I got to sample the Amber Waves Ale, a really good American amber ale with lots of American hop character, and the Oktoberfest. Both of which were excellent beers. Unfortunately I got there too late to meet any of the brewers in person, but could see the brewery on premise since it's not even walled off from the restaurant. I would definitely recommend that anyone stop there if traveling to DC. The beers were great, the food was really good and decently priced, and the atmosphere was excellent and very family friendly. Hopefully I'll get another chance soon to try more of their beers. I know I saw another one of their locations at the inner harbor of Baltimore.

The next brewery visited was the hallmark of the trip, and my main requirement while in Delaware, the Dogfish Head Brewpub in Rehoboth Beach. I'm sure you're all familiar with Dogfish Head, but if you've never had a chance to try their beers, I can't recommend them highly enough. The 90 Minute IPA has been voted the best beer in the US 2 years straight in BYO magazine, and is at or near the top of my all-time favorite beers as well. I know that their beers have been hard to find here lately, while they were adding capacity to their main brewing system in Milton, Delaware, but it should be getting better about now. I bypassed the beers that I know I can get out here, and went for the specialty ones I hadn't seen or tried yet. The first thing I got to sample, was the Sah'tea, a truly unique beer! I loved this, and could have drank lots of it (especially thanks to going down in elevation so much) but had others to sample as well. Here's the Dogfish website description for this beer: A modern update on a 9th century Finnish proto-beer. Brewed with rye, we caramelize the wort with white hot river rocks, then ferment it with a German Weizen yeast. In addition to juniper berries foraged directly from the Finnish country-side we added a sort of tea made with corriander, caramamom, lemon grass, Indian Black Tea, and ramps leaves. The spicing is subtle and balanced and Sahtea is a highly-quaffable, truly-unique brew with a full-mouth feel. 6% abv

After getting my Sah'tea and getting a break from people coming in, Matt Patton took me on a tour. Above the bar hang dogfish cutouts of many of the beers served here. The place is small, but in a cozy-full of Delaware beach ambiance-kind of way. All their grilled food is cooked over wood, and the small original brewery and pot still are on-site and still in-use today. The brewery at the pub is definitely not what I'd call high-tech. They use a very simple setup, much like a scaled up version of my own home-brewing equipment. Obviously they know their stuff though, by the type and quality of beers they're turning out and the rapidity with thich their brewery has expanded. They have 2 fermenters behind the brewhouse. One is used for beers being served in the pub, like the Sah'tea, the other is used for spirits. This fermenter is connected to the still directly above the brewhouse on the second floor, where they make their small-batch spirits. Their bottling line for their spirits consists of a tank and a bottling wand. It's great to see and taste such amazing products come out of such a small operation. Of course, all of the beer we get here in Colorado is made at the main brewery in Milton (about half an hour away from the pub). They still have a great selection of really interesting beers bottled from there too. Take the Palo Santo Marron that I got to sample at the pub on draught, served in 750mL size in a snifter. This is definitely a beer to savor slowly as it warms, and I managed to pack back 2 bottles of the 4 pack I bought to squirrel away in my stash for later. Pictured is the Palo Santo along with my excellent Oktoberfest style grilled bratwurst with saurkraut and beer fries. I had an excellent time along with my wife and daughter. Thanks again Matt for taking the time to show me around and answer my questions. Don't forget that you or any of the Dogfish crew coming to the Colorado High Country have a place to stay and go skiing. Hopefully I'll see Sam again at the Big Beers, Belgians, and Barleywines festival again this year. I hope to be there helping to judge the homebrew competition again this year.

Homebrew Posters & Labels

Homebrewers! If you are brewing a batch of beer for the 2008 Homebrewers Ball, it's time to start creating your label graphics, which will be printed on a 24" x 36" poster for the wall, and on a "tap-tag", to help people find your beer, and to vote on "Best Homebrew".

Here are the labels created by last year's brewers, to give you an idea of the fun you can have with your label.

If you have questions about designing your label, I'll be at the Oct.13 Club meeting, to lend a hand.

Thanks!
MT