Roll-a-Style 18: 17A. British Strong Ale

Every year since I started homebrewing (way back in 2009), I've brewed an X-Mas Ale to have around the holidays.

The base beer was always a very similar "Winter Warmer", and I'd add various ingredients to make it more of a "Holiday" Beer.

Over the years, I added wood spirals, vanilla, cherry pomegranate, chocolate, peppermint, peanut butter, hazelnut, cherry, and many other flavorings.

Some years, I brewed the base beer without the "festive" flavorings.

When I started thinking about the 2024 X-Mas Ale, I had been doing the Roll-a-Style series of brews for over a year.

17A. British Strong Ale had been sitting on the list for quite some time, and at some point I wondered if I should just mark off that as a style that I had already brewed as one of my base-beer-only X-Mas Ales.

But ... I decided that this style wasn't exactly what I was brewing on the base beers.

I decided, though, that I would switch up the base a bit to make it match the "British Strong" a little closer, and make this new recipe the 2024 X-Mas ale.

I pretended to roll an "18" ...

 

October #7100MilesIn2024 Progress

After my #1200MileSeptember, it isn't a surprise that I've been cycling less in October. Even so, I logged over 625 Strava cycling miles for the month.

As of the 1st of the month (which is when I'm typing this), I'm over 6,900 miles with over 353,000 feet climbed for the year. I've blown away my #11EverestsIn2024 goal and only need less than 200 miles to hit #7100MilesIn2024.

With 2 full months to go, it is almost a certainty that I'll be able to log 200 miles.

Of course, I also extended my #MetricCenturyEveryMonth streak with my October Metric Century.

Since July of 2021, I've ridden at least one 100 km (62.2 miles) ride. This makes the streak 39 straight months.

 

Z is for Zymos Brewing

Here we are, right at the end of Round 5 of the A to Z brewery series of posts.

It is difficult to believe we've already hit 25 breweries (26 after today's post) since finishing up A to Z Denver Breweries Round 4.

We started with A is for AC Golden Tank Room back in August of 2023, and we're already up to "Z".

As I mentioned in Y is for BerkeleY AlleY Beer Company, we had really one obvious choice on the Colorado Brewery Map & List.

It is actually one of the newer breweries in the area, having opened February of this year.

And ... as luck would have it ... this brewery is very close to our home in Littleton, Colorado.

Z is for Zymos Brewing

Roll-a-Style 14 ... 16A. Sweet Stout

Learn to Homebrew Day is coming up on the first Saturday of November. At this point, I'm planning on getting together with my brewing buddies Du and Doc, but I'm not sure if this will be a travel brew day or if I'll end up hosting.

Anyway ... I was recently thinking about what I'd brew, and came across a recipe in Beer Smith that I developed at some point.

Pack o' Hooligans Stout is actually a 16A Sweet Stout. At some point I must have gone to my Roll-a-Style list and "rolled" 14 on an online 20-sided die ... 

 

Y is for BerkeleY AlleY Beer CompanY

Have you been following along on out A to Z series of posts?

Are you excited to find out what Denver-area brewery is next.

If you have, you know that we posted W is for Wanderment Brewing a couple weeks ago.

You also know that next up is "Y", and you probably also know that according to the Colorado Brewery Map & List, we didn't really have any options of breweries that actually start with the letter "Y".

And ... you also know that we don't let that sort of thing stop us ...

Are you excited to find out what we picked? Are you? ARE YOU? The Beer Model picked:

Y is for BerkeleY AlleY Beer CompanY

2024 Will-o-Wisp Autumn Ale (Batch 363)

Well ... as you may have figured out from what I've been posting on this blog, at some point I made a decision to brew SheppyBrew Seasonals for every month this year.

Somewhat surprisingly I've stuck with this so far, and now that we're in October, the beer I identified a couple years ago was Will-o'-Wisp Pumpkin Ale.

However, although this is one of one of SheppyBrew's Most Brewed Beers, it was never one that I was really a fan of.

The SheppyBrew Beer Model always wanted it. 

But, since I don't drink much of it, it tends to stick around quite awhile and last year, the Beer Model told me I shouldn't brew the Pumpkin Ale.

Instead, I took the base beer of the Pumpkin Ale and brewed it without spices or pumpkin ... 

Will-o'-Wisp Autumn Ale (no pumpkin)

2024 #GABF Friday Photos

As I mentioned in X is for EquinoX Brewing, this past weekend was GABF.

Like last year, we attended GABF with some of the Beer Model's brothers.

Unlike last year (and most years) we only attended the Friday night session.

I honestly don't have much to share about the Fest itself. It was creatively organized in a way that I was unable to figure out to find breweries. Maybe if I had attended more than one session it would have made more sense to me.

Regardless, it was fun.

Here are some random pictures ...