What the Helles Brew Day (244)

This past weekend, I brewed my 19th batch of beer for the year.

244th batch of beer all-time.

It was my 13th new recipe this year. My 6th lager.

Last week, I gave you a little heads-up that it was coming in What the Helles.

The beer name is What the Helles Dortmunder, and you can take a look at the recipe by following the link.

It is actually very similar to the Schreck Gartenzwerg Pilsner that I made a couple months ago, but should be richer, more bready, with a more substantial mouthfeel and a maltier, less bitter flavor.

Anyway ... I got started brewing very early in the morning.

When I went out, I startled a skunk that was wandering along my fence. Luckily, it was far enough away that I wasn't in danger of getting sprayed, but it did get my heart pumping a bit early in the morning.

I hit 100 Gallons in 2019

If I recorded accurately and did my math correctly, as of Learn to Homebrew Day, the Gnomes, the SheppyBrew Beer Model, and I have brewed 100 gallons of beer this year.

100

Gallons 

of Beer

What the Helles?

The German Beer Styles that have "Helles" (light in German) in their names have so many beer-name puns available to them.

My Second Brisket

So ... a couple months ago I smoked My First Brisket.

This past Sunday, I smoked my second one.

My First Brisket was a 10 pound (9.5 pounds) Choice Grade brisket that I purchased from my local Sam's Club.

It took about 11 hours from the time I put it on the kettle until I pulled it.

This second one was about 13 pounds (12.98) of Prime, also purchased at Sam's. I had intended on smoking this a few weeks ago, but ended up having to freeze it. I only started thawing it out in a water bath on Saturday.

Someone on a facebook group told me I "need" to let it thaw more gradually and to let it "rest" longer after the thaw but before putting it on the smoker.

Obviously I didn't "need" to, but I hope for my third brisket, I'll be able to smoke it without having to freeze and then thaw it.

K is for Kitchen, Lowdown Brewery +

If you've been following along on my A to Z Denver Breweries series ... you might have caught that finding another "K" brewery was going to be tough.

Other than Kokopelli Beer Company ... I don't know of any breweries in the Denver area that start with the letter "K".

I used Kokopelli Beer Company on my first time through the alphabet, so I can't use that one.

Scanning through the Colorado Brewery List, I spotted Lowdown Brewery + Kitchen. "Kitchen" begins with the letter "K". Maybe not ideal, but that appears to be the closest I can get.

I have established a precedent of allowing myself to look for letters elsewhere in the brewery names other than the first word.

See D is for Draw, Boggy and X is for WestFaX Brewing Company.

As an added bonus ... Lowdown Brewery + Kitchen is close to [The] Intrepid Sojourner Beer Project. The SheppyBrew Beer Model communicated displeasure with me for visiting Intrepid Sojourner Beer Project the without her.

We decided to hit these breweries this past Saturday.

K is for Kitchen, Lowdown Brewery +

Learning to Brew Dearg Irish Red (batch 243)

So ... Saturday was Learn to Homebrew Day.

We used this as an excuse to get a brew day done together with a couple of my Home-brewer friends.

At the same time, we invited a bunch of non-homebrewers over to watch and hang out. Sort of like Big Brew Day back in May.

This time, the Brew Day was at my friend "Du"'s brewery.

Less people showed up to this brew day than BBD, but the brewers sure had a lot of fun.

During the Big Brew Day back in May, my friend "Doc" brewed an extract batch. And, I decided that I would do the same thing this time.

I figure that if I'm doing an extract batch, there is less pressure to remember equipment (since there is less equipment for extract than for all-grain.

It also makes the brew day take less time and therefore make the chance of forgetting something in the process less likely.

Most importantly, it means I had less clean-up after the brew day.

So ... I created a quick little extract Irish Red Recipe:

Dearg Irish Red

J is for Jagged Mountain Brewery

If you read I is for [The] Intrepid Sojourner Beer Project, and are at all familiar with the Denver Brewery scene, chances are decent that you probably guessed what my "J" brewery was.

As I mentioned in the blog post, a couple of Saturdays ago, I took a bike ride downtown where I had a couple of beers before hitting The Intrepid Sojourner Beer Project taproom on my way back.

In case you're wondering why I hit "J" before stopping by "I" ... I mis-calculated how long it would take me to ride 15 miles.

When I was passing where to turn off the bike path for The Intrepid Sojourner Beer Project taproom, I figured out that I would get there before opening time.

So, I kept going.

Even so ... I ended up at "J" just a few minutes after opening time.

J is for Jagged Mountain Brewery