H is for Holidaily Brewing Company (DTC)

Fairly recently, I posted G is for Golden City Brewery, and if you're familiar with the A to Z Series of posts on this blog, you know I now have to find and type up something on an "H" brewery.

In the G post ... I wrote:

According to the Colorado Brewery Map & List, there are a bunch of "H' breweries in Colorado. However of the ones close to us, we've covered them already. I'm not sure where we'll end up ... but we'll come up with something.

Last time through the alphabet, I used H is for Holidaily Brewing Company.

Somehow I missed it, but my wife (aka the SheppyBrew Beer Model) pointed out that Holidaily Brewing Company opened a second location. 

I didn't have a better idea for our H brewery ... so ...

H is for Holidaily Brewing Company (DTC)

H is for Holidaily Brewing Company

If you are following my A to Z Denver Breweries series of posts, you know that the SheppyBrew Beer Model (aka my wife) and I are working through our third round of breweries.

Last week, we hit Grist Brewing Company (Rare) to get our 3rd "G" brewery checked off.

If you're familiar with the alphabet, you probably realize that next up was to find a brewery that starts with the letter "H".

There are quite a few "H" breweries on the Colorado Brewery List, but most of them are either too far away, or breweries we've already visited.

In fact, there was one logical choice to visit next. And, this past Saturday, we decided to give it a visit ...

H is for Holidaily Brewing Company

Brewing Laser Salt

Perhaps you remember the story of "Gretchen" and the things I tried to make a decent "Gluten Free" beer for her.

Eventually, I ended up on White Labs' Clarity Ferm, which is an enzyme designed to eat haze-generating proteins from beer. It has the side effect of breaking down gluten proteins, making beers gluten-free.

The first beer I really tried this with was Laser Salt Sandy Blonde Ale.

I first made Laser Salt in May of 2012 with the intention of bringing it on a group camping trip to Great Sand Dunes National Park. "Gretchen" and another Gluten Sensitive person agreed to be testers of the beer.

Apparently, as advertised, neither test subject reported any reaction to the beer.

They were extremely happy and amazed. "Gretchen" has nick-named Clarity Ferm "The Gluten Killer".

Laser Salt Sandy Blonde Ale

I brewed Laser Salt Sandy Blonde Ale on 12/13/2015 and kegged it on 12/28/2015.

As I type this, the beer is still carbonating.

I already mentioned it in 2015 Year-End SheppyBrew Stats, so this post (like my past several "brew day" posts) is very late.

I won't say a lot about the brew day. It went well. The fermentation went well. The beer was very clear going into the keg and wonderfully hoppy. I expect to enjoy this beer very much.

As always (so far), this beer uses White Labs Clarity-Ferm ("The Gluten Killer"), making this a gluten reduced beer. My wife's friend "Gretchen" might be able to drink it, although chances are it will be gone before we see her again.
Here are some pictures of brew day:

G is for Great Frontier Brewing

You may remember that as I was composing the list of Denver breweries that I had not visited, it struck me that most of the letters of the alphabet were covered by the beginning letters of the brewery names.

I started with A ... A is for Alpine Dog Brewing Company

Next up was B ... B is for Baere Brewing Company

After B comes C ... C is for Comrade Brewing Company

Are you recognizing a pattern here? ... D is for Draw, Boggy (I took a little artistic licence to change Boggy Draw into Draw, Boggy)

And then, of course, E ... E is for Epic Brewing Company

After E, I predictably went to F ... F is for Factotum Brewhouse

And for G? What did I pick for G? G is for ...

Great Frontier Brewing Company

Mike Plungis, Great Frontier’s Founder and Head Brewer, started out as a homebrewer. This is pretty standard for how the typical small brewery is born.

Killing some more Glutens

I brewed SheppyBrew's Laser Salt Sandy Blonde Ale Sunday. My wife's friend "Gretchen" calls this beer "The Gluten Killer" because eveytime I make it, I add some White Labs Clarity-Ferm to reduce glutens.

Clarity-ferm's purpose is to help clarity in beer by eating away at proteins that can cause a haze. It just so happens that glutens are some of those proteins that get eaten away.

I have fed my beer to brave gluten-sensitive guinea-pigs (including my wife's good friend "Gretchen"). These guinea-pigs say they don't get nasty reactions to my beer, and it tastes much better than typical "real" gluten-free beers.

In my opinion, sorghum beers taste awful. This beer tastes fantastic.

Brewing the Laser Salt (again)

Yes, it is that time of year again.

Time to brew the Laser Salt Sandy Blonde Ale. And I did. I brewed it last Sunday.

Brew day, of course, started before sun-up. The Gnome and I got the strike temperature perfect with no trouble at all. The mash temperature did drop into the mid 140's before the end, which is not really that big of a deal. I'm fine with that.

Laser Salt and Eldorado Canyon

Last year, we were invited to go with a group of people to the Great Sand Dunes National Park. The SheppyBrew Beer Model and I designed and brewed a beer to bring with us for that trip, calling it Laser Salt Sandy Blonde Ale. You can read quite a bit about the whole experience (including this blog post at http://blog.ericshepard.com/search/label/Laser%20Salt).

Once again, we are invited to go with the same group. The Beer Model and I were planning on brewing Laser Salt again on Big Brew Day, but as you may recall, we had to brew something else that weekend (see Brewing for the Nationals). So, we had to move this year's Laser Salt Sandy Blonde Ale brew day to this past weekend.

I got started much earlier Saturday than we got started Big Brew Day. In fact, I was starting to chill the wort this weekend about the time we got started last time. My wife doesn't believe in doing anything before the sun comes up, especially brewing.

Brewing Some Buckwheat BPA

I don't have a favorite beer. I drink way too promiscuously to profess one beer to be my preferred. My wife, on the other hand, does say that she has a favorite, and it just happens to be a SheppyBrew creation. As it is my wife's official favorite beer, it is the one beer recipe that I have brewed the most. It is also the beer I have experimented with the most.

The beer is called Buckwheat's Belgium Pale Ale , and I brewed it again on Saturday.

The recipe is pretty close to how it started. The recipe has gone from a partial mash to the old 2.5 gallon single infusion mash to BIAB to my bigger all-grain batches. I've experimented with different yeasts, picking based on my wife's blind taste test. But, basically, the recipe is still pretty close to where it started.

Brewing Snowball's Chance

As I mentioned last week (see 1D. Munich Helles), I was planning on brewing Snowball's Chance (in) Helles this weekend. I followed through with the plan Sunday.

Snowball's Chance (in) Helles  is a Munich Helles, a German light lager which I am brewing to take care of BJCP Category 1, Light Lagers (see SheppyBrew Styles). Of the Light Lager styles, the Munich Helles is the most flavorful with a significant, slightly sweet, somewhat rich malt profile.

Brew day started early. I was wondering as I dug my propane and burner out of the shed how many home-brewers have to use a flashlight as part of their brewing equipment. It is an important part of mine, as the sun is usually not up when I start brewing.

1D. Munich Helles

I mentioned not-to-long-ago that my 2013 brewing goal is to expand my resume of beer styles. I want to have at least one beer brewed of each of the 23 BJCP style categories. After my 7C Düsseldorf Altbier, I now have 10 more categories to brew.

Next up, is Category 1 — Light Lager. Specifically, I have decided to brew 1D. Munich Helles. A Helles is a light-colored German lager. It has a clean, slightly sweet, malty flavor with low to moderately-low spicy noble hop flavor and aroma. It is low in hop bitterness. It is low in alcohol and easy drinking, making it a great session beer. It is also one of those beers that will ease non-craft-beer-drinkers into more flavorful craft beers (aka gateway beer).

7C Düsseldorf Altbier

I mentioned not-to-long-ago that my 2013 brewing goal is to expand my resume of beer styles. I want to have at least one beer brewed of each of the 23 BJCP style categories. Up until now, I have brewed at least one all-grain batch in 12 of them. In 2013, my goal is to brew at least one beer in each of the 11 remaining categories.

For the list of what the categories are and what I have and have not brewed, see SheppyBrew Styles.

On New Year's day, I am planning on brewing a Düsseldorf Altbier, which is in Category 7 — Amber Hybrid Beer.

I've already shared on this blog the recipe I'm making .... Sasquatch Hunter Düsseldorf Altbier.

An Altbier is an amber German ale fermented cool. This cool fermentation gives the beer a nice crisp clean finish with low yeast-derived esters. In other words, it is very much lager-like in its character. Thus, it is a hybrid between an ale and a lager.

Brewing Laser Salt Again

"So, Sheppy, what's with the Laser Salt?", asked one of my more loyal readers in a comment of Killing the Glutens. I didn't answer at that time. But, here you go:

The question has to do with SheppyBrew's Laser Salt Sandy Blonde Ale. "Laser Salt" refers to the  Great Sand Dunes National Park. The term "Laser Salt" is an inside joke between the SheppyBrew Beer Model, myself, and a couple of old friends.

The summer that we first moved to Colorado, we decided to head down to the Sand Dunes to camp. Just before we went, a couple of friends came to visit us from Illinois. While talking, my wife told the couple that we were "going blazer camping in the sand". Of course, what this meant was that we were taking the Chevy Blazer that we owned at the time and camping by the Great Sand Dunes. At the time, most of the camping we did was backpacking. Blazer camping just meant we were camping close the car as opposed to backpacking.

Killing the Glutens

As you may remember, my hot beautiful SheppyBrew Beer Model brewed up a batch of beer about a month ago (see Brewing the Laser Salt). We thought it would be fun to bring a keg with us to the Great Sand Dunes National Park where we had been invited to join a bunch of people at one of the group camp sites.

We were invited by our gluten-sensitive friend "Gretchen" whom I have mentioned quite a bit on this blog when writing about my Gluten Free brewing. She is also the person for whom I brewed Free the Glutens! APA.

Brewing the Laser Salt

We did it. The Brew Model and I brewed up the Laser Salt Sandy Blonde Ale, just like I told you we would (see Laser Salt and The Beer Model and Laser Salt and The Beer Model Part 2 ).

Yesterday, of course, was American Homebrewers Association's BIG BREW DAY. This has traditionally been an excuse to get the Beer Model brewing. Coincidentally, this was also a weekend that our kids were spending with the family we trade weekends with.

It is nice not having to do everything on the brew day. I still have to do the lifting of the heavy hot water, and for some reason, I always get stuck with the clean-up, but at least I didn't have to do everything.

Laser Salt and the Beer Model Part 2

Watch this video of my wife sliding down a sand dune:

When my wife (aka the SheppyBrew Beer Model) saw this video she asked me, "how did you know I would scream?"

I just gave her a look and said "I just knew". We have been married a long time.

So, when we last left you in part 1 of Laser Salt and the Beer Model, We had to narrow down "not too hoppy and not too dark" to an actual style of beer. We needed to do this so that we could develop a recipe. We needed the recipe to buy ingredients. We need ingredients to brew the beer.

There were a couple more requirements.

Bottling FTG

We have the kids of "Gretchen" this weekend. If you don't remember, "Gretchen" is the friend for whom SheppyBrew created the beer "Free the Glutens! APA" (FTG). You can read all about the story behind this beer on this blog by reading through the "Gluten Free" label on this blog and/or the Free the Glutens! APA on the SheppyBrew website. Follow those links and read away.

So, not too long ago, knowing that we would have "Gretchen's" kids this weekend, I brewed up my second batch of FTG. I gave myself more time than I did for the first batch, but still not as much as I should have. I decided that I would use the kids as bottling assistants and make "Gretchen" take home the FTG to carbonate herself.

Brewing Free the Glutens! again

You may recall that the Beer Model and I have a kid-swapping arrangement with another family. We take care of their two boys on weekends when the parents want to get away from the kids and they repay the favor by taking our two boys on other weekends.

The matriarch of this family (whom I have decided to name "Gretchen" on this blog and on the SheppyBrew website to protect the innocent) has a gluten sensitivity. This gluten intolerance sort of sucks (really really really sucks) as she likes to drink beer from time to time. After I rudely gave "Gretchen" and her husband beer as a thank-you after they had taken care of our boys over the 2011 GABF weekend, I decided to design and brew a gluten-free beer. I called it "Free the Glutens! APA".  You can read about it on this blog on the posts "Free the Glutens!" and "Tasting Free the Glutens".

Apparently "Gretchen" likes the Gluten-free beer. As I still had half the base ingredient (brown rice extract syrup) left, and "Gretchen's" birthday is coming up, I decided to make another batch this weekend.

Tasting Free the Glutens

Well, you might remember that not too long ago I talked about brewing up a #GlutenFree beer. If not, you can look back at the post: Free the Glutens! This past weekend, I tasted a bottle from the batch. My wife also gave it a try. Together, we decided it was good enough to present to the gluten-sensitive mother of the children we took care of over the weekend (for the purposes of this blog post we are going to call her "Gretchen" so I don't have to type "the gluten-sensitive mother of the children we took care of over the weekend" over and over). 

The beer model thought it was really good. I thought it was pretty good. It starts off a little sweeter and perhaps a little fuller in the body than I thought it was going to. I really wish I had taken an FG, because I sort of wonder if I should have let it ferment longer. I do think it is nicely balanced and has a pretty good citrus hop presence. The sweetness combined with the taste of centennial hops give it a little orange flavor, which is quite pleasant in this beer. It does not come across as bitter as an IPA. Naming it an APA was the right call.

Free the Glutens!

Image from Papazian's article

Glutens are nasty little creatures which hide in wheat (and wheat related) grains and attack an unsuspecting tribe of people know as the Celiacs. The Glutens perform bio-attacks on the Celiacs causing auto-immune reactions which are very unpleasant. Glutens are evil!

Actually, personally, I have nothing against glutens. I probably can't even begin to list the things that I enjoy eating and drinking that have lots of gluten in them. I doubt there is a day that goes by in which I don't consume multiple glutens. They are yummy. I'm glad I don't have to avoid foods that contain gluten.

One of my favorite sources of gluten is beer. Barley is full of gluten. So is wheat and rye. There are gluten-free beers out there, but they are sort of hard to find. I am told they don't really taste all that good either.