A is for Altitude Brewing & Supply

Here we go! 

Round 3 of my A to Z Denver Breweries Project.

The SheppyBrew Beer Model and I finished A to Z Denver Breweries Round 2 with Z is for Zuni Street Brewing Company (again), and we're starting right over at the beginning of the alphabet.

As I mentioned in A to Z Denver Breweries Round 2, I have breweries for A through C picked out already.

In fact, the Beer Model and I biked to a "C" brewery last weekend.

You'll have to wait to see what that "C" brewery is, but I'll tell you right now what I picked for "A".

Big A. Little a. What begins with A?

A is for Altitude Brewing & Supply 

A. A. A.

Altitude Brewing & Supply is actually primarily a Denver Homebrew Shop, but they also have a little tap room area with a decent selection of beers.

Spring Forward Hoppy Wheat

I have another Local Home Brew Shop (LHBS) by me. Broadway Brew Supply.

Sort of.

It is in the same spot as an old LHBS. The old one closed and someone new purchased the space and opened a new shop.

Last week, I decided to stop by and check out the new spot.

It is different. It has a smaller sales space, but it seems like they have everything I need.

As I wandered around, I decided to go ahead and get some supplies for a brew day. I sort of came up with the recipe "on the fly". For the most part, the grain bill was basically the same as Summer Lovin' American Wheat.

I didn't pick any hops until I was looking at the hop selection. Denali Hops caught my eye. I've never used Denali hops. I thought I might as well try them out, and I grabbed some of those. I also grabbed one of my favorite hops, Columbus.

After I got home, I plugged in the "new" recipe and called it ...

Spring Forward Hoppy Wheat

Another LHBS

Not too long ago, I mentioned my LBHS's (Local Home Brew Shops) on this blog.

I have recently started working in "the Tech Center" of the Denver Metro area, which means I no longer work close to Stomp Them Grapes .  But, now I work close to another LHBS called The Brew Hut.  I went there today to get grains for my Phat & Tyred Ale.

I like this place too.  Their grain price is slightly better than Stomp and seems to have similar selection.  Their hop prices are better than Stomp, but not quite as good as Beer at Home.  Their extract prices are better than  Beer at Home but not as good as Stomp Them Grapes.

So,  now, I guess I have 3 LHBS's that I will go to.  If I want extract, I should go to Stomp Them Grapes.  If I want hops, I should go to Beer at Home, and if I want grains, I should go to The Brew Hut.  Of course, when it comes right down to it, Stomp Them Grapes probably will not get a ton of my business just because I will not be "up North" very much.  I think what I need to do is work on the guys at Beer at Home and The Brew Hut to improve on their negatives.

Anyway ... just another benefit to living in the Denver area ... choices when it comes to LHBS's.



Oh ... a couple other advantages that The Brew Hut has:  it is attached to a brewery with a tasting room (Dry Dock Brewing) and it is open 7 days a week!

My LHBS's

This past Sunday, I went to one of my LHBS's to get ingredients for Stone Soup IDA.

I consider myself pretty lucky in that I have 2 good Local Home Brew Shops (LHBS) that I am able to frequent.  Lots of homebrewers do not really have any shops close by, but the Denver area has several.  I have one that is about a 15 minute drive from my house, and one that is about a 15 minute drive from where I work.  The one close to my house is called Beer at Home.  The one close to where I work is called Stomp them Grapes.

They are both good places to obtain beer-making ingredients.  I prefer Stomp them Grapes slightly because it has a better selection of grains and I just feel more familiar with where everything is and how the store is set up.  It also has better prices on extracts, and its website is far superior, which is nice when I need to formulate recipes and can actually look up what is in stock.  Beer at Home, though has GREAT prices on hops.  For the most part, I get my hops at B@H and everything else at STG.

Sunday, though, I decided to get all my grains / extracts and hops for Stone Soup IDA.  There were 2 women working the shop this particular Sunday afternoon, which was a surprise.  I have rarely seen women in LHBS's, and when I have, the woman has obviously been along with her husband or boyfriend, just because she did not want to wait in the car.  Obviously, there are women who brew (I talked to one on Sunday), but homebrewing is certainly a male-dominated hobby.

My understanding is that this has not always been the case.  Back in the days before commercial breweries, just about  every home had a home-brewer.  If you wanted beer back then, there was really no other choice.  And, for the most part (from what I have heard / read), this was one of the wifely duties around the house.  Apparently, 4000 years ago in the Babylonian empire, all brewers were priestesses.  And, as you go through the history of beer making you can find other examples of women being the primary beer-brewers.

But now-a-days, the fact that I ran into two beer-brewing women working the LHBS is a rare occurrence.  I probably should have taken a picture so I'd have proof that it actually happened.