The Brewers Blog

Hello, my beer-drinking friends. We have been hard at work in the brewery since Esteban’s last entry and only now do we find a few minutes to share what is going on in the brewer’s world. There are plenty of events to mention for September and three new seasonal brews planned for release.

With summer drawing to a close we have two new Fall Seasonal beers that will debut early September. The first is our annual release(9-2-10)of Oktoberfest, which I am enjoying as I write this diddy. Brewed with German malted barley and German Tettanger hops this beer is fermented with lager yeast from the world famous Bavarian brewery, Aventinus. The result is an easy drinking, copper colored lager with up front bitterness that quickly falls off into a sweet, toasty malt flavor which promptly drops off to a dry finish. This beer in the past has not made it into the month of October so please get in for a pint soon. The second beer of this month (release 9-9-10) is Hot Shots Harvest Ale 2010, a beer that is brewed with fresh or wet hops. This year we linked up with local farmer, Rich Andrews, who supplied us with ample amounts of his hand picked, organic Cascade and Chinook hops. Within 24 hours of harvest the wet hops were dancing in the boil of an American-style IPA and releasing amazing vapors of citrus and grapefruit. The result is a grassy, citrus-y hop laden IPA that is heavy in body and heavy in bitterness. This beer also has the distinction of popularity and may not even make it to the Fall equinox….so another heads up this. The third brew will be a organic brown ale that was originally called Downtown Organic Brown…. since this brew has yet to be conducted we may look for a catchier name…. any suggestions?

As for events we will be participating in the following events:

September 4th 2010: Colorado Craft Beer Expo 1-5PM at Lucky Pie Pizza Lousiville, CO. This is a benefit for the Colorado Brewers Guild and will feature a select group of 30 of Colorado’s Best Breweries. $25

September 11th 2010: Boulder Beer Company’s Anniversary Beer Rave at the Brewery on Wilderness Place in Boulder. Over 30 unique brews from 30 breweries from 2-6PM $25

September 11th 2010: Wynkoop Brewery, Colorado’s Contenders Festival Pre-GABF beer tasting. Over 50 award-winning, exotic brews from Colorado’s finest to kick off Denver Beer Week 5-8:30PM.

September 16-18th 2010: Great American Beer Festival, Colorado Convention Center….Sold Out. Tickets often for sale by scalpers…buyer beware.

October 2nd 2010: Nederland’s Oktoberfest 12-9PM on First Street in the mountain town of Nederland,CO. Enjoy German heritage and German-style beers from Pumphouse and Wild Mountain Smoke House and Brewery. Cost TBA

Well that is all for now and we will check back in with more info hope see you down here enjoying the new brews and maybe we see you at one of these fests?

Cheers,

David Mentus
Head Brewer

Yesterday we brewed our competition entry batch of the Citra Pale Ale for the Great American Beer Festival Pro-Am Competition. Our trial run earlier this year proved the popularity of our resident homebrewer James’ recipe, and many folks are eagerly awaiting its return.
We’re just about out of our limited run of Shockwave Scottish Ale that we aged for many months in a bourbon barrel. This rich, smooth ale has gotten rave reviews even from folks who don’t care for the regular Shockwave.
Look for us at the Longmont Concert Series all summer. We bring a couple of our most popular beers to serve up while you enjoy live music.
We’ll have a new beer out soon with a kooky name: the Notti Otter Fuggle Ale! Using only Marris Otter malt, Fuggle Hops, and a Nottingham yeast, we’ve created a simple beer with enough character and “drinkability” to get you through the brutal heat.

Cheers!
Esteban de la Cervesaria

I’m just now getting back to normal after our Saison and Farmhouse ales tasting.  We had 16 different beers to try!  Jason Yester did a fantastic job guiding us through the style and presenting both classic Belgians, and modern local versions.  Our tasting series continues next month with “Pilsners and Beyond” with Bill Eye of Dry Dock Brewing.  I’m pretty excited about this one!

We’ve also submitted our paperwork for the Great American Beer Fest.  We’ll have a total of six beers entered this year, including our first Pro-Am!  Our test batch was amazing, so we’re finding places to put all our medals.

Cheers,

Esteban de la Cervesaria

We’ve brewed our 1000th batch, and it looks to live up to the heady times in which it was created. This beer will take some time before it will be ready, but already it is a monster. Now would be a good time to fortify your town, and plan escape routes for your villagers, because the Igniter XXL is going to run amok, and biplanes or giant moths stand no chance against it. It will take your pretty women and carry them away. You’ve been warned.

We still have a few tickets left to the June 22nd beer tasting. This session will be with Jason Yester of Trinity Brewing, and will focus on farmhouse ales. These brews began as refreshing summer ales to nourish the farmhands that would be doing the hard work during the summer. We’ll have lots of examples of the style, from modern American interpretations to the original imports that have been brewed for hundreds of years. It is a great opportunity to try up to 20 different beers with an expert to walk you through your sensory experience.

The festival season is getting underway. Stay tuned for updates on when and where we’ll be pouring.

Yours Aye,
Esteban de la Cervesaria

We’ve had some turnover in our seasonal brews this week. We’re now pouring the Hindenburg Light Kolsch Ale, Springtime Organic Saison, Pyro Chocolate Porter, Citra American Pale Ale, and Watermelon Wildfire Wheat. Between these five beers there is so much flavor it is hard to get my head around them all, so I’ll just try to get my stomach around them instead!

Thank you to everyone that attended or participated in our Spring Beer Fest to benefit Doctors without Borders. We had a lot of fun, tried some great beers, and –most importantly– raised a lot of money to help a worthy cause.

Sometime in the next week or so we’ll be brewing our 1000th batch! We’re all very excited and have chosen a super-sized version of one of our classics to commemorate this momentous occasion.

See you soon over a pint,
Esteban de la Cervesaria

Who’s ready for our Spring Beer Festival? This Saturday the 22nd, 12-4p we’ll be hosting a fest to benefit Doctors without Borders. Over 20 breweries will be serving their finest brews, and we’ll have food and schwag. It is a great charity, and so much fun you’ll wish we had one every weekend.

We also still have tickets available for our Summer Tasting Series. The next event is June 22nd, Farmhouse Ales with Jason Yester of Trinity Brewing Company.

As for our current and upcoming offerings: The Hindenburg Light Kolsch Ale is on now, and is going to be perfect for warm summer weather, as soon as we get some. The Citra Pale Ale that we’ve brewed for the Pro-Am competition at the Great American Beer Festival is ready, and will be available for sale soon. Due to popular demand we’ve also brewed a batch of Pyro Porter for those folks that like a darker beer.

As always, if you have any questions or comments for the brewers, let us know! Talking about beer is my 3rd favorite hobby, after drinking and making it!

Esteban de la Cervesaria

Out now is a special limited run of a well aged sour ale. This beer started over two years ago as Wildfire Wheat, to which we added a special combination of Belgian yeast and other wild microbes to produce a beer that is similar to a Belgian Lambic, but with a special American character. After this sour beer had been well aged, raspberries were added to round out this fine sour ale. It is light in body with a pleasant tartness. We only have three kegs of this limited edition, and we’re rewarding our loyal following by selling it at standard prices, but sorry! no growlers.

We also have a special treat for you this Friday night the 26th.  We recently obtained a Firkin, a special kind of keg designed to dispense cask conditioned ale without pressure.  Our first selection will be a cask conditioned, naturally carbonated version of our Flashpoint India Pale Ale.  To make this even more special, our Brewmaster, David Mentus, will be personally pouring pints for you!  Come on down and learn, or just enjoy!

On another note, last night’s Belgian Beer Tasting went exceptionally well. Despite dirty weather, the house was full to listen to Peter from New Belgium’s delightful Flemmish accent! The selection of 14 Belgian and Belgian-inspired beers touched every part of my palate. Spectacular!

Well…. it is tournament time and the Pumphouse-Red Zone is in full swing with beer and wing specials all tournament. The brewery has recently added two new beers to the Seasonal offerings. Pulaski Pilsener is back after a 5 year hiatus. It is clean crisp, German-style pilsener that features the spicy Sterling hops, a hybrid of the traditional Saaz hops used for Pilsener brewing. It is going fast so get in for a few tips of this lager. The other new brew is Battalion Extra Brown, strong English-style brown. It is considered strong at 5.8 % ABV when tradtional English browns are 3.8% ABV or lower. We made ours bigger and more flavorful thus more “American”. The water used in this brew was adjusted to match the water used in London, which makes a more malty brew like brown ale really stand out. It is been on tap for just one day the feedback has been positive. Upcoming for Seasonals will be: German-style Marzen and Springtime Saison, brewed with Chamomile and Lavender. Both should be out in late March or Early.

For the Craft Beer Tasting Series we have added 3 more sessions over the summer(June, July, August) that will be a must attend for beer lovers or those who wanted to learn more about a particular style. See our calender for more information.

Lastly, I would like to mention our Spring Beer Festival being held May 22nd 12-4PM. It will feature up to 25 breweries and will benefit Doctors Without Borders. We felt that since the devastating earthquakes around the world have caused so much suffering we could help an organization that provides much needed medical care for survivors. This event is always fun with great beers from Colorado and beyond. $30 per person will include: 10-Four ounce tasters of beer, pint glass and one meal from our most excellent kitchen. More information will be forthcoming via this blog and our website. www.pumphousebrewery.com and we are on facebook and twitter as well.

Cheers,

David Mentus
Head Brewer

Last night we had our 2nd Craft Beer Tasting, featuring Strong Ales with Matt “Handtruck” Thrall and it rocked! Matt is an excellent steward of craft beer and he was very interactive with our guests. It was great to see many people enjoying this casual and educational format of beer tasting with the option of mixing it up with the brewers. Yeah the beers are of great quality, but to be able to ask questions and chat with brewers face-to-face seems to add a special touch. Thanks to our brewers Matt, Craig and Stephen for making this go super smooth. I think we almost have this event dialed in and I am looking forward to the next one.

Here is the line up you missed and my 2 cents.
Strong Ales 2010:
LHB Widdershins vs ABC Hog Heaven=Barleywines
Odell 90 Schilling vs PHB Shockwave=Scottish
ABC Salvation vs Duvel=Strong Belgian Golden
ABC Samaels vs Thomas Hardy 2008=Old Ale
Aventius Doppelbock vs PHB Incinerator Doppelbock=Strong Bock
ABC DuganA IPA vs LHB 400 Pound Monkey English IPA=Strong Pales

My favorite pairing here was the Thomas Hardy’s 2008 Old Ale vs. Avery Samael’s. Both beers are more like a well aged port wine than a thick caramel flavored beer and although they seem expensive on the shelf they are worth every drop and great to share with friends. The other beer pairing I enjoyed was Left Hand Widdershins vs. Avery Hog Heaven. These beers are similar in ABV % and body but way different in flavor and aroma. Widdershins is a traditional English-style barleywine that is so smooth in taste with a caramel-malty theme and a lightly hopped, almost apricot fruit aroma. Avery Hog Heaven Imperial Red is the total opposite. It is a very dank, Columbus hopped brew that is huge aroma with a solid foundation of caramel maltiness. The contrast was appealing and exciting. I am glad that Left Hand has been brewing some more traditional, English styles of beer while brewers like Avery well, “like to tear it up.” You gotta have both. It is like love and lust.

So anyway… I am sorry to announce that the March 23rd Belgian Tasting is sold out. IPA in April with Doug Odell is still open and you can purchased tickets at the bar or over the phone at 303-702-0881.

We have decided to make this a monthly event and will add dates next week for the Summer Tour. So far it looks like we will tackle Farmhouse Ales, Wheats, and Light Lagers(yeah Cans!).

Finally, we will be having a Spring Beer Fest on May 22nd, 2010 featuring 25 breweries and thier spring and summer seasonals.