Belgian Pilsner

It’s like a Pilsner, but with Belgian ale yeast and a mix of German hops and Belgian-styles hops.  The most famous Belgian Pilsner is Stella Artois, but this is truly a lager and doesn’t have any Belgian character, it might as well be brewed by Budweiser…wait, it is, they are both owned by AB-InBev. 

The Yak and Yeti’s Belgian Pilsner pours cloudy instead of clear due to the low flocculating yeast, but lends some nice fruit esters and spicy phenols.  The hops come through nicely as well due to the light colored malts.  Despite finishing at a low 1 degree Plato in gravity, the beer has surprisingly a lot of body.  It comes in at 5.7% and 31IBU’s.  Served in 10oz glasses on our Haunted Beer Series tap handle.

So instead of reaching for a Bud, try our Namaste Pilsner and instead of reaching for a Stella Artois, try our Belgian Pils. It’s on tap and was released on Wed. Dec. 12th (12-12-12).

Prost!

The Cheshire Cat remains

The Cheshire Cat can still be found in the Yak & Yeti if you look around for it.  There was a great artist that did several large format wall paintings.  This one of Alice and the grinning cat is located in our Buffet room on the south wall. 

Join me on short photo tour around the Yak & Yeti to see the remains of the Cat.    When you first enter, you’ll be in the bar room and on top of the bar are 3 of the original Cats that decorated the place (apparently there were a ton of cats that people brought in for display).

 

There is also a fireplace on the east wall of the bar room that has this picture and figurines displayed.

 

 

 

Around the bar room are also several of these wall-mounted lights.  I’ve been told these were originally gas lamps but have been converted to standard electrical.  I’m not sure, but it is plausible.

On the south end of the bar, as you are heading to the outdoor patio you’ll notice this photo of Eli Allen, who was the original owner of this land and build the house.  Eli was the 2nd postmaster of Arvada, 2nd to Benjamin Wadsworth.  You’ll find other photos of the Van Voorhis family and neat black & white photos of the old house before there was much of anything on that side of Ralston Road.

 

 

One room that you won’t see anymore is the “smoking room” that the Cat used to have.  It is now used as our private office.  There is a another one of the large format paintings of the smoking worm on top of the large mushroom from Alice and Looking Glass.  If you look at his face he is a spot-on look alike for Geoffrey Bruce, one of the owners of the Cheshire Cat Brewpub.

Let’s walk upstairs.  You’ll notice all the wall hangings have changed (even added some Karma Sutra paintings in the tower room), but what hasn’t changed is the library.  Notice the blue sky painted ceiling and many books on the shelves though-out this room.

 

Past the office to the north is a small over-flow room for private dining.  Jesus Christ himself is still hanging on the wall!

In the south-west corner there is an old bedroom that is called the board room.  This room still houses several of the steins, mugs and drinking vessels that were a part of the Cat’s mug club.  The room also has little closet that isn’t used for anything but to collect dust. The doors look to be more Thai in influence, but we kept them, because they just look so cool.

 

Finally, back on the first floor is the brewery.  Yup, it’s still there and is being used a lot more too.

Well, I ran out of photos to share, hope you enjoyed the virtual photo tour, next time, stop in person and look around and you might find other hidden treasures left behind from the Cheshire Cat.  In the meantime, I think I’ll have a beer. 

Prost!

 

Behind the Beers: West-Coast Glutton Double Red

This beer was another one that was supposed to be brewed just once, but in addition to rounding out our offering, people really like it.  Some of our regulars rarely try anything else as this is now their go-to beer. 

The idea for this beer came from two different directions and sort of…merged.  I was getting quite a few request to make a “red ale.”  On the other hand, I wanted to make a beer that would slightly cannibalize the IPA sales so I wouldn’t run the risk of running out.   So I toyed with the idea to make a sister IPA, like an English-style to contrast our American-style.  I wasn’t certain that it was a good move, so I instead thought of doing a Double IPA (more hops and more alcohol, but not exactly double everything).  Then I remembered having a double red in the Midwest a few years back.  It was malty like a red, but hoppy like an IPA and it had a whole lot of alcohol. 

So I designed a few recipes and was going to brew a small pilot batch and put it on the Haunted Series for a test run.  The working title at the time was Doble Rojo (“doh-blay roh-ho” or literally “Double Red” in Spanish).  I never got around to making a pilot batch, it was probably on the back burner for 6 months before I needed to relieve the sales of the Himalayan IPA, so I designed a 3.5bbl batch and took a chance to brew without a test batch.  It turned out to be 10.0%,  dark red and very hoppy (twice the hops as the Himalayan IPA)  People thought the first batch was good, but had a very artificial cinnamon character suspected from the Zythos hops.  The name for the beer came from my good buddy J. Wilson who writes the Brewvana.net beer blog and was named 2012 Beer Drinker of the Year by Wynkoop Brewing.

After releasing this beer, I discovered Pizza Port’s Shark Attack two days later.  If I was trying to clone a beer, I inadvertently did.  Then just last week I had an Oskar Blues' G’Knight which tastes very similar to the WCG as well, oops another accidental clone.  Shortly after I released my double red, Wynkoop released a Double red too called “Colorojo.” (good thing I didn’t name mine Doble Rojo!)

The second batch that I brewed I scaled up to 5.5bbl because 3.5bbl is almost impossible to boil in my steam jacketed kettle, (the side steam-jackets are too high for the wort and it takes longer to boil 3.5 than it would 5.5bbl when only using the bottom jacket).  The hops and the hopping schedule was the biggest recipe difference as I replaced the Zythos with Centennial, which is one of my favorite hops (calculated to be 150IBU’s but nobody thinks over 100IBU’s is actually possible) The other change was targeting the beer to be less big at 9.0% but my efficiencies were higher than I expected and it came in at 9.6% ABV.  The beer turned out to be a great blend of malt, hops and alcohol so I haven’t changed it since.  Due to the high alcohol content we serve this responsibly in 10oz Belgian glassware.

This beer is rapidly becoming very popular and is also a favorite at Hops & Pie, when available on tap.  If you haven’t had a pint for awhile, check it out and maybe you’ll appreciate the beer a little more knowing what’s Behind the Beer.

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Off Kilter 80/-

Eighty slash minus?  It is pronounced “Eighty shilling” and 80/- is a style of beer name like “pale ale” or “stout.”  The Scots had other classifications for their beers as the heavier a beer was brewed, the more ingredients it required(therefore it was taxed higher, 80 shillings was the tax per hogshead of beer).

1. Light - (60/-) was under 3.5% abv
2. Heavy - (70/-) was between 3.5% and 4.0% abv
3. Export - (80/-) was between 4.0% and 5.5% abv
4. Wee heavy  - (90/-) was over 6.0% abv

I’ve been told that the Scots barely use the terminology anymore and refer to the beers more as “heavy” or “export.”  So This beer could have easily have been called “Off Kilter Scottish-style Export.”  But in America, the term “export” lends more of a cheap designation for lagers that our dads and granddads used to drink.

The name for “Off Kilter 80/-“ came from a Facebook poll of our followers.   We had a lot of great name suggestions, but this one from Shannon Driesen warranted the most “likes.”  The runner up (who only lost by one vote) from Michelle Henninger-Ainscough was called “Thistle-do-nicely 80/-.”

This beer comes in right where I expected at 5.25% and 18 IBU’s, it is dry, refreshing and has a hint of caramel and roasted barley flavors.  The color is a deep amber color and the yeast lends a few fruity esters.  One thing it is lacking from traditional Great Britian beers is a hint of diacetyl.  I like clean beers and this is really hard to control, so I let the beer ferment cleanly and thus “no diacetyl.”   This beer will be released on Friday Dec 7th at 4PM.  Stop on by to help us celebrate a new release on the Amber Tap handle and I can’t promise there won’t be any kilts present.

Prost & Slainte!

Behind the Beers: One Year Anniversary of Jalapeño Lena beer

Last week I was telling the story to somebody about how Jalapeño Lena beer was created and realized it was about a year ago that I made my first batch.  So I looked it up and sure enough, I missed the one year anniversary which was on 10-24-11.  I usually tell people it was made on a “Dare and Bet” and it was named after a really great zydeco song called “Jalapeño Lena".”   Here is the whole story…

In the summer of 2011 I made a Guajillo pepper wheat beer and I painstakingly and diligently removed the pith and seeds so I could taste the peppers but not have any heat to the beer.  The beer turned out well but the most common complaints that I heard was that it was “wussy” and had “no heat.”    So I went into the kitchen, washed about 1/2 lb of jalapenos, chopped them up fine (seeds, pith, meat, stems and all!) and put them into a sanitized cheesecloth bag (called a hopsock by us brewers) and put it in the bottom of a keg.  Then I racked 5 gallons of pilsner on top and let it rest 7 days.

I put the beer on tap and I proudly declared that the beer was hot!  Too hot for Adam Draeger to drink a pint, 3-4 oz was enough for me.  I intended to “shut people up” by releasing this beer that was “barely drinkable” due to the heat.  It backfired.  They loved it!  The transplants from New Mexico (whom I’ve noticed have a larger tolerance for heat than most) said it was like a 5 on a scale of 1 to 10 and it was “just enough heat” to make it good.

I didn’t plan on making more, but since the first keg blew in 3 days, I made another keg and thought, “that would be that.”  After the second keg blew just as fast (maybe faster) I decided to keep making the beer as long as people kept drinking it.   When we had to turn people away that wanted growlers because I didn’t have enough to go around, I knew we were onto something, I started making about 1/2bbl a week, opened it up for growler sales and the demand hasn’t stopped growing since.

The beer has 3lbs peppers per barrel (ppb) and ~5.1%ABV and ~34 IBU’s, I have no clue what the scoville units are (anybody got a connection to help me test this?)  If you haven’t had a pint for awhile, check it out and maybe you’ll appreciate the beer a little more knowing what’s Behind the Beer.  For all those that love the fresh pepper aroma and the heat, here’s to you.

Prost!

Old Chicago Holiday Mini-tour featuring Chai Milk Stout

I’ve had our Chai Milk Stout on tap at Old Chicago in the past but never on a mini-tour.  To explain, Old Chicago has a full tour that is completed when you try 110 different beers.   Your name goes on a plaque/barrel and you earn pts and prizes along the way.  They also have seasonal “mini-tours” that are made up of usually 6-12 different beer that match the holiday or season.  St. Paddy’s tour features irish and stouts, Oktoberfest tour features Ofest lagers, and German wheats, etc.   This holiday tour is one of the longer and bigger ones at 12 different beers.  So you’ll see the Yak and Yeti’s beer going head-to-head with other holiday beers like* Breckenridge Brewery’s Christmas Ale, Sierra Nevada’s Celebration Ale, Pyramid’s Snow Cap, Great Divide’s Hibernation Ale, Blue Moon Winter Abbey, Samuel Smith’s Winter Welcome, Alaskan Winter Ale, Avery’s Old Jubilation Ale, Boulder Beer’s Never Summer and Bristol’s Winter Warlock.

Besides the Yak & Yeti, the Chai Milk Stout will only be available at the Old Chicago on Wadsworth and 77th in Arvada, CO during the mini-tour which begins on Wednesday Nov 28th.

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*I’m not certain what beers will be selected for their tour, I just gave examples of what beers I could be going head-to-head against.

Porter Wednesdays 2012

The Wednesday Porter Series is set to kickoff on Dec 5th.  Some of the flavors are different than last year but the concept is still the same.  Every Wednesday at 4PM you can try a new flavored version of our Sherpa Porter.  Here is the lineup:

• Dec 5th – Toasted Coconut Porter
• Dec 12th – Vanilla Porter
• Dec 19th – Peppermint Porter
• Dec 26th – Cherry Porter
• Jan 2nd – Orange Chocolate Porter
• Jan 9th – 100% Kona Coffee Porter
• Jan 16th – Repeat of Favorite
• Jan 23rd – Repeat of Favorite

I’ll try to blog about these as they come out, but we’ll see how busy/motivated I am in the weeks before Christmas.  Either way, show up every week on Wednesdays and you’ll have your pint club card filled out in no-time flat so you can get one of our new pint glasses.

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Behind the Beers: GF Apple Ale

Anybody with a gluten-intolerance or gluten-sensitivity doesn’t need me to explain that “GF” stands for “Gluten-free.”  With all the foods in the grocery store that claim gluten-free, you know there is a large market for such a product.  The Yak & Yeti isn’t using this as ploy to make more money and capitalize on this growing market segment, but really as a service to our gluten-intolerant friends and customers.   So the origins came about when I asked our chef which of our foods on the menu were gluten-free and his response was, “nearly everything.”  Looking into it farther, I suppose our menu is about 85% free of gluten products and you can order just about any menu item made specially gluten-free, with the exception of the naan bread. (sorry!) 

I reflected on our beer offerings and noticed that juxtaposed with the 85% gluten-free menu, we had 100% GLUTEN-filled beers.  That doesn’t jive.   I also began to hear request from patrons for GF beer and when I had nothing to offer them they instead drank water, soda, wine or hard liquor (basically EVERYTHING else in my bar except our beers).   We are brewpub and I always want to deliver a large selection of beers and beer styles to our patrons, so I knew it was the right thing to do to develop a gluten-free beer offering for at least one tap handle. (Our house-made Honey Ginger Soda, isn’t a beer, but is also GF).

Confession: I don’t like gluten-free beer.  Well, I didn’t when others made them trying to emulate a barley-based beer.  (Have you ever had a commercial GF IPA?  yuck!)  I don’t care for soy milk or rice milk either, I like the real thing.   But I can drink Vanilla flavored milk substitutes. Why?  Probably because I’m not comparing it to milk, but more like an ice cream milk shake!  So IMHO the best way to make a GF beer that taste good is to not make it taste like beer, but something else to get your mind off of it.  Which gets us talking about hard cider.

I’ve made a lot of hard cider as a homebrewer; my wife loves it.  When I had a 4-tap kegerator in my previous home, she insisted that I keep one tap handle dedicated to hard cider.  Although homebrewers embrace making meads and ciders, the government has defined these two beverages to be WINE!  So commercially if I am to make cider, I have to get a wine making license, not even sure if that is possible for a brewpub, but it sounds like too much red tape for me.  

So, I decided to make an ale using Sorghum (see photo) as the primary grain, which is known to be gluten-free. Combined with apple cider and hops (one hop pellet in our case), and made with beer yeast, it can’t be disputed that this is truly an ale (or beer).  As a result, this beer tastes awfully like a hard cider. Crisp, tart, refreshing and most of the sorghum flavor, which is ill-favored by most, is covered up by the flavor of the apples!  Some don’t like ciders and dismiss it entirely, but having poured this beer at festivals and over the bar, I am surprised to see both men and women like this beer equally & enthusiastically.  Sure, we still occasionally get the stubborn men with large egos that say, “I don’t drink fruity beers, I only drink IPA’s.”  I usually refrain from telling them that the IPA’s are know for having grapefruit, orange and other strong citrus flavors. ;)

This beer may have been our 2nd best seller during the hot summer months.  I suspect this is because it is our most refreshing beer and at only 4.7-4.9% alcohol, it can be consumed more sessionably.  Do to our beer-loving, but gluten-intolerant friends, we keep this beer on year-round.  If you haven’t had a pint for awhile, check it out and maybe you’ll appreciate the beer a little more knowing what’s Behind the Beer.

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Sherpa Porter 2012

The Sherpa Porter was a huge favorite last winter and it returns again on Friday Nov 23rd, 2012, Black Friday!  What better beer to release on this day than a black beer.   This year’s batch turned out to be a little bigger at 5.2% and 34IBU’s.  You can read about last years batch here.  Due to the other bars in the area also wanting this seasonal on tap, I’ll most likely have to make a 2nd batch to keep it on for the majority of the snowy months. 

We’ll have it on tap when we open at 11AM and will have a release party from 4PM-10PM that night.  So when all the early morning specials are done and gone, come by and enjoy a fresh pint of the Sherpa Porter. 

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Pumpkin and Spice (and all things nice)

Just in time for Thanksgiving!!!  We’ll be releasing our Pumpkin & Spice on Wed Nov. 21st at 4PM.  This beer won’t make it through the Thanksgiving weekend, so if you want some, show up for the release party or have your Thanksgiving meal at the Yak & Yeti because we’ll be open all day Thursday 22nd.  I myself will probably have a “post-meal, during-digestion” beer at the Yak on that evening.  

Last year this beer was well received and was consumed quite rapidly.  This beer started as a collaboration with some of the KROC homebrewing club members and was heavily requested for the same recipe to return.  I couldn’t coordinate to schedule the same brewers back, but we did the same recipe again.  Read about the original posts here and here.

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Belgo-IPA

When I was going to school in Chicago the two most popular new styles of beer were Belgian Pales and Belgian IPA’s.   From my recollections, every brewpub had at least one of these on tap and beer bars had several offerings.   My favorite was Zombie Dust from Three Floyds.  (most people know that I love Zombies).  The name drew me in, but the hoppy flavor was great mixed with the other nuances of the Belgian yeast strain that they used I can’t normally get it out here, but they brought some in for GABF, yum.

This isn’t an attempt to clone Zombie Dust, but it is a chance to introduce our customers to another style of beer, especially for those lovers of hoppy beers.   The recipe isn’t all that different from our Himalayan IPA but with two major changes.  1. Fermented with the Belgian-Ardennes strain of yeast and 2. dry-hopped exclusively with Styrian Goldings Bobek hops.  The beer is cloudier due to the less flocculent yeast strain and gives a completely different aroma and flavor due to the hops and yeast.  We hope it is something you will enjoy with a whole new perspective on IPA’s…Belgian IPA’s.

The stats for this beer: 6.1% ABV and ~65 IBU’s. Currently just called Belgo-IPA, but if people really dig it, we’ll name and make it again sometime.  Released at 4PM on Wed Nov 7th at the Brewpub.  See you there.

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Behind the Beers: Himalayan IPA

The TTB (Tobacco & Trade Bureau) is what now governs all beer labels (replaced the more familiar ATF).  When I first wanted to start selling kegs of this beer outside our brewpub walls I thought I needed COLA label approval, so I went through the whole online process for submitting my Keg Label Collars.   Woah!  That was a learning experience.  Did you know if we were to bottle our IPA it would have to be renamed?  At the very least it was suggested we’d have to change the name to Himalayan-style IPA because the name misleads the buying into thinking it was “actually made in the Himalayas.”  Turns out I did this whole process for not.  As long as I don’t bottle/can or distribute out of the state, I don’t need label approval to sell my kegs out of house.  So as of now the name is still “Himalayan IPA.”  Not even the Brewer’s Association at the GABF cared about the name when they awarded us a gold medal in 2010 for this beer in the American-style Strong Pale Ale category.

This recipe was another Chris Kennedy creation.  It hasn’t changed since I came on board, but looking back into the history books (the recipe log), Chris tweaked and changed the hopping bill and hopping schedule many times. Rarely did he repeat the exact same recipe.   I think what we have is a rock-solid recipe that needs just consistency from batch to batch on the process side of things, so I don’t change the recipe.

One story I can tell where I experimented with the process was nearly disastrous.  Our IPA is dry-hopped with 3.75lbs of Cascade and Columbus hops (it actually has 3.75lbs of total hops per bbl to be exact!)  Anyways there are two obvious ways to dry-hop a beer, warm and cold.  Let me explain the differences.  If one warmly dry-hops a beer, the oils will more likely dissolve and you get better extraction before cold-crashing the yeast. The issue is that all the hops particles don’t stay in suspension and they also drop out.  Whereas with cold-hopping, you cold-crash first. (this is NOT cold crashing!)  Then the hops stay in contact with the beer much longer without settling (cloudier beer too) but the trade off of longer contact time means the colder temperature won’t dissolve as many of the oils.

The punch line is that I tried cold-hopping instead our usual warm-hopping and our regulars noticed!  They didn’t like the taste change and I reverted back to the warm-hopping.

Other than that, the gold medal, the only other thing I can say about this beer is that it has always been our number one selling beer (summer and winter) and won’t be going away anytime soon, or ever for that matter.  If you haven’t had a pint for awhile, check it out and maybe you’ll appreciate the beer a little more knowing what’s Behind the Beer.

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Behind the Beers: Chai Milk Stout

The Chai Milk Stout is our 2nd best selling beer in the winter months.  Something about coming in from the cold, sitting in a warm pub and drinking a stout with tea-like spices in it that is comforting.

This was another recipe that was started by Chris Kennedy.  The Yak & Yeti has a house-made blend of chai spices for our Chai Tea that we sell.  You can get the tea hot or cold, but most prefer it hot.   Chai Tea traditionally is served with a little milk or cream, and so the idea for Chai Milk Stout was born.  There aren’t too many beers that use lactose (milk sugar) as far as ingredients, but the Milk Stout or Sweet Stout (as some call it) does contain lactose.   So, in our opinion, the absolutely best style of beer to put chai spices in is a milk stout.   At the GABF this year we saw a Chai Wheat and Chai Amber beer, but they didn’t compare to the well-matched Chai Milk Stout.

A quick side explanation of Sweet Stout.  What makes it sweet?  Adding more sugar?  Contrary to common sense, the more sugar one adds to the beer, the LESS sweet it will become.  The reason is that yeast loves sugar. It is it’s primary source of food.   The food is converted to mainly CO2 and alcohol.  So add more sugar and it gets consumed and turned into more alcohol, not sweetness.  Lactose (or milk sugar) is special in the fact that normal brewer’s yeast cannot metabolize it.  So instead of turning it into alcohol, it leaves it behind, leaving the beer slightly sweeter than other styles of beer, (example would be its close sibling Dry Stout).

One question that is most asked is how we get the spices into the beer.  The spice blend and the process are one of our trade-secrets, but I can tell you that it isn’t added in the boil, but rather in secondary to retain all the great spice flavors.  The recipe hasn’t changed much but I did add some oats to give the beer a larger foam head, as it was always collapsing before.  We also started getting better efficiency with the mash tun, so I scaled it back so that I wasn’t wasting so much grain.

At the GABF this year we poured this beer and it was probably the most popular of our beers.  People would come up to the booth after hearing recommendations from their friends “Do you still have the Chai Stout?,” they would ask.  Indeed we do.

If you haven’t had a pint for awhile, check it out and maybe you’ll appreciate the beer a little more knowing what’s Behind the Beer.

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Behind the Beers: Namaste Pilsner

I’ve been pretty lame when it has been to blogging lately and want to give more information besides what beers I’m releasing.  In attempt to blog more, I thought I’d start a short series of posts that talk about our flagship beers and how they came to exist and why they are still on tap.

I’ll have to apologize that I may not know all the origins of these beers, but will at least give you it the story from my perspective. 

“Namaste” roughly translates to “I bow to you” and is a traditional Indian/Nepalese greeting and parting gesture.  It is usually accompanied with hands pressed together and a bow, of course.  Chris Kennedy was my predecessor and I’m presuming he named this beer.  If I remember correctly, he started making this beer as a lager but at one point it changed to a Kolsch-style Ale.  It was a Kolsch when I came on board but the name was still Namaste Pilsner.

I had recently just graduated from the World Brewing Academy where I spent 5 weeks in Germany and was highly affectionate with classic German Lagers.  I had drank plenty of authentic pilsners during this time and longed for fresh examples in America.   So my dilemma was: (a) change the name to Namaste Kolsch and keep Chris’ recipe, or (b) do I keep the name, ditch the recipe completely, develop a Pilsner recipe and source a lager yeast?

Ultimately, I chose to keep the name and change the recipe to a Northern German-style pilsner with 100% Weyermann Pilsner malt and about 35IBU’s of Tettnager hops.  The yeast I sourced from Del Norte Brewing.  You may be telling me that DNB makes nothing but Mexican lagers and not German lagers.   All Mexican lagers are decedents of German lagers, where else did the yeast come from?   I like this yeast strain, it produces slightly more sulfur than other yeast strains and thus gives the lager more of bite/edge and accentuates the hops/bitterness.

The first batch which was made was submitted to the 2011 Colorado State Fair competition where it won a 3rd place medal in the Pilsner category.

The Namaste Pilsner remains the 2nd or 3rd best selling beer for us in the summer months.  If you haven’t had a pint for awhile, check it out and maybe you’ll appreciate the beer a little more knowing what’s Behind the Beer.

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Blueberry Tart

Sours at the Yak & Yeti? Well, not exactly.  I’ve been playing with acid malt and working some recipes that give tartness, not a true sour beer.  To explain, most sour beers have been inoculated with Lactobacillus, Pediococcus, and other various bacteria to give the beer a sour edge. Just like blue cheese, some people adore it, others loath it, the same can be said for sour beers.

I don’t really want to deliberately infect my lines just to have one sour beer, so I tried to compromise and use a clean method for producing a lower pH beer and mixed with blueberries, we get Blueberry Tart.  Inspired by the pie-like dessert, this beer has malts similar to a brown ale but has a ton of blueberry puree added in the secondary.  Released on Wed Oct 18th at 4PM.  Some like them tart, others nart!

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2012 GABF week special beer tappings

To help celebrate the Denver Beer Week, we are releasing 4 of our standard beers with a TWIST.

On Wednesday 10th, at 4PM:

1. Roasted Lena – our jalapeno lena made by pre-roasting the peppers in our tandoori oven.  what a treat!
2. Apple Cinnamon Ale – our GF Apple Ale with Cinnamomum_cassia aka real cinnamon bark in the keg.  still 100% Gluten-free!
3. Blueberry Pie – our Victorian Wheat with 3lbs of blueberry puree added to each keg.  some like them purple!

Lastly when the Haunted Beer series tap opens up (probably friday) we’ll have the Oaked Himalayan IPA back on tap.

Come to the Yak and Yeti Brewpub to help us celebrate GABF and Denver Beer Week.

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Collaboration: Saison Automne

It’s time to release another homebrew collaboration, this time with Scott Jackson.  Scott is an award-winning homebrewer and just recently was bestowed with the 2012 Colorado State Fair Best of Show!  The winning ale was a wheat wine aged in a 5gal mini barrel.   I had a chance to taste this beer on tap at Scott’s and it was worthy of the win, very delicious.

Scott proposed we brew his famous Saison Automne and release it this fall.   A fairly straight-forward imperial saison but with a few more specialty malts for flavor/color as well as homemade dark candy sugar which adds color and complexity.   I couldn’t repeat this beer even if I wanted, unless I got more yeast from Scott’s own Belgian yeast blend!  This beer comes in at 9.6%ABV and 31IBU’s. 

Released at 4PM on Oct 3rd, 2012.  Decide for yourself if this is a good saison, who knows it may be your new fall favorite.

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Dragon’s Wort Ale

I’ve shopped for many rare, seasonal and special release beers in my lifetime, but I’ve never run across a Dragon’s Wort Ale.  I even “googled it” so I know it never existed.   So I decide to make a beer using Dragon’s Wort as a spice.  They use Tarragon, the more popular name for this spice, in chicken dishes, soups and in other countries even as a soda flavoring! 

I had several other Haunted Beer’s in waiting in front, so it isn’t until today (Wed Sept 26th, 2012) that I get around to releasing and blogging about this beer.   Turns out another Colorado Brewery (Pumphouse in Longmont) has beat me to the release.  The only proof is due to Untapped which proves they had released a Dragon’s Wort Porter about 6 weeks or so before (which I found out during the writing of this post).

Like most of our wheat beer series and Haunted Series, we like to go “over the top” so you can taste what we say we put in the beers.  Dragon’s Wort Ale is no exception.  The flavor is SOOO strong that a funny slogan comes to mind.   “There are no such thing as strong beers in this world…only weak men!”

Come and see how strong your manly beer scale measures up against our Dragon’s Wort Ale.  Can you slay a glass of this 8.5% spiced Belgian-style behemoth?  Tapped at 4PM on Wed. 26th 2012.

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New Taphandles for the Brewpub

  These taphandles aren’t all that impressive, but they are replacing little black stubs with a hand-scribbled sticker on the top.  This sticker was about 1/2” circle and when it got wet was very hard to read.  In order to maintain the quality of beer you expect as the customer. (like “I ordered a Pilsner and this is a Stout!”)  These taphandles will assist us in pouring the right beer every time!  Yeah, no more confusing little stubby taphandles. 

For all you bartenders out there, Rock on!

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Brown Rice and Honey 2012

The much anticipated release of the Brown Rice & Honey Ale is soon.  Friday Sept 7th at 4PM to be exact.  I’ve fielded many questions over the last few months on it’s expected return.  This is one of our fall seasonals and is based on an Northern English Brown.   The beer is hardly recognizable from it’s base style after 60lbs of Clover Honey and 60lbs of Brown Rice are added to the beer.  The honey brings a floral aroma and honey flavor whereas the brown rice lends more of an earthy spiciness.  Much like last year the beer comes in around 6.1% ABV and 26IBU’s. The beer pairs well with many foods including Nepalese (coincidence?, I think not!).  Last years post can be read here in this conveniently placed link.

Alternatively to the Oktoberfest beers and the early released Winter Warmers that are on the market now, come try a beer that reminds the soul that it is harvest season.

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New Banner at the Westminster Restaurant

There isn’t many times where I post about stuff that is happening outside our brewpub, but today I felt like making an exception. 

The old banner is going on 8 years old and has incorrect information on it (plus it was boring black and white).  So Dol asked me to get a new sign made.  This one was done by my buddy Scott at Vinylworks in Wheat Ridge.   I installed it this afternoon in the mist of the wind.  If you are looking west, check out the mountains, but if you are looking east, check out the new BUFFET sign in Westminster.

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Peach Wheat 2012

Colorado Peaches are ready!  So also will be the Peach Wheat from Yak and Yeti which features Colorado Peaches.  Last years posting informed us that peaches are really stone fruits related to the almond.  Read more interesting facts here.

Release is Wednesday August 29th at 4PM.

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LoonyToon Tripel

If you are asking yourself “what a loony name for a beer?”  Maybe a background story will help.

I have always really liked the Belgian-style beers that are made by Unibroue located in Chambly, Quebec, Canada.   Maudite, La Fin du Monde, and Trois Pistoles to name a few.   I was able to procure some of their house yeast and decided to produce a Belgian-Abbey-style Tripel (ex. Westmalle Abbey Tripel.)   These are golden in color and deceptively strong in alcohol dominated by fruit and ester flavors and aromas.

LoonyToon Tripel is 8.2%, calculated 31IBU’s and gets it’s name from Canadian money.   For those who have visited Canada, they don’t have paper money for bills under CAN$5.  Instead they use $1.00 and $2.00 coins.  The $1 has a picture of a waterfowl (Loon), so they call it a “Loony” and the $2 looks really cool with two different contrasting metals but is just affectionally known as a “two-ny” or “toony.”  Canadian yeast + nickname of money = LoonyToon Tripel.  As Paul Harvey used to say, “And now you know the rest of the story.”

The release is set for Friday, Aug 31st at 4PM.  Served responsibly in 10oz Belgian glass (snifter) and sorry, US$ currency is only allowed for purchase. :)

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Roasted Hatch Chili Wheat 2012

For those who love the Jalapeño Lena but have been bugging me relentlessly for making a roasted pepper beer, this one is for you!  Roasted Hatch Chili Wheat is made with Hot Hatch chilis from the Lowell and 64th intersection stand which many of our regulars suggested and prefer.   The guy at the stand was really nice and was not pushy nor too passively rude.   He gave me a sample of the hot hatch, which had lost quite a bit of the heat from roasting, so I thought, why not put a whole pound in the keg.   [as a side note: capsaicin is soluble in alcohol]  As a result the finished keg is much hotter than I thought and makes the Lena medium/mild in comparison.   Too hot for you?, try a 50/50 blend with the Victorian Sunrise wheat beer. 

For those who like the heat, come in the air conditioned Yak & Yeti and try some Roasted Hatch Chili Wheat released today (Wed Aug 22) at 4PM.

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What is Kasuri Methi and why did you put it in a beer?!

Kasuri Methi is the Indian name for dried fenugreek.  I spiced a Belgian-style beer I call Fenugreek Belgian Special.  This will be released as soon as the Oaked Himalayan IPA first batch runs out. (don’t worry, that’s coming back in a month!). 

Fenugreek is used in all sorts of Indian and Pakistan dishes used either in the seed form, or the dried leaves.  I really like the aroma of the dried fenugreek leaves as they smell sweet and remind me of celery, fennel and sweet onion.  Don’t worry this weird description actually tastes awesome and is more dessert-like (like putting vegetables in a cookie….gross!  until you have a gingersnap or carrot cake, am I right?).  

To give you some more info on fenugreek:

• 80% of the world’s output is from India
• Some Ethiopians use it as a cure for diabetes
• Some Yemenite Jews eat this daily and ceremoniously on the 1st/2nd night of Rosh Hashana
• the seeds are thought to increase the milk production in lactating women
• the seeds are rich in Galactomannans
• universal spice for many foods

Some food uses for Fenugreek (besides beer flavoring):

• Potatoes
• Chicken, lamb, seafood
• Lentils, beans
• Curries
• Mussels
• Cabbage
• Alu Gobi
• Soups

Come give the FBS a try, it will be tapped early during the week (Aug 27th, 2012)

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Raspberry Wheat 2012

One of my favorite types of fruited wheat beers – Raspberry.  Last year’s posting is here.  Released at 4PM on Wed Aug 15th at the same time as the Tom Selleck’s Amazing Double Pilsner.

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Amato’s Ale House Collaboration

This is the 2nd posting about the release, but I’m pretty excited.  I included a pic of the 3 guys from Amato’s that came and co-brewed this batch of Tom Selleck’s Amazing Double Pilsner.   Remember if you show up either to the Yak and Yeti Brewpub or to Ale House at Amato’s you get a free faux moustache with every purchase.  Wed at 4PM at the Yak or Thurs at 4PM at Amato’s.

Get your Magnum P.I. on!

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Cantaloupe Wheat 2012

First off before people say that Colorado cantaloupes are poisonous and can kill you with listeria, please understand a few things.

My understanding was this: last year, one batch of cantaloupe from Jensen Farms was hauled in a trailer that had previously been hauling manure.  Not a fruit issue, but a delivery/logistics issue that caused the outbreak.   That being said, all cantaloupes in Colorado are safe this year!  (Not sure listeria would be able to survive the alcohol in a beer, but I’m also not willing to find out.)

Cantaloupe Wheat was released last year and was a huge favorite and our number one selling flavor from the Wednesday Wheat beer series!  You can read the post about it here.

This year we’ll release the beer at 4PM on Aug 8th.   Yak and Yeti’s beers have been listeria-free since 2008!

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Ale House at Amato’s and the Yak & Yeti Brewpub Collaboration release parties

What happens when Ale House at Amato’s and the Yak & Yeti Brewpub brews a collaborative beer together?  You get “Tom Selleck’s Amazing Double Pilsner!”  The only beer name that rivals the length of our Bockbier.

A 6.6% ABV and 25IBU pilsner that uses yeast from the Czech Republic also has been aged on hint of toasted oak for that special touch.

The party starts on Wed Aug 15th at 4PM at the Yak & Yeti Brewpub and everybody who buys a glass will receive a free (self-adhesive) faux-moustache so you can look like a true Magnum, P.I.

The party continues on Thursday Aug 16 at the Ale House at Amato’s located at 2501 16th Street  Denver, CO 80211 (near the walking bridge at I-25 or across I-25 from the Denver Beer Company).  Fake Moustaches abound at this release party as well!

Get in touch with your inner Tom Selleck, buy a beer, get a ‘stache!

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ADAM

“Needles” the Spruce beer aged on cedar!

I thought the name was appropriate for the style of beer.  “Needles” is a Colonial-style spruce beer, which means real spruce tips and molasses (something George Washington might have quaffed?).  Since spruce is a great natural source of Vitamin C, spruce beer was used to help fight scurvy.  Even Ben Franklin has a famous recipe for Spruce Beer. 

So in the spirit of our forefathers, I hand picked tips from fresh growth of Colorado Blue Spruce. But in the spirit of homebrewing and funky creativeness, I then aged it on cedar chips in secondary.  A 7.8% ABV dark brown beer with hints of black strap molasses but lots of fresh pine flavors (for you hop heads who likes “pine”, think Ahtanum or Chinook hops).

For those that had a chance to check out the Brewer’s Rendezvous in Salida the weekend of July 14th, we shared one keg at our booth and it was well received.  This 2nd keg will go on tap as soon as the Ginger Witbier is gone, I’m guessing by Friday (but come in and speed up the release by killing the keg early!)

Come check out one of our most craziest beers yet and fight scurvy at the same time--“Needles!”

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Blueberry Wheat 2012

Wed 25th at 4PM come and try the Blueberry Wheat at the Yak and Yeti Brewpub.  One pound of blueberries per gallon of beer!!  And unlike the other big brands that use artificial blueberries, we at the brewpub always use real fruits!  Last year we posted this piece.

Don’t be surprised if the beer comes out purplish, that’s just the “real” fruity goodness.

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Hoptonogood Black IPA release was a HUGE success!

The pic is probably too small to show the Beer List with the Hoptonogood Black IPA on it, or the names of our collaboration brewers from the Hoptonogood homebrewing club in Arvada.  Sorry about that, but I’m even more sorry if you didn’t get a chance to experience the Black IPA the night of the release.  The beer lasted less than a day and Ryan, Jason and Matt all had a good time with their friends that evening. (clockwise from top-left: Adam Draeger, Matt, Jason and Ryan)

Congrats again to Hoptonogood on a wildly successful beer release!

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