“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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The 5th broken temperature controller

I have been blogging/posting so much about our new beer releases that I often forget that I could be sharing some brewery experiences with our readers.

When I came to Yak and Yeti Brewpub over a year ago, I noticed we had four fermentors, but only two worked due to failed temperature controllers and faulty automatic valves.  So I quickly fixed one using a Ranco controller.  These three fermentors did me well until late this spring when I really needed the 4th up and running.  I bit more work and money to get this one working but with another Ranco, I got it running very well.  

One day I noticed the numbers jumping all around and a chirping noise on the older “Refrigeration Tech” brand controller and assumed it was a capacitor or the memory, either way, probably cheaper to replace than to repair so I bought a replacement Ranco.   The day the Ranco was delivered, the last “Refrigeration Tech” brand controller completely went bad, so I had to use this replacement instead and buy, yet another, replacement.   I was hanging on to the last replacement and yesterday the constant chirping noise and numbers jumping occurred on my fermentor that was lagering our Pilsner.  If the beer warmed up too much the batch could have flavor issues.  I quickly changed out the controller with a Ranco (by now I was getting pretty fast at this job) and the beer had only risen 3degF, whew!  All four fixed and onto more important things.

This morning when I came in I heard the same chirping noise and was perplexed because I don’t own a 5th “Refrigeration Tech” controller.  How could the Ranco make this same faulty noise?!  So I went to investigate and all my controllers were working properly.  So I closed my eyes and crept towards the noise and after a bit of searching I found a cricket in the corner doing a “spot-on” impression of the failed controllers.    Jiminy Crickets, I’m glad it wasn’t another controller!

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Ginger Witbier

For all you hop-heads, this beer isn’t for you, it is for us Ginger-Heads instead!  Only 15IBU’s which is pretty normal for a traditional witbier, this Ginger Witbier is easy drinking at 5.6%.  For those who are new to witbiers, witbier stands for “white beer” and it is made from wheat malt and typically has spices like orange peel and coriander.  Hoegaarden is the most classic brand with many awards (most recently it took the 2008 World Beer Cup gold medal for Belgian-style white beer.)  Many major brands have come out with their own versions of witbiers like Miller-Coors (Blue Moon) and Anheuser Busch (Shock Top).  Now Yak & Yeti has one with it’s own spin.

I personally like having a witbier with lunch.  I remember being in Brussels, Belgium and ordering a Hoegaarden at 11:30AM and thinking, this is like a refreshing orange juice.  A great refreshing summer beverage.  Give it try starting today (Monday July 23rd) at 4PM when we release it.

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HopToNoGood Black IPA

A collaboration brew with the Arvada homebrewing club Hoptonogood.  Black IPA’s are a new style of beer (only a few years old), in fact their name is sometimes referred to Cascadian Dark Ale and other variations because the test of time hasn’t decided what to call this emerging style.  This Black IPA has 6.6%ABV, 120IBUs and is black, (50SRM).  Not that you need a good reason to drink beer at 4PM on Friday July 20th, but this is when the beer will be on draft.  Come meet the members of the club who helped brew the beer and ask all the questions you want.  Stop by to at least congratulate them on a beer well-done! 

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Clove Wheat 2012

Okay, confession time.  I don’t smoke, but I like the smell of fresh pipe tobacco, also the smell of clove cigarettes (unlit).   This clove wheat gives you the great flavors of clove without all the lung cancer.  yeah!  Released at 4PM on Wednesday July 18th!

Visit our post from last year where you might learn more about this really cool spice!

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Cherry Wheat 2012

Continuing with our Wheat Wednesdays this week we’ll release the keg of Cherry Wheat at 4PM on July 11th.  Last week the Strawberry was very well received and lasted about 2 days.   If you want to try it, don’t wait until the weekend, because it probably won’t make it that long!

If you want to learn more about this red stone fruit and its uses besides beer, read my not-so-serious post from last years release.   (Ch-Ch-Cherry Cola!)

Prost!