Belgian Tap: Brahmin Dubbel Knowledge

So we haven't had a beer on the Belgian tap for over a week, as I was waiting for the next beer to be ready.  Brahmin Dubbel Knowledge is a Abbey-Style or Trappist-Style Belgian beer.  The BJCP describes the beer as “A deep reddish, moderately strong, malty, complex Belgian ale”  They can be from copper colored up to dark amber and are usually between 6.0% to 7.6% ABV.

Our version comes in at 7.8% and 14IBUs and is served in 10oz Belgian glassware.  I made 25lbs of medium-amber Belgian candi syrup from plain cane sugar and added this during the boil.  When I was making the syrup it smelled like baked cherries (as in cherry pie), delicious!  When the beer fermented, most of this flavor went away, but the color and dark notes stayed.  This beer has a pleasantly strong banana ester and surprisingly a lot of body/mouthfeel despite it’s fairly low attenuation (aka, dryness due to the yeast fermenting most of the sugars into alcohol, thus lowering the viscosity of the finished beer).

Commercial examples of the dubbel include: Chimay Premiere (Red), Westmalle Dubbel, St. Bernardus Pater 6, La Trappe Dubbel, Corsendonk Abbey Brown Ale, Grimbergen Double, Affligem Dubbel.

The name comes from the scholar class in the traditional Hindu societies of India and Nepal.  The Brahmin or Brahmana are dedicated to attaining the highest spiritual knowledge.  I figured after one of these beers you would be feel as if you were attaining a higher level of spiritual knowledge!

Released at 4PM on Wed. March 27th, 2013.   Dubbel the fun, dubbel the knowledge.

Prost!

Pink IPA (Pink Peppercorn)

So first there was the English IPA, then the American IPA, then the double and triple IPAs, then the Black IPA and White IPAs, suppose we weren’t done unless we made a PINK IPA!  Clint McCaskill is a brewer in the KROC Club and this was his recipe for a collaboration.   Made with over 2lb of pink peppercorns per barrel this IPA clocks in at 7.1%ABV and 56IBU.  Sort of weak on the IBU side, but we wanted to showcase the peppercorns without over dominating.  For those that think it will actually be pink in color, you’ll just have to show up to the release to find out (and congratulate Clint while you are here).

TBR (to be released) on Friday, March 22nd at 4PM at the Brewpub in Olde Town Arvada. 

Prost!

Game Night a big success, adding Sundays.

The first Game Night was a big success and the group didn’t want the night to end.  So we decided to add an addition night to the line up.

Join us for Game Night.  In addition to the 2nd Wednesdays of each month from 6:30-9:30PM we are adding the 4th Sundays of each month from 3PM until close.  Both events held in room A (first floor near buffet).

We are open to new players who haven’t even heard of these games but would like to learn, as well as gamers who are more advanced.  There will be several games and tables of people to chose from.  Some of the games I’ve overheard Rob talk about are Settlers of Catan, Dominion, Sentinels, Multiverse, Munchkin, Magic, Alhambra, and Stone Age.   You can bring your own games or just show up to meet new people and learn a new game.

Hope to see you for the next Game Night, we’ll keep the taps cold for you.

Prost!

You’re invited to our monthly Game Night

The 1st Wednesday of each month is poker night at the Yak and Yeti.  Poker is good for practicing your bluffing skills, but what if you want to practice your resource management skills?

Join us for Game Night.  I met some people that are board gamers and were willing to help me coordinate a monthly game night here at the Yak.  For ease of our staff remembering, we decided to start this on the 2nd Wednesdays of each month from 6:30-9:30PM held in room A (first floor near buffet).

We are open to new players who haven’t even heard of these games but would like to learn, as well as gamers who are more advanced.  There will be several games and tables of people to chose from.  Some of the games I’ve overheard Rob talk about are Settlers of Catan, Dominion, Sentinels, Multiverse, Munchkin, Magic, Alhambra, and Stone Age.   You can bring your own games or just show up to meet new people and learn a new game.

Hope to see you for the first game night tonight from 6:30-9:30, we’ll keep the taps cold for you.

Prost!

Carrot Cake Dessert Ale – KROC Collaboration

What has carrots, bread-like ingredients, spices/vanilla, with hint of frosting and tastes like a Carrot Cake?  The next KROC collaboration, of course!  The Carrot Cake Dessert Ale is an idea from Porter Royer of the KROC club (kroc.org, check out the new site!)  The beer had 4lbs of shredded carrots was double spiced and double vanilla’d.  To emulate the frosting we added one pound of lactose sugar, which is unfermentable and lends a slight tangy sweetness.  

This was also a first for both Royer and I, as we’ve never done a beer made with carrots before.  The only other instance that I’ve heard of was Twisted Pine’s “Roots”.  Since carrots do not require mashing, we added them directly to the fermentor to see how much sugar and flavor we could actually get from them.  The dessert ale came in with 7.1% and 24 IBUs.

You’ll have to see for yourself as the beer is released at 4PM on Saturday March 9th.  Porter will be around to answer questions as well.

Prost!

What is the Haunted Series?!

I’ve had a request to write a blog about our Haunted Series since many people have been asking about it.  This is something I started shortly after coming to work here at the Yak and Yeti Brewpub.  The Haunted Series is a tap-handle that we serve beers from that were barrel-aged or produced on our 1/2bbl pilot brewing system.  These beers are typically “special” in some fashion.  The “special” could mean, hoppier (double IPA or Barleywine), more alcohol (RIS or Dark Belgian Strong), Belgian-American fusion (White IPA or Grand Cru), Fruit/sour (Blueberry Tart or Belgian Cherry Sour), Barrel-aged (Sherpa Prima, Oaked IPA, Oaked-Coast Glutton), Vegetable (Ginger Beer, Pumpkin Ale), Crazy (Red Hots Wheat, Fenugreek Belgian or Dragon’s Wort) or maybe a collaboration beer that we’ve done in the past (Very Berry Stout, Green Tea Pale, Imperial Common, etc). 

The name comes from the allegation that our house is haunted.  So I figured if a beer is produced in a haunted kettle and fermented in a haunted vessel and put into haunted kegs and served from a haunted tap into a haunted glass, we should called the Haunted Beer Series!

We have had some bloggers write specifically about the series, for instance on the Drinking Made Easy website, Brewtally Insane blog, etc.

The fact of the matter is most of these beers are one-of-a-kind that you’ll only find at the Yak and Yeti Brewpub.  If you want to try most of them you’ll have to come in quite often since the batches are so small they go fast (about one per week).  Due to supply issues, we do not sell growlers of these beers.  For consistency sake, we serve all the Haunted Series in 10oz Belgian Style glasses.

Come join me in my experimental journey by ordering your next glass to be part of the Haunted Beer Series.

Prost!