Our second batch is an London style ESB. With a nod to Fuller’s London Pride, Lodo Pride reminds me of afternoon pints in a pub. Lodo Pride also refers to the beautifully restored landmark of our home neighborhood — Denver’s Union Station.

Once again we got our extract kit from Tom’s Brew shop, and things turned out well.  Issues with  running out of gas, a few weekends away, and an Oktoberfest party have gotten in the way of us killing this keg quickly.  With new draft faucets, I’m hoping that pouring will be easier, and that the gas leaks will be a thing of the past.

Here are the stats:

• Style – Extra Special Bitter (ESB)
• Approx ABV – 4.5%
• Approx IBU – 40-ish

I am sure this is a style we will revisit once we make the jump to all grain.

Speaking of jumps, our brewhouse is taking a leap forward as our next batch will use our new induction heat source and our new kettle. Induction in this case is a phenomenon that uses magenetic/electrical currents to turn the actual kettle into a heating element.  The table top appliance should be strong enough to boil a full 5/6 gallon batch, so we invested in a new kettle. So, with our next batch we’ll be able to do full wort boil.  And, for an added Almost Native touch, we’ve made a fannel kettle koozey to improve heat capture.  The only thing that would make this more Denver is a beard . . .

Next up — a belated Oktoberfest-inspired ale.  Until then, we’ll keep being almost native . . .

Pioneer Pale Ale has come and gone!

Our first beer is Pioneer Pale Ale, an American Pale Ale. Because we are just getting started (hence “Pioneer”), we used an extract kit from Tom’s Brew Shop (http://tomsbrewshop.com/). Brewing a pale ale is our homage to our new home state of Colorado. Colorado is where Dale’s Pale Ale (Oscar Blues Brewery), Denver Pale Ale (Great Divide Brewing Co), and Silverback Pale Ale (Wynkoop Brewing Co) amplified our passion for craft beer. Love of craft beer led us to home brewing, our new frontier beer (see how the “pioneer” works again?).

The beer itself turned out pretty well – we drank the 5 gallon-ish batch in 10 days or so. Here are the stats

• Style – American Pale Ale
• Approx ABV – 4.5%
• Approx IBU – 50-ish

We learned plenty of lessons in our first batch, like straining the wort before we put it in the fermenter, measuring out the 5 gallons of liquid more carefully, and buying bags of ice to cool the wort more quickly. Frankly, we are just happy we didn’t end up with sour beer.

We’ll likely be brewing a new Pioneer Pale Ale in the winter in honor of the University of Denver ice hockey season (we’ve got lots of reasons for “pioneer” around here).

Next up is an English Special Bitter (ESB). It’s fermenting right now, so fingers crossed.

Until next time, we’ll keep trying to be Almost Native.