August 2024
August is here already! This month we will be straying away from beer, to take a look at mead! We have a few people in the club that are already making mead. If you’ve been looking for something new to make. Maybe this is the push you need!
Monthly Meeting
Date: Aug 17th
Time: 11 am – 12 pm
Location: Queen Bee Brews
Address: 800 E 64th Ave Unit #6, Denver, CO 80229
Our August meeting is at Queen Bee Brews meadery, where we will tour their production facility, hear about their story, and discuss the process of making mead. Queen Bee Brews is an award winning meadery that offers traditional style meads and flavor infusions. Due to this being an offsite meeting, we are unable to bring homebrew samples to this meeting.
All ‘Bout Colorado Quarterly Challenge
This quarter's challenge is All 'Bout Colorado, that means you should make something Colorado'esque. Here are a few examples (but feel free to go wild and come up with something else entirely)
Take a well known Colorado Beer/Cider/Wine and clone it.
Make something with flavors that scream Colorado.
Make something with all (or mostly) Colorado grown ingredients.
Details on entry deadline and signup can be found here.
Great American Beer Festival Tickets
Tickets for this year's Great American Beer Festival (Oct 10th-12th) are now available. If you want to attend we will plan a club meetup for the Saturday afternoon session. This year is a little different as there will only be 1 session on Saturday from 12:30-4:30pm. More info on the GABF website
Quarterly Happy Hour
Date: Aug 6th
Time: 6pm - 8 pm
Location: Lady Justice Brewing
Address: 3242 S Acoma St, Englewood, CO 80110
Mark your calendar and join us at Lady Justice Brewing. We were at this location last fall when it was Sunroom Brewing. Lady Justice took over this really cool location. Come hang out, catch up, and have a beer or two with the club!
Colorado Homebrewers Conference
Date: Aug 17th
Time: 11 am – 6 pm
Location: The Brew Hut/Dry Dock Brewing
Address: 15120 E. Hampden Ave, Aurora, CO 80014
This is the same day as our meeting. Lets try and make it over there after Queen Bee Brews. Bobby will be giving a presentation on liquid hop products vs pellets (including samples). There will be a panel discussion, including Ryan and maybe Terry. More info on The Brew Hut
Rocky Mountain Homebrew Challenge
This is the last competition this year in the front range circuit. Last year our very own Terry Fast won the front range circuit homebrewer of the year. This circuit also keeps track of clubs, and right now LFC is in the lead. But in order to finish first we could use your help, this is no small effort for us, and would be a huge accomplishment for our club. If you can, enter a couple beers in this comp, there is an entry limit that is filling up fast! Sign up here
Education Corner
Mead Me?
Mead is said to be the nectar of the gods. A well made mead, that is properly aged, is one of the greatest fermentations to have and share.
The world of Mead is so vast. Their strength can range from session to strong and they can range from dry to sweet. They can be served sparkling or still. Cost tends to go up based on the type of honey used.
There are many different types of meads, a few fun examples include:
A Bochet is a mead, where the honey is boiled to change the complexity (adding Maillard complexity) of the honey.
Many beer brewers have heard of a Braggot, which is a beer made with a good percentage of honey.
There are Cysers made from honey and apple juice.
Pyments are fermentations made with wine juice and honey. The world of mead is as vast as any other fermentation.
A fun session mead to try is from a Youtuber Doin’ the Most. If you haven’t ever tried a mead, give it a try. If you don’t keg, bottle this up still. When I made this, the keg was nearly gone after two weeks. If you want to make it on a lower budget version, ferment the base recipe with a lesser quality honey and backsweeten with 1-2 lbs of Orange Blossom honey. It’s delicious!