March 2024

March is here, time for St. Patty’s Day and green beer. Did you know the traditional Oktoberfest style beer, Märzenbier (BJCP Style 6A), translates to March beer? Today most beer served at Oktoberfest is festbier (BJCP Style 4B) as it is lighter and easier to drink all day. However märzen is still really popular at oktoberfest events in the U.S. If you want to brew per tradition, now is the time to start your brew.

Old 121 Brewhouse will be hosting their 5th Anniversary Party Saturday March 23rd. Releasing 5 new beers, including Ryan’s Colorado Kool-Aid (winner of our December scale up challenge). Hope to see you there!

Monthly Meeting

• Date: March 16th

• Time: 11 am – 12 pm

• Location: Old 121 Brewhouse

• Address: 1057 S Wadsworth Blvd, Lakewood, CO 80226

March’s meeting is our 3rd Annual White Elephant Quarterly Challenge. Looking forward to seeing (and tasting) what you all brewed up with your mystery ingredients…

We’ll taste the quarterly challenge entries and hear from each participant about their beer. A reminder for folks to bring in 2-3 samples of your entry. After tasting, the winners will be announced. This event is welcome to all, whether you entered the quarterly competition or not.

White Elephant Quarterly Challenge

Speaking of the quarterly challenge, judging will be taking place the week of March 11. Please be sure to drop off your entry (2, 12oz bottles preferred) at Old 121 by close of business on Sunday, March 10. Also be sure to fill out the entry form here.

Education Corner

• Are you pitching enough healthy yeast? Five and a quarter gallons of wort at 1.055 OG requires 202 billion cells (rule of thumb for ales is 0.75 million cells per mL of wort per degree plato, double that for lagers).This is more than most packs of yeast (and those packs of yeast are not 100% viable). Pitching enough yeast is one of the most simple things we can do to make better beer.

• For bottling larger gravity or longer term aged beers, add fresh yeast to ensure your bottles carbonate (CBC-1 from Lallemand works great). 

• Pitching onto a yeast cake is one of the easiest ways to reduce the cost of batches and make sure you have enough healthy yeast. A general rule is to brew a lower gravity beer first. Then rack off of this and use this yeast cake in a larger beer. For example, brew an American Blonde ale using US-05 and use this yeast cake for an Imperial Stout or Barleywine. It works great!