Home Brews: Beer

I've been in Argentina for almost two months and finally found some decent beers. Quilmes and Brahma and friends are, frankly, not going to cut it for me.

Buller Brewing Company

The first place that was recommended to me was Buller Brewing Company (ratebeer review) which turned out to be pretty good. They have a selection of about 8 beers which were all decent, though none were really amazing. The dry stout was probably the best variety that they had. I went to the location near Recoleta cemetery which of course is a nice tourist area on its own.

Cossab Cerveza Artesanal

In a non touristy location is Cossab - at Carlos Calvo 4199 - which is just a standard corner bar which happens to serve hundreds of local and international beers. The international selection is dominated by Dutch/Belgian varieties and a few standards (Guinnes - duh). In addition to great beers, Cossab also has quite good food including a Wednesday Night "Pizza Libre" night where "Libre" means all you can eat instead of just "free". For 10 Pesos, it's a good deal.

Bangalore Indian Restaurant - Stone IPA (cask style)

Without looking for beer, but just Indian food, we happened upon Bangalor (4990 Humboldt in Palermo) which serves not only delicious Indian curries but also several Stone offerings including a stout, an XB (extra bitter?) and a "cask style" IPA (not as cold and not so bubbly). Since Stone IPA is one of my favorites I was said to find that the cask style version is not as good...but all the same it's a great find.

More Argentine Beers

Overall, the best guide I've found is the list from ratebeer.com which covers Argentina. Though it would be nice if ratebeer.com's listings were broken down by cities where the beers are available.

Avery is hosting a tasting of their Maharaja IPA. It should be absolutely delicious.

I know what I'll be doing on February 23rd. Won't you come join me?

Doors open at 15:00 and Close at 19:00. Just about the right time to head over to Mountain Sun for a burger and maybe a beer.

Last night and this morning we finished off bottling the first batch of stout (pretty basic recipe) which had a final specific gravity of 1.011. Now that Denver is socked in with so much snow I'm looking forward to a nice stout.

This morning when the wort temperature got down to the low 70s the initial ABV for the pumpkin ale that we brewed last night was 1.045. We were a little late in brewing the pumpkin ale - ideally it would have been just ready for thanksgiving and really ready for the winter solstice. So, now it will be ready right around Valentine's day. And nothing says romance like a pumpkin ale, right?

For christmas I got an awesome present: Extreme Brewing by Dogfish Head Owner. I'm not sure I could really ask for anything more!

I went to the North Star Restaurant and Brewery last night and had a pretty good time. They just opened up a few months ago after having a bit of a hard time getting their licenses agreed to by the neighborhood. Congratulations to them on persevering and turning a basically dead corner property into an anchor for a small commercial strip. This area of Denver is really growing and it's great to see.

As they promised on their website, it was a fun, relaxed atmosphere to meet some friends and have dinner. The beers, on the other hand, were a little disappointing. It's just their first batch of a pale ale, but it had a distinctly Wynkoop flavor to it which makes sense given that the brewmaster used to work at Wynkoop. Their selection of other brewer's beers wasn't my set of favorites, but the Dinner (burgers with tasty toppings, tater tots, fries, and onion rings) was still delicious.

I just racked off knadstout1 and it smells delicious. Really though I'm just biding my time until our last IPA is ready because that sucker should be the best yet.

I had Blue Moon Winter the other day - it's very similar to the summer except less citrus flavor and a much strong sweet flavor. We couldn't decide if it was just a really caramelly malt or was some actual caramel or was vanilla. Either way, it's a pretty dang good beer considering the source.

Earlier this year I made two delicious porters:

Double Mocha Porter - with two tablespoons of chocolate powder and two pots of coffee
Triple Mocha Porter - with three tablespoons of chocolate powder and three pots of coffee

They were delicious and while not my most popular beers it was the one that I liked most and that got the only unsolicited "This is the best beer I've ever had" from a person who didn't know me nor that it was home brew. Sweet.

Well, it's been months since I drank the last one but I went up to my mountain retreat this weekend and found 5 more of them that had been neglected in the fridge. They were even more delicious now.

I've got three beers right now - one in each stage. A hoppy trinity if you will.

Brewing

Last night I finished up knadstout1 based on the Beer At Home stout kit. Most everything went to plan, though I boiled the grain bag a little long and added in the fuggles aromatic hops a little early in the boil. The original gravity is 1.048 and I just added the yeast and set that carboy aside. Taking my standard sip from the gravity testing vessel it's a pretty delicious sucker. I'm not very good at knowing what it will be like based upon a sip of the wort, but I have some good hopes for this stout.

After a weekend of gardening, rock climbing, and house chores nothing makes for a quality shower quite like a nice beer. And if you're lucky enough for it to be something delicious like a 471 IPA from Breckenridge Brewery then that's even better!

This is a (purposefully) blurry night time photo of the Blake Street Tavern. The long exposure time gave it a neat multi-image effect.

The Blake Street Tavern is on the north edge of downtown - in the "BallPark" or "NoDo" neighborhood. It's a brew-pub offering the best that the Flying Dog label has to offer.