Daily Archives: March 5, 2011

#28: Wynkoop Brewery (#33)

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Yep, on my recent trip to Denver I obviously made it to the Wynkoop Brewery.  This place is #33 on the All About Beer List “125 Places to Drink Beer.”

My friend Mike met me for the 2011 Beer Drinker of the Year dinner (more on that later).  Afterward, we sat at the bar and sampled a nice Belgian trappist-style ale they are serving right now … called Orville.  It was excellent (you can tell we were enjoying it!)

We had the pleasure of chatting with the Head Brewmaster (Andy Brown).  He and his crew are making some very nice beers.  He’s very personable–if you get a chance when you stop through say hey!

Of course, on one of our many trips to the restroom (downstairs) — we noticed they had several barrels from Stranahan’s distillery (all airlocked up and bubbling!)

They have two or three casked-conditioned beers rotating (those are worth a try too!)  Overall I was definitely impressed with the atmosphere and beers from Wynkoops–definitely deserved to be on the list.

Beer Mentor

The Tap Room (San Marcos)

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Last summer as I was visiting both my daughters at Texas State University in San Marcos, my older daughter introduced me to “The Tap Room.”  This pub is right off campus (well within walking distance).  Here’s a shot of the exterior and my wife and daughter inside.

This place has been open since 1993 — it has an excellent selection of brews on tap … and it has all the character you need.  If you are passing through, I recommend a stop in!

Oh yeah, it has a great collection of tap handles as well.

Enjoy,

Beer Mentor

 

Belgian-Style Witbier: KEGGED!

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I had the time on Wednesday (2 Mar 2011) to keg my Witbier, so I hustled up the equipment, sanitized it, and kegged that baby … Here are a couple of pictures of the “transfer process.”  You can see some suds in the 3rd picture — that’s my sanitizer residue …

It really cleared up well … of course, it’s been in secondary fermentation since early February (February 10th).  So, from 23 Jan until 2 Mar in the fermentor — 38 days in the fermentor … at a temp of approx 68 degrees.  You can see the final gravity in this picture:

With correction … I read a F.G. of 1.010 at 68 degrees … that corrects to 1.010.  So, with the O.G. of 1.051, I ended up with about 5.3% ABV.  My mash efficiency was around 72% … I may have mashed too quickly.  The attenuation was about 63% … may have had something to do with my yeast age.

You can see my CO2 cartridge here — it is a 20 oz paintball tank — works great!  I’ve got two that I swap out, but they both last a long time.  You can see in the 3rd picture that I’ve got the pressure kicked up and am force carbonating it in the fridge.  I just had a sample today–it is carbonated nicely … I’ll probably leave it at that pressure for another day or so and then move it down.  I’ll post a couple of final beer photos.  And, as usual, there’s always some clean up to do!

Enjoy,

Beer Mentor