Talking about brewing, we did a Dortmunder aka Export (18l=1xNC keg) which is now about 1 week in lagering (will probably leave it in there for 1.5 month unless tempted :P)

Very basic recipe but we went the extra mile (quite literally) and actually used water from Dortmund

Plan on brewing this a couple of times and perfecting it as a base beer. Local traditions need to be kept alive.

has anyone tried out Fat Heads Spooky Tooth? (imperial pumpkin ale). Haven't seen it around me yet but i really want to get my hands on some.

Soooooo good.

Tried Nectar IPA from Nectar Ales (CA) over the weekend...

Was alternating them with Dogfish Head 90s and I just kept wishing i had bought two packs of the latter. Saccharine for an IPA imho.

I had Nectar's amber as part of a beer exchange at work and was disappointed in it. Not sure if it was the travel to the east coast. But especially disappointed as I like Firestone Walker which I think owns them.

Homebrewers:

Want to brew a nut brown for the fall season. Really love when chocolate malt pops through in a good brown ale. 8 oz seems to be standard in most (5-gallon) recipes. Anybody ever pushed it further? Any thoughts on what might happen if I have too much in there?

for the grind tonite. the sum nug is really delicious, my first time. Hennepin is good, I've had that a few times

I don't recall brewing a nut brown, but I do a lot of American Browns/Brown Porters. I know in those you can go a little heavier (one really good recipe I've brewed goes to .7 lbs), so you're probably right at 8oz (.5 lbs) being the higher end.

Take a look at some Jamil recipes, I've brewed and tasted reds, ambers and browns from him and the chocolate malt flavor you talk about he seems to really work well with (in terms of it being present in the beer in a maximally complimentary way).

Shoreline is a cool place, ever been there? Haven't had that Hennepin beer in awhile, looks like a nice pair.

So Tuesday-Saturday my old brewing buddy was visiting me for the first time since I moved to Denver.

We hit 29 breweries, 1 cider place (wtf do you call a cider brewery? A cider house? Cidery?) and a meadery. We also brewed a nice rye beer.

Standouts:

Avery (IPAs)
Rickolis (IPAs)
Big Choice (IPAs)
Echo (IPAs, Saison)
High Hops (IPAs)
Yak and Yeti (Golden Strong)
Shine (Pils)
Prost (Dunkel)
New Belgium (Oat IPA was really tasty)

Plenty other good stuff too. Letting my body recover today and tomorrow before I try to find a good beer dinner (pre GABF week!).

I won GABF Sat. morning tickets too, calculated I had about a 10% chance so we came back to the brewery for the drawing. They were giving away zoo tickets too, guy next to us was laughing about that, then he won them. Then I win GABF, was quite nice (wasn't going to go, $100+ each on the open market...).

Anyone else going to GABF here?

I installed a pair of sight glasses on my setup recently. For anyone that doesn't have them and was thinking about it... it's as good of an upgrade as you can imagine.

Votes on Session Beer to brew:
- Clone of Stone Levitation from CYBI
- Clone of Hertic Gramarye recipe from the brewery

If you do the Stone one, consider using the recipe from the Stone book (good book too btw). I saw some differences between BYO recipes (given by Stone apparently) and the Stone book. I'd go with the Stone book given the format it is in.

That said, the Hertic brewery one sounds more interesting, if it's directly from the brewery... I'd go for it.

I'd love to see if a clone of Levitation is possible, so that's my vote. I love that beer.

Grabbed a 4-pack of the new DIPA from Victory Dirtwolf and enjoyed one last night. I was floored, the aroma is huge citrus, melon and pine. Its moderately bitter, citrusy and fantastic. The bottles were only bottled a week prior so this was as fresh as you can get basically. For me it rivals Enjoy By, its that good, they share alot of similarities in aroma and flavor IMO.

I would advise everyone go get this beer, and get it fresh.

Whoa, Coff, thems fighting words. As good as Enjoy By?! I'll go out right now and hunt it down.

Is this a new year round from them or is it seasonal? An A+ DIPA that I could regularly find would be pretty awesome.

Anybody else jonesing for SN Celebration? It's my favorite part of the year when I see that on shelves.

the last Enjoy By I had was legit terrible, all I tasted was onions. but earlier ones were awesome. there is a new batch out near me now, I will buy at least once just to see.

Chicago thanks for the tips...you got me convinced: gonna do an American brown since I have a freezer bursting with hops I need to use up.

Yes, saw the ad on the back of one of the magazines (BA maybe?) and it just looked delicious. How long do we have?



--

Any lesser known breweries near you guys that I might find at GABF? Just looking for some delicious gems I might not otherwise ever drink, to add to my ever growing list of places to visit.

Non Colorado, non Chicago, non Wisconsin and not widely popular breweries (looking for smaller lines). Thanks in advance.

Not sure if they're in, but Wicked Weed out of Asheville is doing some awesome stuff. I had some of their first beers, and I guy I work with from there was back recently and said they are making really good beer. As for Cincy stuff, the brewery I like most gave up their tickets to more established places when the fall out of the limited space came down.

Stone Enjoy By 11.12.13 trip report:

I think it's much better than the last batch I had. However, my mental palette might be permanently scarred from the onion bomb that was. I still pick up a little but of it in the 11.12.13 but not nearly as bad.

I still like this beer a lot, but at $10/bomber around me, it's pricy enough that I just get 1 of these when they come around. I'm just as happy drinking other great IPA's at $2 or so / 12 ounce. I am now sure it's a clear level below Heady Topper and a few others.

Edit: enjoying the 2nd glass more than the first. perhaps my mental palette needed cleansing. either way, it is a great beer worth seeking out at least for a try

Yet to explore all the local brews (just moved to Boston), but I'm really enjoying stuff from Mystic so far. Not sure if they GABF or not.

Ry, can you link the lineup for GABF?

Thanks, they're here and I added them (Coolcumber, Freak DIPA, Infidel Porter, Pu-er Saison and Tyrant Double Red is their listed lineup).

They're here too, added. They're pouring two saisons, mystic and renaud... which would you recommend (assuming you see this in the next 12 hrs)?

http://www.greatamericanbeerfestival...-the-festival/

Any other recommendations from people please chime in, thanks so far guys, looks like I added two nice ones to the list.

Definitely hit up (if you can):

21st Amendment
AleSmith
Cambridge Brew Co.
Cpt. Lawrence
Jack's Abbey
Kuhnhenn
Ninkasi
pFriem Family
Solemn Oath (I know you said no IL, but I think they are after your move to CO)
the Commons Brewery

Thanks.

Before your post I had:

Alesmith
Ballast Point
Three Floyds (been craving it)
Papago
Coronado
Fat Heads
Hoppin Frog
Uinta
Troegs
Epic
Oakshire
Pelican
Jack's Abby
Mystic
Church
Heavy Seas
Wicked Weed

Going to go through your list and add some more... hadn't heard of Solemn Oath, you're right.

Went to GABF yesterday, went to What the Funk, a barrel-aged only primarily sours festival today.

At GABF some highlights for me were Deschutes, Russian River, Bruery, Three Floyd's DIPAs. From CO and been to GABF 5 times now, so as a tip, DO NOT try to go to every brewery on your list. Pick a style, or region that you don't have good access to and stick with them. I probably didn't even get to 1/2 of what i wanted to and I ran out of time (and capacity to take more alcohol).

What the Funk was probably the better festival. At its peak it was more crowded per capita, but mostly the pours were much bigger and everything was a hit. The best breweries for me were Cascade, AC Golden (now owned by Coors, but everything they make sour is fantastic), Hill Farmstead (only brewery to sell out of beers, which they did in 1 hour), Yazoo, and Crooked Stave. I had never had Yazoo before today, but was very impressed by their Tropical Stranger.