Homebrewing Gingerbread Stout

After a few beers I gained the cojones to start an email string suggesting the PorchDrinking team start homebrewing together. I’m humble about a lot of things I do, but dammit, I make damn good beer. All of my best friends can attest to that… or maybe I just have really nice friends. Either way, I decided to invite the team to my house to brew on my MacGyver’d homebrew setup and this is how we got started Homebrewing Gingerbread Stout.

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12 Beers of Christmas | Day 6- Port Brewing Bourbon Barrel Aged Santa’s Little Helper

Style: Barrel Aged Russian Imperial Stout
ABV: 10.0%

Background: We elves try to stick to the four main food groups: candy, candy canes, candy corns and beer. Well not exactly the words of Buddy the elf but, he would definitely like Port Brewing’s 2011 Bourbon Barrel Aged Santa’s Little Helper. The barrel aged version has spent an extra 9 months in bourbon barrels and this particular bottle has spent just a little bit over a year in the cellar allowing the flavors to meld into the perfect helper to get you through the holidays. Read More

PorchDrinking’s Weekly Denver Beer Beat

Each week we will be bringing you regional coverage of your favorite beer events happening in your area. Welcome to the Denver Beer Beat. Did we miss something? Let us know!

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12 Beers of Christmas | Day 5- Jolly Pumpkin Noel de Calabaza

ABV: 9.0%

What better adjective to describe the holiday spirit than Jolly? Jolly Pumpkin brewery delivers their holiday beer with great complexity to the tune of Brettanomyces funk. This malty brew is best served with many leather bound books and an abode that smells of rich mahogany. Enjoy this sophisticated Noel de Calabaza. Read More

12 Beers of Christmas | Day 4: Saint Arnold Brewing Christmas Ale

If you’re like me, and don’t enjoy every Christmas ale to taste like you’re drinking potpourri this holiday season, this Christmas Ale is for you. This Christmas ale will sing you a siren song with her subtle sweet malt mouth feel and ever so gentle spice and everything nice hop profiles. But be warned, the St. Arnold’s Christmas Ale will coax you into wearing that terrible ugly sweater at the company holiday party and committing every party faux pas in the book that will ruin your future chance at management.

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Blue Moon Brewing Co. – Mountain Abbey Ale

ABV: 5.6%

This year we went to Carrollton, Kentucky for Thanksgiving. My brother Kyle lives in Cincinnati, so we stopped at his place on our way down. I know you all don’t know my family, but let me just say, we love our alcohol. I mean we had to bring the alcohol to dinner because there wasn’t going to be any there otherwise. So then it’s no surprise my dad had a beer quick before we got back on the road. (For the record, my brother took over driving from there on out.) Blue Moon Mountain Abbey Ale was what was in the fridge, and I heard from my dad that it tasted pretty good. Same thing came from my mom when we stopped on the way back. So again, no surprise, it ended up in our fridge at home, and yet, I still hadn’t tried it. Read More

12 Beers of Christmas Day 3 | Schlafly Special Release Christmas Ale

ABV: 8%

IBU: 30

The first of the many great American winter holidays has come to a close. Leftovers are still heaped in the fridge, you are justifying eating pie … Read More

12 Days of Christmas | Day 2 West 6th – Christmas Ale

9.0% ABV

Egg nog and chocolate, the essentials of Christmas. The egg nog all rich and boozy, smelling of nutmeg and bourbon, often hangs up in my mustache waiting for retrieval from my bottom lip. And as I sip the egg nog various dishes filled with assorted chocolates garnish the rooms, tempting me to sin again with each pass. Like Romeo, give me my sin again. Conversation stays non-confrontational and smiles stay affixed to faces, as we enjoy each other’s company or at least wish to not upset the jovial vibe that has been created by loved ones and the proper proportions of alcohol. Hey, I thought this was a beer blog not “The Night Before Christmas”…right you are. I digress from my Rockwellian fantasy, now on to the important stuff – beer. Where does beer fit in to this holiday utopia? Read More

12 Beers of Christmas | Day 1: Upslope’s Christmas Ale

You know the feeling you get while barreling down the stairs on Christmas morning as a kid, and you find a twinkling tree replete with packages, that have been neatly wrapped, waiting to be clawed apart? Well that’s kind of the feeling you might get when you see the red shimmering packaging for Upslope’s debut Christmas Ale.

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Playing Tap Roulette With Ballast Point’s Indra Kunindra

Indra Kunindra

ABV: 7.0%, IBU: 50

It’s a terrifying moment. As you and your crew walk into your favorite beer bar, a familiar call rings out from the back of your pack “first ones on me, what do you want”. Hooray! Right? Or maybe not. This bar has a great selection, always something new, but it’s going to take you at least 5 minutes on Google to sort out what looks like a Stone tap on the left, the Southern Tier on the right, or the 8 obscurities in between. You don’t have that kind of time. Ok, no Guinness tonight, not a Stone IPA night either. What’s that on the right? Ballast Point? But you can’t read the tap from back here. They just made it across the state line, and you know they make a kick ass IPA. Screw it. Time to play Tap Roulette. Read More

Beer by Design Brewery Jacque’s Double Black IPA

ABV 6.1% IBU 66

In the front of a small industrial park housing an indoor soccer complex, an MMJ dispensary and a local hydroponic vegetable grower sits one of Colorado’s newest breweries, Beer by Design. The brewery is located in Northglenn, a little metro Denver town filled with mid century suburbs built from GI Bills. Their beer, “designed to be enjoyed”, is made for the demographic of the town, a shrinking retirement population and a growing group of young professionals and blue collar workers.

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PorchDrinking’s Weekly Denver Beer Beat

Each week we will be bringing you regional coverage of your favorite beer events happening in your area. Welcome to the Denver Beer Beat. Did we miss something? Let us know!

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Hardywood Park Craft Brewery- Saison Rustica

The holidays are the time of year we associate most with family and home. Unfortunately, I’m on the opposite side of the country as my family (I’m in Oregon, they’re … Read More

Ecliptic Brewing Showcase

A few months ago, North Portland rejoiced as Ecliptic Brewing opened its doors and its taps.  Adjacent to the ultra-hip and well-travelled Mississippi neighborhood in an remodeled old warehouse that … Read More

Lagunitas Brown Sugga’

Lagunitas Brown Shugga’ ABV: 9.9%A

Around this time every year, I look forward to this brew. The aroma: sweet, hoppy, spicey. The taste: all that aroma in a crisp burst … Read More

Our Mutual Friend Malt and Brew 1 Year Anniversary

It’s been talked about often here on PorchDrinking about the transformation that has taken place in the RiNo district of Denver, CO in regards to the craft beer revolution. Our Mutual Friend Malt and Brew is one of those leading the charge and this weekend they celebrate their 1 year anniversary. Cheers to you OMF, may you have many more celebrations to come.  We’ll be on hand to help OMF celebrate and we’d love for you to join us both tonight, and Saturday night! Here’s what’s going down…

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Funkwerks – Oud Bruin

Funkwerks – Oud Bruin

ABV: 7.5%
IBU: who cares, it’s an Oud Bruin

Funkwerks, the award-winning Saison-focused brewery in Fort Collins, Colorado, has released its first barrel-aged sour, Oud Bruin. Oud Bruin is the product of Funkwerks’ sour program which launched in early 2012. The base for Oud Bruin sat in oak whiskey barrels and oak red wine barrels for more than twelve months.

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Awesomesauce- the Nest Learning Thermostat

I think it’s time I came clean. I have been lusting over a thermostat for months. My friends think I’m nuts, my family tells me on a regular basis to just shut up about the dang thermostat already, and I keep putting off writing about it here, since drooling over a thermostat isn’t something a normal human being should do. But you should see the Nest Learning Thermostat. Read More

Welcome to Our Regional Denver Beer Beat Event Coverage

Each week we will be bringing you regional coverage of your favorite beer events happening in your area. Did we miss something? Let us know!

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Ultimate 6er- Party in PA (Celebration Edition)

It is this writer’s opinion that events are going pretty well in PA lately, and celebration is in order. These beers, all of PA soil, commemorate the perfect Black Friday upset in the Bahamas with Villanova beating Kansas, previously undefeated and ranked 2nd in the country, then Iowa the night after. Plus, with the return of the Flyers into the conversation about the Metropolitan Division, things have been pretty even keel for once, just like these beers in conjunction. Now, to the hometown heroes of this Ultimate 6er. Read More