Colorado Springs brewers?

Hello,

Just moved here from Alabama and checking out who else is around. Looks like there is a good amount of home brewers in the area. I just got a single tier stand and working on getting the kinks worked out, and doing some electrical work to get a controller working. Went from extract to all-grain not too long ago and working to increase my efficiency. Hope to have my first colorado brew day in 2-3 weeks.

Matt

Well finally get all my equipment today sometime so bout 2 weeks and should have a batch going! Just undecided on what..

Clawson said:

Hello,

Just moved here from Alabama and checking out who else is around. Looks like there is a good amount of home brewers in the area. I just got a single tier stand and working on getting the kinks worked out, and doing some electrical work to get a controller working. Went from extract to all-grain not too long ago and working to increase my efficiency. Hope to have my first colorado brew day in 2-3 weeks.

Matt

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Welcome, and good luck with christening the new equipment!

There is a pretty big brewing community around the springs area and you can almost always find someone who brews at one of the local nano/micro breweries in town as well as the craft oriented beer bars. Plus, there are two LHBS in town that are both pretty reasonable on prices.

TheLostBeer said:

Well finally get all my equipment today sometime so bout 2 weeks and should have a batch going! Just undecided on what..

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Let us know how it goes!

Most certainly will!! And get some fotos up when it does get here

mcwilcr said:

Let us know how it goes!

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Most certainly will!! And get some fotos up when it does get here

Checking out there in the local area if anyone has built a PID controller for a HLT / MLT running propane with honeywell valves? I'm buying the components, and would be awesome if someone had already built one so i can look at one that works incase i screw something up.

Matt

Figured I would chime in here, new to HBT and home brewing. I have two batches going now and we will see how they turn out. Since we are all from the same area any advice on using the tap water from COS utils? My last two batches I only did a partial boil which makes me a bit concerned for the 2.5 gals of tap water I added. I hope soon to get a 6 gal kettle so the whole batch will boil.

Well, I used tap water for my first batch here and bout to send it to the keg and try it... Kinda was a disaster during the brew session and forgot to take any readings but bout to as I send It to the keg. So when it's good to go will def let ya know

So far I'm 50/50 with it. Granted this is only my third batch so there is plenty of room for error. Last week I bottled my brown ale, it tasted off but I am hoping that carbonation and time will make it better. The porter I moved from primary to secondary and it tastes amazing...

I'm a new brewer (i'm on my second batch), any of you guys (in the springs area) do all grain and wouldn't mind showing a new guy how its done? I've watched some vids on youtube but would like to get a first hand experience.

There are quite a few all grain brewers in the springs, myself included. Too bad you didn't post this a week ago, I would have falsely invited you over for a brew day but now it will be a while before I brew again since I just did last weekend.

No worries. Any one else have an all grain brew day I can come help/learn?

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I will be doing an all grain brew in a week or so. Still dialing in my new system. Could always use another hand, and help me figure out what I'm forgetting.

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Clawson- Just let me know when and where and i'll be there. Not sure i'd be much help in reminding you of what you forgot thought lol.

Hey sirbrewsalittle, send me a pm with your cell number. See if we can get linked up in the next week or two to do a batch.

Matt


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I live in Monument and am just about to get started brewing. And I'm going to build a keezer for the basement. If anyone wants to offer advice or even help with the build there is always free beer

Brew a little I'll be back in town tomorrow and probably doing another batch this weekend. Peakingfox you can look at mine if you need ideas. 4 tap keezer, which I'm about to replace with a larger upright freezer. Pretty easy to make.

PeakingFox said:

I live in Monument and am just about to get started brewing. And I'm going to build a keezer for the basement. If anyone wants to offer advice or even help with the build there is always free beer

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I just recently did a keezer build as well. check out the link in my signature if you're curious about what I did and feel free to ask any questions you want.

mcwilcr said:

I just recently did a keezer build as well. check out the link in my signature if you're curious about what I did and feel free to ask any questions you want.

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And also to Clawson:

I appreciate your replies. I am looking for a local store I can go pick up some supplies if you have any suggestions for those. I have been looking at kegconnection online and that seems like a good resource, but I prefer local if possible.

The one here in Monument is more geared towards wine making and has beer one the side. They don't carry the taps & shanks type of equipment I'll need. I know google exists, but a reference is always better if you know someone that has been to the store. Thanks again.

PeakingFox said:

And also to Clawson:



I appreciate your replies. I am looking for a local store I can go pick up some supplies if you have any suggestions for those. I have been looking at kegconnection online and that seems like a good resource, but I prefer local if possible.



The one here in Monument is more geared towards wine making and has beer one the side. They don't carry the taps & shanks type of equipment I'll need. I know google exists, but a reference is always better if you know someone that has been to the store. Thanks again.

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Wine crafters/ Rocky Mountain homebrew shop in the springs has some kegging equipment, and so does Old west homebrew downtown. That being said, I use both of them for the small stuff but the big stiff I have gotten it all online from kegconnection, adventures in homebrewing, and cornykeg.com

Castle rock homebrew I.think is better than what you can find in the springs.

Old thread, but I'm in Colorado Springs. I've brewed up 20gal since July 4th.

Jason

Anyone brewing anything in the new year yet?

Also Old West is fantastic, seems to be run by some great people plus with the stogies right there it truly is one stop shopping

I have a Belgian Quad in the fermenter right now. I also prefer wine crafters over old west!

If you're in the north end (I'm in Monument too) avoid the homebrew shop here like the plague. Woody is a nice guy but all his stuff has a SUPER slow turnaround rate on it. Essentially the extract/hops/yeast are old. Old West doesn't stock enough kegging supplies and hops. Fermentations off academy is geared to wine and worthless for beer.

Do yourselves a favor and take the 20min drive to Castle Rock Homebrew. They literally have everything....most yeast packs I buy have been date stamped that month. The only other shop with the selection Castle Rock has is The Brew Hut in Aurora.. but that's another 30 min north and 90% of Aurora is a hell hole.

That's been my experience with wine crafters, lots of money wasted on essentially dead smack packs and stale hops. Also the fact that nothing has a price tag on it is not something I'm totally cool with. Though he does stock colorado malting company which I think is cool and want to support.

I do agree that castle rock is the best around but for most things I find old west more than enough

zeccahj said:

That's been my experience with wine crafters, lots of money wasted on essentially dead smack packs and stale hops. Also the fact that nothing has a price tag on it is not something I'm totally cool with. Though he does stock colorado malting company which I think is cool and want to support.

I do agree that castle rock is the best around but for most things I find old west more than enough

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Funny, I just used wine crafters for the first time a couple of weeks ago because they had the yeast I was looking for in stock (3726). I came in and the guy behind the counter grabbed the yeast for me while I was weighing/milling my grain. I paid for everything and the prices were extremely reasonable. Then I got home and noticed that the yeast was super clumpy and looked totally flocculated and very old. Best by 2/11!. At this point it was too late because I was brewing the next day, thankfully I pitched it into a starter and it worked fine, but it was still super sketchy to sell someone 4 year old yeast.

Not sure if I am going back because I do really like the fact that they carry Colorado Malting Co. and the price seems good.

Old West is my usual store because I work downtown so it is often just a stop on the way home.

Castle Rock Homebrew sells Colorado grown/malted 2-row. The owner Eric is quite fanatical about local small businesses.

No offence but if you patronize a store that sold you 4 year old yeast, you're an idiot.

I've never seen expired yeast at wine crafters. In fact the only liquid yeast they sell comes from uccs. They do sell dry yeast, but I don't use that garbage so have no comment on it.