National Homebrewers Conference, Denver - Day Three

Even though we didn't have a hangover, Satan and I said we would be good, and not have beer on Saturday. We were a bit tired of beer. We had been drinking since 11 am on Thursday, and were just tired of it. We headed off for the first seminar "Practical Brewing for Better Beer" by David Houseman. What does David do at 9 am? Pass out beer samples.

It was good beer. But Satan and I exchanged glances, laughed and sipped it during the seminar. And for the record, this was the best session of the entire conference. David inspired Satan and I to enter beers in competition next year.

While Satan attended "Brewing with Unusual Adjuncts" with Coors brewer Keith Villa, I went to "Innovation in Wheat Beer Brewing" with Flying Dog Brewery founder Eric Warner. He discussed wheat beer, which is a big trend in the US. It was a great overview of the style, and inspired me to work on the peach wheat.

We skipped the last session to get some beer we can't get in Texas, and pick up a couple of souvenirs. We returned to the hotel for the Grand Banquet. It was a pretty nice chicken dish, with some Rogue beer. We sat with some folks from Missouri. One guy was complaining that he had to empty his keg to take it home, and they couldn't take it full. They offered us the beer, if we would ship it back. Satan said he would. So on our trip home, we had a case of beer we couldn't get in Texas and a five gallon keg of stout.

On our 12 hour trip back to Midland, Gary and I plotted a way to attend next year's conference in Cincinnati, and what beers we're going to brew for the contest.

National Homebrewers Conference, Denver - Day Two

The most interesting seminar was Friday morning at 9 am. Tony Simmons of Pagosa Brewing Company created Poor Richard's Ale in celebration of Ben Franklin's 300th birthday. After a lot of research, he came up with a beer similar to a Scottish ale. It gave me confidence to continue refining my Kentucky Common recipe.

The next seminar was "Tricking Out Your Home Brewery" by Chris Graham of Beer, Beer and More Beer. I had hoped to learn some things about tweaking my setup. Instead, I learned about the More Beer product line. *sigh*

Satan and I skipped the rest of the day's events to check out downtown Denver. We had lunch at the 16th Street Mall, a pedestrian mall downtown, and had lunch at the Rock Bottom Brewery, where I had a brown ale and a bbq pork sandwich. Then we headed over to Wynkoop Brewery. I had a blond ale and a stout. We met up with Peter, from Australia, who was taking a five week vacation in the UK and the United States, and he was also attending the conference.

We had heard the brewery at Coors Field was good, so we headed over there to find that it was closed. Dammit. Fortunately, Breckenridge Brewery was up the street, so the three of us popped in for another beer. It was here that I discovered the second best beer in the world: Vanilla Porter! Naturally, I had another one.

By this time, I was on the verge of being ready for a nap. So we went back to the hotel. Peter warned us that if we took a nap, we'd be ruined for Club Night.

Dozens of clubs, including the Austin Zealots and Houston's Foam Rangers, go to Denver with kegs of beer to give away one night. And there are a lot of great beers, including an Eisbock! We bumped into Peter, who had taken a nap, and was miserable!

One of the running jokes in our family is that Satan knows someone everywhere. At the opening toast, he sees someone, and asks, "Were you in Afghanistan?" And the guy answers, "Yeah. With you!" Tim Sloan got out of the army and went to work for the Brewers Association. Here's a picture of Satan and Tim taken on club night.

Unfortunately, by 10 pm, I was hammered, so I went to bed. But Club Night rocked!

National Homebrewers Conference, Denver - Day One

We registered for the conference at 8 am, and found ourselves with five hours to kill. We drove downtown and found the capitol building, Coors field, Mile High Stadium and Wyncoop Brewery. We returned to the hotel and went down to the hospitality room and began sampling beer.

We sampled from 11 am until 1 pm, when the opening toast began. Then we went off to the first session.

The first session was the one that I wanted to attend the most: "Brewing Sour Beers at Home Using Traditional and Alternative Methods" by Vinnie Cilurza of Russian River Brewing Company. Vinnie brews beers in the Belgian style. I was hoping the talk would help me with my Kentucky Common beer, and I did. Not as much as I'd hoped though.

Satan and I skipped the second session, and had dinner in The Lodge, had a couple more beers. At 7 pm, we went down to the Grand Ballroom for Pro Brewers Night. Breweries from all over Colorado were there pouring free beer!

Trinidad Brewing Company, Trinidad, CO - Shamrock Brewpub, Pueblo, CO - Phantom Canyon Brewing, Colorado Springs, CO

Santa Fe

Taking a tip from my future wife, Rachel Ray, we stopped at Cafe Pasqual's in old Santa Fe for breakfast. It was delicious, but if Rachel only spent $40 on food in Santa Fe, she skipped lunch! We each spent $20 on breakfast!

Trinidad

We drove through the desert of New Mexico, across the plains of Northern New Mexico and into the mountains of Colorado. We stopped at Trinidad Brewing Company for lunch. This is the smallest brewpub I have ever seen. They only had two beers on tap. Satan and I had their Mexican Lager, a cloudy, golden beer that was light a crisp. A slice of lime dropped into the beer made it special.

At a window table, I noticed a couple using sign language. We didn't know it at the time, but, they were conference attendees, too. We met them in the hospitality room on Thursday, and compared notes about the place.

Long story short, TBC is a nice restaurant, and probably a lively night spot. And I will stop by again.

Pueblo

We stopped at Shamrock Brewery and Restaurant in Pueblo. This is a nice neighborhood pub. We were there around 2 pm, so the crowd was light, but the bartender was friendly. I chose a witbier that was nice and light (something that wouldn't weigh me down on the way to Colorado Springs. The bartender offered us a sample of their Imperial Porter. Nice. The alcohol was balanced nicely by the hops. But we declined another pint, and got back on the road.

Colorado Springs

Phantom Canyon Brewing Company is located in a 1900s building on a corner in downtown Colorado Springs. Plate glass windows wrap around the bar area, giving you a great view of Pike's Peak and downtown, as well as the hot blond in the short black skirt that worked for a local radio station.

We had two pints here. I had John's Mild Bitter and a blonde ale. Satan had two pints of Blueberry Ale. He offered me a sip. I shoulda had the blueberry!

Lyle, the bartender, was from Chicago, and we shared jokes with him. He even carded the hot blonde from the radio station, and said, handing her ID back, "I think I got all the information I need to stalk you." Then we were off to Denver.

The Wellhead Brewery, Artesia, NM and Kelly's Brewery, Santa Fe, NM

Out in the middle of the oil fields of the Permian Basin in New Mexico is Artesia. It a quaint ranching town that found itself on top of a lot of oil, and is a surprisingly cosmopolitan city. Our first stop on the trip to the National Homebrewers conference was at the Wellhead Restaurant and Brewery.

It's a nice, upscale looking place. We didn't see any brewing equipment. It was clear they intended to be a restaurant first. They served us some great food, but more importantly, they have some great beer. I chose a red ale that was smooth, not as malty as other red ales. Satan had a stout. We decided this place was worth another visit. And since Satan's brother was teaching at the Border Patrol Academy, it's likely we'll be there again.

Our second stop was in Albuquerque, Kelly's Brewpub. We had several choices in Albuquerque, and we decided that a brewpub near a university would be a great place to visit. I had a nice brown ale and an interesting golden ale. We opted for an early dinner. I really liked the atmosphere. I like college areas because they're so laid back, and this place was no different.

We had planned to hit 2nd Street Brewery in Santa Fe, but the 12 hour drive, combined with the two beers at Kelly's wiped us out. We had left Midland at 8am CDT, and got a motel in Santa Fe at 7 pm MDT. We stretched out on the beds, and it was pretty much all over.

It's 800 miles to Denver, we've got a tank of gas, room for lots of pint glasses, it's dark and we're wearing sunglasses. Hit it!

Thanks to my friend Maggie, I will be leaving tonight at 6 pm for Midland, where my cousin, Satan lives. Tomorrow, we will begin our trek to Denver for the National Hombrewers Conference in Denver. We're taking the long route, through New Mexico, to hit as many brewpubs as we can, and still make the conference.

I'll blog about the conference on the 22nd. I'll blog about the brewpubs next week.

Get thee behind me, Satan! And quit pushing!