Regional homebrewers recipes score big

When it came to the Pro-Am competition at the Great American Brew Festival, Colorado was hands-down the big winner, and Loveland’s homebrewing societies were the heroes of the year.

Denver Beer Company took first place in the competition, which pairs homebrewers with commercial brewers, with a whiskey-barrel flavored barley wine named Just Another Pretty Face leading off an all-Colorado medal stand. But Fort Collins brewers took home both the silver and bronze medals at the event, with homebrewers coming from Loveland’s Liquid Poet’s Society and the Weiz Guys & Gals Homebrew Club.

“I wanted to brew this style for a while, and I just used this (competition) as an excuse,” said Tom Moseman, head brewer at Black Bottle Brewery in Fort Collins. The Lichtenhainer, an historical style of beer dating from the 1800s, that he brewed with amateur partner Daniel Tomkins, of the Liquid Poets Society, took the bronze medal.

“The homebrewer was really on point,” said Moseman about his amateur partner, who he largely corresponded with by email. “His recipe was super clean.”

Moseman described the beer as a cross between a Rauchbier and a Berliner Weisse, essentially a smoked sour ale. The recipe called for smoked barley, which was locally sourced, and a kettle sour, fermented with another local source, Noosa Yoghurt.

Black Bottle has set back several kegs of the Lichtenhainer for special occasions at the tap house, but Moseman said he is considering brewing the beer again for bottling.

The commercial brewers select the beer they want to collaborate on, in this case from a competition hosted by the homebrewers. Odell Brewing Company’s Jordan Kelly chose another sour beer, this one a dark sour with hints of oak and raspberry called Exulansis. Coincidentally, she also chose to work with a homebrewer she had worked with at Lefthand Brewery, the company’s director of accounting, Mark Boelman.

“It was nice to have a different perspective (about brewing),” said Kelly, a lab technician, about working with Boelman. “This was a homebrewer who was really stoked on his beer.”

Kelly said the recipe gave the brewery a chance to use its five-barrel brewing system that’s usually used for it’s Friek ale and other limited edition brews. Largely because of the time required to age the beer in oak barrels, she doubted there would be a general release of the recipe.

“The sours, those tend to be smaller releases. Some production is aged in barrels for nine months,” she said. “We had it (Exulansis) in the tap room and it went really fast.”

Boelman, who has been a homebrewer for almost as long as he’s been an accountant, described it as “a once-in-a-lifetime chance.

“It was totally ironic that she picked my beer from that competition. The stars were aligned,” he said. “I’ve been a homebrewer for many years, and have a deep passion for craft beer and the process that goes into it.

“That’s really what brought me here (to Lefthand), but they don’t let me touch much around here but the numbers.”

Odell brewing his beer was also extremely fortunate, said Boelman, president of Weiz Guys, as they had just the right equipment.

“That beer went into some barrels for a beer they call Friek, and it has a good amount of sour material already living in those barrel,” he said. With the medium acidity of the brew, “the oak came through beautifully with just a hint of the raspberry. It’s a rad beer.”

Boelman said he’s more than happy with his current occupation, but noted that Lefthand is developing its own barrel system for brewing sours, which is something he’s keeping an eye on.

“It’s a dream job for an accountant really — I crunch numbers by day and home brew at night,” he said. “But I hope I get another crack at it.”

on Facebook on LinkedIn