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Brewing.  Who Needs a Gym Membership?

3/24/2014

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First off, a warning/apology:  we know it's Colorado Craft Beer Week and we know we should be posting about that.  Sadly, we've no public beer to offer up quite yet.  However, so-far-beerless life is trundling along here at the H&D, so for those of you who have a minute and the interest to read about the road to opening, here's an update.  Whether or not you read it, please head to your nearest craft brewery or craft beer bar and raise a glass in celebration of all the amazing Colorado craft beers you have at hand!

I thought I'd take a minute to point out that brewing, at least the way most small craft brewers do it, involves a lot of heave-ho-ing. Last week, when Linsey put the first three batches of potential Horse & Dragon brews in the tanks, I got to do about 1/30th of the lifting involved.  Larger breweries may have all their standard and specialty malts at the push of button, but at least at H&D, Linsey is (with an occasional bit of help from us) hauling around these:

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They weigh 55# a piece.  Or 50#, just to keep brewer's recipe math interesting.  Apparently malts from one continent are packaged 5# more at a time than those from another.  Either way, if you're lifting 25+ of the bags to the top of the mill chute, you're getting a decent weight workout.

Especially if you're not 6' tall:

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A word to the wise:  don't mess with this woman in an arm-wrestling contest.

Of course, once a bag is tossed in there, you get to see (and smell) this view, which is pretty awesome:

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For H&D's inaugural brew Tim & Linsey lifted all of this grain, post-milling, up to the grist hopper manually.  By Brew #2, they had rigged up the auger.  Though it's still needing a tweak or two to run more efficiently, I can't tell you how happy we were to see this bugger in place.
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It was not easily wrangled.  In editorializing on the weight and build of the motor and the auger while trying to tug and coax it into place standing atop a ladder I might have uttered a few choice words with increasing vehemence.  In the end, Linsey managed it from one end while Tim took directions from afar at the other and I retreated in defeat to find the camera.

When you visit, you'll see it's not that long an auger.  However, it felt like The World's Longest  last Wednesday.  But look!  It functions! That milled grain falling out there started about 14 feet down and 40 feet over.

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We filled that puppy almost to the brim for one particular brew, and it ended up bringing the mash tun about to capacity:
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If you brew, you also apparently have no problem hauling about great lengths of brewing hose.
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A few other pictures from brew days --

One day, if you haven't yet, you've got to take a whiff of this:

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Once our hopback got all steamed up, it seemed to be channeling Equinox's logo, plus a few branches.
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There was this yumminess swirling around for a while in the kettle:
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Linsey found all kinds of signs of healthy yeast in this Toy-Story-like extensive lab equipment:

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Best of all there was this soothing sound greeting us each morning:
[I think there's a market for the Craft Brew Spa -- can't we pipe this into a hot tub?]

Someone who stopped by FINALLY caught us in the Brewers' Lounge (currently doubling as a plant hospital) doing what everyone thinks we're doing all day -- sitting around sampling beer and discussing its finer points.  So far, so tasty!


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Here's TLC, putting a little TLC into each brew in a fermenter.
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On décor (no, the following photo is not too pixelated):
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Linsey's slowly populating the brewery office with LegoFolk.

And our Christmas lights are still up at home (but I now blame that on the ladder being here with its ladder brethren).
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That's where we are.  Happy Colorado Craft Beer Week to you all.  We hope you're celebrating in style!
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BREWIN'!

3/18/2014

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March 18, 2014:   an enormous day for Horse & Dragon Brewing Company!  Not just the day after St. Patrick's Day, but The Day of First Beer.  20 years in the dreaming (and rigorous market researching), 9 months in the planning, 6 months in the (re)building.  And finally:
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Beer.

Here's how today began:

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There's a lot more to this than I experienced in the infamous Day of Homebrewing.  For e.g.:
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[Yeah, this is kinda' like homebrewing....]
Valve-o-rama.

And all sorts of temperature- and pressure-gauge-reading and subsequent adjusting of flows of hot & cold water and glycol and whatnot.

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Who knew that the temperature at each different stage was so critical?  (I know, I know.  A lot of you knew.  It was just Tatum and I who didn't.  Isn't boiling boiling?)

When "we" were done with the crushed grains (crushing and heating and mashing with agua to get all the good sugars and deliciousness out)

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"we" dumped all this stuff ("grained out", as we in the know like to say) into tubs for Jodar Farms.  I missed photos of Aaron picking up the grains to be used at his farm -- I think for winner winner chicken dinner, or part of such.  Next time, a photo.

Look, we have our own mailing label from Wyeast!

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So we added yeast.  Pitched it, I mean.  Linsey let Tim surgeon up:
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and pitch:
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[Supervised!]
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Here's a look at the Cone of Gunk in the whirlpool.  [Linsey tells me it's the hops & coagulated proteins, so for all you scientists out there who are into precision, there you go, not the Cone of Gunk.  You are probably also knocking out at exactly 75.86237°**  or whatever it is and didn't just leave your homebrew on the cold cement garage floor until it felt sort of like it wouldn't burn yeast to smithereens, too.  **Don't quote me on that figure and use it at home -- remember I'm the non-precise one reporting here.]  The camera didn't really want to see this through the steam so you're going to have to come view it in person some brew day at the Horse & Dragon.
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[Whirlpool, Baby!]
Meanwhile,
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[Drawing a sample.]
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And then, the cleaning:
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In other exciting news of today (and yesterday), there was dirt delivered:
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and quite incredible stout cupcakes with whiskey icing from Morgan, who we've long suspected walked on water and we're glad to have it confirmed:
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Yesterday, our neighbors from Feisty Spirits came and picked up the initial run of grain-only wort to play with -- looking forward to tasting this when they've done their magic:
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I'll leave you with this picture, because it says a lot about what's going on here.  If only there were sanitizer and a scrub brush next to these you'd have 90% of brewing in one photo.
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The Value-Added of a Homemaker

3/6/2014

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Anyone who thinks that being a home-maker is not having a job needs to come take a tour of the Cochran abode this minute.  However, since we either won't be there to let you in or we'll be so tired we can't stand up to answer the door, I'll give you a little cyber-tour. (Putting our bad housekeeping skills out there on the internet. What could go wrong?)  We do not currently have a home maker between us, and this is what life looks like without one.

If you've started a business or had young kids or been pretty committed to your job or your out-of-the-house social life, these might look familiar.  If they don't and you are horrified, don't tell us when you come to have a craft beer with us!

For starters, everyone take a moment and be glad you are not Nate & Kelly (unless, of course, you ARE Nate and Kelly, and in that case we apologize, because you get to look out your window and see this every morning):

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Yes, these are Christmas lights.  On March 6.  We were going to take them down. The wind a few weeks ago did some of the job for us.  But it's hard to be bothered by this when you only "see" it in the dark, so here they still sit.  Attractive, no?

Inside, to keep with the long-past holiday theme, there's this:

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The lunar new year was Jan. 31.  To be fair, although it's predicted to hit 65° here today, tomorrow it is supposed to snow, so let's forgive us the snowman, shall we?

There's not a lot of excuse for this, however...

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...from when we needed a certain USB cord a couple of weeks ago and rummaged for it.  It was, natch, not one of the myriad wires we already own.  Note how carefully we put everything away after searching.

Here's a lonely, lonely machine in our house.  It's been pulled out, at the ready, since Feb. 1.  Sadly, we haven't yet flipped the "on" switch.

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[Lonely, neglected vacuum cleaner.]
And this:
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[Dry cleaning pile.  Check.]
The last time we wore anything that needed to be dry-cleaned was 4 weeks ago this Saturday.  Does anyone know if there is a statute of limitations on when dry cleaning is even effective?

Perhaps the worst and most indicative, how about these two?

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[Cruelty to plants.]
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[Part II.]
Note that I had every intention of watering these poor things and even left the watering can within their sight.  Start-up biz owner = horrid plant guardian.

We have piles of things we've been meaning to return to people (e.g., Beverage Business Institute notebooks, Lauren, and a Beer Bettys' giveaway pint, Traci). Tatum stopped by when we weren't there and reported in concern to the Beer Bettys at large that we had 2 weeks' worth of mail piled up on the counter.  (That galvanized me to go through it, else there'd be a photo here documenting that mess, too.)  We have piles of laundry which even I was too aghast to post.

However, as we've long realized, life really is about balance, and it is true that as our house falls into further disarray, the Horse & Dragon seems to be coming together.  To wit:

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[Jim Hogan of Knotty Ginger Woodworks, out in a freezing cold Colorado day while we admire from the warmth of the taproom.]
TimCo proving he actually does know how to clean by double-brooming it (don't try this at home -- we clearly don't).
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And Chris Gugleman's work of art is up for the moment.
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We're ironing out wrinkles in the brewing system (not in our button-downs) but have yet to actually brew.  (I know you're tired of hearing about not brewing.  We are ever-so-tired of reporting on it!)  Linsey's assessment:  "We're close!"  Hang in there.  And go dust something at home in honor of us.
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    ...is the dragon's wanderings through the world of craft beer. It may be hard to follow. This is best read with a great microbrew at hand!

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    Anniversary
    Barleywines
    Beer Pairing
    Belgians
    Big Beers
    Biking
    Blizzard
    Book Trust
    Brewers' Olympics
    Brewing
    Buildout/Planning/Tanks
    Cans Vs. Bottles
    Charities
    Colorado
    Community
    Construction
    Craft Beer
    Craft Beer & Community
    Craftbeerfolkisgoodfolk
    Craft Beer Folk Is Good Folk
    CSU
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    Fire Captain Irish Red Ale
    Firefighter Community Compassion Fund
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Horse & Dragon Brewing Company   ••  124 Racquette Drive  ••  Fort Collins, CO  80524  ••  970-689-8848
For bar/restaurant/liquor store beer orders, please contact Luke Margheim, 970-980-6564; LukeM@hdbrew.com