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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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    ...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!

    Categories

    All
    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
    Earth Day
    Festivals
    Fire Captain Irish Red Ale
    Firefighter Community Compassion Fund
    Fish Restaurant & Market
    FoCo
    FOCO Cafe
    Fort Collins
    Fort Love Brewers' Jamboree
    Freshtastycraftbeer
    GABF
    Half Marathon & Pint Run
    Homebrewing
    Horse & Dragon
    House That Beer Built
    Jax Fish House
    Local
    Local Artistry
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    Seafood Boil
    Taproom
    Taproom Team
    Team Rubicon
    Thanksgiving
    Visit Fort Collins
    Volunteering
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Thank you to the ~200 web designers a year who spam us to let us know our website is "outdated" and "not up to par with our competitors'" -- we are happy with the DIY version and saving pennies to invest in our people.  No need to contact us.  Cheers!

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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