Here we go! It's a new year in brews. I've got a feeling it's going to be a good beer year.
I started 2014 in San Diego with my friends at Stone Brewing Company. We're making a nationally-released beer for the spring. This is a collaboration between Stone, Keri Kelli and me - guitarist for Alice Cooper and beer connoisseur from LA.
It's a wild mixture on many levels. Keri and I are pretty far apart in our music worlds, but it makes for great "mashup" of hard rock and funk. The beer will definitely go to 11! With an ABV of 9.8% and coriander, elderberries it's as unusual as our musical backgrounds. Look for that at special events in April and everywhere soon after.
More immediately, I'm working with SKA Brewing Company for a one-off brew. This is for my upcoming 2014 BrewSki tour in Colorado. I'm excited to get out and play yet another fun weekend with music, brews, and snow. With "Kyle's Manipulated Modus IPA," we added more hops (if you can believe that), an additional dry hop of Mandarina Bavaria and an orange peel in a whirlpool. I haven't tasted it yet, looking forward to the enhanced flavor profiles.
There are lots of new brews in the works for 2014. I'm getting ready to release a new solo disc in August and plan to have a beer come out with each single. I'm calling it "Hop tracks." Stay tuned for more info on these brews.
Odell's Mountain Standard
Man, I am loving this Mountain Standard from Odell Brewing Co. I had it last year, but it seems to be in its prime this season
Usually I am not a fan of black IPAs, but this one carries some weight! The specialty malt really brings in a nice, roasty character and the aroma is very "Odell" with its grapefruit notes.
I think the fact that it is a double helps keep it in the traditional IPA world for me. Sometimes black IPAs, in general, can be overcome with dark malt flavors. But The increased IBU and malt bill helps it transcend the pitfalls of other beer of this genre.
This is a great brew for when the temperatures start dropping into the winter lows, and at 9.5% ABV, this is a brew that will get you feeling toasty on the inside mighty quickly. Get it while you can, this beer is only around for a short time.
Looking forward to trying some in its hometown when I hit Fort Collins this weekend!
See you there!
KHB in Colorado this week:
Friday, December 13
Lettuce with KHB
Fillmore Auditorium
Denver, CO
Tix: http://bit.ly/1czYdZ0
Info / RSVP: http://on.fb.me/1kccSue
Saturday, December 14
KHB w/ special guests Grant Farm
Hodi's Half Note
Fort Collins, CO
Tix: http://bit.ly/1hLFqha
Info / RSVP: http://on.fb.me/1iUV6QR
Pumpkin Beers
So it's time for the pumpkin beers again. I've tried a few local renditions. Upslope has a nice one. It seems to be relying heavily on pumpkin spices, perhaps less on pumpkin - very subtle, very nice though.
Another one is made here in Denver by Eddyline Brewing. Pumpkin Patch Ale has a deeper, richer pumpkin flavor. It's a borderline too sweet, but does have the full body flavor of real pumpkin. It's almost as if you're eating pumpkin pie, but at 5.5% alcohol it's not overbearing.
I had the Dogfish Head selection last week, this is always an excellent choice. They always put out a great, well-balanced product. With hints of ginger, nutmeg and cinnamon, it feels very fall appropriate, but it still maintains the Dogfish taste and feel.
GABF Week
Yes!! What a cool week. Went to some parties and got a chance to rub elbows with some great brewers.
Also made it to GABF, did some booth bouncing and discovered a lot of great beers. One of my favorites was Tustin Brewing Company's Old Town IPA. Hats off to Hutch, Jason and Jonathan over at Cannonball Creek - they won 2 silver medals 1st time out. Pretty cool.
I did some jamming in the cool Colorado evening after the beer festival. Lots of fun combining my to worlds of brewing and music. We had a great time playing albeit a bit abbreviated. Thanks to you all for coming out!
I guess it's time to start on some new homebrews. Hmm what's next? Pumpkin IPA?
Pre-GABF Party at Avery Brewing
Went to a pre-GABF party at Avery Brewing Company. They are such great folks over there. Nice to taste some beers and hang with the brewers from around the country. It seems like beards are required to be in the industry. I better get mine going.
I ran into a lot of friends, including Laura Bell of Bell's Brewery.
Great American Beer Festival 2013
What a great week to be in Colorado! Every brewing in the country seems to descend upon Denver for Great American Beer Festival (GABF). KHB is playing a special benefit music and beer festival called FBAG put on by Oskar Blues Brewery in Sculpture Park in Denver during GABF this Saturday, October 12th. Come join us!: http://fbagblowout.com/
I'm looking forward to meeting up with our brewery friends from all over the country this week. I'll keep you posted on what happens!
Make sure to tune into my Facebook and Twitter pages:
https://www.facebook.com/kylehollingsworthmusic
http://twitter.com/kyleonkeys
The Tea Spot’s Earl of Grey Featured as Flavor Ingredient in Boulder, Colorado, FATE Brewery’s “Apollo Tsai” Microbrew
Boulder, CO (PRWEB) August 13, 2013
The Tea Spot announces today a new use of its Earl of Grey loose leaf tea–as a flavoring ingredient in a Apollo Tsai–the latest microbrew from Boulder, Colorado-based FATE Brewery.
FATE Brewery’s head brewer, Jeff Griffith, created the beer with Kyle Hollingsworth, from the band “The String Cheese Incident”. Kyle is a beer fan and avid home brewer. Jeff and Kyle developed the style and recipe of the microbrew and found it to be a perfect fit with The Tea Spot’s Earl of Grey. FATE Brewery Founder, Mike Lawinski, stated ”The beer is an American Honey Wheat that we hopped up like an India Pale Ale. We blended it with some of your Earl of Grey tea that we steeped on our 3 barrel brew house. The result is an amazingly complex wheat beer that has a little more bitterness from the hops and the most amazing citrus finish that displays an intriguing balance of earl grey citrus and hop flower citrus. This beer is a perfect match for the late summer heat and fall harvest.”
The beer falls under the Hoppy Beer naming structure at FATE Brewery. One of FATE’s core beers, the Moirai IPA, is named after the three women who in Greek mythology determined man's fate. So every hoppy beer FATE produces will have a Greek name relating to the beer and mythology. In this case- Apollo is the Greek god of music and Tsai is the Greek word for tea. So the brewers at FATE chose this name in their collaboration with Kyle Hollingsworth, a music wizard, by naming it after the god of music. And, the brewers at FATE like to think that Apollo's drink of choice would naturally be beer mixed with tea.
The Tea Spot’s Earl of Grey loose leaf black tea takes a modern twist on the traditional Earl Grey by combining the expected bergamot flavoring on black tea leaves and then adding other citruses, vanilla, licorice root and mallow flowers. The result is a smooth, bright and creamy flavor profile. It is one of The Tea Spot’s award-winning and best-selling teas.
FATE Brewery partnered with Hollingsworth on this project to help promote his fundraiser benefitting Conscious Alliance. Headlined as "Kyle's Brew Fest", this year’s 4th annual benefit included a series of exclusive craft beer events hosted by Kyle Hollingsworth. Conscious Alliance has as its mantra “art that feeds”. Since its inception in 2002, the nonprofit has successfully collected and distributed enough food to provide over 1.6 million meals to people in need. This national 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization operates through ongoing, grassroots food collection, hunger awareness and youth empowerment programs throughout the United States, primarily by organizing food drives at concerts and music events. Donations to Conscious Alliance benefit America’s local food pantries and economically isolated Native American reservations.
The Tea Spot’s Wholesale Sales Director, Elise Ridgway, spoke enthusiastically about the project: “This extension of using The Tea Spot’s premium teas in a quality beer exemplifies the innovative way in which FATE does business. In addition to great beer, they serve delicious and high quality food to give the best experience possible to a wide array of people. The Tea Spot teas are a perfect addition to their sumptuous brunch!”
About FATE Brewery: FATE Brewery’s mission is to share with the world their passion for craft beer, love of innovative crave-able food and devotion to service and community. FATE Brewing Company is the brainchild of Owner and Founder, Mike Lawinski. He spent the last 10 years working for the Big Red F Restaurant Group, as the operations manager for both Centro Latin Kitchen and the West End Tavern. It was in this role that he discovered his dream and eventually what would become his FATE…to start his own restaurant and brewery that will provide crave-able innovative comfort food, expertly paired with craft beer and served by a passionate staff.
About The Tea Spot, Inc.: The Tea Spot is a for-profit philanthropic
business producing handcrafted loose leaf teas and Steepware® – the
tools that make loose tea easy. The Boulder, Colorado-based woman owned
and operated company was founded by Maria Uspenski in 2004. A cancer
survivor drawn to the health benefits of leaf tea during her recovery,
she set forth to modernize the loose-leaf tea experience. Her message is
simple and powerful: tea in its freshest form renders incredible
flavor, unmatched health benefits, and is eco-friendly. The Tea Spot is a
Certified B Corporation and ensures that its products uphold clean,
sustainable and fair manufacturing standards. The company’s model of
social entrepreneurship incorporates a culture of giving as it grows:
ten percent of all profits are donated in-kind to cancer and community
wellness programs. TheTeaSpot.com
From http://www.prweb.com/releases/earl-grey-tea/tea-in-beer/prweb11012265.htm
Summer of Brews Continues
Well, the summer of brews in winding down for now. We finished up KBF in Boulder last weekend and it was a great time. So many great young breweries coming up. I was diggin' on Hutch's (Brian Hutchinson) new place Cannonball Creek. He has always been bringing it ever since his time with The Mountain Sun. Also, Crooked Stave has some cool stuff, unique and flavorful styles abound. And my friend Mike Memsic is starting a new place called Sanitas Brewing Company, I'm sure he will have great beers pouring soon.
Mike was also my partner in creating Hoopla Pale Ale. It's been a great year for this hoppy pale. In fact, it's going to be on tap this weekend at SCI Red Red Rocks shows. That should be a great time. Hoopla and Cheese...
see ya there!
KBF Austin Recap + KBF Boulder Brews
Wow, Austin Brew Fest was awesome. It was a bit hot, but the venue was sweet and the beers refreshing.
I discovered a couple new breweries down there. Hops & Grain had a beer named
after my daughter...well, not really, but it was a great tasting lager. I
dig the craft beer scene in Austin.
I got a chance to jam with Mountain Standard Time as well. They sounded great and our music seemed to flow effortlessly - great musicians.
So I moved my Juniper IPA to secondary and cleaned up the carboy. I dropped more juniper in and did another dry hop addition. We will see how it comes out.
I also swung by FATE Brewing and did our tea infusion trials. We loaded up 10 samples of the finished beer and poured 5 different teas of varied amounts into the beer samples. We came up with some great combos. I think my favorite was the earl grey infusion.
Hope to see ya there!
Kyle's Brew Fest - Exclusive Brewing
Back at it. Brewing up some KBF beers with friends at Fate and New Planet.
With New Planet- we did a gluten-free Belgian with some honey and molasses, and, of course, a healthy hop addition
With
Fate, it's a wheat beer with some fun adjuncts and possible tea infusions
after fermentation. We are also trying a gluten reducer on this beer as
well called "Clarity." Apparently it clears the beer and reduces the
gluten count. We will see.
It's so fun to dive into some many different styles with these breweries. I'm looking forward to the tastings!
KBF Juniper IPA
So I'm working up some home-brew for Kyle's Brew Fest. We liked this rye IPA recipe, but we altered a bit. I think it will be a nice summer brew. Looking good on my new Ruby Street system! This is the way I should have been doing all along. Much smoother.
KBF Juniper IPA
· TypeAll Grain
· Efficiency67.0%
· Batch size11.0 gal
· Boil time60 min
Fermentables
NAME |
AMOUNT |
USE |
PPG |
23.0 lb69 % |
Mash |
37 |
|
6.0 lb18 % |
Mash |
29 |
|
3.25 lb9 % |
Mash |
34 |
|
1.0 lb3 % |
Mash |
39 |
Hops
NAME |
AMOUNT |
TIME |
USE |
FORM |
AA |
Centennial United States |
1.5 oz |
60 min |
Boil |
Pellet |
12.9% |
Cascade New Zealand |
1.0 oz |
45 min |
Boil |
Pellet |
7.9% |
Centennial United States |
0.5 oz |
45 min |
Boil |
Pellet |
12.9% |
Cascade New Zealand |
1.5 oz |
15 min |
Boil |
Pellet |
7.9% |
Centennial United States |
1.0 oz |
15 min |
Boil |
Pellet |
12.9% |
Cascade New Zealand |
1.0 oz |
5 min |
Boil |
Pellet |
7.9% |
Yeasts
NAME |
LAB |
ATTENUATION |
TEMP |
American Ale II 1272 |
Wyeast |
74.0% |
60°F – 72°F |
Extras
NAME |
AMOUNT |
TIME |
USE |
1.0 each |
15.0 min |
Boil |
|
2.0 oz |
15.0 min |
Boil |
|
4.0 oz |
7.0 days |
Secondary |
Summer of Brews 2013
Well I’m super psyched about my upcoming summer. We have a couple Kyle’s Brew Fests on tap for the season. And I’m looking forward to a few collaborations with local breweries again. I always learn so much each time I do this. It’s kind of like a brewing boot camp for me.
It's fun to toss recipe ideas back and forth with the pros, they always have great attitudes and are willing to try anything. Hmmm what to try this time around? Fruits? Spices? Chocolate?…ahh so many possibilities.
Welcome to Brews News!
Here you'll find personal encounters from Kyle about beer and brewing, as well various news about craft beer.