Across The Universe

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Bordo Bello 2011

Once again the time of the year has arrived where I bust out the sand paper, markers, wood stain, red rosin paper, varnish, rags, and whatever else may be sitting around the house to create my deck for AIGA Colorado’s annual fundraiser Bordo Bello. Rifting off of what I did last year, I once again went analog with my piece. Refreshingly void of pixels. This year was just as much of a struggle as last year and I felt that the wood wasn’t as receptive to stain and marker as I had hoped, despite the amount of sanding that I did to the board prior. I’ll post full images after the show, but for now a snippet of my piece which I’ve titled Across The Universe.

Homegrown Cascade Hop Harvest 2011

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Miss Erin With Cascade Hops


On one of the first days where the hints of autumn could be felt in the air and seen in the color of the daylight, it was only fitting that we spent the first day of the holiday weekend brewing up our first harvest ale. Sometime in the midst of this past spring we nurtured to health our first hop plant rhizome which exceed our expectations in terms of size (in the ballpark of 15 feet) and output (almost 5oz) for it’s first year as part of our brewery. While grain and water mingled in our mash-tun and Led Zeppelin II played in the background, we climbed ladder and fence to harvest what this season had bestowed for our soon to be ale. With hands sticky from the fresh lupulin, we pitched all of our Cascade hops into the latter stages of our boil. If all goes according to plan, we’ll be drinking a rich deep mahogany colored ale with an inviting hop aroma and a toasty malt backbone as summer fades in the rearview mirror.

Harvesting Cascade Hops


Regardless of yield, it was extremely satisfying to brew a beer with hops that we grew and harvested minutes before adding them directly to our boiling wort, especially when we didn’t expect the plant to produce in it’s first year. Hopefully next year our first plant will do even better and we’ll be as lucky with yet to be born siblings as we expand our personal hop farm.

Drink up.

Avery’s Meretrix

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Avery Meretrix Release Party

Up until this past weekend I had never attended a bottle release party, especially one where attendance is a must to procure a bottle or two. I’ve been to my fair share of beer festivals and brewery parties, but this sort of beer event had alluded my attendance. To my recollection, few within the Colorado region have crossed my radar, and those that have presented scheduling conflicts. Therefore, I’ve always been jealous of friends in the North East who have taken many short whimsical road trips, through beautiful countryside ripe with delectable seafood and brew, to obtain a special releases from the likes of Allagash and Portsmouth Brewing Companies. Thus, when news of Avery’s release of Meretrix – a sour ale brewed with sour cherries and aged in Cabernet Sauvignon barrels – crossed my wire, Miss E and I decided we would make a rare trip to the People’s Republic with the hopes of acquiring a few bottles.

On a sweltering mid-summer day, with Miss E catching some flies while sitting shotgun, we headed northwest for our first special release party as well as first visit to Avery Brewing Company. In all honesty, I’m not that familiar with Avery’s offerings. I recently had Maharaja, their Imperial IPA, at Amato’s and enjoyed it. While I like their traditional IPA on tap, I found a recent 6er purchase to be a bit metallic on my taste buds. Other than that, I’ve knew little of their beers. Subsequently, we had little idea of what to expect from their tap-room and brewery. Upon our arrival around three in the afternoon, the brewery was alive with activity with beer-fiends packing the small tap room like bees to a hive. Impressively, the tap-room offered at least 15 beers conservatively speaking (more likely in the range of 20) and our favorite of which was Eremita, a sour ale.

We obtained a spot near the front of the line assuring us the eight bottles of Meretrix we had come to acquire. Having obtained a prime spot in line meant we were able to wait inside the brewery which was key given the heat of the day. A few minutes after the stroke of 5pm we purchased our bottles and headed back to the tap room to have a few more tasters and shoot the shit with some friends.

Avery Brewing Company

We’ve yet to try Meretrix, and I plan on writing about it when we do. We got three bottles for ourselves, one of which I will cellar for a year or so, and the remaining five will be given to friends and family. In hindsight, we didn’t need to get to the brewery so early to get the beer, as friends of ours were able to snag bottles long after the line had subsided. With that said, if I decide to attend their next barrel series release, I’ll still get there just as early to enjoy the fun.

Drink up.