Yeast Obsession

Over the course of his homebrewing career, a friend of mine has suffered setbacks such as having to dump eight batches in a row — beer he'd already bottled — because undesired yeast lurking somewhere in his copper cooling system left the suds tasting like Band-Aids. Undaunted, he's forged ahead, with much success. He and his wife go so far as to save the sludge at the bottom of their favorite store-bought Belgians so they can cultivate the remaining yeast. Such is the fervor behind homebrewing – and it will visit Denver en masse this weekend in the form of the National Homebrewers Conference. Host to an expected 800 brewers, the three-day affair opens today with a toast by Mayor John Hickenlooper and a homebrew competition with more than 5,000 entries in 28 categories. There will also be a slew of seminars, with titles ranging from "Proper Use of Sanitizers" to "Mead: Today and Beyond." This year's keynote speaker is Peter Bouckaert, brewmaster at New Belgium Brewing in Fort Collins — a brewery known for going to great, almost obsessive, lengths of creation. Its La Folie ale, for example, is a style seldom brewed in the States and was released in a limited edition of 3,000 bottles. The beer was fermented in huge wooden wine barrels from Napa Valley and aged for three years to achieve a taste similar to a nutty sour apple. Way better than bandages.

It all goes down at the Four Points by Sheraton Denver Southeast, 6363 East Hampden Avenue; visit www.ahaconference.org for registration information.