Beer Run Blog

It started with Liquid Bacon, the mouth-watering, mesquite chewy smoked copper ale from Hunter Beer Co. at the edge of Australia's Hunter Valley wine region that lived up to its name when I first tried it in 2009. Then it moved to the smoked bock that the SandLot Brewery served the next summer, not as full of barbecuey goodness but still packed with smoke in a lighter-bodied beer.

Now, the welcoming club of smoked beers that aren't porters has a new member in the William Wallace Scotch Ale being poured down at Denver Beer Co. And it is every bit as chew-worthy - and, according to its brewer, as polarizing - as the other beers that have come from this style.

The smoked porter, popularized by Alaskan Brewing, is, at this point, a semi-common option for most breweries. The dark malt cloaks the smoke and makes it perceptible only as an add-on rather than a main flavoring, giving just a hint of spiciness to the common murky character of the style.

But lighter-bodies beers that have a flavor of smoke to them are riskier, as the smoke stands out far more prominently. And there you walk a think line between brews that taste like the liquid equivalent of a sumptuous rack of ribs and beers that taste like a fire fighter's uniform was substituted for hops as a late-boil addition.
William Wallace (think: "Follow me ... to the BBQ pit!") comes at you with a giant mesquite smoked flavor from the first sip, swaddling it in sweet Scottish malts but clearly letting it be the star of the show. As the beer warms, the sweet and the charred intermingle more, giving you a mouth-filling taste of such magnitude that even the brewery's GABF-award-winning Graham Cracker Porter can't match.

Brewer Charlie Berger stopped by the table to take my compliment on the beer but then mention that it might be the most polarizing beer that the 5-month-old brewery has concocted. (The comment seemed especially appropriate as The Beer Geekette, a Scotch ale fan, passed it off to me to drink because she couldn't take the smoke.) Yet, Charlie should take that as a compliment.

When you make a beer this heavy in flavor, some people are naturally going to turn away, asking for something that is plainly easier. Yet, I hope more breweries get the gumption to infuse mesquite smoke - or other flavors we as a beer community haven't yet thought of - to continually challenge our taste buds.

All six members of the Fearless Tasting Crew noticed it and agreed: There was a feeling that something was different, and better, about the 2012 Big Beers, Belgians and Barleywines festival this weekend.

Maybe dividing the high-alcoholfest over two rooms on separate floors opened the space up enough to make it feel more pleasant. Maybe the educational seminars, which felt directed to brewers and beer geeks rather than casual drinkers, were a little better. Or maybe there was this: The first time I tasted a beer that I didn't like, I looked down at my watch and realized it was 4:07 p.m. - one hour and 37 minutes into the show.

A festival that can bring out the best experiments in the brewing community - but also some concoctions that shouldn't see the light of day again - this year featured things both daring and shockingly drinkable. Even Avery's Coffeestopheles Stout, the 16.4 percent coffee/alcohol bomb formerly known as Meph Addict, felt just a little easier on the palate without losing any of its gusto.

With that said, here's a few things I learned at the festival:

* The Bruery is quickly evolving into one of the top breweries in America. If there was a beer of the fest, it was Partridge in a Pear Tree, the 3-year-old Belgian-style dark strong ale that presented itself as spicy on the nose, black and sweet on the palate and slightly sour with aged dried fruit. The Orange County beermaker also created the best beer of this Christmas season, Four Calling Birds, and continues to dazzle.

* Brettanomyces and hops really do make a great combination. Crooked Stave's Wild Wild Brett Green combined the magical yeast strain with three pounds of hops per barrel of beer and created a layered and unique hop bomb that stood out among a host of grassy beers.

* Brettanomyces and red wine barrels also make a wonderful partnership, as Surly Brewing showed quite ably with Five, a brett-fermented dark ale that walloped you with tart cherries. It jolted your taste bud at every sip. If only it was sold in Colorado ...

* Coffee and big beers are a combination of which we should see more. Between Coffeestopheles Stout (worth a trip to Avery's taproom if you have a designated driver), Ballast Point's Victory at Sea Imperial Porter (the most drinkable 10% porter ever) and Great Divide's Espresso Oak Aged Yeti Imperial Stout (a known entity, but one that proved its heft against the others in the room), there was a series of tastebud-rocking efforts adding a new twist to the known big and dark beers.

It's the wonderful weekend of the Big Beers, Belgians and Barleywines Festival in Vail, one of the finest brewfests in Colorado each year. And while there will be more to discuss afterward - after deciding which of the multiple seminars to attend and which of the 200 or so strong beers to sample - there's at least two pieces of good news at the start.

First, from the festival website, all attendees get a $5 food ticket with their admission this year. I would say this is an added bonus all festivals should consider. Too many people - the Fearless Tasting Crew included - get too wrapped up in the beer selection and simply forget to put anything in their stomach to cushion the impact of drinking. This will provide an incentive to do that, at the least.

Second, a source - we'll just call him "Gary from Colorado Craft Beer Radio" - tells that the tasting portion of the the event will be spread out between two rooms this year. This is an even better move for the festival. No one has ever complained about the worldwide, rare selection of beers available at this gathering. But occasionally, the central tasting area has become so crowded that you have to ping-pong your way from table to table. Spreading it out will ensure everyone has a more pleasant good time, and festival organizers should be lauded for it.

If you don't have tickets yet, they are still available. And - shameless plug alert - if you're going up today but don't have plans for tonight - feel free to stop by Crazy Mountain Brewing in Edwards for a "Mountain Brew" book-signing.

Cheers.

The past year has been an exciting and experimental year for Colorado beers, even by its lofty standards. And so, to try to categorize the best offerings from 2011 is no easy task.

This list is not necessarily a list of the best beers you could buy at any moment in the state - don't worry, Avery Maharaja, I haven't forgotten about you - but a list of the most exciting beers of the past 12 months. These are the brews that inspired conversation in just the past year, excited taste buds and made you appreciate the brewing craft of this state so much that you wanted to share it with everyone.

10) Cherry Bomb Belgian Stout - Strange Brewing

This fascinating combination of roasted malt and tart cherries is not a new brew. But in the past year, the evolution of the beer to a happy medium between the stout and Belgian fruit styles, as well as the decision to keep it smoothly on nitro, has continued to make it one of Denver's most fascinating brews.

9) Steamworks Berliner Weisse - Steamworks Brewing

Many breweries experimented ) - and did very well - with this previously little-produced German sour wheat beer in the past year. But none made anything quite as tasty as the Durango brewery that is continuously experimenting and coming up with options like this that strike the interest of the palate without beating it to death with tartness.

8) Belgian Yeti - Great Divide Brewing

Great Divide has made a small amount of beers better than Belgian Yeti. But it's been a while since the last time it made something so provocative to combine Belgian yeast with its already bold and flavorful imperial stout recipe. And the fact that Great Divide was ballsy enough to release this in the summer lets you know how countercultural a good beer can be.

7) Summer Cab Ride - Breckenridge Brewery

Breckenridge's SummerBright Ale was a run-of-the-mill light offering - right up until the brewery decided to age it in cabernet sauvignon barrels and turned it into a fascinating and complex lighter beer with wine skin and slightly sour overtones. Now it's one of the most approachable and enjoyable barrel experiments in this state.

6) Mexican Chocolate Stout - Copper Kettle Brewing

Copper Kettle opened in late April and won a Great American Beer Festival medal in late September - a gap that brewery owners believe to be the shortest in history. But it was well-deserved for a beer that so artfully combined spice, cinnamon and dark malt that it felt like you were drinking dinner, not an aperitif.

5) Le Terroir - New Belgium Brewing

New Belgium had displayed Le Terroir in its taproom and at the GABF before. But it wasn't until this year that the dry hopped sour ale became a part of its Lips of Faith series that received general distribution. Tart like a cherry and yet grassy in its hops, it combines the best of Belgian and American brewing and gives you a beer that warms your cockles.

4) Brain of the Turtle - Trinity Brewing

Colorado complexity reached its peak in this sour ale aged with cherries, coffee and almonds - Jason Yester's latest freak show of a beer that conforms to no style but just turns heads and makes experimental beer fans smile. Nothing was talked about more among Colorado beer geeks at the Great American Beer Festival. And no other new beer deserves a statewide release so much in 2012.

3) Myrcenary Double IPA - Odell Brewing

Colorado has become the king state of double IPAs, which makes it particularly hard for a newcomer to break into its market. But Myrcenary, released at the end of 2010, ranks with its best products as a sharply hoppy offering with enough of a malt backbone to make it grassy without being overbearing. It's a four-pack worth picking up.

2) Nitro Milk Stout - Left Hand Brewing

No Colorado beer has been more hyped in its release than this one - which makes it incredibly impressive that the Longmont brewery not only met but exceeded expectations with a magically carbonated and sweet stout that may well the most drinkable beer in Colorado right now. I have turned IPA drinkers into stout drinkers with this selection, and Left Hand's influence is likely to turn a lot of typical dark beer producers into auteurs who put their beer on nitrogen to make it more interesting.

1) Buddha Nuvo - 14 breweries, led by Rockyard Brewing

Collaboration beers are, by their nature, complex and full of flavors that everyone wants to contribute. But no beer pushed the taste envelope so much to the edge - without sailing over it - as this collaboration saison from 14 breweries that presented drinkers with the combined tastes of grape skin, plum, pumpkin and a perfume-like overtaste that fades into simple fascination at the realization of what is in here. One of the highlights of my year as a writer was the opportunity to participate in a multiple-blog collaboration review of this masterpiece. But nothing we said could equal the melange of flavors cavorting in your mouth and making you realize that Colorado beer is producing experiments that will push it further up the charts as the state that should attract national attention both this year and in the future.

For the past two years, no holiday beer has brought more to the season than Port Brewing's Santa's Little Helper, a fiercely dark imperial stout that could keep you warm if you were sitting outside in the snow. It just seemed that nothing would dethrone it as the Christmas beer king.

Then came Four Calling Birds, this year's addition to The Bruery's now-4-year-old collection of rotating holiday specialties. And it just yanked that title away.

Four Calling Birds (the one on the left with less head in the photo) brings its own inky darkness to the table, a trait that leaves even more of an impression in your mouth with the resounding hint of high alcohol in its backtaste. But it adds both the smoothness that defines Belgian-style strong ales and a spice presence - largely, gingerbread - that floats through your mouth. Thus, it becomes the rare beer that will both pound your taste buds with its flavor and soothe you with a cookie-like flavor profile, leaving you thinking this is the beer you really want to leave out for Santa.

Don't get me wrong: Santa's Little Helper (on the right in the photo, with the thick head) remains a rare highly drinkable imperial stout in which you can literally chew on the roastiness of the malt and be wowed. But, at least this year, it's only second on my list of the beers that I want to keep drinking throughout the winter.

And if you need to decide yourself, head down to Freshcraft, which should have both of the offerings on tap throughout most of next week.