Beer Run Blog

Today, 5 to 8 p.m.: Ska Brewing in Durango hosts the event, which is a perfect chance to get free beer and a tour while you're paying to become an American Homebrewers Association member or to just go and drink for free if you're already a member.

Saturday and Sunday, noon to 6 p.m.: The Keystone Blues and Brews Festival offers 30 breweries for 30 bucks at the River Run Events Plaza.

Sunday, 1 to 5 p.m.: The 2nd Annual Great Boulder Beer Festival celebrates eight Boulder County breweries at the Millennium Harvest House. I wish I knew the price, but I don't.

Sunday, noon to 6 p.m.: Avery Anniversary Party, at the brewery in Boulder. This is always a beautiful thing. Twenty bucks gets you in and another $20 gives you access to a mid-afternoon vertical tasting.

Today, 4 to 7 p.m.: Fort Collins Brewery releases its 1900 Amber, but not until after you've partied like it's 1899.

Today, 5 p.m.: Falling Rock Taphouse in Denver rolls out Russian River Publication, a britt-singed creation of five of the country's best ale houses (including Falling Rock) and the maestros at Russian River. Each bar gets only eight kegs.

Thursday, 6 p.m.: Rock Bottom Westminster taps a Bottoms Up Kolsch, which will feel more appropriate in the weather we were having last week as opposed to this week.

Friday, 5-9 p.m.: Hops for Habitat, Plains Conservation Center in Aurora. Drink beer, support the environment: It's the sincerest way to act like a brewer. Tickets are $30, though I haven't found information on the number of breweries that will be there. Reservations required.

Friday, 7-10 p.m: Summer Brew Fest at Mile High Station, 2027 W. Lower Colfax Ave. in Denver. Flyers advertise at least 22 microbreweries and 75 beers. Tickets are $30 in advance (http://www.denverbrewfest.com/) and $35 at the door.

Tuesday, 5-8 p.m.: Great Divide hosts its monthly beer/cheese night. Five beers, five cheeses, $10. With the new selection of beers, you never know what you'll get.

July 31, 6:30 p.m.: Del Frisco's Steak House in Greenwood Village hosts its first beer pairing dinner, with New Belgium Brewery. Cost is $65, and the menu features such tempting twosomes as butterscotch braised duck leg with Abbey. RSVPs needed by July 24 at 303-796-0100.

*Pagosa Brewing rolled out its Summer Hop Ale, a once-a-year cross between a pale and an IPA, on Wednesday.

*Two new New Belgium Lips of Faith bombers hit store shelves this week: the wild-yeast, dry-hopped La Fleur Misseur and the Transatlantique Kriek, a lambic brewed with Polish cherries.

*Left Hand's Oak Aged Imperial Stout, aged in Heaven Hill brandy barrels, is back in stores for the first time in two years.

*Dry Dock Brewing, now situated in its new home in Aurora, taps a firkin of Creamsicle Pale Ale on Friday.

The sun shined down as always on Breckenridge's Main Street Station for its annual summer beer festival this past weekend. Here's one man's scribblings-turned-into-opinions about the events.

Beer of the Festival: One of the joys of the event was getting to pit Breckenridge's 471 Double IPA against Great Divide's Hercules Double IPA head to head. And what I and others realized was the same fact that began to creep up at last year's Great American Beer Festival - that Breck's whammer may be less well known but just may be the best big IPA in Colorado, if not America. That's not to discount Hercules, which remains gruff and strong and challenging in its enormous hoppiness. But the 471 is one of the most stunningly drinkable ales in America for its size, sweet and natural and borderline soothing in its grassy splendor without going soft on the hops. Let's hope more festivals offer us the opportunity to make this comparison.

Surprise Beer of the Festival: All I'd heard about Ska's Mexican Logger before the show was that some Hispanics did not appreciate the picture of a sleeping Mexican beside a chainsaw on the label, feeling it might be stereotypical. The only place my mind went after sipping this, however, was to the sharp smoothness and great malt texture that made this seem like a totally different beer than other Mexican lagers, which can look and taste shockingly similar to urine in a bottle.

Sam Adams booth: Boston Beer Company once again brought two new creations to let the crowd rate and vote on them. While the Fearless Tasting Crew generally agreed that neither the pils nor the pale ale should be added to Jim Koch's permanent collection, true interactive relationships between the brewers and crowd at these gatherings are always appreciated.

The little guys: Beer festivals are partly about finding that unknown brewery. For this one, Grand Lake Brewing came strong with three offerings just as their product is starting to circulate statewide. And tiny Aspen Brewing showed off a very impressive Brown Ale teeming with nuttiness and body, enough to make you want to stop by the brewery the next time you're skiing.

Festival organizers and their poor advertising: Check out the website for the festival and tell me where on it you can find that the show was only open to VIP ticket purchasers (at $75 a pop) until 2 p.m. Yet, that is exactly what ticket takers said to the crowds pulling up shortly after 1 p.m. and wondering why they couldn't get in. Organizers added that they had mentioned the VIP pricing on flyers around town. Well, for everyone who came from out of town - most of the crowd, I'd wager - it was a rude shock to find out the discrepancy. It was, at best, a poor job of conveying festival details to people who had traveled hours to get there and, at worst, a fraudulent way of trying to extract more money from the crowd.

The humdrum beer booth selections: Some festivals around the state inspire brewers to bring their most experimental wares, or at least something a little off the beaten path. For the most part, this wasn't the one. Kudos to Breck and Great Divide for going big, Flying Dog for having an imperial porter and a Belgian-style wit and Ska for saving a keg of double blonde for when its first tap blew. Otherwise, there were standard offerings from the big craft breweries that could be found on bar taps pretty much anywhere in the area. And, while we're bringing a more diverse beer selection, a few rinsing pitchers would be nice too, folks.

Haven't heard about Denver Beer Week? Or about Denver Beer Fest? Here's a little explanation (written by yours truly) of why I mention two potential beer festivals that will leave you only 50 weeks of the year in which you can plan other things to do: http://denver.bizjournals.com/denver/stories/2009/07/13/daily87.html

What this breaks down to is this: Visit Denver (the Denver convention and visitors bureau) wants to do a week-long celebration of beer between the Larimer Square Oktoberfest celebration and the Great American Beer Festival. Brewers in this state want to do it sometime between February and April, when less people are roaming the Denver streets imbibing and eating in restaurants. The differences between the two groups appear to be leading to two beer weeks during the year, which are not competing so much as they're two different celebrations.

The question is this: Does having two beer weeks in one year really nix the importance of both of them and rob Denver of the ability to have a beer-specific celebration that the city deserves more richly than places like San Francisco and Philadelphia that now have such weeks?

My opinion is that two beer weeks are compatible. One in the Spring would be for beer geeks who want to talk beer and drink beer at a time when everyone else is complaining about how cold the weather is and how much the Avs suck. The one in the Fall would be like a push for people to get out and drink beer before the GABF, a time when the true beer-friendly restaurants and bars already are throwing such events but when a specified week could encourage others to get on the bandwagon.

Anyone else have thoughts on this gravest of issues?

It's just a lazy, dog-dangling summer . . .

Saturday, 1 to 6 p.m.: Breckenridge Beer Festival at the Main Street Station in the heart of town. Twenty-six breweries will be giving out their wares, and there's a good chance that Sam Adams will ask your opinion on its latest experiments. Be sure to wear sun screen; I will. $30.

Friday, 5 p.m.: Falling Rock Taphouse in LoDo cracks open a keg of Stone's deliciously hoppy, new 13th Anniversary Ale. But the real prize for those who venture down is the same brewery's Cali-Belgique, one of the leaders in the new Belgian IPA movement.

Friday, 5 to 9 p.m.: In Colorado Springs, Bristol Brewing will roll out the fourth release from Black Fox Brewing, an aggressively hopped saison by the name of Gusto.

Saturday, 4:20 p.m.: Boulder's Southern Sun Pub and Brewery and Denver's Vine Street Pub will tap St. Amos Belgian White, a Belgian-inspired white brewed with lemongrass, coriander and orange peel. I don't think you should read anything into the tapping time, but I could be wrong.

Rock Bottom in downtown Denver may be just about out of its American Dream IPA, which it tapped on July 2. Very easy and light for its style, it has only a slow, lurking bitterness that doesn't bite as much as stick around longer than you might expect. But while it might be slightly heftless on its own, it actually blends well when combined with food, welcoming and then dispensing the grease while leaving a flavor that tinges but doesn't burn. Not the worst thing you could pair with a hot summer night munching on the 16th Street Mall patio.