Wednesday, July 25, 2018
From Idaho, With Love - But Also With Mixed Results
There aren't a whole lot of beers from Idaho that one can find in Colorado. Grand Teton Brewing, for one, invaded the state more than a decade ago and has left some tasty marks on liquor-store shelves, even if it's retired too many of its best beers. (Come back, Howling Wolf Weizenbock.)
Now, Payette Brewing - the seven-year-old Boise brewery that was the first in the Gem State to can its craft offerings, has entered the Denver market with a handful of its year-round beers. And while there are things to recommend it, this brewery may have a harder time finding its legs in a state that already is on the verge of being saturated with its own products.
First, the positive: Payette brings a quality lager to a market that is accused of being overflowing with hoppy and challenging beers but lacking in easy summertime drinkers (with some notable exceptions, such as these). A sharp beer, North Fork Lager uses its Bravo and Crystal hops to accentuate its flavor, both on the front end and in the pleasant aftertaste. It's tinged with both sweetness and crispness and is the kind of beer you can drink over and over in a season like this.
Its Aura: Guava & Hibiscus Sour Ale is not the most full-bodied or
most pucker-worthy sour you've ever tasted, and its lightness leaves the flavor less impactful than it should be. But the pleasant fruitiness of the guava is spot on, and the flavor grows on you, becoming slightly pricklier and more notable as it warms.
When it comes to its hoppy offerings, though, Payette will have a hard time standing up to Colorado's homegrown offerings.
Its Recoil India Pale Ale (pictured at top) features more bitterness on its back end than up front, leaving you too much time to ponder an unusually malty base that has a strange tinge of sweetness to it, as well as a surprising bite of alcohol for a 6.5% ABV beer. The body may be smooth, but the effect is one of leaving you confused as to exactly what kind of flavor this beer is looking to impart.
And Payette's Rodeo Citra Pale Ale simply feels lacking in hop bite. You accept that you are getting a sessionable beer (4% ABV) that's not going to rip your tongue apart. But the normally tropical flavor of Citra is lacking here, replaced by a late-breaking piny bitterness that is light even for its description and style.
Payette's website lists a much larger range of beers than the brewery is spotlighting for its entrance to this market, leaving you with the impression that these folks, who expanded into a 60-barrel brewing system in 2016, have a following and a desire to mix things up. But its first offerings in Colorado, which come at a time when several notable breweries are closing and others are struggling, don't feature the kind of originality or ingenuity that is likely to avert in-state drinkers' eyes away from the deluge of options already available to them.
There aren't a whole lot of beers from Idaho that one can find in Colorado. Grand Teton Brewing, for one, invaded the state more than a decade ago and has left some tasty marks on liquor-store shelves, even if it's retired too many of its best beers. (Come back, Howling Wolf Weizenbock.)
Now, Payette Brewing - the seven-year-old Boise brewery that was the first in the Gem State to can its craft offerings, has entered the Denver market with a handful of its year-round beers. And while there are things to recommend it, this brewery may have a harder time finding its legs in a state that already is on the verge of being saturated with its own products.First, the positive: Payette brings a quality lager to a market that is accused of being overflowing with hoppy and challenging beers but lacking in easy summertime drinkers (with some notable exceptions, such as these). A sharp beer, North Fork Lager uses its Bravo and Crystal hops to accentuate its flavor, both on the front end and in the pleasant aftertaste. It's tinged with both sweetness and crispness and is the kind of beer you can drink over and over in a season like this.
Its Aura: Guava & Hibiscus Sour Ale is not the most full-bodied or
most pucker-worthy sour you've ever tasted, and its lightness leaves the flavor less impactful than it should be. But the pleasant fruitiness of the guava is spot on, and the flavor grows on you, becoming slightly pricklier and more notable as it warms.
Its Recoil India Pale Ale (pictured at top) features more bitterness on its back end than up front, leaving you too much time to ponder an unusually malty base that has a strange tinge of sweetness to it, as well as a surprising bite of alcohol for a 6.5% ABV beer. The body may be smooth, but the effect is one of leaving you confused as to exactly what kind of flavor this beer is looking to impart.And Payette's Rodeo Citra Pale Ale simply feels lacking in hop bite. You accept that you are getting a sessionable beer (4% ABV) that's not going to rip your tongue apart. But the normally tropical flavor of Citra is lacking here, replaced by a late-breaking piny bitterness that is light even for its description and style.
Payette's website lists a much larger range of beers than the brewery is spotlighting for its entrance to this market, leaving you with the impression that these folks, who expanded into a 60-barrel brewing system in 2016, have a following and a desire to mix things up. But its first offerings in Colorado, which come at a time when several notable breweries are closing and others are struggling, don't feature the kind of originality or ingenuity that is likely to avert in-state drinkers' eyes away from the deluge of options already available to them.
Labels: Grand Teton Brewing, Idaho beers, IPA, lager, Payette Brewing, Session beers, sour ale
