Sunday, July 26, 2020
6 Gems that Colorado Breweries Have Produced in this Covid Summer
This is neither a normal time to be producing beers nor a normal time to be reviewing them. Breweries are scrambling to hang on in the face of coronavirus restrictions. Most people are worried more about surviving than thriving.
Yet breweries continue to produce unique, fascinating and sometimes crushable beers in the face of such odds. And while the search for complete lists of excellent summer beers becomes a lot harder when your tasting ability is truncated — oh, how I miss beer festivals — one should still shout out when gems are found. And it to that end that this column is dedicated.
Odell Brewing Orange You Glad
The authors of the Reinheitsgebot would hate this kettle-soured blood orange and lychee beer from the brewery's RiNo taproom, but yet its almost soda-like qualities are what makes it so appealing. Fruit sweetness tinged with just enough citrus bitterness to give it a backbone in lieu of an underlying malt presence turns this into a summer sour sipper, offering both the tartness you might seek for a tastebud challenge and a degree of refreshment largely foreign to this style.
Station 26 Desert Haze
As every brewer now comes out with their own interpretation of a hazy IPA, it takes some real skill to create one that is simple enough to defy easy description but impressive enough to make you stop, swirl it an extra time and really try to pick up all its flavors. Furnishing both a tropical-forward flavor and the kind of bitter tinge on the backtaste that reminds you of IPAs from another era, this blends the best of new and traditional brewing in a way that makes you want to lap up more while standing on your back patio cooking a brat.
Elevation Beer Montanya
To be sure, there is nothing that reeks of summer in this rum-barrel-aged horchata imperial porter. It is dark and heavy and pounds you with roasted malts mingling with cinnamon and just a lick of booze. But there is so much going on in here —swirling complexity with simple stout goodness with a surrounding barrel sweetness that only comes from the lingering presence of a sugarcane alcohol — that you won't care as you hoist this before or after a hike into the San Isabel National Forest, lauding all the flavors that leap out from here.
Bruz Beers Dawg Daze
Real conversation with a friend after discovering he too had tried this new Belgian IPA from the Adams County/Denver brewer: "Oh, you had it too? Wasn't it great to style, with heavy esters and an underlying bitterness?" "Yeah, but what really surprised me was how fast I drank it. I looked in my glass and I literally thought some had gone missing somewhere." "Yeah, same thing happened to me. Man, was it smooth."
New Belgium 1985 IPA
An unusual offering in the hazy catalog, bestowing one of the most pineapple-juice aromas of any beer yet produced but somehow managing to make that flavor both bold enough to jump out and balanced enough to not taste like some kind of overly fermented fruit juice. This is also the hazy IPA that gives off bolder flavors as it warms, so don't let the lighter body fool you into drinking this quickly.
Highside Brewing Green Machine
You may think you dislike milkshake IPA, but this creation from the brewery in downtown Frisco will make you reconsider that opinion. More akin to a melon-forward IPA, this pushes the boundaries of tropical flavors without losing any of the high underlying hop qualities that allow you to remember clearly where the flavor is coming from in its sharp body. Given that the brewery is literally across the road from a marina, this may be the perfect beer for kicking back and watching the world sail by your bare feet.
This is neither a normal time to be producing beers nor a normal time to be reviewing them. Breweries are scrambling to hang on in the face of coronavirus restrictions. Most people are worried more about surviving than thriving.
Yet breweries continue to produce unique, fascinating and sometimes crushable beers in the face of such odds. And while the search for complete lists of excellent summer beers becomes a lot harder when your tasting ability is truncated — oh, how I miss beer festivals — one should still shout out when gems are found. And it to that end that this column is dedicated.
Odell Brewing Orange You GladThe authors of the Reinheitsgebot would hate this kettle-soured blood orange and lychee beer from the brewery's RiNo taproom, but yet its almost soda-like qualities are what makes it so appealing. Fruit sweetness tinged with just enough citrus bitterness to give it a backbone in lieu of an underlying malt presence turns this into a summer sour sipper, offering both the tartness you might seek for a tastebud challenge and a degree of refreshment largely foreign to this style.
Station 26 Desert Haze
As every brewer now comes out with their own interpretation of a hazy IPA, it takes some real skill to create one that is simple enough to defy easy description but impressive enough to make you stop, swirl it an extra time and really try to pick up all its flavors. Furnishing both a tropical-forward flavor and the kind of bitter tinge on the backtaste that reminds you of IPAs from another era, this blends the best of new and traditional brewing in a way that makes you want to lap up more while standing on your back patio cooking a brat.
Elevation Beer Montanya
Bruz Beers Dawg Daze
New Belgium 1985 IPA
Highside Brewing Green Machine
Labels: Bruz Beers, Elevation Beer, Highside Brewing, New Belgium Brewing, Odell Brewing, Station 26 Brewing, Summer beers
Tuesday, July 14, 2020
Collaboration still is worth celebrating
It occurred to me as everyone was celebrating our nation's independence today 10 days ago that it would have three months exactly since we should have been celebrating something else noble — collaboration. Alas, Collaboration Fest was the first of Colorado's great beer events felled by coronavirus — a list that, sadly, stretches all the way now to include the Great American Beer Festival as we've known it.
But one of the oddly positive things to come out of this time of isolation has been the slow rollout of collaboration beers. followed by an extended shelf life that's left a few of them available still. And it is to that effort that today's retrospective/perspective column is dedicated — a look at a select number of the great collaborations this year that you should either buy or tell your favorite breweries to make again soon.
Strange Times — Strange Craft Beer/Argonaut Wine & Liquor
This barrel-aged baltic porter was of the best and simultaneously most dangerous kind — a beer that churns with complex flavors yet doesn't appear to be anywhere as boozy as it actually is. Dark, roasty and chocolatey with just the right amount of bitterness, it's so easy to enjoy that you can put down four cans of it without ever stopping to take a photo ...
Strawberry Shortcake Pastry Sour — Crooked Stave/Molly's Spirits
In lesser hands, this beer could have been a juicy fruit bomb with an abnormally glowing red/pink body. Instead, it meshes all of its attributes beautifully, letting its fruit bring the sweetness, its yeast give it just a prick of sour that doesn't detract from its core taste and some wonderful brewing leave it with a backtaste of dough, as if you've just drank a tart-ish piece of cake.
The Odyssey of Flyte — Odyssey Beerwerks/FlyteCo Brewing
Every year among the bold and crazy creations that headline Collaboration Fest, one finds the almost subtle beer that you want to drink over and over again — and this beer allowed you to do just that as coronavirus shifted its production into cans. Classic in its Belgian feel, it put forth a slightly sharp, sweet taste but also a big body that heightened its drinkability, ending with tang of bitterness that made you feel you'd flown around the taste world in 12 ounces.
Jungle Rush — Westfax Brewing/Finkel & Garf
Sure, "fruited sour hazy IPA" sounded like a gimmick that was a milkshake short of a full trend house. But after a burst of orange-pineapple nose, the hops really did take over with a wonderful bitterness that stood up and complimented the citrus fruit well. Both bold and eerily subtle, it evolved as you drank it, giving you a run through a lot of techniques that all were impressive.
Strat Boy — Cannonball Creek/Pizza Port Carlsbad
While not the world's most interesting beer, these auteurs managed to make a hoppy American pilsner that also was not boring - and in doing so, created what could have been the summer sipper of the batch. Its defining characteristic was its crispness, and the surrounding bitterness helped to lay that quality down and make sure that there was something more going on in a simple creation.
Barrel Conspiracy: Mr. Sandman — River North Brewery/Molly's Spirits
As far as ambitious beers go, this bourbon-barrel-aged imperial stout with orange and chocolate had few peers, at least among the beers found in the Denver area in the months following what would have been the festival. Maybe the 12.8% ABV was a little too much for its own good. But the nose itself was the single most impressive aroma of a beer that has debuted this year, launching you into a world of candy and creativity that did not overstep the boundaries of sweetness, presumably because of its notable booze.
The Cure — Brewery Rickoli/Over Yonder Brewing
Not just the most appropriately named beer for a coronavirus-cancelled festival, this West Coast double IPA showed off a subtle touch from two overlooked breweries in Denver's western suburbs. Clean, classically hoppy and full of pine and dandelions, it recalled an earlier time in brewing, both before coronavirus and before the idea of collaborations.
Strangely Epic — Strange Craft Beer/Epic Brewing
This is not the first time the two Denver breweries have combined their signature beers to make a seemingly head-scratching whiskey-barrel-aged coffee cherry stout, but it has never seemed to blend so appropriately. Darker than night and scented heavily with coffee, it allowed the cherry to come through just strongly enough that it added a unique dimension to the featured taste in a warming, enveloping stout. Ask for seconds this winter; this is what a cold-weather nightcap should be.
But one of the oddly positive things to come out of this time of isolation has been the slow rollout of collaboration beers. followed by an extended shelf life that's left a few of them available still. And it is to that effort that today's retrospective/perspective column is dedicated — a look at a select number of the great collaborations this year that you should either buy or tell your favorite breweries to make again soon.
Strange Times — Strange Craft Beer/Argonaut Wine & Liquor
This barrel-aged baltic porter was of the best and simultaneously most dangerous kind — a beer that churns with complex flavors yet doesn't appear to be anywhere as boozy as it actually is. Dark, roasty and chocolatey with just the right amount of bitterness, it's so easy to enjoy that you can put down four cans of it without ever stopping to take a photo ...
Strawberry Shortcake Pastry Sour — Crooked Stave/Molly's Spirits
In lesser hands, this beer could have been a juicy fruit bomb with an abnormally glowing red/pink body. Instead, it meshes all of its attributes beautifully, letting its fruit bring the sweetness, its yeast give it just a prick of sour that doesn't detract from its core taste and some wonderful brewing leave it with a backtaste of dough, as if you've just drank a tart-ish piece of cake.
The Odyssey of Flyte — Odyssey Beerwerks/FlyteCo Brewing
Every year among the bold and crazy creations that headline Collaboration Fest, one finds the almost subtle beer that you want to drink over and over again — and this beer allowed you to do just that as coronavirus shifted its production into cans. Classic in its Belgian feel, it put forth a slightly sharp, sweet taste but also a big body that heightened its drinkability, ending with tang of bitterness that made you feel you'd flown around the taste world in 12 ounces.
Jungle Rush — Westfax Brewing/Finkel & Garf
Sure, "fruited sour hazy IPA" sounded like a gimmick that was a milkshake short of a full trend house. But after a burst of orange-pineapple nose, the hops really did take over with a wonderful bitterness that stood up and complimented the citrus fruit well. Both bold and eerily subtle, it evolved as you drank it, giving you a run through a lot of techniques that all were impressive.Strat Boy — Cannonball Creek/Pizza Port Carlsbad
While not the world's most interesting beer, these auteurs managed to make a hoppy American pilsner that also was not boring - and in doing so, created what could have been the summer sipper of the batch. Its defining characteristic was its crispness, and the surrounding bitterness helped to lay that quality down and make sure that there was something more going on in a simple creation.
Barrel Conspiracy: Mr. Sandman — River North Brewery/Molly's Spirits
As far as ambitious beers go, this bourbon-barrel-aged imperial stout with orange and chocolate had few peers, at least among the beers found in the Denver area in the months following what would have been the festival. Maybe the 12.8% ABV was a little too much for its own good. But the nose itself was the single most impressive aroma of a beer that has debuted this year, launching you into a world of candy and creativity that did not overstep the boundaries of sweetness, presumably because of its notable booze.
The Cure — Brewery Rickoli/Over Yonder Brewing
Not just the most appropriately named beer for a coronavirus-cancelled festival, this West Coast double IPA showed off a subtle touch from two overlooked breweries in Denver's western suburbs. Clean, classically hoppy and full of pine and dandelions, it recalled an earlier time in brewing, both before coronavirus and before the idea of collaborations.
Strangely Epic — Strange Craft Beer/Epic Brewing
This is not the first time the two Denver breweries have combined their signature beers to make a seemingly head-scratching whiskey-barrel-aged coffee cherry stout, but it has never seemed to blend so appropriately. Darker than night and scented heavily with coffee, it allowed the cherry to come through just strongly enough that it added a unique dimension to the featured taste in a warming, enveloping stout. Ask for seconds this winter; this is what a cold-weather nightcap should be.
Labels: Brewery Rickoli, Cannonball Creek Brewing, collaboration beers, Crooked Stave, Epic Brewing, Finkel & Garf Brewing, FlyteCo Brewing, Molly's Spirits, Odyssey Beerwerks, River North Brewery, Strange Craft Beer
