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
