Saturday, January 05, 2019
Big Beers Has Become the Festival for the Beer Aficionados Who Truly Want to Learn
The Big Beers Belgians & Barleywines Festival has gone through some very noticeable changes in recent years (like moving from Vail to Breckenridge in 2017) and some very subtle ones. But it's those seemingly minor tweaks that this year have added up to making this officially the festival for people who don't just want to drink a lot of beer but who want to sponge up knowledge about the craft at the same rate their liver is processing alcohol.
That's not to say the nationally lauded annual event, now celebrating its 19th year from Jan. 10-12, hasn't always gone the extra yard to imbue knowledge upon its participants. It's always been marked by early-morning seminars on experimental brewing styles, multiple events pairing beer with food and cigars and brewers who are omnipresent at the commercial tasting to explain just how they incorporated an experimental yeast or ingredient.
But those seminars (pictured below) are getting more technical as they are getting more popular - a reason that organizers Laura and Bill Lodge decided for the first time this year to sell $15-$20 tickets to each of the gatherings, since the tracks grew so crowded last year that crowds couldn't fit into the rooms. And this year's slate of 12 talks goes to depths beyond even many of the great seminars in the past, including the start-of-the-morning gathering on Saturday in which Crooked Stave, Mad Fritz and Sierra Nevada delve into the impacts of water on beer by making the same brew with three different water sources.
Laura also wanted to take the welcome reception to a new level - this time without adding the cost of tickets to a beer-and-food pairing that had grown costly to the overall event. So, the 2019 reception (noon to 1 p.m. on Friday at Beaver Run Resort) upped its number of brewer participants to four serving two beers each and replaced the high-end pairings with a nacho bar, so that beer geeks have time to savor new flavors and talk to the men and women who create them.
"I really wanted to do a formal, you've-arrived entrance," Laura told me. "We're really looking to, I guess, polish it up."
To be sure, Big Beers didn't need much polishing. The commercial event alone puts this among the best beer festivals nationally, with the likes of Adam Avery or Sam Calagione pouring rarities and barrel-aged beauties and explaining their qualities to lines of people that stretch sometimes 10 long instead of the around-the-corner queues that can mark the best breweries at Great American Beer Festival.
But as more breweries have tried to get into the event - which, mindbogglingly, still has tickets available - more brewers have agreed to share their table with friends in order to increase the sheer variety of beers that are being poured. This year there will be more than 150 beer makers pouring beer at just 118 tables.
"It's a really great feeling to see the community coming together in that way," Laura said.
What's really begun to separate this festival from others in recent years is the affiliate events happening around Breckenridge as it occurs. Yes, those include special tappings and food pairings.
But there's also a workshop on Belgian beers, an educational discussion on hazy beers and informational pourings and tappings focused on fermentation, blending and randalls. Hell, there's even a special event on low-gravity beers, which is the equivalent of the NFL directing a seminar on the grace and beauty of soccer.
I'm not saying that you'll be so steeped in learning that you won't get drunk at Big Beers. You're at 9,600 feet above sea level, the first seminar on Saturday begins at 9 a.m. and you're drinking beers no less than 7 percent ABV, with the exception of a few lower-alcohol Belgian styles. You're going to feel it, even if the drunkenness is just a byproduct of your activities rather than a goal.
But this festival has gone well beyond a little bit of learning and a lot of beer. It's like an upper-level college course on what makes great beer as great as it is, with the benefits of your being able to taste every bit of that as you are steeping yourself in knowledge. And that's why it's become, in some ways, the absolute must-hit beer event of the year in Colorado.
The Big Beers Belgians & Barleywines Festival has gone through some very noticeable changes in recent years (like moving from Vail to Breckenridge in 2017) and some very subtle ones. But it's those seemingly minor tweaks that this year have added up to making this officially the festival for people who don't just want to drink a lot of beer but who want to sponge up knowledge about the craft at the same rate their liver is processing alcohol.
That's not to say the nationally lauded annual event, now celebrating its 19th year from Jan. 10-12, hasn't always gone the extra yard to imbue knowledge upon its participants. It's always been marked by early-morning seminars on experimental brewing styles, multiple events pairing beer with food and cigars and brewers who are omnipresent at the commercial tasting to explain just how they incorporated an experimental yeast or ingredient.
But those seminars (pictured below) are getting more technical as they are getting more popular - a reason that organizers Laura and Bill Lodge decided for the first time this year to sell $15-$20 tickets to each of the gatherings, since the tracks grew so crowded last year that crowds couldn't fit into the rooms. And this year's slate of 12 talks goes to depths beyond even many of the great seminars in the past, including the start-of-the-morning gathering on Saturday in which Crooked Stave, Mad Fritz and Sierra Nevada delve into the impacts of water on beer by making the same brew with three different water sources.
Laura also wanted to take the welcome reception to a new level - this time without adding the cost of tickets to a beer-and-food pairing that had grown costly to the overall event. So, the 2019 reception (noon to 1 p.m. on Friday at Beaver Run Resort) upped its number of brewer participants to four serving two beers each and replaced the high-end pairings with a nacho bar, so that beer geeks have time to savor new flavors and talk to the men and women who create them.
"I really wanted to do a formal, you've-arrived entrance," Laura told me. "We're really looking to, I guess, polish it up."
To be sure, Big Beers didn't need much polishing. The commercial event alone puts this among the best beer festivals nationally, with the likes of Adam Avery or Sam Calagione pouring rarities and barrel-aged beauties and explaining their qualities to lines of people that stretch sometimes 10 long instead of the around-the-corner queues that can mark the best breweries at Great American Beer Festival.
"It's a really great feeling to see the community coming together in that way," Laura said.
What's really begun to separate this festival from others in recent years is the affiliate events happening around Breckenridge as it occurs. Yes, those include special tappings and food pairings.
But there's also a workshop on Belgian beers, an educational discussion on hazy beers and informational pourings and tappings focused on fermentation, blending and randalls. Hell, there's even a special event on low-gravity beers, which is the equivalent of the NFL directing a seminar on the grace and beauty of soccer.
I'm not saying that you'll be so steeped in learning that you won't get drunk at Big Beers. You're at 9,600 feet above sea level, the first seminar on Saturday begins at 9 a.m. and you're drinking beers no less than 7 percent ABV, with the exception of a few lower-alcohol Belgian styles. You're going to feel it, even if the drunkenness is just a byproduct of your activities rather than a goal.
But this festival has gone well beyond a little bit of learning and a lot of beer. It's like an upper-level college course on what makes great beer as great as it is, with the benefits of your being able to taste every bit of that as you are steeping yourself in knowledge. And that's why it's become, in some ways, the absolute must-hit beer event of the year in Colorado.
Labels: Avery Brewing, Big Beers, Boston Beer Co., Breckenridge, Crooked Stave, Laura Lodge, Mad Fritz Brewing, Sierra Nevada Brewing
Tuesday, January 02, 2018
7 New Things Coming This Year to Big Beers Festival
No change that Laura and Bill Lodge will make to the Big Beers, Belgians & Barleywines Festival will be bigger than last year's move of the event from Vail to Breckenridge after 17 years in its original home city. But that doesn't mean the resettled festival will stop trying to find new ways to entertain its crowds during its second year in its new home.
With one of Colorado's best celebrations of yeast and hops just two days away (the first events begin on Jan. 4, while the commercial tasting is set for Jan. 6), it's worth taking a look at what will be different about the festival this year. And it's worth reiterating that if this all sounds good, tickets for the main event remain available.
1) The Falling Rock Lounge
One of the biggest aspects that was missing from the event last year was the central gathering spot, a role that the Fireside Lounge in the old Vail Cascade Resort filled for years. Festival organizers, in conjunction with Denver's oldest beer bar, are changing that in 2018.
The "Pop-Up Falling Rock" will be a temporary bar with a Chris Black-curated beer list that will occupy the open space near the arcade and the hot tubs on the second floor of the host Beaver Run Resort & Conference Center. Hotel officials will pile soft furniture in that space and signs around the resort will direct people there, making it likely this will be the spot to relax when seminars and the main tasting are not in progress.
2) Bigger Seminars
Last year, afternoon seminars were held in adjoining spaces that held just 35 people each, leaving some people unable even to sniff topics like how to brew with exotic fruit and vegetables.
This year, the Lodges will combine those two rooms into one seminar area and double the space, while moving some of the other talks to the Base 9 Bar on the bottom floor. There will be four seminars at 12:05 p.m. and another four at 1:15 p.m. And one of the defining characteristics of the event - being able to learn more about beer throughout the day in talks that feature a fair amount of tasting as well - will be open to more attendees.
3) A Wider Range of Seminars
Saturday morning's schedule begins at 9:30 a.m. with a talk on the timely and controversial topic of New England IPAs from a panel that includes Colorado's best makers of the style, including Neil Fisher of Weldwerks and Lee Cleghorn of Outer Range Brewing. But while that's sure to attract beer geeks by the kettle-ful, Laura Lodge promises other choices that will welcome people of all interests.
If you want to learn to pair beer with spicy foods, there's a seminar for that. If you want to enjoy a beer while doing yoga on Saturday morning, there's an opportunity for that. And if you really want to work with random strangers to try to pair four beers and four foods, there's a different break-out session that features that too.
"I think sometimes people think Big Beers is for people who are just in the industry or super-savvy," she said. "I think the novice can learn as well."
4) An App for Festival Planning
Festival organizers are working with Digital Pout, which has created an app to help people find where breweries are on the floor plan, what they're pouring - and when a beer runs out. Thus, if you're one of those folks who wants to spend much of your 3-1/2-hour tasting looking for rare and aged beers, you can map out beforehand where they are and know when you should redirect your adventures in mid-festival.
5) A New Entry for Attendees
One of the bugs of the first year at Beaver Run was the bottleneck of VIP and regular-ticket attendees backed up at the same entrance point on the third floor, leading to a slowdown getting in and to complaints from brewers on the first floor that it took a long time for many attendees to find them. This year, the early crowd will go in at 2 on the first floor and the later crowd goes in at 2:30 on the third floor, leading to less congestion and more spreading of entrants across the tasting space.
6) New Breweries ...
Laura Lodge recalls getting a call from experimental brewer Cellarmaker Brewing of San Francisco last year asking if they could come and pour their beer at the 2018 festival. Within 15 minutes, she got a follow-up call The Rare Barrel, an equally sought-after Berkeley brewery, inquiring whether it too could come and pour.
"We're starting to see some really cool, innovative folks who may not have experienced Big Beers before but want to be here now," she said. Expect this trend to continue and grow.
7) ... And More Breweries
After opening the festival to 140 breweries last year, Big Beers will welcome around 150 this year. The increase isn't terribly impressive, but the way that number is growing is.
With a waiting list of dozens of participants, Lodge told brewers they were welcome to share their table if they wanted with some of those breweries waiting in the wings. She expects at least 10 to do so, creating both a growth in the number of breweries on the floor and the partnerships between those beer makers.
"I believe it's the true spirit of craft beer," she said.
And that's one more reason this festival can't be missed.
No change that Laura and Bill Lodge will make to the Big Beers, Belgians & Barleywines Festival will be bigger than last year's move of the event from Vail to Breckenridge after 17 years in its original home city. But that doesn't mean the resettled festival will stop trying to find new ways to entertain its crowds during its second year in its new home.
With one of Colorado's best celebrations of yeast and hops just two days away (the first events begin on Jan. 4, while the commercial tasting is set for Jan. 6), it's worth taking a look at what will be different about the festival this year. And it's worth reiterating that if this all sounds good, tickets for the main event remain available.
1) The Falling Rock Lounge
One of the biggest aspects that was missing from the event last year was the central gathering spot, a role that the Fireside Lounge in the old Vail Cascade Resort filled for years. Festival organizers, in conjunction with Denver's oldest beer bar, are changing that in 2018.
The "Pop-Up Falling Rock" will be a temporary bar with a Chris Black-curated beer list that will occupy the open space near the arcade and the hot tubs on the second floor of the host Beaver Run Resort & Conference Center. Hotel officials will pile soft furniture in that space and signs around the resort will direct people there, making it likely this will be the spot to relax when seminars and the main tasting are not in progress.
2) Bigger Seminars
Last year, afternoon seminars were held in adjoining spaces that held just 35 people each, leaving some people unable even to sniff topics like how to brew with exotic fruit and vegetables.
This year, the Lodges will combine those two rooms into one seminar area and double the space, while moving some of the other talks to the Base 9 Bar on the bottom floor. There will be four seminars at 12:05 p.m. and another four at 1:15 p.m. And one of the defining characteristics of the event - being able to learn more about beer throughout the day in talks that feature a fair amount of tasting as well - will be open to more attendees.
3) A Wider Range of Seminars
Saturday morning's schedule begins at 9:30 a.m. with a talk on the timely and controversial topic of New England IPAs from a panel that includes Colorado's best makers of the style, including Neil Fisher of Weldwerks and Lee Cleghorn of Outer Range Brewing. But while that's sure to attract beer geeks by the kettle-ful, Laura Lodge promises other choices that will welcome people of all interests.
If you want to learn to pair beer with spicy foods, there's a seminar for that. If you want to enjoy a beer while doing yoga on Saturday morning, there's an opportunity for that. And if you really want to work with random strangers to try to pair four beers and four foods, there's a different break-out session that features that too.
"I think sometimes people think Big Beers is for people who are just in the industry or super-savvy," she said. "I think the novice can learn as well."
4) An App for Festival Planning
Festival organizers are working with Digital Pout, which has created an app to help people find where breweries are on the floor plan, what they're pouring - and when a beer runs out. Thus, if you're one of those folks who wants to spend much of your 3-1/2-hour tasting looking for rare and aged beers, you can map out beforehand where they are and know when you should redirect your adventures in mid-festival.
5) A New Entry for Attendees
One of the bugs of the first year at Beaver Run was the bottleneck of VIP and regular-ticket attendees backed up at the same entrance point on the third floor, leading to a slowdown getting in and to complaints from brewers on the first floor that it took a long time for many attendees to find them. This year, the early crowd will go in at 2 on the first floor and the later crowd goes in at 2:30 on the third floor, leading to less congestion and more spreading of entrants across the tasting space.
6) New Breweries ...
Laura Lodge recalls getting a call from experimental brewer Cellarmaker Brewing of San Francisco last year asking if they could come and pour their beer at the 2018 festival. Within 15 minutes, she got a follow-up call The Rare Barrel, an equally sought-after Berkeley brewery, inquiring whether it too could come and pour.
"We're starting to see some really cool, innovative folks who may not have experienced Big Beers before but want to be here now," she said. Expect this trend to continue and grow.
7) ... And More Breweries
After opening the festival to 140 breweries last year, Big Beers will welcome around 150 this year. The increase isn't terribly impressive, but the way that number is growing is.
With a waiting list of dozens of participants, Lodge told brewers they were welcome to share their table if they wanted with some of those breweries waiting in the wings. She expects at least 10 to do so, creating both a growth in the number of breweries on the floor and the partnerships between those beer makers.
"I believe it's the true spirit of craft beer," she said.
And that's one more reason this festival can't be missed.
Labels: Big Beers, Breckenridge, Cellarmaker Brewing, Falling Rock Taphouse, Festivals, Laura Lodge, Outer Range Brewing, The Rare Barrel, Weldwerks Brewing
Thursday, December 21, 2017
It's Time to Get Ready for Big Beers
Staring at the calendar, you realize that the big day is now only two weeks away.
That's right: Big Beers, Belgians and Barleywines Festival begins on Jan. 4.
While some of you may have visions of sugar plums dancing through your heads, Laura Lodge has visions of rum-barrel-aged sugar plum saisons being poured in neat lines over two floors of Beaver Run Resort in Breckenridge on Jan. 6 at a tasting that caps three days of festivities. And, unlike last year, when she was heading into a new town for the festival for the first time in 17 years, she knows this year what to expect from that town - and is really excited about the opportunities it presents to enhance what is already one of America's greatest beer festivals.
"Last year I spent a good portion of my summer and fall in Breckenridge trying to figure out what businesses wanted to be a part of Big Beers and learning how we would fit in," said Lodge, who runs the festival with her brother, Bill, in addition to running her company that works with hotels and resorts to establish craft-beer programs. "This year I already know who some of the key players are, so I am starting to meet some of the people behind the scenes."
Big Beers is an event worth getting ready for weeks early, even with two major holidays standing before it on the calendar, because it is such a unique gathering of brewers. Some 150 beer makers and international beer distributors will be pouring beers that are 7 percent ABV or above (plus a fewer lighter Belgian styles) and typically foisting onto you some of their rarest offerings aged in barrels right alongside their more common double IPAs and imperial stouts.It all will be done in an intimate setting where the person who came up with the crazy idea for the beer in your hand is the one explaining it to you as it cascades into your glass.
And this regal tasting happens only after a day of seminars that begin before 10 a.m., offering those wanting to dive into the art of brewing, blending and barrel-aging beer a chance to get unusually academic - while sipping on a barleywine around the same time that others are eating Cheerios.
From 2000 through 2016, the Big Beers festival made its home in Vail, an impressively scenic and special town but one without much of a grounding in the craft-beer movement that's swept over Colorado. Lodge moved the event because the former host hotel was in the midst of an extensive renovation, and what she found was a replacement home that added more local touches and more character to the festival.
Now, instead of attendees just having the option to get tickets to the three beer-pairing dinners that occur on the Thursday and Friday nights prior to the big tasting, they can hit up tappings, beer/food pairings and brewery-sponsored concerts around the village. It's become more like a miniature Great American Beer Festival, except for the mind-blowing fact that Big Beers often doesn't sell out of tickets (and still hasn't for this year).
There are changes coming to this year's festival because of things that Lodge learned at the 2017 event, and I will detail some of those as the event gets closer. But the biggest difference as the clock winds down on preparations for Big Beers 2018 is that the sense of transience that surrounded the event at this time last year has morphed into a sense of permanence and a feeling that now, more than ever, it's really home.
"I think what we're seeing here is a shift based on the community the event is held in," Lodge said recently. "I think we're seeing Breckenridge shine because they have a more developed beer culture."
Staring at the calendar, you realize that the big day is now only two weeks away.
That's right: Big Beers, Belgians and Barleywines Festival begins on Jan. 4.
While some of you may have visions of sugar plums dancing through your heads, Laura Lodge has visions of rum-barrel-aged sugar plum saisons being poured in neat lines over two floors of Beaver Run Resort in Breckenridge on Jan. 6 at a tasting that caps three days of festivities. And, unlike last year, when she was heading into a new town for the festival for the first time in 17 years, she knows this year what to expect from that town - and is really excited about the opportunities it presents to enhance what is already one of America's greatest beer festivals.
"Last year I spent a good portion of my summer and fall in Breckenridge trying to figure out what businesses wanted to be a part of Big Beers and learning how we would fit in," said Lodge, who runs the festival with her brother, Bill, in addition to running her company that works with hotels and resorts to establish craft-beer programs. "This year I already know who some of the key players are, so I am starting to meet some of the people behind the scenes."
Big Beers is an event worth getting ready for weeks early, even with two major holidays standing before it on the calendar, because it is such a unique gathering of brewers. Some 150 beer makers and international beer distributors will be pouring beers that are 7 percent ABV or above (plus a fewer lighter Belgian styles) and typically foisting onto you some of their rarest offerings aged in barrels right alongside their more common double IPAs and imperial stouts.It all will be done in an intimate setting where the person who came up with the crazy idea for the beer in your hand is the one explaining it to you as it cascades into your glass.
And this regal tasting happens only after a day of seminars that begin before 10 a.m., offering those wanting to dive into the art of brewing, blending and barrel-aging beer a chance to get unusually academic - while sipping on a barleywine around the same time that others are eating Cheerios.
From 2000 through 2016, the Big Beers festival made its home in Vail, an impressively scenic and special town but one without much of a grounding in the craft-beer movement that's swept over Colorado. Lodge moved the event because the former host hotel was in the midst of an extensive renovation, and what she found was a replacement home that added more local touches and more character to the festival.
Now, instead of attendees just having the option to get tickets to the three beer-pairing dinners that occur on the Thursday and Friday nights prior to the big tasting, they can hit up tappings, beer/food pairings and brewery-sponsored concerts around the village. It's become more like a miniature Great American Beer Festival, except for the mind-blowing fact that Big Beers often doesn't sell out of tickets (and still hasn't for this year).
There are changes coming to this year's festival because of things that Lodge learned at the 2017 event, and I will detail some of those as the event gets closer. But the biggest difference as the clock winds down on preparations for Big Beers 2018 is that the sense of transience that surrounded the event at this time last year has morphed into a sense of permanence and a feeling that now, more than ever, it's really home.
"I think what we're seeing here is a shift based on the community the event is held in," Lodge said recently. "I think we're seeing Breckenridge shine because they have a more developed beer culture."
Labels: Big Beers, Breckenridge, Festivals, Laura Lodge
Monday, January 09, 2017
4 Things I Learned at Big Beers, Belgians & Barleywines Festival 2017
Colorado's best themed beer festival found a new home in Breckenridge after 16 years in Vail and, frankly, found a new energy. There was vibrancy throughout beer bars in the town and vibrancy throughout the Beaver Run Resort, where most events were held. And brewers clearly tried to raise their games with the beer they were pouring — and, in many cases, succeeded.
Here, then, are four big thoughts about what took place over the past four days, both in regard to the beer and in regard to the good folks who were ensuring the beers were poured.
1) The new wave of imperial stouts will redefine the style.
It may sound obvious, but you can't drink Russian imperial stouts for three-plus hours without them beginning to taste a lot alike. That is why the growing number of brewers adding unique ingredients to these creations — ingredients that go beyond the coffee and chocolate that brewers like Epic already have pioneered so well — were the ones most often turning heads at Big Beers.
Station 26 Brewing stood at the head of the pack with its German Chocolate Bourbon Barrel Aged Dark Star Imperial Stout, which felt every bit like the desert it was named after and flowed so easily at 13 percent ABV that you didn't know whether to be enthralled or frightened. And very close to that creation in its palate-pleasing level was Weldwerks Brewing's Barrel Aged Mexican Achromatic, which bubbled over with cinnamon and vanilla and made Mexican coffee weep at what it could be with hops and barley added.
2) The barrel can make all the difference.
With more breweries trying more ways to age their beer in barrels, the possibilities are almost limitless at the flavor profiles that can come from the experiments. But not every decision to throw a beer into a barrel is a solid one — a truth that could be seen in the number of barrel-aged saisons from very good brewers that felt listless and undefined. (A major exception was the Old Order 6 bourbon-barrel-aged imperial black saison from Solemn Oath Brewing, whose malt backbone allowed the beer to stand up against the barrel).
But there were brilliant decisions with barrels too. Paradox Beer's Trois Ans Anniversary Ale, aged in Spanish Cedar barrels, gave off a wonderful blend of tart and smoky-wood complexity and made you stop to think about what you were tasting. Similarly, the choice by Grimm Brothers Brewhouse to age its Magic Mirror imperial koltbusser in oak barrels turned an adequate malt monster into a tart and challenging beer that showed off its honey and molasses in new and vibrant ways.
3) More chai beers and imperial IPAs are needed.
Two years ago, tiny Altitude Chophouse had maybe the beer of the festival with a chai-infused dunkelweizen, making one ask why more breweries don't use this palate-enlivening ingredient. This year, New Holland Brewing absolutely startled with its Dragon's Milk Reserve Vanilla Chai, which was a full-throttled expression of how bold flavors can make big beers seem like pleasant tea.
But while chai beers remain maybe unsurprisingly rare, it was a little shocking to see the lack of barrel-aged IPA and double IPA beers on display when the style combines the two most popular craft-brewing trends of the past 10 years. And one sip of Steamworks Brewing's 50/50 Barrel Aged Imperial IPA, with its huge whiskey mouthfeel almost perfectly balanced by its big hops, showed why this is a trend that needs to pick up.
4) One never needs to leave the resort to really enjoy Big Beers now.
A primary advantage in moving to Breckenridge was to plop the festival in the midst of a town that could support it with days of special tappings and beer/food pairings around the main event. And while reports where that the gatherings at places like Aprés Handcrafted Libations were phenomenal, you didn't have to step foot into the negative-11-degree weather to truly enjoy the event.
Late-night activities at Beaver Run featured welcoming collections of brewers and beer lovers alike, particularly the Friday night beer-cigar pairing that let drinkers try to combine smoking and drinking if they wanted - or just wander around and sample some of the best beer in the nation, often while talking to the man or woman who made it (without any pouring lines).
The seminars have ramped up throughout the morning and early-afternoon of the main tasting, providing attendees with more knowledge than you could ever want about the brewing process (more to come on that in a later blog about experimental malts). And the resort bar became a place to go by yourself, knowing you'd run into industry friends.
Laura and Bill Lodge exceeded expectations this year. And the festival keeps getting better.
Colorado's best themed beer festival found a new home in Breckenridge after 16 years in Vail and, frankly, found a new energy. There was vibrancy throughout beer bars in the town and vibrancy throughout the Beaver Run Resort, where most events were held. And brewers clearly tried to raise their games with the beer they were pouring — and, in many cases, succeeded.
Here, then, are four big thoughts about what took place over the past four days, both in regard to the beer and in regard to the good folks who were ensuring the beers were poured.
1) The new wave of imperial stouts will redefine the style.
It may sound obvious, but you can't drink Russian imperial stouts for three-plus hours without them beginning to taste a lot alike. That is why the growing number of brewers adding unique ingredients to these creations — ingredients that go beyond the coffee and chocolate that brewers like Epic already have pioneered so well — were the ones most often turning heads at Big Beers.Station 26 Brewing stood at the head of the pack with its German Chocolate Bourbon Barrel Aged Dark Star Imperial Stout, which felt every bit like the desert it was named after and flowed so easily at 13 percent ABV that you didn't know whether to be enthralled or frightened. And very close to that creation in its palate-pleasing level was Weldwerks Brewing's Barrel Aged Mexican Achromatic, which bubbled over with cinnamon and vanilla and made Mexican coffee weep at what it could be with hops and barley added.
2) The barrel can make all the difference.
With more breweries trying more ways to age their beer in barrels, the possibilities are almost limitless at the flavor profiles that can come from the experiments. But not every decision to throw a beer into a barrel is a solid one — a truth that could be seen in the number of barrel-aged saisons from very good brewers that felt listless and undefined. (A major exception was the Old Order 6 bourbon-barrel-aged imperial black saison from Solemn Oath Brewing, whose malt backbone allowed the beer to stand up against the barrel).
But there were brilliant decisions with barrels too. Paradox Beer's Trois Ans Anniversary Ale, aged in Spanish Cedar barrels, gave off a wonderful blend of tart and smoky-wood complexity and made you stop to think about what you were tasting. Similarly, the choice by Grimm Brothers Brewhouse to age its Magic Mirror imperial koltbusser in oak barrels turned an adequate malt monster into a tart and challenging beer that showed off its honey and molasses in new and vibrant ways.
3) More chai beers and imperial IPAs are needed.
Two years ago, tiny Altitude Chophouse had maybe the beer of the festival with a chai-infused dunkelweizen, making one ask why more breweries don't use this palate-enlivening ingredient. This year, New Holland Brewing absolutely startled with its Dragon's Milk Reserve Vanilla Chai, which was a full-throttled expression of how bold flavors can make big beers seem like pleasant tea.
But while chai beers remain maybe unsurprisingly rare, it was a little shocking to see the lack of barrel-aged IPA and double IPA beers on display when the style combines the two most popular craft-brewing trends of the past 10 years. And one sip of Steamworks Brewing's 50/50 Barrel Aged Imperial IPA, with its huge whiskey mouthfeel almost perfectly balanced by its big hops, showed why this is a trend that needs to pick up.
4) One never needs to leave the resort to really enjoy Big Beers now.
A primary advantage in moving to Breckenridge was to plop the festival in the midst of a town that could support it with days of special tappings and beer/food pairings around the main event. And while reports where that the gatherings at places like Aprés Handcrafted Libations were phenomenal, you didn't have to step foot into the negative-11-degree weather to truly enjoy the event.
Late-night activities at Beaver Run featured welcoming collections of brewers and beer lovers alike, particularly the Friday night beer-cigar pairing that let drinkers try to combine smoking and drinking if they wanted - or just wander around and sample some of the best beer in the nation, often while talking to the man or woman who made it (without any pouring lines).
The seminars have ramped up throughout the morning and early-afternoon of the main tasting, providing attendees with more knowledge than you could ever want about the brewing process (more to come on that in a later blog about experimental malts). And the resort bar became a place to go by yourself, knowing you'd run into industry friends.
Laura and Bill Lodge exceeded expectations this year. And the festival keeps getting better.
Labels: Big Beers, Breckenridge, Grimm Brothers Brewhouse, Laura Lodge, New Holland Brewing, Paradox Brewing, Solemn Oath Brewery, Station 26 Brewing, Steamworks Brewing, Weldwerks Brewing
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Breckenridge Beer Festival 2009The 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.
The Good
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.
The Bad
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.
Labels: Breckenridge, Breckenridge Brewery, Festivals, Great Divide, Ska Brewing
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Breckenridge Beer Festival
So, did anyone else out there hit the Breckenridge Beer Festival this weekend? I did, and I have a couple of thoughts coming out of it.
*As far as outdoor summer beer festivals go, the atmosphere was more pleasant than Ft. Collins but not quite up to Salida standards. The crowd was a little smaller, slightly classier and less chaotic than the Ft. Collins event, and the lines never grew more than four or five people long. The town-square setting was pleasant, but without the shades offered by the trees in Salida's downtown park, it also got a little hotter.
*Once again, festival organizers and brewers underestimated the desire for some of their beers. This didn't touch the one-hour-in-and-you're-running-low tendency of the best brews at the Arapahoe Basin festival, but I was a little disappointed that I couldn't still get an Odell IPA more than an hour before the end of the show, especially since I was wearing an Odell IPA shirt. Some popular booths, like Alaskan Brewing, packed up way too early. Other good ones, like Pug Ryan's stayed throughout the show. Which brings me to my next point . . . .
*Dillon's Pug Ryan's is quietly becoming one of the unsung stars of the Colorado beer scene. It stole the show at the Arapahoe Basin festival in May with its new helles bock, and few beers seemed to get the compliments in Breckenridge that its Breakfast Porter pulled in. I decided after starting the day with the coffee-heavy porter that every beer festival should begin with a similar wake-up-the-taste-buds drink.
*Nobody does festivals better than Boston Beer Company. Most breweries bring a few staples, maybe a new arrival and they roll out some schwag and free samples. The makers of Sam Adams come prepared to make you think. I noticed this at the Vail big beers festival in January and again this weekend. Rather than just give you a beer, they wanted attendees to vote on whether their next roll-out would be a Blackberry Witbier or a Coffee Stout. It's a great way to make you care more about the company and to give you a reason to go to a festival rather than to just go down to the corner liquor store. The winner for me, by the way, was easy: the coffee stout was surprisingly light but filling in its fine taste; the witbier was too sweet and pungent.
*Overall, as a first-time attendee, I have to say I enjoyed the festival. Almost every major Colorado brewer was there, and the atmosphere was a pleasant, easy one. You can never go wrong visiting one of Colorado's most laid-back ski towns, and the offering of 22 beers there is just one more reason to head to the mountains.
So, did anyone else out there hit the Breckenridge Beer Festival this weekend? I did, and I have a couple of thoughts coming out of it.
*As far as outdoor summer beer festivals go, the atmosphere was more pleasant than Ft. Collins but not quite up to Salida standards. The crowd was a little smaller, slightly classier and less chaotic than the Ft. Collins event, and the lines never grew more than four or five people long. The town-square setting was pleasant, but without the shades offered by the trees in Salida's downtown park, it also got a little hotter.
*Once again, festival organizers and brewers underestimated the desire for some of their beers. This didn't touch the one-hour-in-and-you're-running-low tendency of the best brews at the Arapahoe Basin festival, but I was a little disappointed that I couldn't still get an Odell IPA more than an hour before the end of the show, especially since I was wearing an Odell IPA shirt. Some popular booths, like Alaskan Brewing, packed up way too early. Other good ones, like Pug Ryan's stayed throughout the show. Which brings me to my next point . . . .
*Dillon's Pug Ryan's is quietly becoming one of the unsung stars of the Colorado beer scene. It stole the show at the Arapahoe Basin festival in May with its new helles bock, and few beers seemed to get the compliments in Breckenridge that its Breakfast Porter pulled in. I decided after starting the day with the coffee-heavy porter that every beer festival should begin with a similar wake-up-the-taste-buds drink.
*Nobody does festivals better than Boston Beer Company. Most breweries bring a few staples, maybe a new arrival and they roll out some schwag and free samples. The makers of Sam Adams come prepared to make you think. I noticed this at the Vail big beers festival in January and again this weekend. Rather than just give you a beer, they wanted attendees to vote on whether their next roll-out would be a Blackberry Witbier or a Coffee Stout. It's a great way to make you care more about the company and to give you a reason to go to a festival rather than to just go down to the corner liquor store. The winner for me, by the way, was easy: the coffee stout was surprisingly light but filling in its fine taste; the witbier was too sweet and pungent.
*Overall, as a first-time attendee, I have to say I enjoyed the festival. Almost every major Colorado brewer was there, and the atmosphere was a pleasant, easy one. You can never go wrong visiting one of Colorado's most laid-back ski towns, and the offering of 22 beers there is just one more reason to head to the mountains.
Labels: Breckenridge, Festivals, Pug Ryan's, Sam Adams
