Thursday, March 21, 2019
6 Beers that Stood out at Collaboration Beer Fest
It used to be that Big Beers, Belgians and Barleywines was the one festival after which you took out your notes the next day to revive your memory of what you had because there was so much good stuff on the floor that you inadvertently got drunk. Well, certainly after this year - if not before - Collaboration Beer Fest has moved into that category.
From daring ingredients to hopped-up gems to a surprisingly deep and wide variety of smooth dark beers, there was beauty as far as the tongue could taste at the Colorado Brewers Guild/Two Parts festival once again this year. And if there was something different from past years it was this: The beers everyone seemed to be talking about days afterward weren't the ridiculous 13 percent pastry stouts so much as a perfectly made Baltic porter or expertly crafted double IPA or even a California common. Yes, a steam beer got people talking at a beer festival.
With a few days worth of hindsight, then, here are the creations that people likely will be begging for months down the road:
1) Dueces Wild/Brass Brewing Cerberus Brewing Imperial IPL
Everyone was thoroughly ready for the Cerebral/Weldwerks New England-style double IPA, which packed in the expected pineapple rush with appropriate bitterness. But this gem from three Colorado Springs breweries actually seemed more impressive - a bright, hazy, juicy and highly Polynesian-style hop bomb that drank as easy as an India pale lager but with more mouth-filling flavor than ever has been associated with that style.
2) Station 26/Brink Brewing Imperial Milk Stout
The body was creamy and yet wonderfully dark, without any telltale sign of the high alcohol within it. But it was the cinnamon and chocolate adjuncts in here that absolutely lit up the mouth and made fantastic use of the already impressive base beer.
3) Ska Brewing/Call to Arms Baltic Porter
Yes, this is a style that appears to be on the rise again, and it's because of creations like this that imbue it with a deep roast atop an easy-drinking body. Nothing fancy here, just a lot of taste, done by two expert breweries.
4) Living the Dream/Angry James Brewing Imperial Coffee Brown
Silverthorne's Angry James deserves more attention as one of the finest coffee-beer makers in Colorado. This was a flat-out dark-roast, fill-your-mouth-and-make-you-want-to-swirl-it-more-for-fear-of-losing-the-flavor pleaser - simple yet absurdly tasty.
5) Comrade Brewing/Epic Brewing Dry-Hopped California Common
Maybe you should have figured that if anyone could have found a way to add hops to a very subtle style of beer and make it really, really interesting, it would have been the geniuses behind Superpower IPA and some of the best hazy beers made in Colorado. But truly, this flavor was complex and maybe even a little bit funky in the way the hops seemed to rest tantalizingly on top of the base beer, making for one of the most surprising finds of the day.
6) Jagged Mountain/105 West Rum-Barrel-Aged Imperial Ice Cream Old Ale
Of all the potentially gimmick beers in the show, this was the one that seemed to really capture a unique flavor that you would want to try again, even if maybe not by the six-pack. Enormous cherry from the chocolate-cherry Little Man Ice Cream that was thrown into the boil gave this a sweet but not cloying overtone, and the boozy old ale quality reminded you un-subtly that this was beer, not some kind of milkshake treat.
It used to be that Big Beers, Belgians and Barleywines was the one festival after which you took out your notes the next day to revive your memory of what you had because there was so much good stuff on the floor that you inadvertently got drunk. Well, certainly after this year - if not before - Collaboration Beer Fest has moved into that category.
From daring ingredients to hopped-up gems to a surprisingly deep and wide variety of smooth dark beers, there was beauty as far as the tongue could taste at the Colorado Brewers Guild/Two Parts festival once again this year. And if there was something different from past years it was this: The beers everyone seemed to be talking about days afterward weren't the ridiculous 13 percent pastry stouts so much as a perfectly made Baltic porter or expertly crafted double IPA or even a California common. Yes, a steam beer got people talking at a beer festival.
With a few days worth of hindsight, then, here are the creations that people likely will be begging for months down the road:
1) Dueces Wild/Brass Brewing Cerberus Brewing Imperial IPL
Everyone was thoroughly ready for the Cerebral/Weldwerks New England-style double IPA, which packed in the expected pineapple rush with appropriate bitterness. But this gem from three Colorado Springs breweries actually seemed more impressive - a bright, hazy, juicy and highly Polynesian-style hop bomb that drank as easy as an India pale lager but with more mouth-filling flavor than ever has been associated with that style.
2) Station 26/Brink Brewing Imperial Milk Stout
The body was creamy and yet wonderfully dark, without any telltale sign of the high alcohol within it. But it was the cinnamon and chocolate adjuncts in here that absolutely lit up the mouth and made fantastic use of the already impressive base beer.
3) Ska Brewing/Call to Arms Baltic Porter
Yes, this is a style that appears to be on the rise again, and it's because of creations like this that imbue it with a deep roast atop an easy-drinking body. Nothing fancy here, just a lot of taste, done by two expert breweries.
4) Living the Dream/Angry James Brewing Imperial Coffee Brown
Silverthorne's Angry James deserves more attention as one of the finest coffee-beer makers in Colorado. This was a flat-out dark-roast, fill-your-mouth-and-make-you-want-to-swirl-it-more-for-fear-of-losing-the-flavor pleaser - simple yet absurdly tasty.
5) Comrade Brewing/Epic Brewing Dry-Hopped California Common
Maybe you should have figured that if anyone could have found a way to add hops to a very subtle style of beer and make it really, really interesting, it would have been the geniuses behind Superpower IPA and some of the best hazy beers made in Colorado. But truly, this flavor was complex and maybe even a little bit funky in the way the hops seemed to rest tantalizingly on top of the base beer, making for one of the most surprising finds of the day.
6) Jagged Mountain/105 West Rum-Barrel-Aged Imperial Ice Cream Old Ale
Of all the potentially gimmick beers in the show, this was the one that seemed to really capture a unique flavor that you would want to try again, even if maybe not by the six-pack. Enormous cherry from the chocolate-cherry Little Man Ice Cream that was thrown into the boil gave this a sweet but not cloying overtone, and the boozy old ale quality reminded you un-subtly that this was beer, not some kind of milkshake treat.
Labels: Angry James Brewing, Brink Brewing, Call to Arms Brewing, Cerberus Brewing, collaboration beers, Comrade Brewing, Dueces Wild Brewery, Epic Brewing, Living the Dream Brewing, Ska Brewing, Station 26 Brewing
Sunday, December 30, 2018
10 Best Colorado Beers of 2018
As Colorado's brewing scene got more crowded this year, beer makers responded by getting more experimental. There were more collaborations, more barrel-aged creations, more breweries such as Liberati Oenobeers and Dos Luces Brewery and Cerveceria Colorado that make nothing like anyone else in the state makes.
What it added up to was a thrilling melange of one-offs and new entries into the scene that continued to redefine both what is possible and what is going to set the pace in future years. And the best beers of this year showcased not just how far afield the flavors can be but how widespread the creativity is across this state.
And with that said ...
10) Liberati Osteria & Oenobeers In Medio Stat Virtus
The newly opened grape-beer maker is an experience that must be had with multiple beers to understand just how much the addition of Viongnier or Gewurtztraminer grapes can alter and add to the beer styles you think you know. But nothing on the menu prepared by Alex Liberati (pictured here) is as fully transformative as this Belgian golden ale made with 48 percent Chardonnay grapes, a work of art that showcases the best of its beer and wine properties and leaves you wanting to delve into oenobeers much further.
9) Weldwerks/Casey Brewing and Blending Transmountain Diversion
In a year that may be remembered most for the hazy IPA takeover of craft beer - spoiler alert, there are three on this top 10 list - two of Colorado's best breweries proved the style could be elevated when great minds worked together. This Citra- and Nelson Sauvin-hopped joyride, a double IPA introduced at Collaboration Fest, was replete with pineapple and mango tastes and aptly highlighted the style not as a twist on IPA but a bold new category of beer on its own.
8) WildEdge Brewing Collective Birthday Barrel
Colorado's greatest secret, hidden in Cortez, celebrated its first anniversary with a barrel-aged tart saison fermented with Palisade peaches that stunned at the same time it encapsulated the style of this experimental small-town beer maker. Bold and sharp, it demonstrated why beer lovers must get outside of Denver and Fort Collins every once in a while to see how deep the state's reserves are.
7) Cannonball Creek Brewing Mike and Sebastian's Excellent Adventure
Amazingly crisp while still being hop-defined, this kolsch/IPA hybrid was singularly refreshing and eye-opening. A collaboration with Pizza Port Carlsbad and Germany's Freigeist Bierkultur, this introduced a new style that is begging to be replicated - if anyone can do it as well as the new king of Golden breweries.
6) Call to Arms Brewing Majestic Wolf Lamp
Huge congratulations go to the northwest Denver brewery for taking two beers that didn't work on their own - a Belgian quad and a petite saison - and blending them together in an oak barrel with black currants until it became something combining tartness, raspberry and a jamminess. Back story aside, it was one of the most interesting and cutting sour beers of this year.
5) Epic Brewing Lupulin Burst
This earned the title of standard-bearer among Colorado's single hazy IPAs in 2018 with a straightforward assault of guava, mango and pineapple that gave this a juice-like feel. Those who don't understand why hazies are garnering such devotion need try this to understand how different they are from traditional IPAs and how much tropical flavor the right hopping can imbue in a beer.
4) Paradox Beer Co. Divide Ethos
Coolship beers are, by their nature, unpredictable, which made this early 2018 offering all the more mind-bending for how drinkable and how nuanced it could be without taking on harsh characteristics. Like a kicked-up saison, this creation from one of the Pikes Peak area's finest breweries pricked your tongue with its wild yeast but then rolled smoothly and excitingly over your taste buds to create a truly unique flavor.
3) Telluride Brewing Fishwater Project
This barrel-aged double IPA is not a new offering. But in a year in which breweries barrel-aged beer with a huge range of results and did things to IPAs (brut IPAs, horrible milkshake IPAs) that did nothing to pump up their flavor, Fishwater Project has never been more relevant than it is today. It toes the line between boozy whiskey characteristics and an underlying superbly crafted five-hop flavor explosion in a way that few hybrids can. It is as complex and worthwhile as any beer you will find in Colorado.
2) Spangalang Brewery Vanguard 3000
There is nothing natural about blending a bourbon-barrel-aged Belgian tripel with an imperial stout made with vanilla and cinnamon. And yet in the hands of Five Points' too-often-overlooked auteurs, this is a pitch-dark ride that bursts with varying flavors as you swirl it over your tongue - and one that goes down far too easily for the alcohol bomb it is. There was genius in its making.
1) River North Brewery Quadruple Dry-Hopped Mountain Haze
It sounded like a gimmick. But the addition of Mosaic, Simcoe and Idaho 7 hops to River North's Citra-dominated hazy IPA created a super-charged version of both the beer and the style, leaving it overflowing with crisp, tropical flavors, all of which carry a classical hop back bite. It was a fuller and more complete beer, without an exceptional bitterness and booziness. And if you let it rest on your taste buds long enough, you could find new flavors in almost every tasting. Bravo.
As Colorado's brewing scene got more crowded this year, beer makers responded by getting more experimental. There were more collaborations, more barrel-aged creations, more breweries such as Liberati Oenobeers and Dos Luces Brewery and Cerveceria Colorado that make nothing like anyone else in the state makes.
What it added up to was a thrilling melange of one-offs and new entries into the scene that continued to redefine both what is possible and what is going to set the pace in future years. And the best beers of this year showcased not just how far afield the flavors can be but how widespread the creativity is across this state.
And with that said ...
10) Liberati Osteria & Oenobeers In Medio Stat Virtus
The newly opened grape-beer maker is an experience that must be had with multiple beers to understand just how much the addition of Viongnier or Gewurtztraminer grapes can alter and add to the beer styles you think you know. But nothing on the menu prepared by Alex Liberati (pictured here) is as fully transformative as this Belgian golden ale made with 48 percent Chardonnay grapes, a work of art that showcases the best of its beer and wine properties and leaves you wanting to delve into oenobeers much further.
9) Weldwerks/Casey Brewing and Blending Transmountain Diversion
In a year that may be remembered most for the hazy IPA takeover of craft beer - spoiler alert, there are three on this top 10 list - two of Colorado's best breweries proved the style could be elevated when great minds worked together. This Citra- and Nelson Sauvin-hopped joyride, a double IPA introduced at Collaboration Fest, was replete with pineapple and mango tastes and aptly highlighted the style not as a twist on IPA but a bold new category of beer on its own.
8) WildEdge Brewing Collective Birthday Barrel
Colorado's greatest secret, hidden in Cortez, celebrated its first anniversary with a barrel-aged tart saison fermented with Palisade peaches that stunned at the same time it encapsulated the style of this experimental small-town beer maker. Bold and sharp, it demonstrated why beer lovers must get outside of Denver and Fort Collins every once in a while to see how deep the state's reserves are.
7) Cannonball Creek Brewing Mike and Sebastian's Excellent Adventure
Amazingly crisp while still being hop-defined, this kolsch/IPA hybrid was singularly refreshing and eye-opening. A collaboration with Pizza Port Carlsbad and Germany's Freigeist Bierkultur, this introduced a new style that is begging to be replicated - if anyone can do it as well as the new king of Golden breweries.
6) Call to Arms Brewing Majestic Wolf Lamp
Huge congratulations go to the northwest Denver brewery for taking two beers that didn't work on their own - a Belgian quad and a petite saison - and blending them together in an oak barrel with black currants until it became something combining tartness, raspberry and a jamminess. Back story aside, it was one of the most interesting and cutting sour beers of this year.
5) Epic Brewing Lupulin Burst
This earned the title of standard-bearer among Colorado's single hazy IPAs in 2018 with a straightforward assault of guava, mango and pineapple that gave this a juice-like feel. Those who don't understand why hazies are garnering such devotion need try this to understand how different they are from traditional IPAs and how much tropical flavor the right hopping can imbue in a beer.
4) Paradox Beer Co. Divide Ethos
Coolship beers are, by their nature, unpredictable, which made this early 2018 offering all the more mind-bending for how drinkable and how nuanced it could be without taking on harsh characteristics. Like a kicked-up saison, this creation from one of the Pikes Peak area's finest breweries pricked your tongue with its wild yeast but then rolled smoothly and excitingly over your taste buds to create a truly unique flavor.3) Telluride Brewing Fishwater Project
This barrel-aged double IPA is not a new offering. But in a year in which breweries barrel-aged beer with a huge range of results and did things to IPAs (brut IPAs, horrible milkshake IPAs) that did nothing to pump up their flavor, Fishwater Project has never been more relevant than it is today. It toes the line between boozy whiskey characteristics and an underlying superbly crafted five-hop flavor explosion in a way that few hybrids can. It is as complex and worthwhile as any beer you will find in Colorado.
2) Spangalang Brewery Vanguard 3000
There is nothing natural about blending a bourbon-barrel-aged Belgian tripel with an imperial stout made with vanilla and cinnamon. And yet in the hands of Five Points' too-often-overlooked auteurs, this is a pitch-dark ride that bursts with varying flavors as you swirl it over your tongue - and one that goes down far too easily for the alcohol bomb it is. There was genius in its making.
1) River North Brewery Quadruple Dry-Hopped Mountain Haze
It sounded like a gimmick. But the addition of Mosaic, Simcoe and Idaho 7 hops to River North's Citra-dominated hazy IPA created a super-charged version of both the beer and the style, leaving it overflowing with crisp, tropical flavors, all of which carry a classical hop back bite. It was a fuller and more complete beer, without an exceptional bitterness and booziness. And if you let it rest on your taste buds long enough, you could find new flavors in almost every tasting. Bravo.
Labels: Call to Arms Brewing, Cannonball Creek Brewing, Epic Brewing, Liberati Oenobeers, Paradox Brewing, River North Brewery, Spangalang Brewery, Telluride Brewing, Weldwerks Brewing, WildEdge Brewing Collective
Wednesday, June 13, 2018
Five Tastes of Colorado Summer for the Adventurous Beer Palate
Yes, summer is a time to sip kolsches and pilsners and Mexican lagers and appreciate just how refreshing and well-made a lighter beer can be. But that doesn't mean that skilled artisans can't concoct uniquely warmer-weather-worthy beverages that come with just as much complexity as any indulgence you'd stand in line for at the Great American Beer Festival.
With that, then, here are five beers on shelves this season - some recurring favorites, others new introductions to the Colorado craft-beer canon - that should be discovered before we need to start wearing sweatshirts again.
1) Ratio Beerworks New Wave
The Strawberry Berlinerweisse has progressed from a pleasant summer diversion to one of the best beers made in Colorado, period. It comes on with just enough of a tinge to let you know that the Denver brewery has perfected the art of sour mashing, but you are struck most by the seamless blending of big fruit and a body that draws out the berry's acidity without pounding it too much.
2) Funkwerks Raspberry Provincial
Not quite a sour, this juicy and slightly tart offering is the embodiment of a fruit beer that doesn't feel at all like a starter beer and that won't disappoint you if you are looking for a complex flavor in a simple body. The fact it's migrated from a summer seasonal to a year-round selection doesn't change the fact that it's best sipped by the pool (as the above picture of my son demonstrates).
3) Call to Arms Old Old Wooden Ship
If there is such a thing as a summer sour, this is it. Just tart enough to poke your taste buds, but not heavy enough to leave any burn on your palate, this port-barrel-aged sour saison is heavy with the flavor of stone fruit and is likely to appeal even to people who shy from sour beers. Bonus: The limited-edition beer goes on sale at the brewery on June 14 at 3 p.m.
4) Epic Oak and Orchard - Strawberry and Rhubarb
This Denver brewery's evolving line of barrel-aging beauties hits a particularly summer note with a quite-tart offering whose acidity is offset for the most part by a flavor that truly brings to mind the filling of a pie you share at a picnic table. If the first taste is aggressive, the nose is more one of juice, and the sour ale settles down, evoking pre-alcohol memories even as it dazzles your taste buds.
5) Left Hand Peach Beerllini Radler
A new summer offering, this comes across more as a peach champagne drink at first, imbued heavily in the fruit flavor and possessing a bubbly but not over-carbonated body. But this isn't just a guilty pleasure drink; it's a tightly crafted burst of freshness with a surprising back bite of dryness. It may look hoity-toity in a flute glass, but you won't feel guilty enjoying it.
Yes, summer is a time to sip kolsches and pilsners and Mexican lagers and appreciate just how refreshing and well-made a lighter beer can be. But that doesn't mean that skilled artisans can't concoct uniquely warmer-weather-worthy beverages that come with just as much complexity as any indulgence you'd stand in line for at the Great American Beer Festival.
With that, then, here are five beers on shelves this season - some recurring favorites, others new introductions to the Colorado craft-beer canon - that should be discovered before we need to start wearing sweatshirts again.
1) Ratio Beerworks New Wave
The Strawberry Berlinerweisse has progressed from a pleasant summer diversion to one of the best beers made in Colorado, period. It comes on with just enough of a tinge to let you know that the Denver brewery has perfected the art of sour mashing, but you are struck most by the seamless blending of big fruit and a body that draws out the berry's acidity without pounding it too much.
2) Funkwerks Raspberry ProvincialNot quite a sour, this juicy and slightly tart offering is the embodiment of a fruit beer that doesn't feel at all like a starter beer and that won't disappoint you if you are looking for a complex flavor in a simple body. The fact it's migrated from a summer seasonal to a year-round selection doesn't change the fact that it's best sipped by the pool (as the above picture of my son demonstrates).
3) Call to Arms Old Old Wooden Ship
If there is such a thing as a summer sour, this is it. Just tart enough to poke your taste buds, but not heavy enough to leave any burn on your palate, this port-barrel-aged sour saison is heavy with the flavor of stone fruit and is likely to appeal even to people who shy from sour beers. Bonus: The limited-edition beer goes on sale at the brewery on June 14 at 3 p.m.
4) Epic Oak and Orchard - Strawberry and Rhubarb
This Denver brewery's evolving line of barrel-aging beauties hits a particularly summer note with a quite-tart offering whose acidity is offset for the most part by a flavor that truly brings to mind the filling of a pie you share at a picnic table. If the first taste is aggressive, the nose is more one of juice, and the sour ale settles down, evoking pre-alcohol memories even as it dazzles your taste buds.5) Left Hand Peach Beerllini Radler
A new summer offering, this comes across more as a peach champagne drink at first, imbued heavily in the fruit flavor and possessing a bubbly but not over-carbonated body. But this isn't just a guilty pleasure drink; it's a tightly crafted burst of freshness with a surprising back bite of dryness. It may look hoity-toity in a flute glass, but you won't feel guilty enjoying it.
Labels: Call to Arms Brewing, Epic Brewing, Funkwerks, Left Hand Brewing, Ratio Beerworks, sour ale, Summer beers
Thursday, February 01, 2018
Welcome to Stout Month
Back in 1994, when American breweries numbered only in the low hundreds, Paul Nashak had an idea that he thought might bring a few more people into his then-five-month-old Mountain Sun Pub during a slow time. He would load up his taps with stouts in February, call it Stout Month and maybe give folks a little extra reason to stop by.
Stout Month is no longer an idea. It's a full-blown movement that extends beyond the walls of Nashak's current five pubs and into breweries across Colorado that are setting aside more space in February for dark beers of their own creation. Many of those breweries are sending beers to be put on at Mountain Sun pubs. A few are even making beers that will be available only at Mountain Sun's locations this month.
Nashak, managing partner of the brewery, now gives talks on Stout Month. He lines up a wider variety of beers than he once imagined possible. He goes into the pub some days with a certain beer on tap and leaves only when that tap is on its third different creation of the day.
And he loves that everyone wants a piece of that one-time weird idea.
"I think when people started coming into Mountain Sun in the darkest, coldest, slowest month of the year and seeing that we had lines at 2:30 p.m., they realized we'd tapped into something," he said.
The list of Mountain Sun stouts that will be on tap at its properties from Boulder to Denver this month is 31 recipes long. Thirty-six beers from other breweries - including out-of-state craft brewers like Modern Times Brewing that are being added to the list of Colorado offerings for the first time in about eight years - will supplement that haul.
Mountain Sun has standard stouts and dry Irish stouts and cream stouts. But it's also concocted a Girl Scout cookie stout, a Norwegian wheat stout and a brand new cherry chile stout. There are five imperial stouts and three barrel-aged stouts waiting too, including the bourbon-barrel-aged Chocolate Thunder Imperial Milk Stout that was one of the standouts of the Great American Beer Festival.
Nearly as exciting, though, is the list of guest stouts that will be on tap.There are multiple s'mores stouts, a maple donut Russian imperial stout and a Turkish coffee stout. TRVE has three stouts that will be pouring at Mountain Sun.
Chris Bell, co-owner of Call to Arms Brewing, admitted that he rarely makes stouts. But, wanting to be a part of Stout Month madness, the Denver brewery this year created Body By Beer Milk Stout, Buzzy Body Coffee Milk Stout (which is a phenomenal blend of sweet smoothness with a kick of highly flavored roast) and Dust in the Wind Dry Irish Stout. The latter will be on at Mountain Sun.
Even though Mountain Sun will host the largest Stout Month celebration, other breweries will host their own celebrations of the style too. Resolute Brewing in Centennial, for example, will roll out six beers across the course of the month, including a chocolate orange stout and a rum raisin imperial stout. Black Sky Brewery will have a few of its own, including a blackberry stout and a chocolate mint pistachio stout.
The point is this: Stout Month began almost as a lark. And now it's an obsession. And we are the ones who get to benefit from Paul Nashak's rather brilliant idea.
Back in 1994, when American breweries numbered only in the low hundreds, Paul Nashak had an idea that he thought might bring a few more people into his then-five-month-old Mountain Sun Pub during a slow time. He would load up his taps with stouts in February, call it Stout Month and maybe give folks a little extra reason to stop by.Stout Month is no longer an idea. It's a full-blown movement that extends beyond the walls of Nashak's current five pubs and into breweries across Colorado that are setting aside more space in February for dark beers of their own creation. Many of those breweries are sending beers to be put on at Mountain Sun pubs. A few are even making beers that will be available only at Mountain Sun's locations this month.
Nashak, managing partner of the brewery, now gives talks on Stout Month. He lines up a wider variety of beers than he once imagined possible. He goes into the pub some days with a certain beer on tap and leaves only when that tap is on its third different creation of the day.
And he loves that everyone wants a piece of that one-time weird idea.
"I think when people started coming into Mountain Sun in the darkest, coldest, slowest month of the year and seeing that we had lines at 2:30 p.m., they realized we'd tapped into something," he said.
The list of Mountain Sun stouts that will be on tap at its properties from Boulder to Denver this month is 31 recipes long. Thirty-six beers from other breweries - including out-of-state craft brewers like Modern Times Brewing that are being added to the list of Colorado offerings for the first time in about eight years - will supplement that haul.
Mountain Sun has standard stouts and dry Irish stouts and cream stouts. But it's also concocted a Girl Scout cookie stout, a Norwegian wheat stout and a brand new cherry chile stout. There are five imperial stouts and three barrel-aged stouts waiting too, including the bourbon-barrel-aged Chocolate Thunder Imperial Milk Stout that was one of the standouts of the Great American Beer Festival.
Nearly as exciting, though, is the list of guest stouts that will be on tap.There are multiple s'mores stouts, a maple donut Russian imperial stout and a Turkish coffee stout. TRVE has three stouts that will be pouring at Mountain Sun.
Chris Bell, co-owner of Call to Arms Brewing, admitted that he rarely makes stouts. But, wanting to be a part of Stout Month madness, the Denver brewery this year created Body By Beer Milk Stout, Buzzy Body Coffee Milk Stout (which is a phenomenal blend of sweet smoothness with a kick of highly flavored roast) and Dust in the Wind Dry Irish Stout. The latter will be on at Mountain Sun.
Even though Mountain Sun will host the largest Stout Month celebration, other breweries will host their own celebrations of the style too. Resolute Brewing in Centennial, for example, will roll out six beers across the course of the month, including a chocolate orange stout and a rum raisin imperial stout. Black Sky Brewery will have a few of its own, including a blackberry stout and a chocolate mint pistachio stout.The point is this: Stout Month began almost as a lark. And now it's an obsession. And we are the ones who get to benefit from Paul Nashak's rather brilliant idea.
Labels: Black Sky Brewery, Call to Arms Brewing, imperial stouts, Modern Times, Mountain Sun, Resolute Brewing, stouts, TRVE
Tuesday, January 30, 2018
"Happy Accidents" Producing Great Beers
As someone who has young children and hangs out with other parents of little kids, I've heard the term "happy accident" a lot in recent years. But never have I heard it used twice in the same week to describe beers, as I have since Friday.
And if the beers in question are examples of what these happy accidents are, let's hope a lot more brewers can start conceiving their offerings in this way.
The beers in question are Caution Brewing's Mazu Belgian Sour, which the Lakewood brewery happened upon late last year, and Call to Arms Brewing's Majestic Wolf Lamp, which the Denver brewery officially releases on Thursday. And both are worth seeking out in a purposeful way.
Majestic Wolf Lamp, as artfully described by Call to Arms brewer Chris Bell (pictured at top), is a blend of two aged beers that didn't make a particularly good impression on their own. One was a Belgian quad that had one barrel that just didn't sing and the other was a petite saison that wasn't bad but just wasn't resonating with anyone.
So, brewers took the two, put them together in a 60/40 quad/saison blend and let them sit for months on oak, throwing in black currants to ramp up the cutting taste. And they've created one of the more complex beers yet to come from the brewery that is known more for its spot-on renditions of a wide range of styles, leading to a mouthfeel that Bell described perfectly as "sour raspberry jam."
Bottling the creation from just two barrels, Call to Arms hopes to produce at least 125 375-ml bottles that go on sale for $12 a pop at the brewery beginning at 3 p.m. Thursday. And if you think, "Oh, I'll just wait until they brew this out another time," think again about a beer that is 13 winding months in the making.
"Now that we've done this, we'll never be able to recreate it," Bell admitted, who acknowledged that before the blending, brewers were considering dumping these two barrels that only came to life when being conjoined.
Mazu doesn't have as dramatic a back story or as short a life span, as it's been on tap since the fall and will continue to be available in the taproom in the near future. But the brewery staff likes to call the beer their little surprise, and owner Danny Wang explained at this month's Big Beers, Belgians and Barleywines Festival just what makes the beer so different.
Stuffed with the sorts of unusual ingredients that are the hallmark of Caution - in this case, orange peel, coriander and cardamom - Mazu is a Belgian-style golden ale aged in California red-wine barrels for 10 months. But while Brettanomyces and Saccharomyces have worked their magic on this beer, the souring aspect to it comes not from classic Lacto but from citric acid, giving this a smooth and sweet mouthfeel that presents a certain bite but not one that is harshly acidic.
"This is one of the most unusual beers you'll taste here," Wang said at the Beaver Run Resort in Breckenridge while surrounded by 140 other breweries trying to pitch that same story line. But in this case, he was right, and he's created another signature taste among a bevy of one-of-a-kind creations on his menu.
There are more such stories out there, but the two of these give perfect example to what is so great about the growing and diversifying craft-beer scene. When you make something that's not exactly what you originally planned, don't dump it down the drain. Give it time, and that happy little accident may end up standing taller than the recipes that you and others slaved for months to perfect.
As someone who has young children and hangs out with other parents of little kids, I've heard the term "happy accident" a lot in recent years. But never have I heard it used twice in the same week to describe beers, as I have since Friday.
And if the beers in question are examples of what these happy accidents are, let's hope a lot more brewers can start conceiving their offerings in this way.
The beers in question are Caution Brewing's Mazu Belgian Sour, which the Lakewood brewery happened upon late last year, and Call to Arms Brewing's Majestic Wolf Lamp, which the Denver brewery officially releases on Thursday. And both are worth seeking out in a purposeful way.
Majestic Wolf Lamp, as artfully described by Call to Arms brewer Chris Bell (pictured at top), is a blend of two aged beers that didn't make a particularly good impression on their own. One was a Belgian quad that had one barrel that just didn't sing and the other was a petite saison that wasn't bad but just wasn't resonating with anyone.
Bottling the creation from just two barrels, Call to Arms hopes to produce at least 125 375-ml bottles that go on sale for $12 a pop at the brewery beginning at 3 p.m. Thursday. And if you think, "Oh, I'll just wait until they brew this out another time," think again about a beer that is 13 winding months in the making.
"Now that we've done this, we'll never be able to recreate it," Bell admitted, who acknowledged that before the blending, brewers were considering dumping these two barrels that only came to life when being conjoined.
Mazu doesn't have as dramatic a back story or as short a life span, as it's been on tap since the fall and will continue to be available in the taproom in the near future. But the brewery staff likes to call the beer their little surprise, and owner Danny Wang explained at this month's Big Beers, Belgians and Barleywines Festival just what makes the beer so different.
Stuffed with the sorts of unusual ingredients that are the hallmark of Caution - in this case, orange peel, coriander and cardamom - Mazu is a Belgian-style golden ale aged in California red-wine barrels for 10 months. But while Brettanomyces and Saccharomyces have worked their magic on this beer, the souring aspect to it comes not from classic Lacto but from citric acid, giving this a smooth and sweet mouthfeel that presents a certain bite but not one that is harshly acidic.
"This is one of the most unusual beers you'll taste here," Wang said at the Beaver Run Resort in Breckenridge while surrounded by 140 other breweries trying to pitch that same story line. But in this case, he was right, and he's created another signature taste among a bevy of one-of-a-kind creations on his menu.
There are more such stories out there, but the two of these give perfect example to what is so great about the growing and diversifying craft-beer scene. When you make something that's not exactly what you originally planned, don't dump it down the drain. Give it time, and that happy little accident may end up standing taller than the recipes that you and others slaved for months to perfect.
Labels: accidental beers, Barrel aging, Call to Arms Brewing, Caution Brewing, sour Belgian
Saturday, January 23, 2016
Denver's Enhanced West Side
When talk of Denver's best beer neighborhoods comes up, River North, South Broadway and the beer-bar-laden downtown all jump to the forefront. But in recent months, some new arrivals are doing their best to make sure the city's west side is beginning to get its due.
It's not like the vast area west of Interstate 25 has been a craft-beer wasteland. Hops & Pie is one of the best beer bars in the city, offering a variety of hard-to-find taps. Hogshead Brewery serves spot-on English-style ales. And Diebolt Brewing, after a relatively slow start, is making some exceptional ales, particularly its fig-infused Algerian Biere de Garde.
But the introduction of two new breweries in particular to the scene in the past six months is beginning to raise the profile of the area, and deservedly so. And as such, it's worth paying a little more attention to Call to Arms Brewing and Little Machine Beer.
Call to Arms, the brainchild of three former Avery Brewing workers, opened in July with a full 14 taps and is getting accolades for its craftsmanship as well as its variety of beers. Located on the northern end of the increasingly hip Tennyson Street corridor, it's also very family-accessible, as Lincoln (pictured with coaster) was one of four kids there for early happy hour during a recent visit.
The vast selection of styles almost ensures that no one beer on Call to Arms' tap list stands out,
though the bold, dandelion-esque Son of a Beesting IPA that was on this fall stood above many others. But the surprisingly hoppy sessionable Clintonian Pale Ale, open-fermented Burkhalter dunkelweizen and Oats and Hose - an oatmeal porter with a hint of dark cherry - rank among the brewery's other standouts.
Even more impressive in many ways is Little Machine, which opened in October in the Jefferson Park neighborhood north of Sports Authority Field. It presents a more experimental vibe and has been able to score touchdowns with a few of its efforts.
Most exciting has been its Coffee Oatmeal Stout, a Nicaraguan-coffee-infused version of its solid Tractor Beam Oatmeal Stout that has both a big coffee flavor and an almost creamy undertone. Another more limited release, the Alternating Currant Kettle Sour, offered a hard-to-nail-down raspberry/blackberry feel in a way that did not overwhelm the taste buds.
Among its more regular beers, Little Machine's Colorado Stock Ale has a hop-forward taste for a pale ale that, at 5.3 percent ABV, could be sipped through the night. And its The Reason Saison, if not challenging to the palate, is malty and very drinkable.
Like in pretty much every neighborhood in Colorado, more breweries are sure to follow. But Denver's newcomers on the west side, following in the footsteps of a couple of their predecessors, are making the area worthy of a full-day tour.
When talk of Denver's best beer neighborhoods comes up, River North, South Broadway and the beer-bar-laden downtown all jump to the forefront. But in recent months, some new arrivals are doing their best to make sure the city's west side is beginning to get its due.
It's not like the vast area west of Interstate 25 has been a craft-beer wasteland. Hops & Pie is one of the best beer bars in the city, offering a variety of hard-to-find taps. Hogshead Brewery serves spot-on English-style ales. And Diebolt Brewing, after a relatively slow start, is making some exceptional ales, particularly its fig-infused Algerian Biere de Garde.
But the introduction of two new breweries in particular to the scene in the past six months is beginning to raise the profile of the area, and deservedly so. And as such, it's worth paying a little more attention to Call to Arms Brewing and Little Machine Beer.
Call to Arms, the brainchild of three former Avery Brewing workers, opened in July with a full 14 taps and is getting accolades for its craftsmanship as well as its variety of beers. Located on the northern end of the increasingly hip Tennyson Street corridor, it's also very family-accessible, as Lincoln (pictured with coaster) was one of four kids there for early happy hour during a recent visit.
The vast selection of styles almost ensures that no one beer on Call to Arms' tap list stands out,though the bold, dandelion-esque Son of a Beesting IPA that was on this fall stood above many others. But the surprisingly hoppy sessionable Clintonian Pale Ale, open-fermented Burkhalter dunkelweizen and Oats and Hose - an oatmeal porter with a hint of dark cherry - rank among the brewery's other standouts.
Even more impressive in many ways is Little Machine, which opened in October in the Jefferson Park neighborhood north of Sports Authority Field. It presents a more experimental vibe and has been able to score touchdowns with a few of its efforts.
Most exciting has been its Coffee Oatmeal Stout, a Nicaraguan-coffee-infused version of its solid Tractor Beam Oatmeal Stout that has both a big coffee flavor and an almost creamy undertone. Another more limited release, the Alternating Currant Kettle Sour, offered a hard-to-nail-down raspberry/blackberry feel in a way that did not overwhelm the taste buds.
Among its more regular beers, Little Machine's Colorado Stock Ale has a hop-forward taste for a pale ale that, at 5.3 percent ABV, could be sipped through the night. And its The Reason Saison, if not challenging to the palate, is malty and very drinkable.
Like in pretty much every neighborhood in Colorado, more breweries are sure to follow. But Denver's newcomers on the west side, following in the footsteps of a couple of their predecessors, are making the area worthy of a full-day tour.
Labels: Call to Arms Brewing, Coffee beer, Diebolt Brewing, Hogshead Brewery, Hops and Pie, IPA, Little Machine Beer, New Colorado breweries, West Side breweries
Sunday, August 02, 2015
4 Things I Learned from Sesh Fest 2015
The prematurely tapped kegs and long lines that marred last year's otherwise noble first-time celebration of lower-alcohol beers were gone at Saturday's sequel event, as were a couple of the experimental brewers who created both good and bad buzz for their vanishing beers.
But a number of other breweries stepped up their games and brought creations that many people at the sold-out event were discussing. In fact, it was interesting to talk to a people throughout the day and hear many of them recommending the same handful of hop artists over and over.
That said, here are some of the biggest takeaways from Sesh Fest 2015, as brought to the beer world by Imbibe and the Colorado Brewers Guild
1) Baere Brewing is Killing It
Had the year-old Denver brewery brought only its Raspberry Table Sour, it would be remembered for creating a perfectly pitched and tart offering that was the beer of the festival. But it also offered up several versions of its Baere-Liner Weisse - including a Cascade-dry-hopped offshoot that was very sharp and well-defined by its subtle but effective hops - that left you wanting to head straight from Sculpture Park to its tasting room to see what more it's doing.
2) Two New Kids are Very Worth Watching
Neither Spangalang Brewery nor Call to Arms Brewing were operational when the first day of Spring rolled around. By the time Fall kicks off, they are likely to be on everyone's minds - and their offerings at Sesh Fest showed why.
Spangalang served up a dry-hopped Brett saison alive with grape taste, as well as a Citra-dry-hopped lemon wheat beer that just popped on your taste buds. Meanwhile, Call to Arms showed off its Clintonian Pale Ale that may have been the only full-bodied hoppy beer on display Saturday (more on that trend in just a bit).
3) Low-ABV Sour Beers are Here to Stay ...
Last year, they were one of the trends of the festival, as brewers dabbled in naturally sessionable goses and Berliner weisses. This year, attendees saw even more classical Belgian- and American-style sours just made more lightly in booze, and everyone seemed to put them near the tops of their must-drink lists.
Odd 13 Brewing, for example, served a Vincent Van Couch American-style sour that weighed in only at 4.6% ABV but burst with lemon and melon flavors. And New Belgium offered a Hop Tart hopped-up sour that felt a little like a poor man's version of its bigger-bodied, bold La Terroir but still jumped out on this day. Beer lovers should probably expect more of these experiments.
4) ... But it's time to end the "Session IPA" fad
More and more breweries seem to be tapping their own offerings of this style. But it was clear at Sesh Fest that these watered-down versions of what normally are intriguingly-hopped beers were the least interesting iteration of the session movement.
The Brew on Broadway, for example, offered up what it called a dry-hopped blonde that was distinctly lacking in hops. And Sanitas Brewing, which normally serves head-turners, poured a "session pale ale" that was nothing more than a malt-heavy, hop-deficient amber ale trying to jump on the bandwagon.
American craft brewers have done incredible things with hops over the past decade that no other brewing culture has managed. Note all the ways they are bringing life to other styles above by dry-hopping them, for example.
Of anyone, then, they should be the first ones to recognize that beers relying on hops for their primary flavoring should not be half-assed and should be backed with an ample malt backbone that is going to drive up ABVs. And they should find other ways to bring creativity and taste to session beers, as some Colorado brewers are showing that they can.
The prematurely tapped kegs and long lines that marred last year's otherwise noble first-time celebration of lower-alcohol beers were gone at Saturday's sequel event, as were a couple of the experimental brewers who created both good and bad buzz for their vanishing beers.
But a number of other breweries stepped up their games and brought creations that many people at the sold-out event were discussing. In fact, it was interesting to talk to a people throughout the day and hear many of them recommending the same handful of hop artists over and over.
That said, here are some of the biggest takeaways from Sesh Fest 2015, as brought to the beer world by Imbibe and the Colorado Brewers Guild
1) Baere Brewing is Killing It
Had the year-old Denver brewery brought only its Raspberry Table Sour, it would be remembered for creating a perfectly pitched and tart offering that was the beer of the festival. But it also offered up several versions of its Baere-Liner Weisse - including a Cascade-dry-hopped offshoot that was very sharp and well-defined by its subtle but effective hops - that left you wanting to head straight from Sculpture Park to its tasting room to see what more it's doing.
2) Two New Kids are Very Worth Watching
Neither Spangalang Brewery nor Call to Arms Brewing were operational when the first day of Spring rolled around. By the time Fall kicks off, they are likely to be on everyone's minds - and their offerings at Sesh Fest showed why.
Spangalang served up a dry-hopped Brett saison alive with grape taste, as well as a Citra-dry-hopped lemon wheat beer that just popped on your taste buds. Meanwhile, Call to Arms showed off its Clintonian Pale Ale that may have been the only full-bodied hoppy beer on display Saturday (more on that trend in just a bit).
3) Low-ABV Sour Beers are Here to Stay ...
Last year, they were one of the trends of the festival, as brewers dabbled in naturally sessionable goses and Berliner weisses. This year, attendees saw even more classical Belgian- and American-style sours just made more lightly in booze, and everyone seemed to put them near the tops of their must-drink lists.
Odd 13 Brewing, for example, served a Vincent Van Couch American-style sour that weighed in only at 4.6% ABV but burst with lemon and melon flavors. And New Belgium offered a Hop Tart hopped-up sour that felt a little like a poor man's version of its bigger-bodied, bold La Terroir but still jumped out on this day. Beer lovers should probably expect more of these experiments.
4) ... But it's time to end the "Session IPA" fad
More and more breweries seem to be tapping their own offerings of this style. But it was clear at Sesh Fest that these watered-down versions of what normally are intriguingly-hopped beers were the least interesting iteration of the session movement.
The Brew on Broadway, for example, offered up what it called a dry-hopped blonde that was distinctly lacking in hops. And Sanitas Brewing, which normally serves head-turners, poured a "session pale ale" that was nothing more than a malt-heavy, hop-deficient amber ale trying to jump on the bandwagon.
American craft brewers have done incredible things with hops over the past decade that no other brewing culture has managed. Note all the ways they are bringing life to other styles above by dry-hopping them, for example.Of anyone, then, they should be the first ones to recognize that beers relying on hops for their primary flavoring should not be half-assed and should be backed with an ample malt backbone that is going to drive up ABVs. And they should find other ways to bring creativity and taste to session beers, as some Colorado brewers are showing that they can.
Labels: Baere Brewing, Brew on Broadway, Call to Arms Brewing, Colorado Brewers Guild, Festivals, Imbibe, IPA, New Belgium Brewing, Odd 13 Brewing, Sanitas Brewing, Session beers, Spangalang Brewery
