Tuesday, March 12, 2019
Old 121 Brewing: Old Fashioned and Loving It
Caution Brewing reveled in making beer with ingredients that most brewers would enjoy only with the food portion of their dinners. Cardamom, a proprietary Chinese five-spice blend, a hearty helping of Earl Grey tea — these were the things that made the Lakewood brewery so magical and unique.
So, when the new brewery in Caution's former 1057 S. Wadsworth Boulevard home opens on Wednesday, the tap list might seem shocking in comparison: a honey brown ale, an Irish red, a lager, a pale ale with Mosaic hops. And in that sense, Old 121 Brewhouse might just be the anti-Caution.
The co-owners (pictured above) of what will be the sixth brewery in Lakewood have backgrounds with some of the largest and most experimental breweries in the area. Head brewer Jason Bailey learned the art at TRVE. Brett and Karla Zahrte held various roles at Coors Brewing. Both Brett and Jason spent time ramping up the production at Crooked Stave Artisan Beer Project.
But when they and partner Eric Gupta decided to launch their own brewery, they wanted something laid back, with a focus on easy-drinking styles without the words "hazy" or "brut" or "pastry" anywhere in their descriptions. And while they may eventually work with nearby businesses to get some kegs out to them, they also have no interest in pushing Old 121 into the realm of distribution.
"I want to see people out here enjoying what they've got. It's not so much about making a big name for ourselves on the scene," Bailey said over a beer on Tuesday, one day before the soft opening. "We're not going to try to run the race with everybody else in the industry."
Instead, Old 121 wants to be the neighborhood brewery, a place that is easily accessible to the growing residential population in central Lakewood. Three of the four partners live in the western suburb, and the Zahrtes grew up in Golden going to a local bar that they considered to be like a community as it welcomed in families.
To that aim, Old 121 also will make its own sodas, including two dry-hopped sodas, and will be the first brewery in the Denver area offering iced tea on draft. It will have a video-game machine, and its owners hope it can be that place that people feel comfortable pulling into out of rush-hour traffic and having a beer or two without fears of being intoxicated.
The beers, by the way, are just what one may imagine for a place with the laid-back goals of Old 121. The honey brown is pleasant and easy - malty and a touch sweet without being cloying. The Irish Red (pictured in front of the brewery's beer engine that will be used for pouring an English mild collaboration with Grateful Gnome that is titled "tastes like beer — one star") is all malt with a medium body and a sessionable feel to it.
They're beers that you will enjoy if you're not expecting to have your taste buds blown away. They're beers that, appropriately, just have an old-school feel.
"Really, what we're trying to do here is build a community gathering space, open a local watering hole," Brett said. "We're trying to keep this taproom focused as a neighborhood fixture where you can come and get that after-shift lager."
Caution Brewing reveled in making beer with ingredients that most brewers would enjoy only with the food portion of their dinners. Cardamom, a proprietary Chinese five-spice blend, a hearty helping of Earl Grey tea — these were the things that made the Lakewood brewery so magical and unique.
So, when the new brewery in Caution's former 1057 S. Wadsworth Boulevard home opens on Wednesday, the tap list might seem shocking in comparison: a honey brown ale, an Irish red, a lager, a pale ale with Mosaic hops. And in that sense, Old 121 Brewhouse might just be the anti-Caution.
The co-owners (pictured above) of what will be the sixth brewery in Lakewood have backgrounds with some of the largest and most experimental breweries in the area. Head brewer Jason Bailey learned the art at TRVE. Brett and Karla Zahrte held various roles at Coors Brewing. Both Brett and Jason spent time ramping up the production at Crooked Stave Artisan Beer Project.
But when they and partner Eric Gupta decided to launch their own brewery, they wanted something laid back, with a focus on easy-drinking styles without the words "hazy" or "brut" or "pastry" anywhere in their descriptions. And while they may eventually work with nearby businesses to get some kegs out to them, they also have no interest in pushing Old 121 into the realm of distribution.
"I want to see people out here enjoying what they've got. It's not so much about making a big name for ourselves on the scene," Bailey said over a beer on Tuesday, one day before the soft opening. "We're not going to try to run the race with everybody else in the industry."
Instead, Old 121 wants to be the neighborhood brewery, a place that is easily accessible to the growing residential population in central Lakewood. Three of the four partners live in the western suburb, and the Zahrtes grew up in Golden going to a local bar that they considered to be like a community as it welcomed in families.
To that aim, Old 121 also will make its own sodas, including two dry-hopped sodas, and will be the first brewery in the Denver area offering iced tea on draft. It will have a video-game machine, and its owners hope it can be that place that people feel comfortable pulling into out of rush-hour traffic and having a beer or two without fears of being intoxicated.
The beers, by the way, are just what one may imagine for a place with the laid-back goals of Old 121. The honey brown is pleasant and easy - malty and a touch sweet without being cloying. The Irish Red (pictured in front of the brewery's beer engine that will be used for pouring an English mild collaboration with Grateful Gnome that is titled "tastes like beer — one star") is all malt with a medium body and a sessionable feel to it.
They're beers that you will enjoy if you're not expecting to have your taste buds blown away. They're beers that, appropriately, just have an old-school feel.
"Really, what we're trying to do here is build a community gathering space, open a local watering hole," Brett said. "We're trying to keep this taproom focused as a neighborhood fixture where you can come and get that after-shift lager."
Labels: Caution Brewing, Coors Brewing, Crooked Stave, Grateful Gnome, honey brown ale, Irish red ale, Lakewood breweries, Old 121 Brewhouse, TRVE
Saturday, June 30, 2018
Caution Brewing's Last Call
Caution Brewing's closing tonight is only a temporary exit from the scene for its brewing provocateur, Danny Wang, rather than a permanent one - and that it is a good think for all Denver craft-beer drinkers.
Seven years ago, the brewery offered up its first creation, a simple lager ... with a proprietary spice mix served at Wang's parents' restaurant, Lao Wang Noodle House. And while Lao Wang Lager was an eye-opener for the unique flavor it added to the light-bodied genre, it was only a hint of the successful madness that was to come out of Caution.
Soon enough, Wang produced a cardamom-infused saison, plus an IPA with whole flower chrysanthemum and Chinese rock brown sugar. Shortly after moving Caution's primary taproom from very industrial northeast Denver to a strip mall in Lakewood, he produced the best beer the brewery has made — The Earl, an Earl Grey tea-infused English mild ale that is dripping in tea flavor yet somehow blended perfectly with a style of beer not know for its creativity.
But the creativity of Wang and of head brewer Scott Petrovits (pictured above at left, who needs to be snatched up by a growing brewery) never stopped, sometimes flying under the radar with a series of bold one-offs that could sound goofy if they weren't so drinkable. There was a milk stout made with Peeps, a gose made with both Chinese five spice and Peking duck. And there was the pumpkin peach ale - a beer that Wang suggested making in a tweet after Budweiser mocked the style of beer in a TV commercial and which Wang found dozens of other brewers wanting to brew in solidarity with him as well.
While gutsy creativity defined Caution, though, Wang got to be known too as one of the more likable guys in the Denver scene - and one who looked to help others. When he finally decided to leave behind his first location, he turned it over to Tiffany Fixter, whose Brewability Lab was the first (and likely still only) brewery in the country specifically looking to employ a staff of disabled workers. As he turns over the site at at 1057 S. Wadsworth Blvd., he declined to say who was buying it but noted Saturday that it was "the type of people who will fit in well."
While the number of brewery closures is up in the past year, as the Colorado craft market begins to be somewhat clogged, Caution's exit is not due to financial hardship. A relaxed Wang said Saturday that he could have gone on in the new location for 20 years at his current level of success. But he wants to step back and look at the changing craft-brewing scene — one where distribution is becoming harder to come by and the neighborhood brewery is again the dominant force — and figure out how to change with it.
As such, he's already got some projects in the works, and he will be back, he said as other brewers stopped in early in the day to say their farewells to Caution. Some of the brewery's best known beers, from Lao Wang Lager to The Earl, are very likely to come back with him.
"This is last call here," Wang said of the location in Lakewood, where his brewery became just the second one operating in the city. "Whether Caution comes back as Caution, who knows."
It's worth noting that Caution didn't cruise into its final day, either. All through the month, it kept rolling out new beers, including a Cherry Milkshake IPA it broke out only on its final day. Wang acknowledged, as would be expected, that he'll keep homebrewing in his down time.
Asked what he liked most about the seven-year run, Wang didn't hesitate. And his answer speaks volumes about why he'll be back — even if, at first, it will just be as a visitor to a lot of beer festivals rather than as someone who will be serving his wares there.
"The friendships we made," he said while looking over some thank-you cards with his wife, Emily. "I have a phonebook full of people we met that I otherwise would never have talked to ... That you can't buy, no matter what you do."
Seven years ago, the brewery offered up its first creation, a simple lager ... with a proprietary spice mix served at Wang's parents' restaurant, Lao Wang Noodle House. And while Lao Wang Lager was an eye-opener for the unique flavor it added to the light-bodied genre, it was only a hint of the successful madness that was to come out of Caution.
Soon enough, Wang produced a cardamom-infused saison, plus an IPA with whole flower chrysanthemum and Chinese rock brown sugar. Shortly after moving Caution's primary taproom from very industrial northeast Denver to a strip mall in Lakewood, he produced the best beer the brewery has made — The Earl, an Earl Grey tea-infused English mild ale that is dripping in tea flavor yet somehow blended perfectly with a style of beer not know for its creativity.
But the creativity of Wang and of head brewer Scott Petrovits (pictured above at left, who needs to be snatched up by a growing brewery) never stopped, sometimes flying under the radar with a series of bold one-offs that could sound goofy if they weren't so drinkable. There was a milk stout made with Peeps, a gose made with both Chinese five spice and Peking duck. And there was the pumpkin peach ale - a beer that Wang suggested making in a tweet after Budweiser mocked the style of beer in a TV commercial and which Wang found dozens of other brewers wanting to brew in solidarity with him as well.
While gutsy creativity defined Caution, though, Wang got to be known too as one of the more likable guys in the Denver scene - and one who looked to help others. When he finally decided to leave behind his first location, he turned it over to Tiffany Fixter, whose Brewability Lab was the first (and likely still only) brewery in the country specifically looking to employ a staff of disabled workers. As he turns over the site at at 1057 S. Wadsworth Blvd., he declined to say who was buying it but noted Saturday that it was "the type of people who will fit in well."
While the number of brewery closures is up in the past year, as the Colorado craft market begins to be somewhat clogged, Caution's exit is not due to financial hardship. A relaxed Wang said Saturday that he could have gone on in the new location for 20 years at his current level of success. But he wants to step back and look at the changing craft-brewing scene — one where distribution is becoming harder to come by and the neighborhood brewery is again the dominant force — and figure out how to change with it.
As such, he's already got some projects in the works, and he will be back, he said as other brewers stopped in early in the day to say their farewells to Caution. Some of the brewery's best known beers, from Lao Wang Lager to The Earl, are very likely to come back with him.
"This is last call here," Wang said of the location in Lakewood, where his brewery became just the second one operating in the city. "Whether Caution comes back as Caution, who knows."It's worth noting that Caution didn't cruise into its final day, either. All through the month, it kept rolling out new beers, including a Cherry Milkshake IPA it broke out only on its final day. Wang acknowledged, as would be expected, that he'll keep homebrewing in his down time.
Asked what he liked most about the seven-year run, Wang didn't hesitate. And his answer speaks volumes about why he'll be back — even if, at first, it will just be as a visitor to a lot of beer festivals rather than as someone who will be serving his wares there.
"The friendships we made," he said while looking over some thank-you cards with his wife, Emily. "I have a phonebook full of people we met that I otherwise would never have talked to ... That you can't buy, no matter what you do."
Labels: Brewability Lab, brewery closings, Caution Brewing, lager, Lakewood breweries
Thursday, April 05, 2018
5 Things I Learned from Collaboration Beer Fest 2018
Zero. That is the number of beers anyone reported trying that should have been dumped or left at the drawing board. Considering that Collaboration Beer Fest is an experimental gathering where one could be forgiven were something to go wrong, that number is all that more amazing.
Beyond the general good news - from the quality of the beer to the lack of long lines to the improved venue at the Hyatt Regency Denver at Colorado Convention Center - there were specific nuggets to take from Saturday's collaboration celebration hosted by Two Parts and the Colorado Brewers Guild. And here's a few that should be remembered, both while breweries still have some of their offerings available and in the long term.
1) Sometimes the best stories really do make the best beer.
Mockery and Baere have been collaborating for four years, telling a story with their beers that began with someone being stranded on a desert island with only an infected keg of beer (inspiring a kettle sour IPA) and advancing to the edition this year where he escaped and landed on a French colony. It was a good enough arc to make an imperial French Toast stout.
But no plot twist prepared you for exactly how adventurous "Mocking Baered Episode 4: Intercontinental" was. You tasted the rolling flavors of sparking cinnamon and sweet brown sugar highlighting a big, thick body that made you feel you could eat this with a fork. And you wanted to go back immediately for second breakfast.
2) And sometimes the craziest ideas make the best beer.
"Dry Hopped Malt Liquor" sounded the collaboration idea most likely to have been conceived after a full night of slamming barleywines. But Lone Tree and Cannonball Creek pulled this off masterfully, creating something akin to a light-bodied double IPA that seemed far more drinkable than its 7.6 percent ABV tag would indicate. It may have been the greatest find of the festival.
3) Then again, sometimes the best breweries make the best beer.
Maybe the least newsworthy statement emanating from the festival was the fact that Weldwerks and Casey Brewing could get together and make a very good beer. But that still would not have prepped you for how delightful their bitter-less, pineapple- and mango-forward Transmountain Diversion New England-style double IPA could drink.
Ditto for the Colorado Brewers Guild collaboration with Crooked Stave Artisan Project and 13 other states' brewers guilds on a Cherry Coast to Coast sour ale.Even with that much collective brewing power, the burgundy ale with sour cherries managed both to be challenging and surprisingly approachable.
4) Bring on the spices.
Horchata is getting more popular as a beer ingredient, but Fate Brewing and Ladyface Ale Companie took it in an entirely new and very complimentary direction by adding it to a biere de garde. Meanwhile, Danny Wang of Caution Brewing brought back his so-crazy-this-could-only-work-for-him bag of tricks, collaborating with Moonlight Pizza & Brewpub of Salida to add five-spice to a gose and somehow make it blend authentically while also making your taste buds jolt to life.
5) Subtle barrel-aging can go a long way.
Strange Craft Beer and Fiction Brewing hit it out the park with a strong saison aged in a rum barrel with plums and blackberries - largely because the rum took on more of a mellowing background note and let the fruit and yeast be the stars here. Meanwhile, the blend of foeder-aged sours New Belgium and Blackberry Farm conjoined with a late spring mild ale made their Biere de Mai a solid offering without any overbearing nature.
Beyond the general good news - from the quality of the beer to the lack of long lines to the improved venue at the Hyatt Regency Denver at Colorado Convention Center - there were specific nuggets to take from Saturday's collaboration celebration hosted by Two Parts and the Colorado Brewers Guild. And here's a few that should be remembered, both while breweries still have some of their offerings available and in the long term.
Mockery and Baere have been collaborating for four years, telling a story with their beers that began with someone being stranded on a desert island with only an infected keg of beer (inspiring a kettle sour IPA) and advancing to the edition this year where he escaped and landed on a French colony. It was a good enough arc to make an imperial French Toast stout.
But no plot twist prepared you for exactly how adventurous "Mocking Baered Episode 4: Intercontinental" was. You tasted the rolling flavors of sparking cinnamon and sweet brown sugar highlighting a big, thick body that made you feel you could eat this with a fork. And you wanted to go back immediately for second breakfast.2) And sometimes the craziest ideas make the best beer.
"Dry Hopped Malt Liquor" sounded the collaboration idea most likely to have been conceived after a full night of slamming barleywines. But Lone Tree and Cannonball Creek pulled this off masterfully, creating something akin to a light-bodied double IPA that seemed far more drinkable than its 7.6 percent ABV tag would indicate. It may have been the greatest find of the festival.
3) Then again, sometimes the best breweries make the best beer.
Maybe the least newsworthy statement emanating from the festival was the fact that Weldwerks and Casey Brewing could get together and make a very good beer. But that still would not have prepped you for how delightful their bitter-less, pineapple- and mango-forward Transmountain Diversion New England-style double IPA could drink.
Ditto for the Colorado Brewers Guild collaboration with Crooked Stave Artisan Project and 13 other states' brewers guilds on a Cherry Coast to Coast sour ale.Even with that much collective brewing power, the burgundy ale with sour cherries managed both to be challenging and surprisingly approachable.
4) Bring on the spices.Horchata is getting more popular as a beer ingredient, but Fate Brewing and Ladyface Ale Companie took it in an entirely new and very complimentary direction by adding it to a biere de garde. Meanwhile, Danny Wang of Caution Brewing brought back his so-crazy-this-could-only-work-for-him bag of tricks, collaborating with Moonlight Pizza & Brewpub of Salida to add five-spice to a gose and somehow make it blend authentically while also making your taste buds jolt to life.
5) Subtle barrel-aging can go a long way.
Strange Craft Beer and Fiction Brewing hit it out the park with a strong saison aged in a rum barrel with plums and blackberries - largely because the rum took on more of a mellowing background note and let the fruit and yeast be the stars here. Meanwhile, the blend of foeder-aged sours New Belgium and Blackberry Farm conjoined with a late spring mild ale made their Biere de Mai a solid offering without any overbearing nature.
Labels: Baere Brewing, Cannonball Creek Brewing, Caution Brewing, collaboration beers, Crooked Stave, Fate Brewing, Fiction Brewing, Lone Tree Brewing, Mockery Brewing, New Belgium Brewing, Strange Craft Beer
Friday, March 30, 2018
10 Beers to Seek Out at Collaboration Fest
Collaboration Beer Fest is an event in which the wild ideas that make you shake your head when you first read about them actually turn out. Yet, creations like the 2015 Basil Kriek Blonde — the Copper Kettle/Strange Craft Beer blend of Basil Blonde and Cherry Kriek — end up not only working but being some of the best beers you will drink all year.
With that said, here are 10 of the most fascinating experiments that will be on tap Saturday afternoon at the Hyatt Regency Denver at the Colorado Convention Center when the Colorado Brewers Guild and Two Parts bring us the fifth annual collaboration blowout event.
* Comrade/Breakside Double-Dry-Hopped Beer Pressure 1.5 IPA
Last year, Comrade teamed up with Montana's Uberbrew to make a triple IPA that arguably was the best beer of the festival. This year they are teaming with another known hop auteur to produce a hazy IPA that can't be missed.
* Weldwerks/Casey Brewing and Blending Transmountain Diversion
If these two breweries made an Old Milwaukee clone, I'd still stand in line for it. The fact that they made a double IPA may make me push people out of my way for it.
* New Belgium/Rare Barrel On the Shoulder of Giants 2017
This is a golden sour aged in oak barrels with peaches and jasmine pearl tea from two breweries that have earned their national reputations. Enough said.
* Guild Collaboration Cherry Coast to Coast
The Colorado Brewers Guild teamed up with the Brewers Association and nine other states' craft-brewing guilds to churn out a sour ale. And they made it with Crooked Stave. This really might be the absolute definition of craft brewing.
* Mockery/Baere Mocking Baered Episode 4: Intercontinental
The running collaboration from the pair of 4-year-old Denver breweries that fly too far under the radar may be the single best story among the back stories of beers at the festival. But even without it, this giant pastry stout would be hard to ignore.
* Lone Tree/Cannonball Creek Dry-Hopped Malt Liquor
Just let that sink in. And then realize that Cannonball Creek nearly stole the show with a pale ale last year. This should be the most spot-on and yet wildest malt liquor of all time.
* Funkwerks/New Image Arnie
Kettle sour is a very popular style this year. But when you see two brewers who have consistently surprised and taken styles to new levels working on this genre, the result will be worth trying.
* Cerberus/Fossil/Goat Patch Deception IPA
Last month I took a weekend trip to Colorado Springs and discovered that the brewing scene is as evolved and complex as it's ever been. Denverites probably don't know these three very good breweries. This sour Belgian IPA should tell you all you need to know about the Springs.
* Fate Brewing/Ladyface Ale Horchata de Garde
Boulder's most underrated brewery teams with one of America's most interesting brewpubs to make a biere de garde with an accent of Mexico? My 2-ounce cup runneth over.
* Caution/Moonlight Pizza & Brewpub What the Duck Five-Spice GoséIf there's a beer that seems to have an ingredient that doesn't belong in beer, but it happens to be made by Caution, run to it. This collab also may introduce the world to an underrated Salida brewery.
Collaboration Beer Fest is an event in which the wild ideas that make you shake your head when you first read about them actually turn out. Yet, creations like the 2015 Basil Kriek Blonde — the Copper Kettle/Strange Craft Beer blend of Basil Blonde and Cherry Kriek — end up not only working but being some of the best beers you will drink all year.
With that said, here are 10 of the most fascinating experiments that will be on tap Saturday afternoon at the Hyatt Regency Denver at the Colorado Convention Center when the Colorado Brewers Guild and Two Parts bring us the fifth annual collaboration blowout event.
* Comrade/Breakside Double-Dry-Hopped Beer Pressure 1.5 IPA
Last year, Comrade teamed up with Montana's Uberbrew to make a triple IPA that arguably was the best beer of the festival. This year they are teaming with another known hop auteur to produce a hazy IPA that can't be missed.
* Weldwerks/Casey Brewing and Blending Transmountain Diversion
If these two breweries made an Old Milwaukee clone, I'd still stand in line for it. The fact that they made a double IPA may make me push people out of my way for it.
* New Belgium/Rare Barrel On the Shoulder of Giants 2017
This is a golden sour aged in oak barrels with peaches and jasmine pearl tea from two breweries that have earned their national reputations. Enough said.
The Colorado Brewers Guild teamed up with the Brewers Association and nine other states' craft-brewing guilds to churn out a sour ale. And they made it with Crooked Stave. This really might be the absolute definition of craft brewing.
* Mockery/Baere Mocking Baered Episode 4: Intercontinental
The running collaboration from the pair of 4-year-old Denver breweries that fly too far under the radar may be the single best story among the back stories of beers at the festival. But even without it, this giant pastry stout would be hard to ignore.
* Lone Tree/Cannonball Creek Dry-Hopped Malt Liquor
Just let that sink in. And then realize that Cannonball Creek nearly stole the show with a pale ale last year. This should be the most spot-on and yet wildest malt liquor of all time.
Kettle sour is a very popular style this year. But when you see two brewers who have consistently surprised and taken styles to new levels working on this genre, the result will be worth trying.
* Cerberus/Fossil/Goat Patch Deception IPA
Last month I took a weekend trip to Colorado Springs and discovered that the brewing scene is as evolved and complex as it's ever been. Denverites probably don't know these three very good breweries. This sour Belgian IPA should tell you all you need to know about the Springs.
* Fate Brewing/Ladyface Ale Horchata de Garde
Boulder's most underrated brewery teams with one of America's most interesting brewpubs to make a biere de garde with an accent of Mexico? My 2-ounce cup runneth over.
* Caution/Moonlight Pizza & Brewpub What the Duck Five-Spice GoséIf there's a beer that seems to have an ingredient that doesn't belong in beer, but it happens to be made by Caution, run to it. This collab also may introduce the world to an underrated Salida brewery.
Labels: Baere Brewing, Cannonball Creek Brewing, Caution Brewing, Cerberus Brewing, collaboration beers, Colorado Brewers Guild, Comrade Brewing, Fate Brewing, Funkwerks, New Belgium Brewing, Weldwerks Brewing
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
Thursday, October 05, 2017
30 Colorado Beers You Have to Try at GABF 2017
America's most stunning beer festival is upon us, showing off 800 breweries from across the nation, some you will never find in Denver outside of their spotlights in the Colorado Convention from Oct. 5-7. But it is only the fool who would enter those hallowed halls and ignore this state's own fruits.
For Colorado brewers - and there are 161 of them that will be pouring at the Great American Beer Festival - are coming in from parts of the state you've likely never visited, and they are breaking out some one-offs and rarities you've certainly never tried. And there frankly might be a higher concentration of blow-your-taste-buds-out-with-delight offerings in the Mountain section of the great hall than in any other area - yes, even more than the Pacific.
With that in mind, here is an alphabetical list for locals and visitors alike of the beers you absolutely should stop by to try while you meander through the festival. A few you'll know; many you will not. This is the great joy of the event. (And big props to PorchDrinking.com for putting together its pre-GABF pour list that makes possible the study needed to compile this.)
* 4 Noses Experimental Double IPA: The Broomfield brewery has rocketed into the conversation of best IPAs in Colorado with its 'Bout Damn Time IPA. When it offers offer something bigger, hoppier and edgier, it's simply a must-try.
* AC Golden Colorado Native Kriek Noir: A stunningly tart beer (left) aged two years with cherries and then bottle-conditioned for another two, It will take your taste buds to the edge with its complexity and ultimately reward them.
* Avery Promiscuus: Very few brewers have used Madeira and port barrels to age their wares, and it's a shame. This beer, which I've only had in the Boulder Brewery's taproom, is bold and funky, and you'll swirl it around again and again to discern the flavors.
* Black Project Cygnus Double Montmorency: The great joy of Black Project is never quite knowing what its spontaneous fermentation will produce. But when the brewery takes three different years of barrel-fermented coolship ale and tosses them together with pounds and pounds of cherries, you know it will be special.
* Boulder Shake Chocolate Porter: America's oldest microbrewery may have hit on the best recipe in its 38-year history when it created this creamy, sweet and full chocolate porter that will give you a different taste to consider.
* Broken Compass Coconut Porter: This mountain-town brewery not only cemented its reputation by winning a medal for this at its first GABF, it actually started to draw people out of the Denver area up to Breckenridge to seek this out.
* Caution Brewing The Earl: Lakewood's finest brewery employs a lot of unusual ingredients in its beer, but its use of Earl Grey tea to add a leafy presence to a surprisingly full-bodied English mild creates the most unique taste in its portfolio.
* City Star Belle: Arguably no brewery in Colorado has improved as much this year as City Star, which wowed earlier this year with its Wood Belly barrel-aged imperial IPA. So when the brewery decides it's going to uncork a barrel-aged sour oatmeal pale ale aged with passion fruit, you just want to see what it can do with that combination.
* Comrade Fresh Hop Superpower IPA: The year-round version of this beer is becoming the Colorado standard-bearer IPA for some hop heads. And this is the kicked-up version that is only available for a limited time.
* Copper Kettle Snowed In Mocha: Snowed In, a bourbon-barrel imperial oatmeal stout, is one of the finest Christmastime beers in the state. So, what will a little coffee and chocolate do to the body? That's kind of the point to buying tickets to the GABF.
* Crooked Stave Trellis Buster: These guys are some of Colorado's sour kings. But when they pour a beer they describe as their hoppiest beer ever, you eagerly ask for this dry-hopped double IPA.
* Dry Dock Pumpkin Double Porter: The double hazelnut brown ale and the double hazelnut coffee porter were out of this world. This is the next iteration of the concept, and appropriate for the season.
* Fate Brewing Pinot Noir Gose: Take one of your signature beers, age it with pinot noir grape must, sit back and enjoy.
* Funkwerks Nelson Sauvin: This beer combines one of the most appealing hops available today with the body of a saison to produce a rainbow of flavors.
* Great Divide The Smoothness: First offered last year, this Jameson-barrel-aged dark lager has enough body to stand up to Irish whiskey overtones but not too much to render the barrel moot.
* Horse & Dragon Sad Panda Coffee Stout: As good a year-round dark beer as is made in Colorado, this gives you not just the roasted taste of the coffee but also the vanilla mouthfeel of a creamer that was placed into it.
* Jagged Mountain Grouse Mountain Gose: The underlying beer is good, but when it's made with blood oranges, coriander and sea salt, it becomes damn good.
* Jessup Farm Cross-Drinker: Whiskey Sour: Strong ale aged in whiskey barrels, blended with a dark sour, all mashed up with lemon puree. Expect this to be maybe the most complex Colorado beer at the festival.
* Locavore Two Fingers IPA: This is the IPA that you're not drinking but should be. Hints of orange and mango highlight a full body that won Beer Fight Club II, defeating some of the state's best IPAs in the process.
* Mountain Sun Bourbon-Barrel-Aged Chocolate Thunder Imperial Chocolate Milk Stout: Stout Month comes just once a year at the Mountain Sun pubs, so when they take some aged stash of one of their monster darks and offer it up more than half a year later, it's worth a visit.
* New Belgium Le Terroir with Amarillo and HBC #522: It's the brewery's phenomenal hopped sour ale, barrel aged and then dry-hopped with experimental hops. Just say that over and over again while you wait for the line to subside.
* New Image East Coast Transplant: This hazy double IPA from the under-the-radar Arvada brewery is no less than the second-best Colorado example of this hot style. And it's a brewery to know.
* Odell-Avery Collaboration Stout: Made specifically for GABF, this white stout/dark stout combo is only the product of two of the best breweries in Colorado. How could you go wrong?
* Ratio Beerworks New Wave Strawberry Berliner Weisse: Arguably the most tart yet approachable Berliner Weisse made in Colorado, this summer seasonal had a too-short stint on the brewery's menu, but now it's back.
* Ska Brewing Tart Mexican Logger: Ska's new Mod Project is all about creating experimental new flavors. And here's guessing this may be the only sour Mexican lager on the GABF floor.
* Strange Craft Beer Strangely Epic: This blend shouldn't work. Yet, the combination of Strange's Cherry Kriek and Epic Brewing's Big Bad Baptist Imperial Stout does, and it's memorable.
* Telluride Face Down Bourbon Brown: The beer that kick-started Colorado's brown ale revolution is served up after aging in bourbon barrels. Bring it on.
* The Intrepid Sojourner Basil IPA: Though a recent addition to the Colorado portfolio, this Denver brewery quickly has gained a reputation for thoughtful and unusual beers. This is a combination that someone should have thought of before.
* Verboten Little Nonsense: This whiskey-barrel-aged imperial oatmeal stout is a dangerous beer, so smooth and tasty at 11% ABV that you may think you can drink several. Good thing it comes in a one-ounce sample for GABF.
* Weldwerks Extra Extra Juicy Bits: The key phrase you need to know about this New England-style double IPA is "more than 11 pounds of Citra, Mosaic and El Dorado hops per barrel." Read it and weep for joy.
America's most stunning beer festival is upon us, showing off 800 breweries from across the nation, some you will never find in Denver outside of their spotlights in the Colorado Convention from Oct. 5-7. But it is only the fool who would enter those hallowed halls and ignore this state's own fruits.
For Colorado brewers - and there are 161 of them that will be pouring at the Great American Beer Festival - are coming in from parts of the state you've likely never visited, and they are breaking out some one-offs and rarities you've certainly never tried. And there frankly might be a higher concentration of blow-your-taste-buds-out-with-delight offerings in the Mountain section of the great hall than in any other area - yes, even more than the Pacific.
With that in mind, here is an alphabetical list for locals and visitors alike of the beers you absolutely should stop by to try while you meander through the festival. A few you'll know; many you will not. This is the great joy of the event. (And big props to PorchDrinking.com for putting together its pre-GABF pour list that makes possible the study needed to compile this.)
* 4 Noses Experimental Double IPA: The Broomfield brewery has rocketed into the conversation of best IPAs in Colorado with its 'Bout Damn Time IPA. When it offers offer something bigger, hoppier and edgier, it's simply a must-try.
* AC Golden Colorado Native Kriek Noir: A stunningly tart beer (left) aged two years with cherries and then bottle-conditioned for another two, It will take your taste buds to the edge with its complexity and ultimately reward them.
* Avery Promiscuus: Very few brewers have used Madeira and port barrels to age their wares, and it's a shame. This beer, which I've only had in the Boulder Brewery's taproom, is bold and funky, and you'll swirl it around again and again to discern the flavors.
* Black Project Cygnus Double Montmorency: The great joy of Black Project is never quite knowing what its spontaneous fermentation will produce. But when the brewery takes three different years of barrel-fermented coolship ale and tosses them together with pounds and pounds of cherries, you know it will be special.
* Boulder Shake Chocolate Porter: America's oldest microbrewery may have hit on the best recipe in its 38-year history when it created this creamy, sweet and full chocolate porter that will give you a different taste to consider.
* Broken Compass Coconut Porter: This mountain-town brewery not only cemented its reputation by winning a medal for this at its first GABF, it actually started to draw people out of the Denver area up to Breckenridge to seek this out.
* Caution Brewing The Earl: Lakewood's finest brewery employs a lot of unusual ingredients in its beer, but its use of Earl Grey tea to add a leafy presence to a surprisingly full-bodied English mild creates the most unique taste in its portfolio.
* City Star Belle: Arguably no brewery in Colorado has improved as much this year as City Star, which wowed earlier this year with its Wood Belly barrel-aged imperial IPA. So when the brewery decides it's going to uncork a barrel-aged sour oatmeal pale ale aged with passion fruit, you just want to see what it can do with that combination.
* Comrade Fresh Hop Superpower IPA: The year-round version of this beer is becoming the Colorado standard-bearer IPA for some hop heads. And this is the kicked-up version that is only available for a limited time.
* Copper Kettle Snowed In Mocha: Snowed In, a bourbon-barrel imperial oatmeal stout, is one of the finest Christmastime beers in the state. So, what will a little coffee and chocolate do to the body? That's kind of the point to buying tickets to the GABF.
* Crooked Stave Trellis Buster: These guys are some of Colorado's sour kings. But when they pour a beer they describe as their hoppiest beer ever, you eagerly ask for this dry-hopped double IPA.
* Dry Dock Pumpkin Double Porter: The double hazelnut brown ale and the double hazelnut coffee porter were out of this world. This is the next iteration of the concept, and appropriate for the season.
* Fate Brewing Pinot Noir Gose: Take one of your signature beers, age it with pinot noir grape must, sit back and enjoy.
* Funkwerks Nelson Sauvin: This beer combines one of the most appealing hops available today with the body of a saison to produce a rainbow of flavors.
* Great Divide The Smoothness: First offered last year, this Jameson-barrel-aged dark lager has enough body to stand up to Irish whiskey overtones but not too much to render the barrel moot.
* Horse & Dragon Sad Panda Coffee Stout: As good a year-round dark beer as is made in Colorado, this gives you not just the roasted taste of the coffee but also the vanilla mouthfeel of a creamer that was placed into it.
* Jagged Mountain Grouse Mountain Gose: The underlying beer is good, but when it's made with blood oranges, coriander and sea salt, it becomes damn good.
* Jessup Farm Cross-Drinker: Whiskey Sour: Strong ale aged in whiskey barrels, blended with a dark sour, all mashed up with lemon puree. Expect this to be maybe the most complex Colorado beer at the festival.
* Locavore Two Fingers IPA: This is the IPA that you're not drinking but should be. Hints of orange and mango highlight a full body that won Beer Fight Club II, defeating some of the state's best IPAs in the process.
* Mountain Sun Bourbon-Barrel-Aged Chocolate Thunder Imperial Chocolate Milk Stout: Stout Month comes just once a year at the Mountain Sun pubs, so when they take some aged stash of one of their monster darks and offer it up more than half a year later, it's worth a visit.* New Belgium Le Terroir with Amarillo and HBC #522: It's the brewery's phenomenal hopped sour ale, barrel aged and then dry-hopped with experimental hops. Just say that over and over again while you wait for the line to subside.
* New Image East Coast Transplant: This hazy double IPA from the under-the-radar Arvada brewery is no less than the second-best Colorado example of this hot style. And it's a brewery to know.
* Odell-Avery Collaboration Stout: Made specifically for GABF, this white stout/dark stout combo is only the product of two of the best breweries in Colorado. How could you go wrong?
* Ratio Beerworks New Wave Strawberry Berliner Weisse: Arguably the most tart yet approachable Berliner Weisse made in Colorado, this summer seasonal had a too-short stint on the brewery's menu, but now it's back.
* Ska Brewing Tart Mexican Logger: Ska's new Mod Project is all about creating experimental new flavors. And here's guessing this may be the only sour Mexican lager on the GABF floor.
* Strange Craft Beer Strangely Epic: This blend shouldn't work. Yet, the combination of Strange's Cherry Kriek and Epic Brewing's Big Bad Baptist Imperial Stout does, and it's memorable.
* Telluride Face Down Bourbon Brown: The beer that kick-started Colorado's brown ale revolution is served up after aging in bourbon barrels. Bring it on.
* The Intrepid Sojourner Basil IPA: Though a recent addition to the Colorado portfolio, this Denver brewery quickly has gained a reputation for thoughtful and unusual beers. This is a combination that someone should have thought of before.
* Verboten Little Nonsense: This whiskey-barrel-aged imperial oatmeal stout is a dangerous beer, so smooth and tasty at 11% ABV that you may think you can drink several. Good thing it comes in a one-ounce sample for GABF.
* Weldwerks Extra Extra Juicy Bits: The key phrase you need to know about this New England-style double IPA is "more than 11 pounds of Citra, Mosaic and El Dorado hops per barrel." Read it and weep for joy.
Labels: AC Golden, Avery Brewing, Caution Brewing, Great American Beer Festival, Mountain Sun, Ratio Beerworks
Wednesday, September 20, 2017
A Special Denver Brewery is Helping Some Special Folks
There are a lot of things that stand out about the nearly one-year-old Brewability Lab in Denver, from its color-coded ordering system to its beaker glasses to the fact that it serves its coffee porter with a rim of Nutella.
But most unique of all about the brewery owned by Tiffany Fixter is who works there — special-needs Coloradans, from those with developmental disabilities to those with autism to those who can't hear or see. Every employee except for the head brewer has a special need of some sort, making Brewability Lab the only beer maker in America with this kind of focus.
Working with these adults who have a hard time finding meaningful employment elsewhere isn't new to Fixter. She spent 10 years teaching special education and a year as the director of a day program for adults with special needs, before she was fired for what her boss called a lack of creativity.
As her "screw-you project" for that odious professional assessment, she launched one of the more creative ventures attempted in a craft-brewing industry that is defined by its adventurous spirit. Despite having no brewing experience, she moved into the turnkey operation left behind when Caution Brewing left its original East Denver space for Lakewood, brought in a seasoned brewer in Tanner Schneller and went to work setting a space of inclusivity where those with and without special needs can sit and enjoy a beer together.
Some weekends, the industrial space just south of Interstate 70 is jumping; on weekdays in particular, it can be empty. But Fixter is succeeding enough where she is thinking about franchising the concept after receiving inquiries from people in some 30 other states wanting to launch a similar brewery.
Her beer selection is limited and it is color-coded, so that people can simply point to the beer they want on the menu or say the color associated with the beer, and beertenders who may not speak or be able to read can get it. If you get the right staffer, you're likely to be talked up or given a tour too. (See this video I made with the Denver Business Journal videographer to meet one of those folks.)
And while the gluten-reduced beer won't be mistaken for some of Colorado's most complex offerings, the truth is, it's drinkable and it's well-made. A Strawberry Blonde made with 100 pounds of frozen strawberries has just enough of a bitter kick to give it an edge. The Pale Ale has a lemony citrus feel to its body. And the Coffee Porter is sweet and chocolaty and filling, even if the Nutella rim that Fixter includes on the glasses feels a bit gimmicky.
Brewability Lab is a bit out of the way from other breweries. But to see the friendly atmosphere and unique business model that Fixter has created, it is worth a drive.
There are a lot of things that stand out about the nearly one-year-old Brewability Lab in Denver, from its color-coded ordering system to its beaker glasses to the fact that it serves its coffee porter with a rim of Nutella.
But most unique of all about the brewery owned by Tiffany Fixter is who works there — special-needs Coloradans, from those with developmental disabilities to those with autism to those who can't hear or see. Every employee except for the head brewer has a special need of some sort, making Brewability Lab the only beer maker in America with this kind of focus.
Working with these adults who have a hard time finding meaningful employment elsewhere isn't new to Fixter. She spent 10 years teaching special education and a year as the director of a day program for adults with special needs, before she was fired for what her boss called a lack of creativity.
As her "screw-you project" for that odious professional assessment, she launched one of the more creative ventures attempted in a craft-brewing industry that is defined by its adventurous spirit. Despite having no brewing experience, she moved into the turnkey operation left behind when Caution Brewing left its original East Denver space for Lakewood, brought in a seasoned brewer in Tanner Schneller and went to work setting a space of inclusivity where those with and without special needs can sit and enjoy a beer together.
Some weekends, the industrial space just south of Interstate 70 is jumping; on weekdays in particular, it can be empty. But Fixter is succeeding enough where she is thinking about franchising the concept after receiving inquiries from people in some 30 other states wanting to launch a similar brewery.
Her beer selection is limited and it is color-coded, so that people can simply point to the beer they want on the menu or say the color associated with the beer, and beertenders who may not speak or be able to read can get it. If you get the right staffer, you're likely to be talked up or given a tour too. (See this video I made with the Denver Business Journal videographer to meet one of those folks.)
And while the gluten-reduced beer won't be mistaken for some of Colorado's most complex offerings, the truth is, it's drinkable and it's well-made. A Strawberry Blonde made with 100 pounds of frozen strawberries has just enough of a bitter kick to give it an edge. The Pale Ale has a lemony citrus feel to its body. And the Coffee Porter is sweet and chocolaty and filling, even if the Nutella rim that Fixter includes on the glasses feels a bit gimmicky.Brewability Lab is a bit out of the way from other breweries. But to see the friendly atmosphere and unique business model that Fixter has created, it is worth a drive.
Labels: Brewability Lab, Caution Brewing, New Colorado breweries
Tuesday, August 08, 2017
5 Things I Learned from Sesh Fest 2017
Bigger does not always equate to bigger at beer festivals. But with the exception of the far-too-big lines for the restrooms at Sesh Fest 2017, the growth of the festival - in brewers, in space and most importantly in diversity of beer - was something to celebrate.
Coming at a time when more breweries actually are making lower-alcohol beer to ride a wave of popularity among drinkers, the festival showed off how flavorful less boozy styles can be. Gone are the days when your choices below 5 percent ABV include a session IPA and a couple of watered-down English- or German-style beers. And that's a good thing.
Here then are things that became clear during an afternoon at the Highlands Masonic Events Center:
1) Sesh Fest could have been re-named "Low Alcohol Sour Fest"
It was almost hard to find a brewer whose offerings didn't include a gose or petite sour, all bursting with flavor even as they kept down the booze. Crooked Stave's Petite Sour Rose, a beautiful light-bodied sour with flavors of both fruit and flowers, may have been the best beer in the show. Or it may have been the Mila Petite Rouge Sour from Beryl's Beer, brimming with a fruity guava taste to bring even more drinkability to it. Or it could have been the New Wave from Ratio, a strawberry Berliner Weisse that lights up your taste buds with tartness only to fall back on big fruit notes. The point is, there were enough small sours there to make this a legitimate debate.
2) Low alcohol still permits high experimentation with adjuncts
Caution Brewing proved once again that you can get huge flavor into an English mild - no small feat in itself - by injecting Earl Grey tea, and The Earl stood out once again as one of the finest session beers at the event, if not in all of Colorado at this point. But 4 Noses Brewing also demonstrated aptly that dumping mango puree into a wheat beer (its Mango Wheat) allows you to make a beer that could pass as subtle yet is hugely refreshing, with enough flavor that you swirl it around your mouth an extra time to see how many flavors you can discover.
3) That said, don't go crazy with the adjuncts
Some very good brewers brought some very odd-tasting beers as well, producing mash-ups that didn't work quite as well as many of their other offerings. Horse & Dragon's Surf & Rescue, a coconut lime wheat, tasted oddly like perfume, even as the coconut oil was used to good effect to calm the taste. And Fate's Laimas Coffee Kolsch butted the sweeter malt tastes up against the harsher roast of the coffee in a way that felt like opposing forces clashing in your mouth - an opinion I'll maintain despite the fact that the brewery has been making this beer for years.
4) It's time to realize that Greeley isn't a one-brewery town
People often flock to a Weldwerks booth at any festival for good reason, as its beers are so flavorful they seem to overshadow everything else in Weld County. But time spent at the Wiley Roots booth on Saturday reinforced exactly how much the often-overlooked brewery in the same town is doing fantastic things. Its Watermelon Carousel Gose was full of fruit burst, with just enough spritz from its sour mash to tell you there was something more complex working your taste buds. And its session IPA stood out among similar offerings at the event.
5) Two Parts and Colorado Brewers Guild are upping their organizational game
First of all, getting 52 breweries to bring multiple session offerings showed just how much the push to pour flavorful low-alcohol beers has taken hold in the brewing community. But lines at all the booths were reasonable, food booths were plentiful and the Shandyland set-up inside the masonic center gave people a chance to try something new in a specific area. That said, the lines for the port-a-potties stretched longer than then lines for the bathrooms at Great American Beer Festival often do, creating too much talk about when it was appropriate to break the seal that could have been spent on which booths were offering unique beers.
Coming at a time when more breweries actually are making lower-alcohol beer to ride a wave of popularity among drinkers, the festival showed off how flavorful less boozy styles can be. Gone are the days when your choices below 5 percent ABV include a session IPA and a couple of watered-down English- or German-style beers. And that's a good thing.
Here then are things that became clear during an afternoon at the Highlands Masonic Events Center:
1) Sesh Fest could have been re-named "Low Alcohol Sour Fest"
It was almost hard to find a brewer whose offerings didn't include a gose or petite sour, all bursting with flavor even as they kept down the booze. Crooked Stave's Petite Sour Rose, a beautiful light-bodied sour with flavors of both fruit and flowers, may have been the best beer in the show. Or it may have been the Mila Petite Rouge Sour from Beryl's Beer, brimming with a fruity guava taste to bring even more drinkability to it. Or it could have been the New Wave from Ratio, a strawberry Berliner Weisse that lights up your taste buds with tartness only to fall back on big fruit notes. The point is, there were enough small sours there to make this a legitimate debate.
Caution Brewing proved once again that you can get huge flavor into an English mild - no small feat in itself - by injecting Earl Grey tea, and The Earl stood out once again as one of the finest session beers at the event, if not in all of Colorado at this point. But 4 Noses Brewing also demonstrated aptly that dumping mango puree into a wheat beer (its Mango Wheat) allows you to make a beer that could pass as subtle yet is hugely refreshing, with enough flavor that you swirl it around your mouth an extra time to see how many flavors you can discover.
3) That said, don't go crazy with the adjuncts
Some very good brewers brought some very odd-tasting beers as well, producing mash-ups that didn't work quite as well as many of their other offerings. Horse & Dragon's Surf & Rescue, a coconut lime wheat, tasted oddly like perfume, even as the coconut oil was used to good effect to calm the taste. And Fate's Laimas Coffee Kolsch butted the sweeter malt tastes up against the harsher roast of the coffee in a way that felt like opposing forces clashing in your mouth - an opinion I'll maintain despite the fact that the brewery has been making this beer for years.
4) It's time to realize that Greeley isn't a one-brewery town
People often flock to a Weldwerks booth at any festival for good reason, as its beers are so flavorful they seem to overshadow everything else in Weld County. But time spent at the Wiley Roots booth on Saturday reinforced exactly how much the often-overlooked brewery in the same town is doing fantastic things. Its Watermelon Carousel Gose was full of fruit burst, with just enough spritz from its sour mash to tell you there was something more complex working your taste buds. And its session IPA stood out among similar offerings at the event.
First of all, getting 52 breweries to bring multiple session offerings showed just how much the push to pour flavorful low-alcohol beers has taken hold in the brewing community. But lines at all the booths were reasonable, food booths were plentiful and the Shandyland set-up inside the masonic center gave people a chance to try something new in a specific area. That said, the lines for the port-a-potties stretched longer than then lines for the bathrooms at Great American Beer Festival often do, creating too much talk about when it was appropriate to break the seal that could have been spent on which booths were offering unique beers.
Labels: 4 Noses Brewing, Beryl's Beer, Caution Brewing, Colorado Brewers Guild, Crooked Stave, Fate Brewing, Horse and Dragon Brewing, Ratio Beerworks, Session beers, Two Parts, Wiley Roots Brewing
Saturday, August 22, 2015
A New Draw in the South Suburbs
Dave Miera, a carpenter and framer by trade, built the bars at Caution Brewing, Kokopelli Beer Co. and Stapleton Tap House. And then he decided to build his own brewery.
Boggy Draw Brewery opened last month in Sheridan, adding to the growing number of craft breweries dotting the south metro area. And early returns indicate that it's going to be a welcome addition to the Denver scene, with one beer seeming ready to shine as a unique standout.
That beer is Gangsta of Love, the brewery's cream ale aged in gin barrels. Pairing the sharp juniper taste with the lightly hopped and medium-bodied beer manages to create a flavor of its own, as notes of vanilla and caramel jump forward and combine with pin-pricks of gin taste to rev the beer up without making it overwhelming.
Boggy Draw - named after Miera's favorite hunting spot and festooned with deer heads and cow hides - has a couple of other gems ups its camouflaged sleeve as well. The Ese Bueno ESB is an Americanized and especially hoppy version of the style. The Lemondrop Pale Ale, a smash beer, is sharp with a citrus burst. And the Hefeweizen offers immediate hints of banana and bubble gum and is kicky and hopped enough to leave an impression.
Some of the offerings, like the Elk Mane Dark Wheat and the Boggy Bastard Southern Brown, are refreshing and pleasing, if not complex. A few - particularly the American Wheat and Belgian Pale - are quite light-bodied for their styles, coming and going without offending you but without creating anything to remember either.
It's amazing to think that, just four years ago, Denver's south suburbs largely were without breweries that were not connected to national brewpub chains. Now just about every suburb, including the blink-and-you'll-miss-it town of Sheridan, has their own. Some, like Lone Tree Brewing, are doing amazing things, while others are slower to catch up to the general quality level of the Front Range.
Boggy Draw begins its existence with a complement of quality beers and a few you'd want to drink over and over. And it really does give one more incentive for the Denver beer drinker to take a field trip to see what is happening to the south.
Dave Miera, a carpenter and framer by trade, built the bars at Caution Brewing, Kokopelli Beer Co. and Stapleton Tap House. And then he decided to build his own brewery.
Boggy Draw Brewery opened last month in Sheridan, adding to the growing number of craft breweries dotting the south metro area. And early returns indicate that it's going to be a welcome addition to the Denver scene, with one beer seeming ready to shine as a unique standout.
That beer is Gangsta of Love, the brewery's cream ale aged in gin barrels. Pairing the sharp juniper taste with the lightly hopped and medium-bodied beer manages to create a flavor of its own, as notes of vanilla and caramel jump forward and combine with pin-pricks of gin taste to rev the beer up without making it overwhelming.
Boggy Draw - named after Miera's favorite hunting spot and festooned with deer heads and cow hides - has a couple of other gems ups its camouflaged sleeve as well. The Ese Bueno ESB is an Americanized and especially hoppy version of the style. The Lemondrop Pale Ale, a smash beer, is sharp with a citrus burst. And the Hefeweizen offers immediate hints of banana and bubble gum and is kicky and hopped enough to leave an impression.
Some of the offerings, like the Elk Mane Dark Wheat and the Boggy Bastard Southern Brown, are refreshing and pleasing, if not complex. A few - particularly the American Wheat and Belgian Pale - are quite light-bodied for their styles, coming and going without offending you but without creating anything to remember either.
It's amazing to think that, just four years ago, Denver's south suburbs largely were without breweries that were not connected to national brewpub chains. Now just about every suburb, including the blink-and-you'll-miss-it town of Sheridan, has their own. Some, like Lone Tree Brewing, are doing amazing things, while others are slower to catch up to the general quality level of the Front Range.
Boggy Draw begins its existence with a complement of quality beers and a few you'd want to drink over and over. And it really does give one more incentive for the Denver beer drinker to take a field trip to see what is happening to the south.
Labels: Barrel aging, Boggy Draw Brewery, Caution Brewing, ESB, Kokopelli Beer Co, Lone Tree Brewing, New Colorado breweries, Stapleton Tap House
Saturday, March 21, 2015
Collaboration is the Fulfillment of the Craft Beer Ideal
If the craft-beer movement has been a revolution against the bland, watered-down beer that America got served for 50 years after Prohibition ended, then the nine beer makers that gathered at Caution Brewing Co. on March 4 were taking part in the Colorado Peach Party.
The action was minimal; mostly brewers talked about each others' businesses, though some sharing of recipes and tips on maintaining equipment pervaded the conversations. But by creating a Peach Fuss Ale - a pumpkin-peach beer made in reaction to Budweiser's ridiculous Super Bowl commercial attacking a segment of the beer industry that is growing rapidly while American light lager stagnates - they let the world know the brewing war will be fought by coalition.
And as that beer and roughly 75 others are served today at the second-annual Collaboration Fest, a massively expanding festival from the folks at Imbibe and the Colorado Brewers Guild, these craft brewers will be joining together in a way that no other industry does. They'll share tips with competitors that will help their businesses grow, they'll figure out new joint projects to undertake in the next year and they'll have a hell of a lot of fun doing it - maybe the most important and defining characteristic of the event and the movement.
"Brewers like getting together. They really have a good time when they all get in the same room," said PJ Hoberman, co-founder of Imbibe and proud father of his growing Collab Fest child. "I think the fact that craft beer in America has grown up under the shadow of these behemoth companies means it has always had the attitude of 'we will band together, because we can't take down these giants on their own.'"
There will be giant collaborations - more than 10 female brewers and brewery owners pitched into the Lady Collab, for instance - and there will be plenty of one-on-one teamings. And beer geeks will overrun Sports Authority Field to find them.
Peach Fuss will be one of the stars of the show for its ability to capitalize on the hottest and strangest beer style out there. But there are a lot of other stories that will be worth examing.
One of the favorites that I discovered in hitting a couple of the collaborations, for example, was that of Diebolt Brewing and Denver Beer Co. getting together to make a Biere de Mars for the festival. Denver Beer's new production facility isn't too far from Diebolt, which made it somewhat of a natural collaboration. But when Jack Diebolt and Denver Beer's Nick Bruno got together (pictured above) to make it, they also dreamed up the idea of creating a Sunnyside Beer Festival to announce to the metro area that this up-and-coming westside neighborhood is a place to which beer travelers now can journey.
"We're trying to get Sunnyside on the map," Diebolt said.
One of the newest breweries at the Peach Fuss gathering was Broomfield's Nighthawk Brewing, whose owner, Ethan Hall, also owns a paintball business. There's high competition and little collaboration in that industry, Hall said. In brewing, it's completely different.
That's why Collab Fest is such an important statement. It lets the world know that craft brewing is not only on the rise but is doing so in a way no other industry has done. And that's worth celebrating.
If the craft-beer movement has been a revolution against the bland, watered-down beer that America got served for 50 years after Prohibition ended, then the nine beer makers that gathered at Caution Brewing Co. on March 4 were taking part in the Colorado Peach Party.
The action was minimal; mostly brewers talked about each others' businesses, though some sharing of recipes and tips on maintaining equipment pervaded the conversations. But by creating a Peach Fuss Ale - a pumpkin-peach beer made in reaction to Budweiser's ridiculous Super Bowl commercial attacking a segment of the beer industry that is growing rapidly while American light lager stagnates - they let the world know the brewing war will be fought by coalition.
And as that beer and roughly 75 others are served today at the second-annual Collaboration Fest, a massively expanding festival from the folks at Imbibe and the Colorado Brewers Guild, these craft brewers will be joining together in a way that no other industry does. They'll share tips with competitors that will help their businesses grow, they'll figure out new joint projects to undertake in the next year and they'll have a hell of a lot of fun doing it - maybe the most important and defining characteristic of the event and the movement.
"Brewers like getting together. They really have a good time when they all get in the same room," said PJ Hoberman, co-founder of Imbibe and proud father of his growing Collab Fest child. "I think the fact that craft beer in America has grown up under the shadow of these behemoth companies means it has always had the attitude of 'we will band together, because we can't take down these giants on their own.'"
There will be giant collaborations - more than 10 female brewers and brewery owners pitched into the Lady Collab, for instance - and there will be plenty of one-on-one teamings. And beer geeks will overrun Sports Authority Field to find them.
Peach Fuss will be one of the stars of the show for its ability to capitalize on the hottest and strangest beer style out there. But there are a lot of other stories that will be worth examing.
One of the favorites that I discovered in hitting a couple of the collaborations, for example, was that of Diebolt Brewing and Denver Beer Co. getting together to make a Biere de Mars for the festival. Denver Beer's new production facility isn't too far from Diebolt, which made it somewhat of a natural collaboration. But when Jack Diebolt and Denver Beer's Nick Bruno got together (pictured above) to make it, they also dreamed up the idea of creating a Sunnyside Beer Festival to announce to the metro area that this up-and-coming westside neighborhood is a place to which beer travelers now can journey.
"We're trying to get Sunnyside on the map," Diebolt said.
One of the newest breweries at the Peach Fuss gathering was Broomfield's Nighthawk Brewing, whose owner, Ethan Hall, also owns a paintball business. There's high competition and little collaboration in that industry, Hall said. In brewing, it's completely different.
That's why Collab Fest is such an important statement. It lets the world know that craft brewing is not only on the rise but is doing so in a way no other industry has done. And that's worth celebrating.
Labels: Caution Brewing, collaboration beers, Colorado Brewers Guild, Denver Beer Co, Diebolt Brewing, Festivals, Imbibe, Nighthawk Brewing, Pumpkin beers
Tuesday, December 30, 2014
Ten Best Colorado Beers of 2014
If the past few years have been a period when Colorado brewers went bigger and bolder every year, 2014 could be called a settling - not a settling for lesser beers, but a settling back into more traditional styles or ABV strengths, leading to a resurgence in less complicated but tastier offerings.
That's why this fourth annual edition chronicling one beer geek's thoughts on the best the Centennial State had to offer includes lost gems like a session beer, a brown ale and more pale ales than double IPAs. But it also includes some intensely complex beers and one-off gems, proving that Colorado's beer scene is hard to put into a box - but easy to put into your stomach.
Here, then, are my thoughts on the 10 beers that most shined and defined 2014 in Colorado - both new beers and beers that may have debuted previously but grabbed a new spotlight this year.
10) Odell/New Belgium FOCOllaboration
Fort Collins' two largest craft breweries seemed overdue to combine forces on a product. But it proved worth the wait - a pale ale with the flower and citrus bite of an IPA and the smoothness of two beer masters who know how to do beer without overdoing it.
9) Crazy Mountain Neomexicanus Native Pale Ale
In a year when pale ales made a resurgence, the best thing found in them was completely new - the Humulus Lupulus Neomexicanus hop, a style that is native to North America but never had been used in a Colorado beer. It offered a lemony profile that blended perfectly with Crazy Mountain's approach to letting the hop do all of the talking and not over-malting the beer.
8) Caution Brewing's The Earl
Tea-infused beers aren't made widely enough to be considered a trend just yet. But anyone who tries this dynamo will think they should be. Despite its lighter body - the base beer is a low-alchohol dark mild ale - this creation zings to life with an aggressive addition of Earl Grey tea. It is highly aromatic and can take over your palate without destroying your taste buds.
7) Strange Craft Beer Fresh-Hopped 1000 Barrels Imperial IPA
The regular version of 1000 Barrels is no slacker. But adding pounds upon pounds of CTZ, Cascade and Chinook hops to it cut down the malt sweetness and accented the grassy beauty of the hop like no beer in Colorado did in 2014. Here's hoping that the crew there bring this back for a 2015 encore.
6) River North Grand Unified Theory
Maybe the most unique Colorado beer of 2014, this version of River North's imperial wit aged in cocktail barrels added a sour zing plus the eye-opening tastes of sweet vermouth and bitter liqueur to a body that already was heavy in flavor while being slightly lighter in weight. Coming in near 10 percent ABV, it was the rare beer whose flavor was aided by the clear presence of alcohol, as that just piled on to its complexity.
5) Telluride Face Down Brown
This offering from Telluride Brewing has been around for a few years. But 2014 was the year that it announced that it not only was the best American-style brown ale in the country - it won gold in a Colorado sweep of that category at the Great American Beer Festival - but that it has become one of the state's most essential beers. With noticeable hops backing a solid roasted body, this has started showing up on a lot more beer menus this year, and for good reason.
4) Great Divide Barrel-Aged Grand Cru Cuvee
Known for its dark and its hoppy treasures, Great Divide took a new pathway to excellence at the start of this year by churning out a Syrah-barrel-aged version of its already bulky Grand Cru that added a pungent but not pucker-worthy tartness and somehow remained amazingly drinkable at 12% ABV. Like Strange's offering, this is a one-off that needs to come back.
3) Copper Kettle Snowed In
The debate may be over in regard to Colorado's best winter seasonal. Copper Kettle followed up its fascinating 2013 version of this beer, a barrel-aged imperial oatmeal stout, by adding a heavy dose of coffee and a heavier presence of underlying roasty malt that made this not only the talk of Denver Festivus but the hands-down best Christmas beer in the state. This is technically the only holdover beer from the 2013 top-beers list, but with its makeover it feels brand new.
2) Trinity Super Juice Solution
No brewery in Colorado breaks more new ground more consistently than Trinity Brewing. But for all its high-gravity and barrel-aged experiments, nothing hit the bulls-eye - or, more correctly, created a new bulls-eye further down the road for everyone else to catch up to - like this sessionable sour IPA. First it presented a raw grassiness, then a second layer of punch bearing both cherry and apple tartness. Finally, it left you considering not only what was in it but where session beers could go next if this is their experimental standard-bearer.
1) Boulder Shake Chocolate Porter
Complexity be damned, the best Colorado beer of 2014 had an absurdly simple premise: Add cacao nibs to a traditional American porter and see what happens. The result was the smoothest but arguably most pleasing beer ever from the nation's oldest craft brewery - a mouth-filling waft of cocoa, caramel and balanced body that was equally good in the summer and winter. And it was every bit as good on nitro as it was in standard form. Dark-beer lovers lauded it, and even those who tended toward more complex beers - me included - had to step back and challenge their assumptions about what makes a beer memorable. It will set a high bar for porters and should jump-start the chocolate-porter trend to match the vanilla-porter wave that's rolled across the state.
If the past few years have been a period when Colorado brewers went bigger and bolder every year, 2014 could be called a settling - not a settling for lesser beers, but a settling back into more traditional styles or ABV strengths, leading to a resurgence in less complicated but tastier offerings.
That's why this fourth annual edition chronicling one beer geek's thoughts on the best the Centennial State had to offer includes lost gems like a session beer, a brown ale and more pale ales than double IPAs. But it also includes some intensely complex beers and one-off gems, proving that Colorado's beer scene is hard to put into a box - but easy to put into your stomach.
Here, then, are my thoughts on the 10 beers that most shined and defined 2014 in Colorado - both new beers and beers that may have debuted previously but grabbed a new spotlight this year.
10) Odell/New Belgium FOCOllaboration
Fort Collins' two largest craft breweries seemed overdue to combine forces on a product. But it proved worth the wait - a pale ale with the flower and citrus bite of an IPA and the smoothness of two beer masters who know how to do beer without overdoing it.
9) Crazy Mountain Neomexicanus Native Pale Ale
In a year when pale ales made a resurgence, the best thing found in them was completely new - the Humulus Lupulus Neomexicanus hop, a style that is native to North America but never had been used in a Colorado beer. It offered a lemony profile that blended perfectly with Crazy Mountain's approach to letting the hop do all of the talking and not over-malting the beer.
8) Caution Brewing's The Earl
Tea-infused beers aren't made widely enough to be considered a trend just yet. But anyone who tries this dynamo will think they should be. Despite its lighter body - the base beer is a low-alchohol dark mild ale - this creation zings to life with an aggressive addition of Earl Grey tea. It is highly aromatic and can take over your palate without destroying your taste buds.
7) Strange Craft Beer Fresh-Hopped 1000 Barrels Imperial IPA
The regular version of 1000 Barrels is no slacker. But adding pounds upon pounds of CTZ, Cascade and Chinook hops to it cut down the malt sweetness and accented the grassy beauty of the hop like no beer in Colorado did in 2014. Here's hoping that the crew there bring this back for a 2015 encore.
6) River North Grand Unified Theory
Maybe the most unique Colorado beer of 2014, this version of River North's imperial wit aged in cocktail barrels added a sour zing plus the eye-opening tastes of sweet vermouth and bitter liqueur to a body that already was heavy in flavor while being slightly lighter in weight. Coming in near 10 percent ABV, it was the rare beer whose flavor was aided by the clear presence of alcohol, as that just piled on to its complexity.
5) Telluride Face Down Brown
This offering from Telluride Brewing has been around for a few years. But 2014 was the year that it announced that it not only was the best American-style brown ale in the country - it won gold in a Colorado sweep of that category at the Great American Beer Festival - but that it has become one of the state's most essential beers. With noticeable hops backing a solid roasted body, this has started showing up on a lot more beer menus this year, and for good reason.
4) Great Divide Barrel-Aged Grand Cru Cuvee
Known for its dark and its hoppy treasures, Great Divide took a new pathway to excellence at the start of this year by churning out a Syrah-barrel-aged version of its already bulky Grand Cru that added a pungent but not pucker-worthy tartness and somehow remained amazingly drinkable at 12% ABV. Like Strange's offering, this is a one-off that needs to come back.
3) Copper Kettle Snowed In
The debate may be over in regard to Colorado's best winter seasonal. Copper Kettle followed up its fascinating 2013 version of this beer, a barrel-aged imperial oatmeal stout, by adding a heavy dose of coffee and a heavier presence of underlying roasty malt that made this not only the talk of Denver Festivus but the hands-down best Christmas beer in the state. This is technically the only holdover beer from the 2013 top-beers list, but with its makeover it feels brand new.
2) Trinity Super Juice Solution
No brewery in Colorado breaks more new ground more consistently than Trinity Brewing. But for all its high-gravity and barrel-aged experiments, nothing hit the bulls-eye - or, more correctly, created a new bulls-eye further down the road for everyone else to catch up to - like this sessionable sour IPA. First it presented a raw grassiness, then a second layer of punch bearing both cherry and apple tartness. Finally, it left you considering not only what was in it but where session beers could go next if this is their experimental standard-bearer.
1) Boulder Shake Chocolate Porter
Complexity be damned, the best Colorado beer of 2014 had an absurdly simple premise: Add cacao nibs to a traditional American porter and see what happens. The result was the smoothest but arguably most pleasing beer ever from the nation's oldest craft brewery - a mouth-filling waft of cocoa, caramel and balanced body that was equally good in the summer and winter. And it was every bit as good on nitro as it was in standard form. Dark-beer lovers lauded it, and even those who tended toward more complex beers - me included - had to step back and challenge their assumptions about what makes a beer memorable. It will set a high bar for porters and should jump-start the chocolate-porter trend to match the vanilla-porter wave that's rolled across the state.
Labels: Boulder Beer, Caution Brewing, Copper Kettle Brewing, Crazy Mountain, Great Divide, New Belgium Brewing, Odell Brewing, River North Brewery, Strange Brewing, Telluride Brewing, Top Beers of Year, Trinity Brewing
Sunday, November 24, 2013
The Subtle Joy of Less Crowded Festivals
After the commotion and chaos surrounding the Great American Beer Festival, "calm" and "quiet" become two very attractive qualities in beer festivals. The problem is, they're also two that can be hard to find.
That is why it is worth giving a shout-out to two recent festivals that showcased the best of beer in ways that allowed attendees to talk - I mean, really carry on conversations - with the people who made that beer. And it's worth asking people to support such efforts in the future, so that they can stand out in an increasingly crowded festival scene.
First was Chef & Brew, the Nov. 14 second annual celebration of food and beer pairing put on by the folks at Beercraving. I didn't attend the initial version, but people who did described as a well-intentioned but disastrously overcrowded effort that negated the chance to pair good beer and small courses in a thoughtful way.
This year, however, the number of people in the Exdo Center was perfectly acceptable, the flow of the lines - never longer than seven or eight people - was seamless and the essence of the event bubbled forth. Anyone who got to try offerings like Caution Brewing's duck and pork meatballs topped with hopped chili syrup and paired with an Oolong Berliner Weisse (pictured below) got a better appreciation of beer/food pairing.
Second was American Craft Beer Radio's Holiday Beer Bash, held two nights ago at Mile High Station. Roughly 30 breweries from throughout Colorado and other states pulled in, with about two-thirds offering holiday beers that gave the festival a unique flair and with almost all of them bringing something you can't always get.
The festival was spaced perfectly (see the open areas in the photo at the top of this blog), and I heard from a bunch of people how pleasant it was not to be playing pinball with everyone jutting a 3-oz. cup in for tasters. You could talk with Copper Kettle co-owner Kristen Kozik about how exactly they made the Pecan Smoked Brown Ale they were pouring. And you could find out why the guys from Grist Brewing decided to open in Highlands Ranch and how the community is reacting to offerings like its sweetly big-bodied Third Ring Belgian Strong Ale.
Such festivals may not offer up 49,000 tickets or generate the well-deserved buzz of events like the GABF. But they bring beer tasting down to a familiar one-on-one experience between you and the brewer, or you and the other beer lovers you may strike up conversations with in the room. And that, for my money, is a reason to ensure these efforts have the beer community's support.
After the commotion and chaos surrounding the Great American Beer Festival, "calm" and "quiet" become two very attractive qualities in beer festivals. The problem is, they're also two that can be hard to find.
That is why it is worth giving a shout-out to two recent festivals that showcased the best of beer in ways that allowed attendees to talk - I mean, really carry on conversations - with the people who made that beer. And it's worth asking people to support such efforts in the future, so that they can stand out in an increasingly crowded festival scene.
First was Chef & Brew, the Nov. 14 second annual celebration of food and beer pairing put on by the folks at Beercraving. I didn't attend the initial version, but people who did described as a well-intentioned but disastrously overcrowded effort that negated the chance to pair good beer and small courses in a thoughtful way.
This year, however, the number of people in the Exdo Center was perfectly acceptable, the flow of the lines - never longer than seven or eight people - was seamless and the essence of the event bubbled forth. Anyone who got to try offerings like Caution Brewing's duck and pork meatballs topped with hopped chili syrup and paired with an Oolong Berliner Weisse (pictured below) got a better appreciation of beer/food pairing.
Second was American Craft Beer Radio's Holiday Beer Bash, held two nights ago at Mile High Station. Roughly 30 breweries from throughout Colorado and other states pulled in, with about two-thirds offering holiday beers that gave the festival a unique flair and with almost all of them bringing something you can't always get.
The festival was spaced perfectly (see the open areas in the photo at the top of this blog), and I heard from a bunch of people how pleasant it was not to be playing pinball with everyone jutting a 3-oz. cup in for tasters. You could talk with Copper Kettle co-owner Kristen Kozik about how exactly they made the Pecan Smoked Brown Ale they were pouring. And you could find out why the guys from Grist Brewing decided to open in Highlands Ranch and how the community is reacting to offerings like its sweetly big-bodied Third Ring Belgian Strong Ale.
Such festivals may not offer up 49,000 tickets or generate the well-deserved buzz of events like the GABF. But they bring beer tasting down to a familiar one-on-one experience between you and the brewer, or you and the other beer lovers you may strike up conversations with in the room. And that, for my money, is a reason to ensure these efforts have the beer community's support.
Labels: American Craft Beer Radio, Beercraving, Caution Brewing, Copper Kettle Brewing, Food pairing, Grist Brewing
Tuesday, October 15, 2013
What stood out about the recently completed Great American Beer Festival was that so many beers stood out, maybe more than at any time in the past 10 years. And what's more, beer aficionados didn't have to wait in the 70-person lines at the hottest breweries to find experiments that were both fascinating and extremely well done.
With that said, here is one beer geek's opinion about the best the industry showed off in Denver this past weekend. I've deviated from past formats by failing to narrow it down to just one beer in several categories because, well, too many beers deserve recognition.
Best in Show: CHP, Heretic Brewing
This is almost a random pick with so many equally worthy contestants, but this northern California brewery's chocolate hazelnut porter was the most surprising and refreshing find of the weekend. At a time when more brewers are stepping up their games with use of chocolate, this offered the perfect blend of nuttiness and sweetness in a beer that went down smoothly and made you want to try it over and over again.
Best with Hops: Muffin Top (Clown Shoes) and Fan Boy (Elevation Beer)
The push to over-hop beers seems thankfully to have been replaced by a push to add new flavoring to go with big hops. And these two seemed to lead the way in that respect.
Muffin Top is a Belgian Tripel IPA from Massachusetts, blowing your taste buds with the sweet ester of a strong Belgian beer combined with mouth-consuming grassy hops. Fan Boy is a soon-to-be-released (if the government gets its act together) barrel-aged double IPA from Poncha Springs that imbues oak and vanilla through its big, bold character in a way that may even appeal to non-hopheads.
Best Traditional Sour: Salado Kriek, Freetail Brewing
This San Antonio brewery's kriek is both eye-openingly tart and wonderfully fruity, leaving it cherry-like and sharp at the same time.
Best Barrel-Aged Sours: Saint Dekkera Reserve Sour Paw Paw Ale (Destihl) and Farmer's Reserve No. 3 (Almanac Beer)
To hell with cherries. Breweries from across the countries are throwing rare fruits and fruit blends into barrels and producing complex and pucker-worthy beers of unique flavor.
Destihl, the barrel-aging masters from central Illinois, outdid themselves with their use of the "prairie banana" to make a very tart effort that leans somewhere between a citrus and sweeter fruit but satisfies immensely. San Francisco's Almanac, which earned its reputation as one of the "it" beers of the festival, brought strawberries and nectarines together and kept you guessing what you were tasting.
Best Aged Non-Sours: Dragon's Milk Reserve - Smaug's Breath (New Holland Brewing) and My Turn Series: Chris (Lakefront Brewery)
The increasing diversity of aged beers may be the biggest trend in craft brewing. And two one-off products showed why it should continue.
Michigan's New Holland offered a bourbon-barrel stout made with chile that left you with two extreme tastes surprisingly blending in your mouth rather than competing for your attention. Milwaukee's Lakefront rolled out a vanilla maple doppelbock - not barrel-aged, but aged naturally for 10 months to give it smoothness - that allowed the vanilla to mellow the maple while putting forth both tastes.
Best Unique Additives, Colorado Style: Basil Blonde (Copper Kettle Brewing) and Card Your Mom Saison (Caution Brewing)
Colorado isn't the only state using herbs and spices to liven up beers. But these two Denver breweries deserve a special call-out.
Copper Kettle's addition of basil allows the taste to permeate the blonde ale and give it an earthy, sweet feel without overdoing it or, most importantly, teasing you to the point where you can't taste it. Caution's cardamom saison offers flavors both big and exotic and raises the question of why there aren't more breweries trying Middle Eastern and Asian ingredients.
Labels: Almanac Beer, Caution Brewing, Clown Shoes, Copper Kettle Brewing, Destihl, Elevation Beer, Freetail Brewing, Great American Beer Festival, Heretic Brewing, Lakefront Brewery, New Holland Brewing
Wednesday, July 10, 2013
Throwing Caution to the Wind
A blog reader recently suggested that since I have no immediate plans to update "Mountain Brew," I should use this space to do more on breweries that opened since the book went to press in May 2011. And I thought that might be the best suggestion I'd heard in a long time.
So, while I've scrawled on a few of the state's newer breweries (see the last paragraph of this post), I wanted to start this series of posts by catching up with the first brewery to open after the deadline cutoff for the book - Caution Brewing in northeast Denver.
Since its June 2011 debut, Caution has evolved from the brewery making beer for co-owner Danny Wang's parents' restaurant (Lao Wang Noodle House) to one opening a second location in Lakewood this fall. And the appeal of his beers and the ensuing need to expand can be traced to one trait - Danny's unwillingness to make anything just to style.
Take his Lao Wang Lager, which has the classic light lager body - but then gets jazzed up with Asian spices from his parent's restaurant, making it the most interesting beer of its style in the state. Oh, and it might also be the best beer to pair with spicy or otherwise exotic tastes, its ginger and anise overtones settling in to any dish in front of you.
Or there's one of his newer creations, the Card Your Mom Saison, infused with cardamom to give a big nose of spice backed with a Belgian-candy-sugar body that makes this both inviting and appealing.
The more you drink of Caution's beers - such as the very new Frothy Sheet Wheat, a nitro-infused wheat that creates a Hefeweizen mouthfeel with the pillowy body of a Guinness - the more you find your expectations raised. So, if after a tasting you find that the Wild Blonde (brewed with rice) or the Honey Matrimony (brown ale brewed with Colorado wildflower honey) seem a bit dull, it may just be the comparison other beers have created.
Caution doesn't throw out the highly hopped beers like most other state breweries; even its Hippity Hops IPA with whole flower chrysanthemum and Chinese rock brown sugar uses sweetness to cut hop acidity. But it creates such interesting varieties that even a hop head may not mind.
Still brewing on the former Odell Brewing five-barrel system that notably produced 5 Barrel Pale Ale (pictured above), Caution will have 12 full taps to tinker with even more experiments at its second location. And Danny and co-owner Betty Fey (pictured way above) can hopefully find an even wider audience for beers that should be saluted for their uniqueness.
(To see write-ups on other breweries that have opened over the past two years, click here for Pikes Peak Brewing, Denver Beer Co., Hogshead Brewery, River North Brewery, Cannonball Creek Brewing and Colorado Plus Brew Pub. And I promise these will come a lot more frequently in the coming months.)
A blog reader recently suggested that since I have no immediate plans to update "Mountain Brew," I should use this space to do more on breweries that opened since the book went to press in May 2011. And I thought that might be the best suggestion I'd heard in a long time.
So, while I've scrawled on a few of the state's newer breweries (see the last paragraph of this post), I wanted to start this series of posts by catching up with the first brewery to open after the deadline cutoff for the book - Caution Brewing in northeast Denver.
Since its June 2011 debut, Caution has evolved from the brewery making beer for co-owner Danny Wang's parents' restaurant (Lao Wang Noodle House) to one opening a second location in Lakewood this fall. And the appeal of his beers and the ensuing need to expand can be traced to one trait - Danny's unwillingness to make anything just to style.
Take his Lao Wang Lager, which has the classic light lager body - but then gets jazzed up with Asian spices from his parent's restaurant, making it the most interesting beer of its style in the state. Oh, and it might also be the best beer to pair with spicy or otherwise exotic tastes, its ginger and anise overtones settling in to any dish in front of you.
Or there's one of his newer creations, the Card Your Mom Saison, infused with cardamom to give a big nose of spice backed with a Belgian-candy-sugar body that makes this both inviting and appealing.
The more you drink of Caution's beers - such as the very new Frothy Sheet Wheat, a nitro-infused wheat that creates a Hefeweizen mouthfeel with the pillowy body of a Guinness - the more you find your expectations raised. So, if after a tasting you find that the Wild Blonde (brewed with rice) or the Honey Matrimony (brown ale brewed with Colorado wildflower honey) seem a bit dull, it may just be the comparison other beers have created.
Caution doesn't throw out the highly hopped beers like most other state breweries; even its Hippity Hops IPA with whole flower chrysanthemum and Chinese rock brown sugar uses sweetness to cut hop acidity. But it creates such interesting varieties that even a hop head may not mind.
Still brewing on the former Odell Brewing five-barrel system that notably produced 5 Barrel Pale Ale (pictured above), Caution will have 12 full taps to tinker with even more experiments at its second location. And Danny and co-owner Betty Fey (pictured way above) can hopefully find an even wider audience for beers that should be saluted for their uniqueness.
(To see write-ups on other breweries that have opened over the past two years, click here for Pikes Peak Brewing, Denver Beer Co., Hogshead Brewery, River North Brewery, Cannonball Creek Brewing and Colorado Plus Brew Pub. And I promise these will come a lot more frequently in the coming months.)
Labels: Caution Brewing, Mountain Brew book, New Colorado breweries, Odell Brewing
Tuesday, October 04, 2011
GABF Wrapup: Best of the FestAfter three days of attempted recovery from the Great American Beer Festival, I can still taste some of the beers I sampled - and in a good way. Sours took on more nuanced and fresher flavors, IPAs seemed to have a more uniform grassy backbone and it seemed you could find a surprise beer around every corner, especially at the pro-am booth.
So, per annual tradition, here is one beer connoisseur's opinion on the very best that America had to offer this year.
Beer of the Festival: Never in 11 years of attendance have I tapped a Colorado brewery for this honor. But Trinity Brewing's Brain of the Turtle - a sour ale aged with cherries, coffee and almonds - defied every known category and blended terrific flavors into a masterpiece. While I was in line at the booth, two separate people told brewer Jason Yester that other brewers recommended they try his beer. The reputation is well earned.
Close Runner-Up: Tiny Captain Lawrence Brewing of New York state opened a lot of eyes with its Rosso e Marrone, an ale fermented in grapes and aged in oak barrels. In a world of increasingly complex beers, this went beyond pucker-worthy and was smooth and almost exotic on the tongue.
Best Lager: It isn't to style in any way, but Danny Wang's Lao Wang Lager, from Denver start-up Caution Brewing, should inspire admirers and copycats with its proprietary blend of Asian spices.
Best Wheat: Tumblewheat, from perpetual festival attention-getter Altitude Chophouse and Brewery of Wyoming, came across like a vanilla cream wheat with an exceptional blend of smoothness and sweetness.
Best Hop Monster: Coloradans got a gift earlier this year when Firestone Walker Brewing of California finally began distributing out here. Anyone IPA fan who doesn't demand their local liquor stores bring in Double Jack, an imperial IPA that blends flowery earth tastes and sweetness artfully, is missing out.
Best Malt Monster: Sun King Brewing of Indianapolis took home a festival-best eight medals, but none were more deserving than the one earned by Pappy Van Muckle, a barrel-aged Scottish ale that is big, sweet and ignites the taste buds with a lightly whiskey-sodden flavor.
Most Interesting Beer: Anyone who failed to wander over to the pro-am booth Saturday missed out on the Indra Kenindra Curry Export Stout submitted by Ballast Point Brewing of San Diego, which had the nose of a south Asian rice bowl and backed it with a dark undertaste that helped it settle smoothly. It makes you excited about the next generation of beers to come in the years ahead.
Labels: Altitude Chophouse and Brewery, Ballast Point Brewing, Captain Lawrence Brewing, Caution Brewing, Firestone Walker Brewing, Great American Beer Festival, Sun King Brewing, Trinity Brewing
Friday, September 30, 2011
GABF, Day One: The Colorado BreweriesWhen a company selling a retail product tells you that it's about to release a "game changer," you should be skeptical. Yet, just a couple of sips into Left Hand's bottled Nitro Milk Stout last night, and I knew they were not exaggerating the importance of this beer.
The Longmont brewery has found a way to smooth out the best milk stout in America without the gadgetry that is normally required to be in a nitrogen-aided can. It brings out the subtle sweetness of the dark brew without pushing that attribute too hard for people who might not like it. As odd as this may sound, it makes a great beer better.
So, why is this important? Because an American product, which the brewery ships to stores today, is about to give Guinness a run for its money. I confess I've never been a Guinness drinker because I find it a little dull. This beer offers the smoothness that stout drinkers with less envelope-pushing palates than mine will appreciate, as well as the added kick of flavor that will grab the attention of someone who might normally go for a big IPA. It has the chance, I believe, to be the biggest thing to emanate from Colorado since Fat Tire.
Yet, Left Hand's big announcement was just one of the things that jumped out at the first night of the Great American Beer Festival, which I spend mostly talking with Colorado brewers and trying to find the next great thing coming out of the state. Here's what is there:
*If you haven't been to Lao Wang Noodle House in Denver, you haven't tried anything from the three-month-old Caution: Brewing Company, as that is the location of its only account. Go. Brewer Danny Wang's Lao Wang Lager, brought to life with a proprietary mix of Asian spices in the brewing, jumps across your taste buds more noticeably than many of the finest ginger beers in the country. You'll want to pair this with food.
*In the discussion of the state's best IPA, Avery's Dugana IPA is often overlooked. It shouldn't be. It has a larger pop of ass-kicking grassy hops than many, and it may be the best thing the Boulder beermeisters are serving at their booth this year.
*Want to play a fun game? Go to Shamrock Brewing's booth, try the Poacher's Pale Ale and try to identify what kind of hops are in there. Brewer Jason Buehler picks them from his favorite mountain biking trail - hence, the name - and the mystery hops give an interesting but slightly indiscernible taste to this subtle but enjoyable beer.
*In a world of wheat experimentation, Dostal Alley Brewpub & Casino has found a good niche. Buddy Schmalz's Summer Ale is sopped in chamomile with an orange backtaste. It's worth a try.
Labels: Avery Brewing, Caution Brewing, Dostal Alley Brewpub, Great American Beer Festival, Left Hand Brewing, Shamrock Brewing
