Sunday, December 31, 2017
10 Best Colorado Beers of 2017
Truth be told, the more breweries that open in Colorado each year, the less beer you get to taste from any of them in particular. As such, these year-end lists become less about the beers that you drank over and over throughout the year and more about the one-offs and unique finds that left impressions long after you first enjoyed them.
Still, the variety of offerings in the Centennial State has never been greater, and the experimentation levels with classical styles have never been more rampant, giving breweries an opportunity to create something so stand-out that they can say it truly was one of a kind. And while imperial stout or IPA may be the base beer to many of these 2017 selections, it is the way those styles were interpreted that made them the ones that emblazoned 2017 with its personality.
As always, these aren't just beers that were produced for the first time this year but brews that jumped up in one way or another in the past 12 months and made their greatest marks.
10) River North/Funkwerks Saison Conspiracy Noir
A dark saison combining elements of Belgian tradition and a delicious malt-forward body, this really jumped to life because of its Syrah grape must and its Cabernet-barrel aging that teased at a slightly tart body but still let the base beer speak for itself.
9) Rockyard Plum Creek Sour
Quite a few people reacted with surprise when this unassuming Castle Rock brewery nabbed the Great American Beer Festival gold medal for wood- and barrel-aged sour beer. But this plum-forward beer (pictured at left) was both sweet and sour and truly was the best tart beer made in Colorado this year.
8) Jagged Mountain This Beer Really Ties The Room Together
Maybe the most improved Colorado brewery of 2017, Jagged Mountain hit its absolute stride with this blonde milk stout that featured the additions of lactose, coffee beans and cacao nibs. It created a full-bodied beer that tasted like it was dry-hopped with coffee rather than overwhelmed by the additive, offering a plethora of flavors that worked perfectly together.
7) Great Divide Barrel-Aged Hibernation Ale
The increasing efforts of Denver's largest brewery toward its barrel-aging program pay off again and again, this year letting a whiskey barrel soak into an already sweet and malt-forward old ale for a year and producing a delightfully unsubtle beer that hits you with a variety of flavors, each one seeming to become part of a bigger tasty picture.
6) Intrepid Sojourner Beer Project Turkish Coffee Stout
Denver's best new brewery adds unusual ingredients to its portfolio of beers like they were offered up in a "Chopped" basket. But nothing was both so unique and so style-redefining as this shockingly smooth dark ale that offered a lot of coffee grit and also a lingering sweetness that just made it taste, well, foreign.
5) New Image East Coast Transplant
A hazy double IPA that presents both a guava/mango nose and just enough hint of bittering hops on the backtaste that it both exemplifies the best qualities of the New England IPA style and defies easy definition with hints of both coasts in its complex profile.
4) Mountain Sun Bourbon-Barrel-Aged Chocolate Thunder Imperial Chocolate Milk Stout
The Boulder/Denver operators of the Mountain Sun concept go all out for their February stout month, both in terms of the number and variety of offerings they produce. Nothing, however, has ever been as magical as this, pulling together a huge body with the combined sweetness of chocolate, lactose and hints of bourbon to make a beer that is giant - but is far more flavorful than it is big, somehow.
3) Comrade/Uberbrew Triple IPA
The star of March's Collaboration Fest might just come to be the most-sought-after beer in Comrade's extensive hop portfolio if it were to offer it regularly. Highly floral and refreshingly grassy, the beer is made remarkable by its lack of alcohol burn. It's a master study in how to go big without scorching any taste buds.
2) City Star Wood Belly
Arguably, no single beer from 2017 did more to redefine the perception of a brewery than this barrel-aged imperial IPA double-dry-hopped with Amarillo, Mosaic and Citra hops. It manages to be so many things at once - wonderfully boozy (at 10.6% ABV), tropical in its hopping and imbued with such a deep oak taste that it's the rare hop bomb that becomes more flavorful as it warms. This Berthoud brewery has made solid beers for years; this, however, is a new level of successful experimentation that should garner a lot more attention for City Star.
1) Station 26 German Chocolate Bourbon-Barrel-Aged Dark Star Imperial Stout
This infinitely complex and drinkable beer debuted before 2017, but if there was a coming-out party for it, it was at January's Big Beers, Belgians & Barleywines Festival, where the increasingly confident Denver brewery held its own against every brewer in that room. The beer is, first and foremost, exactly what it promises - a slice of rich, dark, sweet cake in alcoholic liquid form. But the barrel aging gives it just enough of a pervading influence that it kicks the flavor to the next level, and the high alcohol content here is used to accent the richness rather than overshadow it. In a year when transcending the long-held definition of dark beers became almost a competitive sport for Colorado craft breweries, none of them jumped so far over the bar as Station 26 did with this masterpiece.
Truth be told, the more breweries that open in Colorado each year, the less beer you get to taste from any of them in particular. As such, these year-end lists become less about the beers that you drank over and over throughout the year and more about the one-offs and unique finds that left impressions long after you first enjoyed them.
Still, the variety of offerings in the Centennial State has never been greater, and the experimentation levels with classical styles have never been more rampant, giving breweries an opportunity to create something so stand-out that they can say it truly was one of a kind. And while imperial stout or IPA may be the base beer to many of these 2017 selections, it is the way those styles were interpreted that made them the ones that emblazoned 2017 with its personality.
As always, these aren't just beers that were produced for the first time this year but brews that jumped up in one way or another in the past 12 months and made their greatest marks.
10) River North/Funkwerks Saison Conspiracy Noir
A dark saison combining elements of Belgian tradition and a delicious malt-forward body, this really jumped to life because of its Syrah grape must and its Cabernet-barrel aging that teased at a slightly tart body but still let the base beer speak for itself.
Quite a few people reacted with surprise when this unassuming Castle Rock brewery nabbed the Great American Beer Festival gold medal for wood- and barrel-aged sour beer. But this plum-forward beer (pictured at left) was both sweet and sour and truly was the best tart beer made in Colorado this year.
8) Jagged Mountain This Beer Really Ties The Room Together
Maybe the most improved Colorado brewery of 2017, Jagged Mountain hit its absolute stride with this blonde milk stout that featured the additions of lactose, coffee beans and cacao nibs. It created a full-bodied beer that tasted like it was dry-hopped with coffee rather than overwhelmed by the additive, offering a plethora of flavors that worked perfectly together.
7) Great Divide Barrel-Aged Hibernation Ale
The increasing efforts of Denver's largest brewery toward its barrel-aging program pay off again and again, this year letting a whiskey barrel soak into an already sweet and malt-forward old ale for a year and producing a delightfully unsubtle beer that hits you with a variety of flavors, each one seeming to become part of a bigger tasty picture.
6) Intrepid Sojourner Beer Project Turkish Coffee Stout
Denver's best new brewery adds unusual ingredients to its portfolio of beers like they were offered up in a "Chopped" basket. But nothing was both so unique and so style-redefining as this shockingly smooth dark ale that offered a lot of coffee grit and also a lingering sweetness that just made it taste, well, foreign.
A hazy double IPA that presents both a guava/mango nose and just enough hint of bittering hops on the backtaste that it both exemplifies the best qualities of the New England IPA style and defies easy definition with hints of both coasts in its complex profile.
4) Mountain Sun Bourbon-Barrel-Aged Chocolate Thunder Imperial Chocolate Milk Stout
The Boulder/Denver operators of the Mountain Sun concept go all out for their February stout month, both in terms of the number and variety of offerings they produce. Nothing, however, has ever been as magical as this, pulling together a huge body with the combined sweetness of chocolate, lactose and hints of bourbon to make a beer that is giant - but is far more flavorful than it is big, somehow.
3) Comrade/Uberbrew Triple IPA
The star of March's Collaboration Fest might just come to be the most-sought-after beer in Comrade's extensive hop portfolio if it were to offer it regularly. Highly floral and refreshingly grassy, the beer is made remarkable by its lack of alcohol burn. It's a master study in how to go big without scorching any taste buds.
2) City Star Wood Belly
Arguably, no single beer from 2017 did more to redefine the perception of a brewery than this barrel-aged imperial IPA double-dry-hopped with Amarillo, Mosaic and Citra hops. It manages to be so many things at once - wonderfully boozy (at 10.6% ABV), tropical in its hopping and imbued with such a deep oak taste that it's the rare hop bomb that becomes more flavorful as it warms. This Berthoud brewery has made solid beers for years; this, however, is a new level of successful experimentation that should garner a lot more attention for City Star.
1) Station 26 German Chocolate Bourbon-Barrel-Aged Dark Star Imperial Stout
This infinitely complex and drinkable beer debuted before 2017, but if there was a coming-out party for it, it was at January's Big Beers, Belgians & Barleywines Festival, where the increasingly confident Denver brewery held its own against every brewer in that room. The beer is, first and foremost, exactly what it promises - a slice of rich, dark, sweet cake in alcoholic liquid form. But the barrel aging gives it just enough of a pervading influence that it kicks the flavor to the next level, and the high alcohol content here is used to accent the richness rather than overshadow it. In a year when transcending the long-held definition of dark beers became almost a competitive sport for Colorado craft breweries, none of them jumped so far over the bar as Station 26 did with this masterpiece.
Labels: City Star Brewing, Comrade Brewing, Funkwerks, Intrepid Sojourner, Jagged Mountain Brewery, Mountain Sun, New Image Brewing, River North Brewery, Rockyard Brewery, Station 26 Brewing, Top Beers of Year
Wednesday, November 11, 2015
4 Things I Learned from Denver Bacon and Beer Festival
Denver Bacon and Beer Festival got a new location and a bit of a new vibe this year. But it was good once again for discovering a few things about taste pairings.
The 4th annual gathering moved from the more crowded confines of a downtown hotel to the Glitter Dome, an old warehouse space in the River North area. The transition allowed for a lot more room to roam around, chat with fellow pork samplers and not get crammed into lines. There also was a little less direct pairing of the bacon dishes with specific beers, but that only meant you had to try a little more of everything to find the best match.
That said, here are some things that became apparent over the course of the festival, thrown once again by Imbibe Denver.
1) If you drink just one barrel-aged barleywine this year, make it Old Ruffian.
Great Divide's hefty creation can be overlooked in discussions of the best barleywines in Colorado, but it certainly should not be. Aged in bourbon and whiskey barrels, it offered both balance and a burst of flavor that rivaled any salted or candied bacon served at the gathering.
2) Maple is a better beer ingredient than bacon
Brewers got into their experimental grooves for the gathering. But while adding the sweet, hearty taste of syrup to beer proved alluring - City Star Brewing especially broke out a Maple Brown that showed off the best attributes of the flavor - several beer makers who tried tossing bacon into their brew created gimmicks lacking in both meaty flavor and heft.
3) Brats and IPA is a pairing made in heaven
There was a lot to savor in the food category, from bacon donuts to a spicy bacon spam from Lena that was much better than those words could describe. But the best suggestion of the afternoon came from the chef at Kitchen Next Door, whose half-bacon brat with a slightly acidic mustard paired as well as he said it would with an IPA - specifically Oskar Blues' new version of the style. A little bite of the beer with a little bite of the pork should be a rule to remember.
4) The kettle sour is on the rise.
Yes, I realize that a bacon and beer festival can be an odd place to realize this. But after breweries such as River North have kicked down the door of the style and made it both appealing and accessible, the fact that Elevation Beer Co. served up its take on the genre (Acide) and made it a talker at a festival where people could have drifted naturally to chunky porters shows how much the kettle sour can stand out - and pair with goodies like a bacon and egg custard.
Denver Bacon and Beer Festival got a new location and a bit of a new vibe this year. But it was good once again for discovering a few things about taste pairings.The 4th annual gathering moved from the more crowded confines of a downtown hotel to the Glitter Dome, an old warehouse space in the River North area. The transition allowed for a lot more room to roam around, chat with fellow pork samplers and not get crammed into lines. There also was a little less direct pairing of the bacon dishes with specific beers, but that only meant you had to try a little more of everything to find the best match.
That said, here are some things that became apparent over the course of the festival, thrown once again by Imbibe Denver.
1) If you drink just one barrel-aged barleywine this year, make it Old Ruffian.
Great Divide's hefty creation can be overlooked in discussions of the best barleywines in Colorado, but it certainly should not be. Aged in bourbon and whiskey barrels, it offered both balance and a burst of flavor that rivaled any salted or candied bacon served at the gathering.
2) Maple is a better beer ingredient than bacon
Brewers got into their experimental grooves for the gathering. But while adding the sweet, hearty taste of syrup to beer proved alluring - City Star Brewing especially broke out a Maple Brown that showed off the best attributes of the flavor - several beer makers who tried tossing bacon into their brew created gimmicks lacking in both meaty flavor and heft.
3) Brats and IPA is a pairing made in heaven
There was a lot to savor in the food category, from bacon donuts to a spicy bacon spam from Lena that was much better than those words could describe. But the best suggestion of the afternoon came from the chef at Kitchen Next Door, whose half-bacon brat with a slightly acidic mustard paired as well as he said it would with an IPA - specifically Oskar Blues' new version of the style. A little bite of the beer with a little bite of the pork should be a rule to remember.4) The kettle sour is on the rise.
Yes, I realize that a bacon and beer festival can be an odd place to realize this. But after breweries such as River North have kicked down the door of the style and made it both appealing and accessible, the fact that Elevation Beer Co. served up its take on the genre (Acide) and made it a talker at a festival where people could have drifted naturally to chunky porters shows how much the kettle sour can stand out - and pair with goodies like a bacon and egg custard.
Labels: City Star Brewing, Elevation Beer, Festivals, Food pairing, Great Divide, Imbibe, Oskar Blues
Tuesday, June 16, 2015
Five Things I Learned from Burning Can and the Great Divide 21st Birthday
Two of Colorado's finest breweries, Oskar Blues and Great Divide, held big parties over the past three weeks. In addition to the obvious resounding message - loads of craft beer + spring day = good time - there was much to be gleaned from the celebration of canned craft beer as well as the celebration of Great Divide turning old enough to legally imbibe its own products.
1) It's time for "dark sour" to become a more common beer description
Great Divide busted out a host of one-offs and experiments for its anniversary party, but none stood out like its Prince of Tartness, a black sour ale brewed with 25 malts that offered a spectacular complexity of dark body and a real puckery kick. A number of other breweries have broken out the style on special occasions recently, most notably Former Future Brewing. Someone - such as Great Divide - needs to make this a full-time part of its repertoire.
2) The American IPA may be getting cleaner and better
About five years ago, when every brewery toyed with a double IPA and a few too many tried to push the hop palate with triples, there was concern that "mouth-blistering" might become the de facto description of American pale beers. But a number of breweries who celebrated the hop at Burning Can showed that toning down the IBUs has ramped up the quality of the style.
Austin Beerworks' Fire Eagle IPA, for example, presented a big grassy taste without being overly bitter. City Star Brewing of Berthoud offered up an All-American IPA dry-hopped with citra that added a bit of mustiness to its crisp taste. And La Cumbre of New Mexico brought a sharp and fully bitter IPA that isn't for the feint of palate but shows off great attributes of the style.
3) The hoppy wheat ale is here to stay. Deal with it.
Great Divide used its celebration to showcase, among other beers, its Whitewater Hoppy Wheat Ale, a version of the burgeoning style that kicks up the hop level to new heights. At first the idea of smooth summer drinking and an assertive hop bite seemed to be a conflict of interest. But beers like this show it can be pulled off expertly, even if people looking for a straight-up wheat might feel a little blindsided by the taste.
4) It's time for Oskar Blues to can Death by Coconut
For being one of America's largest craft breweries, Oskar Blues' year-round offering of six beers, plus two seasonals, is smaller than many competitors' varieties. It first came up with its collaboration coconut porter, made with Shamrock Brewing of Pueblo, in 2014, and the smooth, sweet and big taste has generated a lot of talk at most festivals where it's been on display, including Burning Can. This would be a great lineup to its portfolio.
5) There are different ways to deal with big crowds.
The lines at Burning Can were shockingly small, likely because festival goers had so many different things to do. In addition to all of the outdoor sports on display in Lyons (admittedly not a feature of most space-starved festivals), there was a great tasting booth (above) in the middle of the field that allowed attendees to duck away, sample beers and decide the festival's honorees blindly.
Great Divide's lines (below) were quite long, and even owner Brian Dunn acknowledged he had to do something about them when I ran into him. But pourers did something very smart - they doled up 8- to 10-oz. samples of even their rarer offerings, so that drinkers could have a full pour to enjoy while they settled down for what then didn't seem like such a long wait. Other festivals with crowd issues would be wise to consider such impromptu measures in the future.
Two of Colorado's finest breweries, Oskar Blues and Great Divide, held big parties over the past three weeks. In addition to the obvious resounding message - loads of craft beer + spring day = good time - there was much to be gleaned from the celebration of canned craft beer as well as the celebration of Great Divide turning old enough to legally imbibe its own products.
1) It's time for "dark sour" to become a more common beer description
Great Divide busted out a host of one-offs and experiments for its anniversary party, but none stood out like its Prince of Tartness, a black sour ale brewed with 25 malts that offered a spectacular complexity of dark body and a real puckery kick. A number of other breweries have broken out the style on special occasions recently, most notably Former Future Brewing. Someone - such as Great Divide - needs to make this a full-time part of its repertoire.
2) The American IPA may be getting cleaner and better
About five years ago, when every brewery toyed with a double IPA and a few too many tried to push the hop palate with triples, there was concern that "mouth-blistering" might become the de facto description of American pale beers. But a number of breweries who celebrated the hop at Burning Can showed that toning down the IBUs has ramped up the quality of the style.
Austin Beerworks' Fire Eagle IPA, for example, presented a big grassy taste without being overly bitter. City Star Brewing of Berthoud offered up an All-American IPA dry-hopped with citra that added a bit of mustiness to its crisp taste. And La Cumbre of New Mexico brought a sharp and fully bitter IPA that isn't for the feint of palate but shows off great attributes of the style.
3) The hoppy wheat ale is here to stay. Deal with it.
Great Divide used its celebration to showcase, among other beers, its Whitewater Hoppy Wheat Ale, a version of the burgeoning style that kicks up the hop level to new heights. At first the idea of smooth summer drinking and an assertive hop bite seemed to be a conflict of interest. But beers like this show it can be pulled off expertly, even if people looking for a straight-up wheat might feel a little blindsided by the taste.
4) It's time for Oskar Blues to can Death by Coconut
For being one of America's largest craft breweries, Oskar Blues' year-round offering of six beers, plus two seasonals, is smaller than many competitors' varieties. It first came up with its collaboration coconut porter, made with Shamrock Brewing of Pueblo, in 2014, and the smooth, sweet and big taste has generated a lot of talk at most festivals where it's been on display, including Burning Can. This would be a great lineup to its portfolio.
5) There are different ways to deal with big crowds.
The lines at Burning Can were shockingly small, likely because festival goers had so many different things to do. In addition to all of the outdoor sports on display in Lyons (admittedly not a feature of most space-starved festivals), there was a great tasting booth (above) in the middle of the field that allowed attendees to duck away, sample beers and decide the festival's honorees blindly.
Great Divide's lines (below) were quite long, and even owner Brian Dunn acknowledged he had to do something about them when I ran into him. But pourers did something very smart - they doled up 8- to 10-oz. samples of even their rarer offerings, so that drinkers could have a full pour to enjoy while they settled down for what then didn't seem like such a long wait. Other festivals with crowd issues would be wise to consider such impromptu measures in the future.
Labels: City Star Brewing, Festivals, Great Divide, hoppy wheat ales, IPA, Oskar Blues, sour Belgian
Friday, May 29, 2015
Burning Can: A Different Kind of Beer Festival
The idea behind most beer festivals is simple. Get a whole bunch of breweries together. Maybe create a theme for their beers. Put them all together in a field or in a hall. And if you want to come up with some peripheral booths or contests, great. The idea usually works.
But on Saturday, the town of Lyons will host what is arguably the state's premier beer festival at which the beer (or a beer/food pairing) is not soaking up 95 percent of the attention. Yes, there will be more than 60 craft breweries pouring more than 200 types of canned beer at Oskar Blues' fourth annual Burning Can. But there will be so much more as well.
Held as part of the Lyons Outdoor Games, attendees will be able to watch kayaking and boater cross and can, if they want, round up a team to participate in a morning Beer Relay that will test participants' ability to run a team 5K run while receiving extra points for drinking a beer. There will be dirt-bike jumping, slackline acrobatics, a concert by New Orleans' The Revivalists and camping so that people can fully immerse themselves in the outdoor experience.
Oh, and did I mention beer? With 510 craft breweries now canning about 2,000 different beers nationwide, canning pioneers Oskar Blues get more inquiries about being a part of their event each year and have added about 12 breweries each annum to the lineup. Those include beer makers whose products aren't available otherwise in Colorado, such as Sun King Brewery of Indiana and La Cumbre Brewing of New Mexico. And it also includes breweries that may be canning just for this event on Oskar Blues' special "Crowler" system, ranging from City Star Brewing to Left Hand.
Oskar Blues marketing guru Chad Melis believes the event serves as a sort of big-tent revival to allow Colorado's second-largest craft brewery to preach about the advantages of cans, from their environmental benefits to the way they protect beer better from oxygen and light. But for a company that chose the location of its second brewery (in Brevard, North Carolina) based in large part on its proximity to killer mountain-biking, it also serves as a chance to proselytize on the seamless inclusion of craft beer in any outdoor lifestyle.
"There's a full top-to-bottom outdoor experience there," Melis said. "To be able to pack in a full day of outdoor activity, to be able to try beers from across the country that you can't get, and then to top it off with a full concert, I don't think there are a lot of events like that. We really want to make it a destination festival."
And while the $45 event won't lack for attendees, the 4 to 7 p.m. beer-tasting portion of the day also isn't sold out yet.
Burning Can may not be everyone's cup of tea. Not every beer drinker has to feel like they're sipping at the X Games to enhance their experience. But it's one of the more unique events on the beer circuit in Colorado and may, for that reason alone, be worth the trip this weekend.
The idea behind most beer festivals is simple. Get a whole bunch of breweries together. Maybe create a theme for their beers. Put them all together in a field or in a hall. And if you want to come up with some peripheral booths or contests, great. The idea usually works.
But on Saturday, the town of Lyons will host what is arguably the state's premier beer festival at which the beer (or a beer/food pairing) is not soaking up 95 percent of the attention. Yes, there will be more than 60 craft breweries pouring more than 200 types of canned beer at Oskar Blues' fourth annual Burning Can. But there will be so much more as well.
Held as part of the Lyons Outdoor Games, attendees will be able to watch kayaking and boater cross and can, if they want, round up a team to participate in a morning Beer Relay that will test participants' ability to run a team 5K run while receiving extra points for drinking a beer. There will be dirt-bike jumping, slackline acrobatics, a concert by New Orleans' The Revivalists and camping so that people can fully immerse themselves in the outdoor experience.
Oh, and did I mention beer? With 510 craft breweries now canning about 2,000 different beers nationwide, canning pioneers Oskar Blues get more inquiries about being a part of their event each year and have added about 12 breweries each annum to the lineup. Those include beer makers whose products aren't available otherwise in Colorado, such as Sun King Brewery of Indiana and La Cumbre Brewing of New Mexico. And it also includes breweries that may be canning just for this event on Oskar Blues' special "Crowler" system, ranging from City Star Brewing to Left Hand.
Oskar Blues marketing guru Chad Melis believes the event serves as a sort of big-tent revival to allow Colorado's second-largest craft brewery to preach about the advantages of cans, from their environmental benefits to the way they protect beer better from oxygen and light. But for a company that chose the location of its second brewery (in Brevard, North Carolina) based in large part on its proximity to killer mountain-biking, it also serves as a chance to proselytize on the seamless inclusion of craft beer in any outdoor lifestyle.
"There's a full top-to-bottom outdoor experience there," Melis said. "To be able to pack in a full day of outdoor activity, to be able to try beers from across the country that you can't get, and then to top it off with a full concert, I don't think there are a lot of events like that. We really want to make it a destination festival."
And while the $45 event won't lack for attendees, the 4 to 7 p.m. beer-tasting portion of the day also isn't sold out yet.
Burning Can may not be everyone's cup of tea. Not every beer drinker has to feel like they're sipping at the X Games to enhance their experience. But it's one of the more unique events on the beer circuit in Colorado and may, for that reason alone, be worth the trip this weekend.
Labels: Canned beer, City Star Brewing, Festivals, La Cumbre Brewing, Left Hand Brewing, Oskar Blues, Sun King Brewing
