Tuesday, October 01, 2019
Denver's Beer Restaurant Scene is Going Through an Evolution
Denver has its breweries and it has its beer bars, as the world knows while it descends upon the Great American Beer Festival this week. But an under-appreciated part of the scene the Mile High City is developing is its beer-themed restaurants - and few represent it as well as Former Saint.
Former Saint Craft Kitchen and Taps is located on the first floor of the Hyatt Regency Denver at Colorado Convention Center, not exactly a place where you might think beer culture might flourish. But the restaurant - named not for its latent soul but for its being the site of St. Mary's Academy, the first all-girls school in Colorado - was developed over a number of years with the theme of Colorado being front and center the entire time.
That's evident in the menu, heavy on state-produced meats and vegetables, from its bison burger to its buffalo steak. And it's evident in the 16-tap, all-Colorado beer list, which Dane Fiscella, the hotel's assistant food and beverage manager, works closely with his beverage guru to for the largely conventioneers' crowd that stays there.
Here you will find a range from local lagers to Epic Brewing's Big Bad Baptist Imperial Stout. More importantly, you will find beers ranging from those produced by the state's largest craft brewer, New Belgium Brewing, to only-distributed-in-Denver artisans like Goldspot Brewing.
Fiscella, a veteran of the venerable Philadelphia beer scene, goes out on scouting trips often for local beers, and he thinks not of what will appeal to the masses but what will genuinely provoke customers' interests. The biggest seller the space has seen is not a light lager but Station 26 Brewing Juicy Banger, which Coloradans know as one of the best IPAs made in the Centennial State.
And when the beer isn't flowing through the copper pipes from the glass-walled taproom (pictured above) that draw so many questions, it is taking a supporting role on the menu. The restaurant's popular quail and waffles (pictured below) is slathered with a syrup made from Denver Beer Co's Graham Cracker Porter.
Certainly, there are places around downtown Denver that serve a larger and riskier portfolio of Colorado craft beers than Former Saint. But the eatery - which is hosting a Sierra Nevada pairing dinner on Wednesday and a number of tap takeovers throughout this week - is a prime example of how the Denver beer scene is starting to imbue itself in places well beyond the beer-geek haunts of yore, and it is well worth a stop on the way into or out of the Colorado Convention Center to see how craft beer and fine food have become allies rather than opposites , even in a corporate hotel setting.
"Our Colorado themed hyper-focus, it sets us apart from our competitors," Fiscella said recently. "When you're staying at a hotel, you're going on a trip. "If we can give you that sense in downtown Denver of adventure and of out-of-the-ordinary, that's what we want to do."
Denver has its breweries and it has its beer bars, as the world knows while it descends upon the Great American Beer Festival this week. But an under-appreciated part of the scene the Mile High City is developing is its beer-themed restaurants - and few represent it as well as Former Saint.
Former Saint Craft Kitchen and Taps is located on the first floor of the Hyatt Regency Denver at Colorado Convention Center, not exactly a place where you might think beer culture might flourish. But the restaurant - named not for its latent soul but for its being the site of St. Mary's Academy, the first all-girls school in Colorado - was developed over a number of years with the theme of Colorado being front and center the entire time.
That's evident in the menu, heavy on state-produced meats and vegetables, from its bison burger to its buffalo steak. And it's evident in the 16-tap, all-Colorado beer list, which Dane Fiscella, the hotel's assistant food and beverage manager, works closely with his beverage guru to for the largely conventioneers' crowd that stays there.
Here you will find a range from local lagers to Epic Brewing's Big Bad Baptist Imperial Stout. More importantly, you will find beers ranging from those produced by the state's largest craft brewer, New Belgium Brewing, to only-distributed-in-Denver artisans like Goldspot Brewing.
Fiscella, a veteran of the venerable Philadelphia beer scene, goes out on scouting trips often for local beers, and he thinks not of what will appeal to the masses but what will genuinely provoke customers' interests. The biggest seller the space has seen is not a light lager but Station 26 Brewing Juicy Banger, which Coloradans know as one of the best IPAs made in the Centennial State.
And when the beer isn't flowing through the copper pipes from the glass-walled taproom (pictured above) that draw so many questions, it is taking a supporting role on the menu. The restaurant's popular quail and waffles (pictured below) is slathered with a syrup made from Denver Beer Co's Graham Cracker Porter.
Certainly, there are places around downtown Denver that serve a larger and riskier portfolio of Colorado craft beers than Former Saint. But the eatery - which is hosting a Sierra Nevada pairing dinner on Wednesday and a number of tap takeovers throughout this week - is a prime example of how the Denver beer scene is starting to imbue itself in places well beyond the beer-geek haunts of yore, and it is well worth a stop on the way into or out of the Colorado Convention Center to see how craft beer and fine food have become allies rather than opposites , even in a corporate hotel setting.
"Our Colorado themed hyper-focus, it sets us apart from our competitors," Fiscella said recently. "When you're staying at a hotel, you're going on a trip. "If we can give you that sense in downtown Denver of adventure and of out-of-the-ordinary, that's what we want to do."
Labels: Denver Beer Co, Epic Brewing, Food pairing, Former Saint Craft Kitchen and Taps, Goldspot Brewing, Great American Beer Festival, Sierra Nevada Brewing, Station 26 Brewing
Thursday, November 23, 2017
The Not-So-Subtle Joy of Drinking Imperial Stouts
Wandering through the third floor of the McNichols Civic Center Building last month during Denver Rare Beer Tasting was the equivalent of being trapped in a black hole. Everything being poured was heavy and dense, and no light could shine through any glass.
The biggest difference was, however, that this was an experience you enjoyed so much that you could even begin to pick up subtleties in the booth after booth of the 16- to 19-percent-ABV beers in which you were imbibing. And through that, you could see how far the craft beer industry has come in the past 10 years.
It's not that imperial stouts weren't tasty circa 2007. But those that pushed 10 or 11 percent ABV at the time tended to be beers whose alcohol content was readily apparent. A big beer often brought with it a big, boozy taste. And there was a limit to how many of those you could drink.
Today, however, you can find a beer like Avery Brewing's Black Eye, a 3-year-old rum-barrel-aged imperial stout that grew to 18.8 percent ABV by the time it hit drinkers' glasses last month. Its body was bursting with depth and darkness, but it also was shockingly smooth, using its enormous malt base to cover any residual alcohol burn. It not only was a great beer; it was damn near dangerous.
At just that one event, however, you could also find River North Brewery's 18 percent Vicennial Shadowman, which presented a huge mouthful of almost sooty dark malt that was shockingly drinkable. There was WeldWerks' Medianoche Reserve, which weighed in at 13.5 percent but added an astounding smoothness to its underlying cocoa punch. And even a beer like New Holland Brewing's "Dragon's Milk: Michigan's Winter" added a little burn to its 16 percent body, but not enough to overshadow a bittersweet coffee palate that made you want more.
It isn't just at specialty beer festivals that you find these big-bodied gems, either. Taprooms across the state are featuring experimental and seasonal creations of substantial girth right now, much in the way that virtually every taproom is trying its hand at a New England-style IPA.
So, you can actively seek out a hammer of a beer like Verboten Brewing's Little Nonsense, which packs heavy flavors of both bourbon and vanilla from its barrel aging and manages to be every bit as tasty as it is aggressive.
Or you can find a hidden treasure like Goldspot Brewing's Black Whiskey River Imperial Stout. At 10.5 percent, it's almost a light beer compared to some in this group, and its body isn't as pelting with heaviness as others. But after sitting 5-1/2 months in a Laws Whiskey House barrel, it takes on a lot of warming whiskey flavor but still allows the rough-hewn, slightly mocha edge of the body to take center stage.
And let's not forget, the incomparable Big Beers, Belgians and Barleywines festival - scheduled for Jan. 4-6 in Breckenridge - will be another showcase for the creativity in the imperial stout world.
The joy in drinking these beers is both complex and simple. The flavor profiles they raise bring up tastes ranging from sweetness to heat to bitterness, and picking them out of the big, meaty body is both challenging and satisfying. Yet there is a simplicity in enjoying the idea of a brewer tossing everything they have into one recipe, rolling the dice and letting the experiment end in a boozy, warming toast to their gutsy resolve.
While co-hosting American Craft Beer Radio a couple of weeks ago, I asked Wynkoop head brewer John Sims if I was crazy to think these beers were getting smoother and easier to drink even as they are getting bigger - while we were enjoying his Captain K's Final Daze, an imperial honey brown that offered both depth and a sweetness that was anything but cloying.
He told me that I was not nuts and that brewing techniques have evolved so much in the 24 years he's been in the industry that the methods for making and aging beers have taken off some of their alcoholic roughness while accenting the malts and the occasional additives even more.
To that, I say cheers. And as the nights turn colder, I plan to raise more pints (or smaller servings) of imperial stouts that will intoxicate me as much with their taste as they will with their alcohol content.
Wandering through the third floor of the McNichols Civic Center Building last month during Denver Rare Beer Tasting was the equivalent of being trapped in a black hole. Everything being poured was heavy and dense, and no light could shine through any glass.
The biggest difference was, however, that this was an experience you enjoyed so much that you could even begin to pick up subtleties in the booth after booth of the 16- to 19-percent-ABV beers in which you were imbibing. And through that, you could see how far the craft beer industry has come in the past 10 years.
It's not that imperial stouts weren't tasty circa 2007. But those that pushed 10 or 11 percent ABV at the time tended to be beers whose alcohol content was readily apparent. A big beer often brought with it a big, boozy taste. And there was a limit to how many of those you could drink.
Today, however, you can find a beer like Avery Brewing's Black Eye, a 3-year-old rum-barrel-aged imperial stout that grew to 18.8 percent ABV by the time it hit drinkers' glasses last month. Its body was bursting with depth and darkness, but it also was shockingly smooth, using its enormous malt base to cover any residual alcohol burn. It not only was a great beer; it was damn near dangerous.
At just that one event, however, you could also find River North Brewery's 18 percent Vicennial Shadowman, which presented a huge mouthful of almost sooty dark malt that was shockingly drinkable. There was WeldWerks' Medianoche Reserve, which weighed in at 13.5 percent but added an astounding smoothness to its underlying cocoa punch. And even a beer like New Holland Brewing's "Dragon's Milk: Michigan's Winter" added a little burn to its 16 percent body, but not enough to overshadow a bittersweet coffee palate that made you want more.
It isn't just at specialty beer festivals that you find these big-bodied gems, either. Taprooms across the state are featuring experimental and seasonal creations of substantial girth right now, much in the way that virtually every taproom is trying its hand at a New England-style IPA.
So, you can actively seek out a hammer of a beer like Verboten Brewing's Little Nonsense, which packs heavy flavors of both bourbon and vanilla from its barrel aging and manages to be every bit as tasty as it is aggressive.
Or you can find a hidden treasure like Goldspot Brewing's Black Whiskey River Imperial Stout. At 10.5 percent, it's almost a light beer compared to some in this group, and its body isn't as pelting with heaviness as others. But after sitting 5-1/2 months in a Laws Whiskey House barrel, it takes on a lot of warming whiskey flavor but still allows the rough-hewn, slightly mocha edge of the body to take center stage.
And let's not forget, the incomparable Big Beers, Belgians and Barleywines festival - scheduled for Jan. 4-6 in Breckenridge - will be another showcase for the creativity in the imperial stout world.
The joy in drinking these beers is both complex and simple. The flavor profiles they raise bring up tastes ranging from sweetness to heat to bitterness, and picking them out of the big, meaty body is both challenging and satisfying. Yet there is a simplicity in enjoying the idea of a brewer tossing everything they have into one recipe, rolling the dice and letting the experiment end in a boozy, warming toast to their gutsy resolve.
While co-hosting American Craft Beer Radio a couple of weeks ago, I asked Wynkoop head brewer John Sims if I was crazy to think these beers were getting smoother and easier to drink even as they are getting bigger - while we were enjoying his Captain K's Final Daze, an imperial honey brown that offered both depth and a sweetness that was anything but cloying.
He told me that I was not nuts and that brewing techniques have evolved so much in the 24 years he's been in the industry that the methods for making and aging beers have taken off some of their alcoholic roughness while accenting the malts and the occasional additives even more.
To that, I say cheers. And as the nights turn colder, I plan to raise more pints (or smaller servings) of imperial stouts that will intoxicate me as much with their taste as they will with their alcohol content.
Labels: American Craft Beer Radio, Avery Brewing, Big Beers, Denver Rare Beer Tasting, Goldspot Brewing, imperial stouts, New Holland Brewing, River North Brewery, Verboten Brewing, Weldwerks Brewing, Wynkoop Brewery
Friday, February 19, 2016
Looking Back on — and Forward from — One Year
Goldspot Brewing turns one year old this weekend - part of a contingent of more than 50 breweries across the state that will be celebrating such a milestone in 2016. There is a two-day celebration planned this weekend, and new beers, including a whiskey-barrel-aged version of the Black River Imperial Stout, will be released.
But while reaching such an age would have been purely a time to celebrate in years past, it now is a time to look ahead as well, as many brewery owners see this as the moment to begin taking off any constraints they'd imposed upon themselves as they got their footing. Goldspot's Matt Hughes sits squarely in that camp, as he explained in a recent sit down with Beer Run Blog.
One thing that's changed significantly for the north Denver brewery in its first year is its lineup. Gone from the year-round rotation are a kolsch, a honey IPA and a traditional Belgian pale ale. In their places are higher-alcohol selections — such as a farmhouse ale and an imperial stout — and slightly less traditional versions of their predecessors, like the Orange You Glad Belgian Pale made with blood orange puree. Hughes said he didn't make an intentional move to bigger beers but just followed the demand of his customers.
Coming very soon to the brewery is a barrel-aging program, brought about by Hughes' admiration of other small breweries like TRVE that are doing great experiments with similar programs. He hopes to add about 12 barrels in the next six months, ranging from whiskey vessels to Western Slope wine barrels, and do limited releases as the beers age.
Also coming is the first bottling effort, of the brewery's bitter yet light-bodied La Cienega, a traditional Grisette that it will just market as a farmhouse. It will sell in the taproom and a handful of area liquor stores for several months before Hughes decides whether to expand that effort.
Styles will widen. Goldspot already is serving Backslider American Sour, a crisp kettle sour with a decided amount of bitterness that marks its first move into that realm. More experiments with souring in the fermenter could follow.
And Hughes will play with the entertainment, expanding it beyond the bands and trivia contests that mark most craft breweries. He recently started bringing in a professor to offer philosophical conversations on the zombie apocalypse and its implications on love and society — really. He figures these are the kinds of talks that blend naturally with pub society.
Goldspot hasn't shaken the earth, but it's matured and pushes out some tasty beers — including Gus' Breakfast Porter, a cocoa coffee porter that arguably has been its high spot since day one. It's good to see breweries like this have gotten the chance to age well and then spread their wings.
"This year has been the fastest year and, at the same time, the longest year of my life," Hughes said. "For me, it was about a love of beer."
Goldspot Brewing turns one year old this weekend - part of a contingent of more than 50 breweries across the state that will be celebrating such a milestone in 2016. There is a two-day celebration planned this weekend, and new beers, including a whiskey-barrel-aged version of the Black River Imperial Stout, will be released.
But while reaching such an age would have been purely a time to celebrate in years past, it now is a time to look ahead as well, as many brewery owners see this as the moment to begin taking off any constraints they'd imposed upon themselves as they got their footing. Goldspot's Matt Hughes sits squarely in that camp, as he explained in a recent sit down with Beer Run Blog.
One thing that's changed significantly for the north Denver brewery in its first year is its lineup. Gone from the year-round rotation are a kolsch, a honey IPA and a traditional Belgian pale ale. In their places are higher-alcohol selections — such as a farmhouse ale and an imperial stout — and slightly less traditional versions of their predecessors, like the Orange You Glad Belgian Pale made with blood orange puree. Hughes said he didn't make an intentional move to bigger beers but just followed the demand of his customers.
Coming very soon to the brewery is a barrel-aging program, brought about by Hughes' admiration of other small breweries like TRVE that are doing great experiments with similar programs. He hopes to add about 12 barrels in the next six months, ranging from whiskey vessels to Western Slope wine barrels, and do limited releases as the beers age.
Also coming is the first bottling effort, of the brewery's bitter yet light-bodied La Cienega, a traditional Grisette that it will just market as a farmhouse. It will sell in the taproom and a handful of area liquor stores for several months before Hughes decides whether to expand that effort.Styles will widen. Goldspot already is serving Backslider American Sour, a crisp kettle sour with a decided amount of bitterness that marks its first move into that realm. More experiments with souring in the fermenter could follow.
And Hughes will play with the entertainment, expanding it beyond the bands and trivia contests that mark most craft breweries. He recently started bringing in a professor to offer philosophical conversations on the zombie apocalypse and its implications on love and society — really. He figures these are the kinds of talks that blend naturally with pub society.
Goldspot hasn't shaken the earth, but it's matured and pushes out some tasty beers — including Gus' Breakfast Porter, a cocoa coffee porter that arguably has been its high spot since day one. It's good to see breweries like this have gotten the chance to age well and then spread their wings.
"This year has been the fastest year and, at the same time, the longest year of my life," Hughes said. "For me, it was about a love of beer."
Labels: Barrel aging, Goldspot Brewing, sour Belgian
Thursday, February 19, 2015
Welcome to the Neighborhood
At a time when breweries are proliferating in hard-to-fathom numbers, the ones that seem to fill the greatest unmet niche are those going into neighborhoods that have somehow remained without their corner beer maker. Denver's Regis and Berkeley neighborhoods are two of those rare locations still - but on Saturday that will change.
Goldspot Brewing opens at 4970 Lowell Boulevard this weekend, bringing a long-awaited upgrade to a building that formerly housed a barber shop and sign-making business and sits just a block from Regis University, one of the area colleges that has invested in its own brewing program. It will offer a half-dozen beers that revel in some ways in understatement but also bring a unique brand of creativity to the Denver brewing scene.
Co-owners Matt Hughes - a one-time Wynkoop brewer who continues to work for an insurance brokerage providing coverage to some 25 breweries in three states - and Alex Sward open with a lineup of offerings that are largely familiar styles, with twists.
Take, for examples, Julia's Blessing, a kolsch-style ale that is crisp and drinkable but makes an unremarkable first impression - until you can pick up on the honey that also is mixed into the brew. It provides an underlying sweetness to an also late-breaking hop finish and adds just a touch of complexity to a style not known for being described with that word.
That some honey - Hughes eventually hopes to use product from his beekeeper father in Texas - is in Uh Huh Honey, a big, bitter IPA that Goldspot brewed in collaboration with the yet-to-open Cerebral Brewing. It's made with significant quantities of El Dorado, Galaxy and Nelson Sauvin hops, so the honey here just seems to add to the back-of-your tongue wallop that is especially intriguing after the beer introduces itself with a unique, almost grape-must aroma from the New Zealand-based hops.
While people may talk about the honey ales, however, the one they're likely to remember the most is the Coffee Cocoa Porter, a medium-bodied dark beer that expertly blends the sweetness of the chocolate with the bitterness of the coffee into an easily quaffable treat. The taste is more subtle than the nose, but it's very pleasant and well made.
Two other offerings, the Belgian Pale Ale and Cutter IPA, also take on the characteristic of understatement. Cutter is an English-American hybrid style where the malt plays more of a role than the hops, while the Belgian pale really sticks to pale-ale style guidelines and lacks a big hop bite. Both are subtly tasty beers but not as flashy as the porter or Uh Huh Honey.
Hughes and Sward say they have no immediate plans to package their beer or to distribute much outside their neighborhood location. That's good. At a time when a number of breweries are opening with plans to take over Denver's tap and shelf space immediately, the city needs more corner establishments catering to people wanting to walk or drive to a place where they can meet the owners and enjoy good beer that doesn't overwhelm the senses. Goldspot fits that bill.
At a time when breweries are proliferating in hard-to-fathom numbers, the ones that seem to fill the greatest unmet niche are those going into neighborhoods that have somehow remained without their corner beer maker. Denver's Regis and Berkeley neighborhoods are two of those rare locations still - but on Saturday that will change.
Goldspot Brewing opens at 4970 Lowell Boulevard this weekend, bringing a long-awaited upgrade to a building that formerly housed a barber shop and sign-making business and sits just a block from Regis University, one of the area colleges that has invested in its own brewing program. It will offer a half-dozen beers that revel in some ways in understatement but also bring a unique brand of creativity to the Denver brewing scene.
Co-owners Matt Hughes - a one-time Wynkoop brewer who continues to work for an insurance brokerage providing coverage to some 25 breweries in three states - and Alex Sward open with a lineup of offerings that are largely familiar styles, with twists.
Take, for examples, Julia's Blessing, a kolsch-style ale that is crisp and drinkable but makes an unremarkable first impression - until you can pick up on the honey that also is mixed into the brew. It provides an underlying sweetness to an also late-breaking hop finish and adds just a touch of complexity to a style not known for being described with that word.
That some honey - Hughes eventually hopes to use product from his beekeeper father in Texas - is in Uh Huh Honey, a big, bitter IPA that Goldspot brewed in collaboration with the yet-to-open Cerebral Brewing. It's made with significant quantities of El Dorado, Galaxy and Nelson Sauvin hops, so the honey here just seems to add to the back-of-your tongue wallop that is especially intriguing after the beer introduces itself with a unique, almost grape-must aroma from the New Zealand-based hops.
While people may talk about the honey ales, however, the one they're likely to remember the most is the Coffee Cocoa Porter, a medium-bodied dark beer that expertly blends the sweetness of the chocolate with the bitterness of the coffee into an easily quaffable treat. The taste is more subtle than the nose, but it's very pleasant and well made.
Two other offerings, the Belgian Pale Ale and Cutter IPA, also take on the characteristic of understatement. Cutter is an English-American hybrid style where the malt plays more of a role than the hops, while the Belgian pale really sticks to pale-ale style guidelines and lacks a big hop bite. Both are subtly tasty beers but not as flashy as the porter or Uh Huh Honey.
Hughes and Sward say they have no immediate plans to package their beer or to distribute much outside their neighborhood location. That's good. At a time when a number of breweries are opening with plans to take over Denver's tap and shelf space immediately, the city needs more corner establishments catering to people wanting to walk or drive to a place where they can meet the owners and enjoy good beer that doesn't overwhelm the senses. Goldspot fits that bill.
Labels: Cerebral Brewing, Goldspot Brewing, honey beers, New Colorado breweries
