Sunday, August 29, 2021
The Shocking and Fascinating Beers of This Year
Anyone who expected a return to normalcy by Colorado brewers in 2021 should be surprised and, frankly, a little pleased by what this year has produced so far.
From Czech breweries making Baltic porters to lagers that sing more than the style seems it should to an international brewery intentionally making a "bad" beer, there's been a lot to remember. And as we head into the final third of the year, with (maybe) more beer festivals offering a chance for even more exposure to creative offerings, these trends offer hope that this long last 17 months is giving way to even more creativity.
That said, here then is a few beers that are worth remembering, for a host of reasons:
Seedstock Baltic Porter
Seedstock is a Czech-style brewery that makes old-world beers, and it does that very well - so well, in fact, that it draws you to drink styles that normally might not interest you. But when it put out a baltic porter this spring that was big and bold and yet sublimely drinkable, it showed a versatility of European styles that the Denver brewery hadn't displayed before. And now, quite frankly, it's become a can't-miss brewery, one where you want to head for any new release just to see exactly what it can do with it.
New Terrain North Star Doubly Hazy
Maybe it shouldn't be a surprise to fans of New Terrain's award-winning Suntrip Belgian Wit, but most people who've walked into a local liquor store and asked for a hop-bomb recommendation have rarely heard an answer that began with the name of the Golden brewery. That's why this edition in its North Star series — a hazy double IPA with Barbe Rouge and Azacca hops — was a mind-blower, deeply tropical and yet bursting with vibrant hops that brought this to life as well as any IPA made this year.
Dead Styles Come Back to Life
Locavore Beer Works of Littleton set time back 10 years with a black IPA that made you wonder why the style was so short-lived. Blending true malt roast with a cutting but not overwhelming Northwest IPA bitterness, it felt like a breath of fresh air in the IPA genre, even it was more of a blast from the past.
Cannonball Creek incorporated an ingredient that's lost favor among many brewers — rye — into a hop-heavy 5.7% ABV ale in such an expertly blended way that Ryed in Your Arms made you ask why more people can't do that. The answer, of course, is that the Golden brewery is one of Colorado's masters at taking subtle styles and jolting them to life, and in this case the rye sweetened the beer only slightly, letting the pale hops work the palate to be softened just briefly by this excellent addition.
"Dull" Styles Produce the Most Interesting Beers of the Year
Yes, brewers themselves have been drinking pilsners and lagers for years, but they've had a hard time convincing the craft-beer drinking public to put down their hazies and their stouts to pay attention to the old-world style. If any beers will do that, however, they are two limited releases from Upslope Brewing that may well be the best beers made this year.
The Boulder brewery's Mexican Style Dark Lager is delicious and lasting from the first sip, offering a deeply roasted malt with no burn to it and an underlying sweet-biscuit taste that is tempered with enough hops to give it a slight bite and a lucid finish. Then, last month Upslope may have outdone itself with a German-style pilsner that combines Old World crispness with New World crushability, ending with a bold bitterness on its backbite that seems to put a truly Colorado stamp on a European style.
New Belgium's "Bad" Beer
This spring, New Belgium released Fat Tire Torched Earth, using smoked malt, non-barley grains like millet and dandelions in place of hop extract to approximate what it believes beer will taste like in the event of continued global warming. While it seemed like a gimmick affordable only to a brewery now owned by the ninth-largest brewing company in the world (and delivered in a package with end-of-the-world gear)— and one that it said was meant to send a message to big businesses — the truth was that it actually wasn't awful for a smoked beer and was more enjoyable than some of its efforts in recent years such as the cloying, hideous Juicy Mandarina IPA it rolled out a few years back.
But as tempting as it might be after that to just write off the brewery, a simple visit to its Denver outpost reminds you how much talent it still has. Of particular note this summer was its Strawberry Guava Sour, a beer that blends two strong fruit flavors in a way that allows both to bring distinguishable characteristics and presents them in a tart but surprisingly pleasing and eye-opening fashion.
Sanitas' New Path
For much of the past eight years, Sanitas Brewing has been a bit of a nondescript brewery — one of a significant number of Boulder beer makers that produces a range of good offerings but nothing that slapped you across the face and defined the brewery for you. This year, however, it may have hit on a new path forward, defined by fresh and drinkable sour beers that you want on a hot summer day.
Raspberry Sour, which came out early this summer, was subtly delicious but unchallenging in a way that made you want to down a six-pack on a camping trip or on a porch, offering hints of tart that didn't burn the palate and could extend the genre to a wider audience. Then, this month it reintroduced Deluge, a more traditionally sour ale that had both a bold underlying palate and a feel of pixie-dust sugar that was fascinating without being overly aggressive — a niche that could be welcomed.
Rediscovering a Forgotten Classic
Lastly, I admit that I'm years late to the bandwagon — if one even exists — for Steve's Snappin' Ale, but I just never thought that a chili ale made by a hot-dog restaurant screamed of being a must-try beer. Then a friend bought one on a lark this summer, and what I discovered was a golden ale, bottled by Bull & Bush Brewery, that provides just enough base to temper the hot, hot red and green chili peppers and allow them to shine in the flavor in a way that proved quite tasty.
Don't assume this is an every-day beer; it isn't. But, even if it's a few years older than most everything else mentioned in this column, it's yet another reminder that some of the most notable beer on the market right now may look like it doesn't belong to a certain brewery or even a certain decade but lights up your taste buds when given a chance.
Labels: Bull and Bush, Cannonball Creek Brewing, Locavore Beer Works, New Belgium Brewing, New Terrain Brewing, Sanitas Brewing, Seedstock Brewing, Steve's Snappin' Dogs, Upslope Brewing
Sunday, December 20, 2020
The 12 Beers of Christmas 2020
Lockdown has its advantages and disadvantages when it comes to beer exploration. On the down side is the lack of seasonal beer festivals (a.k.a. Denver Beer Festivus) that allowed one to explore many Christmas creations in one fell swoop. On the plus side, however, is the fact that little this year is getting in the way of drinking multiple beers every night in the name of, um, journalism.
So, after a month of diving into as many seasonal offerings as could be scrounged, here is one drinker's guide to 12 Beers of Christmas this year, both from Colorado and from afar, that can help you get through the rest of this year in merry shape. Good beers to all, and to all a good night!
12) Shiner Holiday Cheer
This is the "wait, do I like this?" beer of the season - a dunkelweizen swimming in the flavor of Texas peaches that looks more like a dark champagne than a holiday ale. The fruit is so dominant here, and the beer is acutely sweet. But you won't forget it. And you'll realize there's some real talent behind this.
11) Briar Common Amnesia
Released just on Dec. 19, this is a bold concept - a 13% ABV wood-aged imperial stout brewed with tart cherries - that right now tastes a bit premature, with the thick body taking on more of a port wine characteristic than the feel of a stout. But pick up two and cellar one for six months, as this just feels like a budding masterpiece that can grow very well into its own complexity.
10) Avery Old Jubilation
An 8.3% ABV English-style old ale with a boozy enough feel to be mistaken for a light barleywine, this is truly a winter warmer. This is not an easy sipper, but it is multi-faceted and its blend of four malts makes this one of Avery's least hop-forward classic offerings.
9) Sierra Nevada Celebration
The California craft-beer pioneer long has swerved from the norm by dropping its fresh-hopped IPA as its Christmastime entry. And its Northwest hop profile and amber-brown body make this feel very old school. Still, that doesn't change the fact that it is simple and well-made.
8) Odell Isolation Ale
Much like Celebration, this straddles the "almost too familiar" line but then reminds you why Odell Brewing hasn't messed with the recipe. A malty ale in which neither the malts nor the hops are overbearing, it is plan and simple a perfectly enjoyable easy drinker. And that deserves honoring.
7) Strange Craft Beer Gingerbread Man
The American-style brown ale body almost felt a little lighter this year than in years past. But the spicing here is spot on: Ginger mixed with stabilizing malts in a way that truly approximates a cookie in not-overbearing beer form. This is the beer you bring to the Christmas party (whenever those resume) and have everyone smile with appreciation.
6) N'ice Chouffe
A big body that lays out this 10% ABV Belgian dark ale brewed with spices is even more impressive for its lack of alcohol burn. With its thick head, impenetrably dark body and lingering aftertaste, this annual treat from Belgium's Achouffe Brewery makes a bold statement. Be sure to share it with friends.
5) Westfax Cranberry and Sage Smoothie Sour
OK, technically the holiday this beer brings out is Thanksgiving. But the truth is, it's a phenomenal beer to sample with any elaborate dinner. The ruby red body shimmers like straight-out-of-the-can cranberry sauce, the hugely spiced nose calls to mind turkey stuffing and the tartness tones it down in a way that actually works miraculously well together. It may not be the beer you drink by the six-pack, but it's an impressive experiment from this Lakewood brewery that is worth seeking out and trying.
4) New Belgium Accumulation
The surprisingly long-lasting beer of this season is a light-bodied IPA with a late-breaking hop bite that presents such a cold crispness that it almost seems begging to be drunk in cooler climates. A slight hint of peppercorn adds to the unusual bitterness and makes it noteworthy.
3) Little Machine That's My Yam!
The full-bodied nature of this sweet potato stout lets you know that it's a serious beer, not a gimmick. But it's the cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and vanilla beans used in the brewing that combine to give this a taste like an oddly cooling chai stout and make you think more and more about what's in here, even as you simply enjoy this.
2) Great Divide Hibernation Ale
Even in its 25th year of production, this English-style old ale feels surprisingly fresh and relevant. Its body touches the edges of being both woody and smoky but doesn't settle into either of those characteristics. It's all malt, but with a sweet and slightly boozy aspect that makes this incredibly approachable. It doesn't rely on any of the typical Christmas-beer trappings but feels like a slope-side cabin fire in liquid form. It's brewed to a style but remains indefinable. It's just great.
1) Upslope Wild Christmas Ale
These Boulder auteurs have produced impressive versions of their typically tart Christmas ales for years now, but nothing has come close to the 2020 version. Aged in oak barrels with orange juice and orange peel with a Saigon cinnamon addition, this goes way beyond being a "sour" beer and kicks up the body with the cinnamon in such a smooth way that it seems it's what a generation of brewers have been looking to do with spice. The exotic flavor seems almost soothing in comparison to the bitterness, providing a hint of donut-esque sweetness that is a defining last taste to an already impressive complexity. It is a really, really unique effort.
Labels: Briar Common Brewery + Eatery, Great Divide, Little Machine Beer, New Belgium Brewing, Odell Brewing, Sierra Nevada Brewing, Strange Craft Beer, Upslope Brewing, Westfax Brewing
Sunday, July 26, 2020
6 Gems that Colorado Breweries Have Produced in this Covid Summer
This is neither a normal time to be producing beers nor a normal time to be reviewing them. Breweries are scrambling to hang on in the face of coronavirus restrictions. Most people are worried more about surviving than thriving.
Yet breweries continue to produce unique, fascinating and sometimes crushable beers in the face of such odds. And while the search for complete lists of excellent summer beers becomes a lot harder when your tasting ability is truncated — oh, how I miss beer festivals — one should still shout out when gems are found. And it to that end that this column is dedicated.
Odell Brewing Orange You Glad
The authors of the Reinheitsgebot would hate this kettle-soured blood orange and lychee beer from the brewery's RiNo taproom, but yet its almost soda-like qualities are what makes it so appealing. Fruit sweetness tinged with just enough citrus bitterness to give it a backbone in lieu of an underlying malt presence turns this into a summer sour sipper, offering both the tartness you might seek for a tastebud challenge and a degree of refreshment largely foreign to this style.
Station 26 Desert Haze
As every brewer now comes out with their own interpretation of a hazy IPA, it takes some real skill to create one that is simple enough to defy easy description but impressive enough to make you stop, swirl it an extra time and really try to pick up all its flavors. Furnishing both a tropical-forward flavor and the kind of bitter tinge on the backtaste that reminds you of IPAs from another era, this blends the best of new and traditional brewing in a way that makes you want to lap up more while standing on your back patio cooking a brat.
Elevation Beer Montanya
To be sure, there is nothing that reeks of summer in this rum-barrel-aged horchata imperial porter. It is dark and heavy and pounds you with roasted malts mingling with cinnamon and just a lick of booze. But there is so much going on in here —swirling complexity with simple stout goodness with a surrounding barrel sweetness that only comes from the lingering presence of a sugarcane alcohol — that you won't care as you hoist this before or after a hike into the San Isabel National Forest, lauding all the flavors that leap out from here.
Bruz Beers Dawg Daze
Real conversation with a friend after discovering he too had tried this new Belgian IPA from the Adams County/Denver brewer: "Oh, you had it too? Wasn't it great to style, with heavy esters and an underlying bitterness?" "Yeah, but what really surprised me was how fast I drank it. I looked in my glass and I literally thought some had gone missing somewhere." "Yeah, same thing happened to me. Man, was it smooth."
New Belgium 1985 IPA
An unusual offering in the hazy catalog, bestowing one of the most pineapple-juice aromas of any beer yet produced but somehow managing to make that flavor both bold enough to jump out and balanced enough to not taste like some kind of overly fermented fruit juice. This is also the hazy IPA that gives off bolder flavors as it warms, so don't let the lighter body fool you into drinking this quickly.
Highside Brewing Green Machine
You may think you dislike milkshake IPA, but this creation from the brewery in downtown Frisco will make you reconsider that opinion. More akin to a melon-forward IPA, this pushes the boundaries of tropical flavors without losing any of the high underlying hop qualities that allow you to remember clearly where the flavor is coming from in its sharp body. Given that the brewery is literally across the road from a marina, this may be the perfect beer for kicking back and watching the world sail by your bare feet.
This is neither a normal time to be producing beers nor a normal time to be reviewing them. Breweries are scrambling to hang on in the face of coronavirus restrictions. Most people are worried more about surviving than thriving.
Yet breweries continue to produce unique, fascinating and sometimes crushable beers in the face of such odds. And while the search for complete lists of excellent summer beers becomes a lot harder when your tasting ability is truncated — oh, how I miss beer festivals — one should still shout out when gems are found. And it to that end that this column is dedicated.
Odell Brewing Orange You GladThe authors of the Reinheitsgebot would hate this kettle-soured blood orange and lychee beer from the brewery's RiNo taproom, but yet its almost soda-like qualities are what makes it so appealing. Fruit sweetness tinged with just enough citrus bitterness to give it a backbone in lieu of an underlying malt presence turns this into a summer sour sipper, offering both the tartness you might seek for a tastebud challenge and a degree of refreshment largely foreign to this style.
Station 26 Desert Haze
As every brewer now comes out with their own interpretation of a hazy IPA, it takes some real skill to create one that is simple enough to defy easy description but impressive enough to make you stop, swirl it an extra time and really try to pick up all its flavors. Furnishing both a tropical-forward flavor and the kind of bitter tinge on the backtaste that reminds you of IPAs from another era, this blends the best of new and traditional brewing in a way that makes you want to lap up more while standing on your back patio cooking a brat.
Elevation Beer Montanya
Bruz Beers Dawg Daze
New Belgium 1985 IPA
Highside Brewing Green Machine
Labels: Bruz Beers, Elevation Beer, Highside Brewing, New Belgium Brewing, Odell Brewing, Station 26 Brewing, Summer beers
Monday, August 12, 2019
7 Days, 7 Thoughts on the Fort Collins Area Beer Scene
Family vacations are family vacations first and foremost. But when said family vacation is to the Fort Collins area, well, one really has to dabble in the local beer scene to feel they've been there, right?
I took that trip in late July and early August this year, and I managed to hit eight breweries in seven days in Fort Collins, Loveland and Cheyenne. What follows, then, is a series of thoughts on what is happening in this elevated scene.
1) Purpose Brewing has become one of Colorado's star beer makers
Tucked into a shopping area on the south side of town, former New Belgium brewmaster Peter Bouckaert's now-2-year-old project isn't a natural stop on a brewery-row tour, like his old place is. But the limited range of beers he has on tap at any one time — there were five available on a recent Thursday — are as of high a quality as any in the state, laced with experimentation (and barrel aging) and unable to be defined by style. The Smoeltrekker #13 walked right up to the line of sourness but balanced it with a dark body and somewhat woody fell, making it a complex masterpiece.
2) Equinox Brewing is the overlooked genius in this town
Too often overlooked because of its taproom-focused model, downtown brewery Equinox is, at this point, a can't-miss on a trip to Fort Collins because of its mastery of a wide variety of styles. Nothing was more pleasing on this trip than its Liquid Fuel New England IPA, which brought out the tropical nature of the style with a more subtle smoothness that made you want to drink more and more. But from its classic Space Ghost IPA to its cookie-reminiscent Smorter Porter, everything was accessible and still eye-opening.
3) Intersect Brewing is not a lot of radars — but it should be
We went to this brewery in southwest Fort Collins at a friend's suggestion because of its family-friendliness. (That play area you see my daughter in is in the brewery's taproom.)
But our diverse crowd — see the range of ages and sexes in the picture at the top of this page — found a ton to be pleased with there, from a fruity and tart blackberry gose to a rich milk chocolate stout. And if you need conversation starters, all of the beers are named after songs.
4) Do not forget about the excellent work Grimm Brothers Brewhouse is doing
Twenty minutes south of Fort Collins in Loveland, the traditional German brewery has earned a reputation for its spot-on pilsners, dunkels and alt biers, and it deservedly has the longest-running streak of Great American Beer Festival medals of any Colorado brewery. But its experimentation truly puts it in the top segment of Colorado brewers, from its sweet-but-wonderfully-constructed Hare's Bride imperial hefeweizen to Old Brown Shoe, a bourbon-barrel-aged brown ale that soaks up the whiskey flavor in surprising harmony with the big beer. It may have started all-German, but its range now is wide and impressive.
5) Accomplice Beer Co. shows good beer spreads across the border
Located in the Old Cheyenne Depot just 20 minutes across the Colorado-Wyoming border, Accomplice has some distinct merits. Its historic location is just a place that you want to sit and enjoy a beer, and it offers a pour-by-the-ounce system that lets you try whatever you'd like. While none of the beers jumped out as eye-opening, the range from IPAs to pilsners to a Belgium wit offered a variety of decent options, enough for everyone in your party to find something to enjoy.
6) Crooked Stave's Fort Collins taproom is a nice addition to downtown
The Exchange is a family-friendly enclosure downtown where your kids can run around and play cornhole while you enjoy offerings from restaurants, a winery, a distillery and Crooked Stave. The selection of beers is no less wide-ranging than what you will find at the brewery's showroom in The Source. And being able to slowly sip on an excellent Nightmare on Brett Sour Cherry while you wait in the long ice-cream line at Old Town Churn is a gift in itself.
7) Odell Brewing is best when it spreads its wings to a variety of flavors
No trip to town is complete without a stop at Odell for the chance to see what kinds of experiments and one-offs it's cooking up on its pilot system. Last Saturday, however, was two days after IPA Day, and the brewery took that holiday to heart in a big way, as almost everything it had on tap aside from its regular selections was a hazy, a brut, an imperial or some variety of a hop monster. None were as tasty, however, as a regular Odell IPA, and the lack of options made a visitor pine for the days when everything from a kolsch to a creme brulee stout could be found there boasting of the variety that has made this brewery deserving of the national accolades it receives.
I took that trip in late July and early August this year, and I managed to hit eight breweries in seven days in Fort Collins, Loveland and Cheyenne. What follows, then, is a series of thoughts on what is happening in this elevated scene.
1) Purpose Brewing has become one of Colorado's star beer makersTucked into a shopping area on the south side of town, former New Belgium brewmaster Peter Bouckaert's now-2-year-old project isn't a natural stop on a brewery-row tour, like his old place is. But the limited range of beers he has on tap at any one time — there were five available on a recent Thursday — are as of high a quality as any in the state, laced with experimentation (and barrel aging) and unable to be defined by style. The Smoeltrekker #13 walked right up to the line of sourness but balanced it with a dark body and somewhat woody fell, making it a complex masterpiece.
2) Equinox Brewing is the overlooked genius in this town
Too often overlooked because of its taproom-focused model, downtown brewery Equinox is, at this point, a can't-miss on a trip to Fort Collins because of its mastery of a wide variety of styles. Nothing was more pleasing on this trip than its Liquid Fuel New England IPA, which brought out the tropical nature of the style with a more subtle smoothness that made you want to drink more and more. But from its classic Space Ghost IPA to its cookie-reminiscent Smorter Porter, everything was accessible and still eye-opening.
3) Intersect Brewing is not a lot of radars — but it should be
We went to this brewery in southwest Fort Collins at a friend's suggestion because of its family-friendliness. (That play area you see my daughter in is in the brewery's taproom.)
4) Do not forget about the excellent work Grimm Brothers Brewhouse is doingTwenty minutes south of Fort Collins in Loveland, the traditional German brewery has earned a reputation for its spot-on pilsners, dunkels and alt biers, and it deservedly has the longest-running streak of Great American Beer Festival medals of any Colorado brewery. But its experimentation truly puts it in the top segment of Colorado brewers, from its sweet-but-wonderfully-constructed Hare's Bride imperial hefeweizen to Old Brown Shoe, a bourbon-barrel-aged brown ale that soaks up the whiskey flavor in surprising harmony with the big beer. It may have started all-German, but its range now is wide and impressive.
5) Accomplice Beer Co. shows good beer spreads across the border
Located in the Old Cheyenne Depot just 20 minutes across the Colorado-Wyoming border, Accomplice has some distinct merits. Its historic location is just a place that you want to sit and enjoy a beer, and it offers a pour-by-the-ounce system that lets you try whatever you'd like. While none of the beers jumped out as eye-opening, the range from IPAs to pilsners to a Belgium wit offered a variety of decent options, enough for everyone in your party to find something to enjoy.
6) Crooked Stave's Fort Collins taproom is a nice addition to downtown
7) Odell Brewing is best when it spreads its wings to a variety of flavors
Labels: Accomplice Brewing, Crooked Stave, Equinox Brewing, Fort Collins breweries, Grimm Brothers Brewhouse, Intersect Brewing, New Belgium Brewing, Odell Brewing, Purpose Brewing & Cellars
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
Monday, September 18, 2017
The Fruited IPA: Can We Just Kill This Trend?
Debate continues to rage after some two years on whether the New England IPA, a hazier take on the style with more citrus and tropical fruit overtones and less bitter bite, is inspired flavor or just laziness. But whether you like this slight variation on America's favorite craft-beer style or not, this discussion serves only to distract from a far more virulent strain of experimentation infecting the IPA.
For two summers, craft beerdom has been inundated with India pale ales inexplicably brewed with additives of fruit that sometimes are subtle and sometimes are really not. And it's time for the drinking public to stand up and say they want their hoppy beers to taste like pine and flowers and occasionally grapefruit but certainly not like a watered-down tangerine or pie-baking experiment gone awry.
These fruited IPAs may be considered gateways to the more acerbic, classically American version of the bitter beer, but in almost every instance they bastardize the heart of the beers that they are riffing on, and not to positive effect. And what you get, in many instances, is a strange knock-off of far better beers that should be left alone to define a brewery.
Example A of this is Weldwerks' Fruity Bits Strawberry Shortcake (right), a New England-style IPA made with strawberry. The brewery's Juicy Bits is Colorado's standard bearer for the hazy IPA, bursting to life with both the sweet and bitter sides of citrus fruit; when it's double-dry-hopped, it becomes simply one of the best beers in the state. But when ingredients as clashing with bitterness as strawberry and vanilla beans are introduced to the beer, it becomes an out-of-place, training-wheels IPA in which the hops become such an afterthought that is seems stylistically misplaced.
Avery's Real Peel IPA, made with tangerine peel, strikes a similar discordant note. Here is one of the chief hop purveyors in the state mixing in one of the most subtle citrus fruits on the planet to the effect that both the hops and the fruit get lost in the blend. Coming from the same brewery that will blow your taste buds out and make you smile with its Maharaja Imperial IPA, there is a disconnect.
New Belgium's range of fruit-accented beers tell a similar story. Its Citradelic tangerine IPA is aloof in both its fruit and hop tastes, and the medium-bodied beer seems unsure of what it wants to be. It sets the stage for its Juicy Mandarina IPA - a wheat IPA that isn't actually infused with fruit additives but leans so much toward fruit tastes in is hop profile that it too loses the flavor of said hops.
I mention these three breweries in particular because they literally are three of the best in Colorado that are taking these strange side roads when they have hit so many times over with full-flavored hop bombs and barrel-aged sours, and even with subtle delights like an Avery Joe's Pils or the sadly discontinued New Belgium Mothership Wit. They clearly know what they're doing.
Not all fruited IPAs miss the mark. Numerous breweries, for example, have used grapefruit to increase the bitterness of the style, appropriate as some hops can taste naturally like the fruit. Sam Adams livened up its Rebel IPA by adding in mango juice, giving it heightened tropical feel even as it did not tone down the natural grassiness of the hops. And Denver Beer scored a surprising victory this summer with its Maui Express Coconut IPA, using the coconut not to add a particular island taste but to calm the hops just enough that you can feel a different element in what may be the closest thing to a summer IPA that the industry has developed.
But the fruited IPAs in general seem so hell-bent on yelling "Look at my creativity!" and trying to lure non-hop heads to the style that they become needless diversions in a genre of bitter beers that still has lots of room to grow without tossing in everything in a grocer's produce aisle. Let's recommit to the idea that IPAs are bitter, piny, earthy, flowery and sometimes naturally citrus-y without the need to introduce flavors that veer these offerings away from what has made the style great.
Debate continues to rage after some two years on whether the New England IPA, a hazier take on the style with more citrus and tropical fruit overtones and less bitter bite, is inspired flavor or just laziness. But whether you like this slight variation on America's favorite craft-beer style or not, this discussion serves only to distract from a far more virulent strain of experimentation infecting the IPA.For two summers, craft beerdom has been inundated with India pale ales inexplicably brewed with additives of fruit that sometimes are subtle and sometimes are really not. And it's time for the drinking public to stand up and say they want their hoppy beers to taste like pine and flowers and occasionally grapefruit but certainly not like a watered-down tangerine or pie-baking experiment gone awry.
These fruited IPAs may be considered gateways to the more acerbic, classically American version of the bitter beer, but in almost every instance they bastardize the heart of the beers that they are riffing on, and not to positive effect. And what you get, in many instances, is a strange knock-off of far better beers that should be left alone to define a brewery.
Example A of this is Weldwerks' Fruity Bits Strawberry Shortcake (right), a New England-style IPA made with strawberry. The brewery's Juicy Bits is Colorado's standard bearer for the hazy IPA, bursting to life with both the sweet and bitter sides of citrus fruit; when it's double-dry-hopped, it becomes simply one of the best beers in the state. But when ingredients as clashing with bitterness as strawberry and vanilla beans are introduced to the beer, it becomes an out-of-place, training-wheels IPA in which the hops become such an afterthought that is seems stylistically misplaced.
Avery's Real Peel IPA, made with tangerine peel, strikes a similar discordant note. Here is one of the chief hop purveyors in the state mixing in one of the most subtle citrus fruits on the planet to the effect that both the hops and the fruit get lost in the blend. Coming from the same brewery that will blow your taste buds out and make you smile with its Maharaja Imperial IPA, there is a disconnect.
New Belgium's range of fruit-accented beers tell a similar story. Its Citradelic tangerine IPA is aloof in both its fruit and hop tastes, and the medium-bodied beer seems unsure of what it wants to be. It sets the stage for its Juicy Mandarina IPA - a wheat IPA that isn't actually infused with fruit additives but leans so much toward fruit tastes in is hop profile that it too loses the flavor of said hops.
I mention these three breweries in particular because they literally are three of the best in Colorado that are taking these strange side roads when they have hit so many times over with full-flavored hop bombs and barrel-aged sours, and even with subtle delights like an Avery Joe's Pils or the sadly discontinued New Belgium Mothership Wit. They clearly know what they're doing.Not all fruited IPAs miss the mark. Numerous breweries, for example, have used grapefruit to increase the bitterness of the style, appropriate as some hops can taste naturally like the fruit. Sam Adams livened up its Rebel IPA by adding in mango juice, giving it heightened tropical feel even as it did not tone down the natural grassiness of the hops. And Denver Beer scored a surprising victory this summer with its Maui Express Coconut IPA, using the coconut not to add a particular island taste but to calm the hops just enough that you can feel a different element in what may be the closest thing to a summer IPA that the industry has developed.
But the fruited IPAs in general seem so hell-bent on yelling "Look at my creativity!" and trying to lure non-hop heads to the style that they become needless diversions in a genre of bitter beers that still has lots of room to grow without tossing in everything in a grocer's produce aisle. Let's recommit to the idea that IPAs are bitter, piny, earthy, flowery and sometimes naturally citrus-y without the need to introduce flavors that veer these offerings away from what has made the style great.Labels: Avery Brewing, Denver Beer Co, Fruit beers, grapefruit IPA, hazy IPAs, IPA, New Belgium Brewing, Sam Adams, Weldwerks Brewing
Monday, March 21, 2016
5 Things I Learned from Collaboration Fest 2016
Saturday's Collaboration Fest once again showed why it's quickly become one of the top beer festivals in Colorado, as brewers toppled over each other in an effort to show off their creativity, especially with new ingredients and new styles of ale. On a day when more than 85 beers were available, some would be considered slight misses, but it was hard to find anything that was a complete fail.
That said, a few certainly did stand out. And they are worth mentioning - and begging brewers to bring back throughout this year.
1) A perfect IPA still stands alone.
Cannonball Creek and Pizza Port stole the day with the simple idea of a wheat IPA. While No Man's IPA may not have jumped off the page when looking at descriptions of the offerings, it immediately announced itself with a full mouth of smooth, flowery hops in a dangerously easy, fully integrated body. Simple, yet so well done that no one else's barrel or added fruit could steal its limelight.
2) That said, barrels and added fruit spoke very well for themselves.
If No Man's IPA wasn't the first beer mentioned in conversation during the festival, than the TRVE/Prairie Oak-Aged Gose on Oklahoma and Colorado Peaches was. A very balanced sour that mixed an occasional burst of acidity with a peach presence that was heavy without being syrupy, this was a brilliant idea.
Equally impressive was the Deux Funk, a barrel-aged sour ale from Funkwerks and North Carolina's hot Wicked Weed Brewing. Flavors of grape and a hint of kiwi/passion fruit burst out in a clean, smooth effort that was less challenging than pleasing.
3) Some bold flavors worked, some didn't.
New Belgium and Ratio Beerworks had one of the boldest ideas of the festival — a bruleed grapefruit saison that I had the chance to shoot a video about. Everything about it worked, from a minimal sweetness that evened out the grapefruit bite to its finishing with a verve of carbonation. This is how well-planned experiments should go.
That result ran opposite to the outcome of Peanut Butter Lunchbox, the Elvis tribute made by Denver Beer and DC Brau with heaps of peanut butter and a hefeweizen yeast to add a banana flavor - but maybe not quite enough of either taste. Still, the presence of what is hopefully just Denver Beer's first pass at this idea was reason enough to cheer the creativity on display at the festival.
4) Weldwerks came through.
Few breweries at the festival had as many curious eyes on them as Weldwerks, fresh off its being named by USA Today as the best new brewery of 2015. It didn't disappoint, working with underrated Snowbank Brewing to offer a Barrel-Aged Mocha Stout that was as thick as its name implies but still tamped with enough chocolaty sweetness to make this very, very drinkable.
5) Don't sleep on the amateur brewers.
Even among the piles of collaborating beer makers, one of the standout offerings came from the collaboration of New Belgium with beer purveyors Falling Rock Tap House and Star Bar. Rock Star, made with New Belgium's sour "Felix" base, was nearly pucker-worthy but calmed enough to offer up a sour-apple feel that brought you back for more.
And, as I wrote before the festival, I was privileged enough with a group of my fellow beer writers (pictured above) to team with Lost Highway Brewing to put forth the Fourth Estate Chocolate Stout, made with English yeast and Ghirardelli chocolate. The beer turned out wonderfully sweet and easy and had jaw-dropping lines at times - a situation for which all credit goes to the folks at Lost Highway.
Saturday's Collaboration Fest once again showed why it's quickly become one of the top beer festivals in Colorado, as brewers toppled over each other in an effort to show off their creativity, especially with new ingredients and new styles of ale. On a day when more than 85 beers were available, some would be considered slight misses, but it was hard to find anything that was a complete fail.
That said, a few certainly did stand out. And they are worth mentioning - and begging brewers to bring back throughout this year.
1) A perfect IPA still stands alone.
Cannonball Creek and Pizza Port stole the day with the simple idea of a wheat IPA. While No Man's IPA may not have jumped off the page when looking at descriptions of the offerings, it immediately announced itself with a full mouth of smooth, flowery hops in a dangerously easy, fully integrated body. Simple, yet so well done that no one else's barrel or added fruit could steal its limelight.
2) That said, barrels and added fruit spoke very well for themselves.
If No Man's IPA wasn't the first beer mentioned in conversation during the festival, than the TRVE/Prairie Oak-Aged Gose on Oklahoma and Colorado Peaches was. A very balanced sour that mixed an occasional burst of acidity with a peach presence that was heavy without being syrupy, this was a brilliant idea.
Equally impressive was the Deux Funk, a barrel-aged sour ale from Funkwerks and North Carolina's hot Wicked Weed Brewing. Flavors of grape and a hint of kiwi/passion fruit burst out in a clean, smooth effort that was less challenging than pleasing.
3) Some bold flavors worked, some didn't.
New Belgium and Ratio Beerworks had one of the boldest ideas of the festival — a bruleed grapefruit saison that I had the chance to shoot a video about. Everything about it worked, from a minimal sweetness that evened out the grapefruit bite to its finishing with a verve of carbonation. This is how well-planned experiments should go.
That result ran opposite to the outcome of Peanut Butter Lunchbox, the Elvis tribute made by Denver Beer and DC Brau with heaps of peanut butter and a hefeweizen yeast to add a banana flavor - but maybe not quite enough of either taste. Still, the presence of what is hopefully just Denver Beer's first pass at this idea was reason enough to cheer the creativity on display at the festival.
4) Weldwerks came through.
Few breweries at the festival had as many curious eyes on them as Weldwerks, fresh off its being named by USA Today as the best new brewery of 2015. It didn't disappoint, working with underrated Snowbank Brewing to offer a Barrel-Aged Mocha Stout that was as thick as its name implies but still tamped with enough chocolaty sweetness to make this very, very drinkable.
5) Don't sleep on the amateur brewers.
Even among the piles of collaborating beer makers, one of the standout offerings came from the collaboration of New Belgium with beer purveyors Falling Rock Tap House and Star Bar. Rock Star, made with New Belgium's sour "Felix" base, was nearly pucker-worthy but calmed enough to offer up a sour-apple feel that brought you back for more.
And, as I wrote before the festival, I was privileged enough with a group of my fellow beer writers (pictured above) to team with Lost Highway Brewing to put forth the Fourth Estate Chocolate Stout, made with English yeast and Ghirardelli chocolate. The beer turned out wonderfully sweet and easy and had jaw-dropping lines at times - a situation for which all credit goes to the folks at Lost Highway.
Labels: Cannonball Creek Brewing, collaboration beers, Denver Beer Co, Festivals, Funkwerks, Lost Highway Brewing, New Belgium Brewing, Ratio Beerworks, Snowbank Brewing, TRVE, Weldwerks Brewing
Friday, March 18, 2016
How to Make a Collaboration Beer
Collaboration Fest, scheduled for Saturday afternoon, has become one of the can't-miss festivals in Colorado. This year, 140 breweries from 21 states and five foreign countries are scheduled to roll out 85 new beers — many of which push the envelope on flavor profiles and creativity.
But for those of us who cover the beer industry, even looking on at this spectacle and tasting as much as we can put down was not enough. So, under the leadership of Brewtally Insane authors Mark and Patti Robinson, a small team of beer writers teamed up with Sir James at Lost Highway Brewing and found out what it was like to make our own collaboration entry.
First of all, the terms "our" and "collaboration" are being used loosely here. Mark and Patti deserve almost all of the credit for coming up with the idea. And 100 percent of the actual making of the beer was done by Lost Highway, lest you fear what kind of scourge might be in that glass when you walk up to the brewery's booth tomorrow.
But Patti came up with the idea of mixing in a classic Belgian ingredient and creating a chocolate stout, something the Denver Belgian-style brewer that also operates the Cheeky Monk had not done before. And after the beer writers decided on using Ghirardelli Chocolate, head brewer T.J. Compton decided to use an English-ale yeast in the beer, feeling a Belgian-ale yeast could clash too much with the chocolate.
For brewing day, we largely stood around watching T.J. and Sir James work. I felt lazy right up until I attended a later collaboration brew between New Belgium and Ratio Beerworks and realized that most of the brewers there too stood around sampling and chatting while a few people added ingredients and ran the equipment. It just goes to show that a lot of the great beers are made into what they are in the idea stage.
The beer writers' collaboration may not set the festival on fire. But it offered a chance to hang out with a great group of people and discuss beer in general. And I guess that really is the point of tomorrow's event.
But for those of us who cover the beer industry, even looking on at this spectacle and tasting as much as we can put down was not enough. So, under the leadership of Brewtally Insane authors Mark and Patti Robinson, a small team of beer writers teamed up with Sir James at Lost Highway Brewing and found out what it was like to make our own collaboration entry.
First of all, the terms "our" and "collaboration" are being used loosely here. Mark and Patti deserve almost all of the credit for coming up with the idea. And 100 percent of the actual making of the beer was done by Lost Highway, lest you fear what kind of scourge might be in that glass when you walk up to the brewery's booth tomorrow.
But Patti came up with the idea of mixing in a classic Belgian ingredient and creating a chocolate stout, something the Denver Belgian-style brewer that also operates the Cheeky Monk had not done before. And after the beer writers decided on using Ghirardelli Chocolate, head brewer T.J. Compton decided to use an English-ale yeast in the beer, feeling a Belgian-ale yeast could clash too much with the chocolate.
For brewing day, we largely stood around watching T.J. and Sir James work. I felt lazy right up until I attended a later collaboration brew between New Belgium and Ratio Beerworks and realized that most of the brewers there too stood around sampling and chatting while a few people added ingredients and ran the equipment. It just goes to show that a lot of the great beers are made into what they are in the idea stage.
The beer writers' collaboration may not set the festival on fire. But it offered a chance to hang out with a great group of people and discuss beer in general. And I guess that really is the point of tomorrow's event.
Labels: collaboration beers, Lost Highway Brewing, New Belgium Brewing, Ratio Beerworks
Monday, September 28, 2015
Best of GABF 2015
The recently concluded edition of the Great American Beer Festival brought us more breweries serving more beer and winning more awards than ever before. And the one-directional trends of years past (everything is hoppier or more sour or more barrel-aged) seemed to give way both to a willingness to experiment in new directions and to bring a broad swath of beers that weren't all meant to overwhelm you.
It's hard then to denote certain beers as the absolute stand-outs among such a varied presentation, especially when the Brewers Association already does such a good job with its medals. But, as always, I will do my best to try to call attention to a few that this beer writer will be thinking about long after I wash out my new tasting cups and toss away my wrist bands.
Best in Show: Vanilla Rye Bourbon County Brand Stout
At a time when everybody is making their own bigger, bolder, barrel-aged creation, Goose Island has set the bar with this giant stout (13.8% ABV) aged in unique barrels (rye whiskey) with the addition of Mexican and Madagascar vanilla beans. It is huge. It is sweet, with a backtaste of bitter rye. And it warms you as it goes down. When I mentioned several of my favorite finds to a bus tour of beer writers during the festival, this was the one that received several nodding heads and thumbs up. The secret's out: Goose Island has exceeded its original Bourbon County Brand Stout and is waiting to see who can catch up with it.
Best Traditional Sour: New Belgium NBB Love Felix
It seems somewhat odd to call out the wild ale that serves as a base beer for Le Terroir, especially when that gem of a dry-hopped sour was being served at the same booth. But at a time when breweries are trying to ramp up their tartness or even bourbon-barrel-age their sours (a bad idea, based on results so far), this golden and tart beer comes across as clean and crisp and puckery in an almost pristine way. It's a reminder of what Colorado's largest brewery does so well.
Best Non-traditional sour: Odd 13 Brewing Humulus Kalecumber
You might say that kale and cucumber and (muted) mint are not ingredients you want in your beer. But you would be very, very wrong. This rising star from Lafayette broke down doors with this tart and yet soothing vegetable beer based on a Berliner weisse. It was fascinating and yet very drinkable, and it served notice one again that this is a brewery to be watched.
Best Dark, Non-Barrel-Aged Beer: Funky Buddha First Snow
Both coconut and coffee are becoming more common ingredients in porters, but few beers have ever put them together in a way that this sweet and zingy and mouth-filling creation does. Funky Buddha was one of the hot breweries at the festival this year. Its reputation appears well-deserved.
Best Hoppy Beers
Fat Head's Brewery of Ohio took home three gold medals, including for its black IPA and its double red ale, but its truly artistic hop bomb was its Hop Juju Imperial IPA, a wonderfully full effort that was as hop-forward as one could be without being biting. But Port City Brewing - this year's small brewing company of the year - proved that great hoppy efforts also come in slightly smaller-IBU packages, as its Monumental IPA set the standard for being flowery without ripping up taste buds.
Best Lighter Effort
Indeed Brewing of Minneapolis offered up an L.S.D. Honey Ale that made full-flavored use of its three initialed ingredients - lavender, sunflowers and dates. But it's the mellow body that lets you breath in the qualities of each that make this the quaffer of the festival.
Most Interesting Experiment
Right Brain Brewery of Traverse City, Michigan, is one of a handful of beer makers specifically from that state that seem to enjoy pushing the envelope in regard to which ingredients can work in a beer. But with its Mangalitsa Pig Porter - a dark, chocolaty beer made with smoked pig heads and bones, it found a way to pour something akin to cocoa bacon java in a glass. And that's a compliment.
The recently concluded edition of the Great American Beer Festival brought us more breweries serving more beer and winning more awards than ever before. And the one-directional trends of years past (everything is hoppier or more sour or more barrel-aged) seemed to give way both to a willingness to experiment in new directions and to bring a broad swath of beers that weren't all meant to overwhelm you.
It's hard then to denote certain beers as the absolute stand-outs among such a varied presentation, especially when the Brewers Association already does such a good job with its medals. But, as always, I will do my best to try to call attention to a few that this beer writer will be thinking about long after I wash out my new tasting cups and toss away my wrist bands.
Best in Show: Vanilla Rye Bourbon County Brand Stout
At a time when everybody is making their own bigger, bolder, barrel-aged creation, Goose Island has set the bar with this giant stout (13.8% ABV) aged in unique barrels (rye whiskey) with the addition of Mexican and Madagascar vanilla beans. It is huge. It is sweet, with a backtaste of bitter rye. And it warms you as it goes down. When I mentioned several of my favorite finds to a bus tour of beer writers during the festival, this was the one that received several nodding heads and thumbs up. The secret's out: Goose Island has exceeded its original Bourbon County Brand Stout and is waiting to see who can catch up with it.
Best Traditional Sour: New Belgium NBB Love Felix
It seems somewhat odd to call out the wild ale that serves as a base beer for Le Terroir, especially when that gem of a dry-hopped sour was being served at the same booth. But at a time when breweries are trying to ramp up their tartness or even bourbon-barrel-age their sours (a bad idea, based on results so far), this golden and tart beer comes across as clean and crisp and puckery in an almost pristine way. It's a reminder of what Colorado's largest brewery does so well.
Best Non-traditional sour: Odd 13 Brewing Humulus Kalecumber
You might say that kale and cucumber and (muted) mint are not ingredients you want in your beer. But you would be very, very wrong. This rising star from Lafayette broke down doors with this tart and yet soothing vegetable beer based on a Berliner weisse. It was fascinating and yet very drinkable, and it served notice one again that this is a brewery to be watched.
Best Dark, Non-Barrel-Aged Beer: Funky Buddha First Snow
Both coconut and coffee are becoming more common ingredients in porters, but few beers have ever put them together in a way that this sweet and zingy and mouth-filling creation does. Funky Buddha was one of the hot breweries at the festival this year. Its reputation appears well-deserved.
Best Hoppy Beers
Fat Head's Brewery of Ohio took home three gold medals, including for its black IPA and its double red ale, but its truly artistic hop bomb was its Hop Juju Imperial IPA, a wonderfully full effort that was as hop-forward as one could be without being biting. But Port City Brewing - this year's small brewing company of the year - proved that great hoppy efforts also come in slightly smaller-IBU packages, as its Monumental IPA set the standard for being flowery without ripping up taste buds.
Best Lighter Effort
Indeed Brewing of Minneapolis offered up an L.S.D. Honey Ale that made full-flavored use of its three initialed ingredients - lavender, sunflowers and dates. But it's the mellow body that lets you breath in the qualities of each that make this the quaffer of the festival.
Most Interesting Experiment
Right Brain Brewery of Traverse City, Michigan, is one of a handful of beer makers specifically from that state that seem to enjoy pushing the envelope in regard to which ingredients can work in a beer. But with its Mangalitsa Pig Porter - a dark, chocolaty beer made with smoked pig heads and bones, it found a way to pour something akin to cocoa bacon java in a glass. And that's a compliment.
Labels: Fat Head's Brewery, Funky Buddha Brewing, Goose Island, Great American Beer Festival, Indeed Brewing, New Belgium Brewing, Odd 13 Brewing, Port City Brewing, Right Brain Brewery
