Beer Run Blog

7 Colorado Pumpkin Beers to Drink in the Seven Days Before Halloween Ends    

Pumpkin beers to many have long seemed like the hellish figure in the picture above (the guardian to corn maze at Anderson Farms in Erie) - a horror inflicted on the drinking world by a small number of breweries attempting to please  an only slightly larger number of aficionados. But as I, one of those horrible aficionados, discovered when I want in vain to pick up my now-sold-out annual dosage of Southern Tier Pumking on Saturday at my favorite liquor store, they've become so popular during coronavirus that they're flying off the shelves.

With the knowledge that people are diving headfirst into this long-underappreciated trend this year, here then is a very short list of some of the best experiments and tried-and-true offerings that are new or returning from Colorado breweries this season. It's a roundup that not only gives a window into the efforts that make the style worthwhile but also proves that pumpkin beers themselves are evolving and becoming far more diverse in the ways they are presented.

1) Spice Trade Pumpkin Spice Latte

Pumpkin beers rarely, if ever, have used fresh-roasted coffee beans to such the advantage as this mold-breaking offering from Spice Trade Brewing. Used in combination with lactose, vanilla and ample but not overwhelming pumpkin-pie spices, it creates a beer that is both boldly roasted and supremely smooth, and its accessible sharpness is something rarely found in a genre more often defined by more-than-ample spicing.

2) Weldwerks Pumpkin Pie Berliner

No Colorado pumpkin beer comes as close as this to reproducing what makes Pumking so brilliant - creating the liquid taste not just of pumpkin-pie filling but of the graham-cracker crust and the Cool Whip on top - but then, as Weldwerks does, it gives the style its own unique twist. The tart kick at the end of this gem accents the spices in a unique way and also creates entryway into the style for lovers of the sour-beer ascetic. Wickedly creative, it is worth seeking out.

3) Goat Patch Pumpkin Patch Punch

With its silver medal at this year's Great American Beer Festival, the time for Colorado Springs' best-kept brewing secret to remain secrets should be over. This almost glowingly orange offering is another testimony to its skill - an impressively tasty mélange of true gourd taste with spice that is blended into its sweetness and generates no bitter potpourri aftertaste. You could drink this all day.

4) Holidaily Patchy Waters Pumpkin Ale

It took a gluten-free beer to show exactly how much flavor could be gleaned without any of the bitter aftertaste that too often has marked the genre. Brewer Alan Windhausen adds most of the spices here after the boil, giving them a presence without a lingering burn by extracting the flavor without extracting so many of the spices' astringent qualities. A model of big taste and smoothness.

5) Odyssey Beerwerks Fluffy Pumpkin

No beer made in Colorado brings across the quality of marshmallow so well as this, which seems an odd statement to write on a beer blog but nonetheless remains true. The dominant taste of this dark beer is cinnamon, but its bitterness is squished by an almost gooey softness that makes this truly fascinating. Neither overtly sweet nor overtly spicy, this is unique in a very good way.

6) 4 Noses Pump Action

While the bittering spices in this imperial pumpkin ale feel ratcheted up a bit from years past, it remains one of Colorado's standard bearers in this genre - a hugely flavorful beer that is the equivalent of a pumpkin churro in liquid form, with just enough sweetness hiding on the back end to make its flavor profile feel complete even as it's firing at your taste buds from every angle.

7) Twisted Pine Mr. Brown's

If you love old-school, spice-heavy brown pumpkin ales, this offering from one of Boulder's classic craft-beer makers will scratch that itch. But it also carries a sensible blend of darkness and heady malt base that reminds you that good pumpkin beers are, first and foremost, good beers first, even if they don't shy from featuring the flavors of cinnamon and nutmeg, as this does.

Labels: 4 Noses Brewing, Goat Patch Brewing, Holidaily Brewing, Odyssey Beerwerks, Pumpkin beers, Southern Tier Brewing, Spice Trade Brewing Co., Twisted Pine Brewing, Weldwerks Brewing

Collaboration still is worth celebrating

It occurred to me as everyone was celebrating our nation's independence today 10 days ago that it would have three months exactly since we should have been celebrating something else noble — collaboration. Alas, Collaboration Fest was the first of Colorado's great beer events felled by coronavirus — a list that, sadly, stretches all the way now to include the Great American Beer Festival as we've known it.

But one of the oddly positive things to come out of this time of isolation has been the slow rollout of collaboration beers. followed by an extended shelf life that's left a few of them available still. And it is to that effort that today's retrospective/perspective column is dedicated — a look at a select number of the great collaborations this year that you should either buy or tell your favorite breweries to make again soon.

Strange Times — Strange Craft Beer/Argonaut Wine & Liquor
This barrel-aged baltic porter was of the best and simultaneously most dangerous kind — a beer that churns with complex flavors yet doesn't appear to be anywhere as boozy as it actually is. Dark, roasty and chocolatey with just the right amount of bitterness, it's so easy to enjoy that you can put down four cans of it without ever stopping to take a photo ...


Strawberry Shortcake Pastry Sour — Crooked Stave/Molly's Spirits
In lesser hands, this beer could have been a juicy fruit bomb with an abnormally glowing red/pink body. Instead, it meshes all of its attributes beautifully, letting its fruit bring the sweetness, its yeast give it just a prick of sour that doesn't detract from its core taste and some wonderful brewing leave it with a backtaste of dough, as if you've just drank a tart-ish piece of cake.


The Odyssey of Flyte — Odyssey Beerwerks/FlyteCo Brewing
Every year among the bold and crazy creations that headline Collaboration Fest, one finds the almost subtle beer that you want to drink over and over again — and this beer allowed you to do just that as coronavirus shifted its production into cans. Classic in its Belgian feel, it put forth a slightly sharp, sweet taste but also a big body that heightened its drinkability, ending with tang of bitterness that made you feel you'd flown around the taste world in 12 ounces.

Jungle Rush — Westfax Brewing/Finkel & Garf
Sure, "fruited sour hazy IPA" sounded like a gimmick that was a milkshake short of a full trend house. But after a burst of orange-pineapple nose, the hops really did take over with a wonderful bitterness that stood up and complimented the citrus fruit well. Both bold and eerily subtle, it evolved as you drank it, giving you a run through a lot of techniques that all were impressive.

Strat Boy — Cannonball Creek/Pizza Port Carlsbad
While not the world's most interesting beer, these auteurs managed to make a hoppy American pilsner that also was not boring - and in doing so, created what could have been the summer sipper of the batch. Its defining characteristic was its crispness, and the surrounding bitterness helped to lay that quality down and make sure that there was something more going on in a simple creation.





Barrel Conspiracy: Mr. Sandman — River North Brewery/Molly's Spirits
As far as ambitious beers go, this bourbon-barrel-aged imperial stout with orange and chocolate had few peers, at least among the beers found in the Denver area in the months following what would have been the festival. Maybe the 12.8% ABV was a little too much for its own good. But the nose itself was the single most impressive aroma of a beer that has debuted this year, launching you into a world of candy and creativity that did not overstep the boundaries of sweetness, presumably because of its notable booze.

The Cure — Brewery Rickoli/Over Yonder Brewing
Not just the most appropriately named beer for a coronavirus-cancelled festival, this West Coast double IPA showed off a subtle touch from two overlooked breweries in Denver's western suburbs. Clean, classically hoppy and full of pine and dandelions, it recalled an earlier time in brewing, both before coronavirus and before the idea of collaborations.

Strangely Epic — Strange Craft Beer/Epic Brewing
This is not the first time the two Denver breweries have combined their signature beers to make a seemingly head-scratching whiskey-barrel-aged coffee cherry stout, but it has never seemed to blend so appropriately. Darker than night and scented heavily with coffee, it allowed the cherry to come through just strongly enough that it added a unique dimension to the featured taste in a warming, enveloping stout. Ask for seconds this winter; this is what a cold-weather nightcap should be.

Labels: Brewery Rickoli, Cannonball Creek Brewing, collaboration beers, Crooked Stave, Epic Brewing, Finkel & Garf Brewing, FlyteCo Brewing, Molly's Spirits, Odyssey Beerwerks, River North Brewery, Strange Craft Beer

Riding the G Line of Beer

It's been two months now since the Regional Transportation District opened the G Line, extending from Wheat Ridge through Arvada and into Denver Union Station. Many people likely haven't experienced the ride yet. And that is a mistake — particularly from a beer perspective.

Urban dwellers may not realize it, but Arvada now has a brewing scene equal to any Denver-area town that is not Denver. One of the most underrated beer bars in the area sits just a five-minute walk from the first stop on the G Line. And the starting point of this excursion, Denver Union Station, sits in one of the most beer-friendly areas of downtown, even if you have only a short time to imbibe.

Here, then, is a beer-lovers' guide to the G Line — a trip I tried out myself during a birthday crawl of the new rail route that I organized last month.

Stop 1: Denver Union Station
There's too many options at the refurbished 19th-century train to list them all, but there are several key things to know. The Terminal Bar at the train station opens at 10 a.m. and has 30 taps that are dedicated solely to Colorado beers. Both the adjacent Hopdoddy Burger Bar and Thirsty Lion Gastropub are out-of-state chains but are replete with good beer and high-quality food starting at 11 a.m. And Wynkoop Brewing, just across the street from the station, has undergone a serious renaissance since John Sims took over as head brewer a few years ago and reintroduced serious experimentation to the 31-year-old brewpub.

Stop 2: 41st and Fox
The community surrounding this stop in north-central Denver remains in its nascent stages, but the Crafty Fox Taphouse & Pizzeria is literally a five-minute walk from the stop. The restaurant has a lengthy and excellent tap list (that's Weldwerks Juicy Bits in this photo from my birthday crawl) and is extremely family-friendly, with games and toys aplenty offered for kids. It's also got an impressive patio and is located next to a craft-heavy liquor store, Bogey's Beer and Wine, that will allow you the opportunity to take home a six-pack or bomber of many of the things you tasted next door.
(Note: I discovered after writing this post that Crafty Fox had closed less than two weeks beforehand. That's a loss not just for the G Line tour but for the Denver beer community. Let's hope another restaurant with good food and a good tap list can give it a shot at making this a great beer stop.)

Stop 3: Pecos Junction
Located near West 62nd and Pecos in unincorporated Adams County, the nearest businesses here are a truck- and tractor-part dealership, a self-storage facility and a garage. Bruz Beers (whose owners are pictured above) is a 20-minute walk up Pecos, though, and it's got an eclectic and improving selection of Belgian options, so if you really want to hit every stop on the line, have your Uber app ready and it will take you there. River North is a little further — 36 minutes by foot, though just five minutes by car, and its collection of hazy IPAs and liver-breaking 15% ABV Decennial series are worth spending the money on getting someone else to drive you around.

Stop 4: Clear Creek and Federal Station
While Adams County officials have some grand plans to make this an area to live, work and play — including possible features on the creek — you are currently out of luck at this stop around 60th and Federal, which is all industrial without a good beer in site. But give it time. And wave hello as you pass it by presently.

Stop 5: Arvada Gold Strike (60th and Sheridan)
Similar to Pecos Junction, this is an industrial zone. But Odyssey Beerwerks in Arvada is a 20-minute walk away, and new brewery operations director Chris Griffith - late of the closed Fate Brewing and its fantastic experiments in flavor — is ramping up the brewery's menu in exciting ways, including a chai version of its tasty Psycho Penguin Porter that took that beer to a new level. So why recommend this trip more vociferously than a similar one to Bruz on an RTD pub crawl? For this reason: Bruz, while it is a great brewery, is beyond the industrial zone surrounding its RTD stop in a residential community that is easily accessed by car. Odyssey, meanwhile, is almost buried in an industrial park that really speaks to where you are getting off here, and its inclusion in any pub crawl puts the neighborhoods of the new rail line in perspective.

Stop 6: Olde Town Arvada
You could take the G Line from Union Station to here and not leave, and you still have struck beer gold. Within a five-minute walk, you can stumble into New Image Brewing, whose collection of hazy IPAs and genre-pushing sours arguably puts it into the list of Colorado's 10-15 best breweries (and sports a great back patio, as seen in this photo). Denver Beer Co's suburban location, with its in-house burger trailer and range of Arvada-only beers, is a similar distance away. Do not, however, overlook, Homegrown Tap & Dough, an upscale pizza restaurant with a rewarding tap and bottle list that is literally a really strong stone's throw from the station (as opposed the 4-5 minutes you'll have to walk to get to the two breweries). And it's just an eight-minute walk down to Yak & Yeti, a Nepalese restaurant that also is home to Sun Temple Brewing and its daring beers, including its award-winning Chai Milk Stout.

Stop 7: Arvada Ridge
Adjacent to a shopping and dining area that features a lot of fast-casual chains, this stop just east of Kipling and Ridge Road in Arvada is probably more appropriate for a quick bite to calm your buzz if you are making this trip. But Li'l Nick's Pizza is just a six-minute walk from the station and has 14 beers on tap. And Discovery Tap House and its 28 beers are only an 11-minute walk, which, again, can be be rewarded with all kind of burgers, calzones or fast Chinese on the way back to the station.

Stop 8: Wheat Ridge - Ward Station
Like several of its brethren station on the G Line, this is not near beer oases just yet, though city leaders say they hope to build up a multi-use community around the stop that can feature restaurant and retail. But if you're willing to sit in a car for 10 minutes, you can get to either of the two Wheat Ridge breweries — Brewery Rickoli, which has taken the gluten-reduced taste profile in far-out directions, including a GABF-medal-winning barley wine and a lot of bold hoppy and sour flavors, and Colorado Plus, whose half-dozen in-house beers are supplemented by a tap list of 50-plus Colorado-only offerings, including some smaller breweries you won't find elsewhere. A trip to either place is well worth your time.

Labels: Arvada breweries, Brewery Rickoli, Bruz Beers, Colorado Plus Brew Pub, Crafty Fox, Denver Beer Co, Hopdoddy, New Image Brewing, Odyssey Beerwerks, Sun Temple Brewing, Thirsty Lion, Wynkoop Brewery

6 Beers That Have Put a Spring in Spring's Step

Judging by the weekday crowd at Elitch Gardens today, spring has already segued into summer, no matter what the calendar may say. But beer seasons stick around a little longer, giving that precious extra time to sup up what breweries have made to help Coloradans bridge the crucial months between ski season and full-out camping time.

This year brought a variety of tastes giving life to what used to be a blah few months for new creations and seasonal offerings. And in the catch-all spirit of spring-cleaning one's beer notebook, a half dozen that ran the gamuts of flavor and release timing need to be called out and, in some cases, lobbied to be brought back again when the calendar turns from snow to sunshine in the same week.





1) Paradox MF Gose Pamplemousse
A star of the Teller County brewery's recent mixed-fermentation special series, this gose with fruit and sea salt combines complex tartness with a smoothness that rarely is found in the style. Low levels of acidity make the grapefruit nose and mouthfeel the true star, accented by a little bit of Pixie-Stick-style sweetness that makes you stop to think about everything going on within your mouth.

2) Denver Beer Co. Juicy Freak IPA
Introduced just recently but planned as a year-round beer, this packs a much bigger and bolder flavor than could be expected of any beer with so light a body. The American Mosaic and Simcoe hops produce flavors both dank and tropical, creating an extremely juicy mouthfeel without weighing you down even a bit.

3)  3 Superheroes Walk Into a Brewery
This Comic Book Day collaboration between Odd13 Brewing, Cannonball Creek and Odyssey Beerwerks also goes above and beyond its pale-ale genre, bringing about a full taste in which the sharp mango of its Amarillo and Galaxy hops is cut by the coconut of its Sabro hop addition. Cloudy like a hazy offering, its more citrus flavors linger, celebrating its complexity.

4) Melvin Brewing TGR Pilsgnar
Though it really was a winter beer, Melvin's TGR Pilsgnar earns mention here because of its hop-forward characteristics that make it not just a viable refresher following a day of skiing but a fully formed offering legitimate for both winter warming and springtime adventures. What stands out from this collaboration with extreme-sports media company Teton Gravity Research is its notable level of crispness that lands squarely and dryly on your palate and becomes a true craft pilsner experience.

5) Bell's Brewery Official IPA
Like Melvin, Bell's is technically an interloper to this state, but its late 2018 launch into Colorado gives its beers here a very fresh feel and makes you appreciate its unique new offerings like they were something coming for the first time from the brewery around the corner. Official IPA stands out for being a hazy IPA without diving fully into the New England citrus and tropical blend of hops, instead being smooth, juicy and very summer-ready with hints of papaya upfront and just a faint grassy bitterness remaining on the backtaste.

6) Left Hand Wheels Gose 'Round
The better of Left Hand's two raspberry-infused spring seasonals, this gose that is made also with lemon peel gains your attention quickly with its glowing red body but holds it with enough citrus bitterness to give it multiple layers. The best word to describe it is "sharp" - an offering that will continue to be relevant through the lighter-bodied summer season but that brings a new, fresh character to this classic brewery's portfolio.

Labels: Bell's Brewing, Cannonball Creek Brewing, Denver Beer Co, Left Hand Brewing, Melvin Brewing, Odd 13 Brewing, Odyssey Beerwerks, Paradox Brewing, spring seasonals