Friday, February 21, 2020
Beer and Donuts Is the New Beer and Pizza
Leave it to the couple that decided mixing IPA and mac 'n cheese was a good idea - and shocking everyone all by proving themselves right - to have the first beer bar/restaurant in Denver to open up a donut shop inside as well.
Come Wednesday, Hops & Pie will also be home to Berkeley Donuts, a shop that will open at 7:30 a.m. and be located right beside the bar that serves one of the best tap lists of local and national craft beer in Denver. Folks can come in and get the donuts - sourdough, vegan or made New England-style with potatoes for extra fluff - until around lunchtime and, if they wish, they can enjoy one or more with a beer such as a coffee stout or a barrel-aged stout, which are co-owner Drew Watson's recommended pairings.
Beer and donuts aren't a new thing in Denver. Denver Beer Co. has been offering irregular pairings of the two important food groups for years, an idea that other breweries since have picked up as well. And Oskar Blues Brewery ran one of the best donut shops in town, Hotbox Roasters, beside its CHUBurger beer bar before shutting both concepts down late last year to concentrate on its full-service restaurants and its brewing capacity.
But what Drew and Leah Watson are doing represents, in many ways, the first chance to dive head-first into trying a great donut - trust me when I say to try the almond coconut chocolate donut or the sourdough frosted with lemon poppyseed icing (both pictured above) - beside a great beer. And Drew, who has been perfecting this concept for two years in the kitchen of his Arvada house, has a few thoughts on how a perfect pairing would work.
He's partial to dark cake with dark malts, he said Friday, and has concocted a menu that includes donut flavors like S'mores, salted caramel and toffee with pretzel. But he also appreciates that a sweeter frosting could pair with a sour or maybe a wheat.
And he acknowledged that, just maybe, he's looking for a way to work hops into donuts, possibly through a combination of grapefruit or other citrus frosting flavors and Southern Hemisphere hops.
"I think any style of beer goes with any style of donut," he mused. "But I think clearly the heavy stouts and Belgians and porters go particularly well."
Donuts aren't likely to replace pizza or even pretzels as the ultimate beer-pairing food yet, but they allow for an impressive level of creativity in terms of how their richness can add to a fullness of flavor in a brew. And the idea that at least one high-level beer hangout in Denver is willing to bet big on the combination shows a continuing maturation of a city that's willing to try new things.
"Denver's a lot in my mind like Portland, Oregon, or Portland, Maine, and those cities have that donut presence," Drew said. "And I've always wondered why Denver doesn't."
Leave it to the couple that decided mixing IPA and mac 'n cheese was a good idea - and shocking everyone all by proving themselves right - to have the first beer bar/restaurant in Denver to open up a donut shop inside as well.
Come Wednesday, Hops & Pie will also be home to Berkeley Donuts, a shop that will open at 7:30 a.m. and be located right beside the bar that serves one of the best tap lists of local and national craft beer in Denver. Folks can come in and get the donuts - sourdough, vegan or made New England-style with potatoes for extra fluff - until around lunchtime and, if they wish, they can enjoy one or more with a beer such as a coffee stout or a barrel-aged stout, which are co-owner Drew Watson's recommended pairings.
Beer and donuts aren't a new thing in Denver. Denver Beer Co. has been offering irregular pairings of the two important food groups for years, an idea that other breweries since have picked up as well. And Oskar Blues Brewery ran one of the best donut shops in town, Hotbox Roasters, beside its CHUBurger beer bar before shutting both concepts down late last year to concentrate on its full-service restaurants and its brewing capacity.
But what Drew and Leah Watson are doing represents, in many ways, the first chance to dive head-first into trying a great donut - trust me when I say to try the almond coconut chocolate donut or the sourdough frosted with lemon poppyseed icing (both pictured above) - beside a great beer. And Drew, who has been perfecting this concept for two years in the kitchen of his Arvada house, has a few thoughts on how a perfect pairing would work.
He's partial to dark cake with dark malts, he said Friday, and has concocted a menu that includes donut flavors like S'mores, salted caramel and toffee with pretzel. But he also appreciates that a sweeter frosting could pair with a sour or maybe a wheat.
And he acknowledged that, just maybe, he's looking for a way to work hops into donuts, possibly through a combination of grapefruit or other citrus frosting flavors and Southern Hemisphere hops.
"I think any style of beer goes with any style of donut," he mused. "But I think clearly the heavy stouts and Belgians and porters go particularly well."
Donuts aren't likely to replace pizza or even pretzels as the ultimate beer-pairing food yet, but they allow for an impressive level of creativity in terms of how their richness can add to a fullness of flavor in a brew. And the idea that at least one high-level beer hangout in Denver is willing to bet big on the combination shows a continuing maturation of a city that's willing to try new things.
"Denver's a lot in my mind like Portland, Oregon, or Portland, Maine, and those cities have that donut presence," Drew said. "And I've always wondered why Denver doesn't."
Labels: Belgian-style beers, Denver Beer Co, donuts, Food pairing, hops, Hops and Pie, Oskar Blues, Porters, stouts
Sunday, July 07, 2019
An Overview of the Steamboat Beer Scene
One of the things Colorado can be proudest of is the breadth and depth of its beer scene outside of metro areas. Summit County features some of the best experimental (Broken Compass) and hazy (Outer Range) beer makers in the state. Durango (Ska, Steamworks) and its 18,000 residents rates on a per-capita basis with anywhere. And Greeley (Weldwerks, Wiley Roots), well, wow.
So it was interesting to note on a recent trip to Steamboat Springs that the 13,000-person skiing and hiking paradise now boasts four breweries of its own, ranging from a production brewery with statewide distribution to a 25-year-old restaurant brewery that offers its beer just there in its bar. But while the production brewery, Butcherknife Brewing, has a wide range of excellent offerings, the rest of the scene seems to be a work in progress, hitting at times with bold flavors and missing at other times with basic staples, particularly in the area of IPAs.
First, Butcherknife. You may know its Amputator IPA, which can be found up and down the Front Range, a boozy (7.2% ABV) and vaguely old-fashioned (it's crammed with Centennial hops) piny but balanced hop bomb that's won "Best of the Boat" five years running. It's a quality and reasonably unique offering, with its malt-heavy quality — but it's hardly the best thing on this excellent menu.
That distinction goes to Sunshine Express Pale Ale, the reigning GABF gold-medal-winner in the Australian pale ale category, which features an expertly blended mix of Citra, Mosaic and Amarillo hops in a medium-light body where the hops get to do all the speaking without preaching bitterness. Throw in a crisp Pilsner, a subtle but vibrant Champagne du Nord Berliner Weisse released not long ago and a banana-ful Hefeweizen (and pleasingly fruity Mango Hefeweizen offshoot) and the offerings show both great craftsmanship and impressive range.
Storm Peak Brewing, meanwhile, is the beer maker everyone seems to be talking about, and with roughly 15 beers on tap, it certainly makes an impression from the moment you see its menu board. But while its Hoochie Mama — a sour blonde ale with guava that pleases by having a high fruit-to-tart ratio that makes it both intriguing and accessible — is one of the best things you'll find in town, the quality of beers varies significantly from there.
The Arborist, a spruce tip saison, is sweet with just enough pine bite to make this a fun experiment, and the Chowder hazy IPA flashes pineapple and tangerine tastes in a subtle body. But the rest of the IPA and hopped offerings tend toward the lighter side — not bad, but leaving you wanting more bite — and the darker offerings include a Zomb brown ale that couldn't stand up to the wings from the barbecue joint next door and a milk stout, Coffee Moos, that was almost all java and little sweetness.
Mountain Tap Brewery is the downtown spot, with a wood-burning oven that makes its full food menu, and its location just feet away from the path winding beside the Yampa River (see photo at bottom) makes this a must-hit for juggling both beers and beauty in a short period of time. But the beer here is even more inconsistent than Storm Peak.
The highlights of the menu were the Mountain Macaroon — a brown ale aged on lightly toasted coconut that has a nice roast and just enough sweetness to make it unique — and the Passionate Pedal, a passionfruit wheat that refreshes completely and has a bonus tinge of tart. But the several IPAs on the menu were beers that let their malts talk more than their hops and even the more experimental tastings like the offshoot of Mountain Macaroon aged for several weeks with rum-soaked oak seem to diminish the original beer (with a shockingly boozy taste for a 6% ABV offering) rather than boosting creativity.
Maybe the biggest surprise in town was Mahogany Ridge Brewery & Grill, a 25-year-old restaurant brewery whose beer menu has changed only a little over the past 15 years despite the enormous changes in the craft-brewing scene. The offerings feel as dated as that description makes them sound, from an Alpenglow amber ale that is reminiscent of an early copper ale to an Elk River ESB that lacks hop bite and feels amateurish.
But if you go in knowing what to expect, the effect is a pleasant surprise. The Lil' Lyddie's IPA is a throwback to English-hopped IPAs and almost feels sentimental, and Uncle Daryl's Dunkelweizen, while lacking crispness, is full of banana and dark-malt overtones. And the Powdercat Porter is a shocker of a good beer that hits you with a crisp, roasted malt finish that combines with a medium body to produce a lovely winter-warmer effect without a high amount of alcohol.
When asked about the local scene, one beertender told me it was "up and coming." Truth be told, Steamboat Springs' breweries are a little more coming than consistently up at the moment, but there are quality offerings at each — and a wide range of special beers at Butcherknife — that give indications that an up-and-down selection may be on the upward curve in the local sector's taste evolution.
So it was interesting to note on a recent trip to Steamboat Springs that the 13,000-person skiing and hiking paradise now boasts four breweries of its own, ranging from a production brewery with statewide distribution to a 25-year-old restaurant brewery that offers its beer just there in its bar. But while the production brewery, Butcherknife Brewing, has a wide range of excellent offerings, the rest of the scene seems to be a work in progress, hitting at times with bold flavors and missing at other times with basic staples, particularly in the area of IPAs.
First, Butcherknife. You may know its Amputator IPA, which can be found up and down the Front Range, a boozy (7.2% ABV) and vaguely old-fashioned (it's crammed with Centennial hops) piny but balanced hop bomb that's won "Best of the Boat" five years running. It's a quality and reasonably unique offering, with its malt-heavy quality — but it's hardly the best thing on this excellent menu.
Storm Peak Brewing, meanwhile, is the beer maker everyone seems to be talking about, and with roughly 15 beers on tap, it certainly makes an impression from the moment you see its menu board. But while its Hoochie Mama — a sour blonde ale with guava that pleases by having a high fruit-to-tart ratio that makes it both intriguing and accessible — is one of the best things you'll find in town, the quality of beers varies significantly from there.
Mountain Tap Brewery is the downtown spot, with a wood-burning oven that makes its full food menu, and its location just feet away from the path winding beside the Yampa River (see photo at bottom) makes this a must-hit for juggling both beers and beauty in a short period of time. But the beer here is even more inconsistent than Storm Peak.The highlights of the menu were the Mountain Macaroon — a brown ale aged on lightly toasted coconut that has a nice roast and just enough sweetness to make it unique — and the Passionate Pedal, a passionfruit wheat that refreshes completely and has a bonus tinge of tart. But the several IPAs on the menu were beers that let their malts talk more than their hops and even the more experimental tastings like the offshoot of Mountain Macaroon aged for several weeks with rum-soaked oak seem to diminish the original beer (with a shockingly boozy taste for a 6% ABV offering) rather than boosting creativity.
Maybe the biggest surprise in town was Mahogany Ridge Brewery & Grill, a 25-year-old restaurant brewery whose beer menu has changed only a little over the past 15 years despite the enormous changes in the craft-brewing scene. The offerings feel as dated as that description makes them sound, from an Alpenglow amber ale that is reminiscent of an early copper ale to an Elk River ESB that lacks hop bite and feels amateurish.
When asked about the local scene, one beertender told me it was "up and coming." Truth be told, Steamboat Springs' breweries are a little more coming than consistently up at the moment, but there are quality offerings at each — and a wide range of special beers at Butcherknife — that give indications that an up-and-down selection may be on the upward curve in the local sector's taste evolution.
Labels: Butcherknife Brewing, coconut, IPA, Mahogany Ridge Brewery & Grill, Mountain Tap Brewery, mountain-town breweries, New Colorado breweries, Porters, sour ale, Steamboat Springs breweries, Storm Peak Brewing
Friday, April 27, 2018
Something Old and Yet New from a Colorado Craft Brewing Veteran
Over its 24-year history, Left Hand Brewing has never been one to follow trends. It took until 2016 for the Longmont brewery to roll out its first year-round American-style IPA, for example. And while everyone else was testing the limits of hops or bacteria in their beer in the early 2010s, Eric Wallace and crew were pushing the limits on smoothness by getting nitrogenated milk stout into a bottle.
So, it should shock few people that Left Hand's two newest year-round offerings are throwback styles - a porter and a golden ale - but with the brewery's classic twists. What is a bit more surprising is that while one of the new offerings really nails its unique place in the Colorado beer world, the other seems a bit lost and looking for a defined personality.
Death Before Disco Porter and Juicy Goodness Dry-Hopped Golden Ale are appropriately drinkable beers as we get ready to enter the summer months. The porter carries with it just a 6 percent ABV hit, while Juicy Goodness registers at 5.5 percent ABV and only 29 IBUs. Both are appropriate for an afternoon backyard barbecue.
Brandishing five different malts, Death Before Disco blends them perfectly and creates a rich, slightly roasty body with a hint of chocolate. But what jumps out is its strong background hits of dark berry - really, it has an air of cherry - that give it complexity without making it feel like a fruit beer. That all combines into an excessively easy body, in a good way.
It is, to put it simply, a more interesting porter than most of what is out on the market. It's accessible and slightly sweeter, but not in an kind of unnatural way. And the hints of dark fruit that permeate it make you want to swirl it around on your tongue to get the full range of kilned and bright flavors, permeated with a slight hint of coffee and hop bitterness. It's a fascinating beer for something that can fairly be described as hum-drumly as a classic porter.
Juicy Goodness also seems to be reaching to be something more than just a golden ale or a lighter-bodied offering with a significant hop influence. And while it doesn't taste like anything that Left Hand has produced before, it also doesn't feel like it ultimately knows what it wants to be.
The Mosaic hops used in the dry-hopping don't lend their usual tropical flavoring here so much as a Pixie-Stick-like burst of sweetness that is offset by a slightly acidic overtone. While there is a somewhat subdued hop presence upfront, there is a lasting bitterness that goes along with it. And you're left with a surprisingly aggressive bite for a light-bodied beer, and a strange combination that doesn't fit easily into any flavor profile.
Brewing outside the box certainly is not a bad thing, and Left Hand has done it well over and over again, taking a classic style and putting a twist onto it to make it more interesting - like, say, adding lactose to a nitro stout. But while that unique dark-fruit overtone that takes Death Before Disco and turns it into a beer for people who want originality in porters works exceedingly well, the dry-hopping of a lighter style feels slightly odd in Juicy Goodness, making you want something more classical and less daring there.
Over its 24-year history, Left Hand Brewing has never been one to follow trends. It took until 2016 for the Longmont brewery to roll out its first year-round American-style IPA, for example. And while everyone else was testing the limits of hops or bacteria in their beer in the early 2010s, Eric Wallace and crew were pushing the limits on smoothness by getting nitrogenated milk stout into a bottle.
So, it should shock few people that Left Hand's two newest year-round offerings are throwback styles - a porter and a golden ale - but with the brewery's classic twists. What is a bit more surprising is that while one of the new offerings really nails its unique place in the Colorado beer world, the other seems a bit lost and looking for a defined personality.
Death Before Disco Porter and Juicy Goodness Dry-Hopped Golden Ale are appropriately drinkable beers as we get ready to enter the summer months. The porter carries with it just a 6 percent ABV hit, while Juicy Goodness registers at 5.5 percent ABV and only 29 IBUs. Both are appropriate for an afternoon backyard barbecue.Brandishing five different malts, Death Before Disco blends them perfectly and creates a rich, slightly roasty body with a hint of chocolate. But what jumps out is its strong background hits of dark berry - really, it has an air of cherry - that give it complexity without making it feel like a fruit beer. That all combines into an excessively easy body, in a good way.
It is, to put it simply, a more interesting porter than most of what is out on the market. It's accessible and slightly sweeter, but not in an kind of unnatural way. And the hints of dark fruit that permeate it make you want to swirl it around on your tongue to get the full range of kilned and bright flavors, permeated with a slight hint of coffee and hop bitterness. It's a fascinating beer for something that can fairly be described as hum-drumly as a classic porter.
Juicy Goodness also seems to be reaching to be something more than just a golden ale or a lighter-bodied offering with a significant hop influence. And while it doesn't taste like anything that Left Hand has produced before, it also doesn't feel like it ultimately knows what it wants to be.
The Mosaic hops used in the dry-hopping don't lend their usual tropical flavoring here so much as a Pixie-Stick-like burst of sweetness that is offset by a slightly acidic overtone. While there is a somewhat subdued hop presence upfront, there is a lasting bitterness that goes along with it. And you're left with a surprisingly aggressive bite for a light-bodied beer, and a strange combination that doesn't fit easily into any flavor profile.
Brewing outside the box certainly is not a bad thing, and Left Hand has done it well over and over again, taking a classic style and putting a twist onto it to make it more interesting - like, say, adding lactose to a nitro stout. But while that unique dark-fruit overtone that takes Death Before Disco and turns it into a beer for people who want originality in porters works exceedingly well, the dry-hopping of a lighter style feels slightly odd in Juicy Goodness, making you want something more classical and less daring there.
Labels: dry-hopped beers, Left Hand Brewing, Porters
Friday, June 30, 2017
Pagosa's Play-Friendly (Brew)Pub Scene
Pulling into the Pagosa Springs Visitor Center last week, I was a little taken aback to be told by a worker that the city was "not a great place for families with little kids." The activities, from rafting to steeper and longer hikes to exploring Ancestral Puebloans' ruins, did seem to skew older than my 3 and 1-1/2-year-olds would prefer.
However, Pagosa Springs' three breweries bucked that trend in a serious way. From outgoing purveyors to big outdoor patios to an entire play area set up at Pagosa Brewing, it was a town that embraced both adults and kids spending languorous hours enjoying its creations. And at two of the three breweries, it was worth taking extra time to enjoy some wide-ranging and well-concocted beer.
The 1,700-person town in southwestern Colorado is known foremost, in beer circles at least, for its namesake Pagosa Brewing, which gained fame when Tony Simmons won a national contest to produce a recipe for Ben Franklin's 300th birthday — before the brewery even had opened. Simmons turned the publicity from that excellent Poor Richard's Ale into a small gathering place west of downtown that recently expanded into a bigger brewpub and offers so many beers on tap that you'll need two eight-sample taster trays to try them all.
In that vast array of offerings, the range of styles — and, quite frankly, the quality — varies pretty wildly. Sour, hoppy, fruity, dark, light and experimental all crowd the table, almost mandating you make at least two visits to try them all. Yeah, tough job.
The most intriguing, by far, was the Salty Caramel Stout, a medium-bodied stout that uses the caramel to give it both texture and an almost milky consistency, coming off as both bold and easy at the same time. But the piece de resistance is the salt moistened onto the glass, which brings out the roasted and slightly sooty character of the caramel and malts, almost changing the nature of the beer. It's a brilliant experiment, and a phenomenal beer either way you enjoy it.
Pagosa Brewing gets the most out of its fruit and vegetable beers too, getting significant natural flavor into its Peachy Peach, a late-breaking but not overwhelming heat on its Chili Verde Cerveza and a pleasing sweetness to its Cool Cucumber. Its Highlands Scotch Ale is clouded generously with peat and mesquite tastes. And its Powder Day IPA gives the feel of a more old-school northwest-style version of an IPA, with just-right bittering notes.
That said, a menu this big is bound to have holes too. The Soaker's Stout is dull and watery, rendering it especially disappointing on the heels of the Salty Caramel Stout. The gluten-free Pagosa Pale Ale has little hop taste. And the experimental ales, including sours, can still taste, well, experimental. But the portfolio is spectacular, and so is the setting.
Pour for pour, Riff Raff Brewing, located in the heart of downtown, may be even more impressive. Its offerings are more limited and its formula seems simple: Hop everything just a skosh more than style guidelines recommend. But the outcome is magic — especially in beers not known for hop qualities.
The best example of this is its Plebeian Porter, a 38-IBU offering made with six malts and Hallertau hops in which the hop character melds seamlessly with the roasted malts, leaving neither taste dominant but both tastes contributing to a surprisingly kicky finish to the beer. It brings notes of complexity to a style that too often feels one-dimensional.
Stepchild American Red has a late-breaking hop taste to its slightly sweet character and a substantial body that comes with it. The El Duende Green Chile has a slight burn that matches up with the hop bite and leaves it refreshing. And its Hopgoblin American IPA brings a piny bitterness that hop heads in particular will love.
Oh, and Riff Raff's fenced-in patio overlooking Pagosa Street is the perfect place to let little ones run around without bothering other drinkers. Or to allow your toddler to contemplate your taster (see photo at top).
Then there is Wolfe Brewing, a three-year-old establishment that recently underwent an ownership change, though not a change in beer menu. The staff is friendly. Both its porch and its kitsch-lined interior are spacious. But, boy, does it need to add some body to its lineup.
Its Yippie-Ki-Yay IPA comes the closest to what it seems to aspire to be — an English-style IPA with a lighter body and non-aggressive hopping. But the hops reveal themselves to be seemingly non-committal the more you taste it, and the beer leaves you longing for something more.
Sadly, that more isn't found in either its Taxi Dog Amber Ale, a light-bodied malt-only beer that leaves little impression, or the Pot Hill Porter, a smoked porter with both a body and a smoking that are too slight, leaving it as just a vaguely-sweet, smoke-hinting beer. There is potential here, to be sure, but it has not been reached yet.
Still, Pagosa Springs' scene is impressive enough that it's worth a stop, especially if your travels carry you an hour west to the more well-known beer mecca of Durango. Its local breweries are accommodating and experimenting.
However, Pagosa Springs' three breweries bucked that trend in a serious way. From outgoing purveyors to big outdoor patios to an entire play area set up at Pagosa Brewing, it was a town that embraced both adults and kids spending languorous hours enjoying its creations. And at two of the three breweries, it was worth taking extra time to enjoy some wide-ranging and well-concocted beer.
The 1,700-person town in southwestern Colorado is known foremost, in beer circles at least, for its namesake Pagosa Brewing, which gained fame when Tony Simmons won a national contest to produce a recipe for Ben Franklin's 300th birthday — before the brewery even had opened. Simmons turned the publicity from that excellent Poor Richard's Ale into a small gathering place west of downtown that recently expanded into a bigger brewpub and offers so many beers on tap that you'll need two eight-sample taster trays to try them all.
In that vast array of offerings, the range of styles — and, quite frankly, the quality — varies pretty wildly. Sour, hoppy, fruity, dark, light and experimental all crowd the table, almost mandating you make at least two visits to try them all. Yeah, tough job.
The most intriguing, by far, was the Salty Caramel Stout, a medium-bodied stout that uses the caramel to give it both texture and an almost milky consistency, coming off as both bold and easy at the same time. But the piece de resistance is the salt moistened onto the glass, which brings out the roasted and slightly sooty character of the caramel and malts, almost changing the nature of the beer. It's a brilliant experiment, and a phenomenal beer either way you enjoy it.Pagosa Brewing gets the most out of its fruit and vegetable beers too, getting significant natural flavor into its Peachy Peach, a late-breaking but not overwhelming heat on its Chili Verde Cerveza and a pleasing sweetness to its Cool Cucumber. Its Highlands Scotch Ale is clouded generously with peat and mesquite tastes. And its Powder Day IPA gives the feel of a more old-school northwest-style version of an IPA, with just-right bittering notes.
That said, a menu this big is bound to have holes too. The Soaker's Stout is dull and watery, rendering it especially disappointing on the heels of the Salty Caramel Stout. The gluten-free Pagosa Pale Ale has little hop taste. And the experimental ales, including sours, can still taste, well, experimental. But the portfolio is spectacular, and so is the setting.
Pour for pour, Riff Raff Brewing, located in the heart of downtown, may be even more impressive. Its offerings are more limited and its formula seems simple: Hop everything just a skosh more than style guidelines recommend. But the outcome is magic — especially in beers not known for hop qualities.
The best example of this is its Plebeian Porter, a 38-IBU offering made with six malts and Hallertau hops in which the hop character melds seamlessly with the roasted malts, leaving neither taste dominant but both tastes contributing to a surprisingly kicky finish to the beer. It brings notes of complexity to a style that too often feels one-dimensional.Stepchild American Red has a late-breaking hop taste to its slightly sweet character and a substantial body that comes with it. The El Duende Green Chile has a slight burn that matches up with the hop bite and leaves it refreshing. And its Hopgoblin American IPA brings a piny bitterness that hop heads in particular will love.
Oh, and Riff Raff's fenced-in patio overlooking Pagosa Street is the perfect place to let little ones run around without bothering other drinkers. Or to allow your toddler to contemplate your taster (see photo at top).
Then there is Wolfe Brewing, a three-year-old establishment that recently underwent an ownership change, though not a change in beer menu. The staff is friendly. Both its porch and its kitsch-lined interior are spacious. But, boy, does it need to add some body to its lineup.
Its Yippie-Ki-Yay IPA comes the closest to what it seems to aspire to be — an English-style IPA with a lighter body and non-aggressive hopping. But the hops reveal themselves to be seemingly non-committal the more you taste it, and the beer leaves you longing for something more.
Sadly, that more isn't found in either its Taxi Dog Amber Ale, a light-bodied malt-only beer that leaves little impression, or the Pot Hill Porter, a smoked porter with both a body and a smoking that are too slight, leaving it as just a vaguely-sweet, smoke-hinting beer. There is potential here, to be sure, but it has not been reached yet.
Labels: chile beer, Durango, English-style IPA, family-friendly breweries, Fruit beers, IPA, Pagosa Brewing, Pagosa Springs, Porters, Riff Raff Brewing, sour Belgian, stouts, Wolfe Brewing
Wednesday, January 07, 2009
Preview: New World PorterAvery's New World Porter, which has its official release party at the Boulder brewery tonight, is the perfect antidote to the sometimes overmalted dark beers that dominate the Christmas season. It's thick and black itself, but there's something different about this creation.
You notice it initially in the nose, a compendium of chocolate malt and caramel characteristics that seem restrained by something you can't immediately identify. When you dive past the thick foam head, you notice it again: A slow-rising bitterness that you don't expect on first glance.
That is the dry-hopping that goes into this 6.7% ABV porter, an addition that does not overwhelm the beer but adds a long-lasting and surprising backtaste. Hop characteristics grow more apparent as the beer begins to warm, though they fade slightly near the end of the glass.
After a long enjoyment - this is a slow sipper - you're left with the impression that the more muted five-malt variety and the hopping leave it with a slightly dusty taste. But this isn't the dust that is collected with age - it's the feel of something new, different and refreshing in the world of porters.
Labels: Avery Brewing, Porters
