Sunday, April 15, 2018
Cheers to 3 Beers That Take It Easy and Create Something Unique
At the media breakfast the morning after the first session of the 2017 Great American Beer Festival, no one wanted something heavy or complex. But when Samuel Adams poured its lager/ale hybrid, Sam '76, no one seemed prepared to enjoy the beer as much as they did.
After some 60 unsatisfying test batches, Jim Koch and crew had come up with a beer that was both light on the palate and flowing with citrus and melon fruit, thanks to its combination of Cascade, Citra, Mosaic and Simcoe hops. And it pulled off the rare track of being fully imbued with flavor and yet airy - a combination that Koch aptly described as "crushable craft beer."
But while Sam '76 (the lighter beer in the glass next to Rebel IPA above), which went nationwide in early 2018, felt revelatory at that moment, it's now one in a rising number of beers that manage to bet big on taste and aroma while going remarkably easy on the palate. While some are new, others seem to be grabbing new notice as something of a mid-point between the truly lighter craft lagers that are making a comeback and the more intricate offerings that still tempt our taste buds even at times we want something a bit more relatable.
And, like Sam '76, some of the other notable creations that fit this description are hybrids of other styles that work better as a combination than they likely would on their own.
Take, for example, Denver Beer's Japance Off Saison, its newest canned beer offering that was released early this year. It puts together two fermentation characteristics that a lot of craft beer doesn't use on its own - sake yeast and French ale yeast - and adds to the uniqueness with the European-grown Mistral hop that is simultaneously aromatic and light.
The result is a saison without the challenging earthy spice that others of the style offer but with an exceedingly clean and smooth finish that highlights both mildly fruity esters and a late-breaking hint of bitterness. There are few saisons on the market built for both this level of all-day drinking - it comes in at a reasonable 5.7 percent alcohol by volume - and this level of satisfaction.
New Image Brewing's Olde Town Regular has been around for about two years now, but it too is worth a notice in the world of crushable hybrids. Brewed like a helles and fermented like a kolsch, it pours a very cloudy golden with a thick head, leaving you to wonder what the Arvada brewers might have been seeking when they designed it.
The answer is in the flavor - a touch of clove on the nose, combined with a malty, semisweet mouthfeel and just a bite of hop presence on the end, leaving you with the impression you were drinking a meaty hefeweizen or a highly approachable Belgian table beer. It's unique, it's easy and yet it keeps calling you to pick out which flavor of the bunch is rising to the surface, giving you complexity without weight.
All three are worth keeping in mind especially as the weather warms. But all are good any time of year, creating their own new "crushable" category in a sector that can benefit from it.
At the media breakfast the morning after the first session of the 2017 Great American Beer Festival, no one wanted something heavy or complex. But when Samuel Adams poured its lager/ale hybrid, Sam '76, no one seemed prepared to enjoy the beer as much as they did.
After some 60 unsatisfying test batches, Jim Koch and crew had come up with a beer that was both light on the palate and flowing with citrus and melon fruit, thanks to its combination of Cascade, Citra, Mosaic and Simcoe hops. And it pulled off the rare track of being fully imbued with flavor and yet airy - a combination that Koch aptly described as "crushable craft beer."
But while Sam '76 (the lighter beer in the glass next to Rebel IPA above), which went nationwide in early 2018, felt revelatory at that moment, it's now one in a rising number of beers that manage to bet big on taste and aroma while going remarkably easy on the palate. While some are new, others seem to be grabbing new notice as something of a mid-point between the truly lighter craft lagers that are making a comeback and the more intricate offerings that still tempt our taste buds even at times we want something a bit more relatable.
And, like Sam '76, some of the other notable creations that fit this description are hybrids of other styles that work better as a combination than they likely would on their own.
Take, for example, Denver Beer's Japance Off Saison, its newest canned beer offering that was released early this year. It puts together two fermentation characteristics that a lot of craft beer doesn't use on its own - sake yeast and French ale yeast - and adds to the uniqueness with the European-grown Mistral hop that is simultaneously aromatic and light.
The result is a saison without the challenging earthy spice that others of the style offer but with an exceedingly clean and smooth finish that highlights both mildly fruity esters and a late-breaking hint of bitterness. There are few saisons on the market built for both this level of all-day drinking - it comes in at a reasonable 5.7 percent alcohol by volume - and this level of satisfaction.
The answer is in the flavor - a touch of clove on the nose, combined with a malty, semisweet mouthfeel and just a bite of hop presence on the end, leaving you with the impression you were drinking a meaty hefeweizen or a highly approachable Belgian table beer. It's unique, it's easy and yet it keeps calling you to pick out which flavor of the bunch is rising to the surface, giving you complexity without weight.
All three are worth keeping in mind especially as the weather warms. But all are good any time of year, creating their own new "crushable" category in a sector that can benefit from it.
Labels: ale/lager hybrids, Denver Beer Co, Great American Beer Festival, Jim Koch, New Image Brewing, Sam Adams
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
Tuesday, September 27, 2016
The Edge
The secret to every truly great complex beer is in how far it can push your taste buds without breaking them via an overdose of alcohol, tartness or heat. Finding the best of the best can mean pushing right to the edge and then pulling back.
Over the past few months, several breweries, both local and national, have come out with offerings that take you just to that edge before stopping and letting you enjoy a melange of flavors both challenging and satisfying. And as Great American Beer Festival approaches, it is worth recalling them, both to celebrate their daring and to hope that their makers bust a leftover keg or two out in the coming week.
Great Divide showed just how far it could push things this year with its whiskey-barrel-aged Hercules Double IPA, a 12 percent ABV hop bomb that debuted originally at its 22nd anniversary party as Ye Olde World IPA then had a much longer run than could have been imagined before it ran out in the taproom. It wasn't just the flourishing bitterness that remained strong after years in the barrels that made this beer stand out. Rather, it was the fact that you felt the boozy bite even over the strong vanilla and wood tastes, leaving so much going on that it really was head-turning.
Sam Adams also pushed the envelope with its Rebel Raw Double IPA, a limited-edition floral bomb made with seven pounds of hops per barrel that had just a 35-day shelf life in both of its first two batches. The 100 IBUs scorched the tongue in some ways but also gave it an incredibly full flavor, teeming with grassy hops balanced by significant malts. The alcohol in this 10 percent ABV concoction most certainly was present, but it took a surprising back seat in the bevy of tastes.
Comrade Brewing also pushed to the edge, but the hop-forward brewery did it in a different way with its Yellow Fever, a blonde ale infused with jalapenos. The World Beer Cup gold medalist presents itself as unassuming, but the heat rises as the beer swirls in your mouth, landing squarely on the back of your tongue. Unlike poorer renditions of the style, however, it stops at a level that leaves adrenaline pumping in you without any scars on your taste buds, making you want to go back and try it repeatedly.
AC Golden produced arguably the most edge-pushing sour beer of this year so far with its Kriek Noir (pictured at top), a wine-barrel aged Belgian ale with sour cherries added. This spring offering presented itself with a sugary cherry nose, followed quickly by a sharp tartness that cut into your taste buds and took over your mouth. It too managed to stop short of making you wince, however, instead ramping up every pressure point in a way that caused you to use multiple taste sectors, leaving you awash in flavors from its yeast profile and its additives.
Beers that take you to the edge truly should be celebrated - and produced over and over again.
The secret to every truly great complex beer is in how far it can push your taste buds without breaking them via an overdose of alcohol, tartness or heat. Finding the best of the best can mean pushing right to the edge and then pulling back.
Over the past few months, several breweries, both local and national, have come out with offerings that take you just to that edge before stopping and letting you enjoy a melange of flavors both challenging and satisfying. And as Great American Beer Festival approaches, it is worth recalling them, both to celebrate their daring and to hope that their makers bust a leftover keg or two out in the coming week.
Sam Adams also pushed the envelope with its Rebel Raw Double IPA, a limited-edition floral bomb made with seven pounds of hops per barrel that had just a 35-day shelf life in both of its first two batches. The 100 IBUs scorched the tongue in some ways but also gave it an incredibly full flavor, teeming with grassy hops balanced by significant malts. The alcohol in this 10 percent ABV concoction most certainly was present, but it took a surprising back seat in the bevy of tastes.Comrade Brewing also pushed to the edge, but the hop-forward brewery did it in a different way with its Yellow Fever, a blonde ale infused with jalapenos. The World Beer Cup gold medalist presents itself as unassuming, but the heat rises as the beer swirls in your mouth, landing squarely on the back of your tongue. Unlike poorer renditions of the style, however, it stops at a level that leaves adrenaline pumping in you without any scars on your taste buds, making you want to go back and try it repeatedly.
AC Golden produced arguably the most edge-pushing sour beer of this year so far with its Kriek Noir (pictured at top), a wine-barrel aged Belgian ale with sour cherries added. This spring offering presented itself with a sugary cherry nose, followed quickly by a sharp tartness that cut into your taste buds and took over your mouth. It too managed to stop short of making you wince, however, instead ramping up every pressure point in a way that caused you to use multiple taste sectors, leaving you awash in flavors from its yeast profile and its additives.
Beers that take you to the edge truly should be celebrated - and produced over and over again.
Labels: AC Golden, Barrel aging, Comrade Brewing, Great American Beer Festival, Great Divide, Sam Adams, sour Belgian
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Five Things I Learned from the Manitou Craft Lager FestivalThe seventh annual Manitou Craft Lager Festival took place this past weekend, and at two full days with 22 different breweries (and one beer made by about a dozen brewers), it was bigger than ever. One is always tempted to use the cliche "bigger and better," and with a bevy of good bluegrass music and host Jason Yester strolling throughout the festival talking beer with everyone, that expression is probably true.
But I'll choose to use the term "bigger and smarter" instead, because that's how I came away from the event. And here's a few of those things to smarten you up that many attendees may have picked up this year:
1) Just because a beer is of a typically light style doesn't mean it is. Ask especially the Sam Adams Double Bock, which was, in the opinion of this one beer geek, the offering of the festival. A dark, malty, ass-kicking beer that weighed in at 9.5 percent ABV, this is the most complex version of a lager that you'll find. Kudos as well to Carver Brewing's X-Rock Bock, whose big alcohol left it with a caramely sweet taste.
2) Even if it is light doesn't mean it tastes anything like (Insert Megabrewery Here) Light. Some of the finest sips on this 85-degree day came from thin, translucent beers with easy malt flavoring - the emphasis being on actual flavor. Left Hand's Polestar Pilsner (which judges named the beer of the festival) was crisp, refreshing and style-defining. Likewise, Del Norte's pale Orale Mexican-style lager was just lightly hopped and sweet enough to pronounce its personality without getting in the way of your need for something less than chewy under the summer sun.
3) Fruit, which soars in Belgian-style ales and adds personality if done right in regular ales, can be intrusive in a lager. Ask Michelob, whose Pear Beer resembled a pushy cider but not a beer. Even Rocky Mountain Brewing, the Colorado Springs envelope-pushers who have added everything but a thick steak to their beers in their first year of existence, demonstrated that a little lemongrass in a lager might intrigue you, but it also can take over the beer.
4) "Bitter" and "lager" no longer are mutually exclusive terms. Shmaltz Brewing, another envelope pusher, opened a lot of eyes with its Sword Swallower, an IPA-inspired lager brewed with eight hops that jolted while most of the other beers poured at the festival soothed. Meanwhile, Boulder Beer rolled out a new Rye't On! Lager that presented a spicy and bitter taste to you.
5) Pug Ryan's needs to find a way to get its Helles Good Beer out to the Colorado market somehow. A sweet and highly malty seasonal bock that somehow finishes with cooling properties, it had the best combination of originality and drinkability of any lager on tap. A number of people said the same thing at the 2008 Arapahoe Basin beer festival. The small Dillon brewpub right now cans just one of its concoctions - its Morningwood Wheat. If you can't wait for the Helles to come to you, I'd suggest getting up to Summit County to try it this summer.
Labels: Festivals, Manitou Springs, Pug Ryan's, Sam Adams
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Barack and Beer: An Unnatural Combo?
No matter what you think of President Barack Obama's politics, you have to give him this much: He knows that men should settle their disputes with a couple of beers and a hearty talk.
However, judging by the beers that the men involved in today's White House chat - especially the president - were ingesting, this great American tradition may have been a little more forced than it should have been.
By now, everyone pretty much knows the story of Obama inviting recently arrested (and angry) Harvard Professor Henry Gates and heavily criticized (and angry) Cambridge Police Sgt. James Crowley to the White House to talk about the recent incident that involved them and the harsh words for Crowley from the president. If you don't, here's a story about it that I wrote on Monday for the Denver Business Journal: http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/stories/2009/07/27/daily17.html.
The problem was this: When each men was asked to pick their beer, they came up with some strange choices. Gates went for a Red Stripe (a non-American beer at a great American gathering), Crowley passed over fine local options for a Blue Moon and Obama, appearing to flail and grab at the first name he could think of, chose a Budweiser. Seriously. You're the leader of the free world, you could have any brewer in America ship you a couple of cases and you choose Budweiser? Wow.
Here's the way I think it should have gone:
*Gates the professor from the hoity-toity Cambridge university should have picked something from Cambridge Brewing, which is not just an incredible local gift to the beer world but, like most professors, is very environmentally conscious. The barrel-fermented sour wild ale Cerise Cassee was, in this beer geek's opinion, the best offering at last year's Great American Beer Festival, so it certainly deserved a seat at the White House table.
*Crowley's a little more blue collar, so he could have gone with a Sam Adams product. Since he clearly likes Belgian-style wheat beers, we'll give him an Imperial White, something that should both light up his taste buds and take a little bit of the edge off when the professor and the president start to team up against him.
*Obama, meanwhile, is an Illinois resident, so he ought to bring something from his home state to the party. Goose Island is the finest brewery in the Chicago area, and he'd have quite a variety of styles from which to choose. But since he's shown that his beer tastes are, shall we say, quite conservative, we won't give him something too big. The Honkers Ale is an easily drinkable English-style bitter appropriate as a session beer - just what he needs here.
That's one beer geek's opinion. Anyone got better suggestions?
Labels: Anheuser Busch, Blue Moon Brewing, Cambridge Brewing, Goose Island, Red Stripe, Sam Adams
Monday, December 22, 2008
A Sam Adams ChristmasMost liquor stores have yet to realize the true joy of the season that can be spread by putting together six spicy or malty holiday beers into one pack. And most brewers don't have the portfolio to make one of these mixed batches on their own.
It might be safe to say, in fact, that the only brewery in America that can meet at that curious intersection is the Boston Beer Company, the folks who reintroduced America to craft beer and then became a brewing giant themselves. A recent sipping of their winter 12-pack (two of each kind) was quite a ride through the different styles of the season (or at least kinda of the season) and, as my favorite liquor store clerk said to me, it is worth a shot. Here is what you will find and can expect.
Winter LagerMost lagers aren't complex, and this wheat bock spiced with orange peel, ginger and cinnamon doesn't break out of that mold. But while it is easy drinking, it is also refreshing and cooling and presents a slightly minty backtaste (not like sucking on a peppermint but like that strangely enveloping and pleasing burst on the back of a menthol cigarette).
Once you've taken in all of the initial sensations, you're most left with a mouthfeel of caramel - not an overwhelming one, but a soothing one. While this may get lost in the greater beerography that Jim Koch has offered us, it's just easy and nice in the winter.
Boston LagerYes, I was thinking the same thing when I got the six pack: What is Sam Adams trying to pull by adding its oldest, distinctly non-winterized beer to this mix? Putting a little filler in, like those last three songs on the CD or the last 30 minutes of Saturday Night Live? There's nothing particularly Christmas-y about this.
Then I realized that as long as you're wrapping up your seasonal best for people to give as presents - some of which are new and may not please everyone - you might as well throw in something that's sure to make people happy. And that's what the Boston lager is. An eye-opener in the early 80s, it feels almost antiquated in today's double imperial IPA Belgian days. But it's hoppy and smooth, and if you let it linger long enough on the back of your tongue, you'll find that same hint of roasted malts that defines the rest of this 12-pack.
Cranberry LambicThis six-pack reminds you that one of the reasons to admire Koch is that he's gotten to the top of the beer world and isn't resting on the three to four beers that got him there. Take this tart-nosed take-off on a classic Belgian style: No average beer drinker in America was clamoring for it. But here is the only beer you'll find that features cranberry so prominently, and here is how Sam Adams is still trying to create.
That said, the Cranberry Lambic drew decidedly mixed reviews from the Fearless Tasting Crew. Some liked its sweet consistency, though the general opinion was that you want just one rather than a night full of these. Others, including me, wondered whether the cranberry taste was misplaced here in a slightly sour and fruity concoction that leaned toward the classic Belgian lambic but didn't quite commit fully toward the style. Either way, you are unlikely to forget this addition to the pack.
Old Fezziwig Ale
Nor are you likely to forget this gem of a beer. But there was no mixed opinion on this.
The Old Fezziwig, a brownish-red ale brewed with cinnamon, orange and ginger, brags on the label that it gets its character from a large amount of specialty roasted caramel and chocolate malts. But what really makes it interesting is that it just feels like it was touched by some magical spice wand without being buried beneath said spices.
The malts stick around in your mouth here but mingle with the orange-chocolate aroma. By the time you're done sipping this, you will find that this is the most complete and complex surprise in the pack - and one that Boston beer should put out more often.
Cream StoutLike the Boston Lager, this isn't really a holiday-style ale. But when it's 22 degrees outside (as it is now), you want warmth in a bottle. And that, the Cream Stout is.
Brewed with extra portions of roasted chocolate and caramel malts, roasted barley and English hops, the initial taste here is one of cloudy darkness. Eventually it morphs into a more subtle stout, with a slightly toasty overtone. But what surprises you is that this dark-as-night creation carries a medium body rather than a feel that is overly heavy.
Holiday PorterJust look at the art here. You think 19th century. Maybe something Dickens drank. Hell, the label tells you it's modeled after the drink of London's Victorian-era luggage porter. (Now, there's a piece of trivia designed to impress someone at a party.)
And in this bottle is Boston Beer's most English creation yet. Yes, there's the hops that keep Britain hopping - English Fuggles, East Kent Goldings. But it is deep and dark too, one of those full spheres of blackness that wraps around your mouth and consumes all of your taste buds.
The porter is fuller than the stout, a malt-centered treat that is made for distance, rather than sprint, drinking. And it's good that you take it slow: the more it warms, the more you taste the roasted chocolate.
Labels: Holiday beers, Sam Adams, Seasonal
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Breckenridge Beer Festival
So, did anyone else out there hit the Breckenridge Beer Festival this weekend? I did, and I have a couple of thoughts coming out of it.
*As far as outdoor summer beer festivals go, the atmosphere was more pleasant than Ft. Collins but not quite up to Salida standards. The crowd was a little smaller, slightly classier and less chaotic than the Ft. Collins event, and the lines never grew more than four or five people long. The town-square setting was pleasant, but without the shades offered by the trees in Salida's downtown park, it also got a little hotter.
*Once again, festival organizers and brewers underestimated the desire for some of their beers. This didn't touch the one-hour-in-and-you're-running-low tendency of the best brews at the Arapahoe Basin festival, but I was a little disappointed that I couldn't still get an Odell IPA more than an hour before the end of the show, especially since I was wearing an Odell IPA shirt. Some popular booths, like Alaskan Brewing, packed up way too early. Other good ones, like Pug Ryan's stayed throughout the show. Which brings me to my next point . . . .
*Dillon's Pug Ryan's is quietly becoming one of the unsung stars of the Colorado beer scene. It stole the show at the Arapahoe Basin festival in May with its new helles bock, and few beers seemed to get the compliments in Breckenridge that its Breakfast Porter pulled in. I decided after starting the day with the coffee-heavy porter that every beer festival should begin with a similar wake-up-the-taste-buds drink.
*Nobody does festivals better than Boston Beer Company. Most breweries bring a few staples, maybe a new arrival and they roll out some schwag and free samples. The makers of Sam Adams come prepared to make you think. I noticed this at the Vail big beers festival in January and again this weekend. Rather than just give you a beer, they wanted attendees to vote on whether their next roll-out would be a Blackberry Witbier or a Coffee Stout. It's a great way to make you care more about the company and to give you a reason to go to a festival rather than to just go down to the corner liquor store. The winner for me, by the way, was easy: the coffee stout was surprisingly light but filling in its fine taste; the witbier was too sweet and pungent.
*Overall, as a first-time attendee, I have to say I enjoyed the festival. Almost every major Colorado brewer was there, and the atmosphere was a pleasant, easy one. You can never go wrong visiting one of Colorado's most laid-back ski towns, and the offering of 22 beers there is just one more reason to head to the mountains.
So, did anyone else out there hit the Breckenridge Beer Festival this weekend? I did, and I have a couple of thoughts coming out of it.
*As far as outdoor summer beer festivals go, the atmosphere was more pleasant than Ft. Collins but not quite up to Salida standards. The crowd was a little smaller, slightly classier and less chaotic than the Ft. Collins event, and the lines never grew more than four or five people long. The town-square setting was pleasant, but without the shades offered by the trees in Salida's downtown park, it also got a little hotter.
*Once again, festival organizers and brewers underestimated the desire for some of their beers. This didn't touch the one-hour-in-and-you're-running-low tendency of the best brews at the Arapahoe Basin festival, but I was a little disappointed that I couldn't still get an Odell IPA more than an hour before the end of the show, especially since I was wearing an Odell IPA shirt. Some popular booths, like Alaskan Brewing, packed up way too early. Other good ones, like Pug Ryan's stayed throughout the show. Which brings me to my next point . . . .
*Dillon's Pug Ryan's is quietly becoming one of the unsung stars of the Colorado beer scene. It stole the show at the Arapahoe Basin festival in May with its new helles bock, and few beers seemed to get the compliments in Breckenridge that its Breakfast Porter pulled in. I decided after starting the day with the coffee-heavy porter that every beer festival should begin with a similar wake-up-the-taste-buds drink.
*Nobody does festivals better than Boston Beer Company. Most breweries bring a few staples, maybe a new arrival and they roll out some schwag and free samples. The makers of Sam Adams come prepared to make you think. I noticed this at the Vail big beers festival in January and again this weekend. Rather than just give you a beer, they wanted attendees to vote on whether their next roll-out would be a Blackberry Witbier or a Coffee Stout. It's a great way to make you care more about the company and to give you a reason to go to a festival rather than to just go down to the corner liquor store. The winner for me, by the way, was easy: the coffee stout was surprisingly light but filling in its fine taste; the witbier was too sweet and pungent.
*Overall, as a first-time attendee, I have to say I enjoyed the festival. Almost every major Colorado brewer was there, and the atmosphere was a pleasant, easy one. You can never go wrong visiting one of Colorado's most laid-back ski towns, and the offering of 22 beers there is just one more reason to head to the mountains.
Labels: Breckenridge, Festivals, Pug Ryan's, Sam Adams
