Monday, January 31, 2022
Reviving a dormant Czech hop, Denver style
A great experiment is underway at two Denver Czech-style breweries, and it testifies to the quality of Old-World-style beer that is being made here in this community.
Sugar Creek Malt Co. — a craft malthouse from Lebanon, Indiana — came across a historically dormant Czech malt, Edelweiss, harvested it and replanted it until there was enough to make some serious beer. It then got it into the hands of just three U.S. breweries — Seedstock Brewery and Cohesion Brewing of Denver, as well as another brewery in North Carolina, according to Seedstock co-owner Jerry McIlvenna (pictured at top) —and gave them a chance to use it.
What came from the offering, in the case of Seedstock, was its Heritage Pilsner, a lager that is similar in every way to its crisp and tasty Czech Pilsner, except for the substitution of this once-forgotten malt. And trying the two pilsners side by side is a fascinating experience.
The Czech Pilsner (on the right in the above photo) is golden and clean, tinged with Saaz hops — smooth, malt-forward and simple in a classical way. But the Heritage Pilsner pops with hop freshness and bitterness in a manner that makes you take notice. The body is a bit murkier, but this is no hazy. It's straightforward in its approach to letting traditional ingredients shine, and it ranks with the crispest Colorado beers made in the past year.
McIlvenna, who bought Seedstock in early September from its original, successful owners, said he thinks the hop zing came forward in the way the brewery chose to use the under-modified malt, which made for a slower and more deliberate brew day. It undertook a quadruple concoction, stepping the temperature up each time to bring more character to the malt. And it worked — very well.
"We love brewing lagers, and it's actually a challenge," McIlvenna said last week as he guided a tasting of the two beers.
Either beer is a joy to sip, though trying the Heritage Pilsner and Czech Pilsner side-by-side and contrasting them borders on an art form in enjoying Czech-style beer. And it's a reminder just how fresh and new a beer can taste, even if its recipe comes largely down from centuries of tradition.
Labels: Cohesion Brewing, Czech-style beer, Seedstock Brewing
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
Wednesday, September 30, 2020
7 Beers for Celebrating Oktoberfest
The German Reinheitsgebot, that wretched old law liming all beer to just four ingredients and sucking all of the originality out of the brewing art for centuries, is just the kind of ridiculous government regulation that could make the tasting of multiple Oktoberfest beers a tedious job. And certainly, two weeks of drinking largely classical marzens — almost all of which were named "Oktoberfest" — was, in some ways, an exercise in differentiating caramel malts.
But the level of quality that is going into producing such beers these days is evident in how many of them pull out subtle flavors that leave big impressions and make the drinking experience both an easy and delightful one. And while the number of brewers producing Oktoberfest seasonals is limited — let's face it, this centuries-old style can't compete with hard seltzers for mass appeal — those brewers both inside and outside Colorado have come up with a few gems worth lifting in your stein if you join in any of the holiday celebrations planned for this weekend.
The best on the market: Seedstock Oktoberfest is a classical offering with a nose and taste of slightly toasted bread and a peripheral sweetness that is balanced out perfectly by the presence of hops that add crispness to the body without any Americanized tastes. It is both refreshing and filling in a way that presents its flavor in perfect balance.
The most joyfully traditional: Odell Oktoberfest has everything you hope for in a beer accompanying your brat: slightly toasted malts with a pillow of caramel at the bottom, no booze, no burn and just enough lingering carbonation to give it pizzazz without distracting from the flavor. It's pure without an aftertaste, and it's eminently drinkable despite a 6.1% ABV level that's a little higher than most.
The one with the kick at the end: Sierra Nevada Oktoberfest surprises you with an underlying peppery flavor that is assertive in ways you didn't expect. But it's a very good kick to the body of two-row pale, Munich and Vienna malts, and you remember this beer long after it's gone - and want to come back for more of it.
The one with extra sweetness: New Image No-Toberfest (named after the lack of celebrations in this pandemic year) goes its own way, like most of this Arvada brewery's creations. It's all in with a sweeter, bigger body that is heightened by its extremely rich caramel nose. It's almost got a muscular quality compared to its marzen brethren, but in that buffness there are a lot of intriguing tastes.
For those wanting a touch of bitterness: Wibby Brewing Wibtoberfest has an intriguing bitterness in its malt, like the leftover burn from a roast that you don't see coming. The body is very easy, but the bite gives it staying power and makes it just a bit more interesting. You might not think this a remarkable beer, but it is pleasurable.
For those wanting a big dose of subtlety: Bierstadt Lagerhaus Oktoberfest could be described as both an easy and full sipper. There are Nutella-like overtones of tamed-down sweetness, but there is less residual malt taste on the back end here than in any other offering in this list. This one isn't likely to leave you gushing, like the brewery's Slow Pour Pils. But it is likely that you could down three of these without thinking twice.
For those who don't want alcohol: Athletic Brewing Oktoberfest tastes much lighter in flavor and body than any marzen with booze in it, and that is jarring in an unsatisfying way the first time you try it. But for those who don't want alcohol, this is actually a refreshing option. And upon repeated tastes, you can find the underlying flavor, even if this lacks the crispness of other offerings on this list.
Labels: Athletic Brewing, Bierstadt Lagerhaus, New Image Brewing, Odell Brewing, Oktoberfest, Seasonal, Seedstock Brewing, Sierra Nevada Brewing, Wibby Brewing
Wednesday, September 11, 2019
We've reached the point where the Great American Beer Festival is only three weeks away. This is cause for celebration. But it shouldn't obscure what is right in front of us.
In fact, even as area breweries and beer bars plan their biggest events of the year for Denver Beer Fest week, they also are offering up releases, competitions and unique beer festivals that should not be missed in the latter half of this month. And to that point, here are a few things you may want to put on your beer calendar.
Friday, Sept. 13
* From 5:30 to 8:30 p.m., budding amateur brewers from small companies across the area will serve up their wares at Colorado Startup Brews, an event that is part beer festival and part networking-with-a-brew, organized by local startup Ombud. Tickets are $30 for the event at the McNichols Center.
Saturday, Sept. 14
* From noon to 6 p.m., Raices Brewing will host Suave Fest, a first-of-its kind beer festival for Latino-owned breweries. Ten breweries will be pouring beer at Steam on the Platte, and Latin food trucks will be there to highlight the community's culinary enterprises. Tickets are $45.
* From 4 to 7 p.m., Beer Fight Club returns, pitting eight breweries against each other in a tournament-style competition decided by attendees. The latest event, at Pour Tap House in Commerce City, features Alpine Dog, Crystal Springs, Goldspot, Joyride, Mountain Cowboy, Peak to Peak, Something Brewery and Station 26. For the cost of $35, this is an underrated event that not only offers great beer but also brings in knowledgeable crowds and brewers who want to discuss said beer.Saturday, Sept. 21
* Burns Family Artisan Ales turns 1 year old - with a gusto. It will release Solar Eclipse, an 18.5% ABV Russian imperial stout aged in a Laws Whiskey barrel at midnight. After a short nap, owners Wayne Burns and Laura Worley will roll out seven other new beers after reopening around lunchtime, including a Deerhammer-barrel-aged old ale and a Grand Cru made with local honey. If you haven't visited the big-beer specialist yet, this is a good time to come and see what the hype is about.
Sunday, Sept. 22
* This will be the last day for Denver International Airport's beer flights, an annual event (pictured at top) that's been going on since Sept. 9 at which a $10 ticket will get you up to 20 two-ounce samples of Colorado's finest. Open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., beers from the likes of Avery, Great Divide, Left Hand, Odell and Wibby will be poured.
Friday, Sept. 27
Special Tappings
* Sept. 12: Jagged Mountain Mountain Grouse, a blood orange gose with coriander and pink sea salt
* Sept. 13: Seedstock Brewing taps its first English Special Bitter
* Sept. 13: Bruz Beers taps its Autumn Peach Ale, earning the ire of A-B marketing a-holes
* Sept. 18: Intersect Brewing of Fort Collins taps Seamstress for the Band Munich Helles
* Sept. 20: Strange Craft Beer brings back its annual Pumpkin Porter
Labels: Beer Fight Club, Black Shirt Brewing, Bruz Beers, Burns Family Artisan Ales, Intersect Brewing, Jagged Mountain Brewery, Raices Brewing, Seedstock Brewing, Strange Craft Beer
