Tuesday, January 09, 2018
5 Things I Learned at Big Beers Fest 2018
Tiramisu, French toast, crickets: These were the flavors one can't forget from the 2018 Big Beers, Belgians and Barleywines Festival.
The collection of roundly amazing beers — I poured just one into a dump bucket during the four-hour tasting — was again a master study on barrel aging, hearty hopping and using bugs to bring the right level of tartness to beer. But this year, more so than in past years, it also felt like a grand experiment on the adjuncts that can push beers beyond their normal limit. And what a wonderful palate-wrecking experience it became.
There were desert beers, including a New England-style IPA made with Betty Crocker cake sprinkles (Thank you, Outer Range Brewing, for keeping the cake flavor light). There were sours that relied on the presence of multiple fruits to create new flavors. And by the time you got the gumption up to try Epic Brewing's Chapulin Gose, you literally found yourself saying: "I like the beer, but I'm not picking up the flavor of the crickets or the agave worm salt in here." And, yes, you were bummed.
So what were the biggest takeaways of the festival? Here's a few:
1) The bolder the range of flavors in big beers, the more they stood out.
Certainly, there were the big and dangerous classic bourbon-barrel-aged imperial stouts there. Loveland Aleworks had a 2015 version that was incredibly smooth. River North Brewery offered up a whiskey-barrel-aged English-style old ale that was so warming it set your insides ablaze.
But the real head-turners were gems like Cellar West Artisan Ales' Farmers Breakfast, a farmhouse-style imperial breakfast stout that was re-fermented in bourbon barrels with maple syrup and offered a fascinating melange of flavors that somehow became French toast in a glass. Or there was Epic's Triple Barrel Big Bad Baptist, which not only featured imperial stout aged in whiskey barrels but had barrel-aged coconut that made this spring to a new vibrancy and overshadow its high ABV.
2) Spices are on the rise as adjuncts, thankfully.
You saw this trend where the beer advertised it blatantly. Crazy Mountain's Rum Barrel Aged Spanish Coffee Stout, for example, was rendered unforgettable by the fact that the Denver brewery used Mexican chocolate to make what could have been a heavy beer burst with flavor.
But the trend appeared even where you were least expecting it, and it was pleasing. Verboten's Tiramisu Little Nonsense had a surprising shock of Saigon cinnamon that left you with hope that chefs can make deserts like this too. And Intrepid Sojourner Beer Project's Barrel-Aged Imperial Turkish Coffee Stout added even more Middle Eastern spicing than its regular-strength version - and took your palate to a far-off place.
3) It's time to elevate Paradox Beer Company to its place among Colorado's best.
If there was a single beer of the festival, it was this Teller County brewery's Divide Ethos, a spontaneously fermented wild ale that felt like a kicked-up saison, with the bugs pinching your tongue with just a bit of sour and a whole lot of wild. The fact that it was the brewery's first coolship beer speaks even more to its ability to create new flavors.
Paradox was a big winner last year as well. It doesn't get as much attention as some of Colorado's other great wild-yeast-ale makers, partly because of its out-of-the-way location west of Colorado Springs. But it sure should.
4) It's the fruit and unusual add-ins, as much as the bugs, that are propelling stand-out sours.
Maybe Modern Times pushed the sour envelope a little too much with its One Million Tomorrows, but by mixing a ton of blueberries and raspberries into its wine-barrel-aged saison, it created such a complex flavor that you were willing to forgive the brewery.
No forgiveness at all was needed for Three Barrel's Hermano X, a lambic made with coriander, orange peel and three types of pepper that was tart enough to wake up your taste buds and your mind. And if Caution Brewing's Mazu Sour Belgian Golden — made with orange peel, coriander and cardamom and aged in red-wine barrels — wasn't the best sour on the floor, it may have been the most unique.
5) More significantly aged beers are needed.
Two-and-three-year-old beers were everywhere. But the joy of sipping Stone Brewing's 2007 Old Guardian Barleywine and enjoying its sweetly aged body even as the hops diminished was a short-lived pleasure because it stood so alone among the largely newer beers on the floor (save for Sam Adams' 24-year-old Triple Bock).
There wasn't much one could have left wanting from the festival. But 10-year-or-older beers would have been fun to try more frequently.
Tiramisu, French toast, crickets: These were the flavors one can't forget from the 2018 Big Beers, Belgians and Barleywines Festival.
The collection of roundly amazing beers — I poured just one into a dump bucket during the four-hour tasting — was again a master study on barrel aging, hearty hopping and using bugs to bring the right level of tartness to beer. But this year, more so than in past years, it also felt like a grand experiment on the adjuncts that can push beers beyond their normal limit. And what a wonderful palate-wrecking experience it became.
There were desert beers, including a New England-style IPA made with Betty Crocker cake sprinkles (Thank you, Outer Range Brewing, for keeping the cake flavor light). There were sours that relied on the presence of multiple fruits to create new flavors. And by the time you got the gumption up to try Epic Brewing's Chapulin Gose, you literally found yourself saying: "I like the beer, but I'm not picking up the flavor of the crickets or the agave worm salt in here." And, yes, you were bummed.
So what were the biggest takeaways of the festival? Here's a few:
1) The bolder the range of flavors in big beers, the more they stood out.
Certainly, there were the big and dangerous classic bourbon-barrel-aged imperial stouts there. Loveland Aleworks had a 2015 version that was incredibly smooth. River North Brewery offered up a whiskey-barrel-aged English-style old ale that was so warming it set your insides ablaze.
But the real head-turners were gems like Cellar West Artisan Ales' Farmers Breakfast, a farmhouse-style imperial breakfast stout that was re-fermented in bourbon barrels with maple syrup and offered a fascinating melange of flavors that somehow became French toast in a glass. Or there was Epic's Triple Barrel Big Bad Baptist, which not only featured imperial stout aged in whiskey barrels but had barrel-aged coconut that made this spring to a new vibrancy and overshadow its high ABV.
2) Spices are on the rise as adjuncts, thankfully.
You saw this trend where the beer advertised it blatantly. Crazy Mountain's Rum Barrel Aged Spanish Coffee Stout, for example, was rendered unforgettable by the fact that the Denver brewery used Mexican chocolate to make what could have been a heavy beer burst with flavor.
But the trend appeared even where you were least expecting it, and it was pleasing. Verboten's Tiramisu Little Nonsense had a surprising shock of Saigon cinnamon that left you with hope that chefs can make deserts like this too. And Intrepid Sojourner Beer Project's Barrel-Aged Imperial Turkish Coffee Stout added even more Middle Eastern spicing than its regular-strength version - and took your palate to a far-off place.
If there was a single beer of the festival, it was this Teller County brewery's Divide Ethos, a spontaneously fermented wild ale that felt like a kicked-up saison, with the bugs pinching your tongue with just a bit of sour and a whole lot of wild. The fact that it was the brewery's first coolship beer speaks even more to its ability to create new flavors.
Paradox was a big winner last year as well. It doesn't get as much attention as some of Colorado's other great wild-yeast-ale makers, partly because of its out-of-the-way location west of Colorado Springs. But it sure should.
4) It's the fruit and unusual add-ins, as much as the bugs, that are propelling stand-out sours.
Maybe Modern Times pushed the sour envelope a little too much with its One Million Tomorrows, but by mixing a ton of blueberries and raspberries into its wine-barrel-aged saison, it created such a complex flavor that you were willing to forgive the brewery.
No forgiveness at all was needed for Three Barrel's Hermano X, a lambic made with coriander, orange peel and three types of pepper that was tart enough to wake up your taste buds and your mind. And if Caution Brewing's Mazu Sour Belgian Golden — made with orange peel, coriander and cardamom and aged in red-wine barrels — wasn't the best sour on the floor, it may have been the most unique.
5) More significantly aged beers are needed.
Two-and-three-year-old beers were everywhere. But the joy of sipping Stone Brewing's 2007 Old Guardian Barleywine and enjoying its sweetly aged body even as the hops diminished was a short-lived pleasure because it stood so alone among the largely newer beers on the floor (save for Sam Adams' 24-year-old Triple Bock).
There wasn't much one could have left wanting from the festival. But 10-year-or-older beers would have been fun to try more frequently.
Labels: Big Beers, Cellar West Artisan Ales, Crazy Mountain Brewing Company, Epic Brewing, Intrepid Sojourner, Loveland Aleworks, Modern Times, Paradox Brewing, Stone Brewing, Three Barrel Brewing, Verboten Brewing
Saturday, January 28, 2017
Still Craft After All These Cans?
It's the kind of place simple craft breweries don't put up. The burger-heavy restaurant - the same concept the brewery operates in Longmont and at Coors Field - is connected by a walkway and a courtyard to its Hotbox Roasters shop that serves coffee, beer and donuts. When asked why the beer maker started making donuts, Oskar Blues Fooderies executive Jason Rogers, who worked as a baker in college, said it just sounded like something that went well with coffee. That makes sense.
Last week, Oskar Blues opened a beer bar/restaurant/donut place in Denver. The expansion shouldn't come as a surprise, since the one-time Lyons brewpub has grown already into Longmont (four times), North Carolina, Texas - and soon into Colorado Springs.
But with the multi-state empire, not to mention the two other breweries Oskar Blues has purchased with capital from venture firm that is a part owner of the brewery, one can't help but look at the company that pioneered craft beer in cans and ask: Is Oskar Blues still craft, or has it gone corporate?
The new CHUBurger location at 3490 Larimer Street in the RiNo neighborhood actually presents some good points in pondering this question.
The restaurant opened about 18 blocks west of an 11,000-square-foot restaurant and music venue that the brewery will open in the renovated Market Center development downtown later this year. Two major investments in the same general city area isn't Starbucks-level saturation, but it's not exactly boot-strapping it either.
Then there are the questions that swirl around Fireman Capital Partners, the investment firm that purchased a major share of Oskar Blues in 2015 and then provided the capital for it to buy Perrin Brewing of Michigan and Cigar City Brewing of Florida, the latter of which had been scoped out also by by some major non-craft brewing interests. But before Fireman bought into Oskar Blues, it bought Utah Brewers Cooperative, restructured it and laid off a couple of long-time brewery operators, making some in the industry question if it was just AB-InBev in a craft-brewing disguise.
Then again, I spoke last year with Jarred Sper, co-founder of Perrin Brewing, when the company entered the Colorado market last year about the influence of Oskar Blues. He told me - not surprisingly - that its role with his brewery was the furthest thing he could imagine from an Anheuser-Busch-style takeover. But he laid out some pretty good arguments for why he felt that way.
Oskar Blues and its charismatic founder Dale Katechis changed zero about Perrin's small-brewing culture when it purchased the brewery. Instead, it used its resources to help Perrin scale up and begin distribution outside of Michigan, as Perrin had wanted. It offered its expertise and influence to get into sales channels but didn't change the recipe for beers like its tasty Grapefruit IPA.
"When people talk shit about Fireman Capital, you know what? It's giving us opportunity to do what we were going to do anyway," Sper said. "I really believe Dale has a vision of what he wants to do ... The culture still feels like 'Middle finger up, what the f--k do we want to do?"
And while CHUBurger may be starting to grow like a chain, there are some things that don't resemble any other chain out there.
There are 10 Oskar Blues beers on tap, as you would expect. But there are 20 other taps too - including those from the likes of Call to Arms, Hogshead, Ratio and Wibby, small and local breweries that benefit greatly from the inclusion on a beer list like that.
Rogers said Oskar Blues reached out to beer makers like them because they were in the position it was a decade or so ago - making great beer and looking for their opportunity to get noticed. The restaurant will do burger specials with their beers because they know it will bring in locals who are growing a dedicated following to them.
And while Oskar Blues restaurants may be multiplying like rabbits, it's not an indication of selling out so much as it is a sign of Dale's constantly burning entrepreneurial fire, looking to see what new project or new market he can grow into next, Rogers said. (These are, after all, the folks who became the first craft brewery last year to expand into all 50 states.) The fooderies side of the business has almost 300 employees now, which means more people on a payroll and more opportunities to generate money for charity like its Can'd Aid Foundation that's done things like send pallets of canned water to Flint, Michigan when it was in the depth of its water crisis.
"It hasn't lost that craft spirit. It hasn't," Rogers said emphatically when I asked whether the company had gone corporate. "Obviously, there are efficiencies we have to put on as we grow. But I think we really navigated that and stayed real to who we are."
The venture-fund ownership remains a worry even to those in the industry who are fans of Oskar Blues. But as of now, Fireman Capital has done nothing to change the feel of the brewery and its bold beers - or that of Perrin and Cigar City - and it should be given the benefit of the doubt until it makes a move that runs counter to that.
As far as the growing number of restaurants and breweries and music halls, what they show is that Oskar Blues is no longer the scrappy little craft brewery that it was when people thought it was nuts for putting Dale's Pale Ale in a vessel that was as corporate as the can. And, to be sure, the brewery needs to be cautious as it moves into more and more neighborhoods not only that it doesn't step on the toes of local breweries but that it doesn't step on the toes of the local restaurants and beer bars that have been promoting those breweries since before it came to town.
But a close look at what it's doing at CHUBurger and other locations, I feel, shows you that is hasn't sold out. It's taking full advantage of its increasing resources, maybe in a way that no craft brewery in America other than Stone Brewing has done before. But it's also churning out new beers and doing what it can to give taps at its places to breweries that can reach a wider audience through their association with Oskar Blues.
So, call Oskar Blues the behemoth of the craft-beer industry if you will. But don't call it corporate. There's still too much of the "FIDY" attitude to denigrate it that way. And we can only hope that further growth and success does not change that.
Labels: beer bars, Cigar City Brewing, Oskar Blues, Perrin Brewing, restaurants, Stone Brewing, Utah Brewers Cooperative
Tuesday, October 02, 2012
One Last Callout: Best Beers of Summer 2012
With rumors flying that the Denver area could see a light dusting of snow this week, it's time to declare this seemingly endless summer finally over. But before that happens, it's worth reflecting on some of the finest gifts that breweries gave to beer drinkers in what was an unusually tasty season that more often is known for light, forgettable offerings.
So, while most of this six-pack of special beers are off shelves or taps by now, let this serve as a call for these breweries to bring them back again - in summer 2013 or, preferably, even sooner.
* Black Swan by Twisted Pine
A big beer in most every sense of the word, this sixth offering in the Boulder brewery's 2012 Artisan Ale series combined the tastes of peat moss and licorice, mellowing into a slightly sweet ester with an alcoholic kick. It was a black saison complex enough to make you think about what was going on in your mouth as you reach for sip after sip.
* Saison du Buff - a Dogfish Head/Stone/Victory collaboration
Employing parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme as key ingredients in a beer sounds like a gimmick - right until the inital earthy spices, combined with the citrus body of a classic saison, leave an unforgettable original taste. This was first released in 2010 before coming back for a limited run this summer; here's hoping it becomes an annual seasonal.
* India Pale Lager by Great Divide
The so-called "IPL" is another gimmick that a smattering of breweries have tried in limited runs, often at summer beer festivals. But the hop masters at Great Divide seems to have hit just the perfect balance on it, producing a sweet and grassy beer whose body takes on the thickness of its flavors while still remaining shockingly refreshing for summer crowds. This year it was available only in the tap room. Next year, please bottle it.
* Kaffir Lime Wheat by Denver Beer Co.
You know that Charlie Berger and Patrick Crawford realize they've hit on something good when the Denver Beer co-conspirators actually decide to put a beer in seasonal rotation rather than make it a one-off. The Kaffir Lime Wheat had the tart, powdery quality of a well-made sour, but the citrus was held in check enough to make this widely appealing. Even Fearless Tasting Crew members who tend to eschew fruity wheat beers gobbled this up.
* Snarling Badger Berliner Weisse by Grand Teton Brewing
With the growing popularity of berliner weisses, there appear to be two camps on how to make the German sour - low-alcohol and light or bold and big. Grand Teton's Cellar-Reserve series take on the style was loaded full of both the banana and clove typical to its hefeweizen yeast and the sharp mouthfeel of the Lactobacillus of the secondary fermentation. And it was bold and big. It may, in fact, be the new flag-bearer for the style.
* Trade Winds Tripel by The Bruery
One of the greatest things about the too-soon-departed District Tavern restaurant in LoDo was its offering of this spectacular seasonal on tap. It's likely the Orange County brewery will offer this Belgian golden ale spiced with Thai Basil in the future. Let's hope more Denver bars will be willing to serve it up.
With rumors flying that the Denver area could see a light dusting of snow this week, it's time to declare this seemingly endless summer finally over. But before that happens, it's worth reflecting on some of the finest gifts that breweries gave to beer drinkers in what was an unusually tasty season that more often is known for light, forgettable offerings.
So, while most of this six-pack of special beers are off shelves or taps by now, let this serve as a call for these breweries to bring them back again - in summer 2013 or, preferably, even sooner.
A big beer in most every sense of the word, this sixth offering in the Boulder brewery's 2012 Artisan Ale series combined the tastes of peat moss and licorice, mellowing into a slightly sweet ester with an alcoholic kick. It was a black saison complex enough to make you think about what was going on in your mouth as you reach for sip after sip.
* Saison du Buff - a Dogfish Head/Stone/Victory collaboration
Employing parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme as key ingredients in a beer sounds like a gimmick - right until the inital earthy spices, combined with the citrus body of a classic saison, leave an unforgettable original taste. This was first released in 2010 before coming back for a limited run this summer; here's hoping it becomes an annual seasonal.
* India Pale Lager by Great Divide
The so-called "IPL" is another gimmick that a smattering of breweries have tried in limited runs, often at summer beer festivals. But the hop masters at Great Divide seems to have hit just the perfect balance on it, producing a sweet and grassy beer whose body takes on the thickness of its flavors while still remaining shockingly refreshing for summer crowds. This year it was available only in the tap room. Next year, please bottle it.
* Kaffir Lime Wheat by Denver Beer Co.
You know that Charlie Berger and Patrick Crawford realize they've hit on something good when the Denver Beer co-conspirators actually decide to put a beer in seasonal rotation rather than make it a one-off. The Kaffir Lime Wheat had the tart, powdery quality of a well-made sour, but the citrus was held in check enough to make this widely appealing. Even Fearless Tasting Crew members who tend to eschew fruity wheat beers gobbled this up.
* Snarling Badger Berliner Weisse by Grand Teton Brewing
With the growing popularity of berliner weisses, there appear to be two camps on how to make the German sour - low-alcohol and light or bold and big. Grand Teton's Cellar-Reserve series take on the style was loaded full of both the banana and clove typical to its hefeweizen yeast and the sharp mouthfeel of the Lactobacillus of the secondary fermentation. And it was bold and big. It may, in fact, be the new flag-bearer for the style.
* Trade Winds Tripel by The Bruery
One of the greatest things about the too-soon-departed District Tavern restaurant in LoDo was its offering of this spectacular seasonal on tap. It's likely the Orange County brewery will offer this Belgian golden ale spiced with Thai Basil in the future. Let's hope more Denver bars will be willing to serve it up.
Labels: Denver Beer Co, Dogfish Head, Grand Teton Brewing, Great Divide, Stone Brewing, Summer beers, The Bruery, Twisted Pine Brewing, Victory Brewing
Saturday, April 07, 2012
San Diego Beer Tour"Come to San Diego," Scott said, "and you'll find a beer scene as good as Denver's." That's a big claim - and one that anyone who knows the depth and quality of the Mile High City's brewing culture has to question.
But on a recent Saturday, the Fearless Tasting Crew flew out to see this new hops haven and find out how the Southern California beer scene is evolving. And after stops at three of the area's best-known breweries and one that had tantalized us with a single superb offering at beer festivals, not a person came away disappointed at what was to be found.
Stop one 
on the great San Diego beer tour was, of course, Stone Brewery and World Gardens, the now-legendary home of Greg Koch's line of intriguing beers. After walking through a garden more reminiscent of an arboretum than an industrial manufacturing plant, the crew found a table in the cavernous restaurant and flipped through a lengthy list of cellared beers.
on the great San Diego beer tour was, of course, Stone Brewery and World Gardens, the now-legendary home of Greg Koch's line of intriguing beers. After walking through a garden more reminiscent of an arboretum than an industrial manufacturing plant, the crew found a table in the cavernous restaurant and flipped through a lengthy list of cellared beers.The trick with Stone is this: What you know is what you get. There's no secret line of experimental brews you can't get in Denver. But there is an offering of bottles going back nearly a decade that is unlike any brewery in this area. And beginning the day with a 2009 Double Bastard Ale - shorter on carbonation but longer on hints of plum-like dark fruit and still sporting a grassy hop feel - and a 2007 Old Guardian Barleywine, whose aging gave it more of a thick, licorice-rum aura, was a perfect way to experience anew beers you might have thought you knew fully.
Stop two 
was Lost Abbey/Port Brewing, whose industrial-park location was reminiscent of Avery Brewing. Most patrons rushed to grab open table space or milled around in the general taproom, but the crew was lucky enough to grab seats in the barrel-aging room, where one could ogle the concoctions around you while enjoying the ones in front of you.
was Lost Abbey/Port Brewing, whose industrial-park location was reminiscent of Avery Brewing. Most patrons rushed to grab open table space or milled around in the general taproom, but the crew was lucky enough to grab seats in the barrel-aging room, where one could ogle the concoctions around you while enjoying the ones in front of you.And on this day, the piece de resistance was Track Two, a blend of Cuvee de Tomee, Angel's Share and American Wild Ale that was barrel-aged for six months with peaches and cherries. Spectacularly vibrant raspberry and vanilla oak tastes converged to form a complex, intriguing sour with a dry backing that is the kind of beer you would travel out of town to try.
Third on the tour was Ballast Point Brewing, whose Victory at Sea Imperial Porter has often been the talk of the Vail Big Beers festival, for its exceptional blend of roasted coffee flavor and drinkable body. But since Victory at Sea wasn't on tap this day, the crew decided to go for the full sampler of everything else on the menu.
What was interesting is that no beer stood out among the offerings. The Big Eye IPA was sweetly grassy and the Piper Down Scottish Ale was nicely peated without being overly aggressive, but neither would have caused a beer geek to write home. Still, of the nine beers on the menu, there wasn't a single miss, a beer that was off-style, too light or just plain funky. And that in itself was a huge complement to a mature brewery.
Last
was Green Flash, notorious for its profusely hopped concoctions. I thought I knew this brewery, as its wares are available in Denver. But after one hour in its tasting room, I and other crew members left with a new appreciation for what Green Flash can do.
was Green Flash, notorious for its profusely hopped concoctions. I thought I knew this brewery, as its wares are available in Denver. But after one hour in its tasting room, I and other crew members left with a new appreciation for what Green Flash can do.From the flowery assault of the Imperial IPA to the orange-zest-bomb that was the Raison Vert Belgian-style pale ale to the thickly-bodied West Coast IPA, each hop experience was different and new. The tasting room was spartan - a.k.a., almost no seats - but you are so focused on the tasters in the front of you that you could be in the midst of a rainstorm and nothing would disturb.
So, was it Denver? As a Colorado resident, I have to lean toward the local scene still, especially in the way that many of the breweries can be hit by walking downtown rather than driving to the suburbs. But the crew came away with a new found respect for this West Coast mecca - and a whole lot of desire to get back soon.
Labels: Ballast Point Brewing, Green Flash Brewing, Lost Abbey, San Diego beers, Stone Brewing
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Bigger But - More Importantly - BolderWhen 83 breweries show up to a festival bringing the biggest beers they make, you expect a lot of bourbon barrel-aged stouts, double IPAs and Belgian-style tripels. And, yes, there were plenty of each of those at Saturday's ninth annual Big Beers, Belgians and Barleywines festival.
But what really stuck out this year was not just how outrageously hoppy or malty the beverages gathered in the Vail Marriott Mountain Resort were, but how creative brewers have become in making beers of at least 7 percent alcohol by volume. And thus, the event served as a peek at what the future of beer might be.
"I think 20 years from now, we'll look back and recognize now as the point where the gloves came off and consumers really recognized what beer had to offer," said Dogfish Head maestro Sam Calagione, whose recent New Yorker profile only helped to raise the visibility of big beers.
Standing out among all the giant American experimenters and ageless Belgian masters, for example, was Altitude Chophouse and Brewery of Laramie, Wyo., a brewpub so small that it considered bottling but had to nix the idea because of cost concerns. Yet, it grabbed a lot of the talk at the festival with a Cayenne Cocoa Bock that creatively combined inky, chocolaty darkness with a late-breaking fleck of heat that served as a defibrillator for the tongue.
If it wasn't a peppery bock grabbing attention, then it was one of several Belgian pale ales that brewers were rolling out. Stone Brewing led the way with a Cali-Belgique IPA, first released in August, that artfully blended hoppy floralness with Belgian esters to create something shockingly smooth. But Utah-based Uinta Brewing and Belgium's La Chouffe were among the others who also put their own versions on display, with the Belgian-made entry having significantly less of a hop characteristic.
Big, gutsy saisons also are making their imprint on a style that hasn't been as bold in the past. Several were on display in Vail, including a very sweet and drinkable Saison Rue from California-based The Bruery, a beer that could become the boldest beer of the spring and summer seasons.
And, of course, the continuing fascination with Belgian-style sour ales remains in place. Between Russian River's latest batch of Consecration (which they cracked open at the Great American Beer Festival this year), Cambridge Brewing's Cerise Casee (my personal favorite beer of the GABF) and Deschutes Brewery's Dissident Old Bruin, the best trend in American beer continues to get better.
That said, it's not like the traditional big beers are going away. There were no less than 21 barleywines, 15 tripels, 11 double or imperial IPAs and six bourbon-barrel-aged beers on display. Tasting a hopped masterpiece like Flying Dog's Double Dog Double Pale Ale reassures you the extreme beers that have been the focus of the past 10 years are still evolving art forms.
But now there are tastes for everyone, and more is still to come. At talks over the course of the day, apple and pear beers, huge coffee porters and new experiments with Brettanomyces were all mentioned and may not be far away.
Yes, there truly is a big beer for everyone at this point. Now the trick is finding the time to drink them all.
Labels: Altitude Chophouse and Brewery, Big Beers, Cambridge Brewing, Deschutes Brewing, Flying Dog, Russian River, Stone Brewing, The Bruery, Uinta Brewing
Friday, October 10, 2008
Notes from Day One of the GABF
First, I'll just say that it's great to be in this time of year again. I think that's something upon which we all can agree. But on to beer talk . . .
*The buzz of the festival once again seems to center around the many great sours out there. Smaller and smaller breweries are bringing their versions, and there are more framboisens and Flemish browns on the floor than I can remember.
There was a long line of people waiting to try Vinnie Cilurzo's new creation, Consecration, at Russian River, and it was well worth the wait. Aged six months in a Cabernet barrel and brewed with 33 pounds of currants in each barrel, it is tart and dark and a worthy competitor to his Supplication for the best sour of the festival.
That said, the beer that my group of friends and I couldn't stop raving about was the Cerise Cassee from tiny Cambridge Brewing Company of Massachusetts. It's a barrel-fermented wild sour ale that absolutely blows your taste buds off.
*As mentioned before, the lines were long from the get-go at New Glarus, Russian River and the Lost Abbey. For some reason, there was little gathering around Stone Brewing. And yet the southern California brewery brought its best lineup in years. The 08.08.08 Vertical Epic Ale is sweetly hopped and flows easier than a beer that strong should, the Ruination IPA is its fantastic self and the 12th Anniversary Bitter Chocolate Oatmeal Stout is a thick, dark piece of work that mellows nicely after a couple of sips. Anyone skipping this booth is doing so at their own peril.
*Finally, I have to thank last night's Fearless Tasting Crew for their walking me through Texas breweries that they used to haunt. Some of them were forgettable, but tucked in the back of the convention hall is a gem of a beer called Real Ale Real Heavy. A 9.7 percent Scottish ale, this is deep and rich and somewhat sweet and is an all-around taste-bud-kicking experience.
First, I'll just say that it's great to be in this time of year again. I think that's something upon which we all can agree. But on to beer talk . . .
*The buzz of the festival once again seems to center around the many great sours out there. Smaller and smaller breweries are bringing their versions, and there are more framboisens and Flemish browns on the floor than I can remember.
There was a long line of people waiting to try Vinnie Cilurzo's new creation, Consecration, at Russian River, and it was well worth the wait. Aged six months in a Cabernet barrel and brewed with 33 pounds of currants in each barrel, it is tart and dark and a worthy competitor to his Supplication for the best sour of the festival.
That said, the beer that my group of friends and I couldn't stop raving about was the Cerise Cassee from tiny Cambridge Brewing Company of Massachusetts. It's a barrel-fermented wild sour ale that absolutely blows your taste buds off.
*As mentioned before, the lines were long from the get-go at New Glarus, Russian River and the Lost Abbey. For some reason, there was little gathering around Stone Brewing. And yet the southern California brewery brought its best lineup in years. The 08.08.08 Vertical Epic Ale is sweetly hopped and flows easier than a beer that strong should, the Ruination IPA is its fantastic self and the 12th Anniversary Bitter Chocolate Oatmeal Stout is a thick, dark piece of work that mellows nicely after a couple of sips. Anyone skipping this booth is doing so at their own peril.
*Finally, I have to thank last night's Fearless Tasting Crew for their walking me through Texas breweries that they used to haunt. Some of them were forgettable, but tucked in the back of the convention hall is a gem of a beer called Real Ale Real Heavy. A 9.7 percent Scottish ale, this is deep and rich and somewhat sweet and is an all-around taste-bud-kicking experience.
Labels: Cambridge Brewing, Great American Beer Festival, Real Ale, Russian River, Stone Brewing
