Sunday, December 29, 2019
10 Best Colorado Beers of 2019
As Colorado exceeded 400 breweries in 2019, the need for beer makers to stand out to attract customers was never more acute. Some developed all new flavors, some put new spins on traditional styles and some doubled down on what they do best.
The result was akin to a dream scenario for fans of experimental creations, offering a wide variety of efforts that sometimes landed with a thud but often seemed to produce stunning tastes, both in one-offs and in packaged or regular-rotation beers. As such, the 10 best Colorado beers of 2019 - beers that either were introduced this year or took on a special significance over the past 12 months - are heavy on envelope-pushing but still are wildly satisfying. Enjoy.
10) Storm Peak Brewing Hoochie Mama
As breweries across the country rush to nail the "accessible sour," they should look toward Steamboat Springs, where Storm Peak produces a sour blonde ale with guava that fills the mouth with unusual fruit flavors and then eases in a tart backtaste that sticks around. Hoochie Mama won a silver medal at the Great American Beer Festival for fruited American-style sour ales, ensuring that 2019 was the year that Colorado began to know its greatness.
9) Briar Common Joyce + Brett
The first barrel-aged experiment from this too-often-overlooked Denver brewery was a saison that sat in one of its seven tanks for 18 months with Brettanomyces and then another nine months on French oak. But the immense outlay of facility space was more than worth it, as what came of it was a sharp beer (second from right in the lead photo in this blog) that crackles with the feel of its yeast and its barrel and at the same time is wildly smooth. If Briar Common had doubts about jumping into barrel aging, this should end them.
8) Weldwerks Peanut Butter Cup Medianoche
This beer is Weldwerks in a nutshell: An imperial stout that uses an unusual and easily flubbable ingredient coming in at an ABV (around 15%) that seemingly is too high to enjoy. Yet, the Greeley brewery nailed it, offering a thick and peanut-butter-laden creation that fills you up but also leaves you wanting more of the well-blended flavors it presents. It's another reminder that no matter what Weldwerks and founder/brewer Neil Fisher (pictured at left) is doing, it is worth trying.
7) Dueces Wild/Brass Brewing/Cerberus Imperial IPL
The most surprising find of the year was a rarely tried style from three Colorado Springs breweries that stole the show at Collaboration Beer Fest in March with a huge Polynesian hop taste that hasn't been seen before in an India pale lager. And it served as a reminder that at a time when visiting every brewery in the state is impossible, gems will continue to pop up outside the Denver/Boulder/Fort Collins area that deserve the beer community's attention.
6) Black Project Stargate Peach Rye: Nectarine Bourbon
Black Project isn't a brewery that tends to fly under the radar. But the hugely tart and complex spontaneously fermented sour ale it was pouring at January's Big Beers, Belgians & Barleywines Festival should have gotten even more attention than it did, for it ranked among the best creations ever from the Denver sour master. And it showed that no combination of barrels, yeast and fruit is too much to handle - either for Black Project or for a drinker's taste buds.
5) Great Divide Mexican Chocolate Yeti
Sixteen years into its brewery-defining Yeti imperial stout series, Great Divide continues to experiment with flavors and, in doing so, has produced its best creation yet. Vanilla, coffee and traditional Mexican spices combine to create a flavor profile that many other breweries have tried but that arguably none has pulled off so well before now - with a 9.5% ABV body that drinks like non-alcoholic coffee. Mexican Yeti proves once again that though Great Divide is a seemingly ancient 25 years of age, it's churning out experiments as well or better than its much younger competitors.
4) Spangalang Brewery Nonesuch
Once a year, like clockwork it happens: I drop into Spangalang, try a few new offerings and hit the floor with awe at how at least one experiment turns out. This year it was Nonesuch, a lighter-hued ale that was aged first in Chardonnay barrels and then in whiskey barrels and came out with a mouth-filling wallop of grape skins, woody overtones and a Brettanomyces zing that somehow blends into one artful and lasting sweet and sour taste. The Five Points brewery has become an absolute must-stop on any Denver beer tour.
3) Purpose Brewing Smoeltrekker # 13
What former New Belgium brewmaster Peter Bouckaert is doing at his small Fort Collins brewery is like rebellious, avant-garde art. There's an undefinable hoppy brew here, a taco-flavored brew there. But the piece de resistance of Purpose Brewing's portfolio in 2019 was a beer that approximated Bouckaert's celebrated La Folie creation - and than exceeded it with a flavor profile that hit your tart taste buds right away but then led you down a rabbit hole that embraced the well-used barrel it inhabited and let you feel an almost apple-and-cherry-like underbelly that soothed its wild overtones. This is a seasoned veteran at the height of his abilities.
2) Paradox Beer Smoked Maple Manhattan
There understandably will be people who say that the combined tastes of pancake syrup, an Italian amarena cherry made for cocktails and the base of a tart golden ale are just too much to handle in one drink. But for those who like their beers daring and dancing precariously on the edge of an overshot without stepping over it, there was no more rewarding beer made in Colorado this year. This beer changed from the first sip to the fourth to the 10th, revealing a different flavor each time - but one that continuously was unlike anything one has ever had in a beer. Fortune favors the bold, and there may be no brewery in Colorado taking chances like this Teller County artist today.
1) Oskar Blues Can-O-Bliss Tropical IPA
Oskar Blues did not make the most earth-shattering beer of 2019. What it made, simply, was the most drinkable, most mesmerizing offering of the year, daring to take the hazy IPA style in a new direction by ditching the traditional hops and going all in on the tropical flavors imparted by Mosaic, Azaca, Galaxy, Eldorado and Idaho 7. Rather than redefining the style, it simply did it better and fuller and juicier and yet somehow produced a brew you want to drink both in the cold of winter and the heat of summer. The Longmont beer pioneer has never been better. And after years of producing in-your-face beers that left you impressed but wanting just one or two of them, it excelled with an IPA you feel you can drink all day and never tire of what could be best described as the feel of Hawaiian fruit salad in beer form.
As Colorado exceeded 400 breweries in 2019, the need for beer makers to stand out to attract customers was never more acute. Some developed all new flavors, some put new spins on traditional styles and some doubled down on what they do best.
The result was akin to a dream scenario for fans of experimental creations, offering a wide variety of efforts that sometimes landed with a thud but often seemed to produce stunning tastes, both in one-offs and in packaged or regular-rotation beers. As such, the 10 best Colorado beers of 2019 - beers that either were introduced this year or took on a special significance over the past 12 months - are heavy on envelope-pushing but still are wildly satisfying. Enjoy.
10) Storm Peak Brewing Hoochie Mama
9) Briar Common Joyce + Brett
The first barrel-aged experiment from this too-often-overlooked Denver brewery was a saison that sat in one of its seven tanks for 18 months with Brettanomyces and then another nine months on French oak. But the immense outlay of facility space was more than worth it, as what came of it was a sharp beer (second from right in the lead photo in this blog) that crackles with the feel of its yeast and its barrel and at the same time is wildly smooth. If Briar Common had doubts about jumping into barrel aging, this should end them.
8) Weldwerks Peanut Butter Cup Medianoche
This beer is Weldwerks in a nutshell: An imperial stout that uses an unusual and easily flubbable ingredient coming in at an ABV (around 15%) that seemingly is too high to enjoy. Yet, the Greeley brewery nailed it, offering a thick and peanut-butter-laden creation that fills you up but also leaves you wanting more of the well-blended flavors it presents. It's another reminder that no matter what Weldwerks and founder/brewer Neil Fisher (pictured at left) is doing, it is worth trying.7) Dueces Wild/Brass Brewing/Cerberus Imperial IPL
The most surprising find of the year was a rarely tried style from three Colorado Springs breweries that stole the show at Collaboration Beer Fest in March with a huge Polynesian hop taste that hasn't been seen before in an India pale lager. And it served as a reminder that at a time when visiting every brewery in the state is impossible, gems will continue to pop up outside the Denver/Boulder/Fort Collins area that deserve the beer community's attention.
6) Black Project Stargate Peach Rye: Nectarine Bourbon
Black Project isn't a brewery that tends to fly under the radar. But the hugely tart and complex spontaneously fermented sour ale it was pouring at January's Big Beers, Belgians & Barleywines Festival should have gotten even more attention than it did, for it ranked among the best creations ever from the Denver sour master. And it showed that no combination of barrels, yeast and fruit is too much to handle - either for Black Project or for a drinker's taste buds.
5) Great Divide Mexican Chocolate Yeti
Sixteen years into its brewery-defining Yeti imperial stout series, Great Divide continues to experiment with flavors and, in doing so, has produced its best creation yet. Vanilla, coffee and traditional Mexican spices combine to create a flavor profile that many other breweries have tried but that arguably none has pulled off so well before now - with a 9.5% ABV body that drinks like non-alcoholic coffee. Mexican Yeti proves once again that though Great Divide is a seemingly ancient 25 years of age, it's churning out experiments as well or better than its much younger competitors.4) Spangalang Brewery Nonesuch
Once a year, like clockwork it happens: I drop into Spangalang, try a few new offerings and hit the floor with awe at how at least one experiment turns out. This year it was Nonesuch, a lighter-hued ale that was aged first in Chardonnay barrels and then in whiskey barrels and came out with a mouth-filling wallop of grape skins, woody overtones and a Brettanomyces zing that somehow blends into one artful and lasting sweet and sour taste. The Five Points brewery has become an absolute must-stop on any Denver beer tour.
3) Purpose Brewing Smoeltrekker # 13
What former New Belgium brewmaster Peter Bouckaert is doing at his small Fort Collins brewery is like rebellious, avant-garde art. There's an undefinable hoppy brew here, a taco-flavored brew there. But the piece de resistance of Purpose Brewing's portfolio in 2019 was a beer that approximated Bouckaert's celebrated La Folie creation - and than exceeded it with a flavor profile that hit your tart taste buds right away but then led you down a rabbit hole that embraced the well-used barrel it inhabited and let you feel an almost apple-and-cherry-like underbelly that soothed its wild overtones. This is a seasoned veteran at the height of his abilities.2) Paradox Beer Smoked Maple Manhattan
There understandably will be people who say that the combined tastes of pancake syrup, an Italian amarena cherry made for cocktails and the base of a tart golden ale are just too much to handle in one drink. But for those who like their beers daring and dancing precariously on the edge of an overshot without stepping over it, there was no more rewarding beer made in Colorado this year. This beer changed from the first sip to the fourth to the 10th, revealing a different flavor each time - but one that continuously was unlike anything one has ever had in a beer. Fortune favors the bold, and there may be no brewery in Colorado taking chances like this Teller County artist today.
1) Oskar Blues Can-O-Bliss Tropical IPA
Labels: Black Project, Briar Common Brewery + Eatery, Cerberus Brewing, Great Divide, Oskar Blues, Paradox Brewing, Purpose Brewing, Spangalang Brewery, Storm Peak Brewing, Top Beers of Year, Weldwerks Brewing
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
