Tuesday, June 29, 2021
Anatomy of a Beer Festival, Post-Covid
About 45 minutes into the Vail Craft Beer Classic on Saturday, a feeling wafted over the event that was, well, strangely normal. Beer geeks discussed the early finds of the day. A local brewery circulated word of a special tapping. Taster glasses jutted out from hands, subsequently filled with suds.
What no one talked about was coronavirus, except in terms of "hasn't it sucked that the pandemic has knocked out events like these for 17 months?" Glasses were cleaned well, but not excessively so. Hugs and pats on the back marked the day. Masks were nonexistent.
If there was an impact of the pandemic seen on the first specialty festival to come back - for a second straight year - since the world shut down, maybe it was the crowd limit self-imposed by Team Player Productions, which made the event all the more free-flowing and celebratory. Lines never exceeded about eight people for the 40 tents of booze purveyors, and that lent to an atmosphere where you stopped and chatted and even planted yourself in front of the band for a few minutes rather than rushed to the hot brewers to beat everyone else there. (Note the below picture of the lineless Weldwerks tent, which happened several times during the event.)
There was just a hell of a lot of smiles. Heck, this open-air festival even took on rain, but people ducked under tents or under their own umbrellas (see bottom of article), too eager to take part in the communal enjoyment of beer again to bother seeking more permanent shelter when the skies opened. And the Vail Craft Beer Classic offered a lot more reasons to stay than to overthink what might be purely the safest course, which frankly seemed an appropriate theme for a day when no one felt they were taking an undue risk.
Lagers ruled the roost at this summer gathering. Both the 4 Noses Jasmine Rice Lager - incredibly smooth with just a wanted hint of non-Rheinheitsgebot addition - and the perfectly crisp and clean FlyteCo Chinese Rice Lager just felt right to be consumed in an open green field. Wibby Brewing's Volksbier Vienna reminded you why the Longmont German beer specialist is one of the most underrated brewers in Colorado. And if Wild Blue Yonder Brewing's Oak-Barrel-Aged Lager added only a hint of vanilla to the backtaste of the creation, it was enough to let you know it still was something special.
But the creativity was big too. The aforementioned Weldwerks brought its Rockets Red Glare Berliner that was nothing short of the alcoholic version of a Bomb Pop. Bakers' Brewery's higher-alcohol In Bloom Saison served as a reminder of the creativity of brewers whose products don't make it to the Front Range - as did Ramblebine Brewing's incredibly drinkable Demberries, a slightly tart and fruity ale that doesn't forget that it's a beer first and foremost. And if you didn't get a sip of Launch Pad Brewery's Peacemaker Porter, the term "smoked session porter" may not light up a smile for you the way it does for me.
All in all, the event was a reminder why beer festivals remain both relevant and extremely doable. Conversations with folks you know and folks you don't make the beer-tasting experience a more elevated one because of thoughts shared in a collegial way. Good gatherings are ones where the brewers pour and then discuss their offerings. You leave wanting to seek out more adventures for your palate, both from the creators who just lit it up and others you hope to find.
Beer festivals are back, and they can be done safely and in a less crowded way than maybe we knew before. And events like Vail Craft Beer Classic show that it's time that more come back too.
Labels: 4 Noses Brewing, Baker's Brewery, Beer festivals, FlyteCo Brewing, Launch Pad Brewery, Ramblebine Brewing, Vail Craft Beer Classic, Weldwerks Brewing, Wibby Brewing, Wild Blue Yonder Brewing
Saturday, June 12, 2021
Beer Festivals Are Back. Here is How One is Pulling That Off.
The Vail Craft Beer Classic is coming back for its second straight year of socially distanced drinking with limited crowds in just two weeks. But the moves it's making to stay safe and relevant this year may impact the way that it and a whole lot of other beer festivals change permanently.
Unless you were one of the 700 people spread across four sessions who attended the event in 2020, you may not realize there was actually one beer festival last summer. Organizers cut capacity crowds by 82%, eliminated lines at booths for the sake of keeping groups of attendees apart and reported zero transmissions of coronavirus at a time when most people still were hunkering down in their homes.
They expected to put the same safety measures in place this year but have been pleased to see a loosening on everything from mask requirements to crowd constraints. Still, Team Player Productions is limiting each of the four sessions on June 25 and 26 to 250 people, even in a park that holds about 1,000, and it believes it may have hit on the sweet spot of attendee comfort and crowd optimization.
Kristen Slater, event director for the Denver-based organization, noted that while many festivals run on a ratio of one brewery for every 50 people, the Vail Craft Beer Classic will offer one beverage provider for every eight to 12 attendees. While guests this year will be able to sample the beers at the booths where they're poured — something they couldn't do last year, when they had to remain masked and take them back to designated areas for each cadre of attendees — she expects lines won't grow more than two to three people long, and the vibe will be very relaxed.
"That's really a decision we made early on that we didn't want that environment," Slater said of the typical throngs converging on the most sought-after booths. "And people loved it and they loved not having the pressure of having to get your beer and move to the next line."
This year, to meet all guests where they are on their public-mingling comfort levels, the festival will offer reusable taster cups if they want to take them from booth to booth or will offer compostable single-use cups and frisbee trays that attendees can use to gather the cups and bring them back to their stations. The festival will take place in Ford Park and Sculpture Garden, and there will be the usual trappings of a beer festival as well, including music.
And, yes, there will be 40 breweries, with a mix of Colorado star players (WeldWerks, Odell, Great Divide, 4 Noses) and local finds that would make you want to travel into the mountains for the weekend (Vail Brewing Co., Ramblebine, Cabin Creek, Baker's Brewery). And the pour list is not, well, poor, offering treats from WeldWerks' Pop-Rocks-inspired Rockets Red Glare Sour to Cheluna Brewing's Rojo Tamarindo Gose to a Chardonnay-barrel-aged saison from Cabin Creek.
By keeping ticket prices relatively close to 2019 levels — $64, with tickets available still to the 2 and 5 p.m. Friday sessions and a small wait list building for the noon and 3 p.m. Saturday sessions — and crowds small, Slater believes the whole festival will feel like the uncrowded but higher-priced VIP sessions of other events. Plus it will have a special touch — West Vail Liquor Mart will have QR codes at the booths of each of the breweries whose products it has in stock (about two-thirds of them), and attendees can order those beers for post-festival pickup or delivery if they would like.
Organizers certainly look forward to welcoming in more guests in future years. But Slater, for one, doesn't think that the elbow-to-elbow festivals of pre-pandemic times will return fully at any point. And these less crowded, more experiential gatherings that are taking place this summer may just offer a peek into how beer events will be redefined in future years.
"I think we're kind of going to see a hybrid. I think there is a knee-jerk reaction to big crowds for some people," Slater said. "But we're also seeing that people are willing to pay more for an elevated experience."
Labels: 4 Noses Brewing, Baker's Brewery, Beer festivals, Cabin Creek Brewing, Cheluna Brewing, Great Divide, Odell Brewing, Team Player Productions, Vail Craft Beer Classic, Weldwerks Brewing
Sunday, October 25, 2020
7 Colorado Pumpkin Beers to Drink in the Seven Days Before Halloween Ends
Pumpkin beers to many have long seemed like the hellish figure in the picture above (the guardian to corn maze at Anderson Farms in Erie) - a horror inflicted on the drinking world by a small number of breweries attempting to please an only slightly larger number of aficionados. But as I, one of those horrible aficionados, discovered when I want in vain to pick up my now-sold-out annual dosage of Southern Tier Pumking on Saturday at my favorite liquor store, they've become so popular during coronavirus that they're flying off the shelves.
With the knowledge that people are diving headfirst into this long-underappreciated trend this year, here then is a very short list of some of the best experiments and tried-and-true offerings that are new or returning from Colorado breweries this season. It's a roundup that not only gives a window into the efforts that make the style worthwhile but also proves that pumpkin beers themselves are evolving and becoming far more diverse in the ways they are presented.
1) Spice Trade Pumpkin Spice Latte
Pumpkin beers rarely, if ever, have used fresh-roasted coffee beans to such the advantage as this mold-breaking offering from Spice Trade Brewing. Used in combination with lactose, vanilla and ample but not overwhelming pumpkin-pie spices, it creates a beer that is both boldly roasted and supremely smooth, and its accessible sharpness is something rarely found in a genre more often defined by more-than-ample spicing.
2) Weldwerks Pumpkin Pie Berliner
No Colorado pumpkin beer comes as close as this to reproducing what makes Pumking so brilliant - creating the liquid taste not just of pumpkin-pie filling but of the graham-cracker crust and the Cool Whip on top - but then, as Weldwerks does, it gives the style its own unique twist. The tart kick at the end of this gem accents the spices in a unique way and also creates entryway into the style for lovers of the sour-beer ascetic. Wickedly creative, it is worth seeking out.
3) Goat Patch Pumpkin Patch Punch
With its silver medal at this year's Great American Beer Festival, the time for Colorado Springs' best-kept brewing secret to remain secrets should be over. This almost glowingly orange offering is another testimony to its skill - an impressively tasty mélange of true gourd taste with spice that is blended into its sweetness and generates no bitter potpourri aftertaste. You could drink this all day.
4) Holidaily Patchy Waters Pumpkin Ale
It took a gluten-free beer to show exactly how much flavor could be gleaned without any of the bitter aftertaste that too often has marked the genre. Brewer Alan Windhausen adds most of the spices here after the boil, giving them a presence without a lingering burn by extracting the flavor without extracting so many of the spices' astringent qualities. A model of big taste and smoothness.
5) Odyssey Beerwerks Fluffy Pumpkin
No beer made in Colorado brings across the quality of marshmallow so well as this, which seems an odd statement to write on a beer blog but nonetheless remains true. The dominant taste of this dark beer is cinnamon, but its bitterness is squished by an almost gooey softness that makes this truly fascinating. Neither overtly sweet nor overtly spicy, this is unique in a very good way.
6) 4 Noses Pump Action
While the bittering spices in this imperial pumpkin ale feel ratcheted up a bit from years past, it remains one of Colorado's standard bearers in this genre - a hugely flavorful beer that is the equivalent of a pumpkin churro in liquid form, with just enough sweetness hiding on the back end to make its flavor profile feel complete even as it's firing at your taste buds from every angle.
7) Twisted Pine Mr. Brown's
If you love old-school, spice-heavy brown pumpkin ales, this offering from one of Boulder's classic craft-beer makers will scratch that itch. But it also carries a sensible blend of darkness and heady malt base that reminds you that good pumpkin beers are, first and foremost, good beers first, even if they don't shy from featuring the flavors of cinnamon and nutmeg, as this does.
Labels: 4 Noses Brewing, Goat Patch Brewing, Holidaily Brewing, Odyssey Beerwerks, Pumpkin beers, Southern Tier Brewing, Spice Trade Brewing Co., Twisted Pine Brewing, Weldwerks Brewing
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
Tuesday, October 15, 2019
Best of GABF 2019
Let's face it, my 16-year-old self would have thought this Great American Beer Festival was made when I stumbled onto two beers within 10 yards of each that both were named Deez Nuts.
But my present 46-year-old self felt that the country's largest gathering of brewers found its true essence in those side trips to an unknown destination that produced surprise after surprise, every one enlightening about the current state of the craft-beer industry. And even if the GABF didn't sell out for the first time in 13 years, there were no complaints from people wandering the floor that American beer makers don't continue to get more daring even as they get more approachable.
With that said, here is the annual look at one beer writer's impressions of the most unique and satisfying malt beverages in the nation - not a one of which was a hard seltzer.
Best Beer of the Festival: Oozlefinch Craft Brewery Sour, Not Stirred
It took guts to make a martini gose. But it took even more talent to make it so perfectly, crafting a beer that was tart and sweet with hints of booze but with pronounced tastes as well of Angelica root, orange peel and just enough bitters to convince yourself you were holding some sort of magical hybrid. During a year when so many beers walked a line between pleasing and challenging, this treat from Virginia was all joy, even as it made you think about just what it was you were imbibing.
Other Best Envelope Pusher: Speciation Artisan Ales Saltation
The most interesting brewery in America - and, yes, this Michigan fermentation king has earned that title - managed to turn heads again with a margarita that produced flavors of lime, saltiness and sweetness in perfect harmony. Owner Mitch Ermatinger offered that this had an almost familiar property to people for something so outside the box. It was comforting even as it woke taste buds.
Best Hop Bomb: Great Notion Brewing Chuck's Notion
You had to look hard for this New England-style IPA - specifically at Finn's Manor before the festival began - but finding it meant diving nose-first into a rich, tropical array of fruit that defines the new IPA and yet keeps it squarely in check with a 7% ABV level.
Best Dark Offering: Weldwerks PBC
In a hall fall of wonderfully boozy barrel-aged stouts, what stood out about Weldwerks' 16% ABV peanut butter cup stout was it was so rich in chocolate and nuts that the alcohol was like a background element. The lines at the Greeley brewery's booth were absurd but somehow worth it.
Best Dad Beer: Cannonball Creek Netflix and Pils
Approachable was in this year, but nothing was as easy and yet as flavorful as this ultra-crispy pilsner from Golden, which laid out its hops as its main flavor attribute but let them present themselves in dry and smooth offering that stuck around your palate like it was something much bigger.
Best Undefinable Beer: Captain Lawrence Brewing Powder Dreams
This beer from upstate New York is listed as a New England IPA. But hints of guava and vanilla and lactose popped in your mouth, leaving you torn between calling it a sour or a milkshake or … never mind. It was just a creative, highly flavorful offering.
Best Beer That Seemed Nothing Like a Beer: J Wakefield Brewing Haterade
Haterade isn't for everyone; it absolutely looked like Hawaiian Punch and tasted like a tart Kool Aid presented on a bed of malt to even it out. But finding a beer like this from this Miami brewery reminds you of why boundaries exist to be pushed, and you couldn't help but go back for more.
\
Best Beer/Food Combination: West Sixth Brewing
If you've never bought a ticket to the Paired beer and food event at GABF, here is what you miss: A Kentucky brewery you might not have known about offering a full but drinkable 13% ABV Snakes in Barrel bourbon-barrel-aged imperial stout in concert with spicy kangaroo sausage from Pope Joan restaurant of Melbourne, Australia. Fantastic alone, they were magical together. And it made you want to try more pairings on your own.
Biggest Surprise of GABF: 105 West Brewing Double Deez Nuts
No, really. I drank it to send a picture of the name to a friend. And I stopped in my tracks, realizing the generous hazelnut overtones in this wee heavy made this a beer that backed up its adjunct ingredients with a solid body that let malt and nuts stand out simultaneously. A true find from Castle Rock.
Let's face it, my 16-year-old self would have thought this Great American Beer Festival was made when I stumbled onto two beers within 10 yards of each that both were named Deez Nuts.
But my present 46-year-old self felt that the country's largest gathering of brewers found its true essence in those side trips to an unknown destination that produced surprise after surprise, every one enlightening about the current state of the craft-beer industry. And even if the GABF didn't sell out for the first time in 13 years, there were no complaints from people wandering the floor that American beer makers don't continue to get more daring even as they get more approachable.
With that said, here is the annual look at one beer writer's impressions of the most unique and satisfying malt beverages in the nation - not a one of which was a hard seltzer.
It took guts to make a martini gose. But it took even more talent to make it so perfectly, crafting a beer that was tart and sweet with hints of booze but with pronounced tastes as well of Angelica root, orange peel and just enough bitters to convince yourself you were holding some sort of magical hybrid. During a year when so many beers walked a line between pleasing and challenging, this treat from Virginia was all joy, even as it made you think about just what it was you were imbibing.
Other Best Envelope Pusher: Speciation Artisan Ales Saltation
The most interesting brewery in America - and, yes, this Michigan fermentation king has earned that title - managed to turn heads again with a margarita that produced flavors of lime, saltiness and sweetness in perfect harmony. Owner Mitch Ermatinger offered that this had an almost familiar property to people for something so outside the box. It was comforting even as it woke taste buds.
Best Hop Bomb: Great Notion Brewing Chuck's Notion
You had to look hard for this New England-style IPA - specifically at Finn's Manor before the festival began - but finding it meant diving nose-first into a rich, tropical array of fruit that defines the new IPA and yet keeps it squarely in check with a 7% ABV level.Best Dark Offering: Weldwerks PBC
In a hall fall of wonderfully boozy barrel-aged stouts, what stood out about Weldwerks' 16% ABV peanut butter cup stout was it was so rich in chocolate and nuts that the alcohol was like a background element. The lines at the Greeley brewery's booth were absurd but somehow worth it.
Best Dad Beer: Cannonball Creek Netflix and Pils
Approachable was in this year, but nothing was as easy and yet as flavorful as this ultra-crispy pilsner from Golden, which laid out its hops as its main flavor attribute but let them present themselves in dry and smooth offering that stuck around your palate like it was something much bigger.
Best Undefinable Beer: Captain Lawrence Brewing Powder Dreams
This beer from upstate New York is listed as a New England IPA. But hints of guava and vanilla and lactose popped in your mouth, leaving you torn between calling it a sour or a milkshake or … never mind. It was just a creative, highly flavorful offering.
Best Beer That Seemed Nothing Like a Beer: J Wakefield Brewing Haterade
Haterade isn't for everyone; it absolutely looked like Hawaiian Punch and tasted like a tart Kool Aid presented on a bed of malt to even it out. But finding a beer like this from this Miami brewery reminds you of why boundaries exist to be pushed, and you couldn't help but go back for more.
\
Best Beer/Food Combination: West Sixth Brewing
If you've never bought a ticket to the Paired beer and food event at GABF, here is what you miss: A Kentucky brewery you might not have known about offering a full but drinkable 13% ABV Snakes in Barrel bourbon-barrel-aged imperial stout in concert with spicy kangaroo sausage from Pope Joan restaurant of Melbourne, Australia. Fantastic alone, they were magical together. And it made you want to try more pairings on your own.
Biggest Surprise of GABF: 105 West Brewing Double Deez Nuts
No, really. I drank it to send a picture of the name to a friend. And I stopped in my tracks, realizing the generous hazelnut overtones in this wee heavy made this a beer that backed up its adjunct ingredients with a solid body that let malt and nuts stand out simultaneously. A true find from Castle Rock.
Labels: 105 West Brewing, Cannonball Creek Brewing, Great American Beer Festival, Great Notion Brewing, J Wakefield Brewing, Oozlefinch Craft Brewery, Speciation Artisan Ales, Weldwerks Brewing
Sunday, September 29, 2019
Your GABF/Denver Beer Week Events Guide 2019
This is where the magic happens. Denver. Great American Beer Festival week. The whole beer-drinking world is watching.
As always, I've tried to throw together a high-level list of the events happening around the country's biggest gathering of brewers - not a complete list of every tapping, dinner and mini festival, but a highlight reel of what is scheduled around the Oct. 3-5 festival. Get to one, get to many - but whatever you do, get out of your house, because all that craft beer has to offer will never be as much at your fingertips as it is this week.
Monday
11 a.m.: First Draft Taproom + Kitchen, Denver's leading pour-yourself-and-pay-by-the-ounce bar, has a stacked lineup all week. But today's kickoff with Western Distributing - featuring lesser-known Colorado gems like Pikes Peak, Bonfire and Lone Tree - is a good way to sample the far-flung scene.
Noon: Jagged Mountain also has a big week lined up, including Thursday's release of a doppelbock aged in 24-year-old rum barrels. Today launches the festivities, however, with the release of the Royal Gourdge Pumpkin Pie Ale, showing off the brewery's proclivity with unusual ingredients.
4-9 p.m.: Beginning on the hour each hour, a rambling tour will descend upon FlyteCo, The Emporium, DeSteeg, The Grateful Gnome and Call to Arms - the Tennyson neighborhood breweries participating in the Tennysinners Brewery Crawl. There's no charge except for your beers.
5ish: Falling Rock Tap House, Denver's lauded beer bar, kicks off every GABF week with 20 or so special beers on tap from auteurs both locally and nationwide. This year will be no exception. And, no, you don't even need to know the breweries pouring to justify making this trip.
6-8 p.m.: You'll be drinking a lot of barrel-aged beers this week. Want to really geek out on the art of aging before you start? Strange Craft Beer and Wit's End Brewing present a "Barrel Talk" that will feature samples of some of their aged creations.
Tuesday
Noon: When Great Divide Brewing boasts of releasing a new beer with an "otherworldly amount of hops," you would be wise to listen. Hopnaut Double Juicy IPA follows on the huge success of its Hazy IPA launch last year, and it will be on tap at both locations.
4-7 p.m.: Thirst Colorado puts together an annual Tour of Colorado event at Tap Fourteen's Ballpark location highlighting breweries from throughout the state making unique beers. This year's event showcases Boulder Beer, Bruz Beers, Wiley Roots, Fossil Craft and Bristol, among others.
4 p.m to 1 a.m..: Is hazy or clear IPA the path to true beer-drinking heaven? Finn's Manor gives you a chance to decide, offering hazies from the likes of Great Notion, Trillium and Outer Range and traditionals from folks such as Russian River, Beachwood and pFriem Family Brewers.
5-10 p.m.: Barrels and Bottles Brewery in Golden is showing off Crooked Stave Artisans Distribution beers as well as its own. Tonight's tap list of CSA beers includes gems from Half Acre, Perennial, Cascade, 3 Floyds and Societe.
6-11 p.m.: Are sessionable beers really "Dad Beers"? Ratio posits the question at The Occidental, where it will tap lower-ABV beers from it, 3 Floyds, Modern Times, Stone, Ska and Cannonball Creek as part of its "Punk Is Dad Beers" celebration.
6:30-10 p.m.: Odell Brewing really turned 30 this year. To celebrate the milestone, gastropub Euclid Hall is serving up a six-course dinner for $70 that includes a special Odell/Euclid Hall collaboration you won't find anywhere else.
Wednesday
Noon to 6 p.m.: Crooked Stave Artisan Beer Project will take the rare step of opening its barrel room to the public daily through Saturday. Visitors can just pop in for a taster for the first time in five years and also can get tours of the beautiful-bug-laden facility.
1-10 p.m.: Westfax Brewing has become one of the subtle stars of the Denver area scene, but because they are located in Lakewood, a lot of Denverites may not make it out. Today's the right time to cruise down Colfax, as the brewery is tapping both a hazy double IPA and a pastry stout.
4 p.m.: Finn's Manor once again will be a place worth visiting, as it pours beers from "Weldwerks and Friends" - friends that include Casey Brewing and Blending, Forbidden Root, Great Notion, Outer Range and Mikerphone.
6 p.m.: Speaking of breweries that are off the beaten path but well worth the drive, Burns Family Artisan Ales has been punching out envelope-pushing high-ABV experiments in the former Wit's End location for a year. Today it taps a pomegranate IIIPA.
6 p.m.: Former Saint Craft Kitchen & Taps will put on an Oktoberfest-themed beer dinner, but the beer it will pair throughout will be Sierra Nevada, likely outpacing most O-fest celebrations' selection. The dinner is $50; if you miss it, there will be a Sierra Nevada tap takeover on Thursday.
6-10 p.m.: Feeling like three days of GABF is not enough? Tivoli Brewing will lengthen the celebration with a Mini American Beer Festival, for $25, featuring ticketed pours from 4 Noses, Alpine, Destihl, Green Flash and Surly, among others.
9 p.m. to midnight: For true hopheads, few events satisfy quite like Falling Rock's annual All-Star IPA Throwdown hosted by Melvin Brewing. The ticketed event features taps from Moonraker, Parish, 3 Floyds, Toppling Goliath and Maine Beer, among others.
Thursday
11:30 a.m.: Boulder County is a drive from Denver, but it's worth it when Avery Brewing re-releases its rum-soaked, double espresso Mephistopheles Stout for the first time in ages at its Gunbarrel location.
Noon: Other Half Brewing of New York is making both some of the best hazy IPAs in the country and some of the best palate-pleasing imperial stouts. TRVE Brewing lets the visitor take over a bunch of its taps today.
Noon: Boulevard Brewing also turns 30 this year. To celebrate, both Falling Rock and Smok, a Kansas City BBQ restaurant in the Source Hotel, will tap its Changeling dark sour, its Chill Vibes cucumber sour and its 30th Anniversary Ale that is a blend of barrel-aged treats.
Noon: Austin Beer Garden is an annual big winner at GABF, but you can't find its beers in Denver very often. So, today, Our Mutual Friend is hosting a tap takeover for the rising Texas star.
Noon to 9: There is considerable debate over the aftertaste of the first GABF session should feature light or huge beers. If you tend toward the latter answer, Freshcraft will be pouring double hazies and blistering sours from the likes of Lawson's Finest Liquids, Creature Comforts and The Rare Barrel.
7-10 p.m.: If, however, you believe in giving your taste buds a break after a day of drinking, First Draft will have a Lager Party featuring creations from Wiseacre, Sun King, Chuckanut, Rhinegeist … and Creature Comforts.
Friday
11 a.m.: Kegged, delivered and tapped in a span of a few hours, Station 26 Brewing's Same Day Hazy IPA is an experiment that puts the fresh in fresh hopping. Highland Tap & Burger, Lowry Beer Garden and Walter's 303 are just a few of the locations that will be featuring it today.
11:30 a.m to 11 p.m.: Hops & Pie has a big week all week. But today's offering - 11 beers from Casey Brewing and Blending, seven from Toppling Goliath and five from Weldwerks - may be its standout event for Denver Beer Week.
Noon to 4 p.m.: Denver Rare Beer Tasting is the most worthwhile $200 festival you'll ever attend. In addition to raising money for Pints for Prostates, the event features supremely hard-to-find aged creations and experiments. Cascade, Side Project and Speciation are among 50-plus pourers.
Noon to 1 a.m.: Goed Zuur taps into two of the most renowned farmhouse breweries in America, as it offers eight beers from Jester King and three beers from Rowley Farmouse Ales in New Mexico.
4 p.m.: Is Austin or Ohio more of your beer scene? No matter, Freshcraft will feature libations from both regions simultaneously, with Jester King, Skull Mechanix and Vista Brewing repping Texas and MadTree, Jackie O's and Taft's among the Midwestern stars.
9:30 p.m.: Sure, you can get Bell's Brewery offerings in Denver these days. But how often do you enjoy them with cheese curds and fried fish in an authentic Midwestern joint? Wally's Wisconsin Tavern hosts a tap takeover following the GABF session.
Saturday
11 a.m.: Like Bell's, Brooklyn Brewery and 21st Amendment can now be found in Colorado liquor-store coolers. Still, a tap takeover like Former Saint is hosting all day is one that can show off why they are American classics.
1-5 p.m.: It's both a curse and a blessing to be celebrating your third anniversary in the midst of the country's biggest beer celebration. But that isn't stopping Briar Common Brewery & Eatery from busting out three new beers to go with its excellent menu.
1-8 p.m.: Is the Great American Beer Festival not international enough for you? Cerveceria Colorado, the Mexican-beer arm of Denver Beer Co., is hosting its Great Mexican Beer Fiesta, rolling out collaborations made with five south-of-the-border brewers - and the brewers themselves.
4-8 p.m.: It's a doubleheader at Rhein Haus, which is offering a Lawson's Finest Liquids tap takeover from 4 to 6, then a takeover of Crooked Stave-distributed beers - including Two Roads, Fremont and La Cumbre - from 6 to 8.
9 p.m. to 1 a.m.: Looking for a wind-down that's not all about big beer? Ratio Beerworks once again is throwing its karaoke contest. If you don't go, you'll never be able to try to guess whether your favorite brewer sings that way because they're hammered or just tone-deaf.
As always, I've tried to throw together a high-level list of the events happening around the country's biggest gathering of brewers - not a complete list of every tapping, dinner and mini festival, but a highlight reel of what is scheduled around the Oct. 3-5 festival. Get to one, get to many - but whatever you do, get out of your house, because all that craft beer has to offer will never be as much at your fingertips as it is this week.
Monday
11 a.m.: First Draft Taproom + Kitchen, Denver's leading pour-yourself-and-pay-by-the-ounce bar, has a stacked lineup all week. But today's kickoff with Western Distributing - featuring lesser-known Colorado gems like Pikes Peak, Bonfire and Lone Tree - is a good way to sample the far-flung scene.
4-9 p.m.: Beginning on the hour each hour, a rambling tour will descend upon FlyteCo, The Emporium, DeSteeg, The Grateful Gnome and Call to Arms - the Tennyson neighborhood breweries participating in the Tennysinners Brewery Crawl. There's no charge except for your beers.
5ish: Falling Rock Tap House, Denver's lauded beer bar, kicks off every GABF week with 20 or so special beers on tap from auteurs both locally and nationwide. This year will be no exception. And, no, you don't even need to know the breweries pouring to justify making this trip.
6-8 p.m.: You'll be drinking a lot of barrel-aged beers this week. Want to really geek out on the art of aging before you start? Strange Craft Beer and Wit's End Brewing present a "Barrel Talk" that will feature samples of some of their aged creations.
Tuesday
Noon: When Great Divide Brewing boasts of releasing a new beer with an "otherworldly amount of hops," you would be wise to listen. Hopnaut Double Juicy IPA follows on the huge success of its Hazy IPA launch last year, and it will be on tap at both locations.
4-7 p.m.: Thirst Colorado puts together an annual Tour of Colorado event at Tap Fourteen's Ballpark location highlighting breweries from throughout the state making unique beers. This year's event showcases Boulder Beer, Bruz Beers, Wiley Roots, Fossil Craft and Bristol, among others.
5-10 p.m.: Barrels and Bottles Brewery in Golden is showing off Crooked Stave Artisans Distribution beers as well as its own. Tonight's tap list of CSA beers includes gems from Half Acre, Perennial, Cascade, 3 Floyds and Societe.
6-11 p.m.: Are sessionable beers really "Dad Beers"? Ratio posits the question at The Occidental, where it will tap lower-ABV beers from it, 3 Floyds, Modern Times, Stone, Ska and Cannonball Creek as part of its "Punk Is Dad Beers" celebration.
6:30-10 p.m.: Odell Brewing really turned 30 this year. To celebrate the milestone, gastropub Euclid Hall is serving up a six-course dinner for $70 that includes a special Odell/Euclid Hall collaboration you won't find anywhere else.
Wednesday
Noon to 6 p.m.: Crooked Stave Artisan Beer Project will take the rare step of opening its barrel room to the public daily through Saturday. Visitors can just pop in for a taster for the first time in five years and also can get tours of the beautiful-bug-laden facility.
1-10 p.m.: Westfax Brewing has become one of the subtle stars of the Denver area scene, but because they are located in Lakewood, a lot of Denverites may not make it out. Today's the right time to cruise down Colfax, as the brewery is tapping both a hazy double IPA and a pastry stout.
4 p.m.: Finn's Manor once again will be a place worth visiting, as it pours beers from "Weldwerks and Friends" - friends that include Casey Brewing and Blending, Forbidden Root, Great Notion, Outer Range and Mikerphone.
6 p.m.: Speaking of breweries that are off the beaten path but well worth the drive, Burns Family Artisan Ales has been punching out envelope-pushing high-ABV experiments in the former Wit's End location for a year. Today it taps a pomegranate IIIPA.
6 p.m.: Former Saint Craft Kitchen & Taps will put on an Oktoberfest-themed beer dinner, but the beer it will pair throughout will be Sierra Nevada, likely outpacing most O-fest celebrations' selection. The dinner is $50; if you miss it, there will be a Sierra Nevada tap takeover on Thursday.
6-10 p.m.: Feeling like three days of GABF is not enough? Tivoli Brewing will lengthen the celebration with a Mini American Beer Festival, for $25, featuring ticketed pours from 4 Noses, Alpine, Destihl, Green Flash and Surly, among others.
Thursday
11:30 a.m.: Boulder County is a drive from Denver, but it's worth it when Avery Brewing re-releases its rum-soaked, double espresso Mephistopheles Stout for the first time in ages at its Gunbarrel location.
Noon: Boulevard Brewing also turns 30 this year. To celebrate, both Falling Rock and Smok, a Kansas City BBQ restaurant in the Source Hotel, will tap its Changeling dark sour, its Chill Vibes cucumber sour and its 30th Anniversary Ale that is a blend of barrel-aged treats.
Noon: Austin Beer Garden is an annual big winner at GABF, but you can't find its beers in Denver very often. So, today, Our Mutual Friend is hosting a tap takeover for the rising Texas star.
Noon to 9: There is considerable debate over the aftertaste of the first GABF session should feature light or huge beers. If you tend toward the latter answer, Freshcraft will be pouring double hazies and blistering sours from the likes of Lawson's Finest Liquids, Creature Comforts and The Rare Barrel.
7-10 p.m.: If, however, you believe in giving your taste buds a break after a day of drinking, First Draft will have a Lager Party featuring creations from Wiseacre, Sun King, Chuckanut, Rhinegeist … and Creature Comforts.
Friday
11 a.m.: Kegged, delivered and tapped in a span of a few hours, Station 26 Brewing's Same Day Hazy IPA is an experiment that puts the fresh in fresh hopping. Highland Tap & Burger, Lowry Beer Garden and Walter's 303 are just a few of the locations that will be featuring it today.
11:30 a.m to 11 p.m.: Hops & Pie has a big week all week. But today's offering - 11 beers from Casey Brewing and Blending, seven from Toppling Goliath and five from Weldwerks - may be its standout event for Denver Beer Week.
Noon to 1 a.m.: Goed Zuur taps into two of the most renowned farmhouse breweries in America, as it offers eight beers from Jester King and three beers from Rowley Farmouse Ales in New Mexico.
4 p.m.: Is Austin or Ohio more of your beer scene? No matter, Freshcraft will feature libations from both regions simultaneously, with Jester King, Skull Mechanix and Vista Brewing repping Texas and MadTree, Jackie O's and Taft's among the Midwestern stars.
9:30 p.m.: Sure, you can get Bell's Brewery offerings in Denver these days. But how often do you enjoy them with cheese curds and fried fish in an authentic Midwestern joint? Wally's Wisconsin Tavern hosts a tap takeover following the GABF session.
Saturday
11 a.m.: Like Bell's, Brooklyn Brewery and 21st Amendment can now be found in Colorado liquor-store coolers. Still, a tap takeover like Former Saint is hosting all day is one that can show off why they are American classics.
1-5 p.m.: It's both a curse and a blessing to be celebrating your third anniversary in the midst of the country's biggest beer celebration. But that isn't stopping Briar Common Brewery & Eatery from busting out three new beers to go with its excellent menu.
1-8 p.m.: Is the Great American Beer Festival not international enough for you? Cerveceria Colorado, the Mexican-beer arm of Denver Beer Co., is hosting its Great Mexican Beer Fiesta, rolling out collaborations made with five south-of-the-border brewers - and the brewers themselves.
4-8 p.m.: It's a doubleheader at Rhein Haus, which is offering a Lawson's Finest Liquids tap takeover from 4 to 6, then a takeover of Crooked Stave-distributed beers - including Two Roads, Fremont and La Cumbre - from 6 to 8.
9 p.m. to 1 a.m.: Looking for a wind-down that's not all about big beer? Ratio Beerworks once again is throwing its karaoke contest. If you don't go, you'll never be able to try to guess whether your favorite brewer sings that way because they're hammered or just tone-deaf.
Labels: Casey Brewing, Denver Beer Week, Falling Rock Taphouse, Finn's Manor, First Draft Taproom + Kitchen, Great American Beer Festival, Great Notion Brewing, Outer Range Brewing, Weldwerks Brewing
Wednesday, September 04, 2019
The Art of the Beer Dinner, Big Beers Style
If the tone of the evening was set by the rows of taster glasses splayed across the bar at the Quandary Grille when guests arrived, the mood was struck by Dave Thibodeau comparing the lifestyle of Durango to that of Nynashamn, Sweden. The Ska Brewing co-founder described outdoor adventures and big beers on the Baltic Sea while pouring five beers that ranged from effervescently sour to dark and pucker-worthy.
The January 2019 Traditional Brewmasters' Dinner was quintessential Big Beers Belgians & Barleywines Festival, combining a dissection of great fermented beverages, the appearance of hard-to-find libations (and the brewmaster from Nynashamns Angbryggeri, who flew in for the occasion) and events that elevate beer. And as tickets for the 2020 festival, scheduled from Jan. 9-11 in Breckenridge, go on sale again this week, it's worth considering why beer-food pairings like these can be so illuminating.
To start with, there is the beer, which is usually pulled from the shelves at the back of cellars where brewers like to keep offerings they open only for special occasions. Nynashamns' contributions included three aged beers and two imperial stouts, one of which it had not served before. Ska rolled out five beers from its sour collection, including its 23rd Anniversary Ale, seemingly showing off what it could do to anyone who dared think of its brewers as "the True Blonde guys."
Then there is the truly well-thought-out pairings of beers that you might suspect would be best enjoyed as stand-alone treats on cold evenings. Ska's Cru d'état, a mixed-culture Brett beer aged in a foeder that hasn't been cleaned in six years, accented the candied bacon on the duck cassoulet toasted pasta (pictured at left) in a way that was unexpected. Its Pink Vapor Stew brightened a parnsip, turnip and beet salad (pictured below) — partly because it shared some ingredients with the leafy feast. Nynashamns' three-year-old Botet Barleywine, aged in Portuguese sherry barrels, cut its own head-turning path with the salad.
The final ingredient for any successful dinner, of course, is good conversation, and this beer dinner had plenty of that. Thibodeau spoke of how difficult it was to break into the Swedish beer market - and how that turned into a friendship between the two breweries. Nynashamns co-founder Lasse Ericsson described the evolution of his country's brewing scene. Critiques of dishes were traded among diners, many of whom met for the first time at the meal.
Beer dinners are not cheap; this year's Traditional Brewmasters' Dinner, hosted on Jan. 9 by Neil Fisher of Weldwerks and Troy Casey of Casey Brewing & Blending, costs $135. You don't go daily to these events, nor do you go lightly. But when they are done correctly — and Big Beers has a long history of doing them correctly — you leave them jsmarter about brewing methods and culinary choices, as well as a little bit more stuffed than you expected.
Big Beers features a small plates and craft beer pairing as well next year, and the festival as a whole is a can't-miss event. Great American Beer Festival is lined with special beer dinners in the week heading into the Oct. 3-5 celebration next month, and a number of them will show the same creativity as the Big Beers event.
Wherever you go to blend beer and food under the guidance of brewers and chefs, just go. Then the next thing you know, you'll be hosting your own such dinners at your house and impressing guests with how much they can learn when they let their taste buds wander.
If the tone of the evening was set by the rows of taster glasses splayed across the bar at the Quandary Grille when guests arrived, the mood was struck by Dave Thibodeau comparing the lifestyle of Durango to that of Nynashamn, Sweden. The Ska Brewing co-founder described outdoor adventures and big beers on the Baltic Sea while pouring five beers that ranged from effervescently sour to dark and pucker-worthy.The January 2019 Traditional Brewmasters' Dinner was quintessential Big Beers Belgians & Barleywines Festival, combining a dissection of great fermented beverages, the appearance of hard-to-find libations (and the brewmaster from Nynashamns Angbryggeri, who flew in for the occasion) and events that elevate beer. And as tickets for the 2020 festival, scheduled from Jan. 9-11 in Breckenridge, go on sale again this week, it's worth considering why beer-food pairings like these can be so illuminating.
To start with, there is the beer, which is usually pulled from the shelves at the back of cellars where brewers like to keep offerings they open only for special occasions. Nynashamns' contributions included three aged beers and two imperial stouts, one of which it had not served before. Ska rolled out five beers from its sour collection, including its 23rd Anniversary Ale, seemingly showing off what it could do to anyone who dared think of its brewers as "the True Blonde guys."
Then there is the truly well-thought-out pairings of beers that you might suspect would be best enjoyed as stand-alone treats on cold evenings. Ska's Cru d'état, a mixed-culture Brett beer aged in a foeder that hasn't been cleaned in six years, accented the candied bacon on the duck cassoulet toasted pasta (pictured at left) in a way that was unexpected. Its Pink Vapor Stew brightened a parnsip, turnip and beet salad (pictured below) — partly because it shared some ingredients with the leafy feast. Nynashamns' three-year-old Botet Barleywine, aged in Portuguese sherry barrels, cut its own head-turning path with the salad.
Beer dinners are not cheap; this year's Traditional Brewmasters' Dinner, hosted on Jan. 9 by Neil Fisher of Weldwerks and Troy Casey of Casey Brewing & Blending, costs $135. You don't go daily to these events, nor do you go lightly. But when they are done correctly — and Big Beers has a long history of doing them correctly — you leave them jsmarter about brewing methods and culinary choices, as well as a little bit more stuffed than you expected.
Wherever you go to blend beer and food under the guidance of brewers and chefs, just go. Then the next thing you know, you'll be hosting your own such dinners at your house and impressing guests with how much they can learn when they let their taste buds wander.
Labels: barleywines, Beer dinners, Big Beers, Casey Brewing, Great American Beer Festival, Nynashamns Angbryggeri, Ska Brewing, sour ale, Weldwerks Brewing
Sunday, December 30, 2018
10 Best Colorado Beers of 2018
As Colorado's brewing scene got more crowded this year, beer makers responded by getting more experimental. There were more collaborations, more barrel-aged creations, more breweries such as Liberati Oenobeers and Dos Luces Brewery and Cerveceria Colorado that make nothing like anyone else in the state makes.
What it added up to was a thrilling melange of one-offs and new entries into the scene that continued to redefine both what is possible and what is going to set the pace in future years. And the best beers of this year showcased not just how far afield the flavors can be but how widespread the creativity is across this state.
And with that said ...
10) Liberati Osteria & Oenobeers In Medio Stat Virtus
The newly opened grape-beer maker is an experience that must be had with multiple beers to understand just how much the addition of Viongnier or Gewurtztraminer grapes can alter and add to the beer styles you think you know. But nothing on the menu prepared by Alex Liberati (pictured here) is as fully transformative as this Belgian golden ale made with 48 percent Chardonnay grapes, a work of art that showcases the best of its beer and wine properties and leaves you wanting to delve into oenobeers much further.
9) Weldwerks/Casey Brewing and Blending Transmountain Diversion
In a year that may be remembered most for the hazy IPA takeover of craft beer - spoiler alert, there are three on this top 10 list - two of Colorado's best breweries proved the style could be elevated when great minds worked together. This Citra- and Nelson Sauvin-hopped joyride, a double IPA introduced at Collaboration Fest, was replete with pineapple and mango tastes and aptly highlighted the style not as a twist on IPA but a bold new category of beer on its own.
8) WildEdge Brewing Collective Birthday Barrel
Colorado's greatest secret, hidden in Cortez, celebrated its first anniversary with a barrel-aged tart saison fermented with Palisade peaches that stunned at the same time it encapsulated the style of this experimental small-town beer maker. Bold and sharp, it demonstrated why beer lovers must get outside of Denver and Fort Collins every once in a while to see how deep the state's reserves are.
7) Cannonball Creek Brewing Mike and Sebastian's Excellent Adventure
Amazingly crisp while still being hop-defined, this kolsch/IPA hybrid was singularly refreshing and eye-opening. A collaboration with Pizza Port Carlsbad and Germany's Freigeist Bierkultur, this introduced a new style that is begging to be replicated - if anyone can do it as well as the new king of Golden breweries.
6) Call to Arms Brewing Majestic Wolf Lamp
Huge congratulations go to the northwest Denver brewery for taking two beers that didn't work on their own - a Belgian quad and a petite saison - and blending them together in an oak barrel with black currants until it became something combining tartness, raspberry and a jamminess. Back story aside, it was one of the most interesting and cutting sour beers of this year.
5) Epic Brewing Lupulin Burst
This earned the title of standard-bearer among Colorado's single hazy IPAs in 2018 with a straightforward assault of guava, mango and pineapple that gave this a juice-like feel. Those who don't understand why hazies are garnering such devotion need try this to understand how different they are from traditional IPAs and how much tropical flavor the right hopping can imbue in a beer.
4) Paradox Beer Co. Divide Ethos
Coolship beers are, by their nature, unpredictable, which made this early 2018 offering all the more mind-bending for how drinkable and how nuanced it could be without taking on harsh characteristics. Like a kicked-up saison, this creation from one of the Pikes Peak area's finest breweries pricked your tongue with its wild yeast but then rolled smoothly and excitingly over your taste buds to create a truly unique flavor.
3) Telluride Brewing Fishwater Project
This barrel-aged double IPA is not a new offering. But in a year in which breweries barrel-aged beer with a huge range of results and did things to IPAs (brut IPAs, horrible milkshake IPAs) that did nothing to pump up their flavor, Fishwater Project has never been more relevant than it is today. It toes the line between boozy whiskey characteristics and an underlying superbly crafted five-hop flavor explosion in a way that few hybrids can. It is as complex and worthwhile as any beer you will find in Colorado.
2) Spangalang Brewery Vanguard 3000
There is nothing natural about blending a bourbon-barrel-aged Belgian tripel with an imperial stout made with vanilla and cinnamon. And yet in the hands of Five Points' too-often-overlooked auteurs, this is a pitch-dark ride that bursts with varying flavors as you swirl it over your tongue - and one that goes down far too easily for the alcohol bomb it is. There was genius in its making.
1) River North Brewery Quadruple Dry-Hopped Mountain Haze
It sounded like a gimmick. But the addition of Mosaic, Simcoe and Idaho 7 hops to River North's Citra-dominated hazy IPA created a super-charged version of both the beer and the style, leaving it overflowing with crisp, tropical flavors, all of which carry a classical hop back bite. It was a fuller and more complete beer, without an exceptional bitterness and booziness. And if you let it rest on your taste buds long enough, you could find new flavors in almost every tasting. Bravo.
As Colorado's brewing scene got more crowded this year, beer makers responded by getting more experimental. There were more collaborations, more barrel-aged creations, more breweries such as Liberati Oenobeers and Dos Luces Brewery and Cerveceria Colorado that make nothing like anyone else in the state makes.
What it added up to was a thrilling melange of one-offs and new entries into the scene that continued to redefine both what is possible and what is going to set the pace in future years. And the best beers of this year showcased not just how far afield the flavors can be but how widespread the creativity is across this state.
And with that said ...
10) Liberati Osteria & Oenobeers In Medio Stat Virtus
The newly opened grape-beer maker is an experience that must be had with multiple beers to understand just how much the addition of Viongnier or Gewurtztraminer grapes can alter and add to the beer styles you think you know. But nothing on the menu prepared by Alex Liberati (pictured here) is as fully transformative as this Belgian golden ale made with 48 percent Chardonnay grapes, a work of art that showcases the best of its beer and wine properties and leaves you wanting to delve into oenobeers much further.
9) Weldwerks/Casey Brewing and Blending Transmountain Diversion
In a year that may be remembered most for the hazy IPA takeover of craft beer - spoiler alert, there are three on this top 10 list - two of Colorado's best breweries proved the style could be elevated when great minds worked together. This Citra- and Nelson Sauvin-hopped joyride, a double IPA introduced at Collaboration Fest, was replete with pineapple and mango tastes and aptly highlighted the style not as a twist on IPA but a bold new category of beer on its own.
8) WildEdge Brewing Collective Birthday Barrel
Colorado's greatest secret, hidden in Cortez, celebrated its first anniversary with a barrel-aged tart saison fermented with Palisade peaches that stunned at the same time it encapsulated the style of this experimental small-town beer maker. Bold and sharp, it demonstrated why beer lovers must get outside of Denver and Fort Collins every once in a while to see how deep the state's reserves are.
7) Cannonball Creek Brewing Mike and Sebastian's Excellent Adventure
Amazingly crisp while still being hop-defined, this kolsch/IPA hybrid was singularly refreshing and eye-opening. A collaboration with Pizza Port Carlsbad and Germany's Freigeist Bierkultur, this introduced a new style that is begging to be replicated - if anyone can do it as well as the new king of Golden breweries.
6) Call to Arms Brewing Majestic Wolf Lamp
Huge congratulations go to the northwest Denver brewery for taking two beers that didn't work on their own - a Belgian quad and a petite saison - and blending them together in an oak barrel with black currants until it became something combining tartness, raspberry and a jamminess. Back story aside, it was one of the most interesting and cutting sour beers of this year.
5) Epic Brewing Lupulin Burst
This earned the title of standard-bearer among Colorado's single hazy IPAs in 2018 with a straightforward assault of guava, mango and pineapple that gave this a juice-like feel. Those who don't understand why hazies are garnering such devotion need try this to understand how different they are from traditional IPAs and how much tropical flavor the right hopping can imbue in a beer.
4) Paradox Beer Co. Divide Ethos
Coolship beers are, by their nature, unpredictable, which made this early 2018 offering all the more mind-bending for how drinkable and how nuanced it could be without taking on harsh characteristics. Like a kicked-up saison, this creation from one of the Pikes Peak area's finest breweries pricked your tongue with its wild yeast but then rolled smoothly and excitingly over your taste buds to create a truly unique flavor.3) Telluride Brewing Fishwater Project
This barrel-aged double IPA is not a new offering. But in a year in which breweries barrel-aged beer with a huge range of results and did things to IPAs (brut IPAs, horrible milkshake IPAs) that did nothing to pump up their flavor, Fishwater Project has never been more relevant than it is today. It toes the line between boozy whiskey characteristics and an underlying superbly crafted five-hop flavor explosion in a way that few hybrids can. It is as complex and worthwhile as any beer you will find in Colorado.
2) Spangalang Brewery Vanguard 3000
There is nothing natural about blending a bourbon-barrel-aged Belgian tripel with an imperial stout made with vanilla and cinnamon. And yet in the hands of Five Points' too-often-overlooked auteurs, this is a pitch-dark ride that bursts with varying flavors as you swirl it over your tongue - and one that goes down far too easily for the alcohol bomb it is. There was genius in its making.
1) River North Brewery Quadruple Dry-Hopped Mountain Haze
It sounded like a gimmick. But the addition of Mosaic, Simcoe and Idaho 7 hops to River North's Citra-dominated hazy IPA created a super-charged version of both the beer and the style, leaving it overflowing with crisp, tropical flavors, all of which carry a classical hop back bite. It was a fuller and more complete beer, without an exceptional bitterness and booziness. And if you let it rest on your taste buds long enough, you could find new flavors in almost every tasting. Bravo.
Labels: Call to Arms Brewing, Cannonball Creek Brewing, Epic Brewing, Liberati Oenobeers, Paradox Brewing, River North Brewery, Spangalang Brewery, Telluride Brewing, Weldwerks Brewing, WildEdge Brewing Collective
Tuesday, October 02, 2018
GABF Alphabetical Challenge Completed
Three beers into the Great American Beer Festival Alphabet challenge, I was doubting myself. A watered-down 2SP Brewing Antonym, a weak 8th Wonder Brewing Boss Beer and an Alaskan Brewing Cranberry Tart that was far less tart than advertised, and I asked, "Am I wasting time letting fate choose my beers at the world's greatest beer festival rather than going for known gold?"
But in just a matter of minutes, I was playing rock, paper, scissors with the bartender at Three Weavers Brewing to get a free hat, feeling better about my embarrassing loss only when I got to enjoy a Festbier that was the tastiest Oktoberfest I had all festival. Then I bent my rules when I got lassoed in by the folks at Beachwood BBQ & Brewing and enjoyed an Amalgamator West-Coast-style IPA (it counted as my "G" beer) that reminded me how well hops can shine in non-hazy beers. And by the time I stumbled onto the taste-bud-awakening Island Baby from Black Star Brewing Co-Op. - a rum-barrel-aged beer re-fermented with pineapple, passionfruit and pomegranate juice - I knew I was on a journey I wouldn't forget.
The GABF Alphabetical challenge, for those who didn't read my pre-festival blog, was a self-created way to end 18 years of run-to-the-hot-brewery routine and soak in everyone at the festival in a way that put every beer on display in a new way. I started at one end of the hall and drank the first beer I saw that began with "A," then "B" and then "C," and so on, to let me soak in the full range of breweries that made the trip to Denver, from the superstars to the little guys pouring two beers.
Throughout the night, I hit a variety of both the big names and those I'd never tried before. And though not every taste was pure bliss, I certainly discovered flavors I otherwise would not have known.
The most astounding find, for example, was Devil Wind Brewing Watermelon Goes of Xenia, Ohio - a brewery that brought just three beers and sat in the comparative shadow of next-door booth Deschutes Brewery, no line in sight. Very share and fruit-forward, this beer may have imbued more flavor from the often-shy watermelon than possibly any beer I've had, and it was a revelation that I never would have found on my own.
Not far away was the Pro-Am booth that I often skip; instead, I found Pillory, an American sour ale brewed with Lacto that not only cut just right but introduced me to Ghost Town Brewing. I knew Bosque Brewing a little but likely wouldn't have stopped to try Open Space Haze and its uber-pineapple flavor with the challenge. Ditto for Reuben's Brews, which offered a Gose that was as sharp and drinkable as just about any gose I found during the show.
Sometimes the excursion took me to places I knew. At Weldwerks, I happened to land on Extra Extra Juicy Bits, a huge, exotic-fruit-laced offering that was as good as any hazy being poured on the floor. At Cigar City, I was almost disappointed to have a beer as familiar as Jai Alai IPA, even as balanced as it was. Then again, at Destihl, the excursion led me away from the fruit beers I seek there so often and toward Dasvidanya, a 12.5 percent ABV Russian imperial stout (though in retrospect, I would have preferred a sour).
Twice I mixed things up. The first time was with the aforementioned Beachwood Amalgamator, and that was a gift. The second time, meanwhile, was when I entered Paired, the food/beer mash-up featuring nationwide knock-out chefs that required me to switch to getting a beer and plate with the next letter in the name of the food or beer rather than starting it.
Yeah, maybe I wouldn't have tried the sea urchin mousse from Big Grove Brewery in Iowa, which proved absolutely as un-pairable as it sounds. And I probably wouldn't have sought out the Oktoberfest from Accomplice Brewing, which was far too weak for the wagyu beef taco with which it was paired.
But I also may not have headed for Armadillo Ale Works' tropical sour, whose sweet notes accented the taste of a rockfish ceviche. And I, well, I probably would have headed anyway for the Barrel-Aged Mocha Snowed In that Copper Kettle Brewing matched up with a chocolate layer cake. And I surely would have gone for J. Wakefield Brewing's sour saison Aren't You a Peach, but, still, it was more than perfect with an olive-oil cake. (And in a note of irony, when I finally reach J. Wakefield on Saturday afternoon, it was tapped when I got there.)
To be sure, there was some bad stuff I found in my wanderings. Chapman's Brewing of Indiana had an IPA, Undaunted, that tasted so much of plastic that I had to take the rare step of dumping it out. Bold Missy Brewery of North Carolina had a honey blonde, 9 to 5, that actually inspired me to write the word "Ugh" in my notes.
(I also was in the right place at the right time to meet the Visit Santa Rosa hop mascot coming out of his changing booth, but that didn't fit into my alphabetical stylings. Still, see the photo above.)
I didn't make it across the entire floor with my adventures. as that is a task that's become increasingly impossible, no matter your pattern for the night. But I hit places I never dreamt I'd hit. And, truth be told, I am thankful that I had that chance.
Would I recommend the GABF Alphabetical Challenge for everyone? No. Most people come once every few years and have a certain amount of breweries they want to hit, and that is something that should bear no shame.
But I would recommend that next year when you're walking across the floor and you see that booth next to the big-name brewery that has no line, stop there. Ask someone about the brewery, if a representative is at the table. Try their beers. Make a new find. This, after all, is what the Great American Beer Festival is all about. And forcing yourself to find that spirit is a noble end.
Three beers into the Great American Beer Festival Alphabet challenge, I was doubting myself. A watered-down 2SP Brewing Antonym, a weak 8th Wonder Brewing Boss Beer and an Alaskan Brewing Cranberry Tart that was far less tart than advertised, and I asked, "Am I wasting time letting fate choose my beers at the world's greatest beer festival rather than going for known gold?"But in just a matter of minutes, I was playing rock, paper, scissors with the bartender at Three Weavers Brewing to get a free hat, feeling better about my embarrassing loss only when I got to enjoy a Festbier that was the tastiest Oktoberfest I had all festival. Then I bent my rules when I got lassoed in by the folks at Beachwood BBQ & Brewing and enjoyed an Amalgamator West-Coast-style IPA (it counted as my "G" beer) that reminded me how well hops can shine in non-hazy beers. And by the time I stumbled onto the taste-bud-awakening Island Baby from Black Star Brewing Co-Op. - a rum-barrel-aged beer re-fermented with pineapple, passionfruit and pomegranate juice - I knew I was on a journey I wouldn't forget.
The GABF Alphabetical challenge, for those who didn't read my pre-festival blog, was a self-created way to end 18 years of run-to-the-hot-brewery routine and soak in everyone at the festival in a way that put every beer on display in a new way. I started at one end of the hall and drank the first beer I saw that began with "A," then "B" and then "C," and so on, to let me soak in the full range of breweries that made the trip to Denver, from the superstars to the little guys pouring two beers.
Throughout the night, I hit a variety of both the big names and those I'd never tried before. And though not every taste was pure bliss, I certainly discovered flavors I otherwise would not have known.
Not far away was the Pro-Am booth that I often skip; instead, I found Pillory, an American sour ale brewed with Lacto that not only cut just right but introduced me to Ghost Town Brewing. I knew Bosque Brewing a little but likely wouldn't have stopped to try Open Space Haze and its uber-pineapple flavor with the challenge. Ditto for Reuben's Brews, which offered a Gose that was as sharp and drinkable as just about any gose I found during the show.
Twice I mixed things up. The first time was with the aforementioned Beachwood Amalgamator, and that was a gift. The second time, meanwhile, was when I entered Paired, the food/beer mash-up featuring nationwide knock-out chefs that required me to switch to getting a beer and plate with the next letter in the name of the food or beer rather than starting it.
Yeah, maybe I wouldn't have tried the sea urchin mousse from Big Grove Brewery in Iowa, which proved absolutely as un-pairable as it sounds. And I probably wouldn't have sought out the Oktoberfest from Accomplice Brewing, which was far too weak for the wagyu beef taco with which it was paired.
To be sure, there was some bad stuff I found in my wanderings. Chapman's Brewing of Indiana had an IPA, Undaunted, that tasted so much of plastic that I had to take the rare step of dumping it out. Bold Missy Brewery of North Carolina had a honey blonde, 9 to 5, that actually inspired me to write the word "Ugh" in my notes.(I also was in the right place at the right time to meet the Visit Santa Rosa hop mascot coming out of his changing booth, but that didn't fit into my alphabetical stylings. Still, see the photo above.)
I didn't make it across the entire floor with my adventures. as that is a task that's become increasingly impossible, no matter your pattern for the night. But I hit places I never dreamt I'd hit. And, truth be told, I am thankful that I had that chance.
Would I recommend the GABF Alphabetical Challenge for everyone? No. Most people come once every few years and have a certain amount of breweries they want to hit, and that is something that should bear no shame.
But I would recommend that next year when you're walking across the floor and you see that booth next to the big-name brewery that has no line, stop there. Ask someone about the brewery, if a representative is at the table. Try their beers. Make a new find. This, after all, is what the Great American Beer Festival is all about. And forcing yourself to find that spirit is a noble end.
Labels: Accomplice Brewing, Beachwood BBQ & Brewing, Black Star Brewing Co-Op, Bosque Brewing, Copper Kettle Brewing, Devil Wind Brewing, Great American Beer Festival, J. Wakefield Brewing, Weldwerks Brewing
Thursday, August 09, 2018
A Treatise: Hazy IPA Is Here to Stay - And You Should Learn to Love It
Just one sip of Epic Brewing's Lupulin Burst leaves you no doubt that you are putting an entirely new style of beer into your mouth. It isn't just that you are looking into a glass of murky, almost soupy liquid. It's that what flows over your tongue is so full of pineapple and mango, so juicy and yet still so crisp in its hop backbone, that you can't categorize it as much as you can sit and admire.
Well, actually now you can categorize it - it's a hazy IPA, a strange-looking riff on America's contribution to the increased bitterness in worldwide ales that was mocked at first as the product of lazy brewers, then slowly grew an acceptance as it developed an increased following. This year, the Brewers Association created a category for Great American Beer Festival judging called "Hazy or Juicy IPA," and it received 414 entries - far more than traditional category leader American-style IPA and more than enough to tell haters of the style that their time was done.
But the realness of hazy IPA - and its true beauty - lies in more than its mass proliferation in the craft-beer scene. After two years of evolution, it lies in the fact that this style is no longer an off-shoot of IPA so much as it is something truly different. At its best, the beer represents an outpouring of tropical flavors that even the boldest traditional IPAs have only hinted at in their aroma and flavor. It signifies a blending of bitterness and softness that once might be considered unthinkable, as well as refreshment in a way that aggressively flavored beers have never presented.
And it's time to stop nitpicking, to quit complaining and just to give this evolutionary and revolutionary style its due, because it's not going away.
"The average bitterness (in IPAs) is coming down. I think that's about consumer preference," said Neil Fisher, head brewer and owner of Weldwerks Brewing, after an experimental brewing seminar on New England-style IPAs at this year's Big Beers, Belgians and Barleywines Festival. "We tried to veer away from brewing to the aesthetic and more toward brewing to the style that we love. Nobody who is doing this is saying 'I want to make it hazy.'"
Fisher, who is one of the true pioneers of the style, began making juicier, more approachable IPAs because he, like many beer geeks, was turned off in the late 2000s by the rush to produce triple IPAs and other such beers that exceeded 100 IBUs. He estimated at the Big Beers seminar that 95 percent of the brewers making hazy or New-England-style IPAs were brewers producing less than 20,000 barrels a year who don't have labs set up to record earth-shattering IBU levels in their products.
Much of the flavoring in these hazy IPAs comes from dry-hopping, giving them both a more appreciable nose and a more prevalent taste of these citrus hops, whether they be Mosaic or Citra or El Diablo. At certain rates of dry-hopping, you actually lower the IBUs in beer, making it less lastingly bitter while blowing up the flavor of the lupulin and letting it be so bold as to bend genres on the juiciness that one can pack into beer.
Weldwerks seemed to introduce Colorado to the idea of hazy IPAs through its Juicy Bits, a beer that is light on bitterness in the nose but heavy in pineapple in the taste, ultimately finishing smoothly while bombarding you with flavor. And quick to the party was Outer Range Brewing of Frisco, creating palate pleasers like In the Deep Steep Double IPA, a beer that offers both huge citrus and big hop acidity lingering on the back of your palate, producing oddly soft and tropical tones that leave you longing for more.
But if not every brewery was quick to jump on board with the trend, several have made up for lost time in just the past six months with beers that push the envelope even further away from sharp bitterness and toward an almost Hawaiian burst of flavors that celebrate the diversity of hops.
Epic is the poster child for adaptation of the style, jumping into the genre only this year but producing a beer in Lupulin Burst that is so uniquely flavorful that it very well may be the best beer of any type produced so far in 2018. But the Denver brewery deserves credit also for making a slightly smaller version of the style, RiNo APA, that want an easier haze that is delightfully subtle in both its bitterness and its juice.
Great Divide Brewing, which seemed slightly conflicted on how far it wanted to dive into the haze pool with its Heyday IPA introduced in April, went full-in this summer with its Hazy IPA, to great results. This presents a citrusy, lush hop that never fails to finish its introduction with a back hop bite, and it all comes at you so smoothly that you'll want to drink all night.
River North Brewing hits home too with its Mountain Haze, which relies on Citra hops to give you both sweet and bitter but threads a needle perfectly between the two flavors, leaving you both sated and thirsty for more of the flavor when you are done.
Still, some of the finest hazy IPAs in Colorado come from smaller brewers who have thrown caution to the wind and produced such genre-redefining examples of the beer that they can not be ignored.
Urban Lumbe
rjack IPA, from Lakewood's Westfax Brewing, resembles hop soup but boasts both sweet and full pine and satisfies in every drop.
And Colorado Springs' Cerberus Brewing has crafted an Elysium IPA that is slightly more bitter on the back bite than some of its stylistic brethren but envelops your taste buds in mango and guava on the way there such that you feel you've been feasting on something Polynesian with just a hint of pine needles as the aftertaste.
There undoubtedly will be more breakthroughs and more notable, crushable hazy IPAs to come. But the best way beer drinkers can prepare for them is to accept that this is not just some bastardization of the IPA - unlike, say, the milkshake IPAs that have earned their own level of hell in Dante's Inferno - but a turn toward a different flavor profile that opens up a new storehouse of tastes in craft beer.
This is worth celebrating.
Just one sip of Epic Brewing's Lupulin Burst leaves you no doubt that you are putting an entirely new style of beer into your mouth. It isn't just that you are looking into a glass of murky, almost soupy liquid. It's that what flows over your tongue is so full of pineapple and mango, so juicy and yet still so crisp in its hop backbone, that you can't categorize it as much as you can sit and admire.
Well, actually now you can categorize it - it's a hazy IPA, a strange-looking riff on America's contribution to the increased bitterness in worldwide ales that was mocked at first as the product of lazy brewers, then slowly grew an acceptance as it developed an increased following. This year, the Brewers Association created a category for Great American Beer Festival judging called "Hazy or Juicy IPA," and it received 414 entries - far more than traditional category leader American-style IPA and more than enough to tell haters of the style that their time was done.
But the realness of hazy IPA - and its true beauty - lies in more than its mass proliferation in the craft-beer scene. After two years of evolution, it lies in the fact that this style is no longer an off-shoot of IPA so much as it is something truly different. At its best, the beer represents an outpouring of tropical flavors that even the boldest traditional IPAs have only hinted at in their aroma and flavor. It signifies a blending of bitterness and softness that once might be considered unthinkable, as well as refreshment in a way that aggressively flavored beers have never presented.
And it's time to stop nitpicking, to quit complaining and just to give this evolutionary and revolutionary style its due, because it's not going away.
Fisher, who is one of the true pioneers of the style, began making juicier, more approachable IPAs because he, like many beer geeks, was turned off in the late 2000s by the rush to produce triple IPAs and other such beers that exceeded 100 IBUs. He estimated at the Big Beers seminar that 95 percent of the brewers making hazy or New-England-style IPAs were brewers producing less than 20,000 barrels a year who don't have labs set up to record earth-shattering IBU levels in their products.
Much of the flavoring in these hazy IPAs comes from dry-hopping, giving them both a more appreciable nose and a more prevalent taste of these citrus hops, whether they be Mosaic or Citra or El Diablo. At certain rates of dry-hopping, you actually lower the IBUs in beer, making it less lastingly bitter while blowing up the flavor of the lupulin and letting it be so bold as to bend genres on the juiciness that one can pack into beer.
Weldwerks seemed to introduce Colorado to the idea of hazy IPAs through its Juicy Bits, a beer that is light on bitterness in the nose but heavy in pineapple in the taste, ultimately finishing smoothly while bombarding you with flavor. And quick to the party was Outer Range Brewing of Frisco, creating palate pleasers like In the Deep Steep Double IPA, a beer that offers both huge citrus and big hop acidity lingering on the back of your palate, producing oddly soft and tropical tones that leave you longing for more.
But if not every brewery was quick to jump on board with the trend, several have made up for lost time in just the past six months with beers that push the envelope even further away from sharp bitterness and toward an almost Hawaiian burst of flavors that celebrate the diversity of hops.
Great Divide Brewing, which seemed slightly conflicted on how far it wanted to dive into the haze pool with its Heyday IPA introduced in April, went full-in this summer with its Hazy IPA, to great results. This presents a citrusy, lush hop that never fails to finish its introduction with a back hop bite, and it all comes at you so smoothly that you'll want to drink all night.
Still, some of the finest hazy IPAs in Colorado come from smaller brewers who have thrown caution to the wind and produced such genre-redefining examples of the beer that they can not be ignored.
Urban Lumbe
rjack IPA, from Lakewood's Westfax Brewing, resembles hop soup but boasts both sweet and full pine and satisfies in every drop.And Colorado Springs' Cerberus Brewing has crafted an Elysium IPA that is slightly more bitter on the back bite than some of its stylistic brethren but envelops your taste buds in mango and guava on the way there such that you feel you've been feasting on something Polynesian with just a hint of pine needles as the aftertaste.
There undoubtedly will be more breakthroughs and more notable, crushable hazy IPAs to come. But the best way beer drinkers can prepare for them is to accept that this is not just some bastardization of the IPA - unlike, say, the milkshake IPAs that have earned their own level of hell in Dante's Inferno - but a turn toward a different flavor profile that opens up a new storehouse of tastes in craft beer.
This is worth celebrating.
Labels: Big Beers, Cerberus Brewing, Epic Brewing, Great American Beer Festival, Great Divide, hazy IPAs, Outer Range Brewing, River North Brewery, Weldwerks Brewing, Westfax Brewing
