Tune out, turn off, drink up

Dec. 7, 2012

As a writer and editor, I spend a lot of time glued to a computer screen. I check my email about 78 times a day, read an infinite number of online news feeds and know way too much about the lives of my 923 Facebook friends.

Though I don't own a smart phone, the E, T and R on my dumb phone are worn down to nothing from excessive texting and the navigation buttons on my Kindle are soon to follow.

The point is that technology, and, in particular, communication via technology, is so pervasive in our lives that we miss out on the subtle intricacies of face to face conversation — a touch on the arm, eye contact, body language. I know this is a subject that's been picked at and pried open and drummed upon by writers far more eloquent than I. But this time, it falls into my realm of expertise, which is, of course, beer.

The marketing gurus at Samuel Adams have recognized that Americans are better acquainted with their phones than their friends, and they are trying to inspire us to set aside one day to put down the laptops, stash the tablets and truly connect with those around us. It's all part of The Great Samuel Adams Boston Lager Log-Off on Dec. 10, a day to tune out, turn off and drink up.

Of course, the Boston Beer Co. would prefer you had a frosty Boston Lager, but the sentiment is the same whether you're toasting a pilsner or porter, a saison or a stout: Unplug for a minute and enjoy a beer with a friend — hell, enjoy a beer with a stranger — and don't worry about checking in on Foursquare or Tweeting what's on the jukebox or even texting someone across the country to brag about how much fun you're having.

Be present in the moment — and try to ignore the irony of learning about the Lager Log-Off from a blog.

Krista Driscoll
Hophead

Give Prohibition the finger

Dec. 7, 2012 

In 1919, under pressure from lobbyists, the temperance movement and general buzz-killers, the U.S. Congress passed the 18th Amendment, outlawing the manufacture, sale and distribution of alcoholic beverages in the United States. The “Noble Experiment,” as it was called, lasted until the full ratification of the 21^st Amendment on Dec. 5, 1933. This week, we celebrate the repeal of Prohibition and our right to consume our favorite brews, but in order to fully appreciate our freedom to guzzle, we need to acknowledge the dastardly deeds done by Prohibition, specifically in the area of brewing.

At the dawn of the 20^th century, consumers were actually migrating toward drinking more beer and fewer spirits. When Prohibition was shoved down the collective American gullet in 1919, organized crime came to the rescue, keeping booze in the hands of the proletariat, but because beer was more difficult to produce than moonshine and, therefore, less profitable, brewing declined significantly during the Prohibition era. The “Oxford Companion to Beer” states that of the 1,392 breweries in operation before Prohibition, only 164 remained after its repeal.

Individual states began passing laws prohibiting alcohol as early as 1855, and Colorado jumped on the state legislation bandwagon in 1916, three years before the 18th Amendment outlawed alcohol nationwide. One of the breweries that managed to survive the beer massacre was Coors. According to literature from Miller-Coors, when Colorado put the kibosh on brewing, Coors stopped producing beer and focused on a successful porcelain business and producing malted milk and near beer (less than 0.5 percent alcohol, which was still legal) to get by.

Despite limping through Prohibition with near beer and illegal production, and marginal success stories from Coors and some of its compatriots, brewing in the United States was destined to take another hit. Oxford points out that an entire generation raised during this time was accustomed to the sweet flavors of soft drinks and, therefore, rejected the more bitter Bavarian styles of beer. Lighter American beer was created post-Prohibition to cater to the demands of this new populace, and bolder, hoppier beers effectively died out in America for decades.

By 1979, smaller breweries were disappearing as industry consolidation occurred. The bigger breweries were cranking out mass-produced lager beer, some of which was so awful that the standing joke, according to one writer at All About Beer magazine, was that the brewing process included a horse. That year, a federal transportation law went into effect that included a rider amendment pertaining to home brewing. Due to an administrative oversight during the repeal of Prohibition, home brewing was still federally illegal. The amendment allowed for an individual to brew as much as 100 gallons of beer per year for personal consumption, 200 if the household contained two or more adults.

Bolstered by this official acknowledgment, home brewing boomed, spawning the advent of new small breweries and brewpubs to fill the niche vacated by their predecessors and jumpstarting the craft beer movement. So as you study the bottom of your next pint glass, consider how Prohibition severely altered and almost extinguished brewing in America and be thankful that most of you have never known the pain of going months or even years without a beer.

>> From the Fridge: Coors Batch 19

As one of the few breweries that survived the wreckage of Prohibition, Coors claims a long and storied history, and through serendipity and a dedication to the past, the big brewery in Golden has resurrected its roots and a taste of pre-Prohibition beer with its newest creation, Batch 19.

“In 2004, there was a flood in the Coors brewery and one of the brew masters rescued this archive book, this log book of recipes,” said Katie Cowan, brand manager for Batch 19. “As he was looking through, he said, ‘These recipes could have been lost forever. I want to look at it and play with it and see what these recipes are all about.’”

That brewer was Keith Villa, better known as the founder of the Blue Moon Brewing Co., also under the Coors umbrella. Villa took a look at one recipe in particular, and that was the foundation for Batch 19, Cowan said.

“We wanted to see what beer was like before Prohibition,” Cowan said. “The thing that inspired him was that we had this hidden gem that was lost, forgotten and rediscovered.”

Pre-Prohibition beer was bolder in flavor and higher in alcohol content than mainstream beers today, Cowan said. Villa tried to match the original recipe as closely as he could with modern ingredients when he created Batch 19. The beer is still sessionable, with some herbal and black currant notes and a slightly higher ABV at 5.5 percent.

So grab a bottle of Batch 19 and celebrate the repeal of Prohibition this week with a ghost of beers past.

Krista Driscoll

Hophead

Vail Daily Weekly

This bud’s for you

Nov. 30, 2012

On Nov. 6, residents of Colorado passed Amendment 64, legalizing the commercial sale of marijuana. The state Legislature has yet to draft laws that will regulate this new industry, and the federal government has the power to step in at any time and pull the plug on the whole thing, but in the meantime, a handful of industries are abuzz with ways to cash in on the cannabis crop.

Recently, a reporter at the Fort Collins Coloradoan headed into the brewing world to see if any nearby brewers were entertaining the idea of reuniting a pair of biological cousins, hops and marijuana. Commercial brewing recipes are regulated by the federal government, which precludes the pros from cranking out dank dunkels and skunked stouts, but the Coloradoan found that brewing with bud was an already existing phenomenon in the intrepid world of home brewing.

Weed beer is a bit off the wall, and marijuana is a potentially expensive and, until now, illegal ingredient to be working with. I was able to find one book on the topic, a 53-page tome called “Marijuana Beer: How to Make Your Own Hi-Brew Beer,” by Ed Rosenthal, which is out of print and going for more than $125 per copy on Amazon. That’s definitely out of my price range, so I tried a different route and hunted down a friendly brewer who was willing to share the secrets of success when attempting a marijuana brew.

There are two ways to isomerize the cannabanoids in marijuana, he said, using alcohol or using heat. For more than 100 years, people have been using various forms of ethanol to create tinctures, or extracts, with marijuana. They soak the flowers and trimmed leaves in the booze, and the alcohol rearranges the atoms in the cannabanoids to create the compound that produces a high, THC. Heating cured marijuana buds in oil or another substrate has the same isomerizing effect, thus creating THC-infused bases for cooking or baking. The trick is not to heat the marijuana above about 370 degrees, as the THC vaporizes at that point, effectively ruining your weed, my brewer friend said.

Because of the low vaporization point of THC, marijuana cannot be used in the boil when making beer or the extended heat will render it useless. This brewer recommended weed as a dry-hopping ingredient, added after primary fermentation when the beer is moved from one carboy to another and taken off the yeast. The marijuana buds can be tied up in a mesh bag or cheesecloth or thrown straight into the carboy and strained out when the beer is bottled.

Here’s the kicker: It takes a fairly high level of alcohol to isomerize the THC, which means you’re brewing a pretty heavy beer, and to keep that high alcohol level from overpowering the effects of the weed, you have to use a lot of marijuana in your beer. We’re talking around an ounce of pot per gallon of beer brewed — not a cheap prospect unless you’re growing and curing your own cannabis.

The taste profile of the final product depends on which strain of marijuana you use and the style of beer you’re brewing, my brewing friend said. The flavor will parallel the aroma of the pot strain, so the beer should be built around the strain you have on hand. Take a big whiff of your reefer, and ponder which style of beer you think would pair best with it. For instance, he said, New York City Diesel went really well in an imperial porter, whereas Shiskaberry was a better match with a barleywine.

And when you’re cranking out a 9 percent alcohol by volume brew, you may have a bit of a hard time evaluating the final buzz. With one beer, you’ll probably get a mellow body high, but with two or more, the effects of the alcohol will start drowning out the buzz from the THC, he said.

So why even bother stewing this greenish swill? It’s simply another medium for your high. As my brewer friend said, “A man should be in charge of his own buzz,” and if you have the time and resources, it’s a fun ingredient to play around with.

Because it’s federally illegal, you won’t be finding marijuana beer on a tap pole anywhere anytime soon, but if you know a few brewers or aspire to brew your own concoctions, you might be able to get your hands on a bottle.

>> Birds of Prey

On a completely drug-free note, for the first time this year, three local breweries, Crazy Mountain, Bonfire and Gore Range, have banded together to show their support for the many volunteers on the Talons Crew who commit time to making sure Beaver Creek’s Birds of Prey World Cup ski races run smoothly.

Each brewery is donating two kegs to the cause, and volunteers will enjoy frosty local brews at The Dusty Boot each evening following their shifts on the mountain. Andy Jessen, master of minutiae at Bonfire, said these “rejuvenation camps” are a place where these hard workers can unwind and celebrate a job well done.

If you are a member of the Talons Crew, look forward to Crazy Mountain’s Horseshoes & Hand Grenades ESB and Lava Lake Wit, Gore Range’s Fly Fisher Red Ale and Birds of Prey IPA and Bonfire’s Demshitz Brown Ale and Seven Bachelors pale ale. The newest beer on the list, Seven Bachelors, was created to celebrate the 10^th anniversary of The Ritz-Carlton, Bachelor Gulch and was brewed with seven different kinds of hops added at seven different points in the boil, Jessen said.

The brainchild of Jessica Greene, general manager at Gore Range Brewery, sousing the Talons Crew is just another way for these local businesses to participate in events that resonate with local customers and are important to the community.

“It is our way of saying ‘thank you’ to the volunteers for all they do to make this race possible,” said Marisa Selvy, of Crazy Mountain.

Krista Driscoll

Hophead

Vail Daily Weekly

Drink your way through Opening Day

Nov. 16, 2012

Vail opens for the winter season this week, which means two things: battling hundreds of other people to ski the three available routes down the mountain and battling hundreds of people to belly up to the bar for après when your unconditioned ski legs give out after a handful of turns. Because the ratio of après hours to on-mountain hours can be pretty lopsided in the early season, here’s a brief rundown of some places to hit to keep your taste buds from getting bored.

Both gondolas at Vail will be running on Opening Day, but neither will lead you to skiable terrain and only one will get your hands on a beer. Gondola One, Vail’s newest feat of engineering, will do novelty laps that bring you within yards of the expansive, green-marble bar at The 10^th and its taunting selection of frosty beverages. The restaurant opens for après and dinner service on Dec. 12. The Eagle Bahn, on the other hand, will deposit you at the cafeteria at Eagle’s Nest for a Shocktop and those snowy views of the Gore Range you’ve been jonesing for. 

Once your legs start turning into Jell-o, head down to Lionshead to kick off your après adventure. Mine always used to start with a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale and a veggie pizza at Mezzaluna in the Lion Square Lodge at the base of the gondola, but the restaurant has been gutted and renovated to make room for a new Latin-inspired dining experience, El Sabor, which is slated to open in early December. Undaunted by this setback, the next obvious choice is Garfinkel’s. Grab a pint or, if you are a member of the mug club, a mug of Deschutes’ new Chain Breaker white IPA, and lounge on the huge, sunny deck to watch the last of the gapers maneuver across the skier bridge.

Once the sun goes down, the deck gets chilly — time to head over to the Blue Moose for a slice and another brew. Try Lindsey Vonn’s signature pizza, The Vonnderfull, with grilled chicken, artichokes, goat cheese, sun-dried tomatoes and pesto, and chase it with a glass of Crazy Mountain Hookiebob IPA or Bonfire Awry Pale Ale. It’s now fully dark, and this is where many Opening Day après swashbucklers call it a night. But you’re really selling yourself short if you don’t get a nightcap, and the best place to do that is The George. Climb onto the in-town bus for the short trip over to Vail Village and a dirt-cheap Miller High Life — yes, I said High Life, the champagne of beers — before grabbing a sober ride home to dream of your next dust-on-crust escapade.

>> From the Fridge: Magic Hat No. 9

The first time I tried No. 9 was on a brief sojourn to Boston about six years ago. That trip also gets credit for my first beer at Fenway Park, my first taste of blueberry beer and my first craft brewery tour at Harpoon’s shop on the ocean. Unfortunately, at that time, Magic Hat had not started distributing in Colorado and it kind of fell off my radar. So imagine my joy when, about a month ago, I wandered into Beaver Liquors in Avon and was greeted with a display of No. 9. I celebrated by buying a case.

 

No. 9 is touted as a “not quite pale ale” brewed with English ale yeast and Cascade and Apollo hops. At 20 IBUs, this beer is pretty low on the bittering scale for a pale ale, and it has a slightly sweet finish that’s hard to place. Magic Hat likes to keep a bit of mystery around this brew, not divulging what creates its unique flavor profile, but if I had to make a guess, I’d say they throw a smidge of apricot into it to create that tiny saccharine hit. Or maybe my palate has been thrown off by drinking too much Apricot Ale from Magic Hat’s sister company, Pyramid.

Regardless, that bit of sweetness pairs well with a variety of dishes, from spicy chili to shrimp Creole. If you’re feeling adventurous, try cooking up one of the recipes at http://www.magichat.net/recipes/number_9 to create a meal out of this new arrival from the East.

Krista Driscoll

Hophead

Vail Daily Weekly

Ullr Fest: Where the wild things are

Nov. 9, 2012

An unseasonably warm November sun beat down on my face as I stood on my tiptoes, adrenaline pumping, waiting for the starting signal. When it came, I shoved a mostly full mug of beer across the freshly waxed table in front of me to another member of my team, who made a one-handed grab and threw mug to mouth, spilling beer on himself and everything else in his splash zone. I raced to the other end of the table in time to make my own one-handed catch and splutter through my own mug of beer.

Sean Hanagan, Kelly Hanagan and Eric Borgerson, of team
Ullr Force, raise the gelande quaffing trophy aloft after
winning the competition at Ullr Fest.
Photo by SAMANTHA HANUS, Rival Mind Media

Around and around we went, sending mugs and snatching them in mid-air, accumulating as many style points as we could with handle grabs and spin moves. One minute later, I was drenched in beer, panting for air and high-fiving my two teammates. The crowd engulfed us in a wave of sound, cheering and raising mugs to the Norse god of snow.

This, my friends, is gelande quaffing, a 20-plus year tradition born in Jackson Hole, Wyo., and ushered into the Vail Valley three years ago by the Vail Players Club as part of the club’s annual Ullr Fest. The event features a silent auction, raffle, barbecue, beer and live music, but the centerpiece is the gelande quaffing tournament, pitting neighbor against neighbor, powder hound against powder hound, to see who can maintain hand-eye coordination after downing a metric ass-ton of beer.

Team Elvis gets a closer look at the gelande
quaffing trophy at Ullr Fest.
Photo by SAMANTHA HANUS, Rival Mind Media

This year’s beer-chugging champions, team Ullr Force, led by event organizer and all-around good guy Sean Hanagan, will be representing our little hamlet at the World Gelande Quaffing Championships in Jackson in March. The Vail Valley’s best will go up against the legendary bad boys of the Jackson Hole Air Force and other teams from mountain towns all over the country.

But sousing yourself with suds  to get to Jackson isn’t the only great thing about showing up at the Roundup Ski and Country Club every fall. In the three years since its inception, Ullr Fest has raised almost $14,000 for the Colorado Avalanche Information Center, capped by a $10,000 haul from this year alone. Hanagan said the event drew around 290 people on Saturday, Nov. 3, to drink beer and win prizes from a slew of sponsors.

Besides supporting a good cause, Ullr Fest is the Vail Players Club’s attempt to bring some of the original irreverence back to living in a ski town, complete with swearing, drinking and a little bit of friendly competition. So start gathering your team and stretching your beer muscles to prepare for next year’s gelande quaffing tournament, and in the meantime, pray for snow.

Krista Driscoll

The seething hordes gather to watch Ullr Fest gelande
quaffing on Nov. 3.
Photo by SAMANTHA HANUS, Rival Mind Media

Hophead

Vail Daily Weekly

Brew U: Celebrate Learn to Homebrew Day

Nov. 2, 2012

The only thing better than enjoying a delicious, frosty brew is enjoying a delicious, frosty brew that you made yourself. Saturday, Nov. 3, is the American Homebrewers Association’s official Learn to Homebrew Day. This epic holiday is celebrated by breweries and homebrew shops across the country and is a great excuse to get off your butt and start dabbling in the wonderful world of brewing.

To give you that first shove, Wine or Wort Home Brew Supply is hosting a free brew day on Nov. 2 at the store near Costco in Gypsum.

“We’re opening up our cookers to anyone who wants to come down and start a batch and walk them through the cooking process,” said Beth Reed, co-owner of Wine or Wort. “The first step in the process is to boil the wort for about an hour and add the ingredients through the process and then chill the wort down and put it into a fermenter. We’re going to be doing that with anyone who is interested.”

Brewing can be as simple or as complex as you want it to be, Reed said. At its most elementary level, there are only a few steps in the process: boil the ingredients to make wort, the liquid base of your beer; chill the wort slightly and allow it to ferment; add priming sugar to the fermented wort and bottle it; stuff the bottles in a cool, dark place to allow the yeast to turn the sugar into alcohol and carbonation; and then pop the bottles into the fridge to savor the satisfying culmination of your work.

“If you want it to be that simple, you follow the directions in the ingredient kits and do the step by step,” Reed said. “If you want to get very involved in the science of it all, people go to school for four years to learn how to brew.”

Most homebrewers fall somewhere in between, Reed said, but almost all of them got started with the same basic equipment setup. Ryan Stelzer is a purchasing agent and brand manager for L.D. Carlson Co., a wholesale brewing equipment company that supplies some of the gear found at Wine or Wort. Stelzer said anyone can start brewing, even those with very little space to devote to the hobby.

“For brewing, you don’t need a lot of room,” he said. “Condo brewers delegate only a few square feet to the brewing process. It doesn’t take any more room than a 5-gallon bucket.”

Equipment and ingredient kits can range in price, but both Reed and Stelzer said a new brewer can buy everything needed to brew his or her first batch of beer for around $200. Stelzer said starter kits contain two 6 1/2-gallon buckets, siphon hoses for transferring the beer, a racking cane to help with siphoning, an air lock that allows carbon dioxide to escape during fermentation but keeps oxygen away from the beer and a hydrometer to monitor gravity readings throughout the brewing process.

The hydrometer is used to test the amount of sugar in the water, Reed said. It also tells you when the beer is done, how much alcohol it contains and whether you’re making the beer you think you’re making, based on the starting and ending sugar levels in the wort. If your sugar levels start in the right place and end in the right place, you can make good beer, Reed said.

“The hydrometer is very important as far as knowing what is going on with your beer,” Stelzer said. “It provides gravity readings throughout the brewing process, starting with the starting gravity. You’re trying to hit a certain number once you add your yeast.”

The kit also includes a bottling spigot that attaches to one of the buckets when you’re ready to bottle your beer and a capper to cap the beers after you fill them. Each ingredient kit sold at Wine or Wort contains enough bottle caps for a standard 5-gallon batch of beer, or about 52 bottles per batch. The store sells new bottles, or homebrewers can save and clean used bottles from their favorite commercial beers and re-cap them.

Other useful tools you might want to pick up are an oxygenated cleanser to help clean your system between batches of beer, a thermometer to keep an eye on fermentation temperatures, a cook pot for boiling the wort and a book to learn more about the process. Advanced homebrewers can customize their systems by adding a second fermentation tank or gear to keg their beer instead of putting it in bottles.

Homebrewing takes some time and is quite a bit more work than going to the store and picking up a six-pack, but it’s worth it the first time you take your beer to a party and can proudly declare it as your own.

“It’s the art of crafting something yourself,” Stelzer. “When I started here six years ago, I told myself, ‘I don’t know who would brew beer, who would take the time when you could buy it.’ A year after that, I started brewing. It’s an addiction to be able to change something, tweak something — you start recording that stuff and tuning into how to make that beer better and better.”

So if you’ve ever felt the itch to try your hand at wheats or brown ales, porters or stouts, join the ranks of the beer-brewing masses in a celebration of suds on Learn to Homebrew Day.

“Don’t hesitate,” Stelzer said. “People are hesitant in getting into the hobby because they feel they won’t do a good job. It’s like no other hobby that’s out there. Everybody is really accepting and willing to help.”

To reserve your spot  for the brew day on Nov. 2, or for more information on equipment, ingredients or other upcoming brewing events, call Wine or Wort at 970-524-BEER.

Krista Driscoll

Hophead

Vail Daily Weekly

Don’t forget après in your ski season preparations

Oct. 26, 2012

With snow in the forecast in coming days and Loveland and Arapahoe Basin premiering their individual ribbons of chaos for skiing and riding, it’s time to take stock of your personal provisions for the ski season. Ski conditioning classes have been squarely kicking my butt (whenever I can drag said butt out of bed in the morning to attend), and my sticks are standing at the ready for a final tune before Opening Day at Vail on Nov. 16. That leaves only one other key area of preparation to be addressed: après.

You can’t ride into winter without inspecting every arrow in your quiver of fun, from first tracks to last call.

And if you still need some help, head down to the Colorado Convention Center in Denver, Nov. 2-4. For the second year in a row, the Colorado Ski & Snowboard Expo will take a double-barreled approach to shelling you into the ski season. If you want to grab some last-minute deals on gear, the expo features the largest ski and snowboard sale in the state, with prices marked down 40 percent to 75 percent on last season’s threads and shreds. But the really brilliant part is that you can don your new winter duds and strut over to the adjoining Rocky Mountain Brew Fest to test your après prowess. Find out if that sweet new softshell can handle a steady drizzle of wobbling IPA or whether you need some work on ski boot walking after a few brews by sampling the wares of these Colorado breweries:

>> AC Golden Brewing Co.

Steve Fletcher, a brewing with AC Golden, said the brewery would be pouring its flagship Colorado Native beer, as well as a relatively new offering, an India Pale Lager.

“It’s a pale lager, so it’s lagered, which really accentuates the character of the hops,” Fletcher said. “It’s more delicate, which makes the hop pop, and finishes really nice and crisp and clean.”

Fletcher has already taken his first few ski runs of the season and said the brewing and ski industries go hand in hand in Colorado because they seek to achieve the same results: have a great time and possibly try something outside your comfort zone.

“Obviously, what’s bigger in Colorado than the outdoors and riding and skiing. I think it’s a perfect blend of things to do,” he said. “Every time I’m up skiing or boarding, everybody is in a great, fun mood. Everybody is on vacation all day long — same with a beer festival.”

>> Elevation Beer Co.

The beer buffs at Elevation take their skiing, and their brewing, very seriously. The brewery divides its products into four categories, green, blue, black and double black, an homage to the universally recognized ski-slope rating hierarchy. Xandy Bustamante, co-founder and national sales and distribution manager, said Elevation, located just outside Salida in Poncha Springs, has a close relationship with nearby Monarch Mountain.

“The ski expo felt like a good fit for us, and we’re excited to be a part of it this year,” Bustamante said. “Our brewery is only six months old; it’s one of the newer ones in Colorado.”

Elevation will be pouring its First Cast IPA, 8 Second Kolsh and either Downpour, a double IPA, or Apis IV, a Belgian quad made with local honey. Elevation brews will be on tap for après at Monarch, Ski Cooper and a couple of places in Copper this winter, Bustamante said, and will also be making their way into the Vail Valley for the first time this season, starting with the black and double black series. Bustamante said the Elevation crew is looking forward to its first Colorado Ski & Snowboard Expo.

“We’re excited to go down there and pour beer for our target consumers, people like us,” he said.

 

>> Left Hand Brewing Co.

This will be the second trip to the expo and brew fest for Left Hand, said Josh Breckel, Colorado sales manager for the brewery. Left Hand will be pouring its signature Milk Stout Nitro and its Sawtooth Ale, a bronze-medal winner in the Ordinary or Special Bitter category at the recent Great American Beer Festival in Denver. The nitro version has a bit of a different mouth feel than the standard carbonated Milk Stout.

“CO2 is much more noticeable on the palate; it’s got that almost carbonic burning sensation on your cheeks and your tongue,” Breckel said. “(The Nitro is) much more smooth, creating a more creamy, rounder effect.”

Breckel said there isn’t a sexy story related to the brewery’s involvement in the expo. Coordinators reached out to Left Hand for the inaugural event last year, and the brewery agreed.

“Skiing is an important part of Colorado,” he said. “The people who get out there and ski and snowboard are definitely our demographic, and we want to support things that are interesting to them. … What I look forward to in any of these events is the guerrilla marketing aspect of it, talking to people who may not have had our beers before and introducing them to something that maybe becomes their new favorite beer.”

Big Choice, Bristol, Eddyline, Grand Lake, Great Divide, Odell and Ska breweries also will be in attendance pouring beers to help with your après conditioning.

Entry to the Colorado Ski & Snowboard Expo is $12, cash only. The Rocky Mountain Brew Fest is an additional $12 or $15 at the door, which includes three beer samples and one full beer. Additional sampling tickets also will be available for purchase. For more information on the expo and brew fest, including a list of exhibitors, or to buy advance tickets, visit http://www.bewisports.com/expos/denver.

Krista Driscoll

Hophead

Vail Daily Weekly

How GABF looks out for the little guy

Oct. 19, 2012

With 580 breweries in attendance pouring more than 2,500 beers, it would be easy for some of the smaller brew houses to get lost in the giant maw of the Colorado Convention Center, but despite its exhaustive array of beers, the Great American Beer Festival still offers a chance for up-and-coming brewers to strut their stuff and win medals and bragging rights for their delectable concoctions.  

>> First gold for Eddyline. 

For smaller breweries and those just creeping into the ranks of the brewing elite, a medal at the Great American Beer Festival can open up doors. Such is the case for Eddyline Restaurant and Brewing Co. in Buena Vista. In its inaugural GABF competition this year, the brewery won a gold medal out of 29 entries in the International-Style Pale Ale category for its River Runner Pale Ale.

The upstanding gentlemen of the Bull & Bush in Denver were
kind enough to share some pretzels with me at GABF.
Photo by Devin Schow.

International refers to the style of the beer, not where it comes from. The official GABF description of this category calls for beers with a wide range of hop characteristics, unlike their fruity, floral American cousins or the earthy, herbal English varieties.

“We put it in that category because our pale ale is a bigger pale ale,” said Brian England, manager at Eddyline. “It’s 6 percent ABV, with 50 to 60 IBUs — nice, dry finish, and the hop aroma is amazing.”

The Great American Beer Festival was a coming out party for River Runner, a beer that England said is the brewery’s best but not its biggest seller. England said the festival is a great way to grow awareness of the good things that are brewing in this small shop in the mountains.

“I think the competition is fair,” he said. “A small brewery or a big brewery can make a great beer, and I think that has been shown at GABF. It’s a big deal. We have distributors already contacting us.”

Gold medal-winning beers are hot commodities for beer schleppers, and Eddyline has started work on a label design to get its pale ale canned and into the hands of the beer-thirsty hordes. The award also will help pave the way with new customers while the brewery launches its Front Range distributing campaign over the next few weeks, though River Runner itself won’t be ready to ship out for a few more months.

“This beer was not in the design phase at all, so now we’re trying to fast track it,” England said. “It will be in all of our distribution areas. I don’t know if we know fully yet what it’s going to do.”

>> A long shot for home brewers. 

The most visible entry point to the Great American Beer Festival for home brewers is the Pro-Am competition. This year, 93 amateur members of the American Homebrewers Association paired up with professional brewers to make beers worthy of entry into the festival lexicon. The winner, home brewer Jay Shambo, took home the gold medal for his More Fun Blonde, and the cohort brewery, New Belgium Brewing Co., added a medal to its collection, which includes a bronze in this year’s German-Style Sour Ale category.

But flying just under the radar was another contest for these dilettantes of draught. Each year, Samuel Adams founder and brewer Jim Koch combs the country for talented home brewers and recognizes their designs through the brewery’s Longshot American Homebrew Contest. Two winners out of nearly 1,000 entries earned the right to have their beer brewed and bottled by Sam Adams and packaged in a variety six-pack to be sold all over the country.

“The Longshot Competition is definitely one of the things I look forward to because as a brewer, we have the pleasure of brewing these truly unique and inspiring creations that our Longshot winners submitted so everyone can enjoy them,” said Jennifer Glanville, a brewer with Samuel Adams. “Plus, there are some serious bragging rights around the brewery to be won by the employee whose beer wins at the festival.”

Attendees of the Great American Beer Festival had a hand in selecting the third Longshot victor, chosen from entries solicited from employees of Sam Adams. Completing the home brew trifecta this year was Dave Anderson, a member of the brewery’s packaging team. Anderson’s Strawberry Lager beat out a Thai-basil beer and an imperial stout for brewery accolades and a spot in the mixed six-pack, including a label featuring his mug. His beer was fantastic, a smooth, crisp lager sporting all the fruity flavor of a ripe strawberry without any of the sweetness. Absolutely the best strawberry beer I have ever tasted.

If you’re a wannabe wort aficionado with an eye on a GABF medal, now is the time to start perfecting your craft. Pro-Am entries are typically due in June, and paired brewers must be established members of the American Homebrewers Association and sponsored by a brewery. For more information, visit www.greatamericanbeerfestival.com. Think you could be a Longshot? Sam Adams begins accepting entries in the spring. Visit www.samueladams.com for details.

Krista Driscoll

Hophead

Vail Daily Weekly

Taste the flickering light of fall before it’s gone

Oct. 12, 2012

Fall in the high country is winding down. A few breezy days have stripped most of the golden-orange leaves from the aspen trees, and the days and nights are getting cold enough for snowmaking at area resorts. But before we say goodbye to autumn and hello to ski season, let’s take one last fond look at some crisp fall beers. Like those aspen leaves, much of this season’s beer selection has been stripped from local liquor store shelves, but a few tempting brews are still clinging on and are worth grabbing up.

We know that cooling weather demands spicier beer with a clean finish for sun-spotted autumn days, but what else makes certain brews the perfect companions to this season?

“While we do choose seasonal ingredients for our fall beers, there is also a historical context for how these beers came to lend themselves to the fall season,” said Jennifer Glanville, brewer for Samuel Adams. “Traditional Oktoberfest beers, like Samuel Adams Octoberfest, are marzen-style lagers. The term marzen — German for the month of March — gets its name from the last month in which the beer was traditionally brewed.” 

Before refrigeration, Glanville said, March was the last month that beers could be “lagered,” or put into cold storage, to survive the warmer summer weather. 

“By doing this, the beers could age during the summer and be enjoyed around this time of the year for the annual fall harvest,” Glanville said.

>> Oktoberfest beers. 

Though not all brewed in the marzen style, lager Oktoberfest beers claim a large chunk of the fall brewing market. David Courtney, of Beaver Liquors, said a couple of favorites that can still be found at his store are the Santa Fe Brewing Oktoberfest, a lighter, lager-style, sessionable brew, and the New Belgium Red Hoptober, which is darker but also easy-drinking.

Hoptober has also been popular at Riverwalk Wine & Spirits in Edwards, said Tim Consadine, along with Beck’s Oktoberfest, another traditional marzen-style lager brewed in Germany. He said he’s also sold a lot of the aforementioned Samuel Adams Octoberfest.

“Our Octoberfest … blends together five roasts of malt to create a brew complete with sweet flavors, including caramel and toffee,” Glanville said of the Sam Adams incarnation. “The malty sweetness found in Octoberfest pairs well with some of my favorite fall dishes, such as bratwurst and roast pork.”

Mickey Werner, of Alpine Wine & Spirits, said the Sam Adams brew also has been a popular one at his shop, along with Left Hand’s Oktoberfest. Left Hand brews in the marzen style, starting in the spring and eating up two months to get the beer to its medium-bodied lagered finish.

“Oktoberfest beers have a deep red amber color that itself is characteristic of autumn and the color of the changing leaves, together with a rich malt complexity,” Glanville said.

>> Pumpkin beers. 

One of the great things about being a woman is that you can drink fruity beer without worrying what your friends will think or whether it will somehow ruin your masculinity. I’ll happily guzzle a framboise or a shandy alongside an IPA or a stout because, as they say, variety is the spice of life, and I want to grab it with both hands.

Consequently, pumpkin ales are my favorite fall style of beer. Brewed infrequently in limited batches, they disappear quickly. There are still a few six-packs of pumpkin brews to be had here and there around the valley, so stock up while you still can.

Consadine said Riverwalk is home to a diminishing supply of Tommyknocker Pumpkin Harvest Ale, brewed with a bit of molasses and spice, and Woodchuck’s Pumpkin Cider, a private-reserve selection that combines Woodchuck’s signature cider flavor with a pumpkin finish.

Also spotted around the valley this month were Dogfish Punkin Ale, which comes in at a higher price point and is packaged in a four-pack, and Uinta Punk’n Harvest Pumpkin Ale, one of my personal favorites. If you’re looking for something a little more main stream that’s a little less flavorful to ease you into this style of beer, try Shocktop Pumpkin Wheat or Blue Moon Harvest Pumpkin Ale. Both of these beers dial down the pumpkin and spice ingredients, making for smooth, easy-swilling suds.

Finally, if you want to venture into the unknown recesses of fizzy pumpkin lore, loiter around the Fireside Bar at the Vail Cascade Resort and try to get your hands on some Avery Rumpkin, the crème de la crème of pumpkin beers. This monster of a pumpkin brew is finished in rum barrels and spiced with nutmeg, cinnamon and ginger. I’d be willing to shoulder blue-haired ladies out of the way for a bottle of this stuff. To me, it captures that last bit of fall.

Krista Driscoll

Hophead

Vail Daily Weekly

A roadmap to the Great American Beer Festival

Oct. 5, 2012

Every fall, brewers pour into Denver by the hundreds to share their creations and see how their beers stack up against the competition. They bring old standbys and newly proffered progeny, hoping to spark the imaginations and taste buds of beer drinkers the world over. This cornucopia of autumn suds has been dubbed the Great American Beer Festival, and for the lucky few who managed to snag tickets before they sold out months ago, the fun starts Oct. 11. 

>> I’m one of the chosen ones. 

If you have your golden ticket in hand, you will be confronted with close to 400 breweries serving up in excess of 1,000 beers. Even the most Herculean effort won’t get all of those brews into your gut, but here are a few suggestions to make the most of your trip around Candyland.

For starters, when trying each beer, ask for a small sample. If it’s the greatest thing that ever passed your lips, you can always go back for more, but if it’s just OK, you will regret having taken up the extra space in your carbonation-bloated belly. Second, seek out the rare and elusive. Yes, your favorite beer will probably be there and you’ll want to score a few minutes talking to the brewer or rep about how much you love it, but what else is that brewery bringing to the table? Do they have something new or special that you’ve never tried before? Now is the time to be ahead of the curve and get your hands on it.

“I always cherish any opportunity I get to meet and speak with a fan of our beers or beer in general,” said Jennifer Glanville, brewer at Samuel Adams, in an email. “We’re all there to enjoy and celebrate craft beer and what it’s become today.”

Glanville said right now there are 21 times as many breweries in the U.S. as the mere 83 that existed when Jim Koch first brewed Boston Lager in his kitchen in 1984.

“Beer drinkers now appreciate craft beer in the same way they would a fine wine (i.e. smelling, tasting and pouring properly),” Glanville said. “They are expanding their palates and experimenting with the wide range of flavors that craft beer offers.”

The Boston crew will be showcasing the two consumer winners of the Samuel Adams LongShot American Homebrew Contest, and festival wanderers will have a chance to vote for a homebrew winner in the Sam Adams employee category. They’ll also be pouring their New Albion Ale at the festival.

“New Albion Ale was originally brewed 30 years ago by Jack McAuliffe, founder of The New Albion Brewing Co., a brewery that helped pave the way for other American craft breweries,” Glanville said. “This year, we worked with Jack to brew the beer, which is recognized by beer experts as the original American craft beer, and we’re really excited to share it at events and at our GABF booth to see what people think.”

Dick, Jake and John Leinenkugel will all be present at the festival, pouring the lighter side of the family — Lemon Berry Shandy, Sunset Wheat, Honey Weiss and Berry Weiss — as well as a few bolder options from their Big Eddy series, including an imperial IPA and the new Baltic Porter.

“If you talk to beer drinkers at the GABF, they like different beers that they can’t necessarily find out west or in Colorado,” John Leinenkugel said. “It’s interesting to see what people line up for. And a lot of it is for rare, limited-release beers, but our Berry Weiss always samples very well; we always go through all of it.”

The star of the Leine Lodge, if it’s ready in time, will be the brewery’s new Snow Drift Vanilla Porter, a lighter, sessionable beer that John Leinenkugel said the 145-year-old brewery is very proud of.

“We haven’t done a porter style of beer since before Prohibition,” John Leinenkugel said, and with the Snow Drift and the Baltic, they now have two.

Other important pinpoints on your path through nirvana fall among those breweries that don’t distribute in Colorado. It’s a bit of a tease, but you’ll be glad you endured the torture. On my short list is New Glarus Brewing Co., which only ships beer within its home state of Wisconsin. Many a road trip north in my college days included grabbing a few six-packs of beer from this cheese-state luminary.

Deb Carey, founder and president, said New Glarus would be sending a handful of brews for the public to test drive at GABF, including the medal-winning Raspberry Tart. This spontaneously fermented Belgian fruited sour brown ale is brewed with Oregon red raspberries.

“It’s like grabbing a handful of red raspberries and jamming them in your mouth,” Carey said.

Another medal winner is Enigma, a Belgian that’s aged for more than two years in oak tanks that sit outside by the brewery’s horse barn. This cellar beer has a predominant toasted oak flavor, Carey said, but is otherwise hard to describe, hence its name. New Glarus also will be hawking its Hometown Blonde and the seasonal Staghorn Oktoberfest, and get your mitts on some of the Moonman no coast pale ale. Brewer Dan Carey spent more than a year hunting down hop varieties to capture the grapefruit pale ale bouquet and smooth body found in this beer.

Finally, if you scored entry to the fun house that is the Great American Beer Festival, you owe it to yourself to go outside your comfort zone. Be bold and brave; the festival is your foam-filled oyster.

“Whether you’re a brewer, homebrewer or craft beer drinker, we’re all there for the same reason – we love beer!” Glanville said.

>> I didn’t get tickets.  

Recognizing that the beer aficionados drawn to Denver for this annual affair far outnumber the quantity of tickets available for the various drinking sessions, breweries have expanded their vision outside the festival, creating complimentary events all over the city.

After the opening night GABF session Thursday, Oct. 11, Oskar Blues is hosting “It’s All About the Package” at the Blake Street Tavern, featuring giveaways and samples of some the brewery’s favorites. The party runs from 9:30 p.m. to 1 a.m., and free tickets are available on the Oskar Blues Facebook page.

Just down the road on the following afternoon, Friday, Oct. 12, the Leinenkugel brothers will be hanging out at Spanky’s for a Wisconsin fish fry. Get your fix of fried walleye and cheese curds at this little bar in LoDo, and wash it down with $2.75 pints of Leinenkugel beers. Once you’ve noshed on Wisconsin’s best, roll down to Falling Rock Tap House, the first stop on Avery’s Pucker Up Poker Run. Advanced tickets ($45) are required for this crazy crawl through Denver, which runs until about 5 p.m. At each stop, get a 4-ounce pour of a rare sour beer, a 6-ounce pour of a palate-cleansing beer and a playing card. The best five-card poker hand at the end of the run gets a prize.

>> I’m on house arrest. 

The Brewing Network and BeerTapTV will be showing a live stream of a handful of events at the GABF, including the awards ceremony and medal presentation for the brewing competitions starting at about 1 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 13. Find links to the video and audio channels at the Brewers Association website at www.brewersassociation.org. You can catch the festival buzz from the comfort of your own home with an Internet connection and a bottle or three of your favorite past category winners as you learn about what you should be drinking in the coming year.

Krista Driscoll

Hophead

Vail Daily Weekly

Like beer? Go here

Sept. 26, 2012

Back in June, I sent out a call for readers to recommend establishments in the valley that go above and beyond with their craft beer selections. After a handful of beer-cooler surveys, I’m happy to announce three of the top local spots to grab a unique brew and, in the words of the proprietors, what makes their beer collections so special:

>> Atwater on Gore Creek, Vail

Total number of beers available: 42.

Number of breweries represented: 34.

Fall beers to try: Avery Kaiser, Elysian Night Owl and Ayinger Oktoberfest-Marzen.

Laura Lodge is responsible for the craft beer program at the Vail Cascade, including Atwater on Gore Creek, the resort’s restaurant. She said she tries to maintain a general proportion of 40 percent Colorado, 40 percent American outside of Colorado and 20 percent international selections on Atwater’s beer list.

“Within that, I try to distribute the styles and drinkers’ experience levels across the board and try to break up the geography: have some East Coast beers and West Coast beers and some in between,” she said.

The goal at Atwater is to give guests the opportunity to have a diverse experience with beer and food, Lodge said, by offering a range of beers from the accessible, gateway varieties to farther off the deep end beers for the connoisseur. The draft beer selection at Atwater changes every six weeks during the busy seasons, and the restaurant features free craft beer tasting on Wednesday nights, Friday Night Flights in the Fireside Bar and monthly Brewmaster Weekends, where brewers talk about their beers while diners sup on small plates crafted by the Atwater culinary team.

“I think that craft beer is something different that’s coming into the food and beverage world that diners and foodies should pay close attention to because it can provide such a unique element to a dining experience,” Lodge said. “I don’t think that all people who love and embrace food are aware of what that craft beer element can bring to a meal.”

>> Kirby Cosmo’s BBQ Bar, Minturn

Total number of beers available: 42.

Number of breweries represented: 23.

Fall beers to try: Stone Arrogant Bastard, Uinta Hop Notch and Oskar Blues Deviant Dale’s.

Mark Tamberino, owner of Kirby Cosmo’s, said that he has two things in mind when stocking beer at his restaurant.

“My overall goal in selecting beer is to make sure that what I have is A, some of the best beer in the valley on tap and in the case and B, to keep it new and fresh, to make sure that what I have isn’t dated,” he said.

To keep his selection fresh, Tamberino rotates his seasonal beers four times a year and keeps an eye on what people in the valley are drinking.

“I do some research at Avon Liquors or Beaver Liquors and see what they are selling a lot of,” Tamberino said. “They can bring in a bigger variety of stuff. … They point me in the right direction.”

Aside from this market research, Tamberino said he likes to stock beer that he himself would enjoy drinking.

“That’s the best part of my job, the most fun part, choosing beers to bring into my bar,” he said. “I like the smaller craft breweries, and I try to make sure that they are well-represented in my bar. I like to choose beers that are brewed locally in Colorado because I think I have a lot of out of town guests who want to choose beers that are from the state.”

Kirby’s also offers a mug club for its beer aficionados. Once price gets you a 22-ounce mug to keep in the bar, beer specials every day of the week and free dinner once a month, among other perks. Tamberino values his beer drinkers and has created a program at Kirby’s to support them.

“I think it has a lot to do with the success of my restaurant,” Tamberino said. “A lot of people who come into Kirby’s know that we’ll have something different or something that they can’t find on tap anywhere else in the valley.”

>> Old Kentucky Tavern, Eagle

Total number of beers available: 39.

Number of breweries represented: 28.

Fall beers to try: Tommyknocker Pumpkin, Breckenridge Autumn, Left Hand Oktoberfest.

Monica Mattingly is the co-owner and designated beer drinker at Old Kentucky Tavern. When creating the beer list at the restaurant in Eagle, Mattingly tried to keep co-owner Steven “Juice” Morrison in mind.

“I really wanted a variety of beers, and I really wanted beers that were representative of Colorado, especially Bonfire and Crazy Mountain and beers that I like and Juice would like,” Mattingly said. “He’s not really a beer drinker, so things that he would like, too.”

Though Old Kentucky strives to have brews on its list to entice the novice drinker, it maintains a healthy dose of high-octane selections, too.

“Monthly, we try to rotate one or two things in there if someone has something new,” she said. “We do a beer special every single day. If it’s on special, people will have a tendency to try it and they might like it.”

Mattingly has spent a lot of time in the front of the house in bars around the valley and said it’s always fun to have a different selection of beers and to encourage people to try new things.

“One of the only markets that was increasing last year was the craft beer market,” she said. “So you know people are trying it.”

Having Bonfire Brewery close by doesn’t hurt, either.

“Bonfire does some really great short runs that we like to have,” Mattingly said. “When we’re out of Bonfire, we can just run out the back door and grab something; it’s nice and convenient to have a brewery at your back door.”

Craft beer makes sense for Old Kentucky because it pairs well with bourbon and a lot of the restaurant’s Southern cooking, Mattingly said, and it adds to the enjoyment of the meal.

“When somebody comes in and wants something interesting, they know that they can find it here,” she said. “We wanted to focus on Colorado beers because they are so good here, but let people have an experience and keep well informed of different beers.”

Krista Driscoll

Hophead

Vail Daily Weekly

That oompah tune you can’t get out of your head

Sept. 14, 2012

I like to think that my affinity for beer is in my DNA. This microscopic blueprint weaves a genealogy that’s dominated by two beer-loving cultures: Irish and German. My paternal great-great grandfather, Peter Driscol, emigrated from Ireland and headed inland to fulfill his own manifest destiny on a plot of farmland in central Iowa. The German blood trickled down from both sides of my family. A large chunk of it came from my father’s maternal side, which bore the strong family name of Rinderknecht, and splashes here and there from my mother’s mother, who claimed Pennsylvania Dutch, a mish-mash of immigrants with descendants from southwestern Germany.

So for some reason, when the leaves start changing in the fall and breweries roll out their seasonal favorites, my tastes always gravitate toward the Oktoberfest labels. The beers are stronger than their summertime relatives, but that’s where the similarities end. Each brewery has its own interpretation of this fall brew, but all of them fall short of being true Oktoberfest beer — mainly due to geography.

Right about now, my distant German cousins are gearing up for the 179^th Oktoberfest celebration. They will be rolling out massive tents that hold as many as 10,000 people, stocking them with liter-sized glasses and wheeling in kegs of Munich’s finest. The rules surrounding the beer served at Oktoberfest are fairly strict. By definition, only beer brewed in Munich can be served and can claim the moniker of Oktoberfest Beer. The Oxford Companion to Beer says that even Luitpold, prince of Bavaria and a member of the Bavarian Royal House of Wittelsbach, was denied entry of his beer into the festival, as it was brewed just outside of town.

Ironic that the prince’s beer would be turned away, since Oktoberfest itself has royal origins, reaching back to 1810, when Bavaria’s King Maximilian I. Joseph arranged a festival to celebrate his son’s wedding. He offered up free beer and food, and the event was so popular that it was recreated in subsequent years, with the exception of stretches during wars and other times of political unrest.

The 16-day Oktoberfest celebration has grown from its humble two-day beginning to be the largest beer festival in the world and has spawned a host of local imitations around the globe. Here in the Vail Valley, the festival typically starts around Labor Day in Beaver Creek and then moves to Vail, featuring German food and beer, dirndl costume contests, Bavarian music and dancing, keg bowling and more. The last weekend of our local shenanigans is Sept. 14 to 16 in Vail Village. Breckenridge also throws its Oktoberfest shindig on those dates, and if you miss those two episodes of German debauchery, head down to Denver either Sept. 21 to 23 or Sept. 28 to 30 for their version of the iconic fete.

However you decide to celebrate this Bavarian tradition, be sure to raise a glass and toast its founding fathers for their inspiration and throwing one hell of a party. Prost!

From the Fridge: Three Barrel Bingeler Weisse

John Bricker, owner and brewer at Three Barrel Brewing Co. in Del Norte, and John Carlson, of the Colorado Brewers Guild, happened to be judging a homebrewing competition together recently and were inspired by the first beer they tasted. The brew was a Berliner weisse, and it went on to win best of show. It hatched the idea for Bricker to brew a similar beer, which he poured at a recent brewer’s dinner at the Vail Cascade Resort, hosted by Carlson.

As its name denotes, the Berliner weisse style originated in Berlin as early as the 1570s, though there are varying stories of exactly how and when it came to exist. For the Three Barrel interpretation, Bricker started with malted barley from Colorado Malting Co. in Alamosa and added a bit of Claussenii, a strain of brettanomyces that produces a healthy amount of acid, creating the beer’s signature crisp, tart flavor. The name is an homage to one William Bingel, a Colorado entrepreneur who brewed in Del Norte during the Gold Rush years.

The team of chefs at the Cascade paired this brew with grilled Maine lobster tail swimming in a sauce of sea urchin butter and Meyer lemon, garnished with candied mint and ruby red trout caviar. The lemon coaxed out the sour citrus elements of the beer, and the effervescence of the beer, in turn, cut through the rich butter sauce and enhanced the fluffy texture of the lobster.

As Berlin is 365 miles from Munich, Berliner weisse likely won’t be sneaking its way into Oktoberfest this year, but it’s still a refreshing choice to welcome fall with a hint of Deutschland.

Krista Driscoll

Hophead

Vail Daily Weekly

On beers, bars and big adventures

Sept. 7, 2012 

It all started with a beer, a frosty PBR poured from a tap standing guard over a long, heavy wooden bar. The bar ran almost the entire length of this ramshackle drinking establishment, a low-ceiling, cinder-block trailer that appeared to have been dumped as an afterthought in some vacant space behind two sports bars on the main drag of my hometown, Davenport, Iowa.

Chris Ware surveys the bar at Bleyart's Tap in
Davenport, Iowa.

A friend and I had ventured out to one of these sports bars on an early-summer evening, but the crowd was thick and the music was too loud, so we sought a quiet reprieve at this little hole situated a few steps away. We sat down in a pair of well-worn bar stools and asked the bartender what he recommended. We were the only patrons in the bar, and he was clicking away on a laptop, making a play list of music for the evening. A couple of $1.50 beers later, I was scanning through his music collection, rambling on about where it crossed paths with my own.

The bar was Bleyart’s, and the bartender was Chris. It wasn’t long before my friend and I were spending most Thursdays there, drinking beer and watching Cubs games. Chris was enthusiastically telling us about his pending trip to Vail for something called the Teva Mountain Games, an outdoor sports and music festival. He said he’d been going for the past few years and was excited to return.

Fast forward to a year later, and Chris was again extolling the virtues of Vail and the Teva Games. By that point, my beers consumed at Bleyart’s numbered in the hundreds and Chris and I had become friends. He was recruiting a group to head out to Vail to share driving duties and the cost of gas. I’m not sure why, but something stirred inside of me. I thought of family vacations to Colorado when I was growing up, always in the winter to ski. I had never seen the mountains in the summer. I had to go on this trip.

I scraped together gas money and portioned out a few treasured vacation days at work. We piled our gear and ourselves into Chris’ girlfriend’s Jeep and started the 14-hour trek to Vail. We rented kayaks in Denver and rolled through the mountains, landing on the naked strip of land on the Colorado River that was Rancho del Rio. We bought some firewood at one of the handful of shacks plastered to the hillside and finally succeeded in building a fire at the end of the peninsula as we were coated in a steady drizzle. I popped the top off my very first Fat Tire and stared into the meager flames — the adventure had begun.

The week was a blur of new places and experiences, five days of kayking, rafting, camping, staying up late, snow in June and even catching sight of a bear trundling across a bridge in Minturn. It blew my mind how much I loved this place, and upon returning home, I clicked on my computer and started the job hunt. I spent days spamming various places in the valley for a job and nights at Bleyart’s drinking $1.50 beers and rehashing the trip with Chris. I was a creature consumed, and the culmination of my efforts was a job offer on the copy desk at the Vail Daily.

As I was packing up to head out, my parents gave me a card. Inside it was a poem I had written years before about snow and skiing that was titled “Colorado” and concluded with a single word: someday. After four years of living in the mountains, I still occasionally think about that poem, a preordained destiny written by my own little hand. And I think about that first beer I drank at Bleyart’s, the 12-ounce catalyst for my future.

From the Fridge: New Belgium Fat Tire

Four years ago, during that fateful trip to the Teva Games, my obsession with beer was still in its infancy, and I had never heard of New Belgium Brewing Co. Now I look forward to the seasons changing so I can snap up their various brews and am a religious follower of the Lips of Faith series. But before all of those beers crept into existence, there was Fat Tire.

This hoppy amber ale starts off slightly sweet with a roasted malt finish and is absolutely glorious with cheese. If it’s been a while since you’ve had a Fat Tire, grab a six-pack and assemble a cheese plate with a lot of variety. Lean heavily toward the softer, goat-milk cheeses, include a few harder selections, such as Parmesan or sharp cheddar, and throw in a few stinky ones to round it out. The beer’s effervescence sweeps the fat off your tongue, and you’ll be amazed at its versatility and ability to pair with such a wide range of cheeses.

Alternately munch on some banana or bell peppers, and notice how the touch of spice brings out the hops in the beer. I find myself revisiting Fat Tire at regular intervals, not only because it’s a great beer but because each time I try it, I discover a bit of something new or forgotten and it always leaves me standing in a low cloud at Rancho, staring into a fire.

Krista Driscoll

Hophead

Vail Daily Weekly

A way to share a “beer” with man’s best friend

Aug. 31, 2012

My dog’s first taste of beer came at an early age. Ever the curious puppy, she knocked over a can of Pabst Blue Ribbon at a kickball game and took a few cautious licks of the golden stuff that beaded up on some blades of grass. We snatched her away from the growing puddle, but those few drops of Wisconsin goodness stayed with her. To this day, whenever someone pops a can of PBR, her puppy sense begins to tingle and she wanders over for a sniff. 

Kyle Velvis, left, and Mark McDonnell hard at
work making Beaver Balls.
Photo courtesy of BrewSki Bones.

I am aware that beer is not something we should be giving to our pup. The hops that make our favorite brews so aromatic and flavorful are poisonous to our canine buddies. But at the end of a long day, I’ve often thought that it would be nice if there was a way we could share a brew with our favorite furry gal pal.

Local entrepreneurs Mark McDonnell and Kyle Velvis had the same thought. The two share a love for craft beer, and having spent a lot of time at breweries, they noticed two things: Beer and dog lovers go hand in hand, and there’s a lot of spent grain from the brewing process that goes to waste. So they went to work developing a product that would transform that brewing byproduct into a snackable doggy delicacy, and after about a year of trial and error dialing in the recipe, BrewSki Bones was born.

The process starts with a load of spent grain from Crazy Mountain Brewing Co. in Edwards. Spent grain is what remains in the mash tun after the liquid wort has been removed and mostly consists of husks and the reproductive seed parts of the barley and other grains used to brew the beer.

McDonnell and Velvis combine this spent grain with all-natural peanut butter, organic flour and Colorado eggs to make their flagship product, Beaver Balls. The dough for the balls is scooped onto cookie sheets and baked in a commercial oven for four hours until dry before being packed into half-pound and one-pound bakery bags. Because the treats are a fresh product made with no preservatives, they have a recommended shelf life of about two months, McDonnell said.

McDonnell and Velvis only make use of spent grain from certain styles of beer — namely, Crazy Mountain’s pale ale and ESB — in order to keep the wheat and gluten content low in BrewSki Bones. Velvis said he is amazed at how many people approach their tent at farmers markets and other events and are very selective about what they put into their dogs’ stomachs. Potential customers are pleasantly surprised by the Beaver Balls. The treats are a good source of carbohydrates and indigestible proteins and also contain calcium and phosphorous, both important elements in a dog’s diet, Velvis said.

Making a nutritious dog treat is one thing, but the main goal of Velvis and McDonnell’s venture is to enable craft-beer lovers to share a bit of their passion with their four-legged friends. McDonnell said the fledgling company has attracted interest from a couple of other breweries that want to make treats out of their own spent grain. The idea, he said, is for each brewery to have its own flavor of BrewSki Bone that can be marketed as a companion to its beer. McDonnell and Velvis have a lot of avenues they want to explore down the road, including seasonal treat flavors that make use of locally grown produce, such as pumpkins in the fall, and smaller treat sizes for training or toy breeds. But for now, you can grab a package of Beaver Balls from the Crazy Mountain tasting room, kick back and savor a “brew” with your best friend.

For more information about BrewSki Bones, visit their Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/brewskibones.

From the Fridge: BrewSki Bones

I used to take my Alaskan husky Nika into the bank with me and the tellers would fawn over her and offer her dog treats. Being the gastro prima donna that she is, she would spit them onto the floor and walk away. So the first time I offered her a BrewSki Bone, I feared she would have the same response. I handed her a Beaver Ball, and she nosed it around for a bit and then looked at me, unsure.

So I pulled another one out of the package, broke it in half and popped a piece into my mouth. BrewSki Bones are made with high-grade ingredients, so they are perfectly safe for human consumption (McDonnell said Velvis is known to eat them by the handful during their baking parties). It tasted like a dry granola bar, very crumbly with a hint of peanut butter. Not bad — in fact, way more palatable than some of the high-fiber protein bars you find on the grocery store shelf.

Nika was still looking at me quizzically, so I broke her treat into pieces and piled them on the floor for her. She devoured them and then sat down, tail wagging, the international sign for “please, Mom, can I have another one?” I cracked a beer and watched her devour another Beaver Ball, sharing the moment with a very satisfied canine customer.

Krista Driscoll

Hophead

Vail Daily Weekly

A beer brewed for a locavore

Aug. 24, 2012

Crazy Mountain Brewery in Edwards is taking its beer making a step further with the addition of whole, fresh hops. When the bitter critters are ready to harvest, the brewery sends a few brave souls down to Hippie Chicks Organic Hops in Palisade to pick, sort and bag hop flowers, which are then used to create the brewery’s new beer, Sticky Fingers. 

But why go to all of the trouble when hop pellets and even dried, whole-hop flowers are readily available without the laborious hours spent wrangling the skin-irritating little beasts?

“As much as a chef would love to see how the food is grown that they’re cooking with, I think it’s the same kind of philosophy,” said Tracey Kling, sales representative at Crazy Mountain. “You get to participate in the brew process to see how the ingredients are grown and how the hops are made and where they come from — it’s pretty awesome.”

In order to follow this hop trip from farm to glass, you have to start at the bine. Sometimes erroneously called hop vines, hop bines distinguish themselves by their hooked stem hairs called trichomes, which grip as they climb up a rod, trellis or hanging wire. The bines can grow as tall as 50 feet and die to the ground in the winter, only to start the climb anew the next spring. During harvest, crews cut down the hop bines and strip them of their flowers, either mechanically or by hand.

The hops are sorted to remove leaves and stems that wouldn’t be good for the beer, Kling said. Most of the flowers, such as the ones pictured above, are put in racks with sandy bottoms and dried. They are conditioned and then packed into bags to be sold by the pound to brew houses all over the state and by the ounce to enthusiastic home brewers who want to add some Colorado flavor to their beers.

The hops that make their way into Sticky Fingers are picked and refrigerated and must be thrown into the beer boil within 24 hours of harvest before they start to degrade. For Kling, that meant harvesting hops late into the night on a recent Monday and then trucking them back to Crazy Mountain early the next morning. Less than 12 hours after being removed from their bines, these little green goblins were tossed into a vat at the end of the boil to become pungent, exquisite beer.

 “They are more volatile at that fresh stage, being fresh picked, and really impart an intense flavor and aroma,” Kling said. “And that’s why you really utilize those additions of the hops — flavor and aroma.”

From the Fest

There were a lot of great beers being poured at Ed Fest in the Riverwalk at Edwards on Aug. 18, many of which I’ve had the pleasure of tasting on previous occasions. Here are a few that were new to me:

>> Crazy Mountain Sticky Fingers

The crew at Crazy Mountain put in its time at the hop farm, and the result was this fresh-hopped beer. The aroma had that delicious, flowery hit that you only get from adding hops late in the brewing process, and the bitter edge had the fresh feel of crushing a hop flower in your fingers and smearing the oils on the back of your tongue. This first 20-barrel batch was made with 200 pounds of Chinook hops, which have a piney, citrus flavor, Kling said. The next round will feature Cascade hops, which are known for their floral attributes.

>> Eddyline Boater Beer

After spending some time nosing around the festival for heavy hitters and beers that sit high on the bittering scale, Eddyline’s Boater Beer was a welcome change. True to its name, this pale-yellow pilsner was designed with the boater in mind. It’s light, refreshing and sessionable, and it comes in a can so you can pack it on the river for when you inevitably have to throw back a bootie beer.

>> Bristol Compass IPA

India pale ales seem to be growing in intensity as their popularity has exploded in the craft-beer market. It now seems like a contest to see who can pack the most hops into a single batch of beer. Instead of blowing it out on the bitter end, Bristol achieved a good balance when creating the Compass IPA. This amber-colored beer has the right amount of pep from a combination of Columbus, Chinook and Cascade hops, but you can still taste some of those roasty malt undertones that level the brew.

Krista Driscoll

Hophead

Vail Daily Weekly