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
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