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

Beer glassware: More than marketing drivel

Aug. 17, 2012

I recently completed the trifecta of glassware seminars presented by Riedel Crystal and its sister company, Spiegelau. The presentations on wine and spirits were mind blowing, but as a beer drinker, learning about the Spiegelau line of beer glasses was the most stunning and eye-opening experience of the three. I’ve told you about some of the history and vision behind making this specialized glassware, but here it is in practice.

From left, 1. wheat beer, 2. lager, 3. stemmed pilsner and
4. tall pilsner. Photo courtesy of Spiegelau.

>> 1. The brew: Ayinger Brau Weisse

The glass: Wheat beer

The proper glass can enhance all of our senses, said Doug Reed, of Spiegelau, starting with sight. We popped the top off this beautiful wheat beer and poured half into a standard pint glass and half into the Spiegelau wheat beer glass. Held side by side, the Spiegelau glass was much clearer, allowing us to see the beer’s color and effervescence. In contrast, the pint glass added an almost bluish hue, muddying the opaque, golden color of the unfiltered brew.

Another reason to ogle your beer is its head. Reed encouraged us to pour our brew into the glass with vigor, forming a thick, foamy beer beret. Here in America, we seem to shy away from this spume, tilting our glasses to get a “good pour.” But this is beer blasphemy. A two-fingered head on a beer releases aroma, which adds to your sipping enjoyment. This Hefe-Weizen was light and fragrant, with a slightly tart, fruity taste.

>> 2. The brew: Samuel Smith IPA

The glass: Lager

After carefully pouring the remaining Ayinger from the pint into the wheat glass so it could enjoy its remaining moments of life in a prettier funeral shroud, I popped the top off the next beer, an India pale ale, and split it between the pint and lager glasses. Another vigorous pour left me with that lovely lather floating on top, immediately releasing the floral aroma of hops and leading me to my next sensory step: smell.

I stuck my nose in and got a good whiff, nearly snorting suds in my excitement. European IPA’s are much milder than their highly hopped American counterparts, and this one had a flowery, only slightly bitter perfume. After sniffing around on the heady stuff, I set the glass down and picked up my pint. The head on the beer in the pint glass had already gone flat. Without it, the aroma was weak, almost nonexistent, the beer smelling lifeless and completely devoid of all of those earthy notes amplified by the Spiegelau glass, which still had a healthy head nearly 10 minutes later.

>> 3. The brew: Orval 12 ounce

The glass: Stemmed pilsner (beer tulip)

Orval is a Trappist brew that comes in a bowling-pin shaped bottle. Here’s another ingenious glass shape at work. Because Orval is bottle conditioned, it has a bunch of yeast floating around it in. The widest part of the bowling pin helps to trap the yeast as you pour the beer, keeping it in the bottle. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with consuming the yeast, and I prefer to slosh it onto the top of my beer, increasing the head and the fizz that tickles my nose when I take the first sip. The tulip shape of the glass focuses the aroma, and the wide bell creates a larger surface area to dissipate some of the alcohol hit of this slightly bigger beer.

Obviously, the highlight of beer drinking is taste. Orval has been cranking out beer since 1070, and the complexity and balance of this brew are nearly perfect. Even the pint glass couldn’t completely ruin it, but oh, how it opened up in the Spiegelau glass. The beer tasted bigger, bolder, and bitterer, with a sweet-dry aftertaste and all of that long-lasting, aroma-inducing foam.

>> 4. The brew: Samuel Smith Organic Lager

The glass: Tall pilsner

It seems counterintuitive to put a lager in a pilsner glass, but Reed said that unlike wine, choice of beer glass is less specific to varietals. The general shape is important, but it’s truly the composition and thickness of the glass that are paramount to the beer-drinking experience.

The key to what makes these glasses so superior to the average pint is how they are made. Most standard bar glasses are made of iron oxide-based glass. This type of glass is more brittle, so in order to make our unhappy friend the pint glass strong enough to survive in a bar setting, it has to be much thicker. This thick glass conducts heat from the air and your hand more readily than the thinner, stronger glass that Spiegelau uses.

The result is that your beer stays colder longer and creates more cool condensation on the outside of the Spiegelau glass, the sight of which sends the message to your brain that the beer is cold. But it’s not just a psychological trick. The beer actually is colder and has retained more carbonation than it would in a typical glass. We tasted the Samuel Smith Organic Lager first, and I let it sit in the Spiegelau glass throughout the rest of seminar. By the end of the hour and a half, the lager still had a slight head and was still cool and delicious. You just can’t get that from your standard pint.

Krista Driscoll

Hophead

Vail Daily Weekly