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

Your pint glass is so passe

Aug. 3, 2012

An article appeared on my desk not too long ago, lovingly torn from the pages of The Denver Post, with a headline that implored me to “Shatter those pint glasses, for the love of beer.” In the clip, Josh Noel, of the Chicago Tribune, spelled out the latest step in the ascension of beer culture: glassware.

Noel lamented the fact that though American beer is no longer “largely terrible,” most establishments continue to serve everything from mass-produced domestics to high-octane specialty beers in pint glasses. These glasses are durable, stackable and can withstand the constant abuse of commercial dishwashers and clumsy patrons, but believe it or not, they can actually detract from your beer-drinking experience.

In the 1950s, the idea was introduced to wine-quaffing circles that the size, shape and even thickness of a glass can dramatically change the aromas and flavors that are imparted to the consumer. The father of this radical deviation in drinking was Claus Josef Riedel, a ninth-generation glassmaker from Austria.

Since then, the Riedel company has produced a slew of varietal-specific wine glasses, enlisting help from panels of vintners who compare style after style of glass to determine the perfect vessel for each vintage. So, what does this have to do with beer and, more specifically, the notion that my collection of pints should be pitched off the nearest rooftop?

With the advent of the craft-brewing boom, a few companies started creating glasses specifically for their brews. According to Maximilian Riedel, Claus’ grandson and CEO of Riedel Crystal of America, those original forays into matching a beer with a glass were more marketing ploy than science. This still left a vapid gap between the ever-evolving glassware for wine and the archaic mugs and clunky glasses into which bartenders were sloshing our precious brews. Into this void marched Spiegelau, which is attempting a beer glass revolution in the same vein as parent company Riedel’s mind-blowing epiphany of the 1950s.

Maximilian said consumers in North America are educated about their beer and brewers are starting to demand that the care and quality put into each craft brew be mirrored in the shell that Spiegelau builds to contain it. To accomplish this, the same method is employed with beer glasses as is used with Riedel’s wine glasses. Panels of brewers taste their specific styles of beer in different glasses, narrowing them down to which shapes capture the aromas, which sizes help dissipate the alcohol hit in the bigger beers and which glass thicknesses direct the beer to the proper parts of the palate.

The research has paid off, and Spiegelau now makes a handful of glasses for specific beer styles — wheat, lager and pilsner among them — which have been fine-tuned over the past few years. The latest project for the company is a collaboration with Sierra Nevada and Dogfish Head to create an India pale ale glass. I’m looking forward to building a new collection of proper beer glasses as they roll off the line — from now on, the pints will be reserved for vodka root beers and margaritas.

If you want to learn more about the beer-glass revolution, check out the Beaver Creek Wine & Spirits Festival’s Spiegelau beer glass seminar on Aug. 10. For more information or to buy tickets, visit www.beavercreek.com and click on “Events and Activities” and then “Wine & Spirits Festival.”

From the Fridge: Left Hand Milk Stout

As I haven’t yet had the opportunity to grow my collection of beer glasses, I poured this sweet, dark beer into a wine glass. Specifically, I put it in a rose bud-shaped Riedel glass designed for pinot noir. The bell of the glass opened up the flavors of the beer, and the tapered and flared lip concentrated the aromas of cream-and-sugar coffee. If you already have a collection of wine glasses, they can serve in a pinch to elevate your beer. As Noel said, even leaving it in a bottle is better than ruining it in a pint glass.

Glass snobbery aside, this beer is one of my favorite stalwarts of the Colorado brewery compendium. The hue is a deep brown, almost black, with a thick brown head, and the blend of six different malts weaves an intricate pattern below the easy-drinking surface. Left Hand made this beer sweet by using milk sugar, commonly known as lactose, in the brewing process, which gives it a much different aftertaste and mouth feel than other sweet stouts.

Pair this beer with sweet barbecue or chicken and waffles with a giant pat of maple butter. Or bake it into cupcakes with one of the recipes on the Left Hand website.

I dumped this beer from the wine glass into a pint glass just to see what all of the fuss was about. Almost immediately, the coffee and chocolate notes disappeared, leaving behind a sort of flat, milky nose. The pretty head on the beer also receded rapidly. Though still delicious, it proved that perhaps the Spiegelau guys are on to something.

Krista Driscoll

Hophead

Vail Daily Weekly