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

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

How big is too big to be a brewpub?

May 18, 2012

In Colorado, brewpubs operate under a different set of rules than their big-name manufacturing counterparts. What applies to Miller-Coors does not apply to Twisted Pine and vice versa. But a handful of Colorado’s microbreweries aren’t so micro any more, and they are struggling with legislation that prohibits them from occupying a new niche in the state beer industry.

Guzzling seasonal brews at the Breckenridge
Brewery brewpub. Photo by Devin Schow.

According to the Denver Business Journal, the Colorado legislature recently dropped House Bill 12-1347, a proposal that would have increased the production cap for brewpubs. The bill was allowed to die due to opposition from industries along the pipeline, from beer birthing to distribution to retail, all of which complained that increasing the cap would give brewpubs an unfair advantage in the overall beer market.

So pending the passage of some revision of the dead bill, these breweries are faced with a choice: shut down their brewpubs and switch over to manufacturing licenses, thus avoiding the production cap, or build new breweries outside of the state to increase production. These guys don’t want to abandon their freedom to conduct research and development at the consumer level through their brewpubs — they don’t want to eliminate that personal connection between those who brew the beer and those who drink it — so a lot of growing breweries are looking at option No. 2.

Both New Belgium and Oskar Blues in the past few months have announced plans to propagate their operations in North Carolina. But Breckenridge Brewery is the only brewpub currently teetering on the edge of making too much beer for its place in the Colorado rulebooks.

Breck Brewery public relations maven Terry Usry said that brewery is still looking at ways to stay within Colorado, and the option of building out of state is just that — an option. Breck is still dedicated to its Colorado roots and the culture of craft brewing. She said that though Breck beers can now be found in 33 states, the company is still rolling out a small-batch line that allow its brewers to be creative and give consumers options that range from mainstream brews such as Avalanche Ale to its numbered-bottle, barrel-aged series.

So though it’s disappointing that the Colorado legislature failed to enact a provision that would allow our beloved craft brewpubs to grow and prosper right here in the state, brewers are creative, and Breckenridge, and other brewpubs that follow, will figure out new ways to expand and thrive and keep doling out the tasty brews we crave.

 

From the Fridge: Breckenridge Brewery 471 Small Batch

I have a couple of Breckenridge Brewery beers in my fridge at the moment, but in the vein of celebrating this little-big time brewpub’s continued dedication to its small-batch roots, I decided to drill brewmaster Todd Usry about his 471 Small Batch IPA.

“We just wanted something that was big and hoppy, high in alcohol but balanced,” Todd Usry said of the beer, which was first released in 2006. “We have a wide variety of styles, but we stay true to balance as much as possible. I was inspired by Russian River’s Pliny the Elder and Avery’s Maharajah. I wasn’t necessarily trying to emulate them but create something that had that kind of balance and flavor.”

The big, piney-citrus hop flavor comes from a blend of Chinook, Centennial, Simcoe and Fuggles hops, with an enormous malty wash on the back side that works well with the hoppiness up front, creating a great finish for every sip, Todd Usry said.

“A lot of double IPAs are over the top one way or the other or they’re overly boozy,” Todd Usry said. “You get that alcohol burn on them.”

Breck douses that after burn with cold conditioning. The beer is held at 34 degrees for five weeks to scrub out the harsh alcohol volatiles found in other imperial or double beers. The result is a potent 9.2 percent alcohol by volume beer that’s still very drinkable.

So what’s next off the line at Breckenridge Brewery? Todd Usry said to look for a re-release of the 72 Imperial Chocolate Cream Stout and a new collaboration with Stranahan’s on the heels of the Well Built ESB. This time, Breck will be whiskey barrel-aging and bottling its main line Vanilla Porter.

Krista Driscoll

Hophead
Vail Daily Weekly

Hophead celebrates American Craft Beer Week

May 11, 2012

American Craft Beer Week is upon us, and this rollicking, nationwide celebration presents the perfect opportunity to roll out the Vail Daily Weekly’s new column about beer. Ladies, gentlemen, beer snobs — I give you Hophead.

Double fisting at Aspen Brewing Co. Photo by Devin Schow.

Each week, I will dive into the sea of beer culture and surface with some nugget of truth that every beer lover should know. We’ll cover everything from beer history and evolution to beer styles, from commercial production to home brewing. Think of it as a launch pad for your beer education, a two-handed shove out of your mundane beer-drinking existence.

I’ll also do a weekly mini feature titled From the Fridge that showcases a particular beer that I’m enjoying at the moment. I try not to ever buy the same beer twice, and with hundreds of microbreweries popping up all over the country every year, there’s always a reason to seek out a new and interesting brew.

I don’t purport to be a beer expert. It wasn’t so long ago that I was sneaking crappy beer out of my parents’ fridge, and it takes a lifetime, nay many lifetimes, to accumulate a sliver of knowledge about this wonderful, heady stuff. But what I lack in years on the pint, I make up for in enthusiasm and a dearth of vanity about leaning on those who are experts in the field. If I don’t know the answer, I will find someone who does.

So that brings us back to this week’s celebration of craft beer, and the best thing about it is that there’s a reason to drink a bucket of suds every day of the week:

Make the trek to Longmont on Saturday, May 12, for a collaborative event between Oskar Blues and Ska Brewing. Ska will expropriate half of the bar at Oskar Blues Home Made Liquids & Solids in a nonhostile tap takeover. The guys from Durango are bringing 15 of their favorite brews, and Oskar Blues will throw down its own staples, as well as a potpourri of specialty beers. Also part of Colorado Beer Week, Ska will be hosting a guided cruiser crawl amongst four bars in downtown Denver on Sunday, May 13. Crawlers get their first beer for free and discounts on all Ska beers after that. Visit www.skabrewing.com or www.oskarblues.com for more information.

You can’t go on a weeklong bingo bender without starting on Monday. About a dozen breweries in Northern Colorado have banded together with the American Brewers Association to present brewery bingo. Grab a bingo card at a participating brewery in Greeley, Berthoud, Loveland or Fort Collins  — Odell’s, New Belgium, City Star, Grimm Bros., Crabtree and Funkwerks are all playing the game — and get a stamp every time you try a beer listed on the card. Complete a bingo line, and you win a T-shirt. You have all week, through Sunday, May 20, to play the game. For more information, visit www.craftbeer.com.

Make a mid-week pit stop at Strange Brewing Co. in Denver for Nostalgia Tuesday on May 15. In honor of the brewery’s second anniversary, head brewer Tim Myers is rolling out some classic brews. Share a pint in Strange’s brand-new biergarten, or come back later in the week for live music Thursday, May 17, and Friday, May 18, and the big anniversary party on Saturday, May 19, starting with kegs and eggs at 9 a.m. For details, visit www.strangebrewingco.com.

Beer week also has some love for the ladies. Sisterhood of the Hop, a female brew club in Boulder, will be hosting a screening of the documentary “The Love of Beer” at the Avery Brewing Co. Barrel Aging Cellar in Boulder on Wednesday, May 16. The feature-length film celebrates women in the beer industry, particularly in the Pacific Northwest. Tickets are $10 and include a pint of beer. Visit www.averybrewing.com for more information.

The local guys are throwing themselves into the fray this week, too. Crazy Mountain Brewing Co. fans are invited to visit the brewery’s Facebook page and submit entries to a trivia contest throughout the week. A winner will be drawn on Friday, May 18, at a special event at the brewery’s tasting room. The night will feature music from the Stache from 6 to 10 p.m. and food from Belmont Deli, and the trivia drawing will happen near the end of the evening. For more information, visit www.crazymountainbrewery.com.

For full calendars of events and everything else you need to know about beer week, visit www.cobeerweek.com or www.craftbeer.com.

American Craft Beer Week is the perfect opportunity to cozy up and get friendly with the saucy mistress that is beer. Grab a blonde, brunette or red-headed craft-beer courtesan, and enjoy the ride.

Krista Driscoll

Hophead
Vail Daily Weekly