Beer Week In Review

Last week was really busy both beer-wise and in-general. My classes were celebrating their final days and I had much grading to do. As a result, my blogging suffered, but my beer-drinking did not! Let me tell you all about it:

WEDNESDAY

Wednesday night I headed over Trinity Brewing to snap some photographs of the Double Rainbow beer and I posted the image next to the interview I did with John Schneider of Black Fox Brewing and Jason Yester of Trinity Brewing. You can read the interview here. After that I went home and quickly uploaded the pictures because I was in a hurry to get to Brewer's Republic and meet the ladies of Sisterhood of the Suds. As a result I rushed my computer and I lost my best images! Haste makes waste. Well, at that point I needed a beer so I biked on over to Brewer's Republic.

Isaac and Daniel at Brewer's Republic

Guess what Brewer's Republic had on tap? They had Black Fox's El Noche del Diablo, a black saison with chocolate, cherries, and pepper. I love this beer. I figured it was the last place in town to have it so through the course of the night I ordered 3 pints worth! Before I said hi to the people of Sisterhood of the Suds I ran into Isaac, whom I had just met thirty minutes ago at Trinity. Crazy! Isaac is a member of the Brew Bros, a group I hope to find more out about soon. I didn't know he would be here, but he was, so we hung out most of the night. Isaac's pal Daniel was there. Turns out Daniel is a photographer and we will hopefully be seeing his photographs on this blog! I look forward to that.

At this point about 15-20 women from Sisterhood of the Suds were sitting at some tables at Brewer's Republic. They looked like they were having a really great time and it looked like they were doing some beer and food pairings but I didn't intrude too much, as I'm a guy. But I did manage to snap this photo and talk with one of the main organizers, Zenia Brink. SotS is based in Colorado Springs and was developed as a part of the Beer Drinkers Guide to Colorado (they put out that amazing beer map that you can buy around town). It is basically a monthly event where women can come together and drink together. I'll be asking Zenia some more questions about
it and get more specifics so that you can learn more about what happens. For now I recommend following the Beer Drinkers Guide on Facebook to keep up with them. I finished the night with a pint of Rocky Mountain Brewery's Smoked Brown Ale and headed home.

THURSDAY

Half-pints of beer lined up and ready to serve at Rock Bottom

On Thursday I headed over to Rock Bottom Brewery for the release of their Fallen Angel, which is a Belgian Dark Beer. I had not yet been to Rock Bottom in town, but I have visited the one in Portland a few times and so I was expecting very good beer. My expectations were met, the Fallen Angel is a wonderful contribution to the style. I had a couple of these and as I was leaving I ran into Jason Leeman, the Rock Bottom brewer. We struck up conversation and he let me come back into the brewery and take some pictures while he was checking his boil.

Jason Leeman of Rock Bottom Brewery

I asked Jason a little about the merger with Gordon Biersch and Craftworks and whether he would continue to have the freedom to brew his own beers as a result of the merger. This is the great thing about Rock Bottom; even though they are a franchise they give their brewers the freedom to brew as they wish. As a result, you get amazing beers, like the one I had that night. I plan to go back soon and do a full report :). Anyway, Jason expects that he will still be able to do his thing. He said, if anything, they may see more Gordon Biersch brewers trying to come to Rock Bottom since at Gordon Biersch they are given recipes they have to brew.

I wasn't originally planning to do anything else but Isaac and Daniel - who I met the previous night - invited me to Trivia Night at Rocky Mountain Brewery. I had never been there, but I've had a few of their really great beers so my wife and I headed on over. I believe trivia night is every Thursday. We went through four or five rounds of Christmas-based questions and our table came in 2nd place, for which we received a bottle of Port Brewing's Santas Little Helper. We opened the beer and split it 7 ways. Ha! I also had a lovely pint of the Winter Warmer, which I believe has Ash Wood in it. I also tried the Smores Beer, which was made by Grant of Rocky Mountain. It taste like smores! Also tried a pumpkin stout, the Squirrel Killer Double Brown, and possibly another but can't remember now...That was a great time.

FRIDAY

Eli from Beer Tap TV and John Schneider of Black Fox

On Friday I headed up to Trinity Brewing for the much anticipated release of Double Rainbow. The beer is a collaboration between Trinity and Black Fox Brewing. Only 500-ish bottles were made and the beer is not available on tap. I bought myself a bottle and ran into the Beer Tap TV guys and John Schneider of Black Fox. Luckily I was able to sample a little from their glasses as they poured Double Rainbow for each other. I didn't get enough to make any strong opinions about the beer other than to say it's very different than any beer I've had. Whether I like it or not I can't say yet. I'll have to wait till I open my bottle up. The price was hefty for me at $26, but I also understand that these ingredients probably raise the costs pretty drastically. It's the most expensive beer I've ever bought. So, I'm looking forward to it! While at Trinity I also decided to buy a Lefthand Brewing Snowbound Ale and one of my favorites the Trinity Chilly Water Baltic Porter. The night turned out to be a blast, the place was buzzing, and the beer was good.

SUNDAY

I had to skip Saturday's Rocky Mountain Brewery Ugly Sweater Party and the Bierwerks Homebrew Party because I needed to finish my grading, but on Sunday I was back at it. Isaac had invited me over to do some homebrewing with him and with Grant of Rocky Mountain. I didn't bring my equipment, I just hung out. But I did bring over a bottle of Scotch so we could make Hot Scotchies with the beer wort and I brought over a bottle of Widmer Brothers Brewing Brrrbon - their winter beer aged in bourbon barrels. Grant brought a growler from Rocky Mountain and a guy named Lefty brought a 2003 and a 2008 Avery Brewing Beast Grand Cru. Those were phenomenal beers.
There were many other beers, too many to name, but I will say that we had a Deschutes Jubelale, which is one of my favorite beers, a Maui Brewing Coconut Porter because those were just released to Colorado markets last week, and a really great IPA from Great Divide Brewing. Here's a look at Grant's homebrew setup on the right, and a glimpse of Isaac's on the left.

Next time I'll try to bring my equipment over and we'll do three beers at once.  The brew day went smoothly and was a lot of fun. In the middle of the day Daniel looked like he had a few beers and was trying to walk in a straight line with his eyes closed. That's when you know it's been a good week.