Meet the Brewer: Avery Brewing on Nov. 7th

Meet the Brewer: Avery Brewing
Thurs. Nov. 7th / 7pm
Front Range BBQ / 2330 W. Colorado Ave., Colorado Springs
Event on Facebook

Avery Brewing is well known across the United States for beers that push the boundaries of the craft brewing industry. They show off the maturity of their beer portfolio by including 18% ABV stouts and puckery barrel aged treasures, along with their well-known and delicately balanced easy drinkers like White Rascal, Ellie's Brown Ale, and Joe's Pils. That's why we've been looking forward to announcing this for months and months - Avery Brewing will be joining us for a very special Meet the Brewer event on November 7th at Front Range BBQ.

Joining us will be Matt Thrall and Andy Parker. Matt is Avery's head brewer, and Andy is the the head of the barrel aged beer program. We interviewed them for our Cellarmanship video series, and we encourage you to check out that video. They will talk about the beer that they make, their roles in the industry, what's coming up at Avery, they can geek out with you, and they'll be available to chat one on one.

For the event we will have a fantastic lineup of Avery beer, including a number of beers normally only available in their Boulder taproom, some regular favorites, a number of aged bottles from their barrel series, some big beers, and some small beers. Here's the list:

Draft List

• Lilikoi - Avery's famous White Rascal with Hawaiian passion fruit purée added. 5.6% ABV.
• Out of Sight - Coffee-infused Stout. 6.5% ABV.
• Uberschwein - Double dry-hopped Barleywine style or Imperial Red Ale. This beer doesn't belong to one pure style. 9.2 % ABV.
• Joe's Pils - A wonderfully balanced, easy drinking Premium American Pils. 4.7% ABV.
• Czar - A rich, balanced, and complex Imperial Stout from the Dictator Series. 10-12% ABV.

Very Limited Bottled Beers

• Rumpkin 2011 - Pumpkin Ale aged in Rum Barrels
• Rumpkin 2012 - Pumpkin Ale aged in Rum Barrels
• Rumpkin 2013 - Pumpkin Ale aged in Rum Barrels
• Muscat d' Amour 2012 - Wild fermented ale with Muscat Grapes, aged in Chardonnay Barrels
• Oud Floris 2012 - Sour Brown aged in various wine and liquor barrels
• Odio Equum 2012 - Sour Ale aged with Raspberries in Cabernet Sauvignon Barrels
• Uncle Jacobs Stout 2012 - A huge Imperial Stout aged 6 months in Bourbon Barrels
• Uncle Jacobs 2013 - A huge Imperial Stout aged 6 months in Bourbon Barrels
• Samaels 2013 - Oak Aged English-Style Strong Ale
• Momi Hiwa 2013 - Porter with coconut, aged in Rum Barrels

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Getting day drunk at Avery's Strong Ale Festival

I will start this by saying that Avery has the best small festival Colorado has seen so far. When I say small I'm not talking about the beers for sure, I'm talking about the length, cost, etc. I understand that there are some great fests out there but when you consider the quality of beer, amount of people there, and general atmosphere Avery can't be beat. I say that with one exception but that's another Avery fest so . . . BOOM

With over 100 taps, Avery keeps it awesome simply by stating "To make it into this fest, a beer must be 8% ABV or higher and represent something very special from the heart and soul of its creator." To ensure this, they lead by example. You walk in the door and are met by 7 Avery one-offs including Tweak, 2011 Whiskey Barrel Samaels, and a massively dry hopped Hog Heaven.

Cellarmanship: Interview with Avery Brewing's Matt Thrall and Andy Parker

Cellarmanship - Interview with Avery Brewing's Andy Parker and Matt Thrall from Focus on the Beer on Vimeo.

Continuing our Cellarmanship series, about the joys and how-to of storing and aging your beer at home, we interviewed the brewers at Avery Brewing Co. in Boulder. Matt Thrall is Avery's head brewer and Andy Parker is the head of their barrel program. Avery's barrel program has brought us some spectacular beers including, but not limited to, Rumpkin, Uncle Jacob's Stout, Brabant, Immitis, and Muscat D'Amor. Avery's non-barrel aged beers are also delicious, you may have heard of some of these: Hog Heaven, DuganA, Mephistopheles, Samael's, The Czar, The Reverend, and  Maharaja to name a few.

In this interview we talk to Andy and Matt about the joys of drinking beer fresh. We talk about off-flavors and oxygenation in aged beer, especially Trans 2 Nonenal which imparts cardboard flavors in addition to sherry and port flavors. We open up a vertical of Avery's Hog Heaven (and Mephistopheles for a later video). You might be surprised by some of the things they say about aging your beer at home. Also check out our previous interview with Eric and Lauren Salazar, of New Belgium, for more on the topic.

Recap: Pikes Peak Tap Takeover and Avery Beer Dinner

In the last week I've had a few memorable beer experiences and I'd like to share them. I'll mention my time at Brewer's Republic here and then at Blue Star below.

Brewer's Republic has been killing it with Josh as the new General Manager. Pretty much every week (often more than once a week) they have special tap takeovers, they've started selling some ridiculously good bottles of beer (Drei Fonteinen Oude Gueuze and others!) and they've even had some really great out-of-state beers on tap. I plan to head there tomorrow or Thursday to get a glass of the North Coast Barrel Aged Rasputin on tap.

2 Great Looking Beer Dinners From Coaltrain

We would like to direct your attention to a couple great looking beer dinners that Coaltrain is organizing. The first is on January 8th and is a five course dinner at Tapateria paired with Bristol beers. The second is on January 30th at The Blue Star and features a rare sampling of some of Avery's Barrel Aged beers. Details from Coaltrain are below:

The Party At and Around GABF

Everyone knows that the Great American Beer Festival is a giant beer party. Hundreds of breweries around the country bring in their mainline beers and some of their best offerings for the big show. The event is amazing, you enter the convention center with tens of thousands of people as bagpipes overwhelm you with a wall of sound. People rush to the booths where the rarest beers will disappear quickly and then they set off to try beers that they can only get while at GABF. The brewers too come with excitement as they hope to snag a coveted GABF award (Huge congrats to Trinity for their Bronze in the American Brett Ale category!). While most don't win anything, I imagine no one goes home truly upset, it's practically impossible to leave GABF without a sense that you've just had the best few days of your life. Plus your liver is hurting and you spend one day recuperating, and that's also one of the best days ever.

But there's much more to GABF than meets the eye. There are literally a hundred-plus events happening around Denver that supplement the festivities. Some of them are rare beer tappings, or beers that aren't normally available to Colorado and other markets. Some are fundraisers, some are big cook-outs, some you can meet the brewers, etc. etc. etc. We went to a number of these events. In many ways we enjoyed these as much as the big event itself because they were slightly quieter and slower and that's just what we needed. So this post really is a look at the party Around GABF rather than a look At GABF.

Front Range Beer Trip Day 01: "The Rest of the Day"

We are finally getting back around to posting more photos and information from our four day beer journey up Colorado's Front Range. For our journey, we wanted to visit new breweries, establish contacts, say hi to a few folks, and to meet a bunch of people we'd only been in touch with via email...and have a blast. You can see our first stop at AC Golden, which really needed it's own post. For this post, we're still just talking about the first day of the trip, where we visited five more breweries!

Golden City Brewery / Golden, CO
We had a schedule but that quickly dissipated; after our time at AC Golden that schedule was already off so we had to just go with the flow a bit. We were in Golden, and we've heard really good things about Golden City Brewery, which they humorously call "Golden's 2nd largest brewery."

Recap: Avery Sourfest 2012

Avery's barrel room

Armed with a pocketful of Tums, a camera, and two tickets, Lefty and I made a trek to Boulder on Saturday for the third annual SourFest. We arrived about 45 minutes before opening, and there was already a line of over 100 people. As we stood in line, a bearded brewer (redundant) walked up to me and introduced himself as Ron Gansberg, the brewmaster and blender from Cascade Brewing in Portland, OR. He was wondering if I brewed for Lost Abby since I wore a Lost Abby brewers shirt. What a way to start Sourfest! I unfortunately had to say no but did get to talk to Ron for awhile. This was his first time coming to SourFest, and he brought four beers with him. Since Cascade Brewing does not participate in GABF anymore, I was pretty excited to get the chance to sample some of these rare Oregon treats! 27 breweries brought beer for the event with 49 beers on tap and 10 bottled beers.

Beer Thoughts: Avery Uncle Jacob's Stout

Avery Brewing Co. Uncle Jacob's Stout

Beer Info:
The beer is named in honor of Jacob Spears, credited as the first distiller to name his whiskey 'bourbon.' This is a massive 17.4% American Imperial Stout, aged six months in bourbon barrels. 694 cases of this were bottled, compared to the 188 cases of their Muscat D' Amor (which I believe is my favorite Avery beer ever!). Even Colorado Springs received a few cases of the Muscat (and you can still find it if you look for it), so I'm assuming we'll get at least a few cases of this in the near future.

The Growler Part II: The Present and Future

From kelliedayart.com

This is the 2nd and final part of our series on the growler. Check out Part One on the history of the growler. This article focuses on the views of the growler's role in the modern day beer industry from some of the leading brewers and brewery CEO's including Greg Koch from Stone, Joe Morhfeld from Odell, Garrett Oliver from Brooklyn Brewing, and Matt Thrall from Avery. The article also looks at some of the present and future modifications companies are making to growlers to make sure the beers are fresh to consumers. So sit back, grab a growler, pour a pint, turn up the radio, and enjoy the read!

Are Growlers Evil?

Since the late 1980's, the growler has been an ever increasing popular option for beer-to-go from favorite local breweries. In fact I cannot think of a brewery in Colorado today that doesn't offer a growler fill. And they are popular too (at least in Colorado). Many taprooms have a special area at the bar for growler fills only. Growlers are regular attendees of parties, potlucks, club meetings, camping trips, ski trips, and river trips. I have never seen anyone frown when they heard there was a growler of beer. Usually the person gets a big grin and immediately wants to try "the fresh" version of the beer straight from the brewery. This excitement isn't just coming from the guy who only drinks "The Beast" from a can . These positive feeling towards growlers are coming from craft beer lovers, beer judges, beer servers, beer reps, and brewers that I role with. So when I read the article Why Beer Growlers are Bad for your Brew from the website bon appetit, I was surprised at such a one sided article about something that I had always considered my ally towards enjoying beer. In the article, the writer gives a one sided account of the evils of the growler based on the views of Garrett Oliver, brewmaster at Brooklyn Brewery and a well respected beer advocate in the industry. The following are some of the comments in the article:

Busy Beer Week in Colorado Springs

The rest of the week is going to be pretty busy in the beer world in Colorado Springs. I hope to make it to a number of these events and to post a review of the week, but we'll see, it'll be a lot of hard work! The events all rotate between Bristol and Trinity Brewing. There's also a Brewer's Dinner at Eddyline in Buena Vista tonight, so if you're in the area, you need to call them to confirm they have room for you. Okay, here we go:

Wednesday
Over at Trinity on Wednesday Night you will be able to to find four special release Avery Beers. Avery, being from Boulder, isn't too far away, but some of their specialty beers are limited to their own tasting room and/or a few select bars in Boulder and Denver...and their beers are extraordinary. There's no word yet on what beer will be available but I have a hope that we will see Rumpkin Ale, a pumpkin beer aged in Gosling Rum barrels. (Update, Trinity is tapping Fumator (exclusive), Hog Heaven, DuganA, and Czar). I was at Avery just 2 weeks ago and they had 22 beers on tap,