New Brewery Series: Fossil Brewing

With the flourish of breweries opening up in Colorado Springs, the west side is poised to make an impact on the beer scene here in 2014. With Paradox setting the precedent just a short drive up the canyon, and Manitou Brewing quickly getting ever closer to opening, another outfit is readying themselves to help draw you towards the mountains in search of your next frothy beverage. If you've driven on Hwy 24 westbound, you may have already noticed the unassuming sign above the door of a building just a stones throw from Rudy's Country BBQ. 

Giving the Dog a Beer

Whilst wandering around most every local beer festival in the Pikes Peak region you can find the booth for the Brew Dogs of Colorado.  Since December of 2009 this organization has existed with the goal of capturing Colorado's craft brewery staff and their furry companions in a gorgeous photo book.  As a special promotion, $5 from every sale of the book through Christmas will be going to the National Mill Dog Rescue.  Aside from the charitable aspect, they use the book to document the relationships the brewers and brewery staff have with their animals in loving detail to accompany the photos.

Local craft beer gift guide

There's twenty days until that jolly old elf squeezes himself down your chimney to creepily leave anonymous gifts under the highly-flammable piece of nature that you unabashedly decided to stick in the corner of your living room and throw little trinkets all over. Chances are, someone you're buying gifts for likes craft beer, and hopefully if you're reading this, you do too! We could give you links to hundreds of things you could order from lands far away, but instead here's a few things every beer lover in Colorado Springs would love to find under the tree.

Photo Recap: All Colorado Beer Festival and Medal Winners

We had a great time at the All Colorado Beer Festival this past Saturday. There were 67 breweries and over 2,500 attendees! If you were unable to make it, check out a little photo recap from the day!

The Colorado Springs Airport just got a lot more fun

Until recently airports have been some of my least favorite places to be. They remind of me of hospitals in a lot of ways, too many people coming and going, there's no way to feel like you belong in the place. Some airports are getting pretty smart about these things and they'll introduce taphouses with local flair. For me, these local taprooms are like a little anchor in a foreign place, a little stability. In Denver, I like to make my way over to the New Belgium taphouse and have a pint of something familiar, something I am already attached to. In other cities, like Salt Lake City and Atlanta, I like to go find the Sweetwater taproom or the Uinta taproom and try beers that I'm a little less familiar with. Even if I don't leave that airport I still feel like I know something about that city because of the taproom.

New Bar in Town

I challenge you all to a game of Street Fighter II (original version) at the new arcade bar in Colorado Springs! 

Supernova just opened up on Friday, it's now the closest bar to my house, and I'm pumped to spend my time there because, well, let's just say I can spend a good amount of time playing Street Fighter with just one quarter. I can beat anyone with any character. Let's do it. I'm serious.

Yes, I did say 'arcade bar.' The idea is that you can play these vintage arcade games while knocking back a couple beers. It's pretty much the best thing ever. They do have a small but good selection of craft beer, ranging from Left Hand, New Belgium, Odell to Bristol. They've got a few cheap beers in there too.

Every time I go to Denver for a night out I stop at the arcade bar 1up and I spend a handful of quarters on some of the old games. 1up is actually the bar that inspired Supernova. When the owners visited the place they new they had to open one up in the springs. So they picked a spot that's close enough to Colorado College that it may actually bring some of those students (and teachers!). It's at 111 E. Boulder, around the corner from Smiley's, Poor Richards, and Tony's. I know the CC kids like to stop in at Smiley's for breakfast, as do I (it's my favorite in the city) so I think it's a really good location. They said they already have approval to create a patio on the sidewalk where they will likely have some outdoor games. There's a full kitchen, I didn't order food but these are the same folks that own Rabbit Hole so you can assume the food is going to be good. I did see they had some waffle cut fries with melted marshmallow sauce.

We were there Tuesday evening before dark and they said that Monday night was busy. Monday night! Busy! In Colorado Springs! That's a really good sign in my book. I always am looking for more night options in this town, and I hope this draws people out during the week. Looks like they're open till 1:30 every night so you can make a late night out of it.

Street Fighter, anyone? Shall we have a competition? I think I'll organize one...

Supernova / 111 E. Boulder, Colorado Springs

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Recap of the 2011 Rocky Mountain Microbrewing Symposium

Last weekend was a very busy beer weekend for people in Colorado Springs. The Rocky Mountain Microbrewing Symposium and the Peterson Air Force Base Hombrewing Awards were both on Friday and I had the unfortunate task of trying to decide which to go to. Either way I knew I'd be missing out. I chose the Rocky Mountain Microbrewing Symposium (RMMS) so I'd like to show you a little of what happened. I can't go into too much detail or the blog post would be unbearably long, but I'll provide you with some nice summaries.

The RMMS is basically a beer industry conference at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs and was founded by the Center for Biotechnology and Bioinformatics at the University. Jim Mattoon, the RMMS founder died last year on Deceber 24, 2010 at the age of 80.

People in the beer industry from all over Colorado come to the event for tips, recent beer related information, and basically a conglomeration of resources from things relating to sanitization, brewing procedures, hop farms, new malting companies, and more. The talks, all of which were good, ranged from technical, academic, to inspiring to informative. Only 120 seats were available and I'm guessing that there were probably only ten or so people attending that were not also a part of the industry. So, if you want to get your ticket next year you will need to make sure to get them in advance because they sell out annually.

This is what the large conference room looked like. I actually work at UCCS and I have never been in this building. It boasts a pretty spectacular view of Pikes Peak and the surrounding mountains. The first lecture was on Lager Yeast and Fermentation by Bryan Pearson of the Brewing Science Institute. Bryan has won multiple awards for his lagers and ales at GABG, the World Beer Cup and the Real Ale Festival. Bryan provided information that many people are unaware of when it comes to lager yeasts, such as how much yeast is needed to avoid under and over pitching, proper cool down temperatures and techniques, what mistakes cause what off flavors, and how best to avoid those off-flavors.*

The next speaker was Steve Breezley, the production manager at Avery Brewing Co. Steve talked to us about drinkability, what it is, what it means, and how customer's tastes seem to change over time. Apparently the Avery IPA claims 31% of Avery's production but about fifteen years ago it sat at just over 11% of production. Similarly the Ellie's Brown Ale is 12.6% of what Avery produces but fifteen years ago was their highest selling beer at 27.5%.

Avery's Dihos Dactylion and Cory Forster of Dillon DAM Brewery taking notes

Making Colorado Springs a Destination For Beer Lovers

It has been nearly six months now since I moved to Colorado from Portland. I have been very pleased with the amount of and quality of craft beer I've found in the city, but being from Portland there is still a lot that I miss. I would like to offer the city a few suggestions in terms of making Colorado Springs more of a destination for beer lovers. Much of what I will say is based off my experience in Portland, so feel free to chime in with your opinions as well. At this point it seems that when people travel to Colorado for the beer, they go to Boulder, Ft. Collins, and Denver, but rarely south of Denver. So, what things can we do here to change that? After all, there is some good beer being made here and local interest seems to be growing. I will create a list of areas I believe we could improve, but I will say that I believe the biggest and most important item is to develope a thriving local beer and pub scene for ourselves. Neighborhood communities should each have their own craft beer bar to encourage walking and getting to know those you live around.

Why would we even want a larger craft beer community?
I am interested in the idea that beer is both a social lubricant and a social glue. Drinking good beer, to me, is a form of activism as it brings people together, inspires local economy, develops a sense of place or landfulness, and is known for shaping how people think about where their food comes from. Beer is an agent for social change. This fascinates me. The pint is a center for relational activity; sharing a pitcher is an activity that, by the end of the pitcher, will likely have inspired warming conversation and bonded people together. In my opinion, drinking together and community is at the center of well made beer. This is very different than the portrayal of beer as a means of getting drunk and getting laid, which is how industrial beers are often marketed.

So, here is the list of things I believe will make Colorado Springs a beer destination:

LARGER DISTRIBUTION
Bristol is the only brewery doing any major distribution. I've heard of Black Fox in Denver and I know that some breweries distribute to some smaller towns in the general region. But getting this city's beer to Denver, Ft. Collins and Boulder is really important because this is

Nick Hilborn of Rocky Mountain Brewery

The other day I had my first couple beers from Rocky Mountain Brewery. They pretty much knocked my socks off as they didn't seem to necessarily stay true to any given style, but were really experimental. I love experimental beers. After looking into RMB more, I saw they currently have S'mores beer on tap and were about to release something called "Cranberry Sauce." At the All Colorado Beer Festival they won the people's vote for the Favorite Brewer Award. I thought I'd better get in touch with the brewer and ask some questions. So, below is an interview with Nick Hilborn, the head brewer:

I noticed that a number of your beers don't necessarily pertain to any given style, and they seem really experimental, is this something you do on a normal basis? Can you tell me a little about what inspires you to make beer like this?

We are all homebrewers. Before ever getting close to large scale brewing all of us that work here, and volunteer here, brew homebrew for ourselves. We brew beers to taste

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,

TRiNiTY & Black Fox Beer Updates

1. TRiNiTY Brewing - Black Porter for Black Friday
November 26th: Chilly Water Baltic Porter Release

What isn't always known about Baltic Porter's is that the style is not an ale, it's made with a bottom-fermenting lager yeast. Not very many breweries in the United States make this style, in fact the only popular ones that I can think of include the Alaskan Brewing (I'm not sure if this is a lager though) and Great Divide Baltic Porter. Typically these beers are brewed stronger with higher IBU's but the bitter hop quality is less present than you might expect.
These beers also have a higher degree of complexity than their porter-families, often with some smokiness present, aromas and flavors can include dark fruits, chocolate, and more.