Cold Nights Call for Boozy Beers

I've been checking the weather report to compare the temperature in Portland to Colorado Springs. While Oregon has been seeing snow and ice, the temperatures haven't fallen below 0 or anything like that. The other night, while it was snowing, I had a fire going in the fireplace, I turned on the sci/fi horror movie "Grabbers," and also decided that it was time to open up one of my favorite beers - the Phantom Canyon Winston Smith's Barleywine.

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.

Recap of Rendezvous at the Rock Beer Festival

Photo by Janette Wygant.

With so many beer festivals popping up every year, it's becoming difficult to decide which ones to visit. The number of festivals is becoming so large, even breweries are having to pick and choose which festivals to support and attend. More and more festivals are beginning to pay breweries for the beer they pour, understanding that constant donation requests are becoming increasingly demanding. I think the growing number of festivals causes disappointing tap lineups at festivals. Breweries are, more often than not, having to bring their flagship beers and leaving the smaller batch releases for their tap rooms. This can be good for smaller and newer breweries for getting their name out there, so we understand that. For beer geeks, it is refreshing to discover a long list of newly released, barrel aged, and seasonal beers. Visiting a brewery's tap room isn't always feasible, so finding a festival they're bringing these beers to is the next best thing. Rendezvous at the Rock, which took place on August 24th, was a fantastic festival for this very reason.

Rendezvous at the Rock kicked off its inaugural year pairing up with the Colorado Brewers Guild. This festival hosted by Rockyard Brewing was a hit, and featured several fantastic, newly released beers. The Colorado Brewers Guild is a great non-profit organization that really makes a difference in the craft beer community in Colorado. Supporting them and finding several exciting beers is always a treat.

A first-hand look at Phantom Canyon's expanded brewery

In between pints of the hoppy and wonderful Continuum Belgian Ale at Phantom Canyon, I checked in with Alan Stiles and got to see the brewery's expansion project first-hand. I'm really excited for Phantom Canyon, as they'll be doing a fair amount more in terms of bottling and capacity, and they'll have a few outside accounts as well. So we'll hopefully see their beer a few places around town.

When I stopped in last week, they were getting ready for the first brew on the new system. In the photo above you can see the two new 30 barrel fermenters next to the old 10 barrel ferments. Not pictured are the two new 15 barrel fermenters as well. The equipment fits into a newly built structure on the side of the building's northern wall. All the construction had to pass a Historical Review and maintain the spirit of the original building.

Three big stories in Colorado Springs Beer

Picture from the Phantom Canyon Brewhouse page

Over the weekend I received a google notification for "Colorado Springs beer," opened up the email and saw three pretty extraordinary headlines that I'd like to share here. Usually, the headlines from that notification involve something like "A Colorado Springs man kills someone with a broken beer bottle" but this time we have some craft beer updates. Each headline came from a different news source in town.

I apologize for my recent lull in posting, I've been in Oregon and it's been a little harder to keep up than I thought it would. You'll be happy to know that I'm bringing some great CO beer to all the Oregonians for a special tap takeover in about two weeks. Check out the details here. But, check out the information about Colorado Springs beer and what's been happening:

Phantom Canyon Releases Two Headed Dog Imperial IPA

It's been a while since we've heard from Phantom Canyon about a new bottled beer. We know that they're very busy, in the middle of their expansion project, but that hasn't stopped them from looking at bottling up some new brews. As far as I remember, in the last three years Phantom has released the annual, delicious, Winston Smith's Barleywine and they released Methuselah Rookie Card, which was a Flander's inspired sour beer. Now it looks as if Phantom is gearing up to release a few more bottles including a White Ale, a Tripel, the Barleywine again, and an Imperial IPA. Brewer Alan Stiles told me that if all goes to plan the Imperial IPA should go on sale tomorrow afternoon. I'd check in with them on their Brew House Facebook page and the regular Phantom FB page to double check. You could also call them at 719.635-2800. The beer is also currently on tap there so you could go in for a pint as well.

The Two Headed Dog Imperial IPA is a beer that Phantom Canyon brews just once a year. The recipe this year is slightly different with more light malts and dry-hopped with eight pounds of four different hop varieties. The hops are Simco, Sorachi Ace, Citra, and Bravo so we should expect some nice complex, super fruity-citrus aromas. The beer weighs in at 9.8% and 108 IBUs and they're charging $10 per bottle. There are only 240 bottles, so you better get on it!

Phantom Canyon is located at 2 E. Pikes Peak Ave., Colorado Springs.
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Some thoughts About Phantom Canyon's Winston Smith's Barleywine.

Phantom Canyon Brewery released their barrel-aged barleywine called Winston Smith’s yesterday. I was there, I drank a few glasses and walked out with my maximum allottment of four bottles. I noticed quite a few people do the same thing over the two hours I sat at the bar. This marks the third annual release of this beer. The first two years were aged in Stranahan’s whiskey barrels and this year’s batch saw Templeton Rye whiskey barrels.

Phantom has it on tap so you can sample it, allowing you to save your bottles for another time. Perhaps even cellar one or two. This beer has proven it does well over time pushing the barrel flavors forward and melding the beer with them.

This barleywine is a deep brown blending towards a deep ruby on the edges when held to the light. There is a wonderful aroma blending spiciness, vanilla, light toffee, and gentle oak. The first sip pushes the whiskey forward but not in a hot/boozy way, more like a spicy warmth possibly from the rye barrel contribution. Gentle flavors come through that you would expect, like vanilla and caramel sweetness, but the best part of the drink to me was the aftertaste. It left a sweet coffee/toffee flavor which let you enjoy your last sip for a while after.

I was able to drink a couple of 2011’s batch and a 2012 at Trinity a couple days before, at a special tapping they had. Sitting down with Isaac and tasting these two batches side by side sparked a conversation/debate about the best beer in Colorado Springs. Here’s my opinion (This is Scott, I was told to make sure you know this is my opinion):

“Phantom Canyon’s Winston Smith’s barrel-aged barleywine has been proven by scientists to be the greatest beer in or in the vicinity of the City of Colorado Springs, CO.”

I really enjoyed this year’s version and I like the changing of the barrels. I will say that I liked the Stranahan barrel-aged version slightly better, but only slightly. We talked to the brewer and he mentioned the choice for next year’s barrel is still undecided. Phantom had 190 or so bottles for sale, plus a few kegs to keep it on tap hopefully for a little while. If there are any left, it would be a good idea to try to get down there and snag yourself a bottle or four.

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1942 Burton Ale at Phantom Canyon Brewing

I was super pumped when I heard that Phantom Canyon was re-brewing a 1942 Burton Ale. I've never had a Burton Ale but I've wanted to try one for some time now. Burton (Burton upon Trent) is a town in England that has become famous for the popularization of the IPA, and the lesser known Burton Ale. According to Roger Protz:

"Burton Ale [was] a beer that was just as vigorously exported in the 18th century as IPA was a century later. It was Burton Ale that built both the reputations and fortunes of the Burton brewers but as a style it disappeared in the 20th century, taxed out of existence as a result of its strength, and overtaken in popularity by pale ale and bitter."

Beer Weekend In Review

Last weekend wasn't entirely packed with beery happenings but there were a few goodies that we decided to attend individually and we thought we'd share our time.

Brewer's Republic hosted an event in collaboration with Oskar Blues Brewery and Common Cause Catering on Saturday afternoon. Zach Houlahan, the regional rep for Oskar Blues, was able to bring some rare treats for a special BBQ meal. Zach brought beef fed on spent grains from the Oskar Blues farm. Front Range BBQ then smoked the beef and created brisket and ribs for the event. Common Cause Catering created a wonderful BBQ meal from the beef that included beans, potato salad, and their special BBQ sauce. Zach was also able to get his hands on a rare keg of cedar aged Dales Pale Ale for the event along with kegs of most of their other beers. The cedar aged Dales was fantastic and well worth the visit. My only critique of the event was that there wasn't too many people taking advantage of this unique dinner. More advertising may remedy this next time. We didn't even know about it that far in advance. 

Cedar Aged Dales Pale Ale

Phantom Canyon releases 100 bottles of Methuselah Rookie Card

We are pleased to announce that Phantom Canyon's Methuselah Rookie Card will be available for at-home consumption very soon. This is a 'sour red ale with cherries, aged in French oak barrels for two years.' The name Methuselah Rookie Card comes from a Simpson's episode. The beer is bottled and ready to go and tastes great! If you'll remember this beer was a real crowd pleasure at our blog anniversary party in December. There's only 100 bottles of this so you'll need to act fast. 750ml bottles, $20/bottle (+tax), and a limit of three bottles per customer. Released March 10th at Noon at the brewery!

Not only that, but I drew up the label for this beer! Perhaps Methuselah has become the key to this beer's acidity and flavor? Hope you enjoy the drawing and the beer.

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Focus on the Beer Top 10 Beer Spots in Colorado Springs: #2 Phantom Canyon Brewing Co

Here is #4 from the Focus on the Beer list of the top 10 beer spots in the Colorado Springs area. We started at #10 and are working our way down to #1 in the upcoming weeks. The rest of the Top 10 can be found here. Let us know what you think!


#4 Beer Spot of Colorado Springs: Phantom Canyon Brewing Co

Opened in 1993, Phantom Canyon was one of the only craft beer spots downtown for many years. It gained a very good reputation during the 90's and slowly lost that reputation in the mid to late 2000's. Thanks to Alan Stiles, the head brewer for the last two years, Phantom Canyon is step-by-step gaining the reputation it had and continues to improve with each passing month.

The Beer: Phantom has between 8-11 beers on tap. They usually have two beers on cask, the Zebulon's Peated Porter and a rotator beer. You can always expect the usual suspects of Cascade Amber, Hefeweizen, Queen's Blonde Ale, Railyard Ale, and Streamliner IPA, but Alan usually has three to four seasonals and specialty beers on tap or on cask. Alan also enjoys making beer for his Revival Series, a series of historic beers that have disappeared in the brewing industry. Phantom has one bottled beer with very limited availability, the Winston Smith's Barleywine aged in Stranahan's Whiskey barrels, which we reviewed this year and found to be a very tasty beer. The Flanders Red, Methuselah Rookie Card, was released in March and was immediately sold out within an hour.

If You Haven't Been to Phantom Canyon Lately...

At the Anniversary Party we had a raffle and a bunch of prizes to give away, including a couple Phantom Canyon Brewing t-shirts. When I announced the next prize was from Phantom Canyon someone in the audience yelled "Phantom Canyon!?" in what seemed a total disbelief that we would include them in the party. I almost yelled at the person (I didn't see who it was luckily). I've heard a lot of Colorado Springs folks say that they don't like Phantom Canyon and that their beer is terrible and then I find out that they haven't been back for a few years. Well, guess what folks...things have changed there...and it's time to go back.

Alan Stiles at Phantom Canyon

I asked Alan Stiles, the now-two-year-brewer at PC, what he thought of that incident (he was there when it happened) and he said it happens all the time. PC had a bad reputation when he started working there, and he has struggled to regain the brewery's credibility even though he really is pumping out some good beers. A while back we did a blind tasting of the 2010 Barleywine and our judges thought it was a phenomenal beer. We also covered PC when Alan made the controversial but ultimately good decision to take the IPA off cask and put it on tap. Now they have a rotating cask and a really tasty West Coast style IPA that has taken off in sales since it's removal from cask. At the Firkin Festival early this year, we gave Phantom the best beer award for the blended King Mixer. Speaking of firkins, I used to say that Alan made the best casks that I've had in the state, but have you had the English IPA cask from PC assistant brewer Mike Dee? He's the new best. Alan also has a series of historical beers that he recreates, beers that have gone out of style and dropped out of the market. I've never had one of those that wasn't good. Occasionally I have a beer that I don't like but in general they've really done a great job. They aren't making insane 15+ percent beers like Avery that are thick and syrupy, they generally seem to be making beers that are sippers, that you drink a few of and that take a subtler approach.

The last thing I wanted to point out was that at the Anniversary Party (which was super fun by the way!) I invited people to try PC's beer, the Methuselah Rookie Card, a Flanders Red that's been aging for 2 years, and it sold out before 9pm because people couldn't get enough of it. With other beers like The Abyss or Firestone Walker's 15th on tap, at near similar prices, you don't sell out of a beer that quickly unless it's good. Now may be a good time visit Phantom too, they should be tapping today or very soon a 9.3% Belgian Dubbel called Sept-Fons with figs, raisins, plums, housemade invert sugar and carmelized honey and blended yeasts from Chimay, Westmalle, and Achouffe...So, if you haven't given Phantom Canyon a shot recently, you should let go of your grudge and try them again.

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Reader's Choice: Colorado Springs Best Pumpkin Beer (Kind of)

Overview:

Over the weekend we announced that we would have a Reader's Appreciation Blind Pumpkin Judging and eleven of our facebook fans responded. Last night they all came over, we all got to meet each other and then we got down to the business of blind tasting four different Colorado Springs pumpkin beers. A winner was chosen. I purchased all the beer and I did not participate in the judging. See info below for the results and also to see how this is not a complete survey.

Say Goodbye to the Cask IPA at Phantom Canyon

Alan Stiles is shaking things up over at Phantom Canyon. The Phantom IPA at the brewery has been a cask beer for 15 years, and it's a beer that I order almost every time I'm there. The beer will no longer be available on cask after the last two casks sell out in the upstairs bar. Phantom has the best cask beers around, and at the cask festival at Bristol this year, I said Alan's beer (not the IPA) was best in show. So why remove such a popular beer from the menu, a beer that many Phantom fans will be quite upset to see disappear? Instead of the Phantom IPA, we'll see a new non-cask IPA called the Streamliner IPA.

The Phantom IPA on the left and the Streamliner IPA on the right.

Alan invited Grant Goodwiler and me to come sample the beer, side by side to the new version of the beer. The new version, called the Streamliner IPA is actually the same beer as the Phantom IPA, but no longer on cask. Now, I don't like explaining the difference of cask and gas beers every time I write about it, so I won't say much. The two processes entail different fermentation procedures and in the gas version we have the introduction of Co2 into the beer. Cask is served slightly cooler than room temperature while the other is served even colder than that. If you're drinking a beer on tap somewhere, 99% chance it's on gas. I've talked about cask more here.

So, what do we think of them side by side? Well, together we discussed the fact that this IPA is

Blind Tasting of Phantom Canyon's Barleywine

Did you know that Phantom Canyon sells bottles of their barleywine? Not many people do. I got a bottle of this and invited Isaac Grindeland and Grant Goodwiler to do a blind judging of this beer. That means that they didn't get to know who made it, so any bias they might have toward or against a certain brewery was not present. Read below what they said about the beer and what number ranking they gave it (based somewhat on BJCP guidelines).

Title: Phantom Canyon Brewing, Winston Smith's Barleywine
Beer Geek Info:
IBU's- 112
Hops- German Magnum, Galena
Malts- 60% Rahr 2-row, 30% Dark Munich,  9% Simpson’s Crystal 75, 1% Cane Sugar
Water- emulates Burton-on-Trent, UK
Original Gravity-1.117
Original Plato-27.12
ABV- 10.9%
Color- 18° SRM
Yeast: From Whitbread Brewery, Chiswell, London, United Kingdom and Thomas Hardy Brewery, Dorchester, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom

The Judging:

AROMA

Isaac - 10/12

Dark fruit, caramel, oak, toffee, melanoidens, maltiness, some hops, alcohol

Grant - 9/12

Very malty, decent hop aroma but definitely more malt forward, raisins and caramel

Phantom Canyon's First Beer Dinner of the Alan Stiles Era

I really like the beers that Alan Stiles is making over at Phantom Canyon Brewing. From his cask porter to his banana clove wheat to the Revival Series of historical beers he's been making, Phantom Canyon has become a little gem that deserves more recognition. I've heard it said that Phantom hasn't always been this extraordinary, that since Alan came to town, the beer has really picked up. So, it's a wonder to me that this is the first beer dinner Phantom Canyon has organized while Alan has been there. Nonetheless, it is what it is, and it is a beer dinner. It looks good to me, some of the classic Phantom beers will be available along with some goodies, including the Continuum Belgium White, which I've had a few pints of and really enjoy, and there's an Oak and Cherry Aged Flanders, which I've not had but it's making my mouth water just thinking about it. Below are all the details. My guess is that tickets will sell quickly.

When: June 2, 2011, 6 pm
Cost: $50 (all inclusive)
Call Phantom Canyon (719.635.2800) to reserve your seat. RSVP by May 27th at Noon.

The pairings:
Salad: Field Greens Tossed with Goat Cheese, Dried Cranberries, Candied Walnuts and a White Truffle, Flanders Red Vinaigrette. Paired with: Continuum Belgian White Ale

Appetizer: Tiger Prawns Wrapped in Applewood Bacon with Smoked Gouda and Topped with 'Beernaise' Sauce Paired with: Oak and Cherry Aged Belgian-Style Flanders Red

More Appetizers: Cheddar Cheese Curd Fritters with Red Onion Jam. Paired with: Revival Series English IPA

Entree: Pan Seared Dijon Crusted Bone in Pork Chop Over Charred Onion and Prosciutto Mashers with a Black Cherry, Porter Demi Glace and Fried Shallots. Paired with: Hefeweizen

Dessert: Chocolate Malt Cupcakes with Dark Chocolate Ganache and Crushed Malted Milk Balls. Paired with: Zebulon’s Peated Porter


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Breckenridge and Wynkoop Make Joint Venture

Sitting at the bar at Phantom Canyon Brewing

Earlier today the beer world was informed of another merger. Just a few days ago it was Rock Bottom, Gordon Biersch and Craftworks. Today it is Breckenridge Holdings (of Breckenridge Brewing) and Wynkoop Holdings (of Wynkoop Brewing). Each group have 7 businesses, including Wynkoop's holdings of Phantom Canyon Brewing here in Colorado Springs. Each of the fourteen businesses will keep their identity.

As the Westword Blog points out, Breckenridge has a bottling line that can bottle or can 60,000 barrels of beer per year, but is only running half that currently. I don't want to speak prematurely here, but I'm hoping that means we'll see some of Phantom Canyon's awesome beers available in stores.

Here is the full press release: