Jason Leeman Taps Tons At Rock Bottom

I got this amazing email this morning from Rock Bottom with the subject "Good News on Rotating Brews" and part of the email reads "Come Drink My Beer" as well as "Enjoy these rotating beers and be sure to raise a toast to me, the Brewmaster." Then I saw that from Jan 24 - Feb 19, Rock Bottom in Colorado Springs will be tapping a whole slew of Jason Leeman's beers: Zombier Apocalypse, Abbey Tripel, Warning Sign (Barrel Aged), Gibralter, Goat Toppler, Avaste Ye Rogues, and Wittastic. I've had the Warning Sign and Goat Toppler and I really really enjoyed those beers. In fact I'm a big fan of most of what Jason Leeman brews. I hope it doesn't come as a surprise because I do mention that I'm a fan of his beer, although perhaps we don't talk about them enough on this blog. Rock Bottom can get a bad rep because it's a franchise and the brewers have had to start making beer from recipes that Rock Bottom provided. Jason, however, has had extra taps available for his own creations.

Anyway, I emailed him asking what the styles of these beers were, and to see if he'd comment on the nature of this event. Considering Rock Bottom has him making a number of their own beers, Come Drink My Beer seems like an interesting thing to say. He told me that he'd be around on Friday "hanging out for the very purpose of conversation like that."

Hmm, honestly I don't know what's up but I like the sound of it. We're going to do what we can to go try some of these beers and hopefully we'll be there when Jason is. I'd recommend going to this thing.

Rock Bottom is located at: 3316 Cinema Pt., Colorado Springs
- - -
To stay up to date with Focus on the Beer you can receive email updates and join us on our Facebook page.

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.

Reviewing Rock Bottom's Welsh and Scottish Beers

Recently I heard that Rock Bottom in Colorado Springs had a beer in the style of each of the Celtic nations in Britain: Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. So, I got together a crew of people and we headed over there. The group included myself, Isaac Grindeland who is now a contributor to this blog and is a BJCP beer judge, Grant Goodwiler a brewer at Rocky Mountain Brewing, Leah Chapabity a bartender at Brewer's Republic and Dan Flanders, one of the photographers of this blog. It was quite the crew. So, overall we had mixed reviews of the beers and I'm going to share some of that with you.

First a little about our overall impressions of Rock Bottom. I'm a fan of Jason Leeman's (Rock Bottom Brewer) beers, I've had a few and have really enjoyed them. Before spending some good time at Rock Bottom I didn't realize that he seems to be a big fan of more traditional British and German styles. There wasn't an IPA on the menu but there was a Pale Ale with Centennial hops, this was the most hoppy beer on the menu. There was also a wheat, an American lager, an amber and an English Brown. Also, a few beers on cask and a healthy amount of special beers that were mostly British and German, styles I believe (there was a Belgian and a Russian Imperial Stout though too). So, in general with the British beers we're looking at beers with subtler flavors, tasting a lot thinner and less "dynamic" than the American counterparts of these styles. By dynamic I think I mean the flavors will appear more subdued and won't pop out as much as we are used to in drinking some of the more in-your-face beers made around Colorado. Not all their beers are this way, but it looks like in general they are more reserved than places like Avery, Odell, and Great Divide. However, the quality of these beers is, in my opinion, right on par with British breweries I have visited.

The Welsh Beer on the Left and the Scottish on the right.

So, to the beers. For starters we found out the Irish beer was no longer available. Total bummer, so we ordered the Scottish and the Welsh beers. Let's talk about the Welsh beer first.

Collaborative Buddha Nuvo Image Recap

Last Friday a gathering of Colorado brewers took place. The project they were/are working on is a collaborative beer called Buddha Nuvo, named after the Buddha's Hand citrus fruit that has been added to the beer. There are more breweries involved in the project that I can beautifully list here, but I've got a bunch of pictures from the brew date below. Here's a bit of information about the beer:

Our malt bill consists of a complex blend Weyerman Pilsen, Vienna, Rye, and spelt for a golden color yet vinous body. Pumpkin was added in the boil for the smooth textures dancing over the palate. Several varieties of whole peppercorns were added to the boil to further reinforce the expected spiciness of this Saison. In fermentation, we mixed 5 distinct yeasts creating a spicy and fruity ester profile. Post fermentation the batch will age on American Oak Chardonnay barrels, 6 varieties of Bretta, and the rare fruit known as Buddha's Hand. Expected ABV is 12%. (Buddha's Hand was also added to the boil).

If you want more information on this beer, there is hours worth of information online about it at this point. Jason Yester took a lot of video from the event, so check his video-blog page to see the activities. Additionally, Rockyard Brewing set up a blog page devoted to this collaborative beer, which includes a wonderful entry of the email exchange happening between the brewers. Check it out!

This is what a Buddha's Hand looks like. Pretty friendly looking fruit, eh?

Jason Yester of Trinity Brewing mashing in the grains. *

Jason Yester, Jason Leeman of Rock Bottom COS, and Tim Myers of Strange Brewing checking mash temperatures.

Jim Stinson of Rockyard Brewing checking to see if the mashing procedure had finished extracting sugars from the malt. They were shooting for 16-18 degrees Plato.

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

Rock Bottom and Gordon Biersch Merge

The big news of the day is that both Rock Bottom and Gordon Beirsch changes are merging together to become CraftWorks Restaurants and Breweries. It looks as if both companies will retain their brand, so the Rock Bottom of Colorado Springs will still be Rock Bottom, if I'm understanding this correctly. CraftWorks, which also owns Old Chicago will now be in operation of almost 200 brewpubs throughout the United States. There are no plans for rebranding or closing any operations at this point in time. I'm not sure what this will mean for the Rock Bottom in Colorado Springs, but I hope that we will still be seeing the seasonals and specials that make this brewery a great part of our city. Hopefully the brewers will not be limited in any way.

Here is the press release:

Centerbridge Capital Partners, L.P. and its related entities (“Centerbridge”), formed CraftWorks