Rocky Mountain Brewery's 8 World Cup Beers

Last week we posted information about the special tapping at Rocky Mountain Brewery, they were selling tickets so folks could try the 8 beers they entered into the World Beer Cup. Our pal Nick Arseniak, checked out the brews and decided he'd like to send a report. There were only 100 tickets available, so many of us won't get to try these beers and Nick's descriptions might make you a bit jealous. Here's Nick's report:

On Tuesday, July 17, I stopped by Rocky Mountain Brewery to try the eight beers they sent to the World Beer Cup. The eight beer sampler is 10 bucks. It’s not advertised at the brewery so you’ll either have to ask for it or have already bought a ticket. The beers are available till at least Saturday July 21. After that, there are no guarantees. These beers are worth tasting if you have an interest in experimental beers, fruit beers or gluten free beers that actually taste like a beer.

Special Tapping at Rocky Mountain Brewery

Just got word that Rocky Mountain Brewery will tap all eight beers that they entered into this year'sro World Beer Cup. If you remember, RMB finished up with some huge recognition, winning the Gold AND Silver in the Fruit Beer category with their Eat A Peach and Da Yoopers. You can get those, along with six other special beers next week that will likely be surprising. RMB does a really good job with fruit beers, dessert type beers, and strange concoctions. You have to go to the brewery and buy your tickets now, next week is too late.

Special Tapping at Rocky Mountain Brewery
625 Paonia St., Colorado Springs
Flight of 8 Beers / Limit 2 per person / $10 each
Tickets will be honored any time next week July 16-21
Go to the brewery to buy your tickets.


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A Homebrewing Celebration

On Saturday we celebrated homebrewing. It was National Homebrewing Day and here in Colorado Springs we had our own party and it was a ton of fun. The event took place at Rocky Mountain Brewing, a lot of the brewers that showed up were a part of the local homebrew club, The Brew Bros. I had hoped to get all of my homebrew equipment together but I had too much to do before my trip to Kansas City (where I'm writing this post now). What I was really excited about was seeing all the variations of homebrewing equipment, and how some have jury-rigged their systems, built their own tier-systems, each mash tun is slightly different, some drastically different, lots of kegs converted to boil kettles, each person has built their own thing to suit their various idiosyncracies. I was talking to Isaac about how I saw each setup as a type of sculptural art piece and that the lawn in front of Rocky Mountain Brewing was the gallery or exhibition space. I thought it was really wonderful, so I snapped a photo of each set up and I want to share that with you.

John Landerman sipping back a beer while he waits for his wort to finish up. John was making an English Bitter.

This is Russ Dewey and his homebrewing set-up. He's been piecing this thing together for about 18 years. Today he was brewing a Dortmunder Export, a type of lager.

Russ' system up close revealed an elaborate system of hoses, thermometers, chillers, pumps and other parts of this compartmentalized system. This was a lot of fun to look at.

Cinco de Mayo Happenings

To be honest, I didn't send out any feelers around town to see what was going on for Cinco de Mayo on Thursday. But, I did check out a few websites and as far as I can tell there's only one thing happening specifically for the holiday that's craft beer related. That's a release from Trinity, but there are a few other recommendations I have in addition to Trinity. Check it out:

Trinity is releasing a new Farmhouse ale - The Saison Grito. Here's what Trinity has to say about it: Brewed in the celebration of our southern neighbor’s independence. This mexo-belgo hybrid incorporates traditional Saison brewing techniques with spices this style has never seen. The cumin, cilantro, lemon, lime, roasted big Jim Peppers, and yellow corn additions truly make this seasonal a fiesta in your mouth. 5.5% ABV. The beer sounds good to me, and I look forward to tasting it.

Speaking of good Cinco de Mayo beers, Ska Brewing recently released the Mexican Logger for the first time to audiences outside of the Durango area. I don't mean to be cheesy and suggest that we all drink Mexican style/influenced beers on this Mexican holiday, but if you're looking for an excuse and you don't make it to Trinity...the Ska beer will do the trick for sure. I've had a few of these and to be honest, I have a feeling this beer will become my summer favorite. It's light, it's crisp, and best of all when it warms up it still tastes like good beer. I've been searching for beers that are a little simpler in flavor lately and this one has won me over. Now, I haven't sat down to give a real 'judgement' and I don't know if I ever will. I just straight up enjoy it. However, there's a nice review over at the Durango beer blog, Beer at 6512. Check it out. Ska was taking a big leap with this beer and I think they nailed it.

Now, you could always head over to Rocky Mountain Brewing as well. They have Trivia every Thursday night and my bet is that there will be trivia related to the holiday. Now, as far as I know they don't have a special beer specifically related to the holiday but they do have a special beer on tap created by a gold medal winning homebrewer. Here's the info: Scott Buchholz's "Bad Santa" holiday spice ale is on tap here at the brewery. He was the winner of the Peterson AFB Pro-Am Homebrew Competition. His beer was chosen out of every medal winner by our headbrewer. We helped him brew it on a larger scale here at the brewery, and it will continue as RMB's official entry in the Pro-Am Competition at the Great American Beer Fest! 1/2 pints only.

I guess I could also mention that Old Chicago has one of their special beer tours for the holiday as well. They've got 7 standard Mexican lagers and each location is choosing an 8th. So if you want the standard fare, there you go.

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Get Your Homebrew on at Rocky Mountain Brewing

It's been a while since we heard from Rocky Mountain Brewery but we haven't forgotten about them! After all, we're planning Beers Made By Walking with them and one of FotB's favorite people is Grant Goodwiler, one of the RMB brewers.

Anyway, Rocky Mountain Brewing will help Colorado Springs celebrate National Homebrew Day (May 7th) in one of the most fantastic ways imaginable...a giant slew of homebrewers all brewing together! FotB will be heading to the eastern part of town and we'll set up at least one homebrewing station along with many other homebrewers. Anyone and everyone who homebrews, no matter what level you're at, is welcome to participate in this event. Bring your equipment and your ingredients, Rocky Mountain will provide your cold and hot water. It's going to be one big huge potluck of homebrewing, everyone brewing all at the same time. Bring some of your beers too because at 10am there's going to be a nationwide toast to homebrewing! If you don't brew, come along anyway, there will be plenty of stuff to drink and people to talk to/watch.

Big Brew Event
Sat. May 7th, starting at 9:30am
Rocky Mountain Brewing is located at 625 Paonia St. Colorado Springs, CO.
Big Brew FB event page

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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

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