Your Photos, Our Photos, All Our Photos from Saison Fest

Another fantastic Saison Festival has come and gone. As the weather starts to get increasingly warm we look forward to the annual festival as it promises to have an assortment of beers that are refreshing, citrusy, and funky. This year Trinity hosted the event in their new barrel room, which is still under construction, but gave us all a good idea as to how large and how cool that space will be. The beer list was twice as long as last year and there were a number of new breweries participating. Trinity sold more tickets than last year and they sold out within about 45 minutes. In the new space there's plenty of room so it didn't feel as packed as it had in previous years.

For fun we decided to pass out a couple disposable cameras so we could feature some images that you took of yourselves and of your friend groups. The pictures turned out really well and perhaps tell a more complete story of the festival than we could capture with our one camera. We've included all the disposable camera photos that turned out, and we've mixed them in here with our photos.

2013 Saison Festival is coming up!

One of my favorite beer festivals in Colorado is coming up and tickets will go on sale next week. The Saison Festvial showcases all things Saison, Farmhouse, and experimental Belgian-inspired beers. The two years that I've attended the timing has been perfect, the weather is really getting warm and the highly carbonated, often refreshing beers, seriously hit the spot.

Catching Up with Trinity Brewing - An Interview About All the Upcoming Plans and Releases

If you've paid attention to Trinity Brewing lately you've probably noticed that not only did they expand their brewery by 300% but they've been talking about a number of different new brews. They've got plans for a beer called Oh Face, Capitaine, and a Black Fox collaboration. Not only that but they've already released some awesome Saisons including the Three Flowers and the Saison du Tomme. I imagine this season has been very exciting for brewer and president Jason Yester. I caught up with Jason via email to ask him about some of the new brews and new things happening around the brewery. Here's our conversation:

2012 Saison Fest Image Recap

Saison Fest 2012 has come and gone and we have to wait another 365 days till the next one. After living in Colorado Springs for a year and a half I have come to love Saisons and Farmhouse Ales, due in large part to Trinity Brewing and their persistence in exploring the possibilities of these beers. We've seen Saisons of all kinds, from clean, dry, and sharp to messy, playful, and complex. We've seen farmhouse ales with wild yeast, with vegetables grown in our own backyards, with saffron, with heather, without hops, with fruit, with almonds, with large amounts of tartness and many other variations. It makes perfect sense that Trinity's newest flagship beer is Saison Man, a clean and dry saison named after Jason Yester, and it also makes sense that Jason organizes the annual Saison and Farmhouse Ale Festival. This is a day where breweries all over Colorado do some experimentation and bring some very playful offerings. Many of the beers are created for this event, while others are special beers that we just can't really get this far south of Denver (yet). It's a lovely festival, I really can't emphasize it enough. This year I had just as much fun as last year and I'm looking forward to the next one, although I wish we could have it again in 30 days. I hope you enjoy our photos and our recap.

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.