What we're drinking: New and old

Recently I decided it was time to make my family's special cornmeal crust deep dish pizza. I was thinking about what beer to pair with the beast of a dinner. The thing is at least two inches tall, packed with bacon, fennel sausage, cheeses, peppers, and more. It's heavy stuff. Like divine providence, a package containing Breckenridge Ophelia Hoppy Wheat showed up at my doorstep (Thanks Breck!). I decided to give it a shot and I'm glad I did. The beer has an immediate classic feel to it. It's super easy drinking, it has some lemony and tropical fruit in the background, finishes super crisp to cut through the grease in the pizza, and the Mosaic (a top 3 hop for me) and Palisade hops are amped up enough, but also subdued enough to be super fun. The beer provided a very nice balance to the meal, and I finished it much sooner than I realized. I imagine this will be a popular beer for many, including the beer geeks due to it's subtle complexity. At 5%, it'll be easy to have a few pints. ~Eric

While Eric was enjoying some new Breckenridge treats, I've been exploring some old favorites from my time in Durango. The latest brew to hit my glass, True Blonde Dubbel, has been one of my favorites of the "big" beers that Ska produces. The bright yellow wax job sets this one apart, and harkens me back to days sitting by the Animas river at "the beach"watching tubers float by. While in years past, I would have hogged the whole bottle, I've been introducing my younger sister to different beers in the hope that she'll convert to the beer side of things. She's a self-proclaimed non-beer drinker, but thoroughly enjoyed the Dubbel Blonde, so I'm one beer closer to converting her! We enjoyed this while we prepared some homemade stroganoff, and to no one's surprise the slightly spicy belgian notes and honey really melded well with the creamy sauces! ~ Ryan

What's been your favorite lately? Anything we should check out?
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Ska Brewing Kills off Ten Pin Porter

It's always sad when a brewery has to retire a beer, and later this month Ska Brewing will kill off their Ten Pin Porter. During my years in Durango, this was always the go-to beer for the dwindling light of fall, when the snow starts to crest the La Platas, but it's not cold enough to need a full blown stout. I'll miss seeing the skull-laden labels in stores, always standing out in the cooler. Here's Ska Brewing's press release, chock full of tongue and cheek humor that we know and love from Dave, Bill and Matt.

No GABF Tickets? We've got you covered!

If you weren't able to snag tickets to this year's Great American Beer Festival, first things first; take a deep breath. It is going to be ok!

Remember, there's plenty to do in and around our state's Capitol, and you never even have to set foot inside the Convention center! We already know you're all as excited for Beers Made by Walking tonight as we are, but here's a couple happenings later on that we think are sure to be memorable!

Ska Celebrates 18 Years

Last weekend three breweries celebrated their Anniversary, making it exciting to see the beer industry in Colorado's longevity continue. Boulder Beer, Colorado's first microbrewery, celebrated their 34th birthday. On the opposite spectrum Gravity of Louisville celebrated one year brewing. Right in the middle, Ska celebrated their 18th Anniversary. Our friend, Ryan Hannigan, had the chance to make it out to Ska's party in Durango and gave us a recap of the festivities.


Ska Brewing’s 18th Anniversary Party.

As beer festival season winds down, Ska Brewing always hosts their Anniversary Party and Brewers’ Invitational. Last year Reel Big Fish wowed everyone with a performance many figured couldn’t be topped. This year, as if to prove otherwise, Ska invited The English Beat all the way from Birmingham, England to help usher their brewery into adulthood. Having been to the past few anniversary parties, I decided to make the drive down, and without a doubt it was worth the trip!

Ska’s World Headquarters, a state of the art 24,000 square foot building they’ve called home since 2008, provides a wonderful venue for this event offering tons of outdoor space complete with hills of grass and great seating in their beer garden. Recently Ska Brewing opened a food truck of sorts, dubbed The Container Restaurant. The restaurant, essentially a shipping container permanently affixed to the outside of the brewery, offers food which is mostly sourced locally, and features Ska beer in many of the dishes.

Buy This Beer: Ska Brewing Hibernal Vinifera Stout

We thought we'd welcome 2013 with a post about a new excellent beer from Ska Brewing. The Hibernal Vinifera Stout is part of Ska's Seasonal Stout series where the brewery releases one new Stout per season. I must admit I was hesitant (only a little) regarding this series of beers...I mean, why not do a new IPA every season or something that (in my opinion) has a higher annual drinkability? Well, I'm completely sold now.

Photo of the Week #16b: Euphoria!

Photos of the Week by Daniel Flanders. For those that mark seasons by seasonals: Euphoria has arrived...Winter is coming

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Burning Can, Dogs, Bikes, and Running...All Packaged Together in One Festival

Last weekend we attended the annual Burning Can festival in Lyons, organized by Oskar Blues Brewery. In many ways the festival was unique and felt very much like it belonged in Colorado - we had the beer portion which celebrated canned beer from 35 breweries across the US, no bottles or kegs allowed, a 5k run beforehand, camping, a bike competition, dog competition and more. In fact, all these things were connected as part of the Lyons Outdoor Games. It all worked together in it's own Colorado way. Really though, the more I think about canned beer the more it seems to make sense in correlation with outdoor sports and lounging. I'll tell you what I mean...

The Days Are Getting Warmer

The days are getting warmer and I've got the perfect beer in mind.

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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.

Ska Brewing Dinner at Another Pint

Another Pint has another good looking beer dinner coming up on February 6th. Five courses to be paired with five Ska beers. The beers will be the True Blonde, True Blonde Dubbel, Buster Nutcracker, Decadent, and a special brewer's pick announced a week in advance. That's four special beers that aren't normally available, and True Blonde, which is just a great beer. You'll get to meet the Ska beer rep, get some free stuff from the brewery and as much beer as you can drink. Seats are limited, and you must RSVP, so act quickly.

Ska Beer Dinner at Another Pint
February 6th / 6:30 starting, dinner at 7pm
Cost: $39.99
Call to reserve: 719.481.6446
Another Pint is located at: 13860 Gleneagle Dr. Colorado Springs

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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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My Trip to Arizona and Back

I've been doing a lot of traveling, half of it's been for work, the other half for family. A couple weeks ago I went to Arizona for a family trip and I was able to stop at a couple breweries on the way home. I didn't make the journey in order to try new beer so I don't have a lot of great information about the breweries, the beers, the brewers, etc. I was simply passing through quickly and I took some photos and a couple notes.

I found myself in Scottsdale, Arizona, which for me was actually kind of an exciting place. We drove past hills and mountains covered in cacti that were 20+ feet tall, the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art was a great art venue, there were all sorts of plants and animals that I haven't seen before, quail running around everywhere. But, on the bad side, mostly everything was in a strip mall, a very Southern California flavor, and I read here that Scottsdale has the highest concentration of pollution in the air, above Los Angeles and Bakersfield. Yikes!

Papago Brewing

Inside Papago is a cozy pub atmosphere, thirty taps, and a fridge full of bottles

Anyway, I was able to stop at a little place called Papago Brewing. There's not too many beer places in the city, and people had recommended that I actually go to Four Peaks Brewing, but after seeing Papago's ranking on Rate Beer I decided to go there. Besides, later that night I happened to drive by Four Peaks and it looked like the kind of chain Sports Bar/Restaurant that I try to avoid. Papago contracts their brewing out of two breweries, one in Phoenix and Oak Creek Brewing in Sedona. They had 30 beers on tap, many that I haven't seen in Colorado Springs, such as Bear Republic's Imperial Belgian Rye IPA, Green Flash le Freak, and a Ballast Point Imperial IPA. I ordered a number of Papago Samplers. They switch their beers out with every keg, so they don't even have their own normal line up although they do have a couple beers that are on more regularly than others. I like this model for a brewery.

Samples at Papago Brewing

This brewery was really fantastic, the beers were experimental and a lot of fun to drink. The most style bound beers were the tasty Belgian Strong Ale with notes of orange and banana, and the El Robusto which was a Porter with light roast and a thin body. They also had a Coconut Coffee Stout that was delicious, a Vanilla Mandarin Wheat which was refreshing but a little too Fruit Loopy to me, an Irish Coffee Milk Stout and a fantastic Barleywine, super cloudy appearance, aged in rye whiskey barrels, strong on citrus hops, with a bitter and dry finish. I really enjoyed these beers because there was a range of the normal to the not-so-normal. Some of the beers were crisp and clear in appearance, others were cloudy and thick, some were restrained, others were playful. I enjoy a brewery that plays around like this.

Beaver Street Brewery

A few days later I found myself at Beaver Street Brewery in Flagstaff, Arizona. The town was really cute and we were staying at a really great, cheap little hostel about two blocks away. I ordered a pint of the Cascadian Dark Ale because, hell, I'm from Cascadia and I like to see how these CDA's compare to the homeland CDA's. Also, I find it really interesting when a brewery that isn't in the Pacific NW comes to call their beer a CDA and not a Black IPA.

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.