Monument Beer Week, special tappings, and more beery goodness over the next two weeks

***WITH UPDATES***
The next week and a half (or so) should prove to be some of the beeriest few days the Pikes Peak region has seen in a while. Up in Monument, Pikes Peak Brewing is launching the third annual Monument Beer Week, and they are hosting one great looking event every day of the week. Meanwhile in Colorado Springs we'll see a few really good looking tapping events, including a special beer release from our old hometown hero Black Fox Brewing! Check out the full list and details below.

Trinity Brewing's Seven Day Sour Vert Gueuze

Trinity Brewing

Trinity Brewing's roster for the month of July includes the release of Seven Day Sour Vert Gueuze. Brewer Jason Yester mentioned the process (of creating a sour beer in a very short amount of time) to me when I saw him in Portland. So now that Trinity has this beer set to release this Friday, July 12th, I thought I'd ask him more about it. I've included his email response below.

Essentially in this procedure, the process and atmosphere that allows for lactobacillus, a souring bacteria in beer, is heightened and the bacteria does its job in a significantly shorter amount of time, creating a beer that has significantly higher acidity than other beers. In fact, Jason says this beer rivals Old Growth in puckerability, and Old Growth is certainly one of the most tart and sour beers I've had.

Summer's Sweet New Releases

Paradox's In the Spirit of Skully No. 1, in front of the towering barrels, in
their Woodland Park tasting room.

Yesterday was the first official day of Summer. This week a few breweries in town released new beers worth celebrating along with the new season.

Oregon Beer Scene meets Colorado Beer

I spent the past month in Portland, Oregon because, in addition to visiting friends and family, I had organized a number of events that brought some of what Focus on the Beer is all about to the Pacific NW. As you know, our wonderful state of Colorado is home to well over 150 breweries, so I worked with about ten to bring their beer to a special event during Portland Beer Week. In addition to that I also organized a couple Beers Made By Walking walks and a BMBW tapping. I'd like to share some of the photos from these experiences. Many of our Pikes Peak Region readers have been a part of our BMBW walks, or you have attended some of our events, so you know what fun they can be. It felt really special to be able to do some of these things in a city that has such a huge influence in the beer industry.

Portland Beer Week is not really a beer week, it's an entire ten days of impressive beer programming. From the Portland Fruit Beer Fest, which challenges people to think very differently about fruit beer, to the Wine and Cheese Fest, to the barrel age beer seminar, the entire thing is one of the more serious educational beer programs I've ever seen.

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.

Buy This Beer: Trinity Red Swingline

Every now and again a brewery will experiment to combine and mash together two different styles of beers. The results can be a mixed bag. Cascadian Dark Ales are some combination of porter with a big, dank, Pacific NW IPA. Some of those beers I truly enjoy, some definitely miss the mark. I've heard a lot about West Coast breweries trying out smoked IPAs. As experiments these can be fun beers to try. With further refining the beers that were too weird to quaff can perhaps begin to have some drinkability to them.

A couple beer tappings tonight in Colorado Springs

As you'll see in a post later today there is some very unfortunate news for the beer scene in Colorado Springs. Luckily there is some really good news too. I decided to keep the posts separate however. So here is some good news concerning a fantastic tap takeover at Brewer's Republic and a special beer at Trinity:

Brewer's Republic
Brewer's Republic has put together an Equinox tap takeover for tonight. Equinox is a fantastic little brewery up in Fort Collins. I remember going there once and they had six different pale ales and IPAs on tap. Interestingly they do not distribute their beer outside of walking distance. They load their kegs up onto a tricycle and distribute them personally within a few mile radius of the brewery. So, the good news is that the folks at Brewer's Republic have worked out a sweet deal with Equinox, went up to fetch the kegs, and will have them on tap tonight. I'd say this is a pretty special tapping.

Here's a list of what they'll have: Night Ryder Dunkel, Locken der Roggenbier, Eclipse Brown Ale, O'Rion Irish Red (2011 GABF Gold Medal Winner), Space Ghost IPA, and Sputnik Imperial Stout.

Trinity Brewing
Tonight at 5pm Trinity Brewing is releasing a whiskey barrel aged version of their Chilly Water Baltic Porter. The beer is already one of my favorites and I can tell that the beer would lend itself well to a whiskey barrel. It's already aged with some special Mexican wood that gives it some nice vanilla and spice notes, this is going to make it even more complex. Head on over there tonight, I imagine this beer won't last long.

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Wild Beer & Game Dinner - Co-Hosted by Peter Bouckaert

An image from last year's Wild Beer & Game dinner

Trinity Brewing has gone above and beyond with this year's Wild Beer & Game dinner! This week they are bringing sour beer expert Peter Bouckaert down from New Belgium brewing to brew a special collaborative Berliner Weiss at Trinity and that beer will be one of the beers available at the six-course dinner, each course paired with a beer that has wild yeasts. That kinda blows my mind a little. Check out the menu below to see just how amazing this year's dinner will be.

If you'll step back in time with us for a moment you might remember that we covered last year's Wild Beer & Game dinner. It was definitely a standout moment for me and some of the best pairing beer and food pairing I've had. See all our photos and recap of that here.

So you're not going to want to miss out on this event. Seats are very limited and will likely sell out very quickly. Tickets are $90 plus tip. (***Just heard they sold out immediately! Better get on the waitlist!) The event is set for Sunday Feb. 24th at 8pm. Visit Trinity or call at 719.634.0029.
Here's a look at the menu:

New Belgium & TRiNiTY Berliner Wiesse Collaboration, with Amuse Bouche.
Cantaloupe and Locally Raised Wild Goat Buffalo Cheese on an Endive Leaf.

Biere de Mars alongside appetizer.
Colorado Micro Celery wrapped in a Thick Cut Wild Boar Prosciutto Cigar.

Red Swingline, IPA Primitif and salad.
Fried Kale topped with Roasted Red Peppers, Red Onions, Supremed Tangerines finished with a Marinated and Lightly Seared Ahi Tuna in a Miso Drizzle.

Heavenly Feijoa Tripel paired with our Entree.
Wild Gulf Shrimp Sauteed in a White Wine Lemon Butter then topped with a Garlic Beurre Monte Sauce over a Local Rice Pilaf.

Damn, it Feels Good to be a Gangsta, Obscur Noir and the Main Course.
Pan Seared Crusted Pheasant served with Caramelized Buttered Carrots in a Grains of Paradise Seasoning.

Transatlantique Kriek accompanying Dessert.
Local Glacier Vanilla Ice Cream with a Wild Grain Cinnamon Brugge Waffle and a Dark Chocolate Pappy Legba Drizzle topped with a Sprig of candied Mint.


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Anniversary Weekend Photo Recap: Party at Trinity and Breakfast at FRBBQ

Our Anniversary Weekend was a weekend that really goes down in the history books. We presented a rare beer tapping at Trinity and the following day a six course beer and bacon breakfast at Front Range BBQ. These will be some very memorable moments to be certain. Luckily we've got them permanently captured here in case our memories of the Bacon-drop biscuits with pork belly and bacon hollandaise sauce begin to fade. We didn't have the photos ready in time for our 2012 Photo Recap but they deserve their own post anyway.

A big Thank You to all who came out and celebrated with us and a Thank You to all our readers who couldn't make it. Also, a huge thank you to the brewers who participated in the festivities. Cheers!

Drink Up, The End is Nigh

Some people prepare for a coming apocalypse by buying guns, building bunkers and stocking up with a five year's worth of food. Some brewers don't prepare so much as celebrate with new beers made specifically for the occasion. I gather that none of those beers hold a candle to the beer that Trinity  and Black Fox decided brew up and use to usher in the new era. Like any real apocalypse-fearing-planner, preparations for this beer started quite a while ago, I believe we first got wind of it before the Saison Festival in April.

A run down of CO awards at the 2012 GABF

In case you haven't seen it yet, we wanted to give you a run down on how Colorado did, in terms of winning medals, at the Great American Beer Festival this year (2012). We have some tribute photos for Trinity Brewing here because they won a bronze for their TPS in the American Brett Ale Category, which is one of my favorite categories so I'm really happy for them about this. Also, we should give a shout out to Funkwerks for winning two golds along with Small Brewing Company of the Year!

All in all I count 35 awards, including the Small Brewery of the Year. One of these awards comes from the Pro AM homebrew competition and one comes from the large Coors Brewery for the American Lager category. There are 84 judged categories, so if we are only talking about those and not Small Brewery of the Year or the Prom AM (that's 33 medals), Colorado took home 13% of all the medals at GABF! Not bad, I'd say. Out of these 33 medals we won 14 golds, 7 silvers, and 12 bronze medals. So 42% of our medals were gold medals. We won 16.6% of all the gold medals at GABF, 8% of all the silvers, and 14% of all the bronze medals. Additionally we placed in 30 different categories, meaning that CO brewers placed in about 36% of all the categories at GABF. Nice work Colorado!

Beer Photo of the Week #10: Trinity Oh Face

Photos of the Week by Daniel Flanders. At the Trinity Hootenanny drinking Oh Face and eating local pig. Vegetarians close your eyes!

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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.

Saison Fest 2012 is Coming!

Saison Festival at Trinity Brewing was one of the best festivals of the year in 2011, hands down. It's coming up again on Saturday, April 14th and there's only 100 tickets and I want to make sure you get yours. There's a couple reasons why the festival is so great - First of all saisons are a wonderful style for any time of the year and the style lends itself to experimentation. Second, the brewers all show up and pack themselves into the Trinity Brewing pub space and you get to hang out with them and ask them questions. The breweries are from all over Colorado and a handful from nearby states as well. I'd say at least half the beers are ones you will have never tried before. We've got a video of the festival from last year that you should take a look at, I'm pretty sure it will convince you to go.

Info:
April 14th / 12-4pm
Timing: TBA (probably around 12-5ish)
Trinity Brewing / 1466 Garden of the Gods Rd., Colorado Springs
Tickets: $30/advance or $35/at door. Only 100 tickets available, stop into Trinity or call 719-634-0029 to get yours!

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Beer Thoughts: Re-Look at Buddha Nuvo

Beer Info:
The Buddha Nuvo was a collaborative beer with about fourteen Colorado breweries. The funds raised from sales go to the Colorado Brewer's Guild. This beer features Buddha's Hand fruit, pumpkin, spelt, oats, peppercorns, ten strains of Brettanomyces and Saison yeast, was aged in French Oak Chardonnay barrels, bottle conditioned with local honey, and it sits at 12% ABV. Here's photos of the making of, the bottling, and our first review of Buddha Nuvo. Now that it's aged for about 9 months, we thought we'd give it another look.

The Crowd Goes Wild: A Recap of the Wild Game & Wild Beer Dinner

The Wild Beer & Wild Game dinner at Trinity the other night was a real work of art. There were six courses, each with an element of wild game, with the exception of the fondue and the dessert which used local ingredients. The beers, all 'wild' in that they used traditionally wild yeast strains (usually Brettanomyces), ranged enormously from the acetic and sour, to incredibly fruity, to hoppy, to delicate and rosey. Everything was paired beautifully by chefs Brian Blasnek and Chad Conway. I'm going to write about some of the pairings but I don't intend for this to be a review, just a mouth-watering recap. If you want a review...I give it two thumbs up and I would highly recommend the next dinner.

The first course really set the stage for the rest of the night. The Colorado cheddar fondue sat next to apples, pears, and a couple different types of local breads. It was absolutely delicious. But even more incredibly it paired perfectly with the acetic Old Growth. The beer is perhaps Trinity's most tart offering, with notes of green apple. The cheese in the dish was creamy and smooth and so nicely cut through the tart qualities of the beer, which was also complimented so nicely with the pear.

Busy Beer Weekend Coming in February! 2012

Just want to get this onto your radar. In about a months timing there will be a pretty huge beer weekend in Colorado Springs. For some of the events you need to register in advance to participate so check out what's happening on Feb. 17th and 18th, 2012. More events may be added on at the last minute too, but here's what's happening so far...read more for info on Trinity's Brain of the Turtle Release, Peterson Air Force Base Homebrew Party, Rocky Mountain Microbrewing Symposium, and the Firkin Rendezvous at Bristol!

Wild Beer Dinner Coming Up at Trinity

If you can afford it, you should get your tickets to the Wild Beer and Wild Game Beer Dinner at Trinity Brewing before it sells out. With the exception of Avery's Beer and Breakfast dinner at GABF, this may be the most exciting beer dinner I've seen. This will be a six course setting paired with six beers from Trinity, Crooked Stave, AC Golden and the Super Saison League (Buddha Nuvo). These three breweries are perhaps the most innovative in the state as it goes with experimentation with wild yeasts (Avery could be in there too... And yes, AC Golden included, they make damn fine, experimental beer) and they contend with the most innovative breweries in the country.

So, the dinner is pricey for sure at $80 but I just wanted to give you the DL because it should fill quickly. Below you'll find the pairings as well as descriptions of the beer:

Wild Beer and Wild Game Dinner
February 12 / Seating at 8pm
$80 - RSVP Only - 719.634.0029
At Trinity Brewing, Colorado Springs