Fermentedly Challenged - A Colorado Beer Blog

Revisiting Beers and Changing Tastes

2008-05-14T10:21:00.005-06:00

Beer blogging is a fun pastime and hobby. It's been just over 6 months since I started getting into the exploration of craft beers. Looking back, my tastes in craft beers were very narrowly focused back then. I used to limit myself to Fat Tire, a local Honey Brown, and the occasional dark beer. There were some styles that I just didn't appreciate and hadn't acquired a taste for. IPAs were one of them. I wanted to understand why so many beer lovers liked IPAs. Several friends on the Aleuminati social site told me that you just have to keep trying IPAs before you come to love them. That's exactly what I did. But it wasn't until I had tried several dozen other beer styles that I started to notice what wide range of tastes there were out there. Bitterness was something I use to avoid in a beer, but now I've come to enjoy the taste and aroma of a good hoppy beer.

Back in October, I picked up a sampler pack of Flying Dog ales. This was one of the first sampler packs I had picked up at the store and was wanting to try several different styles. Some of them I admittedly had never tasted before. I tried each of the beers and sadly, didn't enjoy some of these beers and gave them a rather poor rating. Little did I know that you can't really judge a style of beer until you've tried many of the same style as well as dozens of other styles. My taste buds were simply not trained yet. It took me 6 months to realize my mistake.

A couple of months ago I picked up yet another Flying Dog beer, their Gonzo Imperial Porter and reviewed it. I tried it but was put off by the intense hop sensation and aroma that came with it. The thought occurred to me to stick some of these beers in the cellar and let them age a bit more. Yesterday, two months later, I pulled out another Gonzo and chilled it down a bit and tried it again. Wow. Was this the same beer? This tasted a lot different than what I remembered. Gone was the overpowering aroma. It had mellowed a bit after just two months. This beer was actually a whole lot better.

So I wondered. What was the difference between the Gonzo I tried back in March versus the Gonzo I tried last night? Was it the temperature of the beer? Perhaps. Had the hops been neutralized a bit after two months? A possibility. Had my tastes changed? Maybe.

The bottle of Gonzo had been sitting unrefrigerated in a dark corner of my basement at a constant 64 degrees. I may have previously tried this beer at room temperature during my 1st sampling. Porters and Stouts tend to bring out more flavor and aroma as it warms. The sample from last night had been put into the freezer and chilled for about 10 minutes. It hadn't gotten that cold yet when I opened it up. This time, the aroma had been subdued quite a bit, which for me made all the difference in the world. Quick chilling may have something to do with this.

My tastes could have also been altered during the last two months. This has probably been the most busiest two month of beer drinking that I've had since I started. I've made a break-thru and started enjoying IPAs during the last month or so. I've tried many more bitter and stronger IBU beers also in that time. So perhaps my tongue had gotten used to the more intense hops and flavors.

Perhaps those are the reasons for liking the Flying Dog Gonzo so much more last night than I had previously. I went back and updated the review on that beer and gave it a more respectable rating. This makes me want to go back and re-review several more of my beers now. Again, I question my current beer ranking system. The numbers don't really relate the entire experience when drinking a beer. So perhaps I should simply throw out the numbers and make things easier.

I've been trying to drink so many different beers as of late but have failed to go back and retry any beers in 6 months. Perhaps some of my old favorites will now seem a bit more bland. Who knows. Anyone else have changes of heart of beers that you've previously dismissed? If so, what was the difference in your mind that changed your opinion? I'd love to hear other opinions on this.

Aspen Brewery Gets Compromise from City

2008-05-11T07:34:00.004-06:00

It had been a long wait for the new Aspen Brewing Company to pour their first beers. The brewery opened for business back in March 2008, but something was not sitting right with them. The brewery wanted to have a tasting room and invite the public to come to the brewery and sample their beers in order to help build interest and sales for their beer. But the Aspen City Council had a zoning law in affect that limited the brewery to offering only 16 oz of beer per customer per day. Aspen Brewery owners Duncan Clauss, Rory Douthit and Brad Veltman felt this rule was a bit too restrictive and went to the city council to appeal. They felt the law was too restrictive. The Aspen City Council wanted to prevent the brewery from becoming a "bar" as the zoning for that area prohibited bars and restaurants from being there.

The first round of debates with the city ended in a defeat. For the time being, Aspen Brewing would have to stick to a 16-oz limit. The city agreed to give Aspen Brewing another hearing however on April 28th. It was a long month in passing, but on April 28th, they met again, and this time with a more favorable outcome.

The Aspen City Council agreed to allow up to 40-oz of beer to be served. This breaks down to either six 6oz tasters or four 6-oz tasters plus a pint of the customers favorite beer. Customers may also purchase beer to take home. The Aspen Brewery will sell 64-oz growlers.

While 40-oz of beer can be enough to put some people over the legal limit, the question remains on how much is really enough at a brewery before it essentially doubles as a bar. At a bar, there is no limit to how much alcohol can be served, although that point could be argued as well. A bar has some responsibility to cut off customers who appear intoxicated.

So at least for now, the brewers at Aspen Brewing Company have a bit more leeway in how much beer they can offer to their customers. Now that the ski season is over, the push is on to attract more local customers to their fine ales. Aspen Brewing is located at 557 North Mill Street in Aspen. Stop by and check out what's on tap.

More blog entries on Aspen Brewing Company.

A Celebration is in Order

2008-05-08T21:21:00.007-06:00

It pays to subscribe to brewer's newsletters. Just two days ago, I received a "What's On Tap" email newsletter from the Samuel Adams brewers - aka the Boston Beer Company. They were sponsoring a contest for their newsletter subscribers in the Denver Colorado area. Apparently, Samuel Adams is sponsoring a series of beer dinners in 10 cities across the country in celebration of American Craft Beer Week next week (May 12-18). They invited all subscribers to fill out a form to enter their contest. I thought that would be a real fun event to attend. Well guess what? Out of all of the entries, I was one of two people selected to receive two free tickets to their beer dinner! Oh ya!

The 3-course meal will be held at the famous Rioja restaurant in downtown Denver and is to be paired with some of the finest selected Samuel Adams beers. The event will be hosted by brewer Bob Cannon from Samuel Adams (the guy with the beard from their TV ads).

If some of you other Colorado craft beer lovers want to attend this there may still be a chance. There are a few more tickets left that can be purchased by calling 303-820-2282. Tickets are roughly $55 each. Dinner starts at 8:00PM.

I'm going to take my notebook and my camera and snap as many pics of the fine food and beers as possible. I've heard the food at Rioja is top notch. I already know the Samuel Adams beer selection is awesome as well. Now I just hope they decide to make their Utopias part of the pairings with the meal. More on this coming up next week. I'm so up for this!

Avery Brewing Sponsored Events

2008-05-07T09:42:00.006-06:00

One of the reasons I admire Avery Brewing Company is that they are highly active in the community and sponsor a multitude of events, not to mention that they make some darn fine beers. Here's a sampling of what this Boulder brewery is up to.

Maharaja 2nd Batch Release Party - Friday, May 9th from 4 to 7 PM

Avery is celebrating a second batch release of their Maharaja brew. In addition, they will be pouring some of their Fifteen Anniversary Ale, a special 40th Anniversary Ale created just for a local liquor store, and their Dry-Hopped IPA. Head to the tasting room this Friday for a taste. $10 per person at the door.

Special Release Event - Liquor Mart 40th Anniversary - May 9th

Avery Brewing is helping Boulder’s Liquor Mart celebrate its 40th anniversary with a brand new brew. 40th Anniversary Ale is a special Belgian-style Pale Ale. Avery says created it by combining two yeast strains for “estery complexity, orange peel for citrus zip, and plenty of Crystal hops for a perfumy, floral aroma.” There will be a special in-store tasting on this Friday (May 9th) from 4-6pm, and you can pre order your 40th Anniversary Ale during the tasting. 40th Anniversary Ale goes on sale this coming Monday, (5/12.)

Insider Tasting Series - Belgian Night - May 14th

Come and celebrate beers brewed in the Belgian tradition with Avery on Wednesday, May 14th! They will be sampling many different brews throughout the evening including their Fifteen Anniversary Ale, Salvation, Bad Sally and more! 7-9PM, $20 per person, Advance ticket sales only. Call C.V. at 303-440-4324 to reserve a spot.

Four on the Fourth 4k - July 4th

Come and join the Avery crew for the first annual Four on the Fourth 4k! Overall winners get their weight in beer! There will be 5 year age groups and the winner of each will get a case of beer. Race starts at 9AM with a reception at the Tasting Room to follow with food, beer and soft drinks available. (So beer fans, if you know of a really good runner in your neighborhood, why not sponsor him/her and agree to split their weight in beer. Too bad 300 pound guys rarely win foot races.)

New Tasting Room Hours

Avery's Tasting Room hours are: Wednesday, Thursday and Friday 3:30 to 8:00 PM with tours at 3:00 PM sharp & Saturdays 12:30 - 5:00 PM with a tour at noon. Your first 5 tasters are free, customers can purchase additional tasters or pints if they so choose. Avery only have a couple of rules: Drink responsibly, arrive with your best beer attitude and bring someone new each time you revisit! Their beer line up changes weekly.

Brew Review - Collaboration Not Litigation Ale

2008-05-06T19:27:00.003-06:00

The heck with protocol. This review is going right to the point. I've just finished drinking a wonderful strong belgian ale. This beer is a blended beverage from the combined efforts of both Avery Brewing Company and Russian River Brewing Company. I call it Salvation Squared, but the label calls it Collaboration Not Litigation Ale. I bought this beer based on the reputation of both breweries and the fact that I enjoyed previously one of the ales that this beer is blended out of. Collaboration (for short) is a wonderful blend of Avery Salvation and Russian River Salvation. This happens to be from Batch #2 that was blended in February 2008. Both ales are quality brews. The fact that two breweries got together and decided to experiment rather than sue each other for having a beer of the same name says a lot.

This beer pours a dark amber color with a near white head. There was a multitude of bubbles coming up from the bottom of the glass so you know it was well carbonated. Upon opening the 22oz bottle, you could immediately tell that it was a Belgian style ale. There's just something about the smell of a Belgian yeast that is quite distinguishable. It's an aroma that I've come to love and appreciate.

The first pour out of the bottle looked fairly clear, but upon pouring the next glass the beer grew increasingly cloudy. Probably due to the fact that most of the remaining yeast had collected near the bottom of the bottle.

I didn't do my usual study of this beer in a quiet and focused environment. Rather, I drank this brew while watching some DVD episodes of my favorite TV shows. I knew from the first sip that I was going to enjoy this. I've become to much of a beer snob as of late and decided that I was just going to sit back in my recliner, drink some damn good beer and enjoy a good show. Isn't that what drinking beer really should be all about?

After finishing the entire 22oz bottle in nothing flat, all I can say is - Mmmmmm. This was one enjoyable beer. I'm going to leave it to you to sample it for yourself. If you are a fan of either of Avery's or Russian River's Salvation ales, then you're going to love this beer. It's so smooth. The blending of the two beers hit just the right mix. It does remind me a lot of Avery's Salvation only with a darker color. It's full of flavor and with a 8.72% ABV, it kicks some ass too. I felt a nice little buzz after finishing this bomber.

For once, I didn't bother to look at the beer rating sites until after I had finished the beer and had written most of this blog entry. I feel it's time to throw away the crutch and just rate beers for what they speak to me. This is one awesome ale. I paid $6.74 for this 22oz bottle and it was worth every penny. If they would make a six pack of this beer I'd buy it again in a second. I'm going to give this a high rank and give it a 4.0 out of 5 rating. I don't give out many 4's but I feel this one deserves it.

If you happen to want to see the other reviews, I'll link to both BeerAdvocate and Ratebeer's here.

Attitudes Towards Beer Start Early

2008-05-05T09:45:00.006-06:00

I had the pleasure of going camping over the weekend with a large group of Boy Scouts. As you may know, participating in any official Boy Scout activity means that there is no alcohol allowed to be brought along. So it was a "dry" weekend for me. There was one interesting beer related conversation that came up over the weekend however. This conversation pointed out to me just how early in a young man's life the impression about what is considered good beer is given to him. This all came about one evening when my son's troop was preparing their evening meal in our campsite.

I work with a lot of boy scouts between the ages of 11 and 17. The older boys (14-17) are given a lot of freedom in our troop to cook anything they want. They plan their menus, they go out and buy their own food, and then they get to cook the meal. Many times, the boys choice of food is influenced by what gets cooked on their Dad's backyard grill. In this particular case, they chose to cook up some brats. Now normally, I don't think twice about the boys choosing to cook bratwurst, but what got my attention was the conversation I overheard between them while they were preparing to cook their brats.

One of the oldest boys who was 16 was in charge of boiling the brats over a gas stove. He was lamenting to the other boys in his patrol about how at home they boil all of their brats in a good beer and how that adds a lot of flavor to the brats, but how unfortunate it was that they didn't have any beer to cook their brats in. The boy was quoted as saying "Ah man, nothing tastes as good as a brat boiled in a good beer. I wish we had some Bud Light to cook these in." I nearly burst out laughing when I heard this. Now remember, this is coming from a 16 year old kid who shouldn't be drinking anything at his age (but knowingly that was roughly the same age I started drinking beer).

So already at his age, his impression of a good beer was a Bud Light. To me, Bud Light is about the same thing as water. I can't imagine getting much flavor at all out of a can of that stuff. Yet at their age, that's all they know about, mostly because that's what beer they see people drinking on TV during commercials. He was going on and on about his "knowledge" of Bud Light and how good it was for "cooking" brats. He even went as far as asking one of the adults if they could run into town and buy a couple of beers so they could boil their brats with it. Of course we had to say a big "NO".

The perception of what good beer is hits home to young men at a very early age. Their knowledge of beer is passed around by word of mouth based solely from what's on TV and their peers. It may also be influenced by what beer their Dad's keep in the fridge. Sadly, many households only bring home macro beer. If we beer enthusiasts want to change the impression of what good beer is, it may have to start at home.

Now of course, I was biting my tongue out on the campsite as I didn't want to encourage beer drinking to young teens. I kept my thoughts about what a good beer was to myself. I certainly wanted to suggest some other beers that would taste even better to boil brats in, but I had to refrain. After all, how would it look if a kid came home from a campout and they told their parents - "One of the scoutmasters told us all about some good beers to try". I don't think that would go over well.

I have a young teen-aged son at home and while I try not to drink in front of him too often, he at least won't see me drinking a macro beer. My beer fridge only holds craft beers. Sad thing is, my older son who is over 21 only drinks cheap macro beer. Keystone Light is his beer of choice. I offered him a craft beer recently and he put it down after a few sips and said he didn't like it. Perhaps I gave him one that had a bit too many hops in it. But still, what he was used to drinking was practically water.

So, it would appear that young men have to be "weaned" off the macro beer teet. Their taste buds (no pun intended) still have to develop as they mature. While teaching them about good beer probably isn't appropriate at their young age, they are still being influenced by what they see around them. If all they see is Bud, Miller and Coors commercials, that is what will continue to be their starting beer of choice.

How would you want to "teach" young men about craft beer? What do you think would be a decent craft beer to introduce them to?

The Session #15: How did you get into good beer?

2008-05-02T10:22:00.006-06:00

I've been a reader of "The Session" across the blogosphere for several months now and felt compelled to participate in this month's effort. The Session is a collaborative effort by many beer bloggers and writers to share their ideas and experiences on a common topic. This month, the topic is "How did you get into good beer?" and is hosted for May 2008 by Boak and Bailey's blog. Each month a different web site acts as host. Here is how the original suggestion for this month's topic was described:

Continuing the “Beervangelism” theme, we’d like you to write about the moment when you saw the light. At what point did you realise you were a beer lover / geek / enthusiast? What beer(s) triggered the conversion? Did someone help you along your way, or did you come to it yourself?

Chipper Dave's Journey Into Better Beer

My roots go back to southwestern Michigan. I grew up along the shore of Lake Michigan in the small town of Saint Joseph. It's virtually directly across the lake from Chicago and on a clear night you can see the glow of the Windy City from our beach.

My first experience with a beer came when I was just a lad of 12 or so. My family was getting together with relatives in South Bend, Indiana for a holiday get together. My uncle and my dad were enjoying a beer when I asked them about what they were drinking. My dad offered a sip to me. Both he and my uncle watched me as I had my first sip of a pale golden pilsner. I'm thinking they were looking for a strong reaction to it on my face. But me, being a 12-year old who wanted to grow up faster than I was, wanted to show them that I could handle a beer. I tasted a bitterness that I had never experienced before. I fought against acting strongly to this and simply came back with a "Hmm, this is pretty good". My dad and uncle both got a kick out of that and laughed knowing that I probably wanted to race to the kitchen to wash my mouth out with a Coke or 7-Up. Truth is, it really wasn't half bad but just not what I was expecting.

It wasn't until several years later in high school that I started drinking beer with friends. The legal drinking age at the time (mid-70s) was 18 and if you had a friend who was of age, you could get yourself some beer easily. In those days, the beer of choice was whatever your friends offered you. And more often than not it was Miller, Strohs, Old Style or Lowenbrau. At the time, we weren't aware of much else. Beer was beer and as long as it gave you a little buzz we were OK with it.

Sadly, my taste in beer really didn't change much until many years later when I was vacationing up in the Canadian Rockies. My brother, dad and I were backpacking around Banff in Alberta. We had just gotten off the trail from camping for a week and we were looking for some real food. We found a dusty old pub in Banff that served burgers and beer. The sign at the door said "Check your Knives with the Bartender". I looked over the selection of beers that the pub offered and noticed that they were all Canadian beers. I had never tried any of those before. I did notice that they did serve one American beer and promptly ordered that. Boy, did I get some looks from the locals in the bar.

A gruff looking local walked over to our table and slammed a beer down and said, "Here, you need to try some of this". It was a Labatt's Blue. I wasn't quite sure what to say so I just thanked him and tried it out. It tasted pretty good actually. I offered to buy him a beer in return and he gladly accepted. Now while the Labatts isn't considered a craft beer in today's terms, it was the tipping point that got me to want to try other beers. I was a stick in the mud. I had been set in my ways and was simply complacent on my choice of beers. It took the offer from a stranger to try something new that got me to thinking.

Flash forward several years later to the mid-80s. I had moved out to Colorado with my new wife and had settled in with a job and a house. I was still primarily a Coors and Budweiser drinker. I joined a bowling league with some co-workers and often had a beer during competition. One of my friends was drinking a very dark beer. I asked him what he was drinking and he told me it was a Guinness Stout. I had never tried a Guinness before let alone a dark beer and wanted to try some. He offered me a sip. My first reaction was not very good. It reminded me of coffee and it coated my tongue with a chalkiness that stuck to my mouth. I wasn't a coffee drinker and the dark malts turned me off. My friend suggested that I try mixing this beer with a lighter beer. So he ordered me a Black and Tan. I reluctantly accepted and tried it. Wow - what a difference! I liked this new taste. The mix was just enough to calm down the dark roastiness but still rich enough to give me a whole new experience. I was sold.

Over the course of the next decade, I decided to try out more dark beers. I quickly became a fan of porters and stouts and quickly learned to love them without mixing them with lighter colored beers. By the 90s, microbreweries were opening up all over the state of Colorado and I was eager to try them out. The New Belgium brewery offered up a Fat Tire amber ale and I really enjoyed that beer.

I play a lot of poker and have a regular home game that I participate in with 5 other guys. We've been playing poker together for well over 20 years now. Each time we get together we all bring our favorite beers. I tended to bring the darker beers to the game. My buddies were usually drinking Bud or Coors. I remember how that grizzly local in Banff, Alberta offered me a new beer and I've did the same with my friends. Since then, they too have become better beer drinkers.

Today, I've really dove in deep to the beer pool and am trying every possible style I can get my hands on. It's only been over the last year that my love of beer has really taken off. I had been blogging about poker for several years and decided to add a beer blog back in October of 2007. I quickly found a wealth of other beer bloggers to share experiences with and it's been a nice ride ever since.

So help out a friend or even a stranger to get onto the road to better beer. Buy them one! If you never plant a seed, you'll never get anything to grow. If it wasn't for the boldness of a stranger, I'd probably still be drinking just Bud.

The origin of The Session came from Appellation Beer.

Brew Review - Dogfish Head 90 Minute Imperial IPA

2008-05-01T20:01:00.004-06:00

I believe I can officially say now that an IPA is one of my favorite styles of beer. Back in late October, I posted a review of another IPA and I simply struggled to finish it. But now, the last few IPA's I've tried I really started getting into. Tonight I finally found an IPA I can truly love. I'm talking about none other than the 90 Minute Imperial IPA from Dogfish Head Craft Brewery of Milton, Delaware. Thanks to all of the recommendations from fellow beer lovers to just keep at the IPAs, I've come to expect a powerful taste and now look forward to them. This beer is the one that will bring me back to quality IPAs.

The 90 minute IPA comes out of the bottle looking golden but quickly turns reddish when poured into a snifter glass. It had a small whitish head and a moderate carbonation. The smell up front was what intrigued me. I can swear I've smelled this exact aroma before but for the life of me I can't remember which beer this reminds me of. I could smell a floral, sweet yet spicy and piny aroma all in one. This aroma seems to last a long time. Other beers I've whiffed seem to overload your senses after the 3rd sniff and you tend not to be able to smell much after that. Not this beer. I could keep smelling the wonderful aroma on each and every sniff. It must be that DFH constantly fed hops into this beer during the brewing process. It is even dry hopped as well.

Being an Imperial IPA, this beer has a lot of malts, a lot of hops and a nice high 9% ABV. The IBU rating is a hefty 90 IBU. And for you calorie counters, each 12oz bottle has 294 calories. When I drink beer, I don't care about calories, I care about the experience and the taste. This beer has plenty of that. This beer fills the mouth with a raisiney, citrusy and caramel malt taste. The liquid seemed to make my tongue tingle after swallowing it. Despite the high alcohol, you really don't get an alcohol bite with this beer. This beer goes down smooth. You know there is a lot of hops in this beer yet it is not the harshly bitter kind of ale.

If you gulp a mouthful of this and then burp through your nose, you will be nearly overwhelmed with the hop sensation. Some people overlook this test of a beer. I like to burp when sampling a beer. That tends to really bring out the full aroma of the beer.

I've seen Dogfish Head ales at the store for sometime now but up until now, I didn't feel that I was ready to appreciate a good IPA. This beer comes in a 4-pack and cost me $9.89 after a 10% discount. Otherwise, 4 bottles of the 90 Minute IPA would set you back $10.99. Think the hop and malt shortage are affecting prices? I think so. Still, buying it at the store instead of in a pub saves you a bunch of money.

Just one of these beers was plenty for me. I think I'd spoil it if I tried to have 2 or 3 of them. Just enough kick but not overly so. Just right for a weeknight. I really enjoyed this imperial IPA. I'm definitely going to buy more of this in the future.

BeerAdvocate loves this "A". And Ratebeer gave it a solid 99th percentile with a 4.07/5 rating. I too am going to rate this up there and give it a 3.8 out of 5 rating. Certainly the best IPA I've had to date. I'm now a big Dogfish Head fan at least. I look forward to trying their 60-minute and 120-minute varieties.

Brew Review - Green Flash Extra Pale Ale

2008-04-30T19:34:00.003-06:00

I've been out of new brews to drink for a few days now and I was itching to get something different and more along the lines of a session beer. I found a decent one in the form of an American Pale Ale (APA)called Extra Pale Ale from Green Flash Brewing Company of San Diego, California. I had heard a lot about this brewery recently and was eager to try one of their beers. My local liquor store just started stocking brews from this brewery about a month ago and it was time to try one. During my beer run I also picked up a nice IPA and Strong Belgian, but I'll wait for later to review those. Tonight, I was going to drink a nice session beer.

This beer was eager to get out of the bottle. The moment I popped the cap the foam started oozing out of the top of the short squatty 12oz bottle. The beer pours a wonderful gold color and had a nice white foamy head. The foam went to the top of the glass and then some. I had to wait a bit for the foam to settle. The head sticks around for a while. You could see that it was well carbonated and clear, not hazy.

The aroma comes out a nice sweet grassy and citrusy smell. Green Flash put in a mix of Cascade and Chinook hops in this ale. Very aromatic. The taste was initially bitter but not overly so. There is a semi-sweet taste that is well balanced with the hop bitterness. You can't help but notice the hops throughout the entire tasting. It is one that I can get very use to. There is a generous amount of premium pale malt in this beer but maltiness is not the dominant character here, the hops are.

The taste reminds me of two things, a mild IPA and a hopped up macro brew, all at the same time. This is much better than a macro brew because the aromas and hops are so much more noticeable. This is a quality session beer that tastes good cold out of the fridge. I could easily drink a few of these on a hot day.

While I don't know the IBU rating, I'll bet it's between 45-60. The alcohol content is a low 4.8% ABV so you can certainly handle this brew without a problem. I got this beer at a 10% discount and paid $7.64 for a six-pack. A decent price considering many of the other craft brews go for a couple bucks more these days.

The beer rating sites tend to go low key on the session brews and give them a modest rating. BeerAdvocate gave it a "B" rating, while Ratebeer put it in the 65th percentile with a 3.24/5 rating and ranked this at the bottom of the brewery's many products. Still, despite being a session beer, I think many craft beer drinkers would go for this beer. It has quite a character of its own and goes down easy. I'll give it a 3.2 out of 5 rating and a thumbs up. I ended up drinking two of these tonight. As the beer warms up the bitterness starts to become noticeable. Keep this cold and you'll enjoy it more.

Create Your Own Beer Video

2008-04-30T17:59:00.002-06:00

I got a tip from @deege on Twitter about a new video creation web site that takes images from your computer, animates them into a video and mixes it with music to produce your own video. I made this short 30-sec video on Animoto in just a few short minutes. This is a fun tool. Check it out.

Avery's Turning 15

2008-04-29T15:24:00.006-06:00

Avery Brewing Company of Boulder, Colorado is celebrating it's 15th birthday this year. In honor of this momentous occasion, Avery is releasing it's annual anniversary ale. This year it's called: Fifteen. There will be a special release party on April 30th at the Avery tasting room from 4 to 7 pm. A $10 entry fee will get you into the celebration. Bottles of Fifteen will be available for sale as well as sampling.

According to Avery: "This years brew was fermented using a brettanomyces yeast strain, making it one of the largest--if not THE largest--batch of 100% brett beer made anywhere to date. A tart, unfiltered beer spiced with caramelized figs, white pepper and hibiscus flowers."

This is considered to be a "farmhouse" ale. It should be something special. Fifteen will be available as of May 5th in 22oz bottles. This beer has been in the making since last December and should be one of their best in years. Avery Brewing is located at 5763 Arapahoe Ave. in Boulder, CO.

Bristol Brewing Going Green

2008-04-29T11:47:00.006-06:00

KXRM Fox 21 out of Colorado Springs posted an article about the latest push from Bristol Brewing Company to take their brewing operations green. Going "Green" is becoming more and more popular by many types of businesses and not just breweries. Read on for what plans one Colorado Springs, Colorado brewery has in mind.

Bristol Brewery Goes Green
By Laura Forbes - April 28, 2008

Green beer is normally reserved for Saint Patrick's Day Bristol Brewing Company is going green year round. Bristol has been in Colorado Springs for about 14 years. Owner Mike Bristol believes in looking to local resources to help the company help the earth.

"A lot of people brag about going green because we're doing this, but in our case, a lot of the things we attribute to being green are things we don't do," said Bristol.

For example, they don't ship beer outside of Colorado. "In the beer world distribution is the biggest problem, when it comes to an environmental footprint." said Bristol. "Its trucking beer, its dense, its heavy."

About 85% of Bristol beer stays in Southern Colorado, distributed on bristol's own truck, a mix of 20 percent bio-diesel. And about 65% of the beer goes out in draft form, so containers are reused. "As everybody knows being able to reuse is a whole lot better than recycling," said Bristol.

That was the idea behind another green move-- giving customers a ten cent credit for every six-pack carrier they bring in.

"You've got all the energy that goes into recycling, you've got to break it down and make it into something else. With ours, you bring in the carriers, and they go 50 feet and get filled up again," said Bristol.

Some of their specialty ingredients are locally grown and harvested, like the honey for Beehive Honey Wheat. And they have several green connections to Venetucci Farm. What's left behind from the barley used in beer making is known as spent grain, or mash. Bristol generates about 20,000 pounds a year. Instead of throwing it out, it is given to the farm.

Susan Gordon is a farm director at Venetucci. She said, "It had been used as a fertilizer on our fields, and we began using it as a supplemental feed for the chickens and the pigs."

"Its very helpful because it keeps our feed costs down," said Gordon. "The feed costs have really dropped since we started giving it to them."

Bristol is trying to grow organic hops at Venetucci. Its still experimental, and may not work in the Colorado climate. While Bristol says he'd like to buy from organic farmers, the quality just isn't there, at least, not yet.

"As soon as we can put out an organic beer that's as good as what we're going now, we'll jump on that," said Bristol. He says that's probably still a few years out, but it is still part of a long term plan to tap into green technology.

"Every time we do an expansion of our brewing equipment, we look at how we can be more efficient, easier on our people, easier on the world, so its sort of an ongoing thing, its part of every decision that we make," said Bristol.

He is looking at expanding his current location on Tejon Street, or moving to a larger space. After that, he says he will likely put in solar energy and heat recovery systems, probably within three to five years.

It's Time To Buy More Beer When

2008-04-28T11:38:00.005-06:00

You know it's time to buy more beer when...

- the only beer you have left are the ones you gave low ratings to.

- the good beers that are left are all dark beers and it's getting hot outside.

- there's no new beers in the fridge you haven't tried yet.

- your favorite liquor store gave you a 10% off coupon.

- you need something new to blog about.

- the hop shortage is going to last for years and the number of IPA's in stock are going down.

- you realize the longer you wait, the higher the price for beer is getting.

- your homebrewing equipment isn't all together yet.

- another blogger gave a huge recommendation on a beer you've never tried.

- everything you have on hand is being cellared for next fall.

- the wife tells you that friends are coming over for dinner and boy are they thirsty.

- your growlers have been empty for more than week.

- you have more fingers on two hands than you have in two six pack carriers.

- your favorite baseball team blew another game in extra innings.

And the best reason to buy more beer - because you know you want to!

When do you know it's time to go buy beer?

I finally got around to buying a domain name for this here blog of mine. I figured now was the time before this blog got any more busy than it's already becoming. So as of now, you can read this blog at: www.fermentedlychallenged.com

I've also restarted using Twitter again and have added a sidebar for it to the blog.

Brew Review - Stone Imperial Russian Stout

2008-04-26T19:14:00.007-06:00

Here it is, the end of April and it snowed today down here in the northern plains of Colorado. So what better way to stay warm than to crack open a nice imperial stout. but this was no ordinary imperial, this was a Stone Brewing Company brew. I sampled their Spring 2008 release of their Imperial Russian Stout (IRS). Stone is known for their "big beers". My previous encounter with Stone was with their Arrogant Bastard ale and that was quite an experience. So at least I knew what I was getting into this time around. I chilled this beer ever so slightly as I wanted to drink this beer around 55 degrees F. It had been in the fridge about 1/2 hour and it seemed a bit colder than I wanted it, so I let it breathe a bit before sampling.

The beer is a dark as night with no light shining through it. It poured with a dark tan head and grew to just over 1 finger high. While the head didn't last long, it did last long enough to show that it was capable of showing well. I've seen several stouts with similar heads. The only beer I've seen pour darker was the Oskar Blues Ten Fidy. The Stone IRS is a powerful brew on paper. It's measured at 10.8% ABV and an IBU of 90+. Strong and bitter by label but was it?

I could smell the rich dark malts and a hint of black licorice. The other thing you could sense is the alcohol. It's definitely has a big part of the aroma. Stone put in a generous amount of Warrior hops into this brew yet that hop smell was hidden well. While I couldn't see through this beer I could detect the slightest bit of carbonation coming up from the bottom of the glass.

The first sip of this brew told me that this beer was still a bit too cold yet. I swirled the beer around in my mouth to warm it up slightly then swallowed. There is a huge amount of flavor here. You can taste the dark roasted malts. It reminded me of chocolate, coffee, licorice. The beer is mildly bitter but the sweetness of the malts balance it well. As in most stouts, the brew coats the tongue a bit. This is one of the reasons why when sampling a wide range of beers in a single evening, you want to sample the darkest beers last.

Comparing this beer to other imperial stouts, I felt that this beer was better balanced and less "intense" than a brew like Old Rasputin. This beer starts out strong but grows on you as you go along. The warming effect of this high alcohol brew doesn't really hit you until half way through your first 12oz glass. After the first glass I was feeling good but not overpowered. Still, I feel if you're going to be drinking an imperial stout, it's best to go with one glass as two glasses may put you over the limit.

This beer got better the more I drank it. As it warmed the malts and aromas really started coming out. I didn't know at first if I was going to enjoy this beer but by the end of the tasting I was sold on this. This is one damn good Russian Imperial Stout. The beer rating sites concur with me. BeerAdvocate gave this a top A grade, while Ratebeer put this in the 100th percentile (highest) and a 4.24/5 rating. Worthy praise and I can see why. I was really undecided how to rate this beer. I think it's best to finish your beer before passing judgement. If the beer gets better as you go, you should tend to wait to grade it. My initial rating was about a 3.7/5 but I think this deserves better. I'm going to give this a solid 4.0 out of 5 and call it one of the better beers I've had. Now granted, if this would have been a much warmer day, then I'd probably not go anywhere near this beer. But since it was snowing earlier in the day, I qualifies as a decent Springtime in the Rockies beer.

Now compared to it's brother, Arrogant Bastard, I much preferred the Stone IRS. It was better balanced and I didn't have to struggle with this despite the high ABV and high IBU. Kudos to Stone for making a truly wonderful Stout. I'll look to buy this again and perhaps age it a while and see how it tastes after a year.

Food Pairing Recommendation: I drank this brew while eating a delicious raspberry chocolate ice cream. Simply wonderful!

Odell Tapping Double Pilsner Today

2008-04-24T12:09:00.003-06:00

Breaking news from Odell Brewing Company in Fort Collins, Colorado. Scraped directly from their Myspace page.

Event: Double Pilsner Tapping Party - April 24th
Current mood: fermented
Category: Parties and Nightlife

Thursday Apr 24, 2008
at 4:00 PM at Odell Brewery Tap Room
800 E. Lincoln Ave.

It's that time of year when Odell rolls out their Double Pilsner.

Odell says: "Double Pilsner is our tribute to the pilsner style, heavily hopped but balanced with malt and refined on our 5-barrel system. Originally brewed in Bohemia, pilsners were the world's first clear golden lagers and the start of a dramatic revolution in brewing. Today, pilsners are still a revered part of Czech and German life and an inspiration to our brewers."

8.1% ABV - 40 IBUs
Available May - August

BE THERE!

16th Annual Microbreweries for the Environment Benefit

2008-04-24T11:47:00.004-06:00

16th annual Microbreweries for the Environment Benefit - Think Globally, Drink Locally: 20 Breweries, $2 Pints!

KGNU and the Boulder Weekly proudly present the 16th annual Microbreweries for the Environment benefit on Friday, April 25 at The Boulder Theater.

Since 1993, the Microbreweries for the Environment benefit has raised nearly $100,000 for local environmental causes. The proceeds from this year's benefit will further the environmental efforts of the University of Colorado Environmental Center, Colorado Conservation Voters, EcoCycle and Wild Earth Guardians.

Twenty Colorado microbreweries serve their best beers for only $2 each. Participating breweries include: Arctic Craft Brewery, Avery Brewing, BJ's Brewhouse, Boulder Beer Co., Breckenridge Brewery, Bristol Brewing Co., Flying Dog Brewery, Fort Collins Brewery, Great Divide Brewing Co., Left Hand Brewing Co., Mountain Sun, New Belgium Brewing Co., Odell Brewing Co., Oskar Blues Brewery, Pumphouse Brewery, Redfish Brewhouse, Ska Brewing Co., Steamworks Brewing Company, Twisted Pine Brewing, and Wolf Rock Brewing Company.

The evening's entertainment features music by Elephant Revival and Cornmeal. Elephant Revival's funky, gyptic, soul, folk music will set the stage for Cornmeal's progressive bluegrass and roots music. The music is sure to go well with Colorado finest brews. Visit elephantrevival.com and cornmealinthekitchen.com .

And, to top it off, the benefit is a zero-waste and carbon-neutral event.

Everyone is encouraged to walk, bike, or bus to the event. Doors open and beer tasting starts at 8:00pm, and music will run to 12:30am. Admission costs $21. Tickets are available at the Boulder Theater Box Office (303-786-7030 or www.bouldertheater.com). The event will sell out.

New Belgium Revisited

2008-04-23T18:43:00.006-06:00

What do you do when you've got 1 hour for lunch and work just 7 miles away from New Belgium Brewery in Fort Collins? You rush over there of course! I've been wanting to get back to New Belgium for a while now and took the opportunity for a quick sampling during my lunch break. I just love the atmosphere over at their tasting room. The staff is always friendly and eager to talk with you about their beers. Best of all, the samples are FREE. Can't beat that. It was still a bit early, around 11:30am, and there were only a handful of patrons there. This tasting room is well lit by the sun and gives you a real cozy feeling. A female employee that I recognized from my last visit came over and started chatting. She seemed to remember me from last time - I was shocked. Behind her was a small shelf with one of the new Fat Tire cans on display. I asked if they had any sample cans to give out but she said that was one of the few prototype cans. They would be rolling out the canned version of Fat Tire starting in June.

I sat down on a stool at the bar and looked at their beer menu. I've tried many of their beers before but wanted to get at least three that I'd never tasted before. I filled in my selections and off she went to fill my order. New Belgium gives it's visitors four free 4 oz glasses of beer to sample. Any more than that and you'd have to pay for it and get some beer to go. I was quickly served 4 beers that were fresh from the tap and were surprisingly quite cold. Here's a quick rundown on the beers I chose today: Jessica's Ale (Lips of Faith), Abby Belgian-Style Ale, Mighty Arrow (Pale Ale) and an old familiar, La Folie (Sour Brown Ale). I've had the La Folie before and knew what I was in for and put that one aside to have last.

Jessica's Ale is a special tap room only beer that is part of New Belgium's "Lips of Faith" series. Employees compete to come up with new recipes and the best are made into beers and served to the public in their tasting room. I've had one of the Lips of Faith beers before when it was the Eric's Sour Peach Ale. That was tasty, so I was anticipating something different. Jessica's Ale is billed as a spiced Porter. It pours very dark brown with red overtones. It has a semi-sweet and spicy aroma of cinnamon and ginger. It also smelled a bit like raisins to me. The taste was much like the aroma, spicy but with a nice after hit of caramel malts. It also had what I call their signature Belgian yeast taste. It's very subtle going down. This would be perfect for sipping during a quiet evening at home. 6.8% ABV. Very enjoyable. 3.5 out of 5 rating.

Abby Belgian-Style Ale - this is a Belgian Dubbel. It was a dark amber and had a nice lacy near white head. I've tasted something similar recently during a tour of a Rock Bottom restaurant nearby but this one was definitely more refined. It had the aroma of bananas and cloves. The brewers description stated that it also will smell of figs. Well I've never smelled a fig before so that was new to me. 7.0% ABV. You have to be in the mood for a dubbel. It had a nice malty flavor twisted in with a noticable belgian yeasty flavor. You have to be in the mood for this type of beer. While I enjoyed it, it wasn't my favorite. 3.2 out of 5 rating.

Mighty Arrow - this Pale Ale was a nice copper / gold color with a creamy white head. They put in a mix of Golding, Cascade and Amarillo hops with a honey malt base. I really liked the aroma of these hops up front. It's a good ale for a summery day. It has a slightly bitter finish to it, but thats just what I expected for this kind of ale. This reminds me of a mild IPA. 6.0% ABV. I'll have to get more of this. 3.4 out of 5 ranking.

La Folie - Last but not least, their famous Sour Brown ale. I've previously reviewed this beer many months ago but now am upgrading my ranking on this. I've come to appreciate what wood cask aging can do for a beer. This beer had been aged up to 3 years. It has an aroma that reminds me of vinegar but not overly so. The taste is very tart just as I remember it and I pucker a bit every time I have a first taste of it. This beer seems to be popular. Most of the patrons in the room were having it. The New Belgium employees also seem to push this beer. "Have you heard about our La Folie?" "Oh ya!" - I tell them - "That's why I came!" I like this beer in small quantities. A 4 oz glass is just the right size for this type of beer. A full glass might be a bit too much sourness for my system. It's still one of their best beers. Try this one with small sips. 6% ABV. Tart, sour, good. 3.6 out of 5 rating.

I really wanted to bring some of these brews home with me, but it was noon and I knew they would be sitting in a hot car all afternoon. So I opted to pass until another time. I'll have to get myself a small insulated cooler for my trunk and bring along a freezer pack next time. Lunch breaks don't give you time enough for the tour either. On my way out the door, they had a stack of Celebrator Beer News on hand so I took one to read later on. It's always a good time when I visit New Belgium. You can bet that I'll be back again soon.

Update on Russian River

2008-04-22T14:24:00.007-06:00

Back in February, I reported hearing that Russian River Brewing would soon be expanding their distribution of their fine beers to other states, including Colorado. I had originally heard that April was going to be the month that this would happen but I hadn't heard anything recently about it. So, I did what any beer lover would do. I went directly to the source and emailed the owner and brewer at Russian River - Vinnie Cilurzo. Vinnie was kind enough to quickly respond to my inquiry with a nice email back to me. Here is what he told me:

"We are going to start shipping to CO in the summer, we do not have an exact date as we are still finishing up the construction at our production brewery."

"Our distributor will be Elite Brands out of Denver and the contact is Terry. She is a great person and runs a great company."

"We plan to sell Pliny the Elder and Damnation in kegs to begin with (and) bottles of Damnation and limited bottles of Pliny the Elder. Eventually we'll get Salvation there as well."

Thanks,
Vinnie

Vinnie Cilurzo
Brewer / Owner
Russian River Brewing Company
725 4th St.
Santa Rosa, CA 95404
Tele: 707.545.2337 x 4
Fax: 707.545.2338
sign up for our e-newsletter at
www.russianriverbrewing.com

My taste buds are already watering anticipation. It may be just a bit longer to wait but for these fine beers from California, it will be well worth it. In the meantime, the closest thing I'll get to a Russian River is the Collaboration Not Litigation beer that Russian River and Avery Brewing jointly puts out here in Colorado. It's a mix of both of their Salvation brews. Anyone else looking forward to their expanded distribution like I am? Let me know.

Brew Review - Avery Hog Heaven

2008-04-20T16:46:00.004-06:00

This blog post marks a semi-milestone as it is the 100th blog post to Fermentedly Challenged. It's been nearly 6 months since I started this blog and I feel like I'm just getting started. During my most recent beer run, I wanted to try a few new styles of beer. One of the styles that has eluded me so far is an American Barleywine. I set my sights on Hog Heaven from Avery Brewing in Boulder, Colorado. This is considered one of the "big beers" as it is one of the strongest beer styles out there. You know up front that you've got to prepare yourself. The beer has a 9.2% ABV and an IBU rating of 104. Yikes! I've had a few strong beers before so I kinda know what to expect out of this. Or perhaps I don't. I've seen this beer in the cooler over and over again but I've hesitated buying it as it is a Barleywine. I'm still garnering a taste for the big hopped beers like IPA's so taking up another strong beer category was something I put off until now.

This beer hit me as soon as I popped the top off the silver-foil topped bomber bottle. I could smell the hops and alcohol from 3 feet away without really trying. OK, time to prep myself for a big beer. This beer is a deep garnet color with some golden highlights coming from the bottom of the belgian snifter glass. This beer came with a nice big tan head that left a decent sized bead throughout the sampling. Now I must admit that my Spring allergies were starting to kick in and my ability to smell things is slightly impaired, but this beer broke through my congestion with little effort. It is unlike any beer I have sniffed to date. Perhaps it the high alcohol and high doses of Columbus hops that this beer had. I know that this beer has a ton of 2-row and Caramel 75L malts but whoa, it had an intense aroma. I might even say it was slightly offensive at first but later I realized it was just intensely hopped.

The taste was again different than what I expected. It had a strong mouth feel but it was lightly carbonated. I could sense the alcohol right away, a slight burn. Within the first half a glass I could feel how strong it was. Some strong beers don't hit you right away but this one does. I can taste a lot of caramel malts in this beer, but I also get a slight aftertaste which is hard to describe. It reminds me slightly of cough syrup but not in a bad way. I found myself going easy on this drink as I knew it was going to really hit me hard after the entire 22oz bottle.

This is probably one of the most intense beers I've ever tasted. It's close to one of those Flying Dog beers but with a much different hop taste and feel. The beer coats the tongue slightly and leaves you wondering just what it is that this beer reminds you of. Strong is a good word for this beer and is not intended to be drunk by a Bud or Miller drinker. It's dry hopped to the max. It "burps" well after a few quick gulps. Not sure if I could drink more of this. Certainly 1 glass was enough for me. I'm not sure just how long it's been on the shelf at the store. It had a slight layer of dust on it. That probably means it's been there several months, but that should be ok with this style as it supposedly cellar ages well.

Being a big beer, I figured that the beer ranking sites would like it and I was right. Beeradvocate gave it a B+ while Ratebeer put it in the 96th percentile of all beers with a 3.81/5 ranking. Hmm, that seems very generous for this beer. If you're not a Barleywine fan you may not like this beer initially and it will take some getting used to. After the first glass I was wondering if I really wanted to finish the full bottle. By all respects, this beer looks good, smells intense and has a taste unlike most beers I've had. It's hard to really enjoy this beer without prior experience with barleywines. So perhaps my rating of this beer is premature in coming as I've not had any other barleywine to compare it too. It's not one of my favorites but is something I may want to revisit later once I've had a few more barleywines. But for now, I'm giving it a 3.1 out of 5 rating.

Colorado Shows Well at 2008 World Beer Cup

2008-04-20T07:16:00.007-06:00

The Brewers Association announced the winners from the 2008 World Beer Cup on April 19, 2008. There were 2,864 beers in 91 different categories from 644 brewers represented this year, the most categories in the recent history of the World Beer Cup. Colorado breweries did very well this year taking in 22 medals and one Champion Brewery award. The following awards were given out to Colorado brewers in 2008:

World Beer Cup 2008 Winners List (Colorado Breweries)

Category 6: Fruit & Vegetable Beer
Silver: Blue Moon Chardonnay Blonde, Blue Moon Brewing, Golden, CO

Category 8: Coffee Flavored Beer
Gold: Java the Hut, CB & Potts Restaurant and Brewery – Flatirons, Broomfield, CO

Category 10: Specialty Honey Lager
Gold: Blue Moon Honey Moon, Blue Moon Brewing Co, Golden, CO

Category 12: Other Strong Ale or Lager
Silver: Double Pilsner, Odell Brewing Co., Fort Collins, CO

Category 15: Wood and Barrel-aged Beer
Bronze: Bourbon Barrel Stout, Rockyard Brewing Co., Castle Rock, CO

Category 25: Dortmunder/European Style Export or German-Style Oktoberfest/Wiesen
Bronze: Llano Lager, SandLot Brewery, Denver, CO

Category 36: American-Style Amber Lager
Silver: Old Scratch Amber Lager, Flying Dog Brewery, Denver, CO

Category 53: English-Style India Pale Ale
Bronze: Vapor Cave, Glenwood Canyon Brewing Co,. Glenwood Springs, CO

Category 56: Extra Special Bitter or Strong Bitter
Gold: Standing Wave Pale Ale, Kannah Creek Brewing Co., Grand Junction, CO

Category 59: English-Style Brown Ale
Silver: Sweet George’s Brown, Dillon DAM Brewery, Dillon, CO
Bronze: Big Ben Brown Ale, Bull & Bush Brewery, Denver, CO

Category 60: Brown Porter
Silver: Cutthroat Porter, Odell Brewing Co., Fort Collins, CO

Category 62: Sweet Stout
Gold: Left Hand Brewing Company Milk Stout, Left Hand Brewing Co., Longmont, CO

Category 66: Old Ale
Bronze: HMS Bounty Old Ale, Dry Dock Brewing Co., Aurora, CO

Category 67: Strong Ale
Bronze: Sopris, Glenwood Canyon Brewing Co., Glenwood Springs, CO

Category 69: German-Style Kölsch/Koln-Style Kölsch
Silver: Colorado Kölsch, Steamworks Brewing Co., Durango, CO

Category 75: Irish-Style Red Ale
Bronze: Red Rock, Rock Bottom Brewery – Denver, Denver, CO

Category 81: American-Style India Pale Ale (77 entries – biggest entry)
Gold: IPA, Odell Brewing Co., Fort Collins, CO

Category 84: Imperial or Double Red Ale
Bronze: Gordon, Oskar Blues Brewery, Lyons, CO

Category 86: American-Style Sour Ale
Silver: Eric’s Ale, New Belgium Brewing Co., Fort Collins, CO
Bronze: Le Terroir, New Belgium Brewing Co., Fort Collins, CO

Category 89: American-Style Imperial Stout
Gold: Gonzo Imperial Porter, Flying Dog Brewery, Denver, CO

Champion Brewery and Brewer Awards
Brewers Association World Beer Cup 2008 Champion Brewery
Large Brewing Company Category
Blue Moon Brewing Company, Golden, CO

The largest category of entries came from the American-Style India Pale Ale which had 77 entries this year and Odell Brewing Company of Fort Collins won Gold for best in show. Way to represent Odell!

Just in case anyone was counting, Oregon garnered 14 Medals and 2 Champion Brewery awards. California blew away the field with 35 Medals and 1 Champion Brewery award. Germany won 25 Medals and 1 Champion Brewery award. And Japan won 10 Medals.

The full list of winners can be seen at the Brewers Association website.

Brew Review - Spaten Optimator

2008-04-19T15:11:00.005-06:00

I got a tip from one of my relatives back in Michigan about this beer and found one in my local store. It's called the Spaten Optimator. This is a classic imported German Doppelbock. A nice dark lager from the Spaten-Franziskaner-Bräu brewery in Munich, Germany and belongs to the InBev family. To my knowledge, this is the first doppelbock that I've tried but after tasting it I could swear I've had this before. This beer comes in a 16.9 oz gold foil covered brown bottle. Best of all, they are sold individually for a very low price, so it was well worth a try.

This doppelbock pours a dark brown color with faint red highlights around the edges of the glass. This beer got a nice thick tan head that quickly melted down to nearly no bead. This beer has a sweet aroma, almost like spice bread. You can faintly smell the German hops but what you really smell is the rich malts that this brew contains. The mouth feel is very creamy and is carbonated just right. The malts hit you up front and last through to the swallow. There are a lot of malts in this beer. It's mostly caramel malt that you taste. I don't detect anything roastier than that. This beer is not bitter in the least. It's sweet but with just enough hops to balance it out. I don't know the IBU rating but I'd guess it's fairly low. Being a doppelbock, it's alcohol content is slightly higher than regular lagers at 7.2% ABV. This beer drinks well and I'd have no problem having more than 1 bottle of this.

This Spaten beer got decent ratings by the beer ranking sites. Beeradvocate gave is a B+ while Ratebeer put it in the 92nd percentile overall and a 3.67/5 ranking. I can see why my relatives back home recommended this beer. They've been to Germany on several occasions and know a good German beer when they taste one. Zum Wohlsein! I really enjoyed this beer and would recommend it to anyone who wants to try a good German Doppelbock. I'll give this beer a nice 3.6 out of 5 rating. Now I wish I had picked up a couple more of these.

Brew Review - Oskar Blues Gordon

2008-04-18T19:06:00.007-06:00

Time for more good Colorado beer! Tonight I ventured back to one of the local breweries, Oskar Blues from Lyons, Colorado. I had previously enjoyed their imperial stout but wanted to continue to sample more of those "gonzo beers in a can". This time I chose their Gordon beer. It's billed several ways: one as a Double IPA, another as a Strong American Ale and third as an Imperial Red. Well whatever the category, you knew up front that this was not going to be a typical beer. This beer was going to give you a mouth of flavor. Just reading the label told you this beer had 8.7% ABV and was not going to be a session beer. Since this was a strong IPA, I knew I was in for some hops tonight and I was right, well sort of.

I popped open the beer can and poured it into an English pint glass. All my other glasses were in the dishwasher tonight so this would have to suffice. It poured a nice copper red color that came with a large off-white head. Right away I was met with a strong hoppy aroma even before my nose got to the glass. Whoa! It almost reminded me of some of those Flying Dog brews that are so heavily hopped. I knew that since this beer has an IBU rating of 85 that this was going to hit me with hops all night long. But little did I know that I was in for a surprise.

I enjoyed taking several deep whiffs of this beer before tasting it. It literally fills the top of the glass with hoppy goodness. This was a type of hop smell I could really get into. The first taste I was expecting to be hit with a real bitter mouthful but was pleasantly surprised at how smooth it was. It really didn't remind me of a strong bitter beer at all. This "Big. Red. Sticky." beer had a nice balance of malt and hops. I didn't even notice any telltale alcohol bite either. Very nice! I could really become an IPA lover with beers like this. This is quite good.

I just happened to be listening to one of my favorite beer podcasts at the time of this tasting - The Good Beer Show #151 - and was amazed that they too were tasting and reviewing this wonderful Gordon beer. Salute! It's fun to be tasting to the same beer that others are reviewing, it's interesting to hear what others are experiencing. This brew I was tasting came from a 4-pack. It's a bit more pricey than other beers. I ended up paying $10.99 for this 4-pack. It's much more reasonable to buy this by the 12-pack and next time I'll do just that. Even the clerk at the store checkout was raving about Gordon, so I knew this beer was going to be a treat.

Even my old beer dog Charlie knew something smelled good. As soon as I opened this up and poured it into the glass, he came over and started smelling the air. He wouldn't leave! He wanted to know what that good smell was all about. Well sorry Charlie, only real beer drinkers get to sample this beer. He just sat and stared while I drank it so I had to take his picture. Pour beast. Maybe in your next lifetime.

The beer rating sites seem to all like this beer. Beeradvocate gave it an A- and Ratebeer put this in the 97th percentile with a 3.86/5 rating. As for me, I certainly will give this a decent score. I'm amazed how over the course of six months that I've gone from an IPA avoider to an IPA seeker. I'll give this a definite thumbs up and a 3.6 out of 5 rating. It's still not my favorite style but it's definitely growing on me. Good thing I still have 3 more of these left for later this weekend.

Fat Tire Cans Previewed

2008-04-18T10:26:00.007-06:00

Thanks to J over at the Brookston Beer Bulletin for finding this image. This summer, the New Belgium Brewery of Fort Collins, Colorado will begin canning their flagship Fat Tire Amber Ale. This move by New Belgium will kick start their entry into the canned craft beer market. While canning Fat Tire may be considered a test by New Belgium, it could prove to be something worth pursuing with their other year-round brews. Perhaps this move will help lower shipping costs as cans are much lighter than bottles. What started with Oskar Blues several years ago now seems to be catching on. Now that New Belgium is going to can Fat Tire, you will probably see other brewers follow suit. The look of the can turned out well I think.