Pliny the Younger at Falling Rock and Wynkoop's Beerdrinker of the Year

Introducing Isaac Grindeland, the newest writer for Focus on the Beer.

Here's a few happenings that were going on in Denver this last Saturday. Since Pliny the Younger wouldn't be tapped at Trinity until April 11th at 5 pm, I decided to make the trip, without Eric, to Falling Rock Taphouse for their second tapping of the month of Pliny the Younger. For those not familar with this juice of the barley, it is the nephew of Pliny the Elder from Russian River Brewing company in Santa Rosa, CA. Pliny the Younger is an 11% triple IPA and hopped three times more than their standard IPA plus dry hopped four different times. They only release this magical brew once a year in February. As opposed to other coveted beer such as Three Floyds Dark Lord and Surly Darkness where you can only get the beer at the brewery or at the town of the brewery, Russian River graciously sends kegs to regional states for beerophiles to enjoy. This was my first tasting of the beer, and it did not disappoint. Falling Rock did a great job orchestrating the crowds by giving each person a red ticket guaranteeing a beer. The crowds weren't terribly big, and I was able to get two generous goblet style pints. Pliny the Younger was very similar to Pliny the Elder in flavor and aroma but with an added hopburst. I expected the flavor to be a lot sweeter since it's a triple IPA, but they did a great job of finishing this beer out with amazing balance and noticeable, but not hot, alcohol warmth.A herd of Pliny the Younger (very rare sighting!)
Myself decked out with my Russian River garb, reading Radical Brewing, and enjoying Pliny the Younger.

The beer gods favored Pliny the Younger this day. A beautiful sight to behold.

I met up with some fellow Brew Brother of Pikes Peak at Falling Rock after our Pliny fills, and we headed over to Wynkoop Brewing Company for The Beerdrinker of the Year finalists competition. The seats were full to watch

Bristol's 2011 Smokebrush Porter Label Design

Congratulations to Luke Flowers, the winner of the 4th annual Smokebrush Porter design competition! A very nicely designed and artistically rendered image is now on the bottle of the newly released Smokebrush Porter from Bristol Brewing Co.

The bottle reads: Our city would be a bland and humorless place without the Smokebrush Foundation for the Arts. Since 1992 their random acts of creativity have made us smile, made us think, reminded us of our better selves. Besides any group that could bring us both a gallery of contemporary art and a giant, drivable toaster has our enthusiastic support. That's why 100% of the profits of this beer will go to support Smokebrush's Creative Community Efforts, like the Uncle Wilbur Foundation. So enjoy this mahogany-hued blend of richly roasted malts and subtle smoke character. We call it art for art's sake.

Eddyline Brewery Canning Logos and Sample Tray

The first blog entry on this blog was about Eddlyine Brewing in Buena Vista. They had just released some information regarding their decision to can their beers (their canning line will be open in June) and they had released a few logos for their cans as well. Just a couple weeks ago I was back out there and decided that I would repost that original entry because only a few people saw it then and I have a lot more readers now. Once again I was very happy with the beer I tasted and am very much looking forward to seeing their beer in my local store later this year. The first section of the post was the original entry and the second portion is from my latest visit:

Eddyline Brewery in Buena Vista, Colorado announced early this morning that they are expanding and are [currently] moving their brewing operations to a new location. They decided they will be canning their beer, and I assume this is part of their commitment to being as green as possible while maintaining a distribution in Colorado. Canning beer helps cut the

Fade to Black and the Hackberry Tree

About two months ago we did a review of Left Hand Brewing's Fade to Black Smoked Baltic Porter. I thought the beer was brilliant, and was very happy that it came in a six-pack. I brought a bunch with me to Portland and all my Portlander beer geek friends also very much enjoyed the beer.

Ro Guenzel the Head Brewer from Left Hand sent me a backstory on the beer and I thought it was such a good story that I would post it here.

Thanks for the kind note on Fade to Black. I hand-smoked over 7,000 pounds of malt using wood from a 100+ year old hackberry tree planted by my wife’s great-great-grandfather on their family homestead back in Nebraska. The tree split during a spring snow storm several years ago. My wife’s aunt, who still lives in the farmhouse, complained to me that the tree was too pungent for her to use in her wood burning oven. So I made beer with it! Last Christmas I took a case of the beer back to the farm. Her family, which does not drink usually, all gathered around the living room and toasted the tree as we sipped the beer. We had to leave before things got wild. Attached is a picture of the tree and farmhouse.

2011 Firkin Rendezvous Image Recap

As mentioned in the previous post, last weekend was an insanely busy beer weekend in Colorado Springs. I've got lots of photos from the 7th Annual Firkin Rendezvous, which took place at Bristol Brewing Co. and helped raised funds for the Colorado Brewer's Guild. Give or take, the event boasted 23 firkins and a couple beers that were served with gas. If you don't know, Firkin is a word that describes a very specific size of barrel that holds cask beer. Cask beer is different than kegged beer in that the beer ferments in the same vessel that it is served out of. The beer, instead of being carbonated with gas, carbonates naturally and is either pumped out of the firkin or is poured out via gravity. So cask beers tend to be less carbonated than the fizzy kegged beers most of us are used to, they are generally served at a slightly less cool temperature and many of the flavors that tend to "pop" with strong hops and carbonation will be rounder, smoother, and in my opinion, slightly more discernable. I enjoy myself a good cask beer every now and then and it's too bad more breweries aren't putting in the effort to develop their technical know-how to make a proper cask. I've been looking forward to the festival for some time now and I must say it was quite a bit of fun.

So have a look through the images below. I'm also posting a few tasting notes, including my favorites and least favorite beers at the event.

Tapping the Firkins!

John Schneider of Black Fox Brewing getting ready to tap the Black Fox firkin. This procedure is a lot of fun to watch. Usually the brewer will take a big mallet and drive the pour spout into the firkin quickly. 

There he goes! Occasionally there will be a large amount of pressure from the yeast in the firkin and when you drive the tap into the vessel the top airlock will pop off and beer will gush out. (Un)fortunately this didn't happen that day.

Beautiful looking mallet

Jim Stinson and Kjell Wygant of Rockyard Brewing getting ready to tap their Firkin.

Recap of the 2011 Rocky Mountain Microbrewing Symposium

Last weekend was a very busy beer weekend for people in Colorado Springs. The Rocky Mountain Microbrewing Symposium and the Peterson Air Force Base Hombrewing Awards were both on Friday and I had the unfortunate task of trying to decide which to go to. Either way I knew I'd be missing out. I chose the Rocky Mountain Microbrewing Symposium (RMMS) so I'd like to show you a little of what happened. I can't go into too much detail or the blog post would be unbearably long, but I'll provide you with some nice summaries.

The RMMS is basically a beer industry conference at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs and was founded by the Center for Biotechnology and Bioinformatics at the University. Jim Mattoon, the RMMS founder died last year on Deceber 24, 2010 at the age of 80.

People in the beer industry from all over Colorado come to the event for tips, recent beer related information, and basically a conglomeration of resources from things relating to sanitization, brewing procedures, hop farms, new malting companies, and more. The talks, all of which were good, ranged from technical, academic, to inspiring to informative. Only 120 seats were available and I'm guessing that there were probably only ten or so people attending that were not also a part of the industry. So, if you want to get your ticket next year you will need to make sure to get them in advance because they sell out annually.

This is what the large conference room looked like. I actually work at UCCS and I have never been in this building. It boasts a pretty spectacular view of Pikes Peak and the surrounding mountains. The first lecture was on Lager Yeast and Fermentation by Bryan Pearson of the Brewing Science Institute. Bryan has won multiple awards for his lagers and ales at GABG, the World Beer Cup and the Real Ale Festival. Bryan provided information that many people are unaware of when it comes to lager yeasts, such as how much yeast is needed to avoid under and over pitching, proper cool down temperatures and techniques, what mistakes cause what off flavors, and how best to avoid those off-flavors.*

The next speaker was Steve Breezley, the production manager at Avery Brewing Co. Steve talked to us about drinkability, what it is, what it means, and how customer's tastes seem to change over time. Apparently the Avery IPA claims 31% of Avery's production but about fifteen years ago it sat at just over 11% of production. Similarly the Ellie's Brown Ale is 12.6% of what Avery produces but fifteen years ago was their highest selling beer at 27.5%.

Avery's Dihos Dactylion and Cory Forster of Dillon DAM Brewery taking notes

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.

Call for Pikes Peak Region Homebrewers: Beers Made By Walking

I thought now would be a good time to introduce you all to a summer long beer program that I'm putting together in Colorado Springs. If you are a homebrewer in the greater Pikes Peak Region, please read through this and see if you are interested in being involved in some way. I think it will a real blast. I apologize that my "bio" is in third person, ignore that...

Beers Made By Walking:
Beers Made By Walking is a project that is sponsored by Rocky Mountain Brewing and the Gallery of Contemporary Arts in Colorado Springs. Seven times throughout the summer of 2011 a group of people consisting of myself, a Homebrewer, a commercial Brewer, and a Naturalist (who can identify wild plants) will go on a hike or walk in the Pikes Peak Region. The hike will be open to the public and the purpose of the hike is to identify edible and medicinal plants that could potentially be used in the making of a beer. The hikes will range in time from an hour to a few hours, and possibly an overnight camping trip. After the hike, a private session will occur where the Brewer, Homebrewer and Naturalist will build a beer recipe, taking into consideration the plants and ingredients they identified. After the ingredients have been collected, the beer will be brewed by the Homebrewer in the commercial space of Rocky Mountain Brewery. Two or three times during the summer, Rocky Mountain Brewing will have a special event where the beers will be put on tap and available to the general public.

Call for Pikes Peak Region Homebrewers:
I'm trying to find seven homebrewers who would like to participate in this project. We will select dates together for the hikes and the brewing session. You need to be able to go on a hike that might last for three hours. You need to be able to formulate your own beer recipes (with the aid of the Naturalist and Brewer). This event will likely take two full days, back-to-back, of fun beer making. I'm hoping to have at least three women homebrewers on board and four men homebrewers.

Contact Eric Steen:
If you are interested in this, please get in touch with me before March 1st and I will be in touch with you shortly with more details:
ericmsteen(at)gmail(dot)com

About Eric Steen:
Eric is a homebrewer and he teaches art at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. He's the writer for Beer and Sci-Fi as well as Focus on the Beer, which is a Pikes Peak Region Beer Blog. He's organized many beer events, such as this one, for the last few years in Oregon, Michigan, Missouri, New York, and Glasgow, Scotland.

Instructions For Eating

I wrote an article, Serving Beer in the Gallery, for an online art journal called 127 Prince. If you enjoy my writing you should check this out as well.

127 Prince is a journal on "the art of social practice and the social practice of art." “Instructions for Eating” is a monthly column from Tracy Candido about food as a medium and eating as a social practice. Invited artists present recipes, preparation instructions, directions for hunting and gathering, lists of ingredients, etc. for public consumption. These experimental essays function as a site of learning and action: readers are encouraged to perform the instructions laid out before them. Each invited artist is asked to propose/suggest two other artists who would be well suited for the column. This creates a participant/artist driven effort. Use the link above to see my article. Thanks!

Firkin Rendezvous Beer List Update!

About a month ago I posted info about the upcoming Firkin Rendezvous at Bristol Brewing. The festival is coming up (Feb 19th!) and there are limited tickets this year. I've just received the list of participating breweries and the beers they're making and boy oh boy am I excited about this event. Let's have a look:

Using John Foyston's image again. Soon I'll my own Firkin images though...

Firkin Rendezvous Brewers and Beers:
San Luis Valley Brewing Company - Saddle Up Strong Scotch Ale
Three Barrel Brewing Company - TBD
Odell Brewing Company - Red Ale Hopped with Chinook
Dry Dock Brewing - Green Chili Seven Seas
Tommyknocker Brewery - Hop Strike! Black Rye IPA
Phantom Canyon Brewing - King Mixer Barrel Aged Strong Ale
Bristol Brewing - Imperial IPA
Black Fox Brewing - Wanna Be Manor (dry hopped w/ East Kent Goldings, aged on cherries)
Trinity Brewing - Slap Your Mammy Oak Aged Double IPA
Carver Brewing - Belgian IPA
Pagosa Brewing - Powder Day IPA
Left Hand Brewing - Stranger Pale Ale
Steamworks Brewing - Belgian Chocolate and Strawberry
Great Divide Brewing - Rocky's Real Ale (GD Denver Pale Ale dry hopped w/ Amarillo hops)
Colorado Boy Brewery - Pale Ale
Ska Brewing - Nefertiti's Fuggly Nibs
Rockyard Brewing - Two In The Bush Porter
Wynkoop Brewing - Hop To Conclusions Double IPA
Glenwood Canyon Brewing - Deep Lake Scotch Ale, aged 1 year
New Belgium - Le Terroir
Boulder Beer - Mojo Risin' Double IPA
Kannah Creek Brewing - Broken Oar IPA
Durango Brewing - Purgatory Ale

All I can say is this is very very impressive. I'll be trying each beer but at first glance what I'm most excited about is the Black Fox Manor aged on cherries, Ska's Fuggly Nibs (not sure what kind of beer this is, but I studied Nerfertiti in school so I'm into it), Dry Dock's Green Chili (never had a chili cask beer before), Phantom Canyon's Strong Ale (their casks are sooo good) and Tommyknocker's Black Rye IPA. I've actually never had any Double IPA's on cask before, and to be honest it seems like a strange move to have such heavy beers on cask, but I'm definitely looking forward to trying it out. During the event I hope to post to twitter with updates using the tag #firkinfest and I will of course have a review of the event eventually.

More pertinent information about the festival:
Food is coming from Blue Sage Catering, Trinity Brewing Company, Old Chicago, Front Range BBQ, McCabe's Tavern, Cabot Creamery and Great Harvest Bread Company. I'm not sure if food is included in the price or not.

Feb. 19th, 1-5pm
Bristol Brewing Co. (1647 S. Tejon St., Colorado Springs)
Tickets: $35 advance/ $40 at the door
Please visit here for ordering tickets.

Deviant Dale's IPA and Old Chicago

I was invited to head over to Old Chicago for a pint of Deviant Dales IPA, an Oskar Blues special beer that is usually only available in their taproom. For the next couple days the beer is also available at all Old Chicagos in Colorado...if they haven't run out yet. I'm sitting in the downtown Old Chicago right now actually, and they still have a good amount of the beer, so head on down. The beer will be replaced after Valentine's Day.

Let me tell you a little about the beer. I wasn't sure if it's a hopped up version of the regular Dale's Pale Ale, but I had a pint of that last night just to try and warm up and see how the two beers compare. They are very different. The Deviant is a beautiful red-ish orange color with a nice thick beige head that lasts a long long time. The beer is very hop forward, contains 5 varieties of hops and is dry hopped with a variety that's normally used for bittering - Columbus hops. The aroma has some honey and citrus but I think is dominated with more of an evergreen earthy smell. So far, it's very attractive. The beer tastes amazing, it reminds me of some of my favorite IPA's in Portland. It feels very Pacific NW. I'm tasting pineapple and grapefruit with a very strong bitter finish that is surprisingly well-balanced with a caramel malt sweetness. I would have thought this beer to be a major hop bomb, and while it may have the potential to destroy my palette, it is one that I can definitely see myself drinking 3-4 of through the course of the night. Which brings me to the alcohol content. The beer sits at 8%. What? The beer certainly tastes like a strong IPA, something around 6% or so, but 8%?!!? This thing is definitely not JUST a hopped up version of Dales, you know what I mean? The beer is surprising very very drinkable for that alcohol content. I've mentioned it before, I'm burnt out on IPA's at this point in my life, but this beer is inspiring and has the potential to convert me back. This is a very good beer, and any hophead would love it. Very high recommendations.

I became a member of the Old Chicago World Beer Tour today.  I have expressed my

Two Big Beer Events on Feb 18th

February 18th is a big beer day in Colorado Springs. Not only is it one day before the fantastic looking Firkin Rendesvous, but it holds two pretty significant beer events as well - The Rocky Mountain Microbrewing Symposium and the Peterson AFB Homebrewing Awards Festival. I'll give you all the details so you can make your decisions. It is possible to go to both events but not without missing something. It's really too bad these events are scheduled on the same day.

Peterson Air Force Base Homebrewing Awards Festival
All the homebrews have been submitted and will be judged this coming weekend. But February 18th is the big celebration day, and I've heard that's it's truly a blast. Here's the info:

This is the fun part! Homebrew entrants, judges and stewards get into the festival for free! It’s at 5:30PM on Feb 18 at the Peterson Club. $9 for Peterson Club members, $12 for everyone else. We are asking that all entrants bring some of their brew to share with other brewers and festival attendees. Those who bring to share get a guest in for free!

Recommend you bring at least 24, 12oz bottles, a couple growlers or the keg equivalent to share on Feb 18, 2011. Ideally, it would be some of the beer you entered in the competition. You’ll be serving next to some of our local micros and there will be prizes for the crowd favorites. All brewers will be responsible for dispensing their beer to festival guests. Size of pour will be no more than 2 oz. The Peterson Club will provide booth space for each entrant to serve their beer – call the Club to let them know that you need booth space.

Rocky Mountain Microbrewing Symposium
The RMMS is a one day series of lectures and presentations about the latest innovations and ideas in the beer industry. The presenters are people in the industry from breweries in the Rocky Mountain Region. A majority of attendees will be head brewers. The attendance is limited to 120 people and the cost is $145. The cost seems quite high to me as a simple event to go to. But if you look at it more as very informative, considering the RMMS to be more of an exclusive symposium, high profile speakers, awesome looking agenda, and a beer dinner at Trinity, the price looks much more reasonable. In my opinion, although it's not stated on the RMMS website, the event is largely made for and attended by people working in the industry. I'll post the agenda below so you can see for yourself. Every year the event sells out, so if you're interested you need to get your tickets immediately. See the link below for details:

Schedule:
8:00-8:50 - Check in and continental breakfast
9:00-9:50 - Hops! - Frank Stonaker, Colorado State University
9:50-10:00 - Break
10:00-10:50 - Steve Breezely, Production Manager, Avery Brewing Co.
10:50-11:00 - Break
11:00-11:50 - Bob Wall, Colorado Malting Company
11:50-12:20 - Get lunch from buffet, browse sponsor tables, network, grab beer!
12:20-1:10 - Keynote address: John Bryant, Oskar Blues
1:10-2:00 - Sponsor table browsing, networking break, beer sampling, general fun time!
2:00-2:50 - Chad Yakobson, Crooked Stave & Brettanomyces Project
2:50-3:00 - Break
3:00-3:50 - Pubs On A Budget - Tom Hennessy, Colorado Boy Brewer
3:50-4:00 - Break
4:00-4:50 - Bryan Pearson, Brewing Science Institute-Lager Yeast
5:00ish-close - Raffle and Close
6:30-? - Dinner Party Reception - Trinity Brewing CO. 

More info:
RMMS website and full info here.
Takes place at University of Colorado at Colorado Springs
$145

The Internet Musings of Jason Yester of Trinity Brewing

SShh...I stole this from Jason's Twitter page

I just wanted to point you all in the direction of Jason Yester of Trinity Brewing. Just recently he opened up a Twitter account at @Saison_Man. I've been following him and he makes a really nice supplement to the regular Trinity Twitter account by telling us what's going on in the Brewery, what some of his interests are, and what sort of things he's dreaming up for Trinity. I recently noticed that he's been making some podcasts. Maybe I'm just a super beer nerd, but I think the podcast is a nice listen. In this podcast he and a group of people are tasting their Pappy Legba, a sour cherry saison, and then in this one they are comparing the draft version and the bottled version, tasting other sours, all the while talking about the various characteristics of sour beers. But guess what, Jason's also recently started his own video channel as well! Now you can watch some of the excursions the Trinity folk go on.

Buddha's Hand

Jason's Twitter page is also where I first heard about the upcoming Buddha Nuvo Saison, a collaborative beer between Trinity, Rockyard, Black Fox, Crooked Stave, AC Golden/Coors, Funkwerks, Strange Brewing, and Ska Brewing. That's quite a list! They're brewing up the beer later this week. This beer will have a number of different malt varieties and multiple strains of Brettanomyces yeasts as well as a special appearance of the citrusy fruit Buddha's Hand. I'm going to let you watch the video where Jason talks about how the Buddha Nuvo project came about, and he gives you all the details of ingredients of what will be in the beer. I'm also posting the video below:


Watch live video from saison_man on Justin.tv
If you've ever wondered what Twitter is good for, now you have an idea. Jason has really begun to make full use of various social platforms to add a lot of great content to what's happening at Trinity. I'm glad he's got his own profile so that Trinity can stick with the normal updates without sending out too much information.

Busy February For Trinity

Check out the list of releases and activities Trinity has happening this month. It should keep you very busy. I'm not listing every single activity so also check the calendar in the left column for more information:

February 4th  
Passed Stout Release - 5pm
Just in time to keep you warm in the colder months of the winter. Its body is big, its dark malt character is huge, its hop profile is gigantic, and its ABV is enormous! We age this beer on fresh Madagascar Vanilla Beans, Dagoba Cocoa Nibs and French Oak. 11% ABV.



February 6th
Bob Marley's Birthday
In honor of the Reggae Legend, we are offering a FREE Awaken Stout to anyone who wears Red, Black, Gold AND Green.

February 11th
Slap Your Mammy Release - 5pm
Slap Your Mammy is a shocking Double IPA! Coming in at 10.5% ABV, this huge ale is brewed with 7 of the highest quality malts and 8 varieties of hops. On our 125 minute boil, we pack in 125 IBUs making this one heck of a hoppy beer. If that is not enough hops, then just wait...unlike any of our other beers, we dry hop this one twice to pack in as much aroma as possible.

February 16th
All Colorado Beer Tapping - 12pm
Check back for details...

February 23rd
Boulevard Brewing Co. Tapping - 5pm
We will be pouring 4 specialty Boulevard beers and raffling off prizes.

February 25th 
Beach House Farmhouse Ale Release - 5pm
A Saison inspired by longing for patios, longer days of sunlight and Spring Break with all its liberty. This Saison is brewed with ripe bananas and cocoa nibs. 13% ABV

Making Colorado Springs a Destination For Beer Lovers

It has been nearly six months now since I moved to Colorado from Portland. I have been very pleased with the amount of and quality of craft beer I've found in the city, but being from Portland there is still a lot that I miss. I would like to offer the city a few suggestions in terms of making Colorado Springs more of a destination for beer lovers. Much of what I will say is based off my experience in Portland, so feel free to chime in with your opinions as well. At this point it seems that when people travel to Colorado for the beer, they go to Boulder, Ft. Collins, and Denver, but rarely south of Denver. So, what things can we do here to change that? After all, there is some good beer being made here and local interest seems to be growing. I will create a list of areas I believe we could improve, but I will say that I believe the biggest and most important item is to develope a thriving local beer and pub scene for ourselves. Neighborhood communities should each have their own craft beer bar to encourage walking and getting to know those you live around.

Why would we even want a larger craft beer community?
I am interested in the idea that beer is both a social lubricant and a social glue. Drinking good beer, to me, is a form of activism as it brings people together, inspires local economy, develops a sense of place or landfulness, and is known for shaping how people think about where their food comes from. Beer is an agent for social change. This fascinates me. The pint is a center for relational activity; sharing a pitcher is an activity that, by the end of the pitcher, will likely have inspired warming conversation and bonded people together. In my opinion, drinking together and community is at the center of well made beer. This is very different than the portrayal of beer as a means of getting drunk and getting laid, which is how industrial beers are often marketed.

So, here is the list of things I believe will make Colorado Springs a beer destination:

LARGER DISTRIBUTION
Bristol is the only brewery doing any major distribution. I've heard of Black Fox in Denver and I know that some breweries distribute to some smaller towns in the general region. But getting this city's beer to Denver, Ft. Collins and Boulder is really important because this is