Community Fundraiser For Brewer Patrick Tuffield

As you may or may not be aware, one of our fellow Colorado Springs brewers, Patrick Tuffield from Bristol Brewing Company, was recently injured on the job. A number of brewers have come together and decided to do a benefit fundraiser for him. It will be at Phantom Canyon on the second floor. So far nine breweries have volunteered to donate beer to the fundraiser and all proceeds go to Patrick. Please come out and support our local brewer!

Information:
What: Community of Brewers benefit for Patrick Tuffield.
When: Saturday August 6th 1-5 PM
Where: Phantom Canyon Brewing Company, 2nd floor
Price: $10 entry fee for three tickets, each redeemable for a donated beer

Beer generously donated by the following breweries:
Bristol Brewing Company - TBA
Black Fox Brewing Company – Don’t Call Me Wit
Trinity Brewing Company - TBA
Colorado Mountain Brewery - TBA
Rocky Mountain Brewery – Da Yoopers Cherry Ale
Shamrock Brewing Company – Imperial Stout
Rock Bottom Brewery - TBA
Kevin Baity Kraft Beer (KBKB) – Bella Lavender Lager
Phantom Canyon Brewing Company – Falconer’s Flight dry-hopped Two Moons Pale Ale


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Recap: Beers Made By Walking Hike #1 with Justin Carpenter at Garden of the Gods

The first of seven hikes for the Beers Made By Walking program happened a couple weeks ago. The hike, threatened by very dark and ominous storm clouds, ended up being quite dry and very pleasant with the changing chromatic skyline. The hike took place at Garden of the Gods, was led by the naturalist Kimberly Banzhaf from Mueller State Park and the homebrewer on board was Justin Carpenter. Justin and his wife Michael wrote the recent article about La Cumbre Brewing in New Mexico. Each hike in this summer program is open to the public, although many of them are full. This one had 16 people. The goal of the hike is simply to get out doors, enjoy the Colorado landscape, and then identify edible plants along the way that could go into a beer. The beer will be made at Rocky Mountain Brewing on the east side of town with the help of their head brewer Nick Hilborn. Then the beers will be availabe twice throughout the summer at Brewer's Republic. Justin's beer will be available on August 27th from 4-8pm, but don't show up late, it could disappear quickly.

Here's an image of Kimberly pointing out some Pennycress. It has some toxic properties but is edible and has some bitter qualities to it. We were stopped about 10 times on our hike to

Colorado's Guide to Firestone Walker

After some delay, last week Firestone Walker was able to get all their permits in order to have their beer distributed to Colorado. They've wasted no time rescheduling their launch parties in Denver, Ft. Collins, Longmont, and Colorado Springs. I've got all the information you'll need for joining in the fun. Unfortunately us folks down in the Springs will have to wait a couple extra weeks for our big party. But it will be fun nonetheless. So, as I've mentioned we here at Focus on the Beer are pretty stinkin excited about being able to get Firestone beers. We've compiled a little guide to Firestone for you as we've been able to sample a good number of their beers. We've also put together a schedule of the release parties:

Release Parties:

July 21st / Thursday / 5-7pm
Fall Rock in Denver / Meet with David Walker

July 22nd / Friday / All around Denver / 7-9pm
***Update*** A commenter told me that Freschcraft will not have the Anniversary or Parabola because they aren't released yet. I'm just putting the information that I got from the FW sales rep, and she told me they will have it. My notes are confirmed on the Denver off the Wagon blog, they have the same information.
Firestone will have one beer in each location and then all the beers will be at Freshcraft.
- Falling Rock - DBA
- Euclid Hall - Union Jack
- Cheeky Monk - Double Jack
- Uptown Brothers - Solace
- Freshcraft - DBA, Union Jack, Double Jack, Solace, 14th Anniversary Draft & Parabola bottles

July 27th / Wednesday / 6-8pm
Choice City Butcher, Fort Collins

July 28th / Thursday / 6-8pm
Oskar Blues Liquids and Solids, Longmont

Aug 15th / Monday / 6-8pm
Subject to Change
Navajo Hogans, Colorado Springs

Aug 16th / Tuesday / 6-8pm
Subject to Change, check back
Trinity Brewing, Colorado Springs

The Firestone Walker Lineup:

Isaac and I were able to sample some of these beers together. The samples were free so we

Say Goodbye to the Cask IPA at Phantom Canyon

Alan Stiles is shaking things up over at Phantom Canyon. The Phantom IPA at the brewery has been a cask beer for 15 years, and it's a beer that I order almost every time I'm there. The beer will no longer be available on cask after the last two casks sell out in the upstairs bar. Phantom has the best cask beers around, and at the cask festival at Bristol this year, I said Alan's beer (not the IPA) was best in show. So why remove such a popular beer from the menu, a beer that many Phantom fans will be quite upset to see disappear? Instead of the Phantom IPA, we'll see a new non-cask IPA called the Streamliner IPA.

The Phantom IPA on the left and the Streamliner IPA on the right.

Alan invited Grant Goodwiler and me to come sample the beer, side by side to the new version of the beer. The new version, called the Streamliner IPA is actually the same beer as the Phantom IPA, but no longer on cask. Now, I don't like explaining the difference of cask and gas beers every time I write about it, so I won't say much. The two processes entail different fermentation procedures and in the gas version we have the introduction of Co2 into the beer. Cask is served slightly cooler than room temperature while the other is served even colder than that. If you're drinking a beer on tap somewhere, 99% chance it's on gas. I've talked about cask more here.

So, what do we think of them side by side? Well, together we discussed the fact that this IPA is

Ft. Collins Part 2: Interview with Crooked Stave

Chad Yakobson of Crooked Stave pouring aged beers from the barrel

Our recent journey to Ft. Collins was one hell of a good time. You've probably already read about our time at Odell. But what we haven't shared is that our favorite part of the trip was when we visited Crooked Stave. We've introduced you before to Chad Yakobson, the brains behind the brewery, and we've mentioned him numerous times on this blog because we really are very excited about what he's doing. We finally made a visit and got to see him at work. Read on to see pictures of what's happening in the brewery space and for a full interview with Chad.

Chad operates the brewery in the same building as Funkwerks Brewery. They share some of the brewing equipment, including a lauter tun that sits over the top of their hot liquor tank. Funkwerks has three of their own fifteen barrel fermenters, which are often full of fermenting beer so Chad has purchased a couple of his own. One is similar to the steel fermenters in the other room and the other is an oak foeder, a gigantic looking barrel that houses beer during it's primary fermentation. Here's some information about this beautiful piece of equipment:

The 25hl foeder was shipped from Napa [recently] where it was previously used for only 3 years to ferment and age white wine. Commissioned in 2007 and custom produced by Tonnellerie Radoux, it is made completely of French oak and has stainless steel coils on the inside for temperature controlled cooling allowing for precision fermentations to take place inside the walls of her gorgeous oak staves.

The foeder was approximately half full of beer, we weren't able to see inside it though. It's

Buddha Nuvo is Bottled and Almost Ready

Last week the collaborative and long-awaited Buddha Nuvo beer was bottled. You might remember this beer from our earlier image recap of the brew day. Check out that earlier post to see more info about how the beer was made and who contributed what in making it. The beer was originally brewed on Feburary 11th, and after initial fermentation it was stored in Oak Barrels. Numerous breweries all over Colorado have had a hand in the making of this beer, whether it was help conceptualizing it, providing equipment, ingredients, or simply lending a helping hand during production. The beer is a fundraiser for the Colorado Brewer's Guild. More information on that, where to find the beer, and a lot more pictures are below. I had a video but it's having problems. I'll post it later if I can get it to work (sorry Kjell!)

Here's the final product, dipped in wax and signed by
Jim Stinson of Rockyard and Jason Yester of Trinity

The beer is a 12% Saison, conceived initially by Jason at Trinity and added to and changed by many other brewers. Rockyard Brewing in Castle Rock provided the brewing space, fermentation space, checked in on the beer, and is handling the distribution. The malt bill of the beer 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. 5 distinct yeasts creating a spicy and fruity ester profile. 3 of the yeasts were provided by Troy at AC Golden. Post fermentation the batch aged on American Oak Chardonnay barrels, 6 varieties of Bretta, and the rare fruit known as Buddha's Hand. Buddha's hand was also in the boil.

A look from the top on bottling day

We had sampled the un-aged version of the beer at the Saison Fest earlier this year and it seemed quite promising. The oak barrels were provided by Chad Yakobson of Crooked Stave. Earlier in the week he and Jim Stinson mixed the beer from the barrels and prepped it for the bottles. The bottles were pre-labeled by some very appreciated folks at Rockyard.

Another new brewery quietly opens today

Just found out last night that there's a new brewery in town and it's opening is tonight! Compared to the louder efforts of Pikes Peak Brewing, this brewery has taken a very quiet approach. It was a real suprise to me and to all the people I've talked to. So, please help welcome to town Kevin Beity Kraft Beer (KBKB). I believe they may also just go by 'Kraft Beer.' A few of my friends and I will be heading there around 5pm to check the place out and celebrate the new beer.

According to their website, they've got a Wheat, Porter, Pale, and a Lavender beer ready to go and there's a Lavender Lager that's currently still fermenting. Other than that, we don't know a whole lot about the place. Come on out tonight!

Grand Opening of KBKB
July 1st / 5-10pm
KBKB is located at 3668 E. Bijou St. Colorado Springs


Special thanks to the Beer Drinker's Guide for pointing this out.



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