Colorado Mountain Brewery Expands

We're off to GABF right now, or else we'd make a longer post about this, but we want you to be able to read the news now. The CS Indy broke the news today that Colorado Mountain Brewery will be expanding into Old Colorado City, with plans to open a large taproom for their beer, an additional 30 other local brews, and a small production area for lagers.

Check out the full article at the CS Indy.

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Isaac's Guide of Breweries to Try at GABF

The Great American Beer Festival can be quite overwhelming when you walk through those doors with your glass in hand and people rushing past you towards their favorite breweries and beers. I had a mild panic attack my first year with no game plan and over 2,000 potential beers to try. Well this year I have a game plan, and I thought I would share with you some of the breweries I'll be trying based on region and in no particular order. My list is a lot different than Eric's list of CO Breweries and Non-CO Breweries. Here you go:

GREAT LAKES

Bell's Brewery - They always have amazing beer and bring some limited beers.
Goose Island Beer Company - Be on the lookout for their Boubon County Stout
Great Lakes Brewing - A Cleveland brewery that makes some very tasty seasonals. Look for their Christmas ale
Hoppin' Frog Brewing Company - Look for the Boris The Crusher or Hollow Double Pumpkin Ale
Jolly Pumpkin Artisan Ales - Great line of sours.
New Glarus Brewing Company - Be prepared for a long line. Try their fruit beers.
New Holland Brewing Company - Check out Dragon's Milk if you haven't tried it.
Shorts Brewing - Last years favorite beer had to be their Key Lime Pie. Expect long lines.
Three Floyds - Their IPAs are world class. The Dark Lord is a legend.

MID-ATLANTIC

Brewery Ommegang - some of the best Belgian inspired beers made in the USA

Dogfish Head Brewery - Long line alert! They usually bring some rare beers. Sam should be there too!

Weyerbacher Brewing - Very tasty IPAs and seasonals

The Daily Pull

Today I found out that one of my favorite beer blogs is pulling the plug and I wanted to make a post out of respect. But don't worry! It's not due to some tragedy, it's not due to inactivity, it's not due to a dying craft beer scene...the man behind the blog, Brady Walen, has been offered a job as the Marketing Communications Manager for the Craft Brewers Alliance (Kona, Redhook, Widmer). I've been reading The Daily Pull since it's beginnings in 2009, and recently the Crafted blog he started earlier this year about beer and social media. Brady has always been interested in how the growing industry uses marketing to pull together beer lovers and bring newbies into the fold. Here's a quote about his view on the importance of marketing:

There’s a strong and unfortunate aversion to marketing within the craft brewing industry. Many craft breweries will tell you that “good beer sells itself.” I have two issues with this statement. First, the “good beer” argument centers on product, a primary component of any marketing mix. And second, good beer doesn’t sell itself in a crowded market where several other companies and brands are aggressively competing for consumer attention and dollars. Sure, successful breweries need to make good beer – but that’s only one part of the equation. There are a lot of great craft brewers and breweries out there. But how does one stand out among the growing selection of great beers? We need not look further than the most successful American craft breweries to notice that marketing and brand has played --and continues to play-- an important role in each of those company’s successes.

I would like to direct you Ezra's inspiring and fantastic interview with Brady on the New School Beer Blog, another one of my favorite beer blogs. Also, check out Brady's final post on The Daily Pull.


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Special Tappings for Trinity's Pre-GABF Party

Trinity Brewing is throwing a really nice party to kick off the Great American Beer Festival. So, before you head north for the biggest beer festival in the country on Thursday, check out Trinity on Wednesday night.

They've invited some of their pals to bring special batches of beer for a special pre-GABF tapping. Here's what they've got so far:

AC Golden - Dunkel

AC Golden - Dark Cherry Sour

Avery - Fred's Mom

Crooked Stave - Wild Wild Brett Orange

Lefthand - Beer Week Sauce

Pikes Peak Brewing - Wet Hop Ale

Sierra Nevada - Life and Limb

Rockyard - Berliner Weiss

Ska - Hoperation Ivy

Tommyknocker - Colorado IPA Neaveau

Now that is one insane looking beer list! They expect more participating breweries also.
Trinity is located at: 1466 Garden of the Gods Road, Colorado Springs, CO

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Out of State GABF Recommendations 'OR' How Twitter Can Save Your Life

This post is about 2 things: 1 - why Twitter is awesome and 2 - Some breweries around the country that you need to check out if you're going to GABF.

I have been planning to do some long post about why Twitter is a worthwhile service (especially for beer lovers), about how if you're not on twitter already I would convince you as to why you need to start using it. Indeed a few years ago when I started using it I was super skeptical as to it's value, but within a few weeks I was convinced that it was very good. I saw those videos that made fun of twitter with scenes of people tweeting things like "I just found a parking space" and I was never going to join after watching that. But, I had a blog so I figured I would try it out, see what all the hype was, and to see if it could somehow benefit me as a writer. Within a week or so I had learned more about beer and what was happening in the local beer scene that I ever thought possible. Through it, I've ended up meeting other beer lovers from all over the country, and as of very recent, I've met a few people from Denver Off the Wagon and other beer bloggers that I follow on twitter by sending them messages and seeing if they'll meet me at a certain bar while I'm town.

Lately I've been thinking that I need to figure out my GABF schedule but I've been way too busy to spend the time to figure it all out. So I simply sent a few tweets out to other beer

Some Not-So-Nice Things to Say About Parking in Denver

photo 1

This post is slightly less beer related, and yet does relate to it in some way. The other day I headed to Denver with a group of friends to celebrate an upcoming wedding and we hit up some of the great beer bars on Blake Street. We went to Freschcraft, Falling Rock, and 1UP. We had an awesome time, drank a lot of great beer, but the night ended somewhat sourly when we arrived back at the car and found a ticket on our windshield.

Earlier, when we parked our car, I took a look at the meter and made sure that I knew how long we could park in this spot. If you take a look at Picture 1 you can see in huge letters the meter reads "2 Hour Limit 8am-10pm" and right next to it, also in huge letters it reads "Overnight Parking Allowed 10pm-8am." Sounds good right? It was pretty clear to me that after 10pm we were allowed to park there. We were there at 8pm exactly so I put in 2 hours worth of money. Just to make sure I was good to go, I read a little from that yellow strip down below. It read something about moving your car at least 100 feet every two hours, whatever, it didn't apply to me so I moved on.

Focus on the Beer Top 10 Beer Spots in Colorado Springs: #8 Coaltrain Wine and Spirits

Here is the Focus on the Beer list of the top 10 beer spots in the Colorado Springs area. We are starting at #10 and working our way down to #1 in the upcoming weeks. The rest of the Top 10 can be found here. Let us know what you think! 

#7 Beer Spot of Colorado Springs: Coaltrain Wine and Spirits
Nestled almost under I-25 next to a 7-11 is the most well stocked liquor store of microbrews and hard to find beers in Colorado Springs. You might be saying, "Hey wait a minute, how can a liquor store be in the top 10?" Well, we believe that sometimes instead of heading to your favorite beering hole for a barley pop, why not bring the beer home and save a few bucks. Coaltrain has been in operation since 1981 providing some of the best selection of wine, spirits, and beer in Colorado.

The Beer: This is the reason Coaltrain made the list. They have a back wall of coolers filled with an impressive amount of 6-packs that include microbrews from many many Colorado

We've started organizing events...and we want to knock your socks off...

UPDATE - The date/time has been changed to Oct 22nd at 6pm.

We've started organizing events...and we want to knock your socks off...

Focus on the Beer is super proud to present to you Meet the Brewer Night with Chad Yakobson, the owner and brewer for one of Colorado's newest breweries, Crooked Stave. This is the first time that any of Crooked Stave's finished beers will be available in Colorado Springs, so come celebrate! We've mentioned Chad numerous times on this blog and have been really excited about his beer so it is only fitting that he be involved in our first Meet the Brewer event. All of Crooked Stave's beers are aged or soured, often using various strains of Brettanomyces. There will be a number of different specialty beers for purchase at Another Pint/A Second Cup, he'll give a little talk about his beers and the unique things he's doing at his brewery, and he'll be available to chat with you if you want to ask him any questions or make small talk. There is no cover charge, but the beer is available for purchasing.

This event will be the first of many that we organize. We're really excited to be an active part of the beer community here in Colorado Springs, and we have many more ideas/plans that are in the works. If you enjoy reading this blog, then you can support us by attending this event.

Meet the Brewer: Crooked Stave
Fri. Oct 22nd / 6pm
Another Pint (at A Second Cup) / 13860 Gleneagle Dr., Colorado Springs

Also, check out the Facebook Event Page for this.

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Dogfish Head Beer Dinner at A Second Cup

If you missed the Dogfish Head beer dinner at Blue Star, your opportunity to make up for it is already here. The next beer dinner at Another Pint/A Second Cup is going to be a 5 course meal with 5 tasty Dogfish Head beers. I attended the last beer dinner and I was pleasantly surprised. To be honest, I had my doubts that beer could be paired so well with beer but I'll never think the same way after that. So here's a little information about the next one. Be sure to sign up soon as the dinners often fill up very quickly. Go to the A Second Cup website and sign up there.

Dogfish Head Beer Dinner
October 10 / 6:30pm, dinner at 7pm
$39.99 for 5 courses paired with 5 beers

The beers:
60 Minute IPA
Punkin
Midas Touch
Palo Santo Marron
Black and Red Stout

The food is prepared by chef Tony Hockemeyer and, at least at the last event, is a surprise for the guests. Rick Stahl will be playing some music, and a Dogfish Head rep will be available for chatting. Sign up here.

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Recap: Beers Made By Walking Hike #4 at Mueller State Park

Last month, before the first Beers Made By Walking tasting, we had our fourth hike at Mueller State Park. The hike was led by Kimberly Banzhaf, who works at the park, and has led a number of our other hikes. The homebrewer on this hike was Scott Buchholz, who recently won five medals at the State Fair Homebrew Competition, and who makes one super tasty Kölsch style beer. In case you are not yet familiar with the BMBW program, we go on a series of hikes, identify edible plants, and then make a beer based off what we see along the way. The first four beers have already been tasted, they were brewed commercially at Rocky Mountain Brewery. The next four beers will be made at Pikes Peak Brewing in Monument, one of the newest breweries in the state, and a very exciting brewery at that. The beers will be available to the public at Brewer's Republic, downtown Colorado Springs, on Oct 29th starting at 4pm.

I had not visited Mueller State Park previous to this day, but the park certainly exceeded my expectations. If you haven't made it out there yet, you should, because it's a beautiful park with hikes that go around small lakes and through some hills. There are a lot more pine trees than there are in some of the hikes we've done in the city and the environment was a lot more lush than what we are used to here in the Springs area.

Beer Tap TV is Closed

I just found out via twitter that Beer Tap TV is completely shutting down. Erik Boles, the founder of the program, has created over 400 beer filled episodes and breaks the news for us. The Beer Tap TV crew lives in Colorado Springs and can occasionally be found at places like Phantom Canyon, Trinity, and Pikes Peak Brewery. We wish them all well and hope their future endeavors are successful. I'll let you watch the final video, instead of telling you everything myself.

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Bear Creek Porter Released Satruday

I wanted to remind everyone that Pikes Peak Brewing's put together a pretty exciting beer as a partnership and fundraiser for the Cheyenne Mountain chapter of Trout Unlimited:

"We are excited to partner with Pikes Peak Brewing Company to promote the protection of the Greenback Cutthroat Trout." Said CMCTU's President, Erik Heikkenen. "The Greenback is 1 of 4 native trout species historical[ly] found in Colorado. We're trying to raise and broaden public awareness of this threatened native species found right here in the Pikes Peak Region."

A small portion of water was taken from Bear Creek River, the Greenback Trout's natural habitat, and was added to the boil of the beer. The beer is named Bear Creek Porter and a portion of all proceeds will be donated and used to help protect the trout and their habitat.

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On another note, I thought I'd use this opportunity to announce that Pikes Peak Brewing will also be contributing to Beers Made By Walking. The last four beers from BMBW will be made at the brewery so that they are official commercial products. The first four beers were brewed through Rocky Mountain Brewery. We are grateful to both breweries for the generosity and time. More information to come soon.

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We're Mobile

Yes, that's right, Focus on the Beer now works on mobile devices. Please enjoy!

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Latest News from the Beer Blogosphere

Every now and again I like to post some of the interesting reads from around the beer world. Now I don't read everything, but I try to read up as much as possible. I don't check Beer Advocate for news from beer raters, and I often wonder what I'm missing but I just don't have the patience for it. This will give you a taste of what I do read though, I read beer blogs, beer news, and sometimes I read blogs from breweries. Here's what we've got this time around:

Beervana - BrewDog makes the strongest-ever fermented beer at 28%
This is different than their 33-55% beers that use freezing to reach high levels. The beer itself is only served on draft and comes from the mouth of a taxidermied deer head.

It's Pub Night - Oregonians infuriated over claim that Colorado is Beervana
I'm from Oregon so I understand their anger. Indeed, I do not believe that any city in Colorado deserves the title 'Beervana.' I believe it should be Portland, Oregon. However, the conservative Oregonian newspaper takes a stab at their northern liberal city by giving the title to Denver.

The 15 Blogger Collaborative Review of Buddha Nuvo is Here!

As we mentioned before, we were a part of a fifteen blogger collaborative review of the Buddha Nuvo beer, which was a fourteen brewery collaborative saison. The review was organized by Jonathan Shikes of Westword in Denver. Check out his full, original post, for more details.

Here's how the review turned out, complete with a list of Colorado beer bloggers at the end. Personally, I think Jonathan did a fabulous job at piecing our fragmented parts together to make a coherent review. Please check out all their blogs too. And then for a recap of our full review of the beer, go here:

Buddha Nuvo

In theory, you would think that fourteen brewers collaborating on one beer would be a case of too many cooks in the kitchen, but Buddha Nuvo proves this cliche wrong. [1] Light in body, yet full of flavor, it pours and drinks like

Alternative Models for Operating a Brewery

This morning I watched a video that got me really excited about alternative business models for breweries. It's something I've been thinking about for about a year or so now and someday hope to open either a brewery or a pub that operates on a different playing field. Not sure how or what it will be like but I've been thinking about triple-bottom line breweries, CSA style breweries, and non-profit breweries. That's all I really want to say for now because I haven't really acted on this interest, except in creating Beers Made By Walking.

I want to show you the video that got me excited (I found it on this site, which I hope to learn more about soon). The video shows us a brewery called Flying Dog Cooperative Brewery, located in Seattle, and it looks like they are starting a cooperative brewery, where the community can become members, or owners, of the brewery. I'm assuming, like in a cooperative grocery shop, that the profits from the brewery would then go back to the members. Then another part of the idea is that homebrewers would get to have commercial products (I've been trying to do this here on some levels). Have a look at the video and I've got another video below as well:


This next video is one that I saw about half a year ago or so on the New School Beer Blog. It's a non profit pub in Portland, Oregon called the Oregon Public House. I think this is my favorite model of these two. I'll let the video do the talking.

The Oregon Public House-A Vision for the First Non-Profit Pub from Ritch Marvin on Vimeo.


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Tickets Just Became Available for Odell Beer Dinner at A Second Cup

Due to some last minute cancellations, a few tickets became available for A Second Cup's (Another Pint) five course beer food pairing featuring Odell Brewing's delicious beer. The event takes place tomorrow, Tuesday September 13th at 6:30 for your bonus beer and 7:00 for the 1st course. Music will be provided by Rick Stahl. The food lineup will be slightly improvisational and to be paired up with the following beers (check out the last 3 beers!):



St. Lupulin, Cutthroat Porter, 90 schilling. Double pils, Mycenary, Woodcut #5

These beer dinners are always fun and well worth the price of $39.99. Chef Tony Hockemeyer knows his stuff and is used to these dinners selling out. Matt Pomeroy from Odell will be talking about the beer and giving out some amazing swag including tickets for free cases of beer at the brewery.

Make your reservations quickly by calling 719-481-6446. It's a pretty sweet deal and will likely fill back up pretty quickly

Odell Beer Dinner
Tuesday, Sept. 13 at 6:30pm, dinner at 7pm / $39.99
719-481-6446
A Second Cup (Another Pint) is located at 13860 Glen Eagle Dr. Colorado Springs, Co

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Favorite Colorado Beer - Story and Photo Contest

Our pals over at the Beer Drinkers Guide to Colorado have put together a photo and story contest that could win you some tickets to the Great American Beer Festival in Denver, America's largest beer festival (sold out in under 7 days).

Go to their page for details, but here are a few details you should know right now:
- You can only enter once
- You can enter either one photo or one 300 word story about your favorite beer
- Contest ends on September 26th.

More details, and entry rules here.


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GABF 2011: Which Colorado Beers Should I Try?

So, you're coming to Colorado for GABF and you want an insiders tip on which Colorado beers to try on the tasting floor. There's a lot of great breweries here, many of which I won't be mentioning in this post, but the ones I am mentioning I believe are doing some of the most experimental, most exciting, and tastiest things in the state and they have my highest recommendations.

Funkwerks
These guys were at GABF last year but not too many people knew about them as they hadn't even opened their brewery yet. They brew out of Ft. Collins and specialize in Saisons. Honestly, they make the best straight saison I've ever had and in my opinion they are the best new brewery of the year. I believe they will win some awards and will soon become talked about all over the country. They are bringing their Saison, White, Belgian Resistance (heavy Belgian yeast and German malts), and Southern Tropic (a hopped up, citrusy, double saison)

Trinity Brewing
Here's your chance to try some of the best sours and saisons in the country. Many of their beers don't fit into a style and are being entered into the new American Brett category. They've won the gold in the Experimental category before. Missing out on Trinity would be a real mistake. They are unloading some seriously special beers. I think I may hang around this booth all night because, even though we're in the same town, these beers are incredible: Pappy Legba (Imperial Saison, slightly sour, with oats, rye, spelt, Grains of Paradise, and cherries), Soul (sessionable Scottish Ale), Double Rainbow (huge saison with two colorful ingredients from every color in the rainbow...a collaboration with Black Fox Brewing), The Flavour (American sour, with cherries, coffee, almonds, and aged in oak), Provisional Farmhouse (a Bretta Saison with lavender and coriander), Brain of the Turtle (this is the same as The Flavour but without the oak age, if I remember correctly), Slap Your Mammy (incredible Double IPA that contends with Pliny the Elder in my opinion), Old Growth (probably Trinity's most sought after sour of all).

Odell Brewing
Odell is a fantastic brewery. Their St. Lupulin is an extra pale ale I love to drink in the summer, their Woodcut series is high on the list of any beer geek, and their other barrel aged beers (including a Double Black IPA, a sour Brown, and many others) are a ton of fun. Here's what they'll have on the tasting floor: 90 Shilling, St. Lupulin, Myrcenary 2IPA, Bourbon Barrel Stout, Mountain Standard, and pouring from bottles of Woodcut #5

Avery Brewing
One of the most impressive breweries in the entire country, Avery produces so many unique beers that you'd never have to leave their taproom. Most of what you'll see at GABF are beers that you can get in tall bottles if they distribute to your area, although they will have something quite special. Additionally, they will have ridiculous amounts of small batch, specialty beers at their taproom during GABF and they want to lure you out to Boulder, a short drive from Denver. I think if you flew in to Colorado just for their special tappings it would totally be worth it. Here's what's on their lineup for GABF: IPA, The Reverend, Hog Heaven, DuganA (2IPA), and Immitis (Sour aged in Zinfandel Barrels)

Strange Brewing
These guys aren't quite a year and a half old but they've made a big impression with their small batch beers. They built their business on unusual, limited quantities of beer. I believe their system is a half barrel and their website says that a 7 barrel system is in the works. I met Tim, the brewer, at the brewing of Buddha Nuvo, tried his beers at Saison Fest and really look forward to more. Here's what Strange is bringing: Le Bruit De Diable Farmhouse Ale, IPAphany IPA, Cherry Kriek, Powerhouse Porter, Paint it Black Stout.

AC Golden / Colorado Native
This brewery might get a bad wrap for being associated with AC Golden, however, I believe they are doing some really interesting things, I've never had a beer that was not good, and if you don't live in Colorado, you can't get their beer. They will have a few special beers that I haven't even seen yet including: Dunkel, Schwarzbier, Baltic Porter, and a Belgian Style Saison.

Great Divide Brewing
A classic Colorado Brewery that has pretty good distribution. When I lived in Oregon, though, I only remember seeing their bombers, not their 6 packs. So, they're going to have a ton of beer that comes in 6 packs and some specials. Additionally, the most exciting part is that they will have a 'Yeti Section' where they'll be pouring all their Yeti beers side by side. Here's the low down: Old Ruffian, Hoss, Colette, Claymore, 17th Anniversary (Oak Aged Double IPA), Titan, DPA, Hercules, Hibernation, Rumble. This is truly a fantastic lineup! And then the Yeti series: Belgian Yeti, Chocolate Oak Aged Yeti, Espresso Oak Aged Yeti, Oak Aged Yeti and, of course, the classic Yeti Imperial Stout.

Pikes Peak Brewing
Pikes Peak opened up a few months back with a big bang in the region. They're located just north of Colorado Springs and they're making some really great beer. Now, the beer is not as experimental as many on this list, however, it is simply great, solid tasting beer. Check out one of Colorado's newest breweries this year: Devils Head Red, Gold Rush (Belgian Golden), Summit House Stout, The Brits are Back English Mild (really tasty mild ale).

Ska Brewing
I consistently drink Ska's beers more than any other in Colorado. They make a few hoppy beers, Euphoria and Modus Hoperandi, that hop heads often put at the top of their list. Every single one of their beers is solid and they release some fun experiments as well. Their Mexican Logger seasonal was the beer I drank more of than any other beer all summer long and I've saved off some of it so I can have it during autumn. I don't often do that with beer, I get greedy and I drink it sooner than I would like. At GABF they'll have: True Blonde, Modus Hoperandi, Steel Toe Stout, Decadent Imperial IPA, Buster Nut Brown and they'll also have Sethvleteren 8 and an Organic Beglian Dubbel in the Pro-Am Booth.

Others
I really can't name all the breweries. There are 74 from Colorado and I haven't even tried them all. Here's a few more to check out along the way though (in no particular order): Denver Beer Co. (just opened), Renegade Brewing (just opened), Bristol, Colorado Boy, Crazy Mountain, Lefthand Brewing, New Belgium, Mountain Sun Pub, Oskar Blues, Pateros Creek Brewing (just opened), Steamworks, Tommyknocker, Upslope, and Wynkoop.

I know that's a huge list, but these are all places I enjoy (except I haven't tasted the new ones yet). I'll be trying out a lot of beer from Colorado that I've never had before as well and reporting back.



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Focus on the Beer Top 10 Beer Spots in Colorado Springs: #9 Bristol/Black Fox Taproom

Here is the Focus on the Beer list of the top 10 beer spots in the Colorado Springs area. We are starting at #10 and working our way down to #1 in the upcoming weeks. The rest of the Top 10 can be found here. Let us know what you think!

#8 Beer Spot of Colorado Springs: Bristol/Black Fox Taproom

Surrounded by the posh Broadmore area, the sketchy South Nevada district, and Motor City, is the taproom for Bristol Brewing Company and Black Fox Brewing. Bristol Brewing is the oldest brewery in Colorado Springs, and it has done a great job of distributing its beer to the Colorado Springs area. Even the occasional beer drinker in Colorado Springs could probably name Laughing Lab as a beer they've tried.

The Beer: Bristol Brewing does a great job of creating a consistent beer that appeals to the masses and beer geeks alike. Laughing Lab Scottish Ale is their flagship beer that has won nine medals at the GABF over the years. It's always on tap along with their other year round beers including Red Rocket Pale Ale, Beehive Honey Wheat, Mass Transit Amber Ale, and Compass IPA. They usually have a couple seasonals on tap as well like Winter Warlock Oatmeal Stout, Old No. 23 Barley Wine, Yellow Kite Pils, and Cheyenn Canon Pinon Nut Ale. It's a great place to bring a friend who may not be familiar with the craft beer scene because their beer is not overly aggressive or too experimental. They stay pretty close to beer style guidelines.

If you are looking for solid Belgian style beer and experimental belgian styles, check out Black Fox Brewing beer, a side project of Bristol's head brewer, John Schneider. There's usually one or two on tap. Look for the unique names such as Faust Part 2, a spring saison, and Somnombulance, a Belgian brown aged on coffee, vanilla beans, and caramel. Black Fox has never done me wrong! We do not know how much longer Black Fox will be available at the Bristol taproom since John will be taking Black Fox to Denver to start his own brewery.

The Food: If dog bowls filled with pretzels are what you're after, this is the place for you! The taproom is, however, right next door to the Blue Star restaurant. The Blue Star is a great trendy spot with a unique menu and good service. I recommend eating in the bar which is a little cheaper than the main dining area. The Blue Star  has a great tap and bottle list.  I recommend going there on Thursdays for half price bottle night! Be sure to check out their always awesome beer dinners too. Edelweiss German restaurant is also close by.

Photo taken from Bristol

The Atmosphere: Bright and clean with a lot of stainless steel and wood, the taproom is a nice place to stop by after work for a pint or meeting friends. There's a small bar area that fills up fast during happy hour and a few tables are scattered around the area. A nice touch is a free shuffleboard table. A bit on the small side, but it gets the job done.

Overall: The Bristol taproom is a great place to grab a pint or a growler of their beer. It's a basic taproom with few bells and whistles but gets the job done when you are thirsty for a Compass IPA or Don't Call Me Wit. We expect great things from them in the near future with their Ivywild expansion.

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Seasonal Beer Releases and Events this September

Fall is one of my favorite seasons because I get to bundle up and because the beer scene changes quite a bit. We'll start seeing Oktoberfest beers, spiced beers, fresh hop beers, more browns, more porters, more aged beers. It's going to be great. Here's what a few places are up to in the next month:

Black Fox Brewing
Yes, Black Fox is back in action! We are thrilled about this. Looks like the first beer after the hiatus will be called "Cracked," a 6.5% saison with peppercorn and coriander. No real release date, but expect it in 10-12 days. Also, rumor has it that there will soon be a Malt Liquor, but no word on the dates yet.

Bristol Brewing
Sept 8th - Oktoberfest release at 5pm!
Sept 13th - Local 5, the Community Ale that benefits the Colorado Springs Firefighters Local 5 - 5pm

Old Chicago
Sept 14th - Old Chicago is really doing up the classic Oktoberfest beers for their Oktoberfest beer tour. They'll have Warsteiner, Spaten, Sam Adams, Ayinger, Paulaner, and Beck's Oktoberfest beers along with Hacker-Pschorr Dunkelweiss and Gordon Biersch Festbier. These beers will last more or less till October 2nd, but the party will be the best party, come opening night to an Old Chicago near you.

Phantom Canyon Brewing
Sept 16th - Phantom Oktoberfest - 5.8% 23IBUs, lagered for six weeks

Some Quick Thoughts About Colorado Beer Festivals

I wanted to make a quick point about beer festivals in Colorado. This might be a part of a larger conversation that I'll dig into later, but for now, I offer you some thoughts:

During my year here I've been overwhelmed by the amount of beer festivals although completely underwhelmed at the selection of beer at most of them. Every festival tends to have the same breweries and just about the same beers...and those beers are generally beers that I can easily get in bottle shops and at the pubs. If I'm going to pay $30-40 for a beer festival, I'd like to see more experimentation, beers that I'll never be able to try again.

My challenge to our local breweries is to participate in less festivals and/or begin entering unique beers into the ones you do participate in. I understand you're called to enter ridiculous amounts of festivals, providing free beer, but I'd really like to see some new beers at these things. To festival organizers, try and provide some way to reward breweries for providing a beer that will never be available again, or maybe that's available for the first time ever. Maybe have a specialty beer release section, and time it so that beers are released in intervals and excitement is created to try 'the crazy beers.' I'm sure you'll find more and more beer enthusiasts going nuts about your festival then. Like I said, this is just a small part of a larger conversation that maybe I'll dig into more in the future.

What are the festivals where you see specialty batches produced? What are some of your favorite festivals?


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Welcoming Our First Sponsor - Another Pint!

Big thanks goes out to Another Pint, a fantastic alehouse in Colorado Springs that recently became the first official sponsor of Focus on the Beer. We wanted to encourage you all to support these guys, they've made some big changes recently, and they're trying to turn their place into a real beer destination. They've got 33 constantly rotating taps, they've got a 30+ bottle selection, a lot of their beer is very hard to find, and they're now open till 2am on Friday and Saturday.

We've put an ad up on the blog for Another Pint and we'll be blogging about more of their special events. Additionally we're going to help them develop their beer menu, and we're going to have a few tap handles dedicated to Focus on the Beer. So, we'll be choosing some of the beers that come in, and I'm also thinking we can take polls to see what beers you want to see there. What I want to make sure you know is that just because we have sponsors, that does not mean we will compromise our writing. Lastly, I wanted to let you know that we'll be creating some special events at Another Pint. I don't want to give away too much, but it looks like the first special event will involve Crooked Stave! Stay tuned...

A short list of special beers available right now at Another Pint:
- Dogfish Head Black and Blue
- Russian River Damnation
- Firesone Walker Double Jack
- Lefthand Octoberfest
- Avery Octoberfest
- Firestone Walker DBA
- Dogfish Head Punkin
- Anchor Steam
- Ska's Modus Hoperandi
- Elysian Jasmine IPA
- Bristol B6000 (bottle)
- Boulevard Collaboration White IPA (bottle)
- Dogfish Head Theodroma (bottle)
- Russian River Supplication (bottle)
Coming Soon:
- Stone Anniversary Double Black IPA
- Great Divide Hercules Double IPA

This is just a short list, they've got a lot of great stuff on tap, and more on board. So, head on in there this weekend and support us by supporting them! Another Pint is the bar that's a part of A Second Cup and they're open till 2am on Friday and Saturday so you can have a late night out there.

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Dogfish Head Beer Dinner at Blue Star

This is an absolutely incredible looking beer dinner. The beers on this list are top notch and hard to find and it looks like a lot of effort was put into making the pairings work really nicely. The dinner is organized by Coaltrain bottle shop and The Blue Star restaurant. Here's the information straight from Coaltrain:

Dogfish Head Beer Dinner at The Blue Star
This dinner has been a year in the making. This labor of love will come to fruition on

Image Recap: Beers Made By Walking Tasting #1

The cover for the 12 page menu/catalog

I'm very happy to announce that the first tasting for Beers Made By Walking was a big success! The event happened last Saturday, we had about 100 people show up, sampling four different beers that were made as portraits of, and tributes to, the Colorado landscape in which they were made. The beers were conceived by local homebrewers but brewed through Rocky Mountain Brewery so they could be served at our local pub, Brewer's Republic. The beers were really surprising to me, I had not tasted any of them before the event. I'll talk about them a little later on, but I will say here that they were all vastly different from each other in more ways than one. The variety made the event that much more unique. If you didn't make it out, there will be another tasting, stay tuned by reading the blog or liking us on facebook. Here are some photos from the event, all taken by Daniel Flanders.

Each flight came on a serving tray with a full menu

I built serving trays for the event out of local beetle kill pine so that people could walk around and talk to people while sipping any of the four beers at the same time. I also created a 12 page menu that gave a good amount of detail as to who each brewer was, how they decided to make the beer, and information about the beer itself. I also told the story of how the idea of the project unfolded over a two year period, showed pictures from the first hikes, and drawings (which serve as the beer labels) for each plant used in each beer.

Isaac having a seat and sampling the beers.

As you can see in the photo here, the beers look very different from each other. The first, the prickly pear cactus wheat beer, was a bright pink color, tasted of pomegranates and watermelon and candy. Next was the smoked piñon brown, a very dark brown beer sitting at