Christmas Beer Homebrew Competition at Bierwerks

Bierwerks Brewery, in Woodland Park, is hosting the second annual American Homebrewers Association-sanctioned event for holiday beers. Entries will be accepted for one category only - 21.B, (Spice, Herb and Vegetable) Christmas/Winter Specialty Spiced Beer. This should give you enough advanced notice to put together a beer and have it submitted by Dec. 15th.

What is Christmas Beer? This is one broad category. Ales and lagers, spices and dried fruits - this beer can be anything that recalls the flavors and scents of the holidays. According to style guidelines, these beers are often amber or darker, leaning towards the malty end of the spectrum. Spices and other adjuncts can range from molasses to mint to spruce. A specific description can be found on the Beer Judge Certification Program web site here: Christmas Beer. The BJCP describes it this way, in brief - “A stronger, darker, spiced beer that often has a rich body and warming finish suggesting a good accompaniment for the cold winter season.”

Details:

Final Beers Made By Walking Event is this Saturday!

Just wanted to send one last reminder to you all about the final Beers Made By Walking. This program has been a lot of fun to put together and I want to thank every person that has contributed in some capacity over the last 6 months. See you there!

Upcoming Halloween Beer Events

Got a couple good looking Halloween weekend parties coming up at our local bars and breweries in Colorado Springs. This may not be everything that is planned, but it's what's on my radar. If your beer-related event is missing from this list, get in touch with me please. Take a look:

Brewer's Republic 
BR's Halloween celebration will be three days and starts Thursday (26th) at 8pm with some Halloween trivia (By the way you can catch us at trivia just about every Thursday at this place, if you didn't already know that). During trivia they'll also have Avery's Rumpkin available in bottles too along with an Avery Pint Night. Friday they're going to tap the 2011 GABF gold medal winner in the spiced beer category - Upslope Pumpkin. On Saturday they'll have Beers Made By Walking, which isn't exactly halloween, but I organized it and it will have spiced beers, so you better come. After BMBW, starting around 8pm they'll have their Halloween party, with a costume contest, winter warlock specials, and Ashley Raines doing music.

Trinity Brewing
I don't have very much information on this one but from what I've heard, it's a good time. Saturday, October 29th, all day long. Come in for apple-bobbing, a costume party, and a cask version of Flo IPA aged on pumpkin.

Rocky Mountain Brewery
Friday (28th) night, Halloween Holiday bash all evening long. Prizes for best kids and adults costume. Live classic rock performed by local band Winternacht, along with resident DJ Beartrap! A disgusting thing eating contest with prizes, giant ring-toss for free beers, face painting, and their "Mashing Pumpkins" pumpkin ale will be tapped that evening.


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More Thoughts on the Prices Beer Festivals (and Beer in General)

This morning I've been catching up on beer blogs and there's a couple recent posts from Portland, Oregon that have caught my attention. The first comes from It's Pub Night and he's essentially lamenting the rising price of beer festivals in Oregon. Generally in Oregon you will pay a base amount for a cup and then a dollar per ticket, each ticket gives you a 3oz-or-so pour. But some of the cups are starting to go up in price. Here's Bill:

A couple weeks ago, I thought the Hood River Hops Festival was a little cheeky for charging $6 for an empty plastic mug; then the obligatory pint glass at the Oaks Park Fresh Hops Fest was $8. The pint glass was nicer to drink from and more of a keepsake than a plastic mug; ditto the $8 tulip glass at the recent Beermongers 2nd Anniversary. Either way, $6 or $8 seems like a pretty steep price for entry...

Can you believe that people are saying that $6 and $8 entry fees are steep prices! We're over here in Colorado and we're paying $40 to get into a festival. Sure, we get all we can drink of little 1oz pours but the beer is all stuff we've had over and over and over at every festival.

Then Jeff at Beervana wrote a post about how people in Washington DC are really unhappy to be paying $6-7 for a pint of beer and he offers some of his thoughts on how the price will eventually come down. Every now and again the Portland beer blogs will have a short tirade about prices being too expensive for beers from places like Rogue Brewing. I used to side with the bloggers, thinking to myself 'Yeah Rogue is charging $5.25 for a pint of beer, that's crazy!' And it is crazy, when you can expect $4 pints anywhere you go. The problem is that here you'd be hard pressed to find a $4 pint of good beer in a regular bar or pub. Some places are charging up to $7 for a pint of beer. How about that? (Yes, I know that some beer is more expensive than your daily run of the mill beer).

I still go out, I still pay these higher prices, but I very rarely order the $7 beers, and I go out a lot less than I'd like to because it hurts my wallet. Now I'm not writing this to say that people in Portland are whining to themselves about things they shouldn't be whining about. I'm asking us, here in Colorado, how is it that we've settled for these steep prices and is there anything to be done about it? Is it a non-issue?

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Recap: Beers Made By Walking Hike #7 at North Cheyenne Canyon

Our final Beers Made By Walking hike took place a couple weeks ago. We took an easy trail in North Cheyenne Canyon. The air was getting crisp, it was nearly dark by the time we got back to the parking lot, and the majority of trees had turned color. This hike was led by Kimberly Banzhaf, who we thank so much for leading four out of seven of our hikes. The homebrewer that came along this time was Matt Kupferer. The idea is that we identify edible plants along the trail and then Matt creates a recipe based off what we find. The beer is then produced up in Monument at Pikes Peak Brewing and is sold for one night only at Brewer's Republic in downtown Colorado Springs. Guess what? The tasting for this beer and three others is this Saturday! Beers Made By Walking has nearly come to a close and it was quite a bit of fun.

 

I didn't get the best photos on this hike but I'll show you what I can. Matt is the guy here with the whitish ball cap. We're just beginning the walk at this point. We walked through a grove of scrub oak before the trail butted up right against the mountain wall. 

Reader's Choice: Colorado Springs Best Pumpkin Beer (Kind of)

Overview:

Over the weekend we announced that we would have a Reader's Appreciation Blind Pumpkin Judging and eleven of our facebook fans responded. Last night they all came over, we all got to meet each other and then we got down to the business of blind tasting four different Colorado Springs pumpkin beers. A winner was chosen. I purchased all the beer and I did not participate in the judging. See info below for the results and also to see how this is not a complete survey.

Odell's Mountain Standard is a Black IPA

I just received the press release for Odell's Mountain Standard Black IPA. I've never had the beer so I'm excited to try it. What I really wanted to talk about briefly though, is this never-ending discussion of whether we call a beer a Black IPA or a Cascadian Dark Ale (CDA). CDA is a term that many people in the Pacific NW are attempting to use in branding the style of these beers because, among many reasons, the hops used in these types of beers come from Cascadia, the Pacific NW. Many people outside the area don't want it called that. The distinction in the terms Black IPA and CDA are important in the beer geek world for more reasons than that but I want to share my opinion.

Mountain Standard is indeed a Black IPA, not a CDA. The press release says "Named for the time zone in which the brewery resides, Mountain Standard Double Black IPA features hops grown on Colorado’s western slope." Not only is Odell playing off the geographical debate that's taking place by naming their beer after our time zone, but they've specifically used hops from this time zone, not from the Pacific NW.

Mike Bristol Responds to Price Jacking Question

The other day we posted a series of questions about the dilemma or non-dilemma of liquor stores jacking up the prices of Bristol's Venetucci fundraising community ale. The topic, originally brought up by the UpaDowna folks, is certainly one that deserves some consideration. Is it okay for a shop to raise the prices of a beer where 100% of profits are going to Venetucci Farms, if in fact they are simply profiting off that beer. Browse the links above to see/participate in the discussion...

Mike Bristol talking with Grant and Isaac.

We invited Mike Bristol, of Bristol Brewing, to respond. Here's what he says:

The issue that they bring up is interesting. It would be naive of us to think that all of our liquor store customers would support the same causes that we do and would be perfectly aligned with our philanthropic goals. The fact is that

Crooked Stave's Officially In Town

Thanks to everyone who came out to our first event last night. This was a big Colorado Springs roll-out-party for Crooked Stave. At Another Pint we had four Crooked Stave beers to offer customers - Wild Wild Brett Rouge, WWB Orange, Surette Wood Aged Farmhouse, and the Pure Guava Petite Sour. The beers were a big surprise to me as they really pushed the way that I thought about Brettanomyces yeast. The Wild Wild Brett series, for example, are fermented with 100% Brett but they weren't 'sour' beers at all. Instead they highlight the different fruity, barnyard, and ultimately delicate characteristics of the yeast as well as the yeast's ability to pull and push the spice and fruits that were in the beer. Chad, the brewer, is making a beer in this series for every color of the rainbow (yellow is next). These beers were exciting examples of why the Brewer's Association category 'American Style Sour Ale' needed to be expanded into 'American Style Brett Ale.' We hope to hear more from Chad in the near future, but you can look for his beers around town now.

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Price Jacking the Venetucci Pumpkin Ale

Image is from UpaDowna's site

A moment ago I read a most interesting post on UpaDowna about how many liquor stores across Colorado Springs have jacked up the price of Bristol's famous Venetucci Pumpkin Ale. The author, Bunny, writes that he usually runs all over town the day after the release stocking up on as many bottles as possible but through a conversation with a friend began to see that this might be a serious problem. The beer is supposed to be a fundraiser but people are making profits from the high demand. I highly highly recommend reading the whole article, because I'm only quoting one small part of the larger piece here but Bunny goes on to say:

They're a business, that's exactly what any successful business is suppose to do. Buy low, sell high. The truth is these beers are advertised and sold with the understanding to many that 100% of the proceeds are going to the Venetucci Farm, it says it right there on the bottle. What does this mean?  Are all these stores that have hiked up the price pocketing off of this? Or are they donating 100% of the profits back to the charity, hmmm? The truth is they're not all doing this, if any are at all.

These things have happened before. A few months ago we posted to facebook an article from the Washington Post about rare beers sold on eBay for large amounts of money. (More discussion on that post is here and here.) A number of brewers are really upset that this is happening. But, similar to the Bristol beer, Russian River made a beer called Framboise for a Cure:

[The beer] sold for $12 per bottle to raise money for a local breast cancer treatment center. The beer sold out in a day, and soon somebody sold a bottle on eBay for $400. Then someone else put one up for sale. “We contacted that person,” Cilurzo says, “and we said, ‘This is absolutely ridiculous, because we donated 100 percent of this for charity.’”....The seller didn’t budge. “The guy said, ‘I have to support my habit somehow.’ ” Not heroin or cocaine. He meant craft beer.

This is an interesting thing to think about and I wanted to see what your thoughts were on the matter - Is it okay for liquor stores to jack up the prices if it is for their own profit? Obviously this happens with specialty rare beers but how about these not-for-profit-fundraising-beers? What do you think should be done about the situation? Is what's happening a problem, or is that just the way things go? Bristol is donating the money they get, so does it matter what happens once it changes hands? Ultimately the higher price builds a type of buzz about the beer, which makes it increasingly popular, which makes it sell out fast, which brings more and more attention to Venetucci and Bristol...Is this a bad thing? What do you all think?

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Left Hand Fade to Black Vol. 3 Looks Good

And speaking of Ro Guenzel of Left Hand...here he is again in this great video about the newest version of Fade to Black, an annual beer series dedicated to combining everything you want in a dark winter beer along with some complex smoke aroma and flavors. I saw the beer on shelves just a few days ago, haven't tried it yet, but look forward to picking up a six pack. The video is very informative and will get you pretty stoked to try this one out. It will be interesting to see how it compares to last year's Smoked Baltic Porter, which turned out to be one of my favorite beers of the year. I think typically, people like pepper infused beers less than normal, but this Fade to Black series is top notch so it's certainly worth trying.

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Big Feed and Beer in Yuma

An artwork created by CU Boulder students in Yuma

On Saturday I headed up to Yuma, Colorado where I gave a presentation about some of the beer related events I've organized. The talk was a part of an event called The Big Feed, organized by the art group M12, and brings together voices from artists, musicians, and some of the local Yuma group. Topics ranged from beer to interventionist art to 4H. My favorite part was that my talk was on a panel about beer with head brewer Ro Guenzel of Left Hand Brewing.

Ro talking about beer.

Ro actually made a beer specifically for this event - Yuma County Ale. The beer was a hand-malted farmhouse ale, containing 80% wheat from the local Rutlage Farm. Yes, I did say hand-malted AND I did say 80% wheat. The beer was fantastic, quite drinkable, medium bodied saison with somewhat smokey and peppery notes. I would seriously be happy to drink it on a regular basis. There was only a 1/6 barrel though so it went pretty quickly. I also provided some beer, some heather ale, which is the beer I regularly bring to art-related conferences or festivals that invite me to participate. I like the history of the heather beer, as told by Williams Bros, and I like the way it is a representation of an indigenous beer (to Scotland). The Williams Bros. Brewery was a major inspiration for Beers Made By Walking and I thought it was very nice that Ro made a beer with ingredients that came from a farm in this rural community. Seemed like a good conceptual connection to me.

Local Review: Trinity's Brain of the Turtle

We're going to start doing more reviews of local beers. We're not going to go overkill or anything, just commit to looking at beer that is made here in Colorado Springs and we'll let you know what we think. We are using our own subjective rating system, based in part off BJCP guidelines, but only in part, because we care less about style guidelines at times, and really it boils down to whether we enjoy the beer or not.

The other day we headed over to Trinity and picked up a bottle of the newly released Brain of the Turtle. We've had the beer before, during parties, and really enjoyed it so we wanted to sit down with it and really spend some time with it. Brain of the Turtle is a sour beer, and the bottle reads "Sour Ale aged on oaken barrels, cherries, almonds, and coffee." We didn't read the label before we tried the beer. So, without further ado, here's our thoughts:

Beer Cocktails at Monument Beer Week

I posted the schedule for Monument Beer Week a few days ago. On Wednesday, October 19th, from 5-9pm Pikes Peak Brewing has teamed up with Boulder Distillery (Robs MTN Gin, 303 Whiskey, etc) to provide some beer cocktails, and I've got the menu below (thanks to the CS Indy for posting it). Rob Masters will be there mixing drinks for you! I've been really intrigued by beer cocktails, in part because my buddies at the New School have been organizing beer cocktail events for quite a while now. Whenever I visit Freshcraft in Denver I ask them for a beer cocktail, and they do a really good job at creating things that aren't already on the menu.

What is a beer cocktail? We're not talking about whiskey with a chaser, boilermaker, or a black and tan, we're talking about mixing spirits, sometimes with fruit, sometimes with fire, sometimes like a martini, sometimes like an Irish coffee. But ultimately, beer becomes an important part of the mix. Like any great mixed drink, it takes thought and creativity to put together a good beer cocktail. The menu looks pretty good:

The Gold Harvest
A seasonal cocktail utilizing the flavors of fall with the freshness of a blonde ale
Gold Rush Blonde Ale, 303 Vodka, Apple Cider, Lemon Clove

Purgatory
A complex but balanced cocktail. Sweetness from the whiskey and bitterness from a hop forward red ale.
Devil's Head Red, 303 Whiskey, Lemon, Sage, Nutmeg, Dash of Bitters

Rocky Mountain Juniper
A little bit spicy with a citrus element and juniper notes that are not to be ignored.
Rocky Wheat Ale, Rob's MTN Gin, Dry Vermouth, Lime, Ginger

Choco Stout
Chocolate milk for adults
Summit House Stout, 303 Whiskey, Half N Half, Orange, Cinnamon Chocolate


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Beer Releases Tomorrow

Tomorrow, October 13th 2011, we'll see three beer releases throughout Colorado Springs.
Here's the details:

Bristol - Winter Warlock Release Party
The annually-awaited and award-winning Winter Warlock Oatmeal Stout - chock full of highly roasted barley malt and 100 pounds of flaked oatmeal - will return replacing its seasonal counterpart Yellow Kite Summer Pils on shelves in 16-ounce bottles and in Shuffle packs, and on tap. To celebrate, Bristol Brewing Co. will hosting a release party in their Tasting Room.

Phantom Canyon - Halloween Pumpkin Ale
Technically you can't get this beer until the 14th, unless you go to the Phantom beer dinner tomorrow, so call in and see if they've still got tickets. It should be a great dinner: Come celebrate the harvest! Pumpkins were used in early colonial American brewing as a way to supplement expensive imported malt with locally grown and plentiful ingredients. Over one-hundred and fifty pounds of pumpkin are added to the batch making a beer with a sunset orange-amber hue, pumpkin flavor and an aromatic and slightly spicy finish from a blend of vanilla, Saigon and Indonesian cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, mace, cloves and ginger. 6.0% ABV.

Rock Bottom - Wonder Brew
Not sure what kind of beer this is, but here's the details of the tapping: The life saving beer!  Come out and enjoy free samples of our Wonder Brew Cream Ale from 6-6:30pm.  This beer benefits the Susan G. Komen fund, world's largest breast cancer organization.

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Here's the DL on Beers Made By Walking Tasting #2

Beers Made By Walking Tasting #2
Sat. Oct 29th / 4-8pm
Brewer's Republic / Downtown Colorado Springs / 112 N. Nevada
$5 Entry / Unlimited Tastes

The second installment of tastings for Beers Made By Walking. A summer long program in which a public group goes on a local hike. Along the way we identify edible and medicinal plants. A homebrewer takes note and afterword develops a recipe and creates a beer based off of what we see on the hike. The special ingredients are purchased in local shops, online, or harvested with permission on private property. The beer is then made at Pikes Peak Brewing and will be available for tasting one night only at one of our local pubs, Brewer's Republic. The beer essentially becomes a portrait of the local landscape, a celebration of place. They will be served together in handmade serving trays and a 12 page catalog that describes our summer long process.

Here is a list of beers and the brewers:
- Scott Buchholz - Limber Blond Ale - Strawberry, Limber Pine
- Rich Mock - Gruit to It - Wild Sage, Wild hops, Yarrow
- Tom Brown - Eve's Forbidden Flower - Bee Plant, Tansy Mustard, Rose Hips, Amaranth
- Matt Kupferer - (not titled yet) - Sarsaparilla, Hazlenuts, Spruce

More info:
The first tasting event took place late August. This next one will be a lot of fun, but if you need convincing, here are photos from the first event. And here you can also see photos from the various hikes that we've gone on. The project is sponsored by the UCCS Galleries of Contemporary Art and the beers were made at Pikes Peak Brewing Co.


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Recap: Beers Made By Walking Hike #6 at the Catamount Trail

Two weeks ago we completed our sixth Beers Made By Walking hike. The program is a summer long series where we identify edible plants on a hike and make a beer based off what we see on that particular trail. The brewer that came along on this day was Tom Brown, he was a homebrewer when we started this project but ended up getting a job at Trinity in the middle of it, so he's technically the only commerical brewer in the group. The beer has already been made up at Pikes Peak Brewing, it is a commercial product (not homebrew) and will be available for one night, Oct 29th, at Brewer's Republic downtown Colorado Springs. In this case, Trinity Brewing ended up donating all the base ingredients for the beer. Thank you Trinity! The naturalist that helped us identify plants on this hike was Paul Gayer, an ecology student at CSU Ft. Collins.

This time we did the Catamount Trail Hike, in Green Mountain Falls, which lasted about 6 hours. The hike goes up about 2000 feet in a short distance so it proved to be our most strenuous hike of the series. The setting was a little higher in altitude so while the leaves in Colorado Springs were just barely turning yellow, pretty much the entire backdrop of this trail was dark red, orange, and yellow leaves, a sign that autumn is well on it's way (and there's no question about that now, even in Colorado Springs' limits).

Monument Beer Week 2011: Oct 16 - 22

That's right, Monument now has a Beer Week! I'd imagine it's largely due to the work of our new Pikes Peak Brewing, as everything looks like it's happening there. I'm not sure if other places in Monument will also be participating. Check out the calendar of events:

Sunday - 10/16
Homebrewers Demonstration mid afternoon

Monday - 10/17

Beer Chef contest, bring your best beer-inspired recipe for a chance to win fabulous PPBC prizes! If you'd like to participate, contact Courtney at courtney@pikespeakbrewing.com for details.

Tuesday - 10/18

Private Beer Expedition Team Beer and Cheese Tasting Event.  BET Members Only. Beer and cheese event, $30/person; Must RSVP and Pay in advance at PPBC. Taste a great pairing between some German cheeses and PPBC beer.

60, 90, 120...It's a Dogfish World This Weekend

We designed Another Pint/A Second Cup's beer menu. We were putting it together this week and we noticed some pretty insane beers that we thought we should mention. They're gearing up for Monday's Dogfish Head Beer Dinner so they've put a number of the Dogfish Head beers on early so you can try them this weekend. It's not often that you get to drink a 60 Minute IPA, a 90 Minute IPA, and a 120 Minute IPA (15-20% ABV, 120 IBU!) all right next to each other (in fact it's quite rare), but that's what you're going to get if you head up there now.

Also,  they've got Dogfish Head Punkin (pumpkin), Black and Red (mint stout), Midas Touch (ancient recipe), Chateau Jiahu (with berries, honey, and grapes) and then on deck they've got the rare Palo Santo Marron (aged on handmade wooden brewing vessels). It's going to be an awesome weekend, and you likely won't see a line up like this again for a while.

There are still a couple tickets for the Dogfish Head Beer Dinner for Monday night too, check out the information here.

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Focus on the Beer Top 10 Beer Spots in Colorado Springs: #7 BierWerks Brewery

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: BierWerks Brewery

Nestled in the bosom of Pikes Peak is the town of Woodland Park, and in this town is BierWerks Brewery crafting German style beer to the tourists and locals on Highway 24. From its opening in 2010, the brewery instantly became a hit in this small town, and they have been working hard keeping up with the demand. The reason for their instant success can mostly be attributed to the strong brewing skills of brewers Jeff Aragon and Brian Horton who used to brew beer for Trinidad Brewing Company before it closed in 2009. Jeff and Brian, however, no longer work for BierWerks, and James McGraw has been hired to be the new brewmaster.

The Beer: BierWerks mainly focuses on traditional Bavarian style beers. They have year round lager styles consisting of helles, altbier, dunkel, and latzenbier (a darker, stronger variation of the altbier). The four seasons bring in a few more beers to the lineup: the summer weissbier, the fall oktoberfest and dunkelweiss, the winter weihnachtsbier (strong Christmas beer) doppelbock and weizenbock, and the spring maibock and dortmunder. A fun and unique feature that sets this place apart from other taprooms is that you can add a shot of raspberry syrup to any of their beers and make it a mit schuss. You can also order a radlermass which is half helles and half homemade lemon soda. This place isn't just a one trick German pony. They also serve brewers reserve beer filled with high gravity ales such as double IPA, baltic porter, double red, wee heavy, and imperial stout.

Local Halloween Beer Releases

Halloween beers are wonderful. Here's a list of what you can expect to find around town this month. Drink em fast because most will disappear quickly. Also, Coaltrain will have a good variety of pumpkin spice beers, but those also tend to disappear quickly. Lsatly, check back here for updates, not all the local breweries have told me what they are up to yet.

October 7
Trinity Brewing - Emma's Coffin Pumpkin Saison
Brewed with brown sugar, garam masala, torch roasted Vennetucci Farm sugar pumpkins, white sage, coriander, and grains of paradise. This version of our seasonally rotating Saison tastes like liquid pumpkin pie .... If you were in Belgium that is! 10.5% ABV - $17.95 for a 750ml bottle.

October 13/14
Phantom Canyon - Halloween Pumpkin Ale
It looks like the Brewer's Dinner on the 13th will feature the pumpkin ale, however it won't be available to everyone else until the 14th. From Alan: Pumpkins were used in early colonial American brewing as a way to supplement expensive imported malt with locally grown and plentiful ingredients. Over one-hundred and fifty pounds of pumpkin are added to the batch making a beer with a sunset orange-amber hue, pumpkin aroma and a slightly spicy finish from a blend of vanilla, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, coriander, cloves and caraway. 6.1% ABV.

October 15
Rock Bottom Colorado Springs - Pumpkin Harvest Ale
Pumpkin in the mash. Kettle. Fermenter. And bright tank. If you don't taste pumpkin its your fault.

Update: Date Change for Crooked Stave Meet the Brewer Night

Due to unforeseen circumstances, we needed to change the date and time of this Meet the Brewer event. Please take a note, it is now on Saturday Oct 22 at 6pm. Same Location. Thanks!
Also, check out the Facebook Event Page for this.

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

We are 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. The event will take place on Oct 22nd. This will be the first time that any of Crooked Stave's finished beers will be available in Colorado Springs, and it will signal a new era, where Crooked Stave's beers will be available in our best local pubs and at Coaltrain's. Focus on the Beer has mentioned Chad numerous times on the blog and has been really excited about his beer since we first heard about what he was doing nearly a year ago, so it is only fitting that he be involved in our first Meet the Brewer event. All of Crooked Stave's beers are aged on oak and many are soured, often using various strains of Brettanomyces. There is no cover charge, but these specialty beers will be available for purchase at Another Pint/A Second Cup, both in bottles and on draft. Chad will give a talk about his beers and the unique things he's doing at his brewery, and he will be available to chat with you if you want to ask him any questions or make small talk.

This event will be the first of many organized by Focus on the Beer. We're 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 our blog, then you can support us by attending this event.


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Getting Lost, and Other Ways To Do GABF

One week ago we were gearing up for what turned out to be a lovely Great American Beer Festival weekend. I determined that I would 'not work' while I was there. I wasn't going to take notes, I wasn't going to try to judge which beers I liked the most and which were the worst, I wasn't going to try to be the first person to post about my experience at the festival (I didn't even bring a camera, but I did snap 3 or 4 pictures with my phone). Instead I was just going to have a good time, drink a ton, try some new stuff, and be satisfied with it.

So that's what I did. But I do want to talk about a few experiences that stood out to me, ones that I think you'll enjoy reading. Before I do that, let me direct your attention to a couple great GABF recaps: This One by our pal Matthew Schniper of the CS Indy and This One from New Belgium (it includes some of New Belgium's love for Focus on the Beer!). So now, here are some of my tales:

We met up with my buddy Angelo, of Brewpublic, at the Avery taproom.

1. Don't like Saisons? Then don't drink them!
I don't mean to pick on this particular guy but I have to share it as a moment that really stood out to me. At the Trinity Pre-GABF party I ended up meeting a lot of people who were visiting from out of state. I went up to the bar and met two people who were talking about Trinity's beer, neither knew each other previously. One guy said that he was really impressed with Trinity's sours, like The Flavor. I said that I agree, and then I went on to talk about the four special saisons that were on tap. The next guy interrupted and said "Yeah, but you have to like saisons and sours, if you don't like saisons then you won't like this place, they're really limiting themselves" or something to that effect. So I said "Yes, that's Trinity's specialty, they make over 30 saisons a year." I think I left it at that. Ultimately Trinity makes saisons and sours, and yes, the make other things here and there too. If you go to Trinity, you should just accept that fact. If you don't like saisons, then don't worry yourself with going to Trinity. A brewery can do what they want. That's that.

Upcoming Lecture About Beers Made By Walking and More

I'm pretty excited to announce that I'm going to be giving a talk about Beers Made By Walking and other beer related projects that I've organized as part of a community based art program in Yuma, Colorado. Additionally, I'll be speaking alongside Ro Guenzel, the head brewer of Left Hand Brewery. I've been organizing beer events for a few years but this is the first time I've been able to talk about what I do on the same panel as other beer industry folks, usually I'm talking with other artists.

Yuma is a good 3 hours NE of Colorado Springs so I'm not expecting anyone to come out and say hi, but if you want to, the information is on this poster. The date of my talk will be Oct 15th but I'm not sure the exact timing yet.

M12 is the artist collective that is organizing this program. They organize research-based and site-specific projects and programs in Denver, Yuma, and other places nearby. The Big Feed is a 2 day event that combines art, local industry, food, and the landscape. There will be presentations, a spit roasted bison, breakfast, music, and all sorts of other festivities. I'm looking forward to it.

Some day I'm sure I'll give a talk in town as well. I'll keep you posted on that.

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Recap: Beers Made By Walking Hike #5 at Midland Railroad Grade

Four our fifth Beers Made By Walking hike we headed into Manitou Springs, and climbed up to the Midland Railroad Grade. This one was led by botanist Liz Klein and the homebrewer that came along was Rich Mock, who I met way back at the Vail Big Beer Festival in January. Rich is going to make a beer based off of edible plants we found on this hike, which begins with a nice but short trek through some lush vegetation and heads into a really steep, gravelly climb. Eventually it dumps you off at a trail on the top and it turns out to be quite unique with a number of tunnels and noise from the nearby highway.

The climb and the view from the top.

Rich taking notes while Liz tells us about the Yucca.

2011 Awards for the Great American Beer Festival

Colorado did pretty stinking good at the Great American Beer Festival this year. I'm counting 39 medals - 14 gold, 10 silver, and 15 bronze. I watched the event, and while I haven't actually done the numbers, I'd imagine that our state won more medals than any other state, with the exception of California (and maybe Indiana). Crabtree Brewing won a few awards, and I've never had their beer, but it seems I'm going to need to check them out. Also, big win for Odell in the Wood Aged Sour, New Belgium in the American Style Sour, Upslope's gold pumpkin beer, I think a silver in the American IPA category is a giant win for Oskar Blues, and a big huge award for homebrew Tom Gardner in the homebrew ProAM competition. Funkwerks did well with a silver in the French/Belgian Saison category, although I think there beer is better than Boulevard's gold winning Brett Saison. Truly, any award is a great achievement though. Lastly, I'm a bit surprised that Trinity didn't win, I really was shooting for them in the new American Brett category. Go here for a full list of awards, but below I've posted a full list of the Colorado brewery awards:

Fruit Wheat
Bronze - Vintage Blonde Ale - Blue Moon - Golden

Field/Pumpkin
Bronze - Turnip the Beets - Bull and Bush - Denver
Gold - Upslope Pumpkin Ale - Upslope Brewing - Boulder

2011 Venetucci Pumpkin Ale is Here!

It is indeed that time of the season, the leaves are turning firey orange, the night air is getting cold and crisp, and the streets are being filled with leaves. Fall is beautiful on the Front Range. One of my favorite parts of Fall is that breweries begin using ingredients that indicate the changing of seasons. We see fresh hop beers and spiced beers. One of Colorado Springs most anticipated beers will be available soon as well - the Venetucci Pumpkin Ale from Bristol Brewing.

A year ago when I moved here, everyone told me that I had to get this beer. I was able to get the limit of three bottles, reserving the beer at Coaltrain. When I cracked the first one open I was thoroughly pleased. I was going to save one for a whole year to compare it the one made this year, but I just didn't have the patience and I drank them all. I also took one to the Beer Bloggers Conference in November and there we compared the beer to a couple different pumpkin ales that Elysian makes (Elysian makes tons of different pumpkin beers every year, and they organize a pumpkin beer festival in Seattle). Most people like the Bristol version the most.

I'm looking forward to trying this beer side by side to the pumpkin beer that Alan makes over at Phantom Canyon. I've heard great things about that beer as well, and this year they've added 150 lbs of pumpkin to the batch. The Phantom Canyon beer is set to be released around October 21st.