Phantom Canyon releases 100 bottles of Methuselah Rookie Card

We are pleased to announce that Phantom Canyon's Methuselah Rookie Card will be available for at-home consumption very soon. This is a 'sour red ale with cherries, aged in French oak barrels for two years.' The name Methuselah Rookie Card comes from a Simpson's episode. The beer is bottled and ready to go and tastes great! If you'll remember this beer was a real crowd pleasure at our blog anniversary party in December. There's only 100 bottles of this so you'll need to act fast. 750ml bottles, $20/bottle (+tax), and a limit of three bottles per customer. Released March 10th at Noon at the brewery!

Not only that, but I drew up the label for this beer! Perhaps Methuselah has become the key to this beer's acidity and flavor? Hope you enjoy the drawing and the beer.

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Beer Thoughts: Rockyard Olde BroAle

Beer Info:
Olde BroAle is a part of Rockyard's Homebrewers Gone Wild program. They invite a Colorado-based homebrew club to make beer in a specific style, choose the one they feel is working best and then rebrew the beer on their commercial system, and the homebrew club gets to participate in the whole thing. For this one, our local brew club, the Brew Brothers of Pikes Peak, made an Old Ale from John Garbett's recipe.

Beer Drinker of the Week #01

Beer Drinker of the Week is a new segment we're starting here at Focus on the Beer.  This will serve as a way to show off all that delicious beer you've been drinking, or just simply show us what beers you enjoy on a normal basis. This series allows you to present your beer in an artistic environment, tell us what you think about the beers you're trying, what beer is in your fridge regularly, or tell a story about how you acquired a hard to find beer. You and your beers are the focus here.

How Do I Become a Part of This?

If you are interested in being our Beer Drinker Of The Week please e-mail us at csbeerdrinkeroftheweek@gmail.com. You can propose to us which week you'd like to take, or we can pick the week for you and send you information and some basic directions. We'll try to post every Thursday (or so) the beers that one reader drank the previous week. We try to focus on the Colorado Springs drinkers but may be willing to expand, so email us!

So since this is the first one, I'll start as an example (and to show off).

Changes to the blog

Just wanted to direct your attention to the left side of the blog. You may have noticed already, this month we started accepting advertisements. These aren't just any ads though, these are from companies that we support and believe in, we wouldn't advertise a company that we didn't truly appreciate. They are all Colorado Springs based, with the exception of Oskar Blues, who is just a short drive North. And we are very honored that these folks were so quick to sign on with us. Please welcome: Another Pint, Phantom Canyon, Coaltrain Wine and Spirits, Weber Street Liquor, Oskar Blues, Trinity Brewing, and Front Range BBQ. An awesome group of companies!

So, if you're not familiar with any of these folks, or if you'd like more information, go ahead and check them out, pay them a visit, they are each an important part of our growing craft beer community here in Colorado Springs.

Additionally I wanted to make sure that you all know that having advertising will not change the content of this blog. We will be as honest and open as we always have. Additionally with the money that comes in we hope to throw some parties and to make our events bigger and better, making sure that we give back to you, our readers.

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Thank You Josh Osterhoudt

This week we received some sad news, "It is with a sad heart that I share with you the passing of a bright star in Colorado's craft beer industry. Josh Osterhoudt, General Manager of Bristol Brewing of Colorado Springs has passed." And from Bristol, "It is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye today to our General Manager, Josh Osterhoudt. He passed away in his sleep last night after a short but valiant fight against cancer. Friend, mentor, riding buddy, drinking pal, and fellow traveler: we love you, we miss you. Happy trails, Josh-O." Thank you Josh for your good work in the industry, we will raise one in your honor this week.

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Beer Thoughts: Odell Footprint

Beer Info:
There are ten states that make up what we (Odell) call our 'Distribution Footprint.' Each state made a unique contribution to Footprint. This artful ale is our tribute to these states in which our beer is available. The brewery sourced select ingredients from each of these ten states and crafted a myriad of small batch brews that were then blended into one larger brew. Guest brewers comprised of distributor partners, retailers, co-workers and friends from each state were invited to Odell Brewing to help with the brews. Colorado: Hops & Barley, Arizona: Prickly Pear, Idaho: Hops & Barley, Kansas: Wheat, Minnesota: WIld Rice, Missouri: Oak Barrels, Nebraska: Corn, New Mexico: Green Chilies, South Dakota: Barley & Honey, Wyoming: Wheat. ABV 9.5%

Bierwerks' Winter Bier Fest is this Weekend

In case you didn't already know, this weekend Bierwerks is presenting their 2nd annual Winter Bier Festival. Looks like they'll have a slew of German beers from folks like AC Golden, Arvada, Bierwerks, Bristol, Del Norte, Dry Dock, Durango Brewing, KBKB, Odell and Ska. On Facebook it looks like they're pricing this at $25 for a ticket, and if you buy in advance you'll be saving $5. Looks like you can buy tickets online.

2012 Winter Bier Fest
Saturday Feb. 25th / 12-4pm
At the Ute Pass Cultural Center
Woodland Park, CO

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On Buying AC Golden's Beer

Earlier today I gave a recap on the Wild Beer and Wild Game beer dinner and I talked about an absolutely fantastic beer by Troy Casey of AC Golden called the Hidden Barrel Project Apricot. The beer, masterfully crafted had two pounds of apricots per gallon and had been aged for 10 months in Chardonnay barrels. The beer was tart, but not overwhelming, it was incredibly balanced and absolutely delicious. I want to drink that beer all the time.

In case you didn't know AC Golden is a part of Miller/Coors, operating in a 'small' 30 barrel brew house right down the hall from Coors in Golden, CO. AC Golden is most known for their Colorado Native brand. Troy informed us that this Apricot Beer will be bottled and sold at Mile High Liquor in Denver starting in March. It will be a limited batch and the people at the brewery are not sure how well the beer will sell because it will be priced at $22/bottle. Not only that, but the beer is sitting somewhere between 5-6% ABV so it's not a big beer at all. Troy wasn't sure if people who are used to paying higher prices for higher ABV beers, like for Avery special beers, would be willing to pay the same price for these. Well, let me assure you that the beer is of the highest quality and is an absolutely lovely 'sour' apricot beer. I do believe it's worth $22, easily.

For me the question isn't whether or not people will buy this because of the ABV, but rather because of a moral and/or philosophical question of whether or not they want to put their money in the pocket of MillerCoors, a joint venture with MolsonCoors, whose beer  is not exactly known for being in favor with the craft beer crowd. Will people support AC Golden? The answer is clear to me, AC Golden is making damn fine beer and they are paying guys like Troy Casey to make these innovative beers. It's a clear yes for me.

Looks like it's also a clear yes for our Denver Off The Wagon buddies, who were somehow thinking the same thing as me at the same time. Collective consciousness!

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The Crowd Goes Wild: A Recap of the Wild Game & Wild Beer Dinner

The Wild Beer & Wild Game dinner at Trinity the other night was a real work of art. There were six courses, each with an element of wild game, with the exception of the fondue and the dessert which used local ingredients. The beers, all 'wild' in that they used traditionally wild yeast strains (usually Brettanomyces), ranged enormously from the acetic and sour, to incredibly fruity, to hoppy, to delicate and rosey. Everything was paired beautifully by chefs Brian Blasnek and Chad Conway. I'm going to write about some of the pairings but I don't intend for this to be a review, just a mouth-watering recap. If you want a review...I give it two thumbs up and I would highly recommend the next dinner.

The first course really set the stage for the rest of the night. The Colorado cheddar fondue sat next to apples, pears, and a couple different types of local breads. It was absolutely delicious. But even more incredibly it paired perfectly with the acetic Old Growth. The beer is perhaps Trinity's most tart offering, with notes of green apple. The cheese in the dish was creamy and smooth and so nicely cut through the tart qualities of the beer, which was also complimented so nicely with the pear.

Fine Dining Beer Dinner with Oskar Blues at Summit

For those of you looking for a finer beer dining experience in Colorado Springs, the Broadmoor is hosting an Oskar Blues dinner at the fine dining restaurant Summit. Five courses paired with five beers. The menu looks tasty, ranging from Ahi Tuna tartar to a honey spiced Muscovy Duck Breast. This will take place at The Summit, which is directly across the street from the Broadmoor hotel.

The timing is February 26th at 6pm. The cost is $79.00 and includes beer. Call Summit at 719.577.5896 to make reservations.

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Beer Thoughts: Funkwerks Aurora

Beer thoughts:
Funkwerks Aurora is perhaps Funkwerks' most striking bottle in terms of aesthetics and will turn the head of any person, giving them a 'What are you about to open' look on their face. It is a Belgian Style Ale, pouring golden orange with a beautiful long lasting lacing and head. The combination of yeasts specially highlight the fruitier flavors of the single hop, Styrian Aurora hops. The aroma is of grassiness and really juicy fruits like apricots and peaches. The taste is very similar, lots of peach, exotic fruits, some grassiness, and a hint of spice. The beer is sweet in a fruity way, not really in a malty way. The beer is beautiful, I wish we could have this regularly at our pubs.

Brewery Closings

In the past few weeks about six breweries have closed their doors. Some people have wondered if this will be a growing trend as we have literally hundreds of new breweries opening this year around the country. We have three new ones in Colorado Springs and about forty or so in the whole of Colorado state. Have we reached a saturation point? I don't think so, in fact, I'm not sure we're anywhere near that point and we won't be until breweries are filling up our neighborhoods. We see many breweries expanding and many new ones filling in the gaps. I wasn't even going to mention these closings on the blog but then I read an interesting post on Appellation Beer titled Brewery Closings: No Trends Here Folks...

New 2012 Smokebrush Porter Is Out!

The new Bristol Smokebrush Porter is out! Big congratulations to Jeremy Grant, an artist that has had some work up at Modbo on winning the art/design competition. This particular piece seems to be robot meditating on beer. Yeah! Proceeds from this beer will go to Smokebrush Gallery. Cheers!

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2012 Firkin Rendezvous Beer List Update

The Firkin Rendezvous is just about a week away and I've been given the list of some of the beers you'll get to try. Last year I posted a list as well, a very impressive list, and it ended up being about 2/3 of the beer at the festival. So, most likely there will be more beer than you see here. There will also be food available. Also, last I heard there were a few tickets left, so act fast!

Coaltrain's Barrel Aged Beer Tasting

Photo taken from Buffalo Trace

Coaltrain is pulling out the stops! They've got a ridiculously good looking barrel aged beer tasting coming up. This will be a great opportunity to have some rarities, just have a good time, and if you feel like it to also educate yourself a bit on different types of barrel aged beer, and the differentiation of flavors. Here's the news from Coaltrain, including a list of beers:

Join us on Thursday, March 1st at 6pm at The Warehouse restaurant for the greatly anticipated Barrel-Aged Beer Tasting. The line-up is killer; with an imported beer flight including a couple oak-aged Trappist ales, followed by a domestic flight dominated by bourbon and whiskey barrel aging. This is a sit-down event that begins promptly at 6pm. The Warehouse kitchen will provide two food courses to pair with the beer flights as well as a light dessert. The cost per taster is $48 inclusive.

1952 Video About American Beer Industry

I was planning to take a break from the blog today but when I saw this video I decided I couldn't do it. I'm too attached at this point! Supposedly from 1952 (although it's in color, so I highly doubt that date), this video is presented by the United States Brewer's Foundation Inc., and really has the feel of a propaganda video because it goes to great lengths to make the beer industry look "clean" and "law abiding." Bartenders are good American citizens and follow the rules in order to make a friendly tavern atmosphere. Also feels like an antique version of "How Beer Saved The World." Anyway, if you want a good drinking game, take a sip of beer any time the narrator says the word "America."
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Is There A Psychology of Hop Aversion?

Crazy Mountain Brewing

I'll be making a big leap in this post...On my way to work the other day I was listening to a Science Friday podcast, as I always do on my way to work, and the topic of the 'psychology of sadism' came up. Steven Pinker, author of the book Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined, was talking about torture, that during certain ages even though people have an aversion to torture, if they saw it enough they would begin to develop a taste for it "and they positively craved it." He goes on to say, "We have reason to think from the studies of the psychology of sadism that even though we're born with an aversion to causing direct physical harm to someone with our bare hands...It's kind of like the aversion to eating strong spicy food or fear of heights. You start out with that fear, but once you master it, it can become a source of sophisticated pleasure."

I know I'm making a huge, gigantic, really wild leap here but I was wondering if the same might be true of very bitter foods, including bitter hops in beer? (I told you it would be a big leap). I know many people who were extremely turned off by beer that was lopsidedly bitter, however at some point it's like they flipped a switch, turned on the light bulb, and now bitter beers are about the only things they'll let pass through their system. Bittering hops temporarily demolish your palette but so many people have specific hops that they like more than others. Some have preferences of lemony, grapefruit, earth, piney, or even spicey hops. Some people love beers that have complex hop aromas and flavors. But I'll say it again, a huge amount of people I know had a strong initial aversion to bitter and hoppy beers. I'm curious what the psychology of sado lupulinism would look like?

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Colorado: The Beer State

Here's a great half-hour video about beer in Colorado. You'll get some history and some interviews with all sorts of folks in the CO beer industry, including breweries, festivals, and agriculture experts. Does a pretty good job at explaining why this state is considered by many the best state in the country for craft beer. Enjoy!
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A Beer Worth Drinking: Boulevard Chocolate Ale

Boulevard's Chocolate Ale really surprised me. I've never had a chocolate beer that wasn't a porter or a stout so when I poured this bright orange-red beer into the glass I wondered if I had opened the wrong bottle. The beer was made in collaboration with Christopher Elbow, who is known for his masterful work with chocolate (I'm not a specialty-chocolate-follower so I've only heard of him in tandem with this beer). Well, after drinking this I know he's gotta be good. The aroma is quite earthy with a clear cocoa character. The taste is really fun and complex, think dark chocolate, like the small specialty brands that you might find at food coops. It's not milk chocolate anyway, somewhat chalky, medium bodied, really nutty malt character, bitter-sweet finish, and some dark fruit notes (think cherry with dark chocolate). It's a complex beer, very unique, makes your mouth water, and definitely a lot of fun to drink. Whoa, 9.1%!!! Who would have guessed?

The Brew Brothers Barrel Brew Day

The local homebrew club of Colorado Springs area, The Brew Brothers of Pikes Peak, got together this Sunday before the Super Bowl to collaborate and brew a beer to put into the club's Stranahan's whiskey barrel. Each brewer brought his own equipment and brewed the same recipe so as to have enough beer to fill the barrrel. They decided to brew a Flanders red ale. The beer will be fermented out with American Wyeast 1056 yeast and then will be added to the bourbon barrel. The beer will be inoculated with Wyeast Roeselare yeast which is a blend of Lambic cultures that includes two Brettanomyces strains, a Lactobacillus culture, and a Pediococcus culture. The club is also adding the yeast dregs from some of the homebrewers favorite sour beers and yeast from previous barelled beers that the club has made. They are hoping to age the beer for a year. Here are some pictures of the brew day as well as profiles on the brewers who are helping fill the barrel.

A beatiful brew day in the Black Forest

Beer Events In Town This Week

Got a few cool looking things happening around town this week. Take a look and hope to see you out and about!

Monday, February 6th

Trinity Brewing - Bob Marley's B-Day Party - All Day
If you have on red, black, gold AND green we'll give you a FREE Awaken Stout. At Trinity Brewing.

Another Pint - Ska Brewing Beer Dinner - 6:30pm
Still a few seats left. Five courses, five special Ska beers. $39.99. RSVP only so call now: 719.481.6446

New Brewery Series: Steampunk Brewing

This week we are showcasing some new breweries that are set to open soon in the area. We are very happy to welcome three new breweries to Colorado Springs and one in Poncha Springs, just outside of Salida. This is our final post of the series and will be dedicated to Steampunk Brewing...See the whole New Brewery Series here.

We don't have a ton of information about Steampunk Brewing. I sent Jeff Adkins, one of the folks behind Steampunk Brewing, a few emails and got a response but we never fully connected. My thoughts are that they are perhaps not as advanced in their planning stages as the other three breweries we've mentioned so far. For now, we'll simply tell you what we've found on their website and then we'll be sure to update you if/when we hear anything.

New Brewery Series: Elevation Beer Co.

This week we are showcasing some new breweries that are set to open soon in the area. We are very happy to welcome three new breweries to Colorado Springs and one in Poncha Springs, just outside of Salida. We'll post one or two a day for the first couple days of February. This post will be dedicated to Elevation Beer Co...See the whole New Brewery Series here.

We just heard about Elevation Beer Co.'s plans this week and decided we needed to add them to our New Brewery Series. They will be located in Poncho Springs, just five minutes from Salida, they've got a big warehouse space (as you can see in these photos), got their TTB license, and plan to brew up their first batch in the next few weeks. The people behind Elevation have some good experience in the industry and have some nice plans to really focus in on barrel aging beers. Read what they're up to and stay tuned for more information from these folks. This interview was conducted via email with Xandy Bustamante, the sales and distribution manager.

New Brewery Series: Great Storm Brewing

This week we are showcasing some new breweries that are set to open soon in the area. We are very happy to welcome three new breweries to Colorado Springs and one in Poncha Springs, just outside of Salida. We'll post one or two a day for the first couple days of February. This post will be dedicated to Great Storm Brewing...See the whole New Brewery Series here.

I am pleased to announce what seems very likely to be Colordado Springs' next brewery - Great Storm Brewing. This will be a little place to start out, a true mom and pop shop. The folks behind the scenes are Lynn and Jeff Jacobs. They've got a location picked out and it looks as if they'll be opening up before you know it. I'll let you read what they're planning to brew and how they've gotten to this point. We'll definitely keep all of you posted on when they open up officially. The questions below were just a series of questions I fired off to Lynn and Jeff in a couple emails.

New Brewery Series: Fieldhouse Brewing

This week we are showcasing some new breweries that are set to open soon in the area. We are very happy to welcome three new breweries to Colorado Springs and one in Poncha Springs, just outside of Salida. We'll post one or two a day for the first couple days of February. This post will be dedicated to Fieldhouse Brewing...See the whole New Brewery Series here.

We met Travis and Niki of Fieldhouse Brewing at our anniversary party but we had been in touch via email in preparation for this New Brewery Series. They both were very nice people and have invited us to come out and try some of their beers. We haven't been able to try any yet, our schedules never quite lined up, but we plan to as soon as possible. It turns out Niki has Celiac's disease, so she can't have gluten. She's holding one of Fieldhouse's gluten-free beers and Travis is holding the IPA in the above photo. We interviewed them, see what they're up to, what beers they'll be making, and what they're going to do about gluten. These questions were a series of questions I just kind of listed off in an email.