Return From Colorado

Yep, you read the post title correctly. My family and I just recently returned from visiting some good friends in Colorado. What a great trip! Getting a chance to see old friends and the opportunity to catch up with them was awesome. Another nice thing (for me) was this - our trip to this particular area meant an added bonus: breweries.

Our friends live in Loveland, which means there are many beer-making establishments within an hour drive time of their place. Last time we went to visit them, we hit the Fort Collins trifecta: The Fort Collins Brewery, New Belgium, and Odell. It was a great experience that stuck in my head and fed my desire to see more of the area's breweries during our next visit. For this trip, I picked Left Hand and Oskar Blues in Longmont and Avery in Boulder.

Saturday was designated "brewery day." Because we had all our kids, only the husbands would go. (Don't worry, the wives had their fun on Sunday.) We came up with a plan to check out Left Hand first, drive to Boulder for Avery, and stop at Oskar Blues on our return to Loveland. Our thoughts were that this course would nicely spread out our drive time and allow us to catch 2 of the actual brewery tours (the Left Hand and Avery tours started at the same time, so I had to choose Avery). This plan changed throughout the course of the day...

Our visit to Left Hand was very pleasant. We arrived right as they were opening the tasting room and were greeted by some energetic, friendly hosts. The bar and tabletops were made of cold rough stone, but the place definitely felt warm and inviting. We each chose to purchase their $4 taster deal, which allowed us to pick 4 of their beers to sample in small snifter glasses. I went with 400 Pound Monkey, cask Black Jack Porter, Fade to Black Volume 2, and their Imperial Stout. All the brews were tasty, and we sipped them as we chatted. My favorite of the 4 was the Fade to Black Volume 2, which is a smoked Baltic Porter. After finishing our samples, we left for the next stop on our journey.

Ah, Avery. I've known for a while now that this brewery would be one I had to visit if and when I made it back to Colorado. We arrived a half-hour before the scheduled tour time of 2pm, so we put our names on the tour sign-up sheet and each ordered a beer while we waited. I started off with a Jerry's Roggenbier and was quite pleased.

When it came time for our tour to begin, we each grabbed a traveler and headed outside to meet our guide. Phil Vaughn, our Avery expert, took us through the tour and gave us some insight into the operations of the brewery. The tour didn't cover much physical ground, but my favorite place in the brewery was the barrel-aging room. This is where brewing science gets left behind and beer art comes into play. I also must say that I've never had a brewery tour guide as knowledgeable as Phil. He knew all the details, even the ones a beer geek like me is interested in.

After the tour was complete, we checked the time and thought we should maybe consider leaving for Oskar Blues. There was one more beer that I had to try, though. It's draught only, and can only be found in a couple other Colorado bars besides the brewery's tap room. I ordered a taster of the beer called Rumpkin and sat down for a spectacular taste experience. Rumpkin is a dry-spiced pumpkin ale aged in Gosling's rum barrels for 6 months. The sign above the bar says it is a whopping 13.9% ABV. The server tells me that it is brewed with pumpkin flesh, all-spice, and ginger. After the first sip, I can't believe how good it is! I never thought pumpkin pie and rum flavors could blend so well. This beer is heavenly; that's the only simple way to describe it. Caramel, spice, pumpkin, and rum are all delicious and friendly companions in this brew. Thanksgiving and Christmas would benefit greatly from this beer! Have you figured out that I'm a fan?

As I finish my Rumpkin, we decide to leave for Oskar Blues. We were already cutting it close for their tour start time, and we didn't want to miss it. However, we did miss it - because of Phil, the greatest tour guide in history. Right as we were about to stand up and leave Avery, Phil placed a couple glasses in front of us and told us we had to try it. He said it doesn't actually "exist" and it wasn't on the tap board. It was a passion fruit beer and it was excellent. Before we finished that, he gave us a blend of The Reverend and Samael's which he called a Moloch. Awesome. Then, he gave us a Monster Screw, which is the most hardcore black and tan ever. It is Mephistopheles layered on top of Samael's. Crazy good, and very dangerous! With all this unbelievable beer flying at us, we decided to just skip the next brewery. Sorry Oskar Blues, and thank you Phil and Avery!

We left Avery very happy with our experience. I was content and thought we were headed back to my friend's house, but it turned out that we weren't finished yet. My friend surprised me with a bonus stop. We visited a brand new brewery in Loveland called Grimm Brothers that specializes in old-style German beers. As of right now, they only sell growlers out of the brewery and kegs to some local watering holes.

Our plan was to purchase a growler and take it back to the house for dinner. That all changed when Aaron Heaton, the Vice-President of the brewery, overheard me talking to the server behind the bar. He immediately came over and started pouring us samples of every beer they had on tap. He told us about each style as we sipped, and was more than happy to allow us to walk through the brewery behind the tap room. He even gave us a sample of a hopped-up German-style twist on an IPA that they are still experimenting with. The beer and the whole Grimm Brothers experience were great. Thanks to Aaron!

We bought our growler of The Fearless Youth and went to pick up a pizza at Papa Murphy's. We finished the day with a beer and pizza dinner with our friends. That was a great day! Definitely a fun trip to Colorado!

Flat Earth Bermuda Triangle Tripel

Ah yes. I've definitely been too busy this fall. You know how it works: wife is off working when I'm at home, 2 young kids (enough said), family and friends' birthday events (I think I know of at least 7 in October), beer tastings, the birth of a new nephew, a 4 day fishing trip to Canada...

I feel as though I've fallen behind on my blogging, so I forced myself to squeeze in a beer session after work and before my wife had to leave for the evening. I decided to pull a bomber out of the fridge that I had been saving for a session since I purchased it in the late summer/early fall. Time for me to sit down with Flat Earth Bermuda Triangle Tripel.

The style of this brew is obviously Belgian tripel. I mean, it says tripel on the bottle, so that's what it should be, right? I guess one should never assume in the crazy world of beer names. OK, I did the "official" check, and it is most certainly a tripel. Whew, what a relief! The label looks pretty cool with a shipwreck, what looks like a flying saucer, and the floating "Flat Earth barrel guy" all sticking out of the ocean's surface. It's nice and strong with a big 9.1% ABV.

I pour from the 22 ounce bomber into my snifter glass. A 1/4" white head shows up only briefly, as it disappears almost the instant I stop pouring. The clear liquid is golden orange in color, bordering on copper. Thanks to the clarity of the beer, there is much visible carbonation racing to the surface.

The smell of light brown sugar is present, along with a bit of bubble gum. There is also a slightly grassy waft with just a touch of spice on its back.

Taste-wise, I'm getting a floral honey character that leads into some caramelized sugar sweetness. Then, a light dried fruit similar to Sunmaid apricots comes in just before an earthy and spicy cleansing bitterness at the finish.

The liquid's medium viscosity briefly coats my mouth before some prickly bubbles and a dry finish strip it away. There is no lacing at all on my glass, which is not surprising since the head vanished so quickly.

I LIKE IT! This is a very enjoyable tripel. It has loads of taste complexity and alcoholic strength while remaining surprising drinkable. The way the sweet flavors hang for a moment before being erased by the crisp finish only encourages me to sip some more. I found it is very hard to detect the alcohol in this brew, so be careful with it! I highly recommend giving this a try if you have access to it.

Catching up with some local beer news

Due to my constant business, I have once again fallen behind on blogging about some recent beer news. Some of you may already be caught up with this knowledge, but for those of you that aren't, read on:

Summit recently released their Unchained Series #5 on draught, and will soon release it in bottles. Here are the stats for this Imperial Pumpkin Porter:

Mash Additions: Locally Raised Pumpkin

Kettle Additions: Fuggle, Northdown, & East Kent Golding Hops

Sweet China Cinnamon, Jamaican Allspice, Powdered Cassia Buds, Ground Nutmeg, Ginger Powder, Ground Mace, and Ground Ceylon Cloves

Color: Dark Chocolate

Malt: Pale, Cara Brown, Simpsons Chocolate, Midnight Wheat

Yeast: Scottish Ale

IBU: 40

OG: 17
ABV: 7.5 %

They also released a video they made on the day the pumpkins for this beer were harvested.

More exciting news from Lift Bridge. Most of you probably know that they acquired a building this spring for their brewery. More recently, they purchased the brewing equipment and posted a time-lapse video showing the installation.

Furthermore has released a new brew, and they seem pretty happy about it. It's an IPA that you can read more about here.

That's all for now. I hope to get a new beer session posted soon. Until then, cheers!