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Colorado – the home of big black bears and big black beers!
Welcome to Colorado and the latest stage of the BeerMasons expedition to find better beer for our fellow enthusiasts!
While the black bears are tucked up in bed for the winter (or so the locals assure us), the black beers are out in force.
Over the past week, we have travelled through Boulder, Longmont and Fort Collins, just north of Denver, searching for better beer. We found it in spades.
After our initial foray to downtown Denver's Falling Rock Tap House to sample the local brews, we were a tad concerned that the next few weeks would see us battling a hop-driven assault on our senses.
We had prematurely assumed that this region would be all about bitterness – big, brassy beers with tonnes of hoppy attitude. How wrong we were.
At several breweries, we experienced intense, take-no-prisoners American Doubles or Imperial IPAs alongside refined, smooth traditional stouts, porters and barley wines that were a sheer pleasure to drink. We were amazed by the number and diversity of beer styles in every brewery we have visited.
It seems that Colorado brewers – or at least the ones we have visited – are very brave in their style selection. We have a sneaking suspicion they brew to their own taste and bring punters along for the ride rather than catering slavishly to the mainstream. By the length of the queues at their counters, they are doing something right!
This region may not leap to mind when you think of romance. However, there is no question that people here are in the throes of a torrid affair with dark, roasted malts. We’ve sampled milk stouts on nitro, vanilla porters, brown ales, imperial stouts, dunkel doppel bocks and more – all deliciously dark, rewarding and worth every calorie.
Don’t get us wrong, the American love of hops is still present and correct – but in many cases you can sense a restrained hand and the brewers’ cunning art of achieving a balance.
We had a great experience in the tap house of Left Hand Brewing Company in Longmont. Cinzia Wallace, the tap house manager who retains her Italian accent despite 16 years in Longmont, took us through two sensational 7-deep tasting paddles. Cinzia also had some interesting things to say about the Italian micro scene but more on that later.
On a quiet Tuesday afternoon when the temperature was -19C and a blizzard raged outside, we assumed we’d be the only tasters in there. However, the room quickly filled with locals and tourist alike, all looking to Cinzia to wet their whistles.
Fuelling the mood was a beer Wheel of Fortune beside the bar. This was constantly spinning as members of the tap house keenly sought the top prize of beer for a year. However, those who achieved slightly lesser rewards were still deeply grateful. We were all warm with the shared knowledge that indeed, this beer was very good.
This past weekend, our perceptions of American craft beer have been changed yet again thanks to the Big Beer Festival held in Vail. We are still digesting the experience and the very big beers for that matter. We will report on it in our next edition.
Until then – here’s to better beer.
The BeerMasons
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ORDER NOW - GRAB YOUR WELCOME PACK & GET SIPPING!
There is no time like the present. We only have limited memberships as beer this good is not so easy to get, and in the very near future, a membership may be scarce!
"A fine beer may be judged with only one sip, but it is best to be thoroughly sure."
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