Jenn and Beer

Kyle uses the Twitter

And then my job forced me to learn about Twitter. I begrudgingly investigated it, asked my Twitter-loving friends for guidance and tried to figure out what the hell it is. Months later, I still didn’t like it. I found a few reasons to appreciate it — it was fun following my favorite celebrities and reading the banter between people like Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright, it was an easier way to keep in touch with my friends in Ireland, and at Nuggets games it would give me a little bit of behind-the-bench insight.

Then I started my beer blog. And suddenly Twitter became relevant to my life. Breweries and beer experts share all sorts of information over the Twittersphere. It’s a great place for me to promote my posts, let breweries know that I’m writing about them, and add a bit more to my beer blogging experience.

I still don’t like a lot of Twitter, but I now respect it’s place in the new media world.

And there are still a number of Twitter elements I don’t understand. Like tweetups, I just don’t get those. When Colorado Mountain Brewery invited me to visit for a tweetup, I was confused, but I went, because, let’s face facts, I’ll never say “no” to an invite from a brewery.

So I dragged along two of my least active Twitter companions (Kyle and my dear friend Carrie) down to Colorado Springs and spent the better part of a Wednesday evening drinking beer and, well, at least I mentioned on Twitter that I was there, that counts for something, right?

Anyway, here are my thoughts on one of Colorado’s newest breweries.

Pulling up to the restaurant, Kyle asked if the brewery was a chain, and I could understand why he would think such a thing. Denver is blessed with good architecture, and if it’s not good, it’s at least interesting. This doesn’t necessarily apply to the rest of the state, and Colorado Springs is one of the places where tends to lack. Carrie said the brewery resembled a branch of Rock Bottom, it wasn’t ugly, per se, just unoriginal, like something found in a new suburban strip mall.

Even so, the Colorado Mountain Brewery has its unique qualities. For one, it offers views of the Rockies that would make any brewery jealous and its focus on the Air Force Academy is the strongest academic connection I’ve ever seen from a brewery.

The stories behind many of the beers, or at least their names, relate to the Air Force Academy. The brewery boasts that it’s the best place to watch AFA games. And it’s so close to the Academy that you can see the pre-game fly-overs from the patio of the restaurant. This connection exists for good reason, Colorado Mountain Brewery was started by a graduate of the AFA.

The brewery was 20 days old when we visited, there were still a few kinks they were working out — three of their beers (three of the best according to most of the staff) weren’t available, but that didn’t seem to matter. Halfway through the tweetup I went inside to use the bathroom and there appeared to be a wait for a table. What’s more is there were families — something that I haven’t really encountered before, a family friendly brewpub.

I had the 7258 Pale Ale (the name is taken from the altitude of the Air Force Academy, one of the AFA named beers). The beer was good, hoppy balanced with a sweet honey/balance taste. It finished with a savory bite. A well constructed beer that reminded me of some of the better pale ales I had on our trip to Montana.

Carrie ordered the stout, which was refreshing, like a good iced coffee — both Carrie and Kyle liked it, but I found it to be too light for my taste in dark beer.

I’m still lost on the tweetup concept, it’s a little beyond me, but I’m glad it finally got us down to Colorado Springs. I’d recommend Colorado Mountain Brewery to anyone down in the Springs, but I’m not aching to go back. However, it is exciting to see a brewery, like Hops but without the chain effect, that is fun for the whole family.

I give up, it’s September. I won’t admit that summer is officially over, but September is here.

The primary reason that I am accepting the change in month is September means beer. Sure, in Colorado pretty much anything — from politics to bicycle rides — can mean beer, but right smack in the middle of September is the wonder that is Denver Beer Fest (and GABF, but I’ve already raved about that) and that’s something special. Ten days of Denver’s bars, restaurants and ice cream parlors displaying their love of beer and the rest of the city partaking in the festivities.

There's beer in that there tea pot

Last year, I only really participated in one night of Denver Beer Fest, which was a ridiculous story-filled adventure, but not something that needs to happen again. So my goal this year is to do one beer-related event each day of Denver Beer Fest. And now that it’s September (sigh), I’m trying to compile a list of activities for the week. Here’s what I’m thinking so far.

Friday, September 10th:

Brew at the Zoo
Let’s face facts. I won’t be at this. It’s $65 dollars a ticket, and given how much I will be spending on other events that week, completely out of my budget. But I *really* want to go — beer from 40 different breweries, food, music at the zoo (and the baby tigers are now visible to the public!), so I’m keeping it on my list.

Otherwise there’s Star Bar’s Post Tour de Fat Party. Music and fancy New Belgium beers (Lips of Faith and other gems). Or perhaps one of the other random events that is mentioned at the end of this post.

Saturday, September 11th:

Tour de Fat
I’m ashamed to say that I have never participated in Tour de Fat. For those of you unfamiliar with the event, it’s New Belgium’s celebration of the bicycle, which makes Denver Cruisers look fairly tame (not really, but I like exaggerating). There’s costumes and general silliness and a parade and music and pretty much everything you could ever want from a memorable Saturday afternoon.

This year, we will be there. No question.

Sunday, September 12th:

Steuben’s Strange Brewery Brunch
Another tempting, yet somewhat-expensive event. Five course brunch with beer pairings from Denver’s newest brewery. Forty dollars is a bit much for me, but I love brunch, beer and saying “Steuben’s Strange Brewery Brunch.”

Boulder Brew Bus
One of the reasons I don’t frequently go to breweries outside Denver is the issue of driving to go drink. The Boulder Brew Bus takes you to three different breweries (Twisted Pine, Avery and Upslope), feeds you, gives you beer and a VIP tour of the breweries. Sure, you can do this any week, but it just seems more special during Denver Beer Fest.

Monday, September 13th:

I can’t find too many events unique to Monday, so I might do one of the random other events (mentioned at the end of this post) instead. The only one that speaks out to me is Root Down’s beer and cheese pairing.

Fancy cheeses paired with special beers, such as an oak-aged Mojo IPA. If it weren’t for Great Divide’s monthly beer and cheese pairing, I’d be super excited for this.

On another note, this is my niece’s 21st birthday. So, hooray for Caitlin!

Tuesday, September 14th:

Cheeky Monk’s anniversary party
Denver’s Belgian beer bar celebrates their third(? I think they’ve been there for three years) anniversary with a night of music, buy the glass, keep the beer specials and a tapping of “Three cheeks to the wind” collaboration brew with Avery.

Seeing I’ll be missing out on their special day of tapping September 17th, I will most likely be at their party on Tuesday.

Wednesday, September 15th:

Oskar Blues appears to be dedicating this day to the ladies. The Tasty Weasel (their tap room) is hosting the Tasty Trifecta of Beautiful Beer, Sumptious Sweets and Creamy Cheese. Another beer and cheese event, this event is also about tasting beer, learning about the pairings and excludes men.

Alternatively, there is the Can Can Girls Beer Club, which is nearly twice as expensive (75 dollars, compared to 39 for the cheese event), but offers a lot more. Six courses paired with beers from Oskar Blues and Left Hand, a commemorative tasting glass, beer and food education, rides to and from Oskar Blues (departing from Falling Rock) and again, no men.

However, if I’m going to focus on responsibility, chances are I’ll be at Strange Brew’s GABF kick off. Steuben’s food truck, beer specials, live music and brewery tours.

Thursday, September 16th:

GABF adventures, circa 2007

Our day for Great American Beer Fest. Before the event I will be putting food in my stomach and making pretzel necklaces.

(If I’m feeling really courageous, I might follow around the Beer Advocate guys for the first half of the day, they’re starting at Snooze.)

And that’s what I’ve got so far. Keep in mind that, throughout the week, restaurants are having special menus and beer events, such as the Ship Tavern at the Brown Palace serving beer in teapots, prohibition style (and last year they had the best beer cheese soup I’ve had in my entire life). One of the country’s best ice cream parlors, Sweet Action, will be serving a variety of ice creams made with beers from Great Divide, Ska, Avery, Fort Collins, Breckenridge and New Belgium breweries.

If you drink less Colorado beer than I do, City, O’ City is dedicating each night to a different Colorado brewery and there are tons of bars around Denver doing specials on beer tastings. Attending GABF or not, September is the time to indulge and enjoy Denver’s passion for beer. Join me for an event, or find one of your own (they’re all listed on the Denver Beer Fest website.

But if you’re not drinking, you’re missing out.

All those elements came together for me last Thursday at Breckenridge’s Ballpark Brewpub for #BrewDEN’s meetup.

Now, I’ll be honest, I had no idea what a #BrewDEN meetup would be. I just knew it was something Billy Brew was promoting and involved hanging out with Breckenridge staff and other beer nerds with some discounted beer. So I went and dragged Kyle with me.

About a dozen or so beer “enthusiasts” showed up for the event. We spent an hour talking and nerding out about beer before Todd Thibault, Breckenridge’s marketing director, joined us and shared some brewery history over five beer samples.

Before handing out our four ounce servings of Agave Wheat, he talked a bit about the brewery itself.

Breckenridge was started at an old Texaco station by Richard Squire, a man Todd endearingly referred to as a “ski bum” in 1990. It was the fourth craft brewery in Colorado, after Boulder Brewery, the Wynkoop and Odell.

In the years that followed, Breckenridge opened up more facilities: the Ballpark Brewpub opened in 1992 (three years before Coors Field), then the Kalamath BBQ joint in ‘96, followed by brewpubs in Birmingham, Omaha, Buffalo, Mephis and Dallas (those didn’t last) and then the Ale House in Grand Junction. The Ale House, by the way, has 30 taps — 15 from Breck and 15 other good beers.

But no matter how interesting time at a brewery may be, it’s not worth much without beers. So Todd handed out samples of Agave Wheat and told us a bit about the beer.

What differentiates Agave Wheat from a lot of other Colorado wheat beers is (quite obviously) the agave part. The beer is brewed with Salmiana agave, which is different from the agave used to make tequila. The nectar is produced in the middle of the plant to kill itself by drowning and then to decompose and help nourish the soil. The syrup has become increasingly popular as an alternative to honey or sugar as a sweetener, and the brewers at Breckenridge found it to be a good stabilizer for their wheat beer.

Photo from beernews.org

The Agave Wheat was followed by their Regal Pilsner, one of Breckenridge’s small batch beers. Todd’s excitement about the pilsner was the labels for it. Coming from a strong beer background, Todd expressed his love for old breweries’ use of lions in their labels and logos. With a the release of a pilsner worthy of the name Regal, Todd felt it was the perfect opportunity to bring back the lions. The beer has recently been released in bottles with labels Todd excitedly described as having a gaudy amount of lions.

Upping the hops, Todd followed the pilsner with samples of 471, Breckenridge’s double IPA. This beer has so many hops, Todd said, that the brewery’s machinery has difficulty processing all of them. This was the first of Breckenridge’s line of small batch beers, which the brewery started as an addition to their seasonal beers. The premise of the small batch beers, Todd said, was to allow the brewers to brew what they want when they feel like it — they brew the beer, and once it runs out, they’ll brew whatever they want next. Respect for 471 has created a demand for more, making it a very frequently brewed small batch beer.

The Vanilla Porter, which we drank next, had a similar back story. Years ago, one of the brewers made a batch of this beer, using real vanilla beans and bourbon vanilla extract. There was a strong demand for more, but preferring more traditional beers, the master brewer didn’t want to produce it. The following year, the brewery was in need a seasonal beer after Christmas, so a small batch of the Vanilla Porter was released. They sold out of it by the 5th of February, so another batch was made. This continued until the staff at Breckenridge eventually accepted that they needed to produce the beer year round. Outside of Colorado, the Vanilla Porter is now Breckenridge’s best selling beer.

Now, Vanilla Porter was supposed to be the last of our beer tasters, but Todd couldn’t resist telling us about Lucky U, his favorite beer story. So we sipped on the IPA while he told us the history of the beer.

While wandering around the Tivoli, Todd found an old sign for the Tivoli Brewing Company’s Lucky U Denver Special Bitter. Again, having an appreciation for beer history, Todd wanted to pay tribute to one of Colorado’s oldest breweries. Breckenridge started brewing their own Lucky U, first as a bitter, then as an IPA ,as a tribute to one of the Tivoli. The label describes the beer as a “hoppy homage to a Denver landmark, the Tivoli Brewery” and 5% of all of their Lucky U sales goes to the Tivoli Brewery Building Foundation, a foundation Breckenridge put together to support the restoration of the famous brewery building.

From here, the conversation dissolved into ramblings about beer history, Todd’s dreams of opening a Denver Brewing Museum (you can imagine how excited I was to hear such an idea) and other beer nerdiness. Kyle and I finally pulled ourselves away hours after our intended 7 p.m. departure both raving about our experience with our new beer friends.

I left Breckenridge with little more ability to define what #BrewDEN is, but with a determination to attend every meetup I can. After all, nothing beats nerding out about beer, as far as I’m concerned, especially when drinking’s involved.