Brew Review - Deep Cover Brown Ale

Here is the last of the Left Hand Brewing's Mountain Mixer beers. Today it's the Deep Cover Brown Ale. I think the name of this beer is referring to the fact that this beer is trying to disguise itself as a brown ale. I'll explain in a bit. I am a fan of brown ales and they are generally dark and rich and nutty. This beer pours a reddish brown but is very clear. Almost too red for it's own good. Would this beer actually be better classified as an Amber Ale? Perhaps. The brew registers at a mere 4.4% ABV and with only 20 IBUs. So it's low alcohol and not very hoppy. The brew poured without much of a head build up like other malty beers would. It had a very small light tan head with just a little bead. I swirled this beer in the glass to get out the aroma. This beer is only hopped with just one type of flower - US Goldings hops. It has a nice aroma, lightly floral and with a hint of citrus smell. Not as noticeable as Cascade hops however.

The first sip reminded me of a light beer. Not what I'd expect from a brown ale. I could taste a bit of nuttiness in the brew but not much. Even the chocolate malt that was mixed in didn't leave much of a trace. This beer was made with Premium Pale 2-row, some Crystal, some Munich and a dash of Brown and Chocolate malts. I think they probably should have added a bit more of the darker malts as the "brown" turned into more of a light amber brew. The beer was smooth enough to drink and it left just a slight tingle on the middle front of the tongue which lingered well after the beer was gone. Not to say this beer coated my tongue, it didn't, but it left a little lingering feel.

One thing about a few of the Left Hand beers that I noticed is that after a few minutes, the hop aroma all but goes away. I was left wishing that the original just opened smell would have stuck around a bit longer. Still, overall I was satisfied with this brew. Not my favorite brown, but good enough to drink again. I'll give this beer a modest 3.2 out of 5 rating. Ratebeer.com only gave this a 2.99/5 rating (43rd percentile) so I'm not alone in saying this is just an average brown. I've got 2 more of these in the case. Perhaps the next two will be a bit better.

Brew Review - Sawtooth Ale

Continuing on with the sampling of the Left Hand Brewing Mountain Mixer 12-pack, I was able to try out their Sawtooth Ale last night. This is the 3rd beer in the four beer style sampler series. This beer is listed as an American Style Extra Special Bitter or ESB. What's an ESB? Here's what Wikipedia says about bitters:

Bitter belongs in the pale ale style grouping, though bitter does have a greater variety of strength, flavor and appearance than mainstream pale ale. A bitter can be dark amber, approaching a stout, or be very golden and delicate like a golden summer ale. It can also go under 3% abv as with Boys Bitter and as high as 7% with some premium or strong bitters. During the early to mid 20th century there were some regional preferences noted which may still be detected in the beers of some of the more established breweries. In Cornwall, Wales, North England and Scotland the preference was for sweeter, less hopped beer. In other areas, particularly Southeast England, the preference was for hoppy beers.

British brewers have several loose names for variations in beer strength, such as IPA, best bitter, special bitter, extra special bitter, and premium bitter. There is no agreed and defined difference between an ordinary and a best bitter other than one particular brewery's best bitter will usually be stronger than its ordinary. And two groups of drinkers may mark differently the point at which a best bitter becomes a premium bitter. Hop levels will vary within each sub group, though there is a tendency for the hops in the session bitter group to be more noticeable.

The term bitter by itself is little used in the United States. The term pale ale or ESB is more commonly used. Where bitter is used it indicates a pale ale of lower alcohol content brewed in a less hop-focused style than typical American pale ales. American bitters often use British varieties of hops.

So in a nutshell, it's generally a lower alcohol and uses certain types of hops to get it's flavor. As for the Sawtooth Ale, this one comes in at 4.8% ABV and an IBU rating of 27. Because it went at or above the 4.8% ABV mark, it "qualifies" as an ESB. Left Hand Brewing lists the following malts in this beer: Premium 2-row, Crystal, Munich and their own Left Hand Custom Malt. (ooo a secret!) The hop selection consisted of 4 different types: Magnum, US Goldings, Fuggles and Cascade. I can always pick out the Cascase in the aroma.

This beer poured a very red, almost orange color and had a moderate light tan head. The beer was very clear with no sediment at all. I tried to take 4 to 5 pictures of this beer just after I poured it into the glass but all of the shots turned out blurry. Apparently this beer didn't like it's picture taken. I finally got a sharper image only after I had drank about half of this beer. I let the beer air out a bit before sampling. The first aroma of this beer was was wonderful aroma. I was pleasantly surprised! It had a light citrusy smell and was did not have any off-aromas. All too often a beer will lose points with me right away if the aroma is just not right. This beer almost smelled like a New Belgium style beer at first.

The taste was nice and smooth on the palate that gave a slight tingle to the tongue that I can't quite describe, almost with herbal overtones. A few seconds after swallowing I was hit with a mild bitter after effect that was ever so slight. Some beers leave a very noticeable after taste but the one from this one was actually a nice affect. Left Hand calls this a "session" beer and I'd have to agree. It goes down easy and isn't strong and I could definitely see myself having more than one of these in a sitting.

While ESB's are fairly new to my palate, I'd say this one convinced me that I should try more of this style. My initial reaction was to score this lower than some of the porters I'm biased toward, but to be fair, I ended up raising my score after finishing this beer. I'm going to give this beer a 3.4 out of 5 rating and a raised glass to boot. Left Hand came up with a classic - I can see why this is their flagship beer. That leaves just one other Left Hand beer to sample next and it's a brown ale. More to come.

Colorado Wants to Change It's Liquor Laws

I saw the following article out on the Rocky Mountain News web site. The article explains that there are some new pieces of legislation being introduced in the Colorado state capitol that wishes to overturn the long standing blue laws that prohibits the sale of liquor on Sundays in Colorado. Now how many times have you run out of your favorite beer on a Sunday only to realize that you can't stock up until Monday? For me, it's happened a lot. I typically buy my beer on weekends (Friday and Saturday) and often wish that I could pick some additional beer up on Sunday, especially when I got too busy during the rest of the week to stock up. It's been 75 years this month since prohibition was repealed and these outdated blue laws have been in effect. I say it's time to take these laws off the books and let the liquor stores open up on Sundays. This would help local mom and pop liquor shops get more sales and help satisfy their customers more with more convenient weekend hours. There's even more legislation in the works as well to allow certain stores to sell more than just 3.2 beer and wine coolers. In addition, another bill may target the old laws that forbid liquor stores from selling food and from allowing a single person to hold more than 1 liquor store license. It's time to make some changes Colorado. I'm hoping that Gov. Ritter will see the light and let us buy beer and liquor on Sundays. (Read the Rocky article for more info).

2008 Big Beers Festival Homebrew Winners

Colorado was host to the 8th Annual Big Beers, Belgians & Barleywines Festival that took place during the weekend of January 11-12th in Vail. This year saw over 650 big beer fans participate in the weekend event. The following awards were given out in the 2008 Homebrew Competition at the 8th annual event:

Best of Show
Rich Krahl, Thornton, Colorado
“Wedding IPA”

Mixed Strong Dark Ales
Strong Scotch Ale – BJCP Category #9E, Baltic Porter – BJCP Category #12C
Russian Imperial Stout – BJCP Category #13F
Gold
Landon Anderson, New Castle, CO “Maria Porter”
Silver
Tom Gardner, Denver, CO “Way Heavy”
Bronze
Ryan Thomas, Westminster, CO “Wilson’s Imperial Stout”

Belgian & French Ales
BJCP Category #16
Gold
John Landreman, Colorado Springs, CO “Saison”
Silver
Bob Kauffman, Lafayette, CO “Saison ‘06”
Bronze
Greg Geiger, Littleton, CO “Ghent Night Train”

Sour Ales
BJCP Category #17
Gold
Jim Denier, Littleton, CO “Fruit Lambic”
Silver
John Applegarth, Grand Rapids, MI “Pseudo Lambic”
Bronze
Jim Denier, Littleton, CO “Sour Red Ale”

Belgian Strong Ales
BJCP Category #18
Gold
John Applegarth, Grand Rapids, MI “Monkey Shines”
Silver
Jim Denier, Littleton, CO “Rochefort 8 Clone”
Bronze
Ted Manahan, Ft. Collins, CO “Belgian Blonde”

Strong Ales
BJCP Category #19
Gold
Ryan Thomas, Westminster, CO “Ragnarok”
Silver
John Applegarth, Grand Rapids, MI “Old Grouch”
Bronze
Ryan Thomas, Westminster, CO “Gotterdammerung”

Mixed Strong Ales
Bock BJCP – Category #5
Imperial IPA - BJCP Category #14C
Weizenbock – BJCP Category #15C
Specialty Beer – BJCP Category #23
Braggot – BJCP Cateogry #26B
Gold
Rich Krahl, Thornton, CO “Wedding IPA”
Silver
Rick Bobbitt, Thornton, CO “Mountain Goat Eisbock”
Bronze
Ryan Thomas, Westminster, CO “Much Too Much”

Specialty Beer
Specialty – BJCP Category #23
Gold
John Allison, Boulder, CO “Russian Ryeperia Stout Porter”
Silver
Gordon Pencis, Aurora, CO “Bourbon Barrel Beetlejuice Stout”
Bronze
Brent Steinshouer, Aurora, CO “Fallen Angels”

Next year's event has already been set for January 9-10, 2009 in Vail, Colorado and should prove to be even more popular. Set your calendar's now!

More 2008 Colorado Beer Festivals

Brew Review - Polestar Pilsner

As an astronomy buff, I gotta like the label on this beer - two people looking at the Little Dipper and the North Star. Today's brew review is another from the Mountain Mixer from Left Hand Brewing of Longmont, Colorado - their Polestar Pilsner. This is a German style pilsner and is described as the "hardest beer to make" according to Left Hand. This beer pours a very light golden color and raised a very big white head and a decent bead. I like to let the beer breathe a little bit before sampling. Upon first smell I was immediately reminded of another beer I sampled a few months earlier. This smelled like a wheat beer! I cross checked the hops used in this beer and one of them matched the main one in the wheat beer. So that's where I got that memory from. The beer has a citrusy, almost grassy aroma. Despite the initial smell I held judgement until the tasting. The taste was an almost 180 degree turn. This beer is a nice light refreshing brew that tastes much better than it smells.

Here are the specs on this beer: They use Weyermann Pilsner Malt exclusively along with Perle, Vanguard and Czech Saaz hops. It's the Perle hops that give this that citrusy / grassy smell in my opinion. Don't get me wrong, I like pilsners, just don't make it smell like a wheat beer. I enjoyed drinking this beer as long as I didn't inhale before I sipped it. The beers scores a 5.0% on the ABV scale and a moderate 33 IBU. So it's not too weak and not too hoppy. Depite it's good taste, the aroma was enough to lower this beer on my ratings. While I would probably drink this beer again if offered it, it barely passes the buy again test. I'll give this a 3.0 out of 5 rating.

If you like German style pilsners then you'll probably like this beer. Ratebeer.com gave this beer a 34th percentile and a 2.88/5 rating. Not that great. Most other ratings were somewhat similar to mine and they forgave the grassy smell.

Brew Review - Left Hand Milk Stout

Today is a two brew review day as I had a nice big 12-pack sampler of beers from Left Hand Brewing Company from Longmont, Colorado staring me in the face and I just have to have one more beer today. Left Hand Brewing offers up a 12-bottle Mountain Mixer and provides four different beers to sample and enjoy. Seeing how I am a fan of the dark side of brewing, I first chose to taste their Left Hand Milk Stout. I've tried a few dark stouts in my day including Guinness but had never had a milk stout. But what in the world is a milk stout you say? Does it include actual milk? No. Not a drop of cow juice was mixed into this dark beer, but rather the brew was primed with a milk sugar which helps balance the roastiness of this stout beer.

This beer poured almost black. While it isn't thick by any means, this beer is as dark as they come. As pictured above, this beer pours with a rich thick head that actually went slightly over the top of my glass when poured. The foam lingered on the side of the glass as it settled and left just a small tiny bead. Immediately you could smell a rich roasty, coffee and chocolate like aroma with a slightly different hop smell. This Left Hand brew uses Magnum and US Goldings hops, a much different smell than your typical Cascade that was in my last beer. Here, the malts are definitely the main feature here. This stout comes in at an ABV of 5.2% with an IBU of only 22. Left Hand uses a variety of malts including: Premium Pale 2-row, Munich, Crystal, Roast Barley, Flaked Oats, Flaked Barley and Chocolate malts. Wow - now that's a line up of malt!

This beer had a very rich malty taste with a true roastiness to it. After a few seconds I noticed just an ever so slight roasted aftertaste that stayed on the middle of my tongue. Nice, and not chalky but borderline so. If you love coffee, you'll love this beer. Even I enjoyed this beer while not being a coffee drinker. I love the smell of good coffee but prefer not to drink that bean. But this beer is very smooth. This being my second beer of the afternoon, I can definitely feel a buzz from the previous beer and this one. Much more so than the 22 oz imperial porter I sampled earlier this week.

This is the first beer from Left Hand Brewing Company that I've had the opportunity to sample. So far so good. I have a Brown, and Pilsner and their flagship Ale to sample next and am looking forward to it. I'll give this milk stout a decent 3.5 out of 5 rating. Definitely worth a try.

Brew Review - Ellie's Brown Ale

I'm taking a very short break from my usual porters today to try one of my 2nd favorite styles of beer: an American Brown Ale. Today's beer comes from Avery Brewing Company of Boulder, Colorado and is named after one of the brewer's favorite pets. I present: Ellie's Brown Ale. As usual, I'm drinking this beer at basement room temperature around 60 degrees. Upon first pour, you see a very dark brown, almost dark red in color when held to the light. There was a nice light tan head to this beer. The smell of this beer seemed somewhat sweet. I could really pick out the Cascade hops in this beer right away. Avery brews this beer with 3 different hops: Cascase, Bullion and Fuggles hops but it appears that they go very sparingly with those hops as the IBU measurement is only at 17. That's fine, I'm not a big hop person, but I'd like to see a bit more hoppiness in my browns than this.

The first taste was of the caramel and chocolate malt. They didn't go overboard with the malts and was noticeably lighter in taste than a porter. As a brown ale, this fits the bill nicely and reminds me of some of the other tasty brown ales I've sampled before. Still, I felt that this brown was not as outstanding as I've had before. While Ratebeer.com gave it an average score, I too would have to agree that this is an average brown. I'd like to see a bit more taste and a bit more bitterness from this. Browns by nature are sweet but are usually balanced by the right amount of hops. While this beer is slightly more alcoholic than a session beer, I'd probably classify this as a session brown beer. I could drink a few of these easily as I love browns.

Avery mixes together a blend of Two-row, chocolate, Munich 10L and Caramel 120L malts into their brew. I can see why many would love this beer. It even won a Bronze in the 2005 Great American Beer Festival. Yet, I seem to be very biased towards darker beers like porters. I'll have to learn to appreciate a wider variety of beers if I'm going to be able to become a true beer connoisseur. I'm going to give this beer a rating of 3.3 out of 5 and keep it in mind for another try later on. I've got 5 more bottles in my six pack and should be able to evaluate it further later this week. Good brew Avery! It's one I'd buy again.

Colorado's Oskar Blues Brewery Expands

Chalk up another expansion for a Colorado Brewer. As 2008 has ushered in, so will soon a new era for the Lyons Colorado Oskar Blues Brewery. Business has been so good over their 5-year history that the now famous craft beer in a can maker has got to expand. Already during this last year, the small mountain town brewer has come out with their 4th beer (Ten FIDY Imperial Stout) in their line of hand canned facility / restaurant and a new 35,000 square foot facility will be added in nearby Longmont, Colorado to help with the growing demand for their beer. I've personally visited Oskar Blues 2 years ago and tried one of their fresh brews on tap (One Nut Brown Ale) along with some yummy food. I plan on reviewing some of their canned craft beers in the near future. I look forward to seeing even more innovative brews from them in the future. Production at the new facility should begin in March 2008.

For more information, read the recent news release covered by Beer Advocate.

Update: The expanded brewery is now open. Read more here.

Denver Celebrates Winter Brew Fest

Beer is still quite the drawing factor in Colorado as Denver is hosting yet another beer festival tonight, January 25th, 2008. The "Winter Brew Fest" is hosting 17 of Colorado's finest brewers' beers (over 40 different beers) at the Oriental Theater on West 44th Avenue in the Mile High city. The event will run from 7pm to 10pm and tickets are supposedly already sold out. People without tickets may still be able to join in the fun as they will be letting people in on a 1-out 1-in basis. This event will benefit the Colorado Environmental Coalition. All who get there early will also receive a commemorative drinking glass to sample their brews with. Tickets are $30 at the door if there is still room. There will be live music there as well by Danny Vegas and Classic Movies, followed by the headliner: THE REALS! As this event has always been popular it may need to grow into a larger venue next year. Let's hope so.

Brew Review - La Folie

I tried La Folie at the New Belgium Brewing Company tap room in Fort Collins, Colorado a few months ago along with 3 other samplers of their ales. This was the ale I had been hearing about and wanted to give it an honest review. And what better way to try it then on a free tasting session! This was my first sour ale and I was warned by the New Belgium staff there that you will either love it or hate it - so be prepared. This stuff was served from a tap in their tasting room but was also available in hand numbered large green bottles. My first sip from the tap was WOAH - that was sour! My mouth puckered. A sweet and sour yet somewhat vinegary taste to it. This stuff woke up my mouth. I wasn't sure about this after it first hit my tongue. After a 2nd and 3rd sip, however, I had gotten more used to the tartness and felt compelled to finish the glass. It's a taste that grows on you but you have to get through your initial instincts to put it down. I bought a bottle to take to Cincinnati to share with some beer geeks there. Word of warning, If you transport this stuff by airline and open it in a much lower altitude be warned - this stuff can explode once uncorked! I lost over 1/2 the bottle in a gyser when I opened it in Cincinnati. Needless to say, my friends had never tried a sour beer before and they had a much stronger reaction to it than I did. They didn’t want more but simply said it was "interesting". A tad pricey to buy a big bottle of but if you want to try something different - try this. If you can expand your beer palate and be willing to try a sour barrel aged beer with an open mind then you'll probably be able to acquire a taste for this newly popular style. I'll give this a lower 3.1 out of 5.0 rating, only because I'm not used to a sour ale. This may change over time.

Update 4/23/2008: Had another glass of La Folie today on tap at the brewery and boy have my tastes changed over the last six months. Now that I've had this a few times, it is simply wonderful if enjoyed in small quantities. A 4 oz sample size is just right to slowly sip and enjoy this. I've upped my ranking to a 3.6 out of 5. Nice unique character. This tasting was a lot less vinegary than the first.

Brew Review - Top Sail Imperial Porter

Take me to your Imperial Leader! I think I'm becoming a porter critic, at least if you've taken a look at the past few beers I've reviewed. Last night I decided to try something new and different. I've had porters before but never an Imperial Porter. I visited my local beer store, College Green Liquor in Greeley, Colorado and started looking through their nice selection of craft beers. They have a great bomber section with dozens of 22 oz single bottles. This is one of the best ways to try new beer without investing in a 6-pack or 12-pack. I wanted to try another porter and something with a bit more kick to it. I settled on a Top Sail Imperial Porter from Full Sail Brewing out of Hood River, Oregon. I had never tried an imperial porter, much less an imperial anything. The Full Sail brand was also new to me. I normally drink local beers first as a rule, but on occasion I'll try another state's craft beer. The Full Sail web site indicates that their flagship brews are an amber, IPA and a Pale Ale, so this Imperial Porter was one of their Brewmaster Reserve 2007 specialty beers. The label stated that this brew was 7.5% ABV so I assumed this was going to have a bit more kick than a regular porter. Apparently this was a limited run beer and once the beer is out of stock it won't be made again. Shame too. I did notice that they will be making a Top Sail Bourbon Imperial Porter later this year that has over 9.85% ABV. Perhaps I'll look for that soon and compare it with this one.

According to Wikipedia:

Porter is an alternative name for stout. It was originally used in the 18th century. Historically, culturally and technically there are no differences between stout and porter, though there has been a tendency for breweries to differentiate the strengths of their dark beers with the words "extra", "double" and "stout". So the term "stout" was used to indicate a stronger porter than other porters issued by an individual brewery — though one brewery's porter could easily be stronger than a neighbouring brewery's stout. Though not consistent, this is the usage that has most commonly been employed.

Thus an imperial porter is much the same as a stout. This beer poured very dark brown, almost black with a very nice brown head. While this beer wasn't quite as high in alcohol content as the standard would indicate, I figured that by being a few % points higher in alcohol than regular porters that I'd feel it a bit more after drinking an entire 22 oz bottle.

As I poured the beer into my trusty beer glass, I noticed a rich malty aroma that I've come to love with porters. It didn't have a very big hop smell but had just enough to indicate that there were some bitterness added. What you did smell was the rich malts. The first few tastes were just what I expected from a good porter. It wasn't too sweet and had a nice smooth finish to it without any chalky after taste. This was a good porter.

By the end of the 22 oz bottle, I figured I'd feel it a bit more than I would have with a lower alcohol beer, but I didn't. The slightly higher alcohol content was not as strong as I would have thought. Probably a good thing too. I'd drink this beer again anytime. I'm going to give it a respectible 3.5 out of 5 rating. It pays to try new beers from other states. I'm now wanting to test out more of their beers. Cheers Full Sail!

Coming next - I picked up a sampler pack from Left Hand Brewing of Colorado and will review 4 of their beers as well as a brown ale from Avery Brewing in Colorado.

Chipper's Fermentedly Challenged Beer Ratings

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Last updated: 04/23/2008

Longer Wait for New Aspen Brewery

Back in October, I reported that a new brewery was being built in Aspen, Colorado. The opening day was supposed to have been in December. Unfortunately, construction delays have pushed back the opening until sometime in late January according to the Aspen Times on January 10th. Here is a transcript of the Aspen Times story:

Aspen Brewery opening delayed - Aspen Times - January 10, 2008

ASPEN — Beer lovers looking to wet their whistles at the new Aspen Brewery will have to wait a little longer.

The new brewery and tasting room, originally scheduled to open in mid-December, won’t be open until at least the end of the month, said co-owner Duncan Clauss.

Delays in construction have delayed the grand opening by more than a month.

“We are working day and night to get the doors open,” Clauss said.

Clauss expects to get the brewery’s four fermenters operating next week, and it will take two weeks for the beer to be brewed. During that time, Clauss hopes to put the final touches on the interior of the building, located at 557 N. Mill St.

“Our brew system is in place but we don’t want to rush it and serve bad beer,” he said, adding four different brews will be available at the beginning. “We are very close. We are anxious as every