Hey Ritter Sign That Sunday Liquor Law Already

On March 20th, the Colorado Senate gave their approval to State Bill 82 by a 25-9 margin which would allow Sunday liquor sales in Colorado for the first time in over 4 decades. Colorado is one of just a handful of states that still prohibit full strength beer and liquor from being sold on Sunday. Governor Ritter has held the bill in his office for 8 days now and is still undecided on whether to sign the bill into law. If signed, the law would go into effect on July 1st of this year. Ritter has stated that he wanted to study both sides of the issue before deciding whether to approve it, ignore it or veto it. Either way, he has a deadline of Sunday March 30th to make a decision.

Proponents of the bill say that this law would increase tax revenues for the state. Opponents are worried that all hell will break loose (much like it does on any other day) and will increase the number of drunks on the roads and encourage more underage drinking on Sundays. Will it? Think about it. Right now, if someone wants a drink on Sundays, they either would have to have some liquor left over from their last purchase or else they have to go out (and drive) to a bar or restaurant to drink, or have to narrow their choices and buy cheap 3.2 beer at a grocery store. By allowing Sunday sales, people could stock up any day of the week they wish and be able to consume it more easily in their homes and not have to drive.

Let's face it, prohibition failed almost 75 years ago to the date because the law was basically unenforceable. People wanted their beer and no law was going to stop them from drinking it. Right now, the current law only encourages people to go OUT to consume liquor on Sundays. Passing the law would enable us to buy it on Sunday and would allow us to more easily consume our beverages at HOME. I seriously doubt that allowing Sunday liquor sales is going to drive up consumption. It will merely allow more flexibility to purchase at a more convenient time and spread out our purchases. Banning sales on Sunday push people to buy more on Fridays and Saturdays in order to have something available to them on Sunday if they wish. In some cases that might lead people to drink more than they really wanted to on Fridays and Saturdays because they stocked up and they got tempted to drink their Sunday reserve earlier.

I've often experienced that I didn't have time to go out on Friday or Saturday to buy some beer and found myself without any beer to drink on Sunday. My only choice at that point would be to go to a bar or restaurant to get a drink. I simply refuse to buy limited variety swill at a grocery store as I prefer to drink the more flavorful craft beers. I want a variety when I shop for beer, not the few choices that supermarkets offer on Sundays.

Getting rid of the blue law on Sunday is simply bringing our state up to modern times. I really hope that Governor Ritter signs the bill into law. It's about time.

Brew Review - Laughing Lab

I'm getting back to my Colorado brews tonight with a selection from the Bristol Brewing Company of Colorado Springs, CO. This is their Scottish-style Laughing Lab ale. I'm shocked that I've never had a beer from the Bristol's prior to this. I suppose better late than never. This beer was freshly brewed just less than a month ago according to the notches on the label. It's nice to see a brewer date the beer so you can tell how long its been sitting on the shelf. Scottish ales tend to be a bit darker than amber beers and are supposedly a bit hoppier. This beer pours a lovely dark red / borderline brown out of the 12 oz bottle. There was a nice 1" off-white head that rose up in my pint glass that quickly dissipated into a thin lingering lace. I could see a light amount of carbonation in the glass as well.

I detected only a light hop smell. Bristol's used Willamette hops for the aroma and Chinook hops for the bittering in this beer. The maltiness didn't really come through until the initial tasting. This is a beer that could be called a session beer. It comes in at 5.3% ABV and a low 19 on the IBU scale. I expected a bit more bitterness for a Scottish ale but didn't receive much bitterness. The Chocolate and Caramel malts hit you a bit late in the tasting. The beer gives you a creamy affect when it first hits your mouth. Going down, there is just a hint of bitterness but not much. What I also got was a strange reaction in my mouth. After swallowing, my mouth immediately started salivating a lot. It quickly coated my tongue in saliva and gave the sense that your mouth was covered in water. It certainly doesn't taste watery going down but for some reason my tongue decided to take a bath and wash itself after I drank this beer. Interesting. Whatever dryness the beer had initially all but disappeared. Perhaps it was a reaction to the left over jelly beans from Easter I was eating just before opening this beer that caused this.

The hops and the malts hit you a split second after you drink it. Your mouth will feel a creaminess at first, then the malts and then the hops. After swallowing you then feel your taste buds watering up. I like this beer however and I would have no problem drinking a few of these at a sitting if given the chance. I drank this beer at cellar temperature and not cold from the fridge.

As with most session-like beers, the beer rating sites were pretty neutral on this ale. Ratebeer put this in the 57th percentile and a 3.15/5 rating. BeerAdvocate graded this between a "B" and a "B+". Just a few of the raters also detected the same mouth experience I did. Whenever I rate a beer, if I rank it at least a 3.0 or higher, then that tells me that I'd buy this beer again. I actually had one of these beers late last night after another beer but didn't want to rank it then. I decided to wait until tonight to give it a final ranking. The beer last night didn't give me that saliva effect, so perhaps it truely was a reaction to the jelly beans. Last nights beer was very good. Tonight's beer won't change my opinion. Bristol makes a very good beer. I'd be happy to offer this to my friends. I'll give this beer a 3.3 out of 5 rating.

Side note: Perhaps it's time to change up my ranking style a bit. I rarely, if ever use a score of 4.0 or higher and rarely if ever even approach a beer with a 2.0 or less. So I'm essentially wasting a lot of the ranking bandwidth. Perhaps for future beers I'll come up with a better method to score these beers. Beer ranking sites are only an average and everyone's experiences are different with given the same beer. Don't trust anyone else's ranking until you get a chance to try it for yourself.

Brew Review - Alaskan Summer Ale

Today's brew review is a continuation on the Alaskan Brewing Company line of beers out of Juneau, Alaska. I've been wanting to sample more of this breweries wares and since it was a nice sunny spring day out today I decided to go with something that's fit to drink in the warmer weather. This is their limited edition Alaskan Summer Ale. This beer is a Kölsch style ale, a style originating in Cologne, Germany that was made to compete with Altbeirs, which strangely enough, was the last beer I reviewed from the Alaskan Brewing Company. This beer pours clear with a light golden color and again did not have much of a head to it. The whitish head only rose up about 1/2" or so and quickly disappeared to nothing. It ends up looking like a glass of wine. I'm finding that these Alaskan beers don't ship to the lower 48 with much head left to them. Which is a shame really. Kölsch beers are supposed to have a more distinct hoppiness to it and a less malty taste. The aroma you initially get is all hops, Hallertauer in particular, nice clean floral with a spice. I opened this beer fresh out of the cooler, but decided I should let this beer warm slightly to bring out more flavor and aroma.

Like it's brother, the Amber altbeir, this beer has about a 5.3% ABV and a low 18 IBU and a light SRM rating of 8. I can tell this would make another good session beer right from the outset. I love the nicely hoppy aroma from the Hallertauer hops. This is not as bitter as you might think of this style. The hops certain stand out but without giving you reason to skrinch your nose. The mouth feel is almost creamy, not watery at all and has a good carbonated feel. It goes down very smooth and isn't dry at all. Mmmm ya, I'm going to buy more of this in six packs this summer to share for sure. The Alaskans put in some Pale, Munich, Vienna and wheat malts in this brew. Perhaps it's the wheat that I smell up front. I can certainly taste the wheat in this beer. I'm really starting to like wheat much more than I originally did. I think you have to be in the mood for a certain type of beer and have tried a lot of different styles to begin to appreciate it.

The beer rating sites thought this beer as ok. BeerAdvocate gave it a solid "B" grade. And Ratebeer.com gave it a 53rd percentile and a 3.11 out of 5 ranking. Pretty much expected for this style of beer. I enjoyed this as much as the Alaskan Amber and it tasted much the same but a bit lighter. This beer will get a 3.4 out of 5 rating from me today. I'd certainly buy this again and would drink it as a session beer in warm weather.

It's nice to get just the beer you were expecting to taste even before you buy it. I wasn't in the mood for a dark heavy beer tonight and I'm glad I went with a Kölsch. This beer is on par with the Fort Collins Brewery's Summer Fling that I sampled last week. Save this type of beer for the warmer days ahead and you won't be disappointed. Thumbs up!

Beer Style Reference Guide

Wikipedia Links

A Abbey beer Ale Altbier Amber ale American pale ale American pilsner American strong ale American-style lager B Baltic porter Barley wine Belgian Strong Dark Ale Belgian beer Berliner Weisse Bitter (beer) Black and Tan Blonde ale Bock Boza Brown ale C Cauim Chicha Cream ale   D Dortmunder Export Dry beer Dubbel Dunkel   E English Strong Ale

F Flanders red ale Framboise Fruit and vegetable beer G Ginger beer Golden ale (UK) Gose Gruit Gueuze H Happoshu Hefeweizen Helles   I Imperial stout India Pale Ale Irish red ale   K Kölsch (beer) Kriek   L Lager Lambic   M Malt liquor Malzbier Mild ale Märzen Münchner Oktoberfestbier

O Old ale Oshikundu Oud bruin   P Pale ale Pale lager Pilsener Porter Q Quadrupel   R Rye beer   S Sahti Saison Schwarzbier Scotch ale Smoked beer Steam beer Stout Summer ale T Trappist beer Tripel V Vienna lager W Wheat beer Wiess Winter warmer Witbier

Brew Review - Alaskan Amber

Fermentedly Challenged - Podcast version - Listen to this blog!
(7MB ~7 min)

My corner beer store just got in a shipment from the Alaskan Brewing Company of Juneau, Alaska. I've been wanting to sample more beers from this brewery ever since my trip to Alaska last summer. I picked out a 22 oz bomber of their Alaskan Amber - an alt style beer. I admit that I first thought that this was an Amber Ale and that's why I chose it. But upon further reading of the label, this is classified as an Alt style. Alt is the German word for Old and are typically conditioned longer than most other beers. Supposedly the longer conditioning mellows out the fruitiness of the malts.

This beer had a nice shushhhh as I popped the bottle cap. The beer poured a nice deep red color - just what you'd expect from the name. Their wasn't much of a head. It had about a 1" initial head that faded almost immediately and disappeared almost entirely. There was a lot of carbonation in this beer however. There was a constant stream of bubbles coming up from the bottom of the glass. I could immediately smell the aroma of a sweet banana like quality, with some bubble-gum like traces. It was a fruity, almost citrusy aroma, much like the Belgian beer I had the night before. It was rather pleasant.

This beer was brewed with a combination of premium 2-row and crystal malts. The hops were a mix of Cascade (probably what I'm smelling up front) and Saaz hops. The Saaz hops give this beer a more Czech style to it. Cascade is more citrusy up front and somewhat biscuity. This was a low hopped beer with a 18 IBU rating. This beer is a borderline session beer as it comes in around 5.0% ABV but doesn't hit you up front like those imperials do.

The taste was nice and malty with just a hint of bittering. It was well balanced. The carbonation on this beer tingled the tongue. It finishes rather smooth with no aftertaste. I could easily drink this beer as a session beer. Finishing the entire 22 oz bottle took little to no effort. It's clean, almost creamy. I'd definitely drink this again if offered to me.

Beeradvocate gives this beer a good "B" rating while Ratebeer put this in the 78th percentile and a 3.4/5 rating. So it's rated a bit above average for an altbier. This to me is a good example of how a balanced beer should taste. It's good but doesn't exactly stick out from the crowd as outstanding. I would have preferred that it have a head that would stick around longer than it did. A beer without a lingering head tells me that something is amiss. It could have been the temperature. I put it in the fridge for just 15 minutes and it was just slightly colder than room temperature. Still, pretty good tasting for the lack of chill. I'll give this beer a thumbs up and rank it at 3.3 out of 5. I would have been higher it not for the head. Certainly worth a taste if you haven't picked this up before.

You can also listen to my review on a podcast that I recorded while drinking it. If you have any comments about this beer or the podcast, please drop me a line or add a comment. My email is now posted at the top of the left hand column of this blog.

Brew Review - Hades Ale

As we say goodbye to Winter and hello to Spring I'm starting to transition over to lighter beers. I picked up a Belgian Strong Ale this time around. A nice departure from the typical dark brew. This beer was brewed out of the Great Divide Brewing Company in Denver Colorado and is called their Hades Ale. Interesting name for a lightly colored brew. Hades is the lord of the dead and ruler of the nether world if you read it's definition in Wikipedia. This beer is the furthest thing from being dead that you can get. This Belgian pours a light yellow color and looked crystal clear with a noticeable carbonation and a decent white head. Being a strong belgian, the ABV was a bit stronger than most belgians coming in at 7.3% ABV. This sample came in a 22 oz bomber and was drank chilled, fresh from the fridge. I wanted a lighter style beer but one with a bit of a kick to it. I think I found just the right beer in this case.

The aroma hits you immediately upon pouring. You notice a spicier yet citrusy aroma coming off this beer. I chose a Belgian snifter type glass for this beer and I think it was just the right type for this beer to bring out the full aroma. I detected a bit of banana and perhaps lemon in this beer. This beer didn't have a harsh hop smell like an IPA yet it was strong enough to be noticeable. At first smell, you could tell this was more of a summer time drink. No heavy or dark malts in this brew.

The first sip was just what I expected from a strong Belgian. It reminded me a lot of a Blue Moon Belgian White but without the orange garnish. This beer was nicely carbonated but not overly so. This beer drinks better cold. I could taste a light citrus with an almost biscuity taste. This beer goes down very easy with no bitterness. You get a nice mouth feel with this beer. Very smooth. It even burps well. Finishing the entire 22 oz bomber bottle gave me a nice light beer buzz. If it wasn't over 7% ABV I'd swear it would be a good session type beer. But don't be fooled by the taste. The higher alcohol content in this one should limit you to just one bottle. Any more would be too much.

This is a nice change of pace brew. I'd recommend it to anyone. The beer rating sites were rather tame with their ratings. Beer Advocate gave this beer a decent "B" rating. Ratebeer.com rated this a bit above average with a 57 percentile and a 3.15 out of 5 rating. I think those ratings were a bit low as I felt this beer deserved a bit better. I'm going to give this beer a nice 3.5 out of 5 ranking. Save this one served cold for a nice warm day. This beer definitely deserves a look.

Brew Review - Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout

I'm starting to appreciate the beer rating sites and their impressions of a beer ahead of time. I bought today's beer simply on reputation alone and decided to judge it for myself. North Coast Brewing Company of Fort Bragg, California makes an imperial stout that goes by the name of Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout. This beer has won over 12 Gold Medals in the Imperial Stout category over the last 12 years. So does this beer live up to it's medals? Let me tell you. This beer is NOT for beginners. Holy cow does this beer have a kick. Here's how this beer poured.

I chose an English pint glass for this beer. The beer had been sitting in my basement for about 2 hours after purchasing it cold from the store beer cooler. I tried to carefully pour this beer into the glass but was surprised to see a huge head building from the get go. The head got so big that I had to stop pouring about 2/3rds of the way. The picture shows just how high the head got. I had to let this beer settle a bit before I could empty the short squatty 12 oz bottle. The brown head alone told me this beer was going to be impressive. The beer alone was as dark as a stout can be. No light gets through this beer. Immediately, I encountered a rich chocolate and coffee aroma but with a noticeable hop kick. This beer was measured at an IBU of 75 and an ABV of 9% so it's not going to be a beer taken lightly. It's good to let this beer sit for a while before imbibing as you want to let a good stout breathe.

The first taste was intense. Malts, hops and a definite kick. This is not a beer for beginners folks. I mean you get hit up front with taste and a lot of it. It is a bit more bitter than more stouts and finishes dry. If you're drinking it cold then you're not getting the full experience. Let this beer warm up a bit. This imperial stout has an initial bitter flavor but as it warms and you drink more of it you notice the rich dark malts coming through. You can feel the alcohol kicking in soon after starting this beer. Perhaps this is why it comes in a 4-pack. You're not going to be drinking a lot of these in one sitting. The more I drink of this, the more I like it. I'm calling this stuff High Octane Molasses. It's not thick but it does come with a lot of flavor.

Beer Advocate gives this beer a solid "A". Ratebeer.com give this a 100% ranking and a 4.11 out of 5 ranking. Solid praise to be sure. If you're not used to an imperial stout then I'd suggest starting with a Guinness and working your way up.

I love the label on this beer. An old fashioned picture of a Russian royal with a raised hand that looks like he is giving you his blessing. I suggest you drink this beer with a meal as alone it will simply hit you with it's high alcohol rating. It's a powerful beer. But let me emphasize that simply because a beer has high alcohol and a kick doesn't mean that alone warrants a high ranking. Its still got to have a good mix of malts and hops. This beer doesn't disappoint. It's a well made stout. Go easy on this one else it will kick your ass. I'm going to give this a 3.7 out of 5 ranking. It's not the top imperial stout on my list due to it's higher bitterness, but it does rank up there as a quality beer.

Get Behind the Scenes on Using Keg Systems

It's amazing what you can find when you're surfing the net. I was investigating a brewery's web site today and found a link to their distributors. I looked up a local distributor and their web site had a link to an equipment manufacturer. This manufacturer provided all of the equipment a pub or bar needs to get the perfect beer from keg to glass. I found their web site at: MicroMatic.com. Micro Matic is a leading supplier of draught beer equipment. From CO2 and Nitrogen gas regulator systems, to line monitors, to stainless steel tap systems and to cleaning kits. This site has it all. They cater to the large pubs and restaurants to even the smaller professional kegerator systems. Normally I wouldn't have given this web site another look but what caught my eye was their professionally done training videos that detail out how a well built keg distribution system can be set up.

Some of their best videos can be found in their MicroMatic TV section under the Learn tab. There you will find some great videos on how a typical professionally installed beer tap system works. One of the best videos is called: "From Keg to Glass". If you've ever dreamed of owning your own bar or even setting up a professional keg system in your own basement, you'll be fascinated by these videos. You might not be aware at just how much sophistication can go into a professional beer line setup. Micro Matic even has some forums dedicated to running beer dispensing systems. They even have an online store and sell everything you'd need for a complete setup.

So if you're a beer geek like me and are interested in seeing what it takes to setup and run your own keg systems you might want to check them out. MicroMatic.com

Mini Brew Review - Avalanche Amber Ale

I took the family out to dinner last night to the Old Chicago restaurant in Greeley. We hadn't been to this place in a while and I felt it was the perfect place to try another beer that I hadn't sampled before. This will be a mini-review as I typically can't control the conditions in which I sampled this beer. I ordered one of my favorite's, the "Meat Me Calzone" and ordered an Avalanche Amber Ale from Breckenridge Brewery in Colorado from their selection of over 110 beers. This is only the 2nd brew I've tried from this brewery. The other was their Vanilla Porter which was absolutely delicious. Our waiter served me the beer in the bottle with no glass, but I quickly asked for one and was given a standard glass mug. The beer poured a nice amber color. No haze or sediment in this brew. There was a slight whitish head that settled down to a rather small bead. I figured this beer to be a session beer and I was right. This Breck brew had a 5.4% ABV and was very lightly hopped. So light, in fact, that I could barely pick out the Willamette, Chinook, Tettnang and Hallertau hops in it. I supposed I've been used to the bigger hopped beers of late. I didn't mind the less bitter taste. It was a nice change of pace drink.

The beer was served absolutely cold. The coldness covered up some of the flavor of the hops and malts in my opinion. Breckenridge Brewery puts in some Two Row Pale, Munich, Roasted Barley, and a bit of Chocolate malts into their brew. I love ambers and this one didn't disappoint. I must admit, after reviewing primarily porters and stouts with some wheat and IPA's thrown in recently, I enjoyed having a more "tame" brew to go with my spicy calzone. This was a very easy beer to drink. No bitterness at 19 IBUs, just a nice session beer. The taste did improve as the beer warmed. I'd suggest never drinking any amber or darker beer super cold, unless of course you're standing in the hot sun and needed to really cool off. Beers that are too cold hide much of the flavor.

I'll have to try to compare this beer to the Bell's Amber that I had last month as it's the only other amber I've had lately. Both were good, but I still believe the Bell's had a better taste. Maybe it was the thick beer glass that this brew was served up in. Sometimes the type of glass does make a difference. Breck Brew claims this is one of their best selling beers. Session beers tend to sell the most volume I suppose. The major brew review sites tend to rate session beers much lower than the big flavor beers. Ratebeer put this in the 20% percentile with a 2.61 out of 5 rating, while Beer Advocate gave this beer just a C+. Well don't let those ratings fool you. While some may call this beer unremarkable, it was still a good session beer and is worthy of future consideration. I would still be proud to give this beer to a friend. I'll rate this beer as a 3.1 out of 5 rating. It's good, but does not stand out from other session brews. It certainly went well with my meal.

Fort Collins Brewery Tasting Room