DrFermento.Net

If you’re only interested in local Alaska beer, skip this blog.  This comprises my recount of my trip to Denver in late January and my efforts to explore a good amount of beer culture in the surrounding area. 

Colorado’s taste in beer is decidedly west coast and is defining from the standpoint that it’s this region that begins to evidence the western part of our nation’s country’s penchant for hops.  But Colorado is not an Oregon, Washington or Alaska clone when it comes to beer.  Although hops are featured and often aggressive, Colorado beers as a whole enjoy firm malt foundations and a degree of freshness in the malt character and grain mix that’s not overshadowed by monster hop additions, except in purposeful exceptions that are rarer than they seem to be elsewhere in the West.  I really enjoyed exploring big malt complexity along with hops that accented the beer rather than defining it for a change. 

I expected cheaper beer during my visit to the Denver area, but the benchmark pint price is right up there with Alaska pints.  I paid an average of $4.75 a pint, and perhaps more if tax is included.  I paid as high as $5.50 a pint average at a place called the Yard House in a mall.  Tax here is killer and hard to figure out given a myriad of local, municipal and other taxes that add up to drive the cost of a good pint beyond what we pay in Alaska.

Another notable exclusion: Alaska beer hasn’t made it to Denver yet.  I shopped a range of stores from the boutique all the way up to the biggest liquor store in the world according to the Guinness Book of World Records and no one’s heard of our stuff beyond the ubiquitous Alaskan Smoked Porter that everyone seems to clamor for. 

I’m a very cagy traveler.  On the event that I departed for Denver to attend a company 401(k) conference in Parker (just south of Denver), I had to rush home from work and assemble all of the things it would take me to survive five days away from home.  It’s probably one of the rare times I don’t think about beer other than packing my coveted Celebrator Beer News magazine so that when I’m finally there, I can relax and chart out my foamy adventures in foreign lands.  I purposely wait until all the packing is done before I reward myself with a beer.  Odd that I wait that long; most find solace in beer in tense situations.  I don’t travel well.  Being 6’4” tall, I don’t fit in airline seats well and I don’t like unknown company crammed in beside me.  I don’t mind good conversation if I’m in the mood for it, but I never know if I can twist the subject around to beer because that comforts me, even deep in the itchy wretchedness of confinement without the freedom to roam and not being able to stretch out and relax. 

My daughter had just traveled through Texas and Southern California and mid-way through packing, the doorbell rang and I was delivered two cans of Lone Star Beer.   This was her gift to me for watching her two incredibly high-maintenance black lab pups in her twelve day absence.  It was as if someone dropped off a pot of gold.  I know what Lone Star Beer is, and I know where it sits in the hierarchy of beer.  The point was that in the midst of all of her distracted agenda, she had the foresight to think of me and grabbed what she thought was unique and that I would like.  Love in beer; what a concept! 

My mind raced a half a decade of my own beer experiences and wound down to remembering when and where I’d had a Lone star before.  Was it over a quarter of a century before, when I was in basic training at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio Texas?  Could be, but I was underage.  Well, that doesn’t mean anything. No matter where I’d had the beer before, for some odd reason, I was excited to try it again. 

I opened the can and knew what to expect and I wasn’t disappointed.  Lone Star Beer pours very clear and very pale, just lighter than golden.  An initially frothy head expectedly falls apart and diminishes to a white edge color with ample carbonation releasing bubbles that seemed to have no where to go.  Plenty of sulfery lager aromas emanate off the top along with dusty, un-defined hop smells that fall away to reveal more dymethel sulfide (DMS) than grain.   Swirling the glass doesn’t arouse the aroma or head at all, and very quickly the beer settles down to nothing-ness on top.  Maybe I should have drank it straight out of the can. 

I’ll give the beer credit for being clean in flavor, albeit bland and listless.  The same DMS assaults the palate at first, but interestingly, clean grain character, sweet center and perfect bitterness follow, along with a clean, dry finish.  Aside for the lager sulfurs, hinting and rapid fermentation, the beer came across satiating and pleasant.  An ample, resounding body finds its way forward in the swallow that doesn’t beg too much for another sip.  One thing is for sure.  This beer is designed to be drunk hypothermic.  The colder the better.  It’s not that warming reveals adverse character, but drinking it cold adds to the defined crisp snap in the beer.  This stuff gets pounded with abandon in the south and I’m sure ice is the beer’s friend. 

It wasn’t a let down; it was what I expected.  I got a nice wisp of nostalgia from the past and smiled nicely for the gift. 

Airports like to boast attractive venues that appeal to all classes of travelers.  I remember when an airport layover of any length was a dreary, boring pace-the-floor and wonder where my next decent meal might come from.  Today, airport mezzanines split square footage with prime retail real estate and a decent sized layover may not afford enough time to see what’s usually regionally unique in the area.  The Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport has taken strides in adding more retail and dining establishments, but if you’re not traveling during tourist season and are in the airport at anything other than pretty standard hours, forget about it.  This is especially true of beer at the Airport.  I haven’t formally surveyed our own airport or other major transportation hubs, but simple, repeated experience tells me that expect low variety and high prices. 

Although I haven’t been to the old A concourse in a long time, they used to have a little venue down there that featured Glacier Brewhouse  beers and just because they did and just because I wanted to support that attitude, when I came in to that concourse for any reason, I always bought one of the big tall boys of something Glacier. 

My recent pass through the Seattle International Airport didn’t reveal a much rosier picture.  There’s plenty more retail and dining in the obviously bigger airport, and there are plenty more places to duck in for a beer, but even the larger establishments boasted scant beer variety.  Given that and the price, and I passed it all up.

By the time I arrived in Denver, almost a full day after leaving Anchorage, I was too tired to canvass Denver International Airport for suds availability.  I had my first beer at a fabulous little Italian restaurant in Parker called Venice that offers an upscale atmosphere and some pretty darned good food within a diversified menu.  I had a Birra Moretti primarily because they offer it on tap.  The Birra Moretti Brewing Company dates back to 1859 with roots in Udine, Italy.  It ran independently until it was picked up by Heineken in 1996.  Heineken didn’t mess with the recipe however and the beer remains true to style.  My example was fresher than I’ve ever experienced and although sweet and malty in the center, rang out crisp and snappy in the finish, which complimented my rich fare nicely.  The restaurant also features Moretti La Rosa, a darker version that’s prominent enough to be listed in the Beer Judge Certification Program Style Guidelines as a commercial example, but I took another fresh draught pint instead. 

Hotels don’t fare much better when it comes to beer variety typically catering to the broadest possible palate.  I was pleasantly surprised when I arrived at the Marriot Denver South at Park Meadows.  Here I enjoyed choices including Breckenridge Pale Ale, New Belgium Brewing Company’s Fat Tire, Newcastle Brown Ale, and Coors Blue Moon, all overshadowing only two crap taps (Bud and Miller).  It’d been a long time since I’d enjoyed a Fat Tire this close to the source and it was unbelievably fresh…to the point where I could discern individual malts and hops within the overall profile of the medium bodied beer.  I was also pleasantly surprised later in the evening to discover that in a catered event, not only the Fat Tire was offered, but New Belgium’s 2-Below Ale, a zesty, malt-forward winter warmer dosed with Sterling and Liberty hops, a good contingent of roasted malts, spicing way in the background and a creeping but evident 6.6 percent alcohol.  Good things  reward the traveler with a keen eye and discerning palate!  The Breckenridge was clean, decent and satiating, but sort of paled in the shadow of the new Belgium products.

One of my best discoveries was in Parker, Colorado.  Aside from chasing breweries and brewpubs, if a liquor store looks half way promising, I duck in.  In the event of a boorish family reunion a couple of years ago, we were out shopping for something other than beer, but I spied a little place in a mall-like environment called Libations Wine and Spirits (6554 South Parker Road, Aurora, 80016:  303.766.0575).  Owners April and Kirk Carvatt are obviously well versed in things fermented. They stock a beautiful array of top-end local and imported beers.  They have a well-stocked reach-ins, one of which is a walk in within which I never know what I’ll find.  One-offs and last-calls line the floor with pricing at the register.  Another inside set of shelves showcases even more great beers. 

It was in this venue that I chanced across Lion Stout from The Lion Brewery Ceylon Limited, of Biyagama, Sri Lanka. 

After the pour, a deep, fruity vinous aroma that’s propped up by light roast malts and evidence of the eight percent alcohol hit the nose first in this black beer that rocks up a bring brown head that quickly dissipates.  Light chocolate notes and background hop aromas finish up sniff.  The flavor is an even meld of a big stout’s acridity, sweet and swirling dark fruit notes, some chocolate and of course the booze.  The beer is full and almost cloying in the mouthfeel and the sweet center and flat character add to the sensation of fullness.  Still, the beer is silky smooth and easy to drink.  Although there are no real coffee overtones, an almost espresso-like character makes up the beer and one is plenty in a session.  I always buy six and bring some home because we don’t get this foreign stout in Alaska.  On this trip I made an odder discovery still.  Lion Stout pairs fabulously with fresh oranges.  The tartness of the orange balances the beer’s sweetness and the citric character cuts some of the acridity.  It seems impossible but the combination makes the beer taste even smoother still and fizzes it up a bit.  Too bad produce in Alaska sucks and we don’t get this beer up here yet because this would be fun to replicate at home. 

It was during my recent trip to Colorado that I obtained another defining moment in beerdom.  I have a few, but would have to digress to recount them.  Anyway, my mother in law pointed out a story in a weekly Denver paper that announced that in Thornton, a suburb of Denver, a liquor store had just achieved the distinction of the biggest liquor store in the world as verified by the Guinness Book of World Records in January.  The place is called Daveco and features over 100,000 square feet of retail and storage space for beer.  If you want more extensive detail, read the February 07 Brew Review in the Anchorage Press covering this epic establishment that warehouses over 650 different beers from around the world with a strong focus on craft and international brands.  It took a lot of will power not to drop a grand in this place and buy some additional luggage to haul the obscurities home. 

The next stop was at the Oskar Blues Brewery in Lyons, Colorado.  Lyons is in the foothills on the way up into the Rocky Mountains.  I’ve driven the road a couple of times before on my way to Estes Park and the mountain wonderland beyond, but this was long before Oskar Blues existed.  My wisps of nostalgia that came from searching back over a quarter of a century when I drove Ms. Fermento along a smaller path with the same destination on the occasion of our honeymoon were dashed when I looked to the south and saw that Denver’s urban sprawl had engulfed most of what used to be open flat prairie.  My new destination and new beers keep me focused on the road ahead. 

Oskar Blues is a little establishment in a little town with a lot of attitude.  The inside of the ramshackle establishment is stuffed to the gills with jazz and beer paraphernalia including music bills stapled in multiple layers, chairs adorned with beer caps and even a full-sized Elvis mock up.  I resisted having my picture taken with Elvis at first, but succumbed in the end. 

I always arrive incognito and never pre-announce that I’m coming because I like to experience places in the raw at first.  If you ever visit Oskar Blues (and you certainly should) you’ll be instantly disarmed by the deep, flowing friendliness of the entire staff and not just the select few that are thrust in the public’s eye because they’re pleasing.  Everyone within the restaurant, brewing and operations staff is genuinely happy to be doing what they are doing.  I’ve got an eye for this stuff and know that this kind of pervasive enthusiasm and happiness cannot be manufactured.  In particular, our server Amy, completely took me off guard with her ebullient love for what she does.  I only mentioned that I wondered if there was anyone around the brewery at this time and without hesitation, she stepped around the counter where she was busy with food service tasks (we arrived  right at lunch time), set her stuff down and almost took me by the hand as she almost danced toward a back door sing-song-ily saying “Why don’t we just drop in on them and see?  I just love taking people to the brewery.”  At first I might have thought her lace-less, tattered retro tennies clashed with her flowing gingham dress, but it all seemed to fit as I  followed her down the stairs. 

I visited in the brewery for a while and was amazed at how much brewery could be stuffed into so little shed, but it all seemed to work, including the signature canning line that pushed the brewery to the forefront with the first canned craft beer the be commercially produced (and remain successful) in the United States.  Since I was a drop in, the brewery was unprepared for visitors and was in the middle of making a batch of beer.  Still, the two brewers divided and conquered and showed me around the small establishment that was fixing to move into bigger digs in nearby Longmont. 

After the brief tour, it was back upstairs for lunch amid a mix of a younger crowd, well-established farming-types and beer tourists just like me.  I opted for a sampler tray to get the most bang without the buzz.  Without going into detail about each noteworthy brew, I enjoyed the brewery’s Leroy Brown, Dale’s Pale Ale, Old Chub Scottish Style Ale, Gordon Imperial IPA and Tenfidy Imperial Stout. 

I’m duly impressed with the continuing emergence of excellent beers showing up wrapped in aluminum.  This diversity is important for a variety of reasons.  Canned beers have come a long way in quality with improved linings that preserve the brewer’s intentions.  Cans also ward off the evils of light and have less oxygen on top than bottled beers do, both pushing stability and shelf life beyond what bottles might achieve unless they’re buried in sealed cardboard boxes.  Canned beers also afford both stackability and  portability.  Stackability is important to me because I have limited space in the one additional refrigerator I have devoted to beer.  Have you ever tried stacking bottles of beer on each other?  ‘Nuff said.  Portability is even more important, especially here in Alaska where getting good brew to the backcountry is almost as important as multiple layers of clothing and bear repellant.  Even locally, surf the shelves at the Brown Jug Warehouse and explore incredible canned offerings from the Lower 48, Europe and Belgium to attest to the growing popularity. 

Colorado is rich with great canned beer.  I packed home two four-packs of Oskar Blues Ten Fidy Imperial Stout.  I have no way of verifying it, but I suspect at 10 percent alcohol, this is the biggest beer ever to be packaged in a can.  This started out as a winter seasonal beer, but popular demand mandated repeat performances this year and now a can run allows me to haul the goods home with little fear of spoilage or breakage.  The beer pours rich and thick,  and an espresso-like head covers the top of the no-doubt opaque, black beer.  The aroma is refined from the can, but in a few moments, rich, deep, dark malt aromas emerge along with lots of dark fruit, tons of chocolate aromas, cream and of course roast and black malt characters.  Roast malt acridity and hop bitterness hit first, followed by an ale’s signature fruitiness, some slightly coarse hop flavor.  Chocolate and coffee notes follow along with a silky smoothness that seems to make the flavors more buoyant in the beer.  The bitterness extends deep into the finish and hangs on long into the next sip.  This is an intense, in-your-face big stout.  I love what Beeradvocate.com said about the beer:  “This one puts the ‘A’ in ‘Holy Crap!’”. 

As a quick aside, I grabbed a six pack of  Steamworks Steam Engine Lager in cans just to see how it measured up.  I know the California Common (Steam Beer) style well, so I had good reference for a comparision.  The Steamworks in the can pours brewery fresh.  A nifty, sharp, clean lightly fruity and amply hopped aroma wafts off the top with hints of biscuit and caramel rounding out an overall sweet essence in the nose.  Arguably, this is as close to San Francisco fresh steam beer aroma I’ve had since my last visit to the city in California.  The right-down-the-line amber color is perfectly fitting under the off-white ample, diminishing, but lasting head.  Sweet caramel notes and both lager-ish and ale-like flavors abound in this sweet-centered overall clean beer with slightly less signature hop flavor and bitterness than expected.  This is certainly no defect in the beer but rather the brewer’s interpretation of the style.  This works fine in the beer unless my style-Nazi tendencies emerge, and I purposely repressed them for this interesting, great canned product. 

One of my traveling objectives is to focus not necessarily on what I like and am familiar with, but rather those beers we don’t get in Alaska and that I may not experience again if I don’t get them at the source.  I make exceptions, however.  Left Hand Brewing Company provides beer to Alaska, but it’s a recent enough addition and the beer is noteworthy enough than I couldn’t resist stopping into the eclectic little brewery for a couple of samples.  The beer is as new as surrounding this year’s Great Alaska Beer and Barley Wine Festival and I’d yet to see beers in the shelves as of January 28th when I left for Denver.  Indeed I was impressed with a quick slamming of samples of Widdershins Barley Wine, JuJu Ginger Beer, Left Hand’s Milk Stout [Porter?],  and their incredible Imperial Stout.  The JuJu Ginger was aptly produced, but not big on my favorites list, but spiced beers generally aren’t.  I’d had the Widdershin’s before having judged it at the Great Alaska Beer and Barley Wine Festival, so I knew what that was all about.  My favorite turned out to be the Imperial Stout.  I could have taken detailed tasting notes, but I was too busy enjoying the beer and talking to the friendly folks at the bar to realize anything beyond what I was drinking was incredibly good. 

From there, it was a foray into Denver’s lower downtown area known as  LoDo by the locals.  There are lots of breweries and brewpubs to explore in a short couple of blocks, but I focused first on Great Divide Brewing Company because it’s a favorite of mine in Alaska and I just had to set foot inside the small facility.  I did just that hoping for my favorite, Samurai, a rice beer that’s recently earned a position in my desert island six pack.  Just my luck; it wasn’t being served because they were out.  I spoke briefly with Patrick Langlois, the Tap Room Manager, about the facility.  The small tasting room is a recent addition primarily at the request of metro officials that thought that small establishments like Great Divide might attract more people into the lower downtown area at different times of the day.  The simple, yet nicely appointed tap room offered a variety of the beers on tap in a warm, if not sterile atmosphere.  Langlois indicated that the brewery proper was fixing to move elsewhere and that the existing brewery would be used for smaller pilot or experimental batches or something like that.  It was a quick visit with a few samples, and I was off again.

I had the best intentions of dragging through Flying Dog Brewery, Breckenridge Brewery, Wynkoops and others right there in the downtown area, but dropped anchor at The Falling Rock Tap House where I met a couple of friends.  The beer there is always too good and too varied to rush through and before we knew it, hours had passed and forays elsewhere seemed unreasonable.  We attempted dinner at the Denver Chophouse, but this would have required an hour and a half wait.  Now if we could have burned that wait up over at the Falling Rock, it would have been a different Story.  We ended up eating at the Keg across the street.  Naturally, I asked the waiter that if the place was named The Keg, what awesome selections were on tap?  The  answer?  None.  Go figure.  We ate just the same and walked back to the Tap House in a blinding snow storm. 

 Because the two gents I had in my company where craft beer neophytes, I spent the evening slowly massaging their palates with increasingly flavorful beers.  None complained about anything and by the end of the night, Chimay Cinq Cents and some reasonably aggressive nationally recognized craft beer favorites were sliding back with ease. 

Due to family concerns the next day was fairly laid back.  I visited a national chain, The Yard House in The Park Meadows Mall on the final evening of my Denver tour.  This place boasted 150 beers on tap, and indeed there were.  My first disappointment was that although all 150 beers were listed on the menu, there were no descriptions.  Except for highly specialized beers, all were served in the standard industry pint.  There was very little fanfare about the beers and although the servers were reasonably well informed about what they were serving, I could tell this knowledge wasn’t borne of a passion  for the product but the need to excel in a job.  I managed to toss back five full beers that evening in rather quick order. The servers were attentive, if nothing else.  I got a quick tour of the keg room where the beer is warehoused and it was impressive indeed.  Restaurant Manager Joel Berman hauled me through.  Most interesting was the way in which a new keg replaced an old one.  The business end of the beer tap is pulled off the empty keg and plugged into a water tap, which purges the line.  When water begins to flow at the bar, with an over 100 foot run over the top of the establishment and down to the bar, the tap’s disconnected from the water supply and put on the new keg.  The tap is then opened again at the bar until fresh beer flows.  According to Berman, this reduces foaming and helps keep the beer fresh.  During my visit, I enjoyed a Kronnenbourg 1664b and a Barmen Pilsner (Coors), a very delicious, well done German style Pilsner that took a full seven-minute pour.  I also enjoyed Ska Buster Nut Brown, a Durango, Colorado beer with nice malt forwardness and fresh hop dosing and a Tommyknocker Jackwhacker Wheat, another local beer.  Notes were getting foggy by now.  I tried to finish the night with a Maredsous 8 from Belgium, but the beer was infected and a strong chlorophenolic/metallic flavor destroyed the beer’s legendary character. 

I challenged Berman concerning the establishments’ claim to have the most beers on tap in the world because I could easily cite a number of places with more.  He indicated that the chain came up with that number by adding all the different taps that all three establishments in the chain (Chicago, San Diego and Denver) had.  That’s cheating, so I instantly discounted it.  In all, it was a good visit, but somewhat perfunctory in nature and not very personal.  Still, I’d return just to same some more of the draught versions of beers I’ve tried in the bottle before but haven’t seen on tap yet. 

The trip to the Mile High City was great, but it was good to finally get on a plane and fly north to more familiar suds.  I clicked my mugs together three times and repeated “There’s no beer like home’s, there’s no beer like home’s, there’s no beer like home’s.” 

Dr Fermento Beer Calendar

02/10/08          Around Town                                       Midnight Sun Rondy Brew Available                             Open Hours            Pay As You Go

02/02/08          Kenai River Brewing Company             Single Hop Day Celebration                                                      Noon-5 PM     $25.00

02/05/08          Kinley’s restaurant and Pub                  Midnight Sun Seven Deadly Sins Dinner                                    6:00 PM      $70.00

02/08/08          Snow Goose Restaurant                       Fur Rondy Homebrew Comp. Entries Accptd                                 11:00 AM         $$ Per Entry

02/08/08          Midnight Sun Brewing Company           Fallen Angel Release at the Brewery                                         5 – 7 PM   Pay As You Go

03/22/08          Snow Goose Restaurant                       Fur Rondy Homebrew Competition Judging                                   10:00 AM         Free

02/15/08          Midnight Sun Brewing Company           Envy Imperial Pilsner re-release                                                5 – 7 PM   Pay As You Go

02/16/08          Tap Root Café                                    Ring of Fire Meadery Special Release                                       8:00 PM           Pay As You Go/Cover TBD)

02/16/08          Toronodo Pub (San Francisco)             Toronodo Barleywine Festival                                                   10:00 AM        Pay As You Go

02/17/08          Marriot Hotel, Oakland, Calif.              Celebrator Beer News 20^th Anniversary Party                           3:00 PM      $55.00

02/23/08          Café Amsterdam                                  Rondy Brew Firkin Night                                                          6:00 PM      Pay As You Go

03/28/08          Midnight Sun Brewing Company           Mars Planet Beer Available (Imperial Red IPA)

03/03/08          Tap Root Café                                     Flemish/Sour Beer Tasting                                                        5:30 PM      $$??

03/19/08          Snow Goose Restaurant                       Entries for 2008 Breakup Homebrew Competition Accepted            Noon               $$ Per Entry

03/22/08          Snow Goose Restaurant                       Breakup Homebrew Competition Judging                                 10:30 AM        Free

03/28/08          Midnight Sun Brewing Company           Planet Beer Mars Belgian Imperial Red IPA Release                 6:00 PM      Free

05/03/08          Chena Pump Campground (Fbx)          Zymurgist Borealis Nat. Homebrew Day/Big Beer Celeb.            Noon               Free