Can you feel the chill in the air? In NYC the leaves have fallen and snow is in the forecast – it’s Stout season. Stout season is wonderful how that dark beer you avoided in the hot months, suddenly becomes the brew you reach for to warm you up. Traditionally, stouts should be served at room temperature – but depending on how lazy your landlord is… room temperature can vary drastically. This week we try Left Hand Brewing Company‘s Imperial Stout – Wake Up Dead. Left Hand is a favorite (see Milk Stout below) and recently featured on hashtag battles representing the Denver Broncos. They are a favorite because the quality brews they have and continue to impress with Sawtooth on Nitro and the Fade to Black series. Winter! Dark Brews! Beer!
Our Beer Friends Thanksgiving Advice Beer Buying Extravaganza (working title) continues! Today we look at another delicious and Colorado based brew – Upslope IPA. Upslope is an up-and-coming brewery from Boulder, Colorado with 4 current styles to date (IPA, Pale Ale, Craft Lager, Brown) and a focus on the environment. Today we join in the Thanksgiving spirit by being thankful for Untappd and Greg Avola – which joins us on this review.
We’re back after technical difficulties (Brad was really lazy and couldn’t get off the couch) and have only three days until Thanksgiving! While the Beer Friends are thankful for beer, we would also like to be your go-to blog for thanksgiving beers. Whether it be rare and impressive beers that you can elevate your status to official “Beer Geek” around your friends or just some really good booze that has mom and dad worried and looking up numbers for AA – we’ve got you covered.
Today is a Beer Geek status beer – but not really hard to find if you live in Colorado or surrounding states. Odell Brewing Company is out of Fort Collins, Colorado and been brewing delicious beer while New Belgium gets most of the love. However – once people get a taste that usually all changes and while the fancy factory has reservation times and silly follies – Odell is brewing delicious beer with a laid back brewpub and parties every weekend. Today we review Myrcenary 2xIPA – which features the essential oils of the hop cone with a citrusy punch.
Check back often for more beer buying suggestions this week – the true beer geek would be a little nervous about what beer to drink on Thanksgiving – meanwhile the turkey is burnt and stuffing is ruined… it can still be a good day.
In the spirit of competition, Beer Friends would like to invite everyone to our second season of NFL hashtag battles! Using hashtagbattle.com we will pit two breweries against each other when their NFL counterparts are facing off on the gridiron. Are you ready for some football? And drinking? And #hashtag battle?!?!?!
What’s a hashtag battle? When you’re drinking a beer of a brewery competing in the battle, throw a #hashtag of the brewery and tweet it (or setup your foursquare or untappd to push to tweet and include the #hashtag) and we’ll use hashtagbattle.com to declare a winner after the Monday Night football game on ESPN. Support your team, support your beer, drink local and hashtag battle!
Week Five – Denver Broncos at New England Patriots (#lefthandbeer vs #samadamsbeer)
This week we return to New Belgium for a favorite style of ours, IPA. New Belgium produced Ranger IPA in February of 2010 and has gotten rave reviews ever since. Although New Belgium typically has a Belgian influence, Ranger IPA is a pretty big IPA at 6.5% and 70 IBU‘s. Ranger! IPA! Beer!
Ah New Belgium, probably the biggest brewery that isn’t in New York City. Well the Beer Friends turned out to be pretty resourceful and have been able to review a few beers (Fat Tire – Belgo – Dig) and today we check out 1554, an enlightened black ale. 1554 is a Belgian black ale that was a test and see project (darn, have to do a bunch of in-house tasting!) that started in 1997 and was good enough that it’s a year round today. This rounds out the Amber (Fat Tire), Belgian IPA (Belgo), Spring (Dig) and Black Ale of styles we tried from New Belgium – so far… Belgium! Black Ales! Roasted Malts!
Growing up in Colorado Springs I was exposed to a lot of good beer. New Belgium, Left Hand, Odells were all staples in my fridge and I thought that was pretty impressive. Today the scene has changed quite a bit. Great Divide and Breckenridge are found in every bar, and Upslope and Bristol Brewing Co are on the rise. On the Beer Friends Colorado Brewery Tour we came upon a up and coming microbrewery called Equinox and really enjoyed their stuff. Recently Equinox has been playing nice with the big boy neighbors New Belgium and Odell and found their place among the Fort Collins brew scene. Enter Colorado Springs beer scene and Trinity Brewing Company. Trinity, like Avery Brewing Company in Boulder, is somewhat hidden in a industrial park but a gem when you find it. I was able to find a spot at the bar and ordered the sampler of 6 of their brews including the first day release GOPrisais. 9 dollars for 6 beers and a few chunks of cheese was well worth it. Being the beer journalist that I am, I struck up a conversation with Kirk behind the bar and found out the skinny on Trinity Brewing Company. (more…)
Today is the third in the series of the New Belgium Reviews (Dig – Belgo). New Belgium has recently announced a new $175 million dollar brewery in Asheville, NC and the Beer Friends are terribly excited about it – so we decided to find and review some of their brews to get the East Coast (mainly New England and NYC Area) ready! Fat Tire is certainly the most popular brew from New Belgium and the name was inspired from the “fat tires” on the mountain bike that the founder Jeff Lebesch rode through European village on his career-inspiring beer tour. History! Colorado Beer Tour! Expansion for Delicious Beer!
You know what makes this a Good Friday? Another review from the Beer Friends! We return to our New Belgium Series with Belgo, a Belgian style IPA. This is part of the Explore Series which also features favorites like Ranger IPA and the new Shift (Pale Lager). This week Greg Avola from Untappd joins us again – giving great insight and fitting in nicely at “the table”. If you are interested in joining us at the table email us and we’ll see what we can do – we’re always looking for new (beer) friends! Fort Collins! Belgian beers (Thank God Phil wasn’t here…)! New Friends!
New Belgium is a legendary brewery on the East Coast. We’ve all met that friend that grew up out West and Fat Tire was more available than Sierra Nevada – or have that East Coast buddy that went to Vegas on a bachelor weekend and came back telling of a magical beer… Growing up in Colorado, I didn’t know what I had until it was gone. By the power of motor vehicles and some well planned traveling – the Beer Friends were able to get their hands on some of the New Belgium line for samples. This week we review Dig the spring seasonal offering taking the place of Mighty Arrow, and this Beer Friend likes the change. Enjoy this review in our New Belgium series (yeah we bought a couple six-packs back!) Beer Road Trip! New Belgium! Spring!
dingerc
Brad
Corporate Kerouac
Phil
