12 Beers of Christmas- Celebration

And finally we must have a Christmas Celebration!  "Festive fresh hop holiday fun!"  I look forward to Sierra Nevada Celebration every year.  I just love fresh hop ales!  And to get one for Christmas, thank you Sierra Nevada, wonderful gift.  First brewed on my birth year, I knew this union was meant to be.  Piney aromas are followed by a slightly grassy bitterness, just how fresh hops should be.  Malts fade in the background to keep it crisp.  And the logo, this is the pretty close to the scene I woke up to this morning.  A wonderful snowy Christmas day in the mountains.  I hope that everyone had a fantastic Christmas with a fantastic company and brews!

Snowy mountain view from my front patio.  Merry Christmas!!

12 Beers of Christmas - Stone IPA

Another iconic beer/brewery, Stone IPA.  Not too much on the nose but it finishes with a nice citrusy hoppiness.   It's an easy drinker but be careful because at 6.9% this little treat can sneak up on you, especially in a bomber!  With minimal maltiness, I found it quite refreshing this snowy Christmas afternoon after a cross-country ski out my front door and some heavy snow shoveling.  Cheers!

12 Beers of Christmas- Ranger IPA

What is it about bikes and beers that go so well together?  This is a concept that I will wrap my head around and spew out here later.  But when you think of bikes and beers, you have to think of New Belgium brewery, their iconic Fat Tire and the New Belgium cruiser.  I am not a fan of overly malty beers like Fat Tire and I am not on the Sour Beer bandwagon (yet), which seems to be their focus at the moment, so when I go for a New Belgium beer, it's going to be a Ranger.  I usually like to pour my beers into a glass so I can first of all see the color and second smell the hop aroma.  Ranger however, is a good bottle drinking beer, which is handy for after a ride when glasses aren't readily available.  The hop aroma leaves much to be desired.  Smells a little skunky old socky.  It is however balanced with a nice bitterness.  So out of a bottle it can be quite refreshing which serves it well as an after biking re-hydrating pleasure and you can feel okay about not missing out on the aromas.

12 Beers of Christmas - Hop Strike Black IPA

I don't know how everyone feels about Black IPA's.  Seems like a paradox that is greatly disputed among the craft brew world.  IPAs are copper with loads of malt and hops, not dark and roasty.  Depending on the BIPA, it can come close to resembling a porter.  I have heard some describe them as the "new world porter".  I am still exploring this style as are many breweries, but I think the Tommyknocker BIPA fits the bill (for now).  It's got hops on the nose and up front the hops lend a little sourness but it finishes with a roasty dryness.  I look forward to further BIPA explorations as more enter the market.

12 Beers of Christmas - Modus Hoperandi

The first time I had a Modus Hoperandi from Ska Brewing. I thought it tasted like hop water. No balance just big hops. Where did the malt go? This was a couple years ago, so I don't know if my tastes changed or their recipe, but these days I can enjoy a Modus. I still find the bitterness a little harsh compared to most but that doesn't ruin it for me. Another great canned camping beer. And I love the word play taken from modus operandi- approximately translated as "method of operation". What would you claim as Ska's M.O. ?

12 Beers of Christmas - Mountain Livin' Pale Ale

You can't live in the mountains without having some Mountain Livin' Pale Ale from Crazy Mountain Brewery. I just discovered this beer over the summer while I was in the height of my climbing 14er's frenzy, which I found quite appropriate. Of course any beers that come in cans are worthy of mountain summits. I had my first can at the top of Handies Peak and I was immediately intrigued. There was something different about this beer, if you will, a “crazy” malt characteristic that I can't quite put my finger on. I also love that my two favorite hops of the year, simcoe and citra, shine through. Shortly after that summit I had the pleasure of visiting the brewery in Edward, Co during peach season, where I picked up a growler of their seasonal peach. There was that malt again, but this time it was backed ever so lightly by a subtle peachyness. Incredible, and I don't usually like fruit beers. If you didn't already feel good about this beer, or if you did you can feel doubly good about it, because 1% of the proceeds go to Vail Mountain Rescue. Drinking beer and saving lives, love it, and look forward to my next visit.

12 Beers of Christmas- Cutthroat Porter

I felt like I should sneak some dark beers into my list.  While I almost exclusively drink Pale Ales or IPAs, I still love a nice roasty dark beer on occasion.  When I started drinking craft beer it was almost exclusively stouts.  I think this is a common starting point for most people.  A noob can appreciate that beer can be associated with coffee and chocolate, yum, instead of skunky hops, yuck!  Then as I tried different beers and expanded my brewing I grew an appreciation for hops.  So I come back to this beer from time to time because it was one that I liked in the early years of my beer journey.  Revisiting the Cutthroat Porter now I find it to be quite sour, but I am known to be sensitive to sour flavors in beers.  When I brew a porter or stout I like a lot of roasted malt.  So while I will always have fond memories of this beer, and you have to admit the logo is awesome, I don't pick up a six-pack all that often.

12 Beers of Christmas- Steel Toe Stout

When the cold weather arrives it's time for stouts.  I usually like my stouts nice and roasty but the Steel Toe Stout tickled my taste buds.  A bit on the sweeter side it is just delicious with desert, everyone knows stouts are desert beers.  Also on the low end of carbonation, as stouts should be, you can see it has little head.  Looks like a flat cola.  Milk stouts are usually brewed with lactose or milk sugar, Steel Toe Stout happens to use milk sugar and according to Ska "It's as though a cow stared into the face of God and as God told it the meaning of life we grabbed its udders and squeezed out a bucket:.  Well okay then.

12 Beers of Christmas - Deviant Dale's

Watching the Nightmare Before Christmas and drinking a Deviant Dales just seemed fitting. This is a great occasional beer for me. Deviant Dale's is Oskar Blues IPA that clocks in at 8.0%. And let me tell you, after drinking one of these tall boys, you know it! A while back I had the opportunity to have a head to head taster with Heady Topper, and east coast fav that I thought mostly closely matched a Deviant, and I liked the Deviant better. Heady topper was most definitely hop heady, but in an engine oily kind of way. Dales has a nice maltyness but doesn't have the hops to cover the alcohol kick at the end.

12 Beers of Christmas- Sierra Nevada Pale Ale

Who hasn't had a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale?  I believe it is the founding father of what I strive for in a hoppy pale ale.  It is the quintessential craft beer drinkers thirst quenching beer.  When you need more than just water to rehydrate, you grab a pale ale.  If there is a beer that I would say just tastes like beer, this would be it.  There is nothing about the taste or aroma that blows you away, no complex flavors to analyze, you just drink it and are satisfied.  There was a time when I would have considered my refrigerator empty if it didn't contain this pale ale as my any occasion beer.

When I toured breweries around San Diego a couple years ago, I couldn't believe the wide range of variety the term pale ale encompassed.  The majority of the time I was sadly disappointed by the lack of flavor and would have classified most as a blonde at best.  And more shockingly because California is the home of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale.  

Someday I look forward to visiting this inspiring brewery, stand in the field of barley and stroll along the estate hop bines. 

12 Beers of Christmas- Dale's Pale Ale

I'm pretty sure this was the first craft beer I ever had in a can.  I wish I could remember the occasion, but it instantly became one of my favorites.  I'm also pretty sure this beer paved the way for craft beer canning.  Which also made it instantly one of my favorites.  For a long time living in New Mexico, Dale's Pale Ale was a novelty that I couldn't get everywhere, so I would pick up a palate every chance I could.  The difference was the malty sweet finished that followed the light hoppy aroma.  Now with the choices I have available and maybe a change in palate, I still enjoy a good Dale's from time to time but the sweet finish is now a limiting factor.  No doubt though, this is "A huge voluminously hopped mutha of a pale ale".

12 Beers of Christmas- Bridal Veil Rye Pale Ale

This is my favorite go-to beer at the moment.  It's local, it's canned and it's delicious!  I was so excited when I heard that Telluride was getting a new brewery.  I had been vacationing in Telluride for a couple years and was always surprised how such a hip little tourist town didn't have a great brewery.  Of course there is Smugglers, but I was never really impressed.  And I came to learn that I was probably not impressed because the brewer, Chris Fish, had lost his enthusiasm for making Smugglers beer, He was looking to start his own brewery, Telluride Brewing Co.  This beer just nails it for me as a great camping/hiking beer.  It's hoppy, but not so much that it needs a lot of malt to balance it out.  The rye malt adds a nice crispness that makes it refreshing after summiting a 14er or just to quench your thirst on a dry high desert/ high mountain day.  Plus, it comes in cans.  I will venture down this tangent later, but can I just say now, that I totally love that canning craft beer is taking off!  The Rye PA is not all that Telluride brewing has to offer.  I don't think I have had a beer of theirs that I don't like.  Recently I even made a special trip to get a growler of their fresh hop IPA made with local hops.  With a new canning system in place, I am looking forward to the next addition to their canned beer line-up which should be the Face Down Brown.  Will probably also be experiencing some face down moments on the mountain soon, but not too worry, good beer is now near!

OREgasmic Ale

"Dedicated to Farmers and Fermenters"  That is just awesome!  I love how breweries like Rogue and Sierra Nevada are doing this whole GYO (grow your own) and "estate grown" thing.  Being able to market their beers as locally grown gives them an edge in the craft beer market, but for me it makes me feel like they care more too.  It's not just about the beer it's about the whole process from seed to sip.  I grow my own food when I can and try to buy local and organic because I like to know where my food comes from and that it wasn't grown with chemicals and genetic modifications.  I love that now I can carry that principal to my beer selections.  The OREgasmic Ale is brewed with 100% Oregon ingredients, no chemicals, preservatives or additives.  As far as the taste, nice and hoppy with the right amount of malt to balance it out.  What makes it even better is when I daze off, smell the aroma and imagine of a Chateau lined with hop bined trellises, then I take a sip and I can almost feel the breeze in my hair and see the barley gently rippling under the warm sun.  And since it comes in a bomber, this is an orgasm that I can enjoy for a while ;) 

2 Rascals Brewery

After a day of doing mad jumps and wheelies out on the trails, a girl just needs a nice cold beer.  I, however, wouldn't know how that feels.  But I do like a nice craft beer to calm my nerves after gripping for dear life going quite slow and doing very small hills.  But either way, 2 Rascals is just down the road.  They opened a few months ago and it has been fun to see their beer list expand
 as they grow into big batch brewing. 

Off main street of Montrose, CO in an area of it's own, the brewery has transformed an old brick building.  Inside, the brick walls are complemented by rustic wood floors and a sealed cement bar top.  Belly up and try one of their 6 beers on tap.  Most recently a Scottish, Brown, Amber, IPA, Stout and Wheat all brewed with one house yeast strain.  I'm looking forward to trying a Golden Ale on my next visit.  The brewery set back a bit next to the bar, has old dairy equipment for the mash tun.  Nice way to save some cash and reduce reuse.  They have complimentary popcorn but no food.  No problem though, if you're hungry, just have something delivered.

This place has loads of potential.  Can't wait until they jump on the canning bandwagon down the road so maybe I can take a can of 2 Rascals for before my ride.  Mad jumps and wheelies!

http://www.tworascalsbrewing.com/

The Colorado Boy- My local watering hole

If you're coming from the east you have either just come from, or have been driving toward the magnificent San Juan range of the Rockies.   When you turn to drive through Ridgway over the bridge that spans the Uncompaghre River you'll see the huge trees that shade a grassy lawn and children's park.  Along the dirt road that boarders the park you may notice the True Grit Cafe and start to be transformed back to an old John Wayne Western.

The Colorado Boy is situated in the heart of this western movie set in the mountains.  If you're not paying attention you could pass through this small town without notice.  The brewery is on the next dirt road off the main drag in a building that once was a brothel and pretty rough bar.  Folks in town will tell you of a time when cowboys would ride up on horse back and most people would keep their distance from the frequent bar fights.  You wouldn't know it now looking at the quaint little brewery that occupies the corner.  When you walk into the brewery you may think you have just entered a small pub in Britain with it's wood finishing and warm colors.

Take a seat a one of the few tables that line the wall or belly up to the bar and you'll see the beer list of usually about 4 beers on CO2 and 1 on cask.  Typically you'll find a blond, red, pale ale and IPA, all nice and malty with light hops in a more traditional British style.  The brewery part of the pub is open so patrons can observe the 7 barrel system while enjoying a pint. If it's a nice day you can sit outside at a picnic table and view the pinnacles of the Cimarron Range.

The first time I visited this brewery, two years ago before moving here, the "cuisine" consisted of complimentary popcorn and paninis.  Since then, the popcorn machine has died and the menu converted to gourmet pizzas.  I have to admit the pizzas are amazing but the day the popcorn machine died, I wanted to weep.  Don't plan on stopping for lunch because as simplicity is the key here, modest space, menu and hours apply.  They are only open from 4-9pm Tuesday- Sunday.


http://www.coloradoboy.com/Home_Page.html