E-Malt.com News article: USA, CO: Denver area beer news digest

New Belgium Brewing's 10th year-round beer falls near the intersection of two growing craft beer trends — tart, subtle sours and lower-alcohol, flavorful "session" beers that go down easy.

The rollout of Snapshot Wheat, coming in February, is a bold move for the nation's third-largest independent craft brewery, Denver Post reported on 11 December.

The 5 percent alcohol-by-volume unfiltered wheat beer is actually a blend of two beers — one that is traditionally fermented and another fermented with lactobaccilus, giving it a tart punch.

It sounds an awful lot like a Berliner Weisse, a style that is getting a lot more attention from American craft brewers.

"For us, we were excited to get into something we think could be session-worthy, for sure," said Bryan Simpson, media relations director for the Fort Collins brewery. "We also wanted to play around with the idea of a Belgian influence with the implied tartness or sourness you have" from the lactobaccilus fermentation.

Simpson predicted the lighter sour profile will have wide appeal. The style is refreshing and the sour flavor does not dominate, as it does in New Belgium's beloved La Folie sour brown ale, he said.

The new beer will be available in just about every package at New Belgium's disposal — 12-ounce bottles and cans, 22-ounce bombers and on draft in all of its distribution markets.

Speaking of sour beers, local beer geeks welcomed the news that talented young brewer Troy Casey was leaving MillerCoors' AC Golden division to strike out on his own in the Roaring Fork Valley.

Casey plans to open Casey Brewing and Blending in the Carbondale or Glenwood Springs area next year.

He plans to brew fruity, wild ales similar to those he created for AC Golden along with saisons, and also try a lot of all-oak fermentation.

So about that "blending" part ... The stereotype is that large brewers use the practice to cut beer down, Casey said. That is not the kind of blending that will be done at the brewery bearing his name.

"I will be using the blending to take different beers aging in barrels that have their own unique flavors and blending them together to make something greater than the sum of its parts — to get flavors you will not be able to get in any other way," Casey said. "I would call myself a brewer forever, but I like to be in the cellar. That's where my passion is."

Casey is taking a risk opening a taproom in the mountains when he could sell a ton of beer on the Front Range. But he plans to bottle and distribute in metro Denver.

Denver's pioneering Wynkoop Brewing Co. has been trying to break free of how it is often stereotyped — as pretty middle of the road.

Now the state's first brewpub will get the space to prove it, with plans to renovate a basement area that has long housed the Impulse Theater comedy club into a barrel cellar and higher-end tasting room.

Head brewery Andy Brown said the renovation will allow the brewery to bring in foudres, towering oak barrels it will use to create sour beer.

"It's going to be really cool," he said. "It keeps me interested and challenged, and lets me make a lot more different styles of beer, which we are trying to do here. And sour beers are all the rage."

The work is scheduled to begin after the brewery takes over the space early next year and could be complete by May, Brown said.

Westminster Brewing Co. has won the race to become that Denver suburb's first independent craft brewery.

The 7-barrel production brewery in a small light industrial building celebrated its grand opening last weekend.

Greg Quinones, president of the company and one of the brewers, said to expect traditional styles alongside English-style cask ales.

Denver's Hogshead Brewery, which opened in 2012, has developed a devoted following by specializing in such beers, which are unfiltered, unpasteurized and served from the cask in which it is fermented without additional carbon dioxide pressure or nitrogen.
Quinones said the Westminster brewery will listen to customers in developing recipes and offer classes to introduce craft beer to newbies.

Finally, one of the most high-profile trademark disputes involving a Colorado brewery has ended.

Strange Brewing in Denver will stay Strange thanks to an agreement with Strange Brew Beer and Wine Making in Marlboro, MA.

The homebrew and wine shop alleged Strange Brewing violated its federal trademark, but the agreement that has yet to be finalized will allow the brewery to keep its name and focus on brewing beer.


13 December, 2013