Looking for something to pair with the excruciating heat of summer? How about a frothy, cold, delicious craft beer? Whether you’re planning a car-camping excursion into the mountains, or an afternoon of day drinking at Wash Park, here are five best beers to enjoy for every occasion, courtesy of Thrillist.
New Wave
Ratio Beerworks River North
This RiNo brewery has slowly become a widespread Denver favorite, thanks to its consistently solid beers and killer taproom vibes. Back again for another summer release is New Wave, Ratio’s tart, low-ABV Berliner Weisse, and this year, it’s being released in bottles. Brewed with 300lbs of real strawberries per batch, the bright-pink, effervescent beer is “brewed with patio sessions in mind,” according to the brewery. Grab a bomber while you still can.
Heavy Melon
New Belgium Brewing Company Fort Collins
Between its rotating Lips of Faith releases, the Fat Tire 25th Anniversary mixer, and the annual Tour de Fat celebration, our friends over at New Belgium are staying busy this summer. Yet somehow, the brewery still managed to debut a new seasonal beer in Heavy Melon… and it’s a solid summer ale at that. Brewed with melon and lime peel, this crisp, refreshing beer is perfect for patio and summer nights.
Priscilla
Oskar Blues Brewing Company Longmont
Frequenters of the Tasty Weasel Tap Room, Oskar Blues’ tasting room in Longmont, will most likely be familiar with Priscilla. While it’s been on draft for a decade, this summer is the first time it’s being distributed in cans. Pouring a straw yellow with a bright nose, the light, effervescent witbier is a little fruity, a little citrusy, and a little tart. Be careful with this one. Thanks to its wildly drinkable characteristics, one beer can easily turn into three.
Alternating Currant
Little Machine Beer Jefferson Park
Little Machine has been slinging suds blocks from Mile High Stadium since opening last October. And while Alternating Currant has been on tap since day one, it’s making its official summer debut in 2016. Approachable and refreshing, this sessionable wild ale offers a distinct, fruity currant flavor paired with the perfect amount of bretty, funky goodness. Perfect for puckering on the brewery’s brand-new patio.
Black Project Wild Saison
Former Future Brewing Company Platt Park
The passion project of James Howat, the owner and brewmaster of Former Future Brewing Company, Black Project has racked up awards for their mixed-fermentation beers. Their latest, a draft-only wild yeast saison being released on July 1, features isolated, 100% coolship-caught yeast from Dreamland — the brewery’s golden sour ale. With notes of cloves, pepper, esters, and a hint of bubblegum, this dry finishing, bright saison is a perfect summer sipper. But be warned: The limited, small-batch deal will move quick.
Check out the rest of the best beer selections on Thrillist!
A recent Tenth Circuit Court case decision changes the rules on tips depending on if you take the tip credit or not. Our friends at The Colorado Restaurant Association are on top of the story but due to the complexity of this issue, we suggest you read the full story here before acting!
Summer movie hits are rolling in and so are thirsty patrons looking something fresh and new at the bar. Have some fun with this Summer’s movie themes and create cocktails inspired by feisty heroines, brooding heroes, aliens, and emojis.
While working in a restaurant sometimes requires you to interact with annoying customers, sometimes kicking people out is completely justified. Consider these seven reasons customers have been 86’d from restaurants as shared on a Reddit thread and through a Quora discussion.
As the craft beer industry continues to grow, so do the options available in the beer aisle. From tweaked traditional styles to completely new options, brewers are no longer limited to using traditional hops and barley and consumers can enjoy the flavors that appeal to their personal tastes.
That said, neither brewers nor consumers have an infinite capacity for more and more. So, where does that leave us?
It all comes down to knowing what the people want to drink!
While men are still the predominant beer drinkers, accounting for two-thirds of overall beer consumption, more and more women are growing partial to beer thanks to the craft sub-category.
With new offerings like hard ciders, root beers, sodas and seltzers, beer’s appeal has broadened to adult beverage drinkers who have historically opted for something other than a can of traditional lager.
In a Harris Poll survey conducted from Nov. 20-30, 2015, males responded with a higher preference for 75% of 37 different craft styles. A select group of varieties, however, were preferable among more women than men, seven of which are listed in the chart below.
Of these seven craft styles preferred by more women than men, six are among the top 20 growth performers.
Gender isn’t the only factor to consider when it comes to adult beverage popularity. Age and location impact preference as well.
A recent craft beer survey conducted by nielsen found that the most adventurous consumers, those whose style preferences are most varied, are between the ages of 35-44, while the least are those between the ages of 21-34.
There was common ground among all age groups, however: amber lager and pale ale were most preferred by all.
In terms of region, craft beer drinkers in the Midwest and West have the widest range of style preferences. However, while 50% of Midwesterners say amber lagers are among their favorite styles, 50% of Westerners list pale lager among their favorites.
As is most often the case, craft beer preferences are definitely varied, but there are also some consistent similarities. This goes to show that in the end, the key to success really is knowing the consumer inside and out.
Want more? Get all the insights about craft beer preference on nielsen →
As Big Beer creeps into town, locals want to change the lingo. Craft is dead. Now we drink Indie Beer.
The term Craft Beer may be in need of a makeover. Last week, the Union-Tribune reported that Bend, Oregon’s 10 Barrel Brewing Co. has proposed a 10,000-square-foot brewpub in East Village. In response, local beer industry podcasters have doubled down on a push to describe independently owned breweries as Indie Beer companies, rather than craft.
Not because 10 Barrel hails from Oregon but because in 2014 the company was purchased by AB InBev, the conglomerate responsible for one-third of the planet’s beer supply, including core brands Budweiser, Corona, and Stella Artois. It owns 10 Barrel brewpubs in Oregon and Idaho and recently announced plans for one in Denver.
The podcasters believe consumers who patronize 10 Barrel brewpubs mistakenly believe they are supporting small business rather than a global entity.
The Indie Beer designation (and social media hashtag) arose during a November 17 podcast on ThreeBZine.com, a blog devoted to local beer, music, and food, during a discussion in which podcasters Cody Thompson, Dustin Lothspeich, and Tom Pritchard decried the efforts of “Big Beer” to enter the craft beer marketplace.
“Is craft beer even a thing anymore, or is it just marketing?” asked Pritchard. “It’s been appropriated by corporations.”
Taking a cue from the concept of Indie Rock in the music industry, the trio settled on Indie Beer as a way to distinguish small, privately owned businesses.
ThreeBZine’s use of Indie Beer was quickly picked up by fellow podcasters Perfect Pour, out of Fresno, and SD BeerTalk. BeerTalk co-hosts Greg Homyak and Brian Beagle have been active in promoting the Indie Beer concept, locally and online.
“It immediately resonated with me as a craft beer drinker,” says Homyak, who points to the 10 Barrel brewpub as a prime example of the need for new terminology. “It is something that looks like Independent Beer and will sell itself as that, but in actuality it is not.”
The podcasters hope the term will encourage local beer fans to support small businesses like Monkey Paw Brewing, which sits just a block from the proposed 10 Barrel site. Monkey Paw owner Scot Blair also addressed the dilution of the term “craft” in a January newsletter sent to patrons of his South Park taproom Hamilton’s Tavern.
He declares “Craft is dead.”
Blair states that the encroachment of big beer is “making it impossible to not find new terms to define things that I do versus AB or giant restaurant groups,” and pledges, “We will continue to make top-shelf, award-winning, world-class indie beer for our beloved fans of micro brew.”
You’re in a bar, maybe celebrating the weekend or just blowing off some steam, but you’re not enjoying yourself because you’re getting the cold shoulder from the bartender. Maybe it’s them, but probably not. What’s more likely is that your etiquette is lacking, so what to do?
Well, if you want a drink, then DON’T…
1. Fail to have your money ready
We’re waiting on you. Everyone else is waiting on us. Therefore, by the Transitive Property of Equality, everyone is waiting on you. Rule #1: Have your stuff together. Not only will following Rule #1 get you served quicker in a bar, it’s a good general rule to adopt in life. All about efficiency, people.
2. Put pennies and nickels in the tip jar
We don’t want that crap in our pockets any more than you do. We don’t have anything smaller than quarters. Have you ever ordered a drink that cost $3.17?
3. Wave money
Oh, you’ve got a dollar! So does the guy next to you.
4. Give the ever-expanding drink order
You want a Bud. I go get it. I come back and now you want a Margarita. Okay, no prob. I come back, and (oh yeah!) now you want a shot of Tequila, too. You really could have told us this all at once. See Rule #1.
5. Say “make it strong!” or “put a lot of liquor in it”
Are you one of those rare people at bars who like their drinks “strong?” When you say this, it’s like you’re assuming I make weak drinks (which is insulting) and you’re assuming that I’ll stiffen this one up for my new best buddy, you. This is the best way to get a weak drink.
6. Yell out the bartender’s first name
There’s something unnerving about hearing your name called out, turning around and seeing a complete stranger. That’s one of the reasons strippers use stage names. Bartenders do too. Mine is Pixie.
7. Whistle. Just don’t.
You whistle at dogs, not people.
8. Assume we know you’re in the band
We know, we know, you’re gonna be really famous, but you’re not there yet, tiger. Tell us you’re in the band and which band you’re in…chances are we’ll have something to talk about. If you act like a pretentious ass, then we definitely won’t. Capiche?
9. Assume we know you. Period.
Unless you’ve followed the first “Do” rule below, we don’t remember you. You are one of a thousand faces for us, and when you point at an empty glass or a beer bottle that’s invariably facing away from us, your attempt at a shortcut backfires. Please just tell us what you want.
10. Apologize for sucking
Don’t apologize for not tipping. Acknowledging that you suck is not the same as not sucking. Oh, and don’t say “I’ll get ya next time.” We know all about you.
11. Be “The Microbrew Aficionado”
Usually a pseudo-hippy who can’t tip a quarter but can’t bring himself to drink “schwag,” and who has to sample some new berry-wheat-harvest-ale that he heard about at Burning Man. “Do you have the new Vernal-Equinox Special Welcome-Fest?” “Does Anyone?” Here’s your Newcastle. Go.
12. Assume soft drinks are free
Are they free at McDonald’s? Are they free at Wal-Mart? Are they free anywhere? I blame M.A.D.D. for this myth.
13. Ask me to charge your phone behind the bar
Every bartender is different about this, but if they’re busy no one wants to deal with your technology. Also, if you drink too much and leave your phone you’re going to have a bad morning. And no bartender wants you to have a bad morning.
The colors of Denver’s bursting restaurant scene shined brightly last night at the 2015 Chef and Brew Festival. The festival featured some of Colorado’s most prominent restaurants and breweries teaming up to form unique amalgamations of craft beer and fine food. From sour beers and ramen to pork belly and Gotlandsdrika, 21 local restaurants and breweries flexed their creative muscles to reinvent the art of food and drink pairing.
What made this event so unique was that it not only reflected the innovativeness of Colorado’s craft beer and food scenes, but also the daringness exhibited by the teams in pairing esoteric beer and exquisite food to accent the flavors of each.
Each restaurant offered both a savory and a sweet option, allowing for a variety of pairings with the breweries. The chefs and brewers flipped the conventional notion of food pairing on its head by meshing unlikely flavor profiles together, a stark contrast to the ever-so-predictable wine and cheese pairing.
While beer and food pairings are nothing new, Chef and Brew took the game to a whole new level by introducing uncommon approaches to highlighting taste. Darrell Jensen, Executive Chef of Samples World Bistro, exemplified this edgy experiment. Teaming up with the Great Divide Brewery, Jensen prepared a dashi-marinated shrimp lettuce wrap to pair with the brewery’s Titan IPA. It may sound like an odd pairing; a light and fresh dish with a hop-heavy IPA? But however odd it may seem, it worked! The hops accentuated the dashi broth in the shrimp while the crisp finish of the beer combined with the dish’s bib lettuce, pickles and carrot made for a truly delicious experience.
The pairing presented by Acorn and River North Brewery was the epitome of the night’s uniqueness, serving a chicken and pork belly ramen with the ‘Oud Bruin’ Belgian-style brown sour beer. Having won the contest last year, Chef Amos Watts and River North picked up where they left off by masterfully masking the dominant sour taste of the Oud Bruin with a hearty, savory ramen soup. Amos’ success in dismantling the structure of a sour beer with opposing, yet somehow complementary flavor profiles demonstrated the creativity illustrated at the event.
On tap were some of Denver’s most experimental and new-age beers. Jagged Mountain Brewery provided two of the most intriguing beers, a Swedish-style smoked-malt Gotlandsdrika called “Men Who Drink from Goats” and a Grizzly Peak session porter. Teaming up with Anthony Smith and CY Steak, Jagged Mountain accentuated Smith’s pork belly and arugula dish, delivering a powerful blow of lasting smoky richness when combined with the Gotlandsdrika.
The session porter, a prime example of the event’s innovative beer technique, reflected the dynamic world of Denver craft brewing by taking a traditionally heavy beer and transforming it into a light, low-alcohol-content session beer to be paired perfectly with Smith’s sweeter dessert.
The inventiveness displayed by all of the participating restaurants and breweries most definitely showcased the bountiful talent and enormous originality of Colorado’s food and brew scenes.
For me, the Chef and Brew Festival opened my eyes to the developing identity of Colorado’s food and beverage industry. With a vibrant craft brewing community rapidly taking root here in Colorado, the local restaurant industry is taking advantage and leveraging peoples’ propensity for unique beers by catering their tastes to match. Festivals such as this clearly demonstrate that this is what the future holds for the food and drink scene. As a Colorado resident, I am eager to see this trend continue and watch as the restaurant and brewing industries form a new and intertwined culture.
