Originally when I started doing the Utah Beer Year in Review it could be done in one post. Well this aint one of those years. So much happened this year that it's gunna take a few days with as many posts to get it all out so here it is, Utah's biggest beer year ever!January: We began '09 with the return of an old friend. Back in early '06 Beamish & Crawford makers of Beamish Irish Stout quietly decided to pull the plug on Beamish exports to America. The company apparently saw the error of their ways and after a near three year hiatus, Beamish came back.
February: Boulevard Brewing out of Kansas City, entered the Salt Lake Market with two 4.0% beers and later with some of their higher abv smokestack series. Also, RedRock's award winning brew Rêve came back for it's second limited release. Tom "Divot" Smith, Squadron Commander and F-16 fighter pilot had been rallying for two years for Roosters to brew up a unique beer for the Rude Rams. Roosters listened and released their honorary beer Rude Ram Red. Feb rapped-up with the 15th annual United States Beer Tasting Championship. Uinta Brewing Co., King's Peak Porter was named the Rockies/Southwest "Regional Champion" in the porter category.
March: Brought North Coast Brewing's debut into the state. The Utah Senate's decided to go home early and not debate HB 349. This bill would have made it possible to get rid of Utah 4.0% draft limit. But with sad news came good news because Squatters debuted their new Hell's Keep Belgian style Golden Ale. And Roosters in Ogden offered up Hard Times Ale. A no-nonsense, no-frills, bare-bones brew to help craft brew lovers get through the tough economic times. Four+ released Hive, the Utah brewers Coop retained it's top 50 breweries status and of course HB51 passed the into law making Homebrewing in Utah legal.
April: Saw the Utah Chapter of Mother Against Drunk Driving go off the rails and abandon MADD's policies and Philosophies. While that crap was going on RedRock collaborated with New Belgium Brewery to make a Dandelion beer. RedRock also won three awards at the 16th annual Australian International Beer Awards Held in Melbourne, Australia. Wasatch Released two new summer beers. Twilight a 4.0% Kolsch and Summerbrau a 5.6% copper-hued Czech-style
pilsner. And we learned about Epic Brewing Utah's next generation brewery.
More to come. Cheers!
1 comment:
Oh man, don't remind me of the Boulevard release weekend. The Weasel poop was also released that day here. My brain still hurts remembering that night, the drunkest I'd been in quite awhile. 2009 kicked ass.
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