Utah Brewery Map

Thursday, February 28, 2013

A Great One-Two Punch

A preview of Uinta's new Duo twelve pack for their cans. Thoughts? Two of my favorites!

Cheers!

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Vernal Brewing Co. Preview

Eastern Utah's newest brewery is making great progress. The Vernal Brewing Company is expected to open within the next couple of months, brewing and bottling beers as well as it's new family-friendly restaurant with patio seating.


A unique feature of the brewery will be the garden area, the brewery will grow its own hops, vegetables and fruits for the restaurant. VBC has also secured a liquor license (the brewery will have a full bar), allowing diners to be served in the restaurant. The beers they make will all be named after local landmarks or features, giving the Uintah Basin beers that residents can call their own.

Here are some early images of what you may see on VBC labels. Thanks to Beer Correspondent, Allen Parker for the info & above image.




Cheers!

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Stinger Cider

Local ciders are coming on strong! A few weeks ago we told you about a new cider coming out of Cache Valley called  CaCysir, from Slide Ridge Farms. Now, The Hive Winery has a two new offerings in the wings called Stinger & Stinger Dry. Stinger is still about two months away, they're still waiting on federal Label approval. We hope to have a review for you soon.

The Hive Winery reports they will have a first run of about 243 bottles of Stinger and 81 bottles of Stinger Dry. 

Cheers!

Monday, February 25, 2013

Uinta Birthday Suit Sour Brown

Last year to help celebrate Uinta Brewing's 19th Birthday, the brewery released Birthday Suit Sour Cherry Ale. This year Birthday Suit is back for Uinta's 20th, but this year it's a Brown Sour Ale.

This beer is said to have more balance than the previous version with more malt sweetness. It will go on sale today at the brewery (2/25/13). Call before making the trip. Can't wait to try this one!

Cheers!

Friday, February 22, 2013

New Beer Friday: 2/22/13

This weekend's storm may have us all on interlodge alert. If that's the case, it's a good thing that there are some great new beer options to help us get through our cabin fever.

Bohemian Brewery Dunkelweizen: Bohemian’s latest seasonal is a Dunkelweizen,
or dark wheat beer, brewed with yeast from the Bavarian monastery of Andechs. The banana and
clove characters of the yeast meld perfectly with the bready, sweet caramel of the wheat malts to create
this delicious wheat beer.

These Samuel Adams beers have been floating around for the last couple of weeks.

Samuel Adams Latitude 48 IPA 2013 - Mosaic: The nose is of  pine, tropical fruits &berries. The taste starts with some initial citrus notes then trabsition to a smack of pine and earth. Some nice caramel and toffee flavors round out the end and go well with the hops. Bitterness is moderate with a slightly sticky finish. A surprisingly nice IPA.

Samuel Adams Alpine Spring: The nose is of grass, lemon, & white pepper. The taste starts with an  herbal bitterness against some clean, almost honey-sweet malt. Light sulfur notes round out the finish. Quite a nice Zwiklebier.

Cheers!

Thursday, February 21, 2013

Phoenix Ale Brewery in Utah

Heads-up! I'm about to beat my session beer drum again. But this time I have a very good reason. Your probably sick of my "session ales are catching on around the country" schtick, but recent news about Deschutes releasing their session ale called River Ale that will be released on March 4th and our news for today reenforces my argument.

The Phoenix Ale Brewery, Arizona's newest brewery announced last week that it was shipping their Session IPA called Hoppy Valley to the Utah Market in the coming days.

I've never tried it, however it had better be good. Some of you may think Utah's low point beers are flavorless, but wait till you've tried them from breweries that have little experience making them. Seen that flavorless Full Sail session pale ale latley? me either. As soon as they hit the market we'll let you know. And if you see them first, spread the word!

Cheers!

Monday, February 18, 2013

Epic's Brainless on Raspberries


The Latest addition to Epic's Brainless Series is out! Brainless on Raspberries slipped on to shelves Friday morning and immediately started flying off the shelves.

Dark fuchsia in color, it has a nose of earthy raspberries. The flavor is similar. Starts out grainy and earthy. You definitely get the spices and esters of the base Belgian ale. Next comes the dry, subdued raspberry notes that have an almost vinous quality. It works well with the earthy and grainy notes. With all of this going on, hops are still potent enough to be detectible in the finish giving it a herbal-sulfur quality. Finishes with a mix of berry tannins and spicy esters. Alcohol is well hidden but sneaks up on you.

Depending on who you talk to it's either too sweet or not sweet enough. I guess that's the way it is with fruit beers. From my perspective I found this latest offering to be somewhat dry, which made it quite drinkable. Nice addition to the "Brainless line".

Here's what other local said. 

Cheers!


Friday, February 15, 2013

Birthday Suit: Sour Brown Ale

In celebration of their 20th Anniversary, Uinta Brewing Company introduces 20th Birthday Suit, a Sour Brown Ale.

Following the release of their 19th Birthday Suit in March of 2012, Uinta began research and development on this year's Sour Brown Ale.  Birthday Suit will be packaged for the first time on Valentine's Day and will be bottle conditioned before being released to the market.  Just in time for their 20th Birthday.

Birthday Suit is scheduled to hit shelves in Utah in late February and nationwide in mid March, 2013. Birthday Suit Sour Brown is a limited, single release brand, only 2,000 cases were produced for distribution. 

This bottled conditioned American Style Sour Brown Ale flaunts significant acidity balanced by flavorful Abbey and Chocolate malts and a modest amount of hops. A distinct tartness on the palate combines with notes of toffee and earthiness. 20th Birthday Suit Sour Brown Ale has an ABV of 7.4%.

Keeping with Uinta's Crooked Line tradition of supporting local art talent, Birthday Suit's label art was produced by Travis Bone, a local show print artist (Furturtle Show Prints).  Travis is also the creative force behind the art adorning Uinta's Cockeyed Cooper bottle as well as the label art from 2012's 19th Birthday Suit.

Cheers!

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Is the Zion Curtain Going Away, Again?

Looking over some of the liquor related bills before the legislature, we identified some language that appears to suggest that the state may be finally doing away with the dreaded and embarrassing restaurant barriers known as the "Zion Curtain".

The stricken language on page 26 of HB0228S01 appears to show that it's being removed from the current law. I'd like another pair of eyes to look it over, to see if my interpretation is correct.

Also, please take a look at H.B. 240. It appears to do away with the food requirement for pre-dinner drinks and adds the language "intent to buy food".  Looks like legislators are seeing the light.

Finally, there is proposed legislation that has not been published yet that may do away with the "no beer samplers" regulation, titled: Alcohol Beverage Control Act Sampling Amendments. We'll let you know what this bill says as soon as we see it published. 

While these modification appear to be good news, there's still the chance of a lot of bad coming before this legislative session ends. That's just the way it is.

Don't forget to buy your sweetie a beer today! If you don't have a sweetie then you can buy me a beer. Hell, even if you do have a sweetie, buy me a beer. Trust me, my wife won't mind. I think....

Thanks to Dave Cole for the info.

Cheers! 

Photo: New York Times 

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

State Set to Raise Beer/Alcohol Prices

In my anticipation of an annual ass smacking from legislators, I apparently misread the proposed bill. it does not appear to include "heavy beer" only a slight increase for "low point beer". My apologies.

I just found a proposed bill thats waiting for a committee hearing. HB-136 is designed to raise the cost of heavy beer sold by the department in an amount
not less than 64.5% above the landed case cost to the department. 

If you like Wine, Spirits or Flavored Malt Beverages the cost is proposed to go up no less than 90%.

Get on the horn to your Representatives  & Senators now, and start rattling their cages!

Here's a link to the full bill. 

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Pic of the Day

Looks like things are moving along. Thanks for the photo Dave!

Monday, February 11, 2013

RedRock/New Belgium Collaborate on Lips of Faith

Last October, RedRock Brewing pulled of a big win at the Great American Beer Festival, coming away with a Gold Medal for Paardebloem, a barrel aged ale made with dandelion greens, in the Experimental Beer category. We talk about Paardebloem often around here, but it's not wildly known that our favorite local, dandelion ale is and has always been a collaborative effort between RedRock & New Belgium Brewing.

Usually Chris McCombs, the plant manager at New Belgium Brewery comes to Salt Lake to take part in the brew, this year there's been a change. Due to Paardebloem's recent high praise at The Great American Beer Festival. New Belgium has decided to brew the collaboration Dandelion ale again and make it part of their Lips of Faith series. A few years back NB released a version of this ale but it was never bottled or barrel aged. This time it's due to go "big time".

"Beer Yogi", Kevin Templin - Asst. Brewer, Chris Harlin & Brewers Liaison,  Erika Palmer are in Fort Collins, Colorado this morning assisting in the creation of approximately 23,000 Hectoliters of Dandelion Ale.  NB will be releasing their version of Paardebloem on April 1st and RedRock will release with in two weeks of that date.

RedRock will reportedly get some of New Belgium's version for sale at their restaurants & some of RR's will go to Fort Collins. This ale never disappoints, we'll keep you in the loop as the dates get closer.

This will hopefully pave the way for New Belgium to enter the Utah Market. Hey, weirder things have happened...

Cheers!


Photo courtesy: B. Doran & SLUG Magazine
Chris McCombs & Kevin Templin (left), Chris Harlin (right) 

Friday, February 08, 2013

Fresh Cask Friday: KellerAlt

Today at Hoppers we have a single firkin for Fresh Cask Friday. 'Out of Bounds KellerAlt' is Brewer & Secret Agent Donovan Steele's traditional styled Altbier made with German Munich and pilsener malts. This particular version was, late hopped with German Hallertau Mittlefruh. Fermented initially at 58 F and left unfiltered for a secondary re-fermentation in the cask. It has a nice copper amber color, rich full flavor, 40+ IBU's, natural carbonation, and served directly from the cask.

Next week look for another version of the Altbier, this time with a bit of wood aging.


Last night's Barley's Angels Chocolate/Beer Pairing was a huge success. The all female event had ladies packed into the Beerhive's basement while wishful men sat sulking upstairs, cursing their damn y chromosomes. Some of us "tripods" muddled through as we had secret agents sneaking up samples of the cacao delights. Nice job on a great event ladies!

Cheers!

Tuesday, February 05, 2013

No More Beer Samplers

Take a look at that fine photo above. It's a ski (or part of one) that's been converted to display the fine beers that Squatters offers in a sampler form. Squatters has been offering this sampler of their low point beers since as a long as I can remember and to my knowledge it nor any of it's like counterparts around the state have cause any problems with consumers or the DABC.

But because of some tee teetotalers inability to pen a law that he couldn't possibly understand, this simple concept has become illegal because it was omitted in a piece of legislation that actually legalized the sale of wine samplers. That's right wine samplers are now legal but beer is not. Makes perfect sense to me.

This is what I'm talking about when it comes to making your voice heard. Bullshit like this will keep happening as long as Utah's free thinking adults keep hoping things will get better, without participating.

This new regulation may or may not go away, It's up to you. What are you going to do about?
More info here. http://m.sltrib.com/sltrib/mobile2/55686909-218/beer-samplers-utah-brew.html.csp

Monday, February 04, 2013

Uinta Canning Update



Amid the completion of their new 34,000 sq. ft. facility, Uinta Brewing Company welcomed a state-of-the-art canning line and a 600 bbl brite tank.  These pieces are the first of the brewing equipment to take residence in Uinta's new building, which sits immediately south of Uinta’s existing facility. 

The new canning line, manufactured in Germany by Krones AG, is able to fill and seal 400 cans per minute.  To introduce its new form of packaging, Uinta will can four mainstay brews:  Cutthroat Pale Ale, Hop Notch IPA, Wyld Organic Pale Ale, and Baba Organic Black Lager.  Canning these will not take from the brands’ traditional packaging outfit, they will continue to be available in the proprietary Compass Bottle, the novel design Uinta adopted as part of its major 2011 aesthetic revamp.  The Uinta team, comprised of outdoor enthusiasts, was eager to add a package that pairs well with exploration. Cans will allow Uinta product to join consumers on outdoor adventures, a reality that aligned with the heart of Uinta.  
Uinta's can art was designed to integrate smoothly into the current packaging.  Aside from some creative modifications, to help the bottle-to can transition, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.   And each can, like each bottle, is adorned with Uinta’s trademark compass, ensuring that you'll never get lost with a Uinta beer in hand.

With the installation and commissioning of the canning line scheduled for late February, Uinta hopes to get these cans rolling out in early March, 2013
Uinta has broadened its market and can be found in 24 states from coast-to-coast, and has even ventured to other countries around the world.