Pioneer Day for Some. Pie & Beer Day for Us!

Pioneer Day in Utah is a state holiday that takes place on July 24 each year to commemorate the entry of Brigham Young and his Mormon pioneers into Utah’s Salt Lake Valley in 1847. It was a difficult journey, many died and it's a feat that definitely deserves some recognition.

Some praise Pioneer Day more than others. If your part of that culture (Mormon) you likely consider it one of the more important holidays of the year. If not? Well your likely a minority thinker in our state.

About a decade ago some non-Mormons coined the phrase "Pie and Beer Day' be cause it sounds like Pioneer Day and it also contains two things all (mostly all) counter culture Utahans hold dear, pie and beer. The term quickly caught on and has now turned into a legitimate, counter Pioneer Day movement. It's not meant to be be offensive to Mormons it's more of a "Festivus for the Rest of Us" - something for us "normal' folk to do while we have this odd day off.

There are many private Pie and Beer Day gatherings around the state, if your looking for one but don't have a clan to celebrate with, we have a great option to help you rejoice. The Beer Bar, Salt Lake's newest craft beer hot spot is throwing a Pie and Beer Day bash on Thursday July 24th from 3pm - 5pm. Craft beer and pies from such great eateries such as Carlucci's, Copper Onion, Eva Boulangerie & Bakery, Tulie Bakery, Cafe Rio and Pago will be offered with a specialized beer pairing from the Beer Bar's own Kyle Trammell.

The cost is just $15 and proceeds go to help 90.9FM KRCL. The Beer Bar is located at 161e. 200s. in Salt Lake. Hope to see you there!

Also, former Uinta brewers and current Tenaya Creek Brewing owner, Tim Etter will be featured on this weeks episode of Brew Dogs. If your not familiar with Brew Dogs, it's a TV program that's currently on the Esquire Network that follows the owners of Scotland's Brewdog Brewery as they tour American cities looking to brew extreme beers in unconventional ways. Tim's episode (Las Vegas) has to do with making the world's most expensive beer. New Episodes air Wednesdays at 8pm. Check your local TV provider for channel info. Tenaya Creek's Beers are currently available at the Beerhive and Bayou.

Cheers!

New Beer Friday 11/1/13

Tenaya Creek - God of Thunder Baltic Porter: Nice nose full of espresso, roasted malts, chocolate and dark fruits.The taste is starts with roasted malts and dark fruits. Coffee notes come next with a nutty toffee end. Finishes smooth with chocolatle and a hint of booze. A nice, full bodied Porter. @Beerhive

Firestone Walker - Velvet Mirkin Bourbon Stout: Chocolate, The nose has dark fruits, but bourbon is most prevalent. The taste starts with chocolate and espresso, nice bourbon and oak characters come through next. with a finish that is surprisingly dry. This is not a big boozzy Impy Stout, so adjust you perceptions. Firestone Walker really know their barrel aging- a must try! @BeerHive

Deschutes - Black Butte XXV (25th Birthday Reserve):  The nose is of black currants, tart berries with a healthy doses of dark chocolate, coffee and bourbon. The taste starts with dark chocolates, pine bitterness and some tartness. Roasted notes of coffee come next with bourbon, black currants, dark fruits and rich chocolate. The finish is a bit boozy with a lingering tartness. @DABC - Bayou- Beerhive


Bear Republic - Café Racer 15 IIPA:  Nose is big with grapefruit, pine and big citra hops. Mild bready malt is beneath. The taste starts with juicy grapefruit and tropical hops. Spicy dankness and pine follows up in the middle. Bready briefly, then a nice dry, crisp resinous finish. Damn yummy! @ Beerhive - Bayou

John Smith's Extra Smooth Ale: The nitro can produces a finely foamed darkish ale. The nose was of faint malt, grain and dough. The taste has toasty malt with some light caramel followed by a mild, floral hop flavor. Leaves just a hint of bitterness on the tongue. @ Grocery (I saw it at Harmon's)

For Firkin Friday @ the Bayou, Hoppers presents Rockwell's Fireside Porter. It's full of smooth chocolate and dark crystal malt flavors with a light hop finish, cask refermented with real maple syrup and with lightly toasted American Oak.

Cheers!

New Beer Friday 4/19/13

 
Tenaya Creek Imperial Stout: The nose is of dark roasted malt, cocoa, and dark fruits. The taste is similar with a medium coffee bitterness cocoa & liquorice. A nice Impy that is tasty and quite smooth.



Tenaya Creek Red Ryder: Toasty ye is up front. Its spicey & peppery. Vanilla, cola and grass come next with a  lemony bitter finish. Mild lingering caramel and bitterness. As it warms, it takes on a raisin bread character that's actually quite excellent.

Lagunitas Undercover Investigation Shutdown: The taste starts out with bready and sweet caramel malts. There is also a sugariness. After that it becomes all about the hops. very strong on the grapefruit, pine, orange, and just a touch of pineapple. the alcohol comes through, but isnt too strong.


All are at the Beerhive

Cheers!

New Beer & Fresh Cask Friday! 11/30/12

Today's new offerings cover the flavor spectrum. There should be something out there for every taste.

 Tenaya Creek Hauling Oats Oatmeal Stout : The nose has chococlate and esspresso notes with hints of oatmeal. The taste starts rich and malty with licorice, chocolate and coffee. The hops provide tobacco notes  mid palate, as it finishes with slightly smokey and woody. A nice oatmeal stout with a great name! @ Beerhive

Tenaya Creek Oktoberfest Lager :  The nose toasty & herbal. The taste starts with vanilla sweet malts, that balance well with cracker dry grains. The end is full of spicy, peppery & resinous hops. The finish is bready and dry. A much dryer & hoppier interpretation on the style. Quite tasty. @ Beerhive

Lagunitas Brown Shugga : The nose is sweet with brown sugar, toffee & piney/grapefruit hops. The flavor starts sweet and sugary with lots of bitter pine and grapefruit hops. Alcohol comes next with a big toasty bread and caramel finish. A very nice, hoppy brown ale. @ Bayou & Beerhive

Epic Blue Law Porter : This one is described as This is a medium-bodied porter to which we added blackberry puree at the end of primary fermentation and finished it with spruce tip extract harvested from Blue Spruce trees found on the grounds of Utah's State Capitol building.  It has a roasting profile with a fruity tartness and an aftertaste of resinous spruce. @ Epic, Bayou, Beerhive

Wasatch GhostRider White IPA is finally for sale! Pours a cloudy, light straw color with a nice sudsy white cap. The nose is full of citrus with hints of wheat and coriander. The beginning of each sip starts out like a wheat beer with notes of biscuit, coriander, lemongrass, and orange peel. Mid palate big citrusy tangerine hops "pop" adding a bit of bitterness to the back of the tongue. Swallowing the beer releases more of the soft and grainy wheat flavors with an emphasis on coriander & cloves in the finish. 6.0% ABV in 12 oz. bottles. Wide release.

Returning Favorites :
Sierra Nevada Celebration @ Beerhive & DABC

We also have Fresh Cask Friday! This evening at 5pm there will be a new version of Face Plant Wheat. An old German-styled amber hefeweizen. Made with dark wheat malt and caramel wheat malt. It has a nice yeast aroma and flavors of banana and light holiday spice and banana nut bread. Served in a large curvy .'sexy' wiessbier glass. Some of this beer went into firkins for this today's Fresh Friday's casks. Casks: one has lemon peel, orange peel and a small amount dry hops. The second has Face Plant with oak. Oak lending a nutty vanilla and toasted wood flavor. @ Hoppers

Cheers!

The Beer Pipeline

Admit it... you tolerate my B.S. because of that whole "beer pipeline" thing we have going on here. It's the promise of new beer that keeps you coming back. I am your bitch. Today I hope the bitch doesn't dissapoint.

First there's Epic's Pro-Am Scotch Ale (under Festdevious #5). This beer was brewed with local award winning homebrewer Mike Hahn. Mike's Scotch will be entered into the Great American Beer Festivals Pro/Am Competition.

Pours a nice burnt copper/orange color with a thick two fingered white head. The nose is of caramel, bread, citrus, pine, smoke and some whiskey notes. The taste starts smooth and malty with a nice toffee and nutty maltiness. Next come notes of smoke and whiskey. The finish has some lingering toffee. @ Epic, Bayou, Beerhive, Whever Epic beers are sold (soon).

Las Vegas' Tenaya Creek brewery was founded by ex Utahn/Uinta Brewer Tim Etter. Since entering the market last March their beers have only been available at the Beerhive. Now the Bayou has them as well. Look for Hop Ride India Pale Ale, Calico Brown Ale & Tandem Double India Pale Ale (limited release).

Cheers!

New Beer Friday 8/12/11

Today, here on the Wasatch Front we are just lousy with new and long time absent beers. So let's get to it!

Jolly Pumpkin Bam Bière: This starts with a great balance between old leather and hay. Straw, wheat and a little yeast is also present. Finishes with notes of clove and grass. Light in body with high carbonation, this is drying and mildly spicy on the finish. @Bayou

Jolly Pumpkin Calabaza Blanca: Starts with moderately tart orange and lemon with some mustiness. Wheat and black pepper join next with a dry citrus & coriander finish. The alcohol is well hidden. This is fairly dry for a Witbier, which really makes it shine. @Bayou

Serafijn Belgian Pale Ale: Starts with sweet apple and spice. Dry noble hops, phenols, and melon come next with herbal and mineral notes in the end. Somewhat dry in the finish. @Bayou

Drie Fonteinen Oude Geuze: Very complex flavor profile, fruity sourness followed by a little bit of funk and finishes off very dry. I really like the dryness of this beer. @Bayou

Tenaya Creek Tandem Double IPA: The taste starts with mild grapefruit citrus, tea, soft bitterness. Faint pine, and malt come next with florals and toasted in the finish. @Beerhive

Also congrats to Uinta on winning medals in New Zealand at a recent beer competition. Labyrinth won a silver in the stouts category and Cockeyed Cooper won bronze in the barrel aged category. Hip! Hip!

Cheers!

Tenaya Creek Brewing

There are some new beers available to you today. They're from a small Las Vegas brewery called Tenaya Creek. These new beer may be from Vegas but their beginnings were born in Utah.

Let's dial the Wayback Machine to the late eighties. The location? The University of Utah. Tim Etter, an average, everyday guy is introduced to homebrewing. This man's commitment to this once small hobby of making beer in a tiny apartment would soon blossom into a full time career.

When Tim finished his time at the "U", he moved on to attended UC Davis in Northern California to study Fermentation Science. Upon returning to Salt Lake, he aligned himself with a little known start-up brewery called Uinta Brewing Company. Tim excelled at Uinta, but on a trip to the place of his birth (Las Vegas) Tim would discover that the folks in the desert were in desperate need of fresh handcrafted suds.

Fast forward to early 1999, Tenaya Creek Brewing Company was established and Sin City has been a much better place ever since.

Unless you've been to Vegas you may have never tried Tenaya Creek's beer. However, recently Tim and his family purchased a bottling line, now Tenaya Creek is out of Nevada and Salt Lake is one of the first markets outside of Vegas to benefit from the Etter's love of beer.

There are three beers currently available in Salt Lake. All are currently only at the Beerhive.

The first is Old Jackalope Barleywine. This is the only one I've tried. Citrus and Piney nose with a ton of sticky malts. The taste starts with toffee and caramel. Pine and tobacco come next with a slight alcohol burn. The end is sweet with an aggressively hoppiness in the finish.

Next is Nut Brown Ale. Light brown in color, this ale is quite malty while the hop profile is generally low. 5.6% abv.

The final beer is Hop Ride IPA. This beer is brewed using 2-Row, wheat, Vienna and caramel malts and is hopped with Summit?s for bittering and flavor and Ahtanum for aroma. This IPA was also dry-hopped, to give a big citrus and spicy aroma, with Ahtanum, Challenger and Chinook hops. 7.2% abv.

It's nice when things can come full circle.... don't ya think?

Cheers!