Some Damn Fine Beers!

Saturdays brief post pretty much said it all. Utah's participants at the 2010 Great American Beer Festival had another outstanding showing at the beer competition.

I guess you kinda had to be there. When the Utah Brewers Cooperative was named Mid-Size Brewing Company of the Year, the crowd gasped at first - then cheered wildly. The industry folks really seemed happy to see Utah do well.

This is the second time in three years that a Utah brewery/brewpub has taken top honors at GABF. 2007 saw RedRock Brewing Company in Salt Lake City take home honors for Large Brewpub of the Year.

Many from outside Utah and even from within still have preconceived ideas about what Utah beer is and how it measures-up on a national and worldwide stage. You don't have to like Utah's beer but you can't deny that when all labels are removed, and you judge on taste not Alcohol by Volume our beers/brewers can Rock-it!

Congratulations to all that won and please go visit your local Brewery and Bewpub, medal winner or not - and ask them for a great local beer!

Mid-Size Brewing Company of the Year:
Utah Brewers Cooperative

Session Beers
Uinta: Kings Peak Porter - Bronze
Squatters: Witbier - Gold

Dortmunder/Oktoberfest
Wasatch: Summerbrau - Gold

German Schwartzbier
RedRock: Black Lager - Gold

American Brown Ale
RedRock: Nut Brown - Silver

Belgian Style Strong Specialty Ale
Squatters: Hell's Keep - Bronze

Oatmeal Stout
Epic Brewing Co.: 825 State Stout - Bronze

Here's a link to all of the winners at the 2010 Great American Beer Festival.
and a few photos.






Cheers!

Evanston Brewfest & Big Beers at Snowbird?

Generally in Utah, Pioneer Day celebrations can be... well, on the lame side. The odds of you finding a celebration - with beer, outside of your own backyard is about as rare as a Democrat sighting in Provo.

So if you want to celebrate Pioneer Day - with out Celebrating Pioneer Day and do it with beer, I have a recommendation for you.

The 2nd Annual Evanston Brewfest will be held on Pioneer Day - Saturday, July 24th from Noon until 10:00 PM on Main Street in Historic Downtown Evanston!

Microbrews from Noon until 5:00 PM and then street party until 10:00 PM! For more info contact Evanston Brewfest at evanstonbrewfest@yahoo.com or call 800-328-9708. Live entertainment, food, street vendors and BEER, BEER and more BEER!

More info on participating brewers will be made available as the event gets closer.

And speaking of Beer Festivals, I understand that Epic will be pouring their beers at the Snowbird Beerfest on June 19th. I've attended a lot of beer festivals in Utah and I've never known beer over 4.0% abv to be sampled.

From what I understand, there is a loophole that does allow for high point beer to be poured, just like state allows for wine tastings at wineries and special events; as long as the alcoholic beverage in question has been paid for and is served from it's original container.

I guess this means that Uinta, the UBC, RedRock, Hoppers and Moab Brewing could all technically pour their "bigger" beers as well at Utah's beer festival now. If anyone has a better understanding of this practice as it relates to wine and wineries we'd love it if you could enlighten us.

For more detailed discussion check out the Utah Beer Forum.

Cheers!

Vegan Beer?

Until a few days ago if you asked me if beer was Vegan friendly I'd have said, "well-duh"? I mean most people know that beer is four things. Malted barley, hops, water and yeast. What vegan could have a problem with that? Well there are some technicalities that come into play.

Generally most beers made in the U.S. are Vegan friendly. Some beers like Milk Stouts and Oyster Stouts are obvious exceptions, but for the most part craft beers have no animal materials in them.

Some breweries clarify their unfiltered beers using a fining agent known as Isinglass, which are made from the swim bladders of fish. It's a clarifier that only filters out unwanted particles from the brewing process and is not present in the final beverage. These types of organic agents tend to make beers a "no-no" for people who want to stay away from from animal parts for dietary or religious reasons.

I can say confidently that most of Utah's brewers use mineral based clarifiers like Biofine Clear which is basically colloidal silicon dioxide.

Squatters just recently debuted O'Caden's Irish Red, their first "vegan friendly" beer using these new clarifiers. Pretty much all the beer they make - that is not filtered - is clarified with this process. Emigration Amber, Chasing Tail (pub only), Oatmeal Stout, Full Suspension, ESB etc.

Some of the other breweries using non organic clarifiers are the Utah Brewers Co-op and the soon to be brewing Epic Brewing. Just to mention a few. If your interested in knowing who's using what, the individual breweries will be happy to let you know.

These Clarifying processes may also apply to people who desire Kosher beers as well.

The funny thing is, there is not a vegan brewer among us. I guess they just like to please. Are we Clear?

Cheers!

Winterfest Returns & The Abyss

One of my new favorite winter beers is back, and that means Mikey is happier than a pig in.... beer.

Wasatch Winterfest debuted this time last year to rave revues and most recently won a Bronze medal at the 2009 Great American Beer Festival. If you never got a chance to try it last year, this is your opportunity.

Pours a clear ruby color with a moderate fluffy off-white cap of foam. The nose is bright with citrus and pine with subtle spicy caramel malt beneath. The flavor starts out with grapefruity hops and a bit of orange zest. Next comes a faint hint of gingerbread then transitions to a rich maltiness. I think there may be a little roatiness in there as well. Very nicely balanced with a well hidden 7.1% abv.

Last September I was ecstatic to report that Deshcutes' incredible Abyss Imperial Stout was on it's way to Utah for the first time. Initially It was only going to be available to our two local beer emporiums the Beerhive and the Bayou. Now it looks like it will be available at Utah liquor Stores as well. The Abyss should be arriving in the next couple of weeks. This beer ages well, buy a few and put some away for while.

Also, arriving from Deschutes is Hop Henge Experimental IPA. This one is also new to the state. Deschutes describes it as having several pounds of Centennial & Cascade hops in each barrel with a heavy dry-hop presence to top it off. A blend of crystal, pale and caraston malts creates an overall biscuity characteristic that is dense and muscular, building the alcohol base to support the monstrous hop profile.

Hope Henge will hit shelve in Utah this January.

Cheers!

Bravo Hops at the UBC

Jon Lee one of the great brewers at the Utah brewers co-op left this message in one of the posts. I moved it here for easier viewing.

Cheers!

"I didn't know where to put this but here at the UBC we have 4 brewers cuts of some Bravo hops. If some of you homebrewers want one they are one per person and first come first serve. They are with the girls in the store.

All whole flower hops above 13.5% alpha. Each weigh maybe 1#"

Uinta Brewing's New Line of Beers

If you've been paying attention to Utah's craft beer scene over the last 12 months you've noticed that there's been huge momentum from breweries and brewpubs to move beyond Utah's famed low alcohol beers.

Now we all know that Utah brewers have been brewing higher ABV beers for years, but the recent explosion in the desire to produce big beers is only being fueled by the publics craving for them.

The Utah Brewers Coop is seeing record sales with it's Hop Rising 2IPA and people in and out of the beer industry are taking notice. The game has changed and everyone is getting involved. The Utah Brewers Coop has clearly been leading the way with nearly a dozen high ABV labels to their credit. Squatters Brewpub has done some as well, along with RedRock, Wasatch Brewpub - Even Hoppers will have some high Abv Labels out soon.

Uinta Brewing company has been in the "big beer" game for a while. Their Barleywine is still Utah's biggest beer to date, annually coming in at around 10-11%. As well as their Anglers pale ale and Monkshine Belgian style Pale.

Uinta has been curiously absent from our local "beer renaissance" but no longer. Now comes word that Uinta will finally be amping-up it's game and will begin to commit to a line of big - bottle conditioned beers.

Starting early 2010 Uinta will begin production on a line of premium beers unlike anything seen in Utah. The "super premium beers" will be small batched - high alcohol beers in the 12-15% ABV range - Aged in oak barrels and cork finished.

The debut line-up is rumored to consist of an Imperial Stout(Utah's first), an Imperial IPA and a regular release of Uinta's Bourbon Barrel Barleywine; which was a bit of a phenomenon in the local beer scene.

I just hope that that 12%-15% is an exaggeration. In my opinion when beers get that boozy they start to become more of a novelty and less of a premium. I guess we'll wait and see. What are your thoughts?

These new additions, along with all the other fine brews that they do, will help to eliminate the popular and misinformed bias that Utah just can't do beer well.

Cheers!

Photo Courtesy: Aubry Sun

God, Beer, Porn & Wheat Wine?

What do you get when when you mix Craft beer enthusiast - Women of Faith and the Porn Industry?
I don't know but I assume it would tend to look a little like this photo here.

Believe it or not that was all going on this past weekend in Denver. Less The Women in Faith conference I doubt you'd see such a sight in SLC.

Anyway Utah represented well at GABF this year, there were a lot of great discoveries and some promising deals being made. Nothing is set in stone mind you, but look at Jolly Pumpkin and Cascade Brewing as two big possible gets for the SLC market.

On the local front we did make one new discovery that I can't believe we missed. Apparently Wasatch Brewpub head brewer Matt Beamer has put together a tasty Wheat Wine and slipped it in compleatly under the radar. Simply named Wasatch Wheat Wine.

These are a somewhat new American concoction akin to Barleywines in strength, but they contain a large portion of wheat malt; upwards of 50%. The wheat provides a soft and fluffy mouthfeel. Color and bitterness varies. Matt's was a cloudy golden-amber color with a very small sized off white head. The nose wheaty and toasty with a hint of floral hops. The Tastes was the same starting with floral bitterness, wheat and toast, The end was light with citrus. The 8.5% ABV was well hidden.

No release date has been set for Wasatch Wheat Wine but it should be a couple of months away. Matt Said it may spend some time againg in oak before it's bottled. And as of now; when it is released it may only be available at the Wasatch Brewpub in Park City. Cheers!

Top Photo: Beer Missionaries - Jon, Heather, Dave, Matt(Beamer) & Adam From Utah Brewers Coop & Wasatch Brewpub.

Utah's 2009 GABF Winners

Sorry this has taken so long, but I'm still in vacation mode. Here is a list of the breweries that came home with medals at this years Great American beer Festival.

The showing was not as strong as past years, even though there's been some incredibly delicious stuff coming out of Utah these past few years.

More GABF news coming. Cheers!

Bronze Red Rock Organic Zwickel Bier
Bronze Red Rock Blonde Ale
Silver Cutthroat Pale Ale
Bronze Winterfest 2008

Photo: Chris and Kevin from RedRock Brewing "sport'n" their medals.

Hop Rising and Hell's Keep Released

When the Beer Store at the Utah Brewers Coop opens today you'll finally be able to buy Squatters new Hop Rising & Hells Keep Belgian Style Strong Ale.

If you haven't heard Hop Rising is a big beer (9% ABV) with big IBU's, 85 to be exact. This is a Thanks to copious amounts CTZ (Columbus, Tomahawk, Zeus) and Bravo hops. You may remember Hop Rising as a Pale Ale from Squatters Brewpub. The name was transferred over to the co-op to use for this 2IPA.

Also out is Squatters Hell's Keep, a Belgian Golden Strong Ale. Hell's Keep was originally released earlier this year at Squatters brewpub, Jenny Talley had created this beer as a seasonal/limited release. It was such a hit that they decided to move the production over to the Utah Brewers Cooperative facility so they could take care of the massive bottling project. Hell's Keep is 7.75 ABV and will come in a 750 ML bottle.

Both of these are available at the Beer Store at 1763 South 300 West and at the the downtown Squatters Brew Pub. The Coop is shipping 1,000 cases of Hop Rising to the DABC today and it should hit the State Stores by next week. Hell's Keep will (for now) only be available for purchase(take home) at the Coop.

Also, next time your in Squatters be sure to give Asst. Brewer Jason Stock a little shit. That's his cute lil' mug shot on the label. Cheers!

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

Hop Rising Released

Hop Rising the new Double IPA from Squatters is out today and should be at local liquor stores and at the Utah Brewers Co-op. If you can't find it at the stores the beer store at the Co-op will defiantly have it.

I haven't tried it yet, but hope to today. If you have tell us about it!

And on the Uinta BBB front here's what I have.

Not all stores are getting it, only three state stores are. Some stores that weren't supposed to get any at all were mistakenly shipped some, and those were returned to the central warehouse to go out to the 3 stores where they were "forced shipped"; meaning those stores didn't have a choice but to take them.

So The stores that are supposed to carry it are the two wine stores downtown and the third store is the 90th south store off of I-15. I don't know if they're there for sure, but those are the stores you need to go to to get them.

Some of you have asked about the awards for the Beehive Brew-off. The awards will be given out Sunday afternoon or evening a couple hours after judging ends at the Bayou.

Because there were more entries than expected it's hard to pin down an exact time because we don't how long judging will take. Have I given you enough to talk about!!!
Cheers!

Utah's 2008 GABF Medalists

Well we made it. After three sessions and hundreds of ounces of beer, our yearly pilgrimage to Beer Mecca has concluded. What did we learn?... Well, no matter how beered-out you may think you are; pouring another fine American craft beer down the ol' pipes brings you right back to square-one. Also, Utah's brewers still know how to represent. Below are this years winners at GABF. All should be available for purchase right now. I recommend getting out sampling these fine brews and congratulate our local brewers for the fine jobs they do. More to come....

2008 GABF

American-Style or Belgian-Style Ale

Bronze-Fifth Element-Squatters Brewing

Category 35: German-Style Schwarzbier

Silver-Cherny Bock-Bohemian Brewing

Category 56: German-Style Altbier

Bronze-All The Way Alt-Desert Edge Brewing

Category 58: German-Style Wheat Ale

Bronze-Wasatch Hefeweizen-Wasatch Brewing

Category 59: Belgian-Style Wit

Silver-Belgian Wit-Red Rock Brewing

Bronze-Squatters Wit-Utah Brewers Coop