Tag: Boulder

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Off the Grid

Off Grid Pale Ale is the third gluten-free beer from New Planet Brewing. It is a combo of three different hop varietals, sorghum and brown rice extract along with sorghum and brown rice extract, molasses, tapioca maltodextrin, caramel color, hops, and yeast.

New Planet Beer Company will donate a portion of proceeds from the sale of Off Grid Pale Ale to non-profit organizations who support alternative energy efforts.

You can also try the two other gluten-free beers that New Planet Beer brews.

Tread Lightly Ale – “is a smooth and well-balanced “Pilsner like” style ale with citrus tones and light in body and color. It’s made from sorghum and corn extract, orange peel, hops, and yeast. Tread Lightly supports trail restoration.”

3R Raspberry Ale – “our award winning raspberry fruit ale has just the right balance of fruit flavor and aroma. The raspberry ale is made from sorghum and corn extract, natural raspberry puree, orange peel, hops, and yeast. 3R supports Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle – the 3R’s of waste reduction education.”

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new from Upslope

Though I would have expected a brown can to match the name. I am glad that Upslope is growing their canned beer offerings.

“Upslope Brown Ale. It’s an English-style Brown Ale with an American twist in that its sweet roasted-malt base is offset by a pronounced hop bitterness and higher alcohol content — about 6.7 percent by volume — than its counterparts brewed across the pond. It has a well-balanced character with a clean, dry finish that makes it easy to kick back several in one sitting.”

Read this update from the Boulder Camera to get the full scoop on this Colorado brewery.

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Let’s Tour…Upslope Brewing

Are you ready for another Colorado beer tour? Let’s go to Upslope then!

Here are their specs and their signature beers…”Brewed with Patagonian hops, high quality Rahr malts, snowmelt and yeast, Upslope’s ales satisfy a wide range of beer drinkers. We have chosen to package our beer in cans because they are portable, light, crushable and the most recyclable container on the planet.”

Upslope Pale Ale
“This clear, crisp, dry pale ale is our signature beer. It’s refreshing characteristics, and signature dry finish, blends smooth malt flavors with a unique spicy hop bitterness. This will be the “go to” beer on any camping trip, fishing excursion or music festival.”

Upslope India Pale Ale
“Our IPA will appeal to the beer enthusiast who desires a bold, deep and bitter ale. With a coppery color indicative of a traditional IPA, Upslope India Pale Ale has a complex malty character and is more well-balanced than most IPA’s, but still offers that bitterness that IPA lovers seek.”

UPDATE:
I was lucky enough to sample the pale ale from Upslope in Boulder. The cans logo and design is striking and simple and that carries through to the beer. It is hoppy but it does not coat the mouth. A great beer for the beach on a summer day. I made room to bring two back home to LA if that tells you anything.

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Beer Blogger Conference – What I Learned

There was a lot of technical talk at the Beer Bloggers conference. About 1/2 of it was over my head. I know my widgets from my meta tags and/or trackbacks. But that is the smaller mechanical issue. I was searching for something else.

I wanted to know if I was on the right track with this blog. And I think, I am. Am I there yet? No, and I have no timetable either.

I post what excites me about the craft beer world. Is it groundbreaking journalism? No. Is it a regurgitation of already posted news? Sometimes. But that is acceptable to me. Why?

I want this blog to show my passion for beer, breweries, events and the industry. Like a squirrel before a bottle of BrewDog’s End of the World gets shoved up it’s…(sorry), I enjoy searching for and bringing back beer nugggets.

There was alot of good advice about how long it takes to monetize your blog and the ways to do it. People carefully explained how to adjust posts to your readers desires.

To me that is not as important as bringing the world of craft beer to my reader(s) in a short but fun way. And when I highlight a brewery in Louisiana or Alaska, it may be a list of a couple beers pulled from the brewery website but I want to push this information in front of casual but curious craft beer drinkers and travelers. I started the 50 Beers from 50 States quest to learn more about our country’s beers but I also hoped to intrigue all of you enough to try something new or at least learn something new.

A question was posed (rather too critically and rather grumpily, to my ear), why blog about beer and why go to a conference about it? Apart from the obvious reason of meeting people with the same passion, I wanted to learn from other bloggers on how to best accomplish my goal. I could not ask readers to go on this search without doing some searching myself. (And I implore that everyone keep on learning).

What I am trying to say is that I want to challenge you, the reader, to drink better and more varied beer. And this blog will evolve to do that better.

That is what I learned.

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Beer Blogger Conference – What I Drank

I drank about 45+ separate beers over the three day weekend.

I shall start with the best….
Rising Tide Brewing / Ishmael – A wonderful effervescent alt-bier with loads of malt taste.
Russian River Brewing / Sanctification – Sour and funky and fruity while still being easy to drink.
Quaff Brothers / Jones IPA – Not an IPA but a wonderful caramel and vanilla bourbon concoction.
Avery Brewing / Jerry’s Roggenbier – A great spicy and heavy brew for a fall day.
Great Lakes Brewing / Edmund Fitzgerald Porter – Just a perfectly done porter.

On my next level of must mentions are….
Twisted Pine Brewing / Ms. Jackie Brown – A pumpkin saison that was delicate and spicy.
Mountain Sun Brewpub / Cleveland Brown – What can I say, I’m in a brown ale mood.
Upslope Brewing / Pale Ale – Cool can design and great beer inside.
Brooklyn Brewing / Black Ops – Would be in top 5 if I was more of a imperial stout afficionado. A very smooth but strong offering.
Southern Star Brewing / Buried Hatchet – Another great stout. And this one is canned and from Texas. Wonders never cease.

The weird brews of the weekend are…
Epic Ales / Beatrice – Pepper and other spices in a weird flavor medley.
Avery Brewing / Ruminator – Rum aged but as strong as bourbon to me.

But what really got me excited was seeing….
Crow Peak / IPA – South Dakota off the list
Sun King / Wee Mac – Indiana off the list

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Beer Blogger Conference – Day 3

Here is the final quick impression posts from the 1st Beer Bloggers conference.

I had to pace myself on Saturday night but I still tasted a few new beers from places here-to-fore never sampled. Upslope, Odell’s and Boulder Beer. Then I had to get up and listen to Eric from BeerTap TV. The very cool Kerry Finsand from Taplister and eminence gris, Jay Brooks. “Had to” seems harsh, like an assignment. I don’t mean it that way. I had to so I could learn from the folks that have a knowledge set that I do not possess yet. They were great. I picked up new bits from all three.

That’s all for now. Complete wrap up to land in the next few days along with photos and beers drunk list (that will blow you away, that is a promise)!

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Beer Blogger Conference – Day 2

Here is the Day 2 report. Starting with two great presentations on blogs and tech and two that did not have info for me. But that may be due to me being un-tech-geek and obstinate. I will talk in more detail later about what I learned and what may appear on this very blog in the coming months later since this is more of an itinerary post

Then on to Avery where me and my band of cohorts from Olympia, Santa Barbara and Portland were really treated well because of that Beer Blogger badge. Avery is housed in a little industrial park. Great little tap room. Got Ruminator, Rumpkin and Moloch among other gratis samples! Highly recommended.

Speed beers were next. In two words: exhausting but great. 12 beers. 5 minutes each. I dare you to fully enjoy Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald porter (which is awesome, as were the people from the brewery) then turn around and have World Wide Stout from Dogfish Head. I ended up stockpiling tasters and slowly catching up.

The massive bottle share and Oskar Blues dinner will be covered in later posts along with the Boulder Beer dinner and Pearl Street Pub crawl.