During GABF month, I like to feature breweries that you may not have heard about but that recently won medals at the festival. In that spirit, let’s head to Bellingham in Washington State to Structures Brewing and take a look at their beer menu.
Junior – “A beautiful small pale ale brewed with Amarillo and Simcoe. By far one of our favorite pale ales around the brewery!!!”
Strata Citra Fuzz – “Our Flagship IPA brewed with our favorite blend of malts and oats, double dry hopped with Citra, Strata and Simcoe! Showcasing aromas of tropical fruits, bursting with notes of guava and pink grapefruit with a healthy dose of pine, a soft body, creamy mouthfeel and subdued bitterness on the finish. “
Motueka Fuzz – “Our Flagship IPA brewed with our favorite blend of malts and oats, double dry hopped with Citra, Amarillo and Motueka! Showcasing aromas of tropical fruits, bursting with notes of lime zest, clementines and orange creamsicle, a soft body, creamy mouthfeel and subdued bitterness on the finish.”
Since the Great American Beer Festival kicks off, well, today. I have to reach back to a 2023 winner first. So we head to Puttsburgh and any one of the three locations for Cinderlands.
They won Gold in the Experimental Category for their Hill & Hollow- Cayuga. A “Golden saison fermented with our house mix culture of farm house yeast and Brettanomyces in an American oak foeder. Pressed down for 4 weeks on pressed Cayuga wine grapes.”
So whether you go to the Warehouse, Wexford or the Long Story Short sandwich shop, here are some ideas for a taster tray…
Lil’ Cinder Lime Light Lager – 4.2% – “Classic American light lager brewed with real lime and flaked maize.”
Black and Yellow Yinzerade – 5.0% – “Hard lemonade-inspired sour beer brewed with blackberries, black currants, and lemons.”
One Way Out – 6.3% – “Hazy IPA brewed with Nelson Sauvin, Nelson Sauvin SubZero Hop Kief, Citra, and Citra Cryo.”
Hill & Hollow Chambourcin – 7.4% – “Amber rye saison fermented with our house mixed culture yeast. Punched down on local Chambourcin red wine grapes.”
We have entered Q4 of 2024. As always, the year just swings by before you know it. Before the calendar switches, we need to pack in fun like a trip to Colorado, which I will be posting about later.
~ e-visits to (3) breweries that won at this year’s GABF
~ special featured reviews of Halloween inspired beers
~Heads-Up on Los Angeles Beer Events
~ Three suggested beers to buy this month. One light, one medium and one dark
~ A Book & A Beer reads The Book of Elsewhere by Keanu Reeves and China Miéville
~ A Podcast & A Beer listens to Blocks with Neal Brennan
~ Sports & A Beer returns with WNBA and NBA expansion to Portland and maybe Seattle
~ New Beer Releases and Best Beers of the Month
~ I will tap the Firkin and give my no holds barred opinion on the craft beer world.
Our third and final stop for September and Colorado breweries is Public Offering Brewing. The name sounds like it belongs on Wall Street but the brewery is on South Broadway in Denver.
Time to grab a taster flight….
Brilliant Disguise West Coast Pilsner – “Delicate passionfruit, orange, guava and grapefruit rind aromas and flavors rest on a light pilsner base.”
Le Spritz Italian Pilsner – “Light bread malt, a touch of honey sweetness and notes of elderflower, lemongrass and quince with a crisp, dry and slightly bitter finish.”
Quite the Pear Fruited Sour – “Our collaboration with Monolith Brewing – a light, refreshing, and slightly tart beer with a hint of pear.”
The Green Mile Hazy IPA – “Bold tropical pineapple, sweet mango and shaved coconut combine with peach, key lime & Valencia oranges on a smooth, creamy, and slightly sweet finish.”
Our second stop in GABF Colorado this October is Monolith Brewing. I noticed them because they have great beer names and also because they donate 1% of their revenue to the Brew Like a Girl Scholarship Fund.
Let’s taste some beers then…
Czech it Out – “Ahroy! Come walk down the prlank of a broat, alrighty, maybe more kryak than broat, with Captains Kat and Stephen (of Monolith Brewing) for the delightful Czech Pilsner collab. RootShoot Pilsner malt + Saaz hops = looks ok to me!”
Bavarian Contrarian – ” A traditional Bavarian Hefeweizen for those who choose to defy conventionalism”
Baguette About It – “A Collaboration with Body by Beer Podcast and Dry Storage, this beer is brewed with 100% Rouge de Bordeaux wheat, and fermented with 3lbs/bbl of Sweet Cherries and Apricots”
Tau Neutrino – “Crafted with a stellar blend of hops, this hazy IPA delivers a juicy burst of 1 lb/bbl of Amarillo and 4 lbs/bbl of Citra, Mosaic, and El Dorado. Experience a tropical supernova of citrus, mango, and stone fruit, all swirling together in a nebulous cloud of hop-induced bliss.”
So nice that they have two locations now. The Very Nice Brewing Company is based in Nederland, Colorado with a second location in Gilpin now.
Let’s get tasting, starting with….
Calmer Than You Are IPA – “Light bodied and light on alcohol. Generous late additions of Citra and Mosaic Hops and then dry hopped with Motueka, Mosaic, and Citra make for a huge hop forward character in a very easy drinker. Lots of citrus in the form of grapefruit and orange followed up with tones of mango, passion fruit and kiwi.”
Logical Fallacy Black Ale – “This beer challenges the Logical Fallacy that says if a beer is a stout, it can’t be hoppy. With 4 generous hop additions of Summit and Northern Brewer, this beer has a technical IBU (International Bittering Unit) of almost 70. However, this hops bill is challenged with the deep smokiness of black patent malt, coffee tones of chocolate malt, and the sweetness of 4lbs/BBL of wild Colorado honey.This is a unique stout that will make you look deep into this beer, and lose yourself in the intricate taste of its oil like blackness.”
Monk’s Phunk – “Strong ale named after a strong woman! Our brewer’s dear mother! This recipe is crafted as a tribute to the tradition the Monk’s started in Belgium over a thousand years ago. It includes lots of Munich and dark crystal malt with a shot of chocolate malt, giving it a deep burgundy color and a heavenly rich caramel taste that literally would bring people to God, or at least to his cathedrals in Europe. It has enlightening fruity esters from the Belgian yeast as well as divine sweetness from 4lbs/BBL of wild Colorado honey.”
Crisp Lager – “Crisp Lager is handmade for easy drinking using only 4 craft ingredients. We only use the finest malts, American Noble hops, Pennsylvania mountain water, and lager yeast in perfect balance for a brilliant golden beer that’s full-flavored, refreshing, and above all, Crisp Lager.”
Lazy River Dry-Hopped Pils – “Lazy River Pils is brewed as a traditional German Pilsner, then dry-hopped with hand-selected Citra hops from the Pacific Northwest. We started with German Pilsner and German Munich malts for a highly crisp and refreshing, light and flavorful Pilsner. Our Citra then adds bright orange citrus aroma that will be essential to your adventures.”
S.O.B. Hill IPA – “S.O.B. Hill is named in honor of The Hyner View Trail Challenge. We’ve been sponsoring this 50 kilometer trail race since we opened, and the course culminates with the final rise – S.O.B. Hill. This American IPA is clear, floral, fruity and slightly bitter.”
Double Broken Heels DIPA – “Double Broken Heels is our Hazy IPA, Broken Heels, with more malt and hops to make it a Hazy Double IPA. Brewed with oats and hopped with a mix of our favorite American hops including Citra & Mosaic.”
The second PA stop is one that Lew Bryson talked about on his podcast Seen Through a Glass when he was covering the town of Mansfield. It is Yorkholo Brewing.
Here are three beers that have been done in the past to give you an idea of their beer range…
Honey Lemon Saison – “Brewed with floor malted German pilsen, oats & spelt. Mildly hopped with cluster & cascade in the kettle with some bittering orange peel”
Mosaic Hopped IPL – “Brewed with a blend of German floor malted pilsen, vienna, flaked corn & rye. Kettle hopped with mosaic. Dry hopped during primary & secondary with mosaic. layered for 6 weeks. Incredibly crisp & refreshing with notes of citrus, lime, tropical fruit, pine & fresh cut grass.”
Pink Guava Fruit Smoothie IPA – the fourth version of a smoothie IPA, “The notes are incredibly interesting with flavors of starburst, strawberry & watermelon jolly rancher.”
I am an avid listener to Lew Bryson’s Seen Through a Glass podcast and he has traveled to many a brewery in Pennsylvania. Enough to probably so three months or more of e-tours. We will curate it down to three for August though.
Starting in Enola with Pizza Boy Brewing which was super high on the listener requested list.
Normally, I would create a taster flight but as you can see from a recent tap list, that would be real hard….
If push came to shove, my first choices would be the Old Denim Cream Ale, the Sunny Side Up Bourbon barrel-aged coffee stout and the and the Frozen Eyelets Hazy with coconut.
