The Twisted Pine Brewery launched its first saison beer "Le Petite" Aug. 28, 2009. The line is a seasonal brew and will available in the spring. A saison beer is a light beer, traditionally given to workers in the fields to keep them hydrated. (CU Independent/ Lauren Walter)
Students who drink a lot of beer in college often seem to prefer quantity over quality, but Boulder offers more than just Keystone Light. There are a variety of local breweries around town, all with different ideas on how beer should be made and how it should taste.
“Craft beers are true beers,” said Mike Pinckney, a senior geography major. For Pinckney, when it comes to beer, “Microbrews just taste better.”
The natural place to start when talking about microbreweries in Boulder is the Boulder Beer Company, Colorado’s oldest microbrewery. It sits past 28th St. on Valmont Road, down Wilderness Place. There is a pub in the front of the building with 12 tap handles. There are eight for beers that get distributed across the country to 30 different states, and four for experimental and developing beers. The experimental beers are in a constant process of development, their recipes being tweaked to perfection by the persnickety brewers.
The sounds of whistling workers and the clanking of equipment echoes throughout the brewery. In the back, in a small room with a sign that reads “Don’t bother the lab monkey,” a microbiologist sits, testing the quality and consistency of all of the beers.
Past his office is a large door covered by strips of a thick clear hanging plastic.
“This is what I like to call the chocolate room,” said a grinning Dan Weitz, who official title is “Marketing Tool.” Behind the door, the room is filled with the bright colors of the various beer labels in cases stacked nearly to the ceiling.
Boulder Beer Company’s most popular beer is Hazed and Infused. Why is it called Hazed and Infused?
The Twisted Pine Brewery is available for tours.. (CU Independent/ Lauren Walter)
“I’ll let you draw your own conclusions,” said Weitz. It has a smell remarkably similar to marijuana. Hops happen to be a member of the plant family Cannabaceae, the same family as cannabis.
Boulder Beer Company puts out quality beer consistently. Mojo India Pale Ale, Buffalo Gold, and Pass Time Pale Ale are just a few of their brews. They provide a modest selection of high quality beers that are not that risky. With such a large distribution network, they have to cater to a larger mass of people, which limits how far outside the box their beers can be. For more interesting and unusual beers, the smaller scale breweries are where to go.
Twisted Pine is a small scale brewery tucked away in a white brick building off of Walnut St., a little ways past 28th St. The modest little pub accepts people and dogs alike. A sign on the wall that says, “Who needs a ‘born on’ date when you can be in the delivery room!”
Their brewery is open and spacious and sits right behind the bar. The grain is boiled in short, fat 15-barrel cauldrons. An admittedly small size that allows for more experimentation, which means it is not as big of a deal if a batch gets messed up. Everything is done by hand here, from the brewing to the bottling
In the back there are short little kegs that have holes in the side that allow for dry hopping, a process where the hops are added to the beer after the boil. For Twisted Pine’s pumpkin beer, they use the same method to add spices. Mr. Brown Pumpkin is a dark brown beer with a smell and taste that is similar to pumpkin pie, with tastes of cinnamon and clove.
People attend the launch of a new brew at Twisted Pine Aug. 28. (CU Independent/ Lauren Walter)
Another interesting beer, for lack of a better word, is Billy’s Chilies Beer. It is light in color and smells like chilies. Serrano, jalapeño and habenero are just of few of the peppers that flavor this beer. It tastes like one would imagine, like chilies. It is surprisingly spicy, especially for a beer.
Oak Whiskey Red is a sweet-smelling smooth beer with a sweet finish. It gets aged in a bourbon barrel to give it the taste of whiskey. It does not taste like sipping on liquor. The beer provides enough body and flavor to keep the whiskey flavor in balance, adding to the beer and not taking anything away.
The bartender offered me a piece of dark chocolate and told me to try it with the Big Shot Espresso Stout, an espresso flavored beer that goes down smooth. The taste of the espresso went together with the chocolate in a way reminded me of milk and cookies. The bitterness of the beer with the sweetness of the chocolate, along with the taste of chocolate and coffee together worked very well.
Twisted Pine distributes their beer throughout Colorado and Texas. Starting in November, they are going to distribute in Louisiana. They have interesting beers, and a big enough variety. But if variety is what is desired, then Mountain Sun is the place to go.
The Mountain Sun and Southern Sun are two of Boulders unique breweries. They both have ample taps for a rotating variety of eclectic beers. This CU Independent reporter went to the Southern Sun where they have 20 different custom beers on tap.
XXX Pale Ale, a beer that comes highly recommended, has a light color to it. It is a solid, bitter beer that packs a punch at 7.6 percent alcohol by volume. Quinn’s Golden Ale is another light beer, but this one is sweeter and has malty flavors that hit in the back of the nose. It is what the Southern Sun call their “most approachable beer.”
FYIPA is an amber colored beer with a strong smell and a taste that is broad in scope, with bitter and sweet notes along with a colorful array of hoppy flavors. One of the more interesting beers they have is the Java Porter, which is “considerably caffeinated” according to its description. It is a brew that smells and tastes like a cold, carbonated cup of coffee. The coffee flavor might overpower the taste of the beer, but the coffee flavor is good as far as coffee goes.
All the beers here have a certain small scale taste to them. The variety is almost intimidating to deal with, but in a good way. The Mountain and Southern Sun do not distribute their beers like the other breweries; instead they sell it to their customers in reusable mason jars.
The last brewery is the Walnut Brewery at the intersection of 11th and Walnut St. The large amount of tables and booths with cushy seats give the place the feel of a restaurant, but the array of taps at the bar and the fermenters that can be seen through a sheet of glass high on the wall behind it beg to differ. The Walnut Brewery offers a good selection of bar-friendly appetizers that are affordable during happy hour. The late night happy hour is from 10 p.m. to close on weekends, and 3 to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. The drinks and appetizers are half off.
Andrew Tomasini, a junior pre-journalism major, said he was looking for something more.
“Everything is great!” Tomasini said. “But it’s kind of bullshit that they don’t have buffalo wings during the late night happy hour.”
The Walnut has a rotating seasonal wheat beer, some of which can have very interesting flavors. St. James Irish Red Ale has a subtle malty and hoppy flavor. When served out of the Nitrogen tap, the Red Ale has less of a bite to it, and a noticeably creamier head. Devil’s Thumb Stout is very dark, and has a sweet roasted, almost smoky taste.
Brian Sheldon, a senior philosophy major, said he is a fan of microbreweries. When asked what he thought of microbreweries, Sheldon just smiled and said, “The more the merrier, you can’t have enough.”
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Seth Gitner at Seth.gitner@colorado.edu.
