TOOT TOOT!!!
Colorado Beer History - the condensed version.
Here comes the train, we're rolling up to the great state of Colorado. This Thursday- wait, what? Oh, its Friday! Damn..... well let's pretend I got this right.
This Thursday we're going to review one of the craft beer meccas in the United States. Now, I'm not claiming through my blatant homerism (homoism for my backyard) that Colorado produces the most or even the best craft beers in the country. But its pretty damn close.
Colorado Springs brews and delivers beers from Bristol (great brewery), Rockyard, Phantom Canyon, and Trinity - if I'm not confusing anything. Denver is scattered with breweries and brew pubs, but since the fleeing of Flying Dog (they went to Maryland.... those asses), the "real" brewery breweries left include Great Divide and Breckenridge (what its not actually in Breck???? Yep, its not). Boulder has probably 10 brewpubs and breweries with Twisted Pine (meh), Avery (wowsers!!!), and Boulder Beer being the primary bottling and distributing breweries. Durango has three breweries that distribute (Steamworks, Ska, and Durango - all very good). Fort Collins has four major breweries (and some minor brew pubs) if you include the Anheuser Busch branch in town, as well as Fort Collins Brewery, Odells, and New Belgium. Golden has Coors, and even little pass through Idaho Springs has Tommy Knocker. Between Longmont and Lyons you'll find two breweries distributing Oskar Blues cans (you know you like that Old Chub and Dales) and Left Hand Brewery (if you're not a fan of stouts, try one of their milk stouts).
With a myriad of small town brew pubs strewn throughout (special heads up to Mr. Grumpy Pants in Ouray and Kannah Creek in Grand Junction) the state is almost overflowing in beer. I sometimes wonder if the rise in humidity around here lately is due to the increased popularity to these craft brews.
The craft brew explosion in the state can likely be traced to the popularity of two small craft beer booms from two spots: Boulder and Fort Collins. In 1979 two CU professors applied for the 43rd brewery license (since the repeal of prohibition) from the US government. The two created three beers: Boulder Bitter, Boulder Porter, and Boulder Stout. Though there beers were not widely popular, they gained some recognition moving into their official brewery in Boulder in 1984.
Shortly thereafter Boulder Beer (aka Rockies Brewing) was purchased by Frank Day - the owner of the first, and at thtat time only, Old Chicago Restaurant in Boulder. Frank had previously started the Walnut Street Brewery in Boulder, carrying over his love for serving food and beer into a passion for developing high quality beers and giving people a place to drink them. This all occurred somewhere between 88 and 91.... facts are sketchy and I wasn't personally involved. Some how Frank taking over Boulder Beer and combining some of the quality of Walnut Street - people in Boulder were now trying to be in the "know" by drinking Frank's Buffalo Gold.
Yep... Buff Gold, the stuff that tastes like Coors original, just not as beery.... that was it. That was the great leap to BEER-NIRVANA-COLORADO. I wish it wasn't quite true... and really its not. What Buff Gold did is made more people realize in the state that there was local beer they could get and enjoy drinking. More people explored the Walnut Street Brewery's selection trying out the Devil's Thumb Amber and the Elk Brown nut ale. People began discovering that they liked this local beer. In 1993 Boulder Beer introduced Single Track... the first actually decent bottled beer sold outside of Boulder to come from Boulder. Now people who had no idea what good beer tasted like, but bought Buff Gold to be cool, were trying this other Boulder Beer - and they discovered hops. Now, we give an honorable hat tip to you Boulder Beer!
Meanwhile, the on goings in Fort Collins were a little bit more delayed in their explosion, but what happened there began to have more of a national impact and faster than what had occurred in Boulder.
- Let me digress, I am referring to this beer growth in the past tense, and that is incorrect. The beer boom is growing and ever evolving and both Boulder and Fort Collins Beers are served throughout many states of this nation, neither of them have reached every single state. -
Good beer was not terribly hard to find for those who looked for it. People could find it. And often that good beer invited people to try and make their own good beer. Something to actually carry some body and weight to it. Something that wasn't an Anheuser Busch or Milwaukee's best type of beer. Charles Papazian - the world's most renowned home brewer - lives in Boulder (and has since the 70s).
Jeff Lebesch, a Fort Collins resident found in the mid 80s that he liked good beer. As the 80s carried on he found that he really liked beers from Europe. More particularly, he liked the Belgium beers. He tried to order, find, and buy as many Belgium beers as he could... it was tough at that time as there wasn't a huge palate for Belgium beer in this country.
Eventually he attempted to start brewing his own beer... and to his wonder and amazement, he was good at it. So guess what he did? He attempted to brew Belgium beers in his basement in Fort Collins. Guess how that went. Not well. Jeff Lebesh did not have a lot of money, but he clearly had a dream. He dreamt of brewing beers like the Belgians. So, he went to Belgium on a shoe string budget, purchased a cheap mountain bike (with fat tires - giggle) and road from brewery to monastery (Monks make the best beer because they can't have sex) learning their tricks and ingredients.
He eventually returned to the US with a suitcase full of secret Belgium malts. In 1989 he brewed two very distinct and specific beers in his basement - a dubble brown he named Abbey and a hoppy amber he called Fat Tire. Both had immediate recognition from his friends, family, eventually the whole town of Fort Collins. The basement brewery went commercial in 1991 and since that day people from all around the country have discovered Fat Tire.... granted I think its a mediocre beer at best... it’s a beautiful story.
Somehow, around this same 1989-1991 period, independently two other breweries that I respect way more but I don't think have yet received the recognition they deserve, popped up. Avery in Boulder and Odell in Fort Collins. At this time, there was an underground movement as good beer from micro breweries in the US and Colorado were being passed around. People were discovering you didn't have to be nuts to enjoy good beer and it wasn't as hard as one thought to find it. Demand has since grown... but the Boulder Brewery brought it about first, and New Belgium's second blow can be considered by many as the start to what has become the craft brewing phenomenon. Anheuser Busch attempted to create several craft beers because it was worried about the market share it was losing. Coors bought out the brewery making Blue Moon and has been selling it as its own craft beer.
Well...whatever it is... I'll drink it. If its from CO then I will surely be proud as I drink it. Unless its Buff Gold.
Until next week friends.
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