Don’t expect to see Anheuser-Busch’s new Front Range Fresh Harvest Hop Ale on liquor-store shelves.
Manufactured in Fort Collins, the beer named for its birthplace is available only in the company’s four tasting rooms. Brewmaster Florian Kuplent said the dark beer is too difficult to make in mass quantities.
“Hops usually get dried right after harvest, but for this beer we used fresh hops,” Kuplent said. “It’s more earthy and spicy, with a lot more of the hops aroma. It’s a pretty intense process.”
The beer contains 5.2 percent alcohol by volume and was first introduced to the public at September’s Great American Beer Festival in Denver.
Front Range is available as a complimentary sample to visitors at Anheuser-Busch’s facilities in Fort Collins; St. Louis; Fairfield, Calif.; and Jacksonville, Fla. The brewer has enough to last about two months.
More than 90,000 people a year take the free tours at Anheuser-Busch’s Fort Collins facility, which produces staples such as Budweiser and Michelob, along with specialty brews such as Winter’s Bourbon Cask Ale.
While the U.S. beer market has been basically flat for several years, the microbrew segment saw a 7.1 percent increase in sales in 2004 over the previous year. It is expected to post similar gains this year, according to the Boulder-based Brewer Association, a trade association for small, independent brewers.
“More and more people are asking for different and interesting things,” said Kuplent. “We want to offer people the opportunities to try some different beers.”
Anheuser-Busch is the nation’s largest brewer, followed by SABMiller and Denver-based Coors Brewing, a subsidiary of Molson Coors Brewing Co.
Staff writer Julie Dunn can be reached at 303-820-1592 or jdunn@denverpost.com.
