Back to the beer future.
We’ll never know what the beer our great-grandfathers drank tasted like, but a new brew from MillerCoors may come pretty close.
Batch 19, being test-marketed in five cities, is a throwback to a pre-Prohibition lager. Coming from the large beer factory in Golden, the beer is surprising for its hoppy character and its carbonation. If it ever reaches the general market, it should be a great success.
The name is based on the fact that Prohibition became the law of the land in January 1919. It took effect a year later and lasted until 1933, forcing hundreds of breweries out of business.
Brewmaster Keith Villa found the recipe for Coors’ pre-Prohibition brew stashed in the company’s basement archives and was immediately intrigued by what he found. “We had a minor flood down there,” he said. “We could have lost all those recipes. It was fascinating, like an archaeologist opening King Tut’s tomb. You see their writing, the styles of beer they made. I have a doctorate in brewing, but I’m also a brewing-history buff. When I see these records, I know the knowledge that was available to them.”
Batch 19 is not, said Villa, an exact reproduction of “pre-Pro” beer. The materials, brewing techniques and equipment have changed. And, there’s no one alive to tell us how it tasted. “We had to use our best guess. I would say it’s very close to what Coors beer tasted like before Prohibition.”
For now, Batch 19, nonpasteurized with an alcohol of 5.5 percent (by volume), is available on tap in Chicago, San Francisco/San Jose, Washington, D.C., and Milwaukee and to visitors in the tasting room at the Golden brewery. They’ll also pour it at the Great American Beer Festival in Denver in September.
It should be in national distribution before long. “Our sales and marketing people will make that decision,” Villa said. “I’m confident we will go national with it. I love the taste of it and it’s part of history. I would love people to know that this is not a made-up thing. We tried to stay as close to the original recipe as we could.”
Happy 20th
Founded in 1990, Breckenridge Brewery marks its 20th anniversary with two parties this week.
First, a brewmaster’s dinner with Todd Usry, featuring five beers and four courses, takes place Thursday at the packaging plant, 471 Kalamath St. Tickets ($40) are a must and are available at the brewery.
On Saturday, Breckenridge hosts an outdoor pig roast with beers and music, starting at noon. Tickets ($20) at the door.
Recount!
Really? Twelve of the top 50?
A readers’ poll for Zymurgy, the magazine of the American Homebrewers Association, includes 12 beers from little-known Rahr & Sons Brewery in Fort Worth, Texas, a beermaker who’s never won a medal at the Great American Beer Festival. Smacks of stuffing the ballot box to me.
Readers were asked to name their 20 favorite beers “commercially available somewhere in the United States.” There were 1,192 beers submitted. The top five were Russian River Pliny the Elder, Bell’s Two Hearted Ale, Stone Arrogant Bastard, Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA and Sierra Nevada Pale Ale.
All worthy selections but Colorado brewers, who placed only five beers (three from New Belgium) on the chosen list, should demand a recount.
Beer notes
Fritz Maytag, one of the giants of the craft beer industry, has sold San Francisco’s Anchor Brewing, maker of Anchor Steam, to the Griffin Group, headed by two men famous for Skyy Vodka. Maytag bought into Anchor in 1965. … Great Divide Brewing in downtown Denver installed three 300-barrel tanks, bumping its capacity 50 percent. … Wynkoop Brewing Co. has added Silverback Pale Ale to its lineup of canned beers. Fifty percent of the proceeds go to the Mountain Gorilla Conservation Fund. … New releases: Odell Brewing brings back its award-winning Double Pilsner, and C.B. & Potts is pouring its summer seasonal Barefoot Wit Belgian-style ale. … Quotable: “When I sell liquor, it’s called bootlegging; when my patrons serve it on Lake Shore Drive, it’s called hospitality.” — Al Capone.
Dick Kreck’s e-mail: rakreck@yahoo.com. Send mail to him c/o The Denver Post, 101 W. Colfax Ave., Suite 600, Denver, CO 80202.
