Upslope’s head brewer.
As 2014 comes to a close, we’re once again asking the Colorado craft beer community to reflect on the past year and look ahead to next. This next installment in our 4th annual Beer In Review features Sam Scruby, who took over as head brewer at Upslope Brewing after Alex Violette left to start a brewery in Vietnam. The six-year-old Boulder brewery in 2014 launched its Lee Hill Series, featuring more adventurous beers in “bomber cans.” Sam’s picks:
Favorite beer of the year: Crazy question, there were so many great beers this year. I will pick a couple of my favorites. was surprisingly impressive for a mass market, widely distributed beer release. I was especially envious of the production hurdles that New Belgium overcame to produce a mass market canned beer with lactobacillus in their production facility, cheers to that. Every beer from Hogshead is spot on. I love English-style beers and they hit the nail on the head – Chin Wag, Gilpin Black Gold, Barge’s Mild just to name a few. Dry Dock’s signature series was solid. The Double Brown and Vanilla Porter were 8 shades of delicious.
Colorado brewery of the year: Cannonball Creek. Tearing it up at competitions (World Beer Cup and GABF medals) and tearing it up in the taproom – always great beers on tap and always busy. It’s nice to know there is such a world-class brewery right off the road while driving back from adventures in the mountains.
New Colorado brewery of the year: Station 26 Brewing. I stopped by to check out the brewery, and I was thoroughly impressed with every beer I tried. The brewery space is like no other brewery you have been to, I loved seeing the barrel aging cellar in the bomb shelter. Awesome concept, great people and some great beers to back it all up.
Colorado brewery to watch in 2015: I have to say that I am excited for my favorite metalheads at TRVE to unleash the Acid Temple. They have already made some great sours in the hall of the TRVE taproom, I think Nick and Zach are going to be able to create some incredible sours with a dedicated production area. Hopefully a couple cases of Winter Zephyr make it to Boulder …
Most notable craft beer news or trend of 2014: I might be jumping on the bandwagon but I was excited to see the growth of “session” beers throughout the market. I really enjoy drinking more than one beer when I go to a brewery and crafting a well balanced and full flavored low-alcohol beer is harder than it sounds. I am excited to see this trend continue and see how brewers continue to push the lower bounds of ABV while maintaining flavor.
Craft beer trend to watch for in 2015: Critical mass of shelf space. I think we are finally looking at a very tough, hard-fought battle to get a new packaged beer on the shelf at liquor stores. The industry as a whole has made claims about this bottleneck but I think 2015 will be the year we really see the effects of limited exposure for new breweries entering the packaged market.”‹”‹ ”‹As far as beer trends go, I continue to see breweries differentiating their beers by any means possible. I expect to see many more fruited IPAs, spiced lagers, coffee and vanilla barrel aged stouts, beet sour ale, etc. The arms race for the wildest and weirdest beer will continue in 2015.
Previous installments in this year’s series:
