Black Shirt’s Blood Orange IRA (Eric Gorski, The Denver Post).
News and notes from around the Colorado beer scene …
Music has always been part of the DNA of Denver’s Black Shirt Brewing, the red ale artisan brewery that opened three years ago on the gritty north tip of Denver’s River North neighborhood. Beers are assigned “studio track” numbers and tap handles look like old-school microphones.
So it is entirely harmonious that the patio backing up to an alley now features a stage, framed with wooden pallets, that will host more than 30 shows this summer. Co-owners and brothers Chad and Branden Miller say the acoustics are great, and yes, despite the lack of condos in the immediate vicinity people still call to complain.
Most shows are either free or feature a $5 cover, and the music runs the spectrum from industrial, experimental DJs to folk, bluegrass and straight-up rock. .
On the beer front, the brewery has a hit on its hands with its Blood Orange Double IRA, or Imperial Red Ale (8.1 percent ABV), which is fermented with the namesake fruit and dry-hopped with Mosaic hops to bring the hop aroma.
The Millers say it is their best-seller — one regular called it a “beer geek’s beer.” With just a couple kegs left, this week is likely going to be the end of it. The beer has a five-month tank time, so this is not one of those quick-turns.
“It’s been sort of electric for us,” Chad Miller said. “The next time we do this beer, we probably won’t do it the same. We’ll try to do it better.”
Also relatively new to the beer lineup is Black Shirt Common Red, a sippable spring beer (5.5 percent ABV, 44 IBUs) that draws inspiration from a couple of German styles — Kolsch and Altbier.
IPAs of the single, double, triple and fruity variety took over Hops and Pie (Eric Gorski, The Denver Post).
— Hops and Pie in Denver’s Berkeley neighborhood showed off a murderer’s row of IPAs on Saturday at its Hop Fest. Standouts that we hadn’t tried before included a fantastic pair from Boneyard Brewing (Notorious and Hop Venom) and an experimental IPA from local heroes Cannonball Creek Brewing in Golden (Project Alpha No. 4) we hope will become a regular.
We arrived too late to get a taste of the 2 x 4 from the IPA rock stars at Melvin Brewing in Jackson, Wyo., where former Oskar Blues and Eddyline brewer Dave Chichura is now head production brewer. That was the first keg to kick.
We can’t help it … Like seemingly everyone else (), we can’t get enough Humulus lupulus.
— Speaking of festivals, the 26th Colorado Brewers Festival is coming up this weekend in Fort Collins featuring about 60 beers from 40 of the state’s breweries.
Credit to organizers for making changes after long lines at last year’s Saturday session, an increasingly common occurrence as craft beer’s popularity shows no signs of slowing. Festival marketer Marty Jones says the festival is expanding entrance lines from one to three and adding more beer-serving stations and taps. Meantime, a new area called “The Neighborhood” will showcase beers from a dozen Fort Collins breweries and a chance to meet the brewers.
Another market-savvy move is the debut of a Friday night event called The Summit, which will be limited to 600 attendees and cater to the beer geek crowd with hard-to-find limited releases (). None of those beers will be poured at the festival’s main sessions on Saturday and Sunday. .
It’s probably no accident that the pre-event will raise money and awareness for the Colorado Brewers Guild. A like-minded event, the Fuss Off, was .
— Is it too early to mention GABF Week? Not with tickets to the Denver Rare Beer Tasting VII on Sept. 25 at the McNichols building at Civic Center Park . These are not cheap — $110 a pop — but all proceeds go to Pints for Prostates, the beer list is always stunning and the event will sell out. include Funky Buddha out of Florida — a GABF standout — and locals Casey Brewing and Blending of Glenwood Springs, Verboten Brewing in Loveland and Spangalang Brewing in Denver. VIP tickets sold out in record time, but regular-access tickets remain.
— Finally, one of the most revered breweries in Denver, Hogshead Brewing, celebrates three years of opening eyes to the wonders of cask beer . Beginning at 3 p.m. Thursday and running through Sunday, the festivities include new beer releases, daily cask gravity pours from stillage, live music, extended hours and more.
