Call to Arms Brewing was a new brewery in Denver in 2015. Seated clockwise from top left are Jon Cross, Chris Bell, Nathaniel Pepperberry and Jesse Brookstein. (Photo courtesy of Call to Arms Brewing).
As 2015 comes to a close, we’re once again asking leading figures on the Colorado beer scene to reflect on the past year and look ahead to next.
This next installment in our 5th annual Beer In Review features Jesse Brookstein of , with some help from his co-founders, Jon Cross and Chris Bell. Call to Arms is a closely watched new brewery in northwest Denver.
Now, onto the Jesse’s top picks:
Favorite beer of the year: Jesse: Maibock, Station 26 Brewing Co.; Jon: Project Alpha No. 5, Cannonball Creek Brewing Co.; Chris: Project Alpha No. 4, Cannonball Creek Brewing Co.
Colorado brewery of the year: Cannonball Creek Brewing Co. Every beer those fellas release is one step ahead of the last, and their support of the industry and fellow brewers is unparalleled.
New Colorado brewery of the year: Ratio Beerworks and Spangalang Brewery. Ratio, much like TRVE a few years back, brings an originality to the Denver craft beer scene that’s both singular and inspiring. In a city with a great, yet somewhat-unheralded, music scene, their musical events and cross-promotions bring a breath of life to Denver’s taproom culture. Spangalang, too, brought a uniqueness in that they truly embraced the neighborhood in which they opened – in name and aesthetic. And it’s almost eerie how similar our business models are to one-another in terms of community focus and long-term growth. And if there was a question, both breweries make incredible beers.
Colorado brewery to watch in 2016: Bierstadt Lagerhaus. Bill and Ashleigh’s reputations precede them, and as lager fanatics, we couldn’t be more excited for their beers to start flowing.
Most notable craft beer news or trend of 2015: Acquisitions. Joint Ventures. Mergers. Putting the romantic aspects of brewing, dry-hopping, and barrel-aging aside, breweries like Oskar Blues, Firestone Walker, Lagunitas, and Ballast Point are shining light on the fact that — at the end of the day — craft brewing is a big-boy business worth billions of dollars.
Craft beer trend to watch for in 2016: The continued fear-mongering of the craft beer hype-machine. As the industry grows, so grows the legions of beer writers — and what truly drives their creativity is doom, gloom, and not-so-original (and often wrong) opinions and predictions. There isn’t a craft beer bubble about to burst. Hops will remain readily available — not everyone will get Citra, but they will get hops. It’s not the can or bottle itself that leads to oxidation, it’s the environment in which it’s packaged. IPAs are not a fad; fads don’t last decades. Sours are not a fad; fads don’t last centuries. Oft-repeated opinions don’t necessarily reflect facts.
Here are previous entries:
