That Rocky Mountain water
As a follow up to my post on beers of the World Series, our little beer group (more on that later) decided to tackle some Colorado brews this month. And so it was, with a selection of 13 different beers from 4 different breweries across the state.
As a group we were very impressed with the beers of Avery, particularly the big bottle products (such as the The Reverend Quadrupel and the Czar Imperial Stout). That said, the beers were uniformly good. The Old Jubilation, a winter ale, didn’t strike us as particularly wintery, and I found the Out of Bounds a bit thin for a stout, if still tasty.
I’ve said enough about Left Hand of late, but the consensus was that the Milk Stout is an excellent beer. The Polestar Pilsner wasn’t as clean and hoppy as I’d like, but the Dark Cover Brown Ale represented that style well. All of the Left Hand products have a certain smoothness to them which I enjoy in the ales, but not so much in the Pilsner.
Flying Dog also did well, although I’m not sure any of their beers stood out as much. It was interesting to note that they brew in Maryland as well as Colorado (go Orioles?!?), and some tasters who had tried the beers out West felt there was a difference. Maybe there is something to that Rocky Mountain water after all? The consensus seemed to be that the Snake Dog was the best of our batch, and the label artwork is certainly in a different class than most.
Great Divide was the least impressive of the lot, although in fairness the only beer we could drum up was the Samurai. I don’t know that an unfiltered rice beer was going to do well in this group of beers no matter what.
image from flyingdogales.com
Tags: Avery, beer, Brewery, colorado, Czar, Denver, Flying-Dog, Great-Divide, India-Pale-Ale, IPA, left-hand, Milk-Stout, Old-Jubilation, Out-of-Bounds, Polestar-Pilsner, quadrupel, Reverend, Samurai, Tsar
3 opinions for That Rocky Mountain water
TC
Nov 6, 2007 at 11:31 am
Great Divide’s big beers are tasty brews. My fiance especially loves their barleywine, Old Ruffian.
I haven’t had much Flying Dog, but their Baltic porter, Gonzo Imperial Porter, is fantastic.
Avery has an excellent double IPA or Imperial IPA or whatever it’s called: Maharaja.
Kelly
Nov 6, 2007 at 1:38 pm
The Milk Stout also went nicely in the lamb pie.
Chris
Nov 6, 2007 at 2:19 pm
I’ll have to give Great Divide a try, although I’m not a big barley wine fan. Unfortunately, I was late for the tasting so I didn’t even have the Samurai.
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