Weekly Growler Fill | National Beer News Roundup

Big news in the craft beer world this week: Four Peaks was bought by Anheuser-Busch, New Belgium looks into selling, and Ninkasi revamps their Flagship Series. Don’t miss out on the stories all your friends are talking about. Keep reading to get the details in this edition of the Weekly Growler Fill.

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Roaring Fork Beer Company | Hoppa Road Imperial IPA

Style: IPA – Imperial/Double | ABV: 8.5% | IBUs: N/A

An 8% hop bomb; Hoppa Road is brewed with over two and a half pounds of Citra Hops per barrel. This makes for a big juicy, lupulicious brew.

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Comrade Brewing Company | Hop Chops

ABV: 9.5%

Ever since I started hosting trivia at Comrade Brewing Company (Wednesday nights at 7pm, y’all!), Comrade has consistently brewed some fantastic beer. Each week they seem to be putting out a brand new beer for all those beer lovers of northwest-ish Aurora. (Or is it southeast-ish Denver?) They love trying new things and mixing up the ever-rotating tap list, but if there is one thing that Comrade Brewing Company is consistently awesome at it’s hops. Read More

Red Rock Brewery | Elephino

8% ABV

The evolution of a hophead: You drink pils and lagers until your beer geek friend offers up a Uinta Cutthroat or Squatters Full Suspension (not hoppy by today’s standards). You take the first sip and ….. BOOM! Flashback to Keystone’s Bitter Beer Face campaign from the 90’s. Then you avoid the crazy ‘bitter beers’ for years, maybe even a decade, only to try one when there are no tame options. Read More

Odell Brewing Company | Wolf Picker Pale Ale

With craft breweries opening at a rate of 1.5 per day, coming up with inventive names can be a real challenge for brewers. Thanks to aggressive litigation and creative marketing, we have inventive names like Raucho Man Randy Beverage from Against the Grain, Boom Shakalager from Terrapin, and my personal favorite: Those Candies Your Granny Loves Brown Ale from Cigar City. Then there’s Wolf Picker Pale Ale from Odell Brewing Company. What’s a Wolf Picker? Good question. Trigger warning: German subtitles.

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Sierra Nevada Brewing Co | 2014 Harvest Wild Hop IPA

ABV 6.5% IBU 55

For those of you keeping up with Sierra Nevada’s Harvest Series, you’ll know that they’ve gifted us with two single hop IPAs, a wet hop IPA, a … Read More

Green Flash Brewing Co. | Jibe Session IPA and Soul Style IPA

American craft beer fans are regularly maligned by lupulin-adverse detractors for being addicted to hops. They say we value intense bitterness above all while ignoring the subtle and nuanced flavors malt and yeast bring to the table. Well, I suppose I’m about to give the hop-haters another log to throw on that roaring fire they’ve built under a crude effigy of Sam Calagione loading a hop cannon, because I love hoppy beer. Don’t get me wrong. I appreciate a syrupy barleywine or mouth-puckering gueuze as much as the next guy, but most of the time, a clean, dry IPA is what I crave. That wasn’t always the case, mind you. The IPAs I encountered a decade ago on the East Coast didn’t really do it for me. Perhaps I chose poorly, but they were usually cloyingly sweet with a flat, one-dimensionally bitterness. My love affair with hops didn’t begin in earnest until I moved to Colorado.

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Flying Dog Brewery | Snake Dog IPA

ABV: 7.1%

IBU: 60

It snakes down the throat like a faithful friend. – Anna Steadman (Snake Dog IPA label) Read More

Great Lakes Brewing | Spacewalker American Belgo

ABV: 8.2%

IBU: 65

If you explore the brief description on Spacewalker’s carrier, it reads:

“Perhaps one of space’s great mysteries is why so many of its explorers hail from Ohio. In honor of the 25 courageous astronauts who have called Ohio their terrestrial home, and the nine Ohio men and women who’ve logged hours walking in space, we present this adventurous brew.”  Read More

Odell Brewing Company | Perle White IPA

ABV: 5.5%

Do you remember the first time you tasted a white IPA? While enjoying a Chainbreaker a few years ago, I wondered if these wheaty-hoppy hybrids would ever catch on. Little did I know it would soon find a home on seemingly every taplist in Denver. While albino IPAs have become increasingly popular nationwide, we’ve only seen a few examples of the style from Colorado brewers. When I heard that Odell Brewing, the Ft. Collins brewery responsible for perhaps my favorite Colorado IPA, were releasing their Perle White IPA this summer, my tastebuds stood at rapt attention. Read More

Weekly Growler Fill | National Beer News Roundup

New beers, new locations and new ways to use hops. Also, drink the most popular beer from the country you’re cheering for in the World Cup. You can find all this and more in this edition of the Weekly Growler Fill.

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Peak Organic Brewing | Summer Session

ABV: 5%

IBU: 61

Memorial Day is generally seen as the harbinger of summer. As that final Monday in May comes and goes; as barbecues galore – with their sundry … Read More

Cooking with Beer | Fried Beer-Battered Avocados

Here it goes again, another recipe about Cooking with Beer. This one should really be called ‘The Trials and Tribulations of Frying Beer-Battered Avocados’ or ‘Kitchen Failures: Avocado Edition.’ Luckily, the saying held true and the third time really was a charm. Frying avocados sounded amazing but figuring out the right way to accomplish the task wasn’t easy. The first time around, the batter was too thick and I forgot some ingredients (so don’t drink too much before cooking). The second attempt, the batter still didn’t seem right and the avocados turned to mush. The third time, well, it was perfection. The batter was crispy and full of flavorful hops from the Upslope IPA. The avocados turned out to be just the right texture. These little crunchy green nuggets tasted great — probably even better to me since I finally conquered what seemed to be an impossible mission. But when you think about it, how could you ever go wrong when beer and avocados are involved?

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CBC 2014 Recap | The Seminars

In the second week of April, over 9,000 brewing professionals traveled to Denver, CO to attend the 2014 Craft Brewers Conference. Aside from beer and networking, what could lure brewers from all around the world to the mile high city? Well, fortunately PorchDrinkers Tristan, Cory, Chris, and Phil were on hand to find out. Below is our coverage of some of the 80+ educational seminars presented during the conference.

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Modern Times Beer| Blazing World

ABV: 6.8%

Modern Times’ can first caught my eye because it reminded me of a classic baseball uniform, inviting in that vintage American summer day feeling (I guess it’s like that every day in Southern California). This can is beautiful, simple, classic, and awesome. In the beer world, looks can deceive, but Modern Times Beer has it all: perfect inside and out. Read More

Short’s Brewing | Huma Lupalicious

7.7% ABV, 96 IBU

The world can be full of happy coincidences. I just made a trip to Michigan to plan my upcoming wedding to a beautiful gal. While enjoying … Read More

Brew Dog – Hardcore IPA

When I think of India Pale Ales, I don’t think of The Subcontinent, I’d venture to guess that most of you don’t either. Maybe California or Comstock, MI, but probably not India. The IPA is a British invention that is as tired as that other big British invention: Watt’s steam engine. America does IPAs the right way – the American IPA is the Saturn V rocket to the paltry British IPA. Or at least so I thought. Read More

Brooklyn Sorachi Ace

7.60% ABV

Ante up PorchDrinker, because today we have the Brooklyn Sorachi Ace on our table and it is…aces. Sorry, I had to. This delightful saison was intended for summers, but after its original warm-weathered debut, Brooklyn Brewery fans liked it so much, it worked its way off the seasonal list and onto the Brewmaster’s Reserve, offered year round. While I can see the summer appeal it is certainly a brew good for any season. However, The thing I like the most about this beer is that it has a little bit of everything, all rolled into one. (Yes, I did just accidentally slip into some Meredith Brooks lyrics there. I cringed for a second, but then I got over it. You will too.) This beer is somehow simultaneously crisp yet comforting, light but big, and strong but subtle. Basically, you’ve hit blackjack my friend. Read More

New Belgium Snapshot Wheat Release Party | Denver, CO

Denverites unite! It’s already been a few months since New Belgium Brewing’s new unfiltered wheat, Snapshot debuted on store shelves, but that doesn’t mean it’s too late to throw down in celebration of it’s official release. PorchDrinking will be on hand at Galvanize, located at 1062 Delaware St., to support our great friends at Artifact Uprising who have partnered with New Belgium Brewing and Imbibe Denver for Saturday night’s release party.

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Bell’s Hopslam: The Greatest Beer You May Not Be Able to Find

Bell’s Hopslam

ABV: 10%

IBU: 90+

Sometimes, the chase is all the fun. Anyone who has watched a sappy rom-com knows how this plays out – the pursuit becomes the fun becomes the commitment, and then the waffling suitor gets cold feet. No sooner than he can regret it, Logan Marshall-Green swoops in and before you know it, Hide & Seek is playing in slow-mo.  But what do you do when the object of your affection is no vexing vixen but a soapy seductress, a hoppy harlot, or a malty matron? We’re not talking about the 4:30 thoughts of a 5 o’clock cold one, this is serious: this is some Captain Ahab shit, and Bell’s Hopslam is my white whale.

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