Baking pies tonight. The coolness of late Fall in Colorado has settled in and reminds me of the colder days to come. But that’s OK. The beauty of Colorado is that every season brings on the next series of imminent possibilities. This next chapter is composed of . . . layers . . . boots instead of shoes . . . skinning up trails instead of mountain biking trails . . . hunkering down . . . darkness. As the seasons change, so does the style of beer that I desire. Lagers and pilsners have no place for me now. Show me the porters, your browns and stouts. Give me rich, deep, dark maltiness. Give me high ABV and easy on the hops.
After the first year of challenges, and stress, and unknowns, and wins, and endless possibilities, I hesitate to say that we have almost developed a somewhat efficient brewing and packaging schedule. Head Brewer, Dany Pages runs the show, develops the weekly schedule, and for the most part it is executed as planned. This is not to say that curve balls never come our way. Take, for instance, the desire for a Christmas Ale. This has always been a strong desire since the inception of the brewery. For me, it was something that I could homebrew, bring to a friend’s holiday party with a big green sharpie “C” marked on the bottle cap, and offer to anyone who was interested. The Christmas Ale, in my mind, is a combination between dark, sweet maltiness, and spice. Many of the flavors would come from the right combination of orange peel, ginger, allspice, and in this case, juniper berries. For many years I have been searching for the redeeming qualities of the high alpine, stiff and gnarly juniper tree. It produces a berry that screams “Christmas Ale”. It’s time to bring that fruit to center stage and its true fate as part of a wintry beer.
As a homebrewer, I haven’t homebrewed for many years. The demands of founding a microbrewery have taken precedence. Last Friday, I got to brew again. With the patient teaching of Dany, I got my feet wet on what it is like to brew on our equipment. Dany and I consulted on bringing my homebrew recipe to a production level. We started the mash in the early morn and set the schedule for lauter, hops, spices, and fermentation. We took the gravities, pitched the yeast, and let nature take its course. Juniper berries never felt such purpose.
This year, I will once again get to bring Christmas Ale to holiday parties. It’s a little different this time. I didn’t brew it on my stove, but the same rules apply. Whatever brings you comfort and warmth during the days approaching the solstice, relish in it. For it’s this time of year that dormancy brings vigor from the branches to the roots so that come springtime, we’re ready to hit it once again.
Have you ever ventured into the great unknown and wondered what your world would be like a year from now?
A year ago, our Head Brewer, Dany, spent 18 hours trying to push 3 ½ barrels of beer through our 7 barrel system.
A year ago, our Director of Sales & Marketing, Henry Wood, was getting the lay of the land, shaking a lot of hands, and waiting for product that he could sell.
A year ago, there was a worldwide hop shortage, the start of the Great Recession, and a national bank crisis.
A year ago, Upslope Brewing Company quietly opened its doors to the City of Boulder, hoping to be welcomed with open arms. Those who were curious, or perhaps just stumbled upon the place by accident, came upon a warehouse with a brewhouse. They smiled and tried our one and only Upslope Pale Ale, and nobody asked, “So what else do you have?”.
About a week ago, Henry suggested, “Why don’t you blog about what it’s like to be a year old?” Tough to say. Being a year old is like getting safely out of the harbor, but pointing the bow out into the wild sea. Your craft is solid, your crew well trained, but the open ocean is vast and rolling. At the same time, you look back at shore as it fades in the distance. “Well . . . we made it this far.”
Please come join us at the brewery this Saturday, November 7th, for our One Year Anniversary from 2:00 to 6:00. We plan to celebrate in the best way we know how; Bluegrass by Gin Wagon, great food by Dubbin’s Sandwiches, and Dany’s One Year Anniversary Ale. And for those who joined us for our grand opening, you’ll be happy to hear that you have seven more choices on tap than you had a year ago.
Hot from the oven, baby bear pumpkins stake their place among malt, hops, and yeast.
Organic is more than just an adjective of how many prefer their produce around Boulder. It’s how big things seem to happen. Let me tell you the tale of a pumpkin ale.
Dan Hayward, of Savory Spice in Boulder, approaches me one day, introduces himself and says, “We’re a local provider of spices in Boulder and have worked with many of the local breweries. If ever you brew a spice beer, stop by and we’ll steer you in the right direction.” “OK”, I thought, “Who knows?”.
Enter Mike Munson, of Munson Farms. Their sweet corn and pumpkins are known for miles around. He approaches me and says, “Why don’t we do a pumpkin beer!?” I’m thinking, “Why not? We’ve never done that before.”
I go to the brewery and present the idea to the brewers. Alex says, “Let’s do it! I brewed a pumpkin ale when I was brewing at Smoky Mountain Brewery in Tennessee.” Dany, showing the Argentinian in him, says, “What is this pumpkin ale?!? Why would we make a beer with pumpkins?”
Not all pumpkins make a great pumpkin ale. Mike gives me pie pumpkins, red pumpkins, french pumpkins, baby bear pumpkins, and white pumpkins. We cook and we taste, looking for the right combination of sweetness and squashiness. Alex and Brian brew a pilot batch.
One hundred and twenty-five pounds of baby bear pumpkins waiting in the wings, I go to Savory Spice and Dan counsels me to walk out with the right combination of broken Vietnamese cinnamon bark, nutmeg seeds, allspice berries, whole cloves, ginger, and shaved mace (the skin of a nutmeg seed).
After a group effort of cooking and carving out the pumpkin “meat”, the brew takes place, finishing up in the wee hours of the morning. With the yeast loving all of those sugars from the pumpkins, the fermentation bubbles away for days.
Today I stole a taste out of the fermenter and the season suddenly came upon me. It’s that time of year, and it’s time to celebrate. Come join us this Friday, the day before Halloween, as we release Munson Farms Pumpkin Ale in the Upslope Tap Room stating at 4:00. Roots and Blues supplied by Chad Dughi.
Upslope Dunkelweizen shows its true color: bronze
There we were, the new kids on the block in the shadows of greatness: the well-respected Sierra Nevada under their tents near the Oskar Blues-sponsored silent disco; Full Sail with their 200 barrel brewhouse from population 5000 Hood River, Oregon; Dogfish Head from Delaware with a full line of savory ales, and Colorado pioneer New Belgium, following their folly.
Bright-eyed and wagging our tails, we set up the booth. Not really knowing what to expect, we put ourselves out there, welcomed the curious, told our story, and walked away with a couple of medals. Befuddled when the announcements came, two of our Single Batch Series ales brought home bronze awards: Upslope Dunkelweizen in the German Wheat Ale category, and Upslope “Time of the Season” Belgian Pale Ale in the Pro Am competition. The Upslope Dunkelweizen was brewed by Upslope Head Brewer Dany Pages, and was based upon a recipe by former Upslope brewer, Yazan Karadsheh. “Time of the Season” was revealed to us through Brian Patterson, homebrewer extraordinaire, to compete in the GABF Pro Am competition.
After a day or two with our heads in the clouds, we get up early to brew, stay late to package and clean tanks, and cautiously play with the idea in the backs of our heads, that maybe someday we will be among the greats.
Cheers to all that joined us and reveled in the largest celebration of craft beer on the planet!!
Head Brewer, Dany Pages, checks the numbers.
Take a regular human being, and make him a chemist. Take a chemist and make him an artist. Take an artist and make him a statistician. Take a statistician and make him a plumber. Take a plumber and make him a cook. Take a cook and make him a perfectionist. Take a perfectionist and make him a brewer.
At Upslope Brewing Company, we are headed into unchartered waters. We are brewing ales resulting from the opportunity, “What do you want to brew?”. As a result, we are at a very exciting junction in which we have allowed our brewers to spread their wings and offer up their best in our “Single Batch Series”. Four single batches of four different styles are coming out of this effort. The brewers have created these ales from their own recipes. Two of these four batches have been created by homebrewers. They came to us with some creative ideas. We thought that we’d see what they got.
Since these releases will not be canned, join us in the Tap Room over the next 3-4 weeks to celebrate these offerings. Bring your critical palate. Tell us if we’re headed in the right direction. Because, even artists need to be judged once in awhile.
When we first started brewing beer back in October, on a Sunday afternoon I was meeting some friends at Upslope in order to give them a tour. Upon reaching to unlock the door, a voice perked up behind our group, “Do any of you guys work here?”. It was Dave Chichura, Head Brewer of Oskar Blues. He had noticed the sign and was curious about what we were all about. He joined the tour, and I encouraged him to chime in whenever he could. When things were wrapping up, he said, “If you ever need anything, just ask.”
I have learned ever since that when a fellow brewer says this, it’s not just lipservice. Boulder County and Colorado are somewhat of a craft brewing incubator. We have a sound infrastructure of suppliers, outstanding water, legislation that allows a startup to succeed, a brewer’s association that is the standard, a strong state brewer’s guild, a population of educated palates who demand great beer, and a bunch of brewers who want to see their “competitors” succeed. It’s no wonder that Colorado produces more beer than any state in the Union.
I have taken Dave up on his offer more than once, and offers made from the great people at Left Hand, Avery, Boulder Beer . . .
“So, why do you can your beer?” This question definitely ranks in the top ten that we hear.
Kicking back at the campsite while riding the White Rim in Canyonlands. Photo courtesy of Michael Robson Photography.
Like a carton is to milk and a peel to an orange, the aluminum can has proven to be a natural package for beer. However, it took a while to figure out how to do it properly. Canned beer’s history is tainted with bad technology and little regard for the finished product.
In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the aluminum can in 2009, Bill Coors was interviewed by the Rocky Mountain news. He expressed his displeasure of the tin can as a beer container, citing the “lousy aftertaste” it left in their beer and the metal cans that littered the American landscape since they weren’t easily recycled. He turned his sights toward recycled aluminum. It was cheaper and more easily sterilized, eliminating the need to pasteurize the beer. Combine a visionary with the inventor of the chewing-gum scraper attached to a broom, and great things can happen. After years of refining the design, Ruben Hartmeister walked into Bill Coors office in 1959 with a crude aluminum can.
The short list of why Upslope Ales can only be found in cans:
Hand-crafted We brew our beer in small batches and it is not pasteurized. So,it needs to be protected. Light oxidizes beer. It’s very dark inside a can. Oxygen oxidizes beer. Cans are hermetically sealed. “But, you get that ‘tinny’ taste.” All cans are now lined with an aqueous polymer. Metal never touches beer.
Aluminum Can Ever see a can shatter when its dropped? Ever grab a 12-pack of cans in one hand and a 12-pack of bottles in the other hand? It’s like being with your 4 year-old on the seesaw.
Portable Take ‘em up the trail in the pack. Drain ‘em, crush ‘em, stick ‘em back in the pack.
Recyclable Used aluminum cans are recycled and returned to a store shelf as a new can in as few as 60 days. That’s because the can’s aluminum materials are designed with recyclability in mind.
Good Hand-crafted beer well protected in a light, crushable, recyclable package? Sounds pretty good to me.
Now, I have absolutely nothing against tasty beer in a bottle, but don’t think less of a hand-crafted beer in a can. And if you’re not camping, backpacking, or at a music festival . . . you can always choose to pour it in a glass.
Bitter Brown Tapping Party at Upslope
I’ve never been much of a wine guy. While I have always enjoyed relaxing with my wife, splitting a bottle of red over the course of the evening, it’s not my “go to”. I am the guy, at the restaurant, after everyone has ordered their preferred cab or zin, who asks the waiter, “So, what do you have on tap?”.
Beer to me represents all of the good things in life. It is friendly and casual. It is unobtrusive and unpretentious. It is sincere and light-hearted. It is lively banter and belly laughs. It is going to the ballpark, unwinding after a workday, and enjoying a fine meal all rolled up into one. It is international and welcoming. It is natural and historic. It is relaxing and calming. It is crafted. It is good.
In the movie “Titanic”, one of my favorite scenes is the shot of the first class deck, with it’s well-dressed passengers, fine china and tablecloths. Then the camera moves down through the decks to the third class. The clanging of crystal gives way to Irish music, and in a big room in the belly of the ship there is a raucous party being revealed. Travelers are hammering their instruments, dancing on tables, laughing and singing, and liter mugs are in hand sloshing with ale. Every time that I watch this scene, I have the same thought . . . These are my people.
Who needs a dock!? Dany and Henry masterfully rig up a support for unloading a 15BBL fermenter.
When you boil it down, what is a brewery really? It’s a commercial kitchen. It’s a chemistry lab. It’s a crossroads for beer enthusiasts. Most of all, though, it’s a manufacturing facility. There are raw materials, brewing and fermentation processes, and finished goods. There are first articles, process checkpoints, and quality assurance. There are brewing kettles, pumps, filters, heat exchangers, chillers, and fermentation tanks.
Our little 7 barrel system grew up a little bit last night. While 217 gallons brewed at one time seems like more than you could fit in your fridge, our system is the size of what you would see in many brewpubs. From our very first brew back in October until now, we have been limited to brewing three times per week with our existing equipment. Where’s the bottleneck? No, it’s not in our manual canning system. It’s in our fermenters. Every time that we brew a batch of beer, we pump it into one of our 7 barrel fermenters. There the beer will remain, happily fermenting for 3-4 days, plus another 3-4 days for conditioning. So we will brew and brew and brew, and once the fermenters are full, we can’t brew again until the conditioning is complete and we can pump the flat, warm beer to another tank for carbonation.
The fermenter that you see in the photo above is one of two new tanks that ferments 15 barrels of beer. This doubles our current fermentation capacity, and hence, our production. The beauty of all that stainless steel is that it will allow us to sell our hand-crafted ales to more restaurants, taverns, and liquor stores. It will also bring a steady stream of seasonal ales to our tap room. Doesn’t that just make life a little better for all of us?
As usual, things are very busy here at Upslope Brewing Company. Of course, we are very excited about what’s happening. Tomorrow we are expecting the arrival of two 15 BBL fermentation tanks, the 12 pack boxes are finally being run and we are providing the beer for the Boulder Farmer’s Market Beer Garden.
We are also excited about the release of our newest seasonal this Friday. It is a bitter brown ale. Early tastings were met with much excitement. So, we decided to throw a party to celebrate. It will consist or $3 pints, $2 Boulder Brats, bluegrass, free tours and rounds of corn-hole! Come join us!!!
