Introducing No. 3: Upslope Brown Ale

From homebrew adventure to third can, here is the story of how Upslope Brewing’s newcomer evolved from concept to reality.

It’s September 2009. Tap Room Manager and avid homebrewer, Chad Pieper, brought in a bottle of one of his latest concoctions. It was his first attempt at a brown ale. He wanted something a little non-traditional.

Sure the British introduced the Brown Ale way back in 17th century. It was light brown and sweet, and brewed exclusively with brown malt. Chad decided that this was a good foundation, but as Americans do, the style needed to be Americanized. It needed to be roasted, and malty, and it needed to be a little more bitter than the style that was an English second cousin to the mild ale.

As the bottle of homebrew was emptied into small glasses, the brewers took notice. Chad brewed another batch. The sampling continued. The brewers scaled the recipe up to a 4 barrel batch. The tap room starts to serve it. More brown is brewed and it starts to generate interest at local restaurants and taverns. It goes on tap for the ski season at Eldora Mountain Resort. Over several months, the brown becomes a mainstay in the tap room. 

It didn’t stop there. We continued to tweak the recipe; switch up the specialty malts, bring out new flavors and finishes with different yeast strains, and combine American hops with the English hops. In time, we gathered feedback from our customers in the tap room and wherever it gathered a following in local restaurants and taverns.

As the brewery expanded in March, the potential for a third can gained interest. Summer came to the Front Range and the new fermenters were brimming with ale intended for rusty red and indigo blue cans. The idea is shelved.

With yet another expansion in the works, ideas bubbled up again. Is it finally time? Which style would it be? Looking toward the history we had with our beloved brown ale, and our customer’s call of “Do you have anything darker in cans?”, the wheels are set in motion.

What color should the can be for a brown ale? Well . . . green, of course.

Design, label approvals with the TTB, coordinating with our can supplier for dies and plates and production slots, and the inevitable pilgrimage to Worland, Wyoming by Henry Wood to approve the perfect production details, the cans are manufactured and roll their way seven hours south to Boulder. In anticipation, a few days earlier the final recipe of  the brown ale is brewed into the 30 barrel fermenters for the first time. Packaging is planned.

Not because of carefully planned schedules and marketing hype, Upslope Brown Ale is loaded onto our vans and pickup trucks and delivered to our retailers . . . two years to the day that our first two cans were first delivered from a little known brewery in North Boulder. The Monday before Thanksgiving just seems to be a good day for us.

From the adapted kegs of a homebrew system that’s still missing one of it’s wheels, and the creativity and ingenuity of a certain homebrewer, Upslope celebrates it’s homebrewing roots with this third offering. We humbly ask you to give it a try, celebrate it’s malt character and roasted flavor, and raise a can to Chad!

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