A Belgian Style Pale Ale to Keep You Satisfied This Summer

All beer lovers have their share of favorite summer seasonal beers - ones that are crisp and refreshing, yet flavorful enough to not get boring. The Belgian Style Pale Ale from Upslope Brewing Company has become one of my personal favorite craft beers to grab during these warmer months. I would love to be able to enjoy the BSPA year-round, but I'll have to settle for spring and summertime availability of this limited release beer.

Upslope has made the BSPA its summer seasonal, so it can be found in 6-packs wherever Upslope beers are distributed. It was previously available on a more limited basis, and a couple years ago could only be found in Upslope's mixed 12-packs. Earlier this year, the BSPA was also featured in a collaboration between Upslope and Denver-based Crooked Stave Artisan Beer Project. As the first part in a collaboration series called Ferus Fluxus, each brewery inoculated a portion of the BSPA with a wild yeast strain, and then aged the beer. The results were two different wild versions of the BSPA for customers to enjoy.

There are plenty of great reasons why BSPA makes an excellent summertime beer. It's packaged in easy to carry aluminum cans, like all Upslope beers, so you can take it camping, hiking, or on a picnic in the park. The BSPA pours a translucent golden color, and exudes fruity aromas from the Belgian yeast esters. Its body is light, and the flavors are crisp with a moderate hop profile. The Belgian yeast gives it fruity flavors of pear and tropical fruit, and coriander adds a slightly spicy quality. This beer is big on flavor, and highly drinkable. I would like to say its a sessionable beer, but a 7.5% ABV says otherwise. BSPA goes great with many foods, and is perfect to sip on while sitting outside, enjoying the warm weather.

A very reasonable price-point also makes BSPA an excellent value. If you have a chance, definitely give this delicious beer a try this summer.

Some Love for the Lagers

There's no doubt that ales are the classification of beer that dominates the American craft beer market. Top-fermenting beers cover a huge range of styles and can be produced relatively quickly, ready to be consumed within several weeks of brewing. Lagers, or bottom-fermenting beers, take more time and care to produce. Some things are definitely worth the wait, as Saint Patrick's Brewing Company has proven. This small craft brewery in Englewood, Colorado brews exclusively lagers, with an incredible range of variety and innovation.

Saint Patrick's was founded in 2012, and it currently resides in a small business park off Santa Fe Drive. The taproom is small but cozy, and the staff is inviting, knowledgeable and friendly. Saint Patrick's serves about 10 beers at any given time. Some selections will be familiar to seasoned beer drinkers as traditional lagers, like Czech pilsner, German pilsner or dunkel. Many others, when reading the names, just might blow your mind - beers like the Sour Cherry Saison or the Rawbone Dubbel Dog, which brings together elements of a Vienna lager, porter, saison, and dunkel. These beers and many others aid Saint Patrick's in achieving its mission, which is to re-invent what a lager can be. Perhaps one of the best examples of this mission in action is the Limoncello Lager, a decadent and strong but very smooth dessert beer brewed with honey.

All of Saint Patrick's beers are unfiltered, but have excellent clarity due to the lagering process. Each beer is fermented and lagered in cold tanks for 8 to 12 weeks. With this longer time period for production and limited space in its current location, the amount of different beers Saint Patrick's puts out is quite impressive. Brewmaster Chris Phelps uses a large variety of fine ingredients to come up with lagers that incorporate many elements you'd often find in ales, in addition to brewing traditional or common lager styles. Pictured below are two beers I tried on a recent visit, the Kolsch on the left and the Midnight Mocha Lager on the right. Both beers are great representations of traditional German styles. A Kolsch is typically top-fermented like an ale but then cold conditioned like a lager, so the Saint Patrick's Kolsch was similar to an authentic one. It's a refreshing light-bodied, crisp, lightly hopped and slightly sweet lager. The Midnight Mocha Lager is a Schwarzbier, with a slight variation due to the addition of lactose and honey in the brewing process. It's a dark, medium-bodied beer with low hop bitterness and lots of chocolate and coffee flavors from the roasted malt. While the Kolsch and the Midnight Mocha Lager contrast in appearance and flavor profiles, both are crisp and refreshing, and most importantly, very delicious.

Saint Patrick's Brewing Company is one of many hidden gem breweries in Colorado. They'll soon be moving to a more prominent location on Santa Fe Drive just west of downtown Littleton, with more space for brewing and serving their special lager beers. Whether you gravitate toward ales or are well-versed in lagers, Saint Patrick's is a must stop for anyone who just loves great beer.

Littleton's Beer Scene Grows, With Jake's Brew Bar Leading the Way

Fortunately, it's not hard to find establishments all over the Denver metro area that serve a large array of great craft beer. So what sets a place apart from the rest? I'd say it's a combination of great service, excellent selection, and a certain element of charm or character. Jake's Brew Bar on Main Street in downtown Littleton has all of these, and it just added a lot more room as well. It's a coffee and craft beer bar, serving 38 rotating drafts and more than 40 bottles and cans of craft beer.

Jake's has been in existence for about two years, but I somehow just heard of it early this year. This past weekend Jake's celebrated an expansion and the addition of a beer garden, and I finally made it in to check out the place. The expanded bar, which houses the beer garden in the back, is next door to the original bar. The two spaces are connected by a front patio, and it fits in nicely among the boutique shops that line Main Street. Jake's decor is simple with white walls and craft beer signs, and sharp-looking wood floors and furniture.

A few minutes at the bar, and it just feels like home. Old black and white family photos are embedded in the bar, and bluegrass music plays over the sound system. To top off the charming, old-timey feel, the tap handles in the new bar space are a variety of old household and industrial tools. It's the perfect place to enjoy a glass or two of excellent craft beer and conversation with the bartenders or your fellow patrons.

The tap list is large and impressive, featuring beers from the east coast, west coast, and everywhere in between. There are several Belgian and German import selections as well. During my visit, I tried two beers from Colorado breweries that were new to me. One was a cask-conditioned glass of De Coup Wild Farmhouse Ale by Paradox Beer Company in Woodland Park. It's a delicious cask ale that has a rustic fruity character with a good deal of funk from the wild yeast. The other beer was Maiden's Kiss Maibock from Grimm Brothers Brewhouse in Loveland. This spring beer is a great example of the maibock style, with a pronounced malty sweetness and moderate earthy noble hop flavors.

There are plenty of other gems on the tap list that are more or less well-known, and that's a huge part of the appeal. I know that every time I go back to Jake's, there will be an eclectic selection of beers that I probably won't see elsewhere. The good folks at Jake's definitely know their stuff, they do things their way, and those who go in and explore are better off for it.

Best in Class: The Case for Myrcenary

Many craft beer lovers have their go-to beer or favorite for a particular style. You know, beers that taste just as great now as they did when first experienced, no matter how many other examples of that style a beer drinker has tried in between. For me and my fondness for big hop-forward beers, that beer is Myrcenary Double India Pale Ale by Odell Brewing Company in Fort Collins, Colorado.

Myrcenary was first released in early 2011 as a year-round offering. At the time, fewer breweries than today were brewing double/imperial IPAs or variations of very hop-centric ales. The double IPA style, which is a distinctly American craft brewing style, has surged in popularity in the past several years. Some of the most sought after and highly rated American craft beers fall into this category, including Pliny the Elder from Russian River Brewing, Heady Topper from The Alchemist brewery, and Hopslam from Bell's Brewery.

I picked up a 4-pack of Myrcenary the week it was released in 2011, and was blown away by the intense bright flavors and its amazingly smooth drinkability. More than three years later, and having tried quite a few double IPAs since, I still claim Myrcenary as a favorite, perhaps my number one. The name is a play on the word Myrcene, which is a component of oils in the hop flower. Myrcenary is brewed with varieties of hops that contain the highest levels of Myrcene. It's a very well-balanced ale that delivers huge citrus and tropical fruit flavors, along with some floral and pine notes. The malt presence adds a touch of sweetness to the aroma and flavor. The finish is crisp and refreshing, lacking much of the aggressive bitterness that accompanies some double IPAs.

Surprisingly, Myrcenary seems to fly under the radar in terms of national renown. But for those who have tried this well-crafted hop bomb, there's no denying that it measures up to the best of them. With year-round availability at a reasonable price, Myrcenary is one of Colorado's finest.

Breckenridge Gets Zesty With Ophelia Hoppy Wheat

In craft beer terms, there's a new girl in town and she's a complex character. Ophelia Hoppy Wheat Ale is a new spring seasonal from Breckenridge Brewery. Released in January, Ophelia has had several months to garner buzz and establish itself as a spring beer to be sought out and enjoyed. This past Saturday, with the sun shining and spring in full force, I decided to crack open an Ophelia to find out how it stands up as a spring seasonal.

Ophelia's release is one event in a series of big things lately for Breckenridge. In January 2013, Breckenridge announced plans to build a new $20 million, 12-acre farm-style brewery and restaurant in Littleton, Colorado. The project is in the works and may be completed by spring 2015. Breckenridge has also put out some very high quality offerings from its barrel-aging program. One delicious barrel-aged beer it's produced recently is Barleywine Batch #1, released to the public in mid-March. The Breckenridge Vanilla Porter, a long-time fan favorite, can be found on a nitro tap now as well, giving lovers of the Left Hand Brewing Milk Stout Nitro a comparable second option.

For any brewery, releasing a beer like Ophelia would be important. For Breckenridge, it's part of a positive trend of growth and movement into the upper echelons of Colorado craft breweries. Ophelia pours a bright orange color with a light body and moderate carbonation. The flavors are crisp citrus and spiciness, with a zesty and slightly hoppy finish. It has tons of character and complexity for such an easy-drinking beer. It's in the session-beer realm at 5 percent ABV, which will appeal to many beer drinkers during these warmer months.

Ophelia is definitely a hybrid style, and an excellent example of the innovation of American craft brewing. It seems like the type of beer that holds discovery of its complex nature in each sip, making sure you never get bored.