Colorado Breweries Make RateBeer Top 100 List

Congratulations to the following Colorado Breweries who were awarded the designation of top 100 brewers in the world for 2010 by ratebeer.com. Well deserved! Keep brewin' that world class beer!

• #93 Odell Brewing Company
• #80 Left Hand Brewing Company
• #42 Oscar Blues Grill and Brew
• #23 New Belgium Brewing Company
• #20 Avery Brewing Company
• #08 Great Divide Brewing Company

For the complete list, visit the rate beer site here.   

A Limerick

Limericks are a fun, clever, sometimes bawdy form of poetry. They follow a very specific, well defined form. A limerick has five lines. The first, second and fifth lines rhyme with each other, as do the third and fourth. The form looks like this: a-a-b-b-a. The rhythm is defined also, with three stresses on lines 1, 2 & 5 and two stresses on lines 3 & 4. Due to their musicality, limericks are best spoken aloud!

Here is a limerick for today, written by yours truly:

Mother thought gin was just dandy,
But father was fond of his brandy.
Tho' barley and hops,
In my book are tops!
Together they’re better than candy!

Big Beers Belgians & Barleywines 2010 (Day 2)

Here are some pictures and commentary from Day 2 (Saturday, Jan. 9) of the 2010 BBB festival in Vail CO. I highly recommend this festival. There are seminars, beer dinners, a homebrew contest and a commercial tasting session of over 200 different beers!

(you can click on the pictures for larger views)

The morning started at 10:00 AM with a seminar called "Brewing Outside the Box: Brewers Gone Wild!" The panelists spoke about their experience and experiments with unusual/extreme styles.

Panelists included: Kevin DeLange - Dry Dock Brewing, Sam Calagione - Dogfish Head Craft Brewery, John Mallett - Bell's Brewing Co., Steven Pauwels - Boulevard Brewing Co., David Edgar - White Labs Yeast Co.

Here I am, listening intently, at 10:00 AM, with 7 beer samples in front of me. This brewing business is hard work!


The next seminar was called "Brewing With The Trappists" and featured Lodewijk & Gijs Swinkels from LaTrappe at Bierbrouwerij Koningshoeven in The Netherlands. They talked about what it's like to brew at a Trappist Monastery and the brewing climate in The Netherlands and Europe.

Lodewijk Swinkels

Dan Bradford - publisher, All About Beer Magazine

 The next brewmaster's seminar was called "La Folie: Wood Aged Sour Beers." It featured Peter Bouckaert of New Belgium Brewing Co. He explained the brewing process for various sour beer styles. His two sons helped with visual aids.

Peter Bouckaert and sons.


 And now, the commercial tasting with over 200 different strong beers from around the U.S. and abroad!

Congratulations to Nick Callaway, who won three medals in the homebrew competition!

Chad and John-Michael of Michelob Brewing Co.

Grand Teton Brewing Co.

Here's to good friends!

Nick, Luke, Me.

Sam Calagione, meet Luke Moore.

Sam Calagione and Adam Avery.

Rob Todd of Allagash Brewing Co.

Me with Ray Daniels and Nick Callaway.


Here's a link to photos from day 1

Big Beers Belgians & Barleywines 2010 (Day 1)

Here are some pictures and commentary from Day 1 (Friday, Jan. 8) of the 2010 BBB festival in Vail CO. I highly recommend this festival. There are seminars, beer dinners, a homebrew contest and a grand tasting session of over 200 different beers!

(you can click on the pictures for larger views)

Sampling off-flavors in beer during the Cicerone workshop

Ray Daniels lecturing at the Cicerone workshop. Ray developed the Cicerone certification program to train sellers, servers and distributors of beer how to better care for, understand and present beer.
For more info, visit: http://www.cicerone.org/



Welcome reception on Friday after the Cicerone workshop. Lots of great food and special beers brewed exclusively for the 10th anniversary of the festival.

Dave Mentus of the Pumphouse Brewery in Longmont, CO

Below are some of the beers (but not all) I sampled at the welcome reception.

After the welcome reception, it was time for the judges to convene. 60 judges sampled, rated, critiqued, scored and ranked well over 100 entries from top notch homebrewers. Nick and I stayed to help out.

Room full O' judges!

My table.

Nick standing at his table.

Friends gather after the judging. (L to R) Dan Rabin of Celebrator Beer News, David Edgar of  Mountain West Brewery Supply, John Carlson of Colorado Brewers Guild


Later in the evening it was time to head in to the gourmet beer dinner. 6 courses, each paired with beer from New Belgium and LaTrappe. Dinner was fantastic! Here is the menu:

We finished dinner at about midnight. What a day! Time to crash and get ready for day 2. Here's the link..