Leslie and Steve Kaczeus take a break in their Niwot brewery to enjoy the fame and good fortune that gold and bronze GABF medals bring.

When a homebrewer cracks her first bottle of delicious, homemade beer, the elation and sense of accomplishment can be quickly followed by dreams of going big. What if those plastic fermenting tubs were replaced with gleaming stainless steel tanks; the siphon hose with pumps and pipes; the hand-washed brown glass bomber bottles with colorful cans sporting distinctive designs? What if this hobby could be turned into a career as satisfying and successful as that of, say, a high tech mechanical engineer or marketing director?

It was exactly such a dream that prompted Steve (aka “Stick”) and Leslie Kaczeus to trade in successful engineering and marketing careers, respectively, for the long hours, heavy lifting and sleepless nights involved with starting Bootstrap Brewing.

That was a little more than four years ago. In the 52 months since, the husband and wife team have watched their dream grow and prosper and — with the winning of a gold and bronze medal for Stick’s Pale Ale and Wreak Havoc Imperial Red Ale, respectively, at this year’s Great American Beer Festival — explode like a flash pot at a Who concert.

“On a personal level, it’s a dream come true,” said Steve Kaczeus, sitting with his wife, Leslie, among the fermenters and brite tanks that they have shoe-horned into their back alley, Niwot taproom. As he talks, the freshly minted, ear-splitting grin that comes with a first-time GABF gold medal never leaves his face; or his wife’s.

“It’s amazing to go from being a home brewer to owning your own brewery, and now to get this kind of recognition from your peers,” he said, “it’s a great confirmation of how good your beer is.”

With 157 entries, the American Pale Ale style is the fifth largest of the GABF’s 96 categories for medals.

This year’s medals aren’t the first wad of beer bling Bootstrap’s beers have hauled in. Wreak Havoc won silver at last year’s GABF and a bronze at this year’s World Beer Cup, an international version of the Great American Beer Festival also put on by the Brewer’s Association every two years, without the public tastings.

Given the accolades, it’s no surprise that Bootstrap is gearing up to grow. In fact, the Kaczeus’ had already inked a deal with Oskar Blues owner Dale Katechis to take over 14,000 square feet in the old Times-Call newspaper building at 350 Terry Street in Longmont. In addition to housing a larger brewing operation, there will also be a taproom.

“We already had a plan to grow,” Leslie Kaczeus said. “Winning the gold was the frosting on the cake and it’s just helping accelerate that plan. After winning the gold, we were getting calls from liquor stores and restaurants the next day: ‘Where can we get your beer?’ “

As for how that will happen, Leslie and Steve are still self-funding their brewery — truly a bootstrapped operation  and they will be hiring additional — staff to handle the increased production at the new Longmont facility, set to open year. They have also signed on with Coors Distributing Co. of Golden, which will give Bootstrap beer better market penetration within Colorado and ease the pressure that comes with hauling product to your accounts with just one driver and a van.

Don’t look for the Kaczeus’ to grow their baby too big or too fast. They are looking to grow incrementally by taking measured steps that have been in the works for several months. But where, exactly, that will land them in the months and years to come is anyone’s guess. One thing is certain, however: the soundtrack of their success will include a heavy dose of rock and roll.

“We’ll keep doing this as long as it makes sense,” Leslie said. “As long as it’s fun, we’ll keep going.”

Smaller Boulder County brewers taste medal at 2016 GABF

Several veteran Boulder County brewers were uncharacteristically missing from the winners’ circle at this year’s Great American Beer Festival, but a handful of young craft brewers stepped in to fill the void.

Lefthand Brewing of Longmont again entered its Export Stout style-defining Fade to Black, Volume 1 beer, but came away with silver. It had earned three gold medals in three previous entries over more than 14 years; an unheard-of feat that signifies true mastery in a category. And a silver medal still indicates style domination.

Other medal winners include:

-Gold, Pumpkin Spice Beer: Pump Action Imperial Pumpkin Ale, 4 Noses Brewing, Broomfield;

-Gold, Session India Pale Ale: Trump Hands, Cannonball Creek Brewing, Golden;

-Gold, Golden or Blonde Ale: Kirby, Echo Brewing Co., Frederick;

-Gold, English-Style Brown Ale: Tri-Town Brown, Echo Brewing Cask and Barrel, Erie;

-Gold, Classic Saison: Achtertuin Seizoen Farmhouse Ale, The Post Brewing Co., Lafayette;

-Silver, American Style Brown Ale: Upslope Brown Ale, Upslope Brewing Co., Flatiron Park, Boulder;

-Silver, European-Style Dark Lager/ Munich-Style Dunkel: Piney Ridge Dunkel, Front Range Brewing Co., Lafayette;

-Bronze, Historical Beer: Bronze: Wild and Crazy Rye, BJ’s Restaurant and Brewery, Boulder;

-Bronze, Belgian-Style Strong Specialty Ale: Treachery, 12Degree Brewing, Louisville;

The post GABF puts gold and bronze icing on Bootstrap Brewing cake appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

Ted Palmer owner and master distiller at Vapor Distillery is on an award binge. After having his Barrel Aged Gin take top honors at the 2015 World Gin Awards in London, England, Palmer was given the 2016 Denver International Spirits Competition’s Outstanding Achievement Award. Vapor owned almost every category they entered and took home five medals, including Double Gold (judges’ scores in the mid-90s or better) medals for their Arrosta Coffee Liqueur and their Ginskey Barrel Rested Gin.

Formerly Roundhouse Spirits, Palmer’s coffee liqueur has always been outstanding. He uses Gerry Leary’s Unseen Been coffee from Boulder and a process that makes for a rich, aromatic, flavorful liqueur unlike any you’ve ever tasted.

And if you’re looking for a fun open bluegrass jam, C-Bob’s Gin Joint Jam goes off every Thursday from 6-9 p.m. at the Vapor Tasting Room. Bring your mandolin, guitar, banjo or whatever you’re feeling good playin’ and head on out. They’re at 5311 Western Ave. Suite 180 (in the northeast quadrant of 55th and Arapahoe). vapordistillery.com

Will Run for Beer

If you’re even moderately in running shape, Avery’s 4th of July 4K is a great way to let your fleet feet earn you some beer. Your $35 registration at averybrewing.com/events gets you a shirt, post-race beer and breakfast. Proceeds from the race benefit the Richard Castro CU Track & Field Endowment Fund and the Boulder Road Runners.

An not only do you have that good proceeds juju going for you, but the overall male and female winners get their weight in beer. And that’s not all: Age group winners get two cases of Avery beer and 2nd and 3rd place age group placers get two six-packs of beer. And being that there are 14 age groups (broken into 5 year increments), that means more than 40 people are going home with some beer. If she can walk 4K, bring grandma! There’s an 80+ age bracket that’s just begging for some ripped octogenarian to walk away with a couple of cases.

The flat and fast course is a double loop around Nautilus Court, the Gunbarrel office park that Avery now calls home, and packet pickup is from 7-8:30 a.m. the morning of the race. So if you want to be the hero of your fireworks party, race your way to a couple of cases of Avery beer and share ’em with your friends.

Oskar Blues wastes no time

It was just over 6 months ago that Oskar Blues announced that investment group Firemen Capital Partners purchased a stake in the Lyons/Longmont based brewery to the tune of up to nine figures. The money will help keep the brewery “nimble and aggressive” according to the official sources.

And just to prove how much so, Oskar Blues is celebrating the grand opening of its new Austin, Texas location on April 23 with a Burning Can (no justa) beer fest. The Drive-By Truckers are slated to play and yes, you’ll be able to sample beer from 30 other crafter breweries that sell their beer in cans. The Lyons Burning Can event is June 4 and given how that party has grown over the years, we can only imagine what Austin will be like. For all the info, go to burningcan.com .

Making Father’s Day Special for a Scotch lover [with photo]

So dad likes the good Scotch that’s as old as you are, how do you weigh in on Father’s Day when his favorite bottles will set you back a Benjamin plus? You get him some water to go with his single malt.

That’s right, Uisge Source Water of Scotland sells a three-pack of water from private springs in the three main distilling regions: Highland, Speyside and Islay. “The best water to add to your whisky is the water that made it,” says Blair Bowman, spokesman for Uisge Source. “There are distinct differences in the chemistry in the waters that go into making the whisky in those regions.”

Unlike the fine Scotch into which you’ll be dripping this water, you can get a set of three bottles from Amazon.uk for about $18, plus shipping. For the Scotch connoisseur who has everything, you’re pretty certain to score with this.

New Brew Fest moving to Prospect

The wildly popular New Brew Fest (featuring craft breweries 5 years old and younger) is taking their event over to Prospect in Longmont. Details and an early May date aren’t yet cast in stone, but keep an eye on newbrewfest.com for details. In years past, the vibe of having only the new guys on the block pouring beer just couldn’t be beat — and the music and food are stellar, too. Last year there were 30 craft brewers on hand from in and around Boulder County and it’s sold out every year. I’m just sayin….

Local Brewers Win Big

The 7th Annual Denver International Beer Competition was held April 2 and 3 at the Omni Interlocken Hotel in Broomfield and among the 285 entrants from around the country and the world that won medals were some of our hometown brewers.

Kolsch

Silver; Laimas Kolsch, Fate Brewing Co., Boulder

Bronze; Kolsch, Liquid Mechanics Brewing Co., Lafayette

Bock

Gold; Butt Head Bock, Tommyknocker Brewery, Idaho Springs

American Pale Ale

Bronze; Lachesis Pale Ale, Fate Brewing Co., Boulder

American India Pale Ale

Silver; Blood Orange IPA, Tommyknocker Brewery, Idaho Springs

Bronze; Moirai IPA, Fate Brewing Co., Boulder

Bronze; IPA, Liquid Mechanics Brewing Co., Lafayette

English IPA

Silver; Regular, Gravity Brewing, Louisville

Imperial/Double IPA

Gold; Belgian Double IPA, Liquid Mechanics Brewing Co., Lafayette

Altbier

Silver; Amber Altbier, Liquid Mechanics Brewing Co., Lafayette

American Amber/Red Ale

Gold; Dryhopped Amber, Finkel & Garf Brewing Co., Boulder

Silver; Anker Beard Amber Ale, Grossen Bart Brewery, Longmont

Imperial Porter

Silver; Imperial Porter, Liquid Mechanics Brewing Co., Lafayette

American Barley Wine

Gold; Barley Wine, Liquid Mechanics Brewing Co., Lafayette

Old Ale

Silver; Olde Gravitatem, Gravity Brewing, Louisville

American Wheat Ale or Lager

Bronze; Cherry & Black Currant Wheat, Finkel & Garf Brewing Co., Boulder

Saison

Silver; Rye Saison, Finkel & Garf Brewing Co., Boulder

Belgian Golden Ale

Gold; Mendacious, Gravity Brewing, Louisville

Flanders Red Ale

Silver; Skully Barrel #11, Paradox Beer Co., Divide

Sour Beer

Gold; Skully Barrel #35, Paradox Beer Co., Divide

Bronze, Uror Gose, Fate Brewing Co., Boulder

Flavored and Specialty Beer

Silver; Coal Kriek, Gravity Brewing, Louisville

Silver; Peanut Butter Porter, Liquid Mechanics Brewing Co., Lafayette

Gluten Free Beer

Silver; Pale Ale, New Planet Beer, Boulder

Bronze; Tread Lightly Ale, New Planet Beer, Boulder

American Style Brett Ale

Silver; Skully Barrel #37, Paradox Beer Co., Divide

Wood and Barrel Aged Beer

Silver; Red Wine Saison, Liquid Mechanics Brewing Co., Lafayette

Bronze; Saison, Liquid Mechanics Brewing Co., Lafayette

Hard Cider

Silver; Chester Hoppearcot, Big B’s Hard Cider, Hotchkiss

Classic Packaging Series

Silver; Anvil Distillery, Longmont

Bottle Packaging

Gold; Silver Rum, Geek Spirits, Boulder

Bronze; DV8 Vodka, Deviant Spirits, Boulder

The post Vapor Shines at Competitions appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

Sean Nook, Founder and Brewmaster at Black Bottle Brewery in Fort Collins (left) and Nathanial Miller, owner and brewmaster at Big Choice Brewing in Broomfield, joined forces to create their punk-inspired Split 7-Inch Cream Ale for Collaboration Fest being held at Mile High Stadium on March 19

If you’re going to join forces and brew beer with people that some would call competitors, it helps to bring a compatible mindset to the job. And for the brewers behind Broomfield’s Big Choice Brewing and Fort Collins’ Black Bottle Brewing, that mindset has its roots in punk rock. So it’s no surprise that the similar attitudes, musical tastes and energy that came together on a sunny but brisk late February day produced a load of laughs, war stories, mosh pit memories and some righteous beer.

Time and a (likely) sold out crowd of beer enthusiasts will tell if the Split 7 Inch Chocolate Orange Cream Ale that head brewers Nathanial Miller of Big Choice and Sean Nook of Black Bottle and their respective crews put together will win the day. They are entering this rich and smooth concoction, reminiscent of a chocolate egg cream straight out of Brooklyn, in the third annual Collaboration Fest at Mile High Stadium on March 19.

More than 85 collaboration beers are being brewed for this year’s event and the nearly 150 breweries taking part include a who’s who of epic proportions. The rules (yes, there are rules) are simple: one of the two (or three or more) breweries has to be based in Colorado and a member of the Colorado Brewer’s Guild. The other(s) can be any of the other breweries that call Colorado home or wish they did. That’s why you get the likes of Delaware’s Dogfish Head teaming up with Denver’s Prost, Fort Collins’ Funkwerks latching on to Wicked Weed out of Asheville, N.C., and Grist going south to Koala San Brew out of Nova Lima, Brazil.

And judging from the banter and antics of the Black Bottle and Big Choice crews, this chance to get together and make something special was a good time.

“We love collaborating, and when you go somewhere else, you do a lot less work!” Nook said. “The best part is going back and forth with Nate on the recipe. But hanging out and drinking beer, that’s what it’s all about.”

This version of cream ale is going somewhat traditional with lager yeast fermented at warmer ale yeast temperatures to give the beer a smoother, creamy mouthfeel. And add to that the pound of vanilla beans (for the 7 barrel batch) for the fermentation, and this is going to be one smooth beer.

This one-off beer’s name, Split 7 Inch, has true punk rock origins. Back in the vinyl days, punk bands would get together and collaborate on a 7-inch disk, with one band putting one or two songs on one side and another band contributing the other side. Like the vinyl offering, Both sides bring their own character, personality and flavor to the beer.

There are dozens of big, amazing beers to be had at the Collaboration Fest. It’s the annual chance for brewers to let their freak flags fly with concoctions like albino stouts; single malt, single hops barleywines; beer aged in French, American and red wine barrels; big, massively hopped IPAs; as well as straight, classic styles.

For tickets and more information about Collaboration Fest and the beers and brewers you’ll find there, head over to collaborationfest.com.

The post Collaboration Fest a Mosh Pit of Styles appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

The Exchange Tavern in Westminster is Irish where it counts: in the heart and soul of its owners. For 10 years now, Teddi and Gary Davis have been assembling the pieces, large and small, of their dream pub; a place where friends are made and celebrated; a place that serves good beer and great food; a place that is authentic because its patrons made it that way.

Take the flags hanging from the ceiling in the bar. The Irish flag was put up as decoration, but was soon joined by others from around the globe that patrons brought in of their own accord because they felt that their corner of the world wasn’t properly represented.

“Over the years, we really have become part of the community,” Teddi Davis said. “Our customers have earned degrees studying here at the bar; one fellow who met his girlfriend here ended up proposing to her here, too. We even have a plaque in the bar about it.”

The Exchange is located at the heart of Bradburn Village, a new urbanist development similar to Prospect in Longmont. It’s got shops and offices mixed in with apartments, lofts and condos and surrounded by spacious homes with postage stamp front yards and detached garages on an alley in the back. It tries super hard to be your Main Street USA kind of place and, in fact, The Exchange Tavern is located on Bradburn Boulevard and Main Street.

And while the neighborhood may seem contrived, its centerpiece watering hole is not. Davis has seen to it that The Exchange treads that fine line between pricy white tablecloth dining and knock-off chain restaurant formula food. She sources most of the food locally, including the beef, pork belly, ham and bacon.

“We’re trying for balance here,” Davis said. “We want to get the best quality, but we’re not going to have chateaubriand. We want to make good food accessible.” And in that effort, she succeeds on every level, thanks to the efforts of Executive Chef Paul Stockhausen, who brings classical training and experience to this Main Street enterprise.

The stereotypical Irish dishes are spot on, like the fish and chips with hand-fileted Alaskan cod that is Harp Lager beer battered to order so it doesn’t get slimy waiting for its swim in the fryer. The crispy coating and flaky fish isn’t greasy and jumps to life with a splash of malt vinegar.

But it’s where the Exchange Tavern breaks off the well-beaten Irish path that Chef Paul shows his depth. The pork green chili will stand up to any Mexican blue-collar scrutiny. Plentiful chunks of tender pork in a chili sauce that has just enough heat making it great eaten alone or drizzled over any number of items, not least of which are the hand-cut fries (Irish nachos). And the country-fried chicken with sausage gravy on a blueberry waffle will make your tummy dance a jig. The gravy is rich and not overly salty and the blueberry waffle ads a deliciously surprising fruity tang that sets this dish apart.

The one thing that the Exchange Tavern is not is Irish for a day. Yes, the place will be packed on March 17th, making it tight for the Queen City Pipe Band to make its 4 p.m. appearance. Yes, they will parcel out, in pints, at least eight kegs of Guinness Stout. Yes, there is a refrigerator truck parked out back because they will go through about 1,500 pounds of corned beef that week.

So yes, The Exchange Tavern does up St. Paddy’s Day right with all manner of music and step dancers and pipe bands (check exchangetavern.com for details). But one day does not an Irish pub make. That’s why you’ll find corned beef and cabbage on the menu all 366 days this year along with bangers and mash — made with real, imported sausages (bangers) that are savory spiced and mixed with grain, definitely not the salty breakfast variety.

Over on the bar side, there are the obligatory name brands of carbonated water on tap and in bottles, but the majority of taps and bottles are devoted to locally brewed offerings not found everywhere, like the rich, hoppy and fruity Belgian Double IPA from Liquid Mechanics. But best of all, Davis has teamed up with Four Noses Brewery in Broomfield to create a beer exclusively for, and available only at, the Exchange Tavern. The Red Beard ale is a full-bodied, deep red, malt forward beer that is balanced with hop flavor and aroma, but not overpowering. It is eminently sessionable and goes perfectly with the rich, beefy Irish stew.

The Exchange Tavern has been around for a decade now and given the philosophy of food and never-ending improvement that the Davis’ bring to the place, North Metro Denver has an Irish Pub that is worth calling home.

The post Exchange Tavern brings the Irish and a whole lot more appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

Jim Burrus explores goings on in the BoCo food scene.

Flatirons Food Film Fest is a visual feast
Films about food are nothing new. But a film festival focused on food might leave fans starving for content. Not so with the Flatirons Food Film Festival, now in its third year.

The brainchild of Julia Joun has grown to fill six days with six feature length films; a collection of feature length and short documentaries on topics ranging from artisan foods, foraging, permaculture and delis to the origins of General Tso’s chicken and fermented foods.

The schedule will stoke any foodie’s appetite with its wide range of topics as well as the rich opportunity for interaction with filmmakers, directors, authors and chefs. And, of course, a heaping helping of food at every opportunity. There will be restaurant tours (this year has a sushi focus, with films like “East Side Sushi” about a Latina mother who aspires to become a sushi chef) as well as a Downtown Boulder Sushi Crawl for festival attendees.

There is a panel discussion on fermented foods (and book signing by Sandor Katz, the godfather of all things “sour” – sauerkraut, sourdough – and author of “Wild Fermentation”); a cooking demonstration and tasting with Chef Lon Symensma, owner of Denver’s ChoLon Modern Asian Bistro; and backyard tours of Boulder examples of permaculture landscaping and design.

The mouth-watering fun starts Monday evening, Oct. 19 with a 6:30 p.m. screening of SandorKraut and Symphony of the Soil at Muenzinger Auditorium on the CU-Boulder Campus followed by a book signing and Q&A with Sandor Katz after the films. General admission tickets are $12; CU students and seniors are $11. There are all manner of single film tickets, multi film and all-inclusive passes, permaculture tour tickets and more – as well as complete schedule information – available at flatironsfoodfilmfest.org.

Show me: spices’ impact on food, wine pairings
Food pairing events with beer, wine, even spirits, are all the rage. But the folks at Settembre Cellars, located in North Boulder facing 28th Street, just northwest of Lee Hill Drive (technically 1501 Lee Hill Drive, #16) are taking the unique step of showing how specific spices in a dish can be adjusted to complement and enhance how a particular wine goes with that recipe.

Savory Spice Shop owner Dan Hayward will be on hand to demonstrate in a live tasting how a dash of this or a pinch of that in a recipe can cause a given Settembre wine to fall flat or come alive, due to the reaction of your taste buds to the spice and then the wine. The event, “In Search of Synergy: Exploratory Wine and Spice Pairings” is being held from 3-6 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 24. The cost is $8, not including the wine (offered by the glass or in flights).

For Settembre owners Blake and Tracy Eliasson – who each have advanced engineering degrees – dissecting the science behind successful food and wine pairings is a natural extension of their science backgrounds. And this is just one of several fun and educational events they will be holding this fall and winter at their winery and in conjunction with the two other wineries – Bookcliff and What We Love – located in the same complex.

And while you may dismiss other Colorado wines for lacking character, complexity and quality, winemaker Blake Eliasson brings an Old World sense of craftsmanship to his vocation. And the result is surprisingly delicious. The reds, especially, have a depth of character and nuance that becomes immediately apparent when doing vertical tastings of the various vintages. Yes, vintages; something most other Colorado wineries don’t have because their offerings are made for drinking, not laying down and maturing. So come see what can happen when a classically minded winemaker with a PhD in electrical engineering sets up shop in a Boulder commercial space and incorporates our unique terroir into his fermented passion. You’ll be pleasantly surprised.

For more information about this and other events – including a wine-oriented book club – visit settembrecellars.com.

The newest herb; cooking with marijuana
For decades, the forbidden knowledge woven into Alice B. Toklas infamous cookbook was all connoisseurs of good pot had for guidance about how to incorporate cannabis into various recipes. Now that recreational marijuana is legal in Colorado, it is no surprise that cooking with pot is also now a thing.

Enter Robyn Griggs Lawrence, author of “The Cannabis Kitchen Cookbook,” that outlines various ways to infuse butter, oils, alcohol, honey, soups… you name it, with THC, the active ingredient in marijuana. She, along with local chefs Scott Durrah (Jezebel’s Southern Bistro), Catherine (Catjia) Redfern (former New England Patriots cheerleader and co-founder of Medimints, a line of cannabis-infused mints with organic herbs and spices) and Donna Shields (former faculty member at Culinary Institute of America), will be on hand for her talk and book signing at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 21 at the Boulder Bookstore, 1107 Pearl Street. Vouchers to attend are $5 and entitle the bearer to $5 off Lawrence’s book or other purchase the day of the event.

Wonderland Brewing hosts Halloween Craft Brew Ball
For those adults and kids wanting to get an early start on the national holiday of horror, Wonderland Brewing in Broomfield is throwing a Craft Brew Ball from 1-6 p.m. on Halloween. Located at 5450 W. 120th Avenue, the family friendly event will be held in a yuuge festival tent behind the brewery, rain or shine.

Kids (under 21) are free and legal age adults pay $25 ($30 day of ball) for a commemorative tasting glass, trick or treating, face painting, temporary tattoos, games and four hours of sampling beer from 13 area breweries, including Wynkoop, Oskar Blues, Big Choice, Front Range, Kokopelli, Liquid Mechanics, The Post, Wibby and more.

There will be a selection of local food trucks serving up delicious munchies and live music from Denver’s original funk blues band, Mojomama and DJ Shack O’ Love. Limited VIP tickets are also available and include an extra hour of beer sampling, $10 food voucher, T-shirt, one free pint at Wonderland and an exclusive gourmet cheese and chocolate sampling.

And be sure to pull out all the stops for those costumes because the best costume at this, the first Craft Brew Ball, wins $250 cash! Other prizes totaling $500 will be awarded in Adult categories (Best Costume, Couple Costume, Group Costume, and Craft Beer Costume – PG-13 Please! It’s a family event!) and Kids categories (Best Under 21 Costume). Runner Up prizes will also be awarded.

This is a great way to kick your Halloween into gear and all proceeds from the event benefit the ARC of Adams County. For more information and to purchase tickets, go to HalloweenCraftBrewBall.org.

Boulder Beer abides by new Imperial Stout
In a Big Lebowski-themed party, Boulder Beer Company will be releasing its latest offering, The Dude’s D’Spare (10 percent ABV) from noon to 3 p.m. Nov. 7 at the Pub at Boulder Beer, 2880 Wilderness Place in Boulder.

The first 150 guests get a free 4-ounce pour of the beer, a barrel-aged imperial stout, as well as getting entered to win a VIP party at the brewery (a $500 value). This is the third release in the Dude series of barrel aged beers from Boulder Beer. ??There will also be robe give-aways, lawn bowling and a photo booth. Waxed, 22-ounce bottles of The Dude’s D’Spare – initially only available at the brewery — will be signed by Brewmaster David Zuckerman and the infamous Shipping Dude. For more information, check out boulderbeer.com.

The post Food in the news appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

Left Hand Brewing of Longmont has proved that it’s not just good at brewing beer in general. The 21-year-old brewery’s third gold medal in as many tries for the winter seasonal Fade to Black, Volume 1 at the 2015 Great American Beer Festival is proof positive that Left Hand Brewing co-founder, Eric Wallace, and his crew owns the Export Stout category. L

Winning a GABF medal is fantastic and is evidence that a brewery’s particular batch of beer, in a particular year, was really good. But for a brewery to win three gold medals each of the three times a particular beer is entered in a category pretty much means you own that category. And that’s the case with Fade to Black, Volume 1. It won gold the first time it was entered in 2010, again in 2013 and again this year.

“It is THE Export Stout,” Wallace said. “Of the five volumes we did, it’s my favorite.”
Left Hand Taproom regulars know when it’s coming because the brewery is overcome with the smell of roasting malt. “We’re smoking [malt] for a month. More than a thousand pounds; tons of smoked malt,” Wallace says.

When Wallace was working on the recipe with former Left Hand Brewmaster, Ro Guenzel (now Brewery Manager at Great Divide), he said they rounded up all of the stout beers they could find from around the world, threw out the obvious outliers (Imperial Stouts, Milk Stouts, Oatmeal Stouts, Dry Stouts) and brewed batch after small batch, trying to replicate the flavors from the best examples of the centuries old classic style they could find.

“Three for three?!? Oh, Hell yeah!” Wallace said, holding a snifter of his style-defining stout in front of the GABF Left Hand booth and sporting a grin as wide as the Indian Peaks. “There are no beers out there that have gone three for three. It’s so difficult to win a medal already. And that randomization of who the judges are and what order they taste the beer in, for this to get through all three times and get gold, yeah, that’s brewer glory right there.”

Left Hand also saw two of its other veteran styles, Black Jack Porter and Sawtooth Ale, each win bronzes.

Other local medalists at the 2015 GABF include Avery Brewing, which took home a silver medal for its “White Rascal” Belgian Style Witbier brewed at its gleaming new facility in Gunbarrel Steve and Leslie Kaczeus at Bootstrap Brewing in Niwot took home a silver medal (the first for the four-year-old brewery) for their “Wreak Havoc” Imperial Red Ale and, after launching just over a year ago, Liquid Mechanics in Lafayette took home a bronze medal for their “Altbier.”

But in the area of collaboration, Boulder County shone brightly at this year’s Great American Beer Festival. With 91 entries in the Pro-Am category, Odd 13 Brewing in Lafayette took home a silver medal brewing Mike Froehlich’s “Atahsaisa” and FATE Brewing in Boulder won bronze with Ryan Lotter’s “Citra IPA.”

The post Left Hand defines export stout, wins third gold in as many tries appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

GoodBird Kitchen
GoodBird Kitchen opening shops in Longmont, Stapleton area. Chef/owner Dave Query is bringing a pared down version of his award-winning beer and chicken combo from the Post Brewing Company and GoodBird Kitchen in Lafayette to Longmont later this year and a new venture in Stapleton, set to open in the spring of 2016.

The Big Red F Restaurant
The Big Red F Restaurant Group inked a deal for space in the Stanley Aviation Marketplace, a currently vacant ejection seat manufacturing plant that sits on a 22-acre parcel southeast of East 26th Avenue and Beeler Street, just east of Westerly Creek and the Stapleton neighborhood. GoodBird Kitchen is also set to open a similar “fast-casual” fried chicken shop on Hover Road in Longmont in November.

The Post
The new joints will focus on the Post’s rotisserie and fried chicken, farm fresh sides and beers – including limited edition brews available only at the SAM – from Post Brewmaster/Partner Bryan Selders.

In addition to Selders’ medal-winning, chicken-friendly session beers, there will be a selection of wines and classic cocktails available as well. And if these fast-casual fried chicken shops do as well as Query’s flagship, Post Brewing Company, look for more of these to open up at select locations in the years ahead.

Also, stop by Post Brewing (105 W. Emma St., Lafayette) on Aug. 22 to celebrate the release of its award-winning Howdy Beer and Townie Ale in cans. Get either beer for a dollar as well as other happy hour specials and the beers will be available at area liquor stores as well. Look for Ol’ Zippy Premium American Ale and Meathooks Session Ale to show up in cans in the months ahead.

Heap
Heap opening oyster bar, seafood restaurant in former Juanita’s location
Boulder restaurateur Bradford Heap is set to launch a new, as yet unnamed, oyster bar and seafood restaurant next to his successful Salt bistro at 10th and Pearl streets in Boulder. The opening is slated for mid-August.

Heap is being tight-lipped about the new place, which is taking over the former Juanita’s Mexican restaurant location. He took over the lease from PastaVina, a pricy Italian restaurant that took over the iconic Juanita’s location in early 2011 and closed last fall. It reportedly is going to serve “affordable” seafood (most offerings under $20).
Heap’s wife, business partner and designer, Carol Vilate, has reportedly made the space “gorgeous.” He also owns Colterra Food and Wine in Niwot and was former chef and owner of Full Moon Grill and Chautauqua Dining Hall, both of which he sold his interest in in 2006.
Boulder Passport

Boulder Passport raising money for local non-profits
It’s not too late to get a Boulder Passport ($20; thepassportprogram.com/boulder), take advantage of the buy-one-get-one-free cocktail deal AND help raise money for the Unreasonable Institute, Community Cycles and Growing Gardens. For each passport sold, $1 goes to one of these three organizations (you choose) and at the end of the summer, the non-profit with the most picks gets an additional $1,000.

Passports are good through Labor Day at 42 bars and taprooms in and around Boulder. Present your passport, pay for a cocktail and get the second one free.

Spirit Hound Distillery

Spirit Hound distillery release party Aug. 22

Celebrating its survival and the maturation of its Straight Malt Whisky that was put in oak casks just days prior to the devastating 2013 floods, the Spirit Hound Distillers in Lyons is holding a release party from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Aug. 22 at the tasting room, 4196 Ute Highway (Colo. Hwy. 66), about a mile east of downtown Lyons. Head Distiller and co-founder Craig Engelhorn will be on hand to celebrate the release of this bottling. There is a limit of one bottle per person.

Antonio’s
Antonio’s wins 2015 Best of Longmont Award

The Longmont Award Program has named Antonio’s Taste of Mexico the 2015 Best of Longmont in the Mexican Restaurant category. The restaurant, located at 246 Main St., is owned by Antonio and Sarah Matus and is the local version of the successful Antonio’s from Taos, New Mexico. The Longmont Award Program is an annual awards program honoring the achievements and accomplishments of local businesses throughout the Longmont area.

Boulder County Farm
Boulder County farm tour Aug. 25

A great way to see firsthand how local farms are run is to go on one of the farm tours hosted by Boulder County Parks and Open Space. The tours cost $5 and you must pre-register. Buses take you to various agricultural lands in the county where farmers talk about the crops and/or livestock they raise, issues they face and other elements of their business. This is the last tour of the season and will feature farms representing field and forage crops, vegetable crops and livestock. The buses for the tour leave from the Boulder County Fairgrounds in Longmont at 5:15 p.m. and return about 8:30 p.m. Visit bouldercounty.org

The post Food News appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

Making Whiskey and distilled spirits involves a process measured in months and years. That’s why winning awards and seeing demand spread and grow is not something you would expect from someone who describes himself as an ADHD (attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder) distiller. But David Monahan, the distiller behind Feisty Spirits in Fort Collins, calls himself just that.M

“We’re not competing with the Kentucky bourbons head to head,” Monahan said about the frenetic and somewhat obscure direction he and his partner, Jamie Gulden, have taken Feisty. “For us, we take traditional things and give them a little twist.”

Those little twists involve parking distillate from obscure grains for relatively short (2-8 months) stints in various white oak barrels (usually the 10 gallon size) that might be raw or charred or the previous home of one of any number of earlier concoctions including wine, cognac, sherry or beer. In any case, Monahan always starts with locally sourced organic grains, but not always the varieties that you would expect as a foundation for a distilled spirit.

Yes, Feisty has a core lineup of single barrel whiskeys aged in charred, 30-gallon American oak barrels — Blue Corn Bourbon, Better Days Bourbon, Rye and Maple Cinnamon — that line the walls of it’s warehouse space at 1709 E. Lincoln Ave. But Monahan’s babies are the smaller batches sitting in the 10 gallon barrels that feed his short attention span artistry.

Those smaller batches — both aged and unaged elementals — are where he is producing award-winning whiskey made with quinoa, oats, millet (birdseed), triticale, amaranth and Kamut. And in addition to traditional yellow corn and malted barley, Feisty also produces bourbons with blue and red corn and highly aromatic apple, pear and peach brandies.“The small batches and barrels let us play around more and try things,” Monahan said, adding that the smaller barrels take less time to work their magic on the spirits inside. “I have an intimacy with my barrels and know what each one does.” The small batch spirits are only available in the nicely appointed tasting room.

And while the smaller batches produce only about two or three dozen bottles, the “playing around” has resulted in Feisty winning more than half a dozen medals in national and international competitions over the brief three years they have been around, including a gold medal in the 2013 Denver International Spirits Competition for their unaged KAMUT Whiskey.

Given the neighborhood — Feisty is just down the street from both Fort Collins Brewing and Funkwerks — it’s no wonder that experimentation is the rule, not the exception. That’s where such varieties as the 2nd Chance Malt Whiskey and Hops Schnapps came from. The latter from an off batch of Hipster IPA from Black Bottle Brewing that was pumped into their 60 gallon copper still named Aphrodite; the former from some leftover malt flour from Fort Collins Brewery. And let’s not even get started on the batch of distilled porter that is aging in one of those small oak barrels as you read this. The aroma from the roasted barley promises to lend a rich, coffee-esque character to this latest product of Monahan’s ADHD spirit.
Despite all the experimentation, the growing popularity of Feisty’s core offerings keeps the upstart distillery busy five days a week just to keep pace with the demand, Monahan said.
And unlike other distilleries’ social media efforts, it’s worth the effort to follow Feisty Spirits on Facebook and subscribe to their newsletter. There you will find all sorts of cool, collaborative events — like the recent chocolate and whiskey pairing or the free Mini Distillery Festival or special release parties — that feature the offbeat, unique products of the Feisty stills. For more about Feisty and the various spirits they produce, go to feistyspirits.com.

The post Obscure grains at heart of Feisty’s pioneering spirits appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

Whether you’re strictly a meat and potatoes person who shuns veggies — except for tomatoes masquerading as salsa; yes, they exist — or have no fear of diving into recipes from the French Laundry cookbook, every cook needs a foundation and knowledge of basic spices.I

Sure, some recipes are going to call for something not on this list, but for 90 percent of what will pass over and through most cooks’ home stoves, grills and crock pots, these will likely get the job done.

Our goal here isn’t to get overly geeky about this, but to lay out some interesting and basic knowledge about each of these 10 spices; where and how they’re used, varieties of interest, restaurants that make exceptional use of them and a recipe or two (found on our website) that will introduce you to each of them.

And just to be clear, these spices are what you’d use for most cooking; baking, not so much. That list will come later. For now, we’ll focus on the grill, stockpot and stovetop. So load up your eyes, nose and mouth and see what we can learn following these basic spices.

Make a list, any list (10 best rock bands, best ski areas, best looking men/women) and someone is going to be upset about leaving something out or be shocked that you included something else. I’m not trying to end a debate here, so feel free to write letting me know what’s wrong with this list and what should’ve been included (or left out) and why. There are certainly borderline spices needed to complete a given dish. But various chefs, purveyors, cookbooks, articles and my own experience led to these 10. And yes, salt is a spice. But it’s not included here because it’s largely ubiquitous — and often overused in processed food. This month starts with an obvious basic.

Rosemary

Where it Comes From

Rosemary is a perennial evergreen herb native to the Mediterranean. It is highly drought tolerant and can be grown year-round in most warm climates (Southern California and the Southwest) and does well here along the Front Range if you bring it inside and put it in a sunny window over the winter. It is not unusual to find rosemary bushes 3-4 feet tall.

The leaves, which resemble pine needles, contain most of the flavor and aroma and grow in tight rows along a woody stem. Unlike other herbs, rosemary retains much of its aroma and flavor when dried, but use it fresh to get the most out of it.

Flavors

It has a piney, oily, woody, somewhat floral fragrance reminiscent of Carmex lib balm or turpentine. And while rosemary is highly aromatic, it’s fresh flavor is not lost with long cooking. This makes it ideal for sauces, soups and for slow roasting.

How to Use

Cut two to three sprigs about 3-4 inches long and strip the leaves/needles from the woody twigs. You can use the leaves whole or give them a fine chop for using in sauces.

Rosemary is great sprinkled on baby new potatoes that are drizzled with oil and roasted and it is a classic herb used with roasted chicken, braised lamb and grilled pork or fish. Try tossing 4-5 sprigs of rosemary on the hot coals of your grill before grilling your burgers, chicken or steaks; the smoky aroma will permeate the char for an added savory treat.

It is probably most popular in Italian sauces and other Mediterranean dishes, hence its inclusion in jars of “Italian Blend” seasonings (that also include oregano, thyme, sage, marjoram, garlic and basil).

History

Born by the bride, groom and wedding guests (as a sign of love) and funerals (a sprig was tossed into the grave of a loved one as a sign of remembrance), it represents fidelity and was thought to improve memory.

A balm made by boiling oil, wine (red) salt and rosemary was claimed by Don Quixote to have healing powers. So his trusty compatriot, Sancho Panza, cooked some up to help heal his wounds following one of his many beatings. After drinking it, Don Quixote reportedly hurls massively, gets the sweats and, after a good sleep, feels much better. Sancho tried it too and nearly died from a massive case of diarrhea.

Who’s Cooking With It?

Being that rosemary is a member of the mint family, you will see it in lamb, veal and pork dishes. It also serves as a popular addition to marinades (crush the leaves or give them a fine chop first to better help It also is a standout in Italian breads, like focaccia, and lends an aromatic flourish to roasted potatoes and chunky home fries at Sunday brunch.

But one dish that shows off rosemary’s resinous aroma and flavor like no other is chicken. The Med in Boulder features a Pollo al Diablo that is outstanding. The half chicken (which has handily been nearly completely deboned) is roasted with a prep of salt and pepper and finished with a thick, chunky sauce made with a deft mix of rosemary, chopped garlic and pepper flakes. The rosemary aroma suggests something simply savory, but the pepper and garlic lend just enough spicy punch on the tongue to make the devil happy.

Another excellent use of this herb is in Turley’s rosemary cream sauce that comes drizzled on the gluten-free Pesto Stuffed Chicken, available at both lunch and dinner. The rosemary cream sauce — actually a canola-based mayo with sour cream and lime juice for zing — plays exceedingly well with the panko breading infused with more rosemary as well as oregano, thyme fennel and basil. You’d think that there’s just too much going on here, especially with the Parmesan, walnuts and garlic in the pesto. But the chorus of flavors have been tuned just right so that no single herb or spice drowns out another.

That’s one of the attributes of rosemary; it lends more aroma to the party — especially with Italian dishes and sauces — and is often found combined with thyme, oregano, basil, garlic powder and black pepper in the all-in-one jars of Italian seasoning at the store. They’re not bad, but I like to kick up one or more of the ingredients (usually oregano and fresh garlic) to make it mine.

Interestingly, Turley’s infuses Boulder’s 303 Vodka (and now Downslope vodka made in Centennial) with rosemary. With it they make a curiously delicious Strawberry Rose cocktail using muddled strawberries, Meyer lemonade and the vodka. Tasted side by side, the 303 Vodka makes a better infusing vehicle than the Downslope due to its being made from potatoes as opposed to grain. The potatoes give the vodka a viscous, almost oily, mouth feel that picks up the oily rosemary nicely.

And speaking of amazing combinations of flavors and aromas, The Greenbriar Inn north of Boulder on U.S. 36 finds some amazing ways to combine the sweet and savory with a rosemary honey used with their Seared Boulder Lamb Sirloin and a sugared rosemary with their Pear, Rosemary and Almond Financier dessert (like a pound cake).

Finally, Racheli’s Italian Deli in Longmont must be given a shout out for their homemade Rosemary Ginger Beer. A family secret that blends the tangy flavors of ginger beer with the refreshing hints of rosemary to serve up a scrumptious beverage that compliments seemingly every dish they serve. Sounds odd, yes, but it works!.

The post 10 Must-Have Spices for Every Kitchen: Rosemary appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

If you’ve put together a delicious, organic garden, replete with heirloom veggies, funky varieties of fruits and berries and an assortment of herbs and spices, here’s a way to kick your home grown game into high gear. Chickens.I

March is the month when the little peeps start arriving at Jax Mercantile (Lafayette) and Murdoch’s Ranch and Homes Supply (Longmont).

The baby chicks are easy to raise, don’t require oppressive amounts of care and are content to live in a relatively small footprint of your yard. In fact, with some simple assemblage of wood and chicken wire, the grown girls make fantastic garden tillers and fertilizers.

But best of all, the eggs they produce are divine. There is no comparison with store-bought eggs; even the organic, free-range types. You can see the difference and your first omelet will convince your taste buds that you’ve entered another culinary universe. Keeping your own chickens will not only make you a breakfast snob — restaurant-bought egg dishes will forever be missing something — but you’ll relish whipping up your own mayonnaise, hollandaise, soufflés and crème brûlée.

The cost is relatively cheap. A decent quality coop will set you back $200-300 dollars, a heat lamp another $20 (to keep the little fluff balls warm early on), feed and water container another $12. But even a weekend warrior carpenter can put together a functional coop with $50 in materials from ReSource and a couple of hours time. Besides, it’ll feel good to see your cordless drill, circular saw, hammer and tape measure realize a higher calling than hanging pictures.

Starting out with 2-3 birds will meet the egg demands of most couples, unless you and your spouse eat eggs daily and do a lot of baking. When they start laying at about five to six months of age, you can expect about an egg per day per bird when they hit their stride. If you have extras, believe me, they’re easy to get rid of! Production drops way off, and often ceases completely, in the winter months, unless you keep a light on for them and keep their coop toasty warm.

For beginners Murdoch’s holds free “Chicken Chats” every couple of weeks at their Longmont store and Jax has similar events; just check their respective websites — murdochs.com and jaxmercantile.com — for days and times. Plus, there are resources galore on the Internet and each store has immensely helpful sales folks that can answer all your questions. Starting in mid-March, each store carries about 12-16 different breeds of bird, in addition to baby ducks, geese and turkeys. And if you think your own chicken eggs are tasty, duck eggs and home grown turkeys are amazing.

With some chicken breeds, you can buy chicks that have been “sexed,” giving you reasonable assurance that you’re getting females. Keeping hens in Boulder County cities and towns is legal, but roosters are not due to their daily crowing. And no, you don’t need a rooster around for the girls to lay eggs; they’ll do that regardless, they just won’t be fertilized.

If you’re serious about your food and want to raise your culinary game considerably, a handful of backyard chickens is just what you need.

The post The Next Step Up the Foodie Food Chain appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

If you want to turn a cute little goldfish into a carp-sized behemoth, dump it into a pond. Keeping the little guy in a bowling ball-size bowl will just frustrate him and stunt his growth.I

When Avery Brewing opened the doors Feb. 16 to its state-of-the-art, $30 million brewery on Nautilus Court in Gunbarrel, you could just feel the years of frustration and limitation give way to a craft brewing organism eager to get its grow on.

After years of wringing every last pint out of the 43,000 barrel a year brewing system wedged into a row of industrial units in an alley off of Arapahoe Road across from the Boulder Municipal Golf Course, founder and owner Adam Avery was ready to kick his operation into high gear.

“We made way more beer there than we should have,” Avery said. “We won’t be all moved in until about the end of this month. But we’re still looking ahead to the next phase.”

He said that once all the old tanks and equipment they plan on using at the new brewery are in and connected, they will be able to brew about 100,000 barrels of beer a year with ease; more than double the former capacity.

And because the new brewery was designed with easy expansion in mind, Avery could continue to grow in their present location to about 350,000 barrels a year. Such capacity would launch Avery into the top 10 craft breweries in the country based on production. But that’s a long way off.

In the months and years ahead, look for Avery to reinstate distribution to the several states that it had to pull out of in recent years because the old brewery just couldn’t meet the demand.

Among the biggest changes in the new brewery is the addition of a kitchen and menu that is just as big, bold and flavorful as the beers Avery brews.

And while the new facility was built to grow, Avery brewers are first learning how to manage the tremendous horsepower of their new brewing system. New gear, such as a wet mill that will cull dust, chaff and small stones from the grain before it’s ground and sent to the brewing kettle, will extract as much sugary goodness as possible from the grains. And hop cannons more efficiently extract hop oils during the boil. “Our first batch of IPA we brewed here, the IBUs (International Bittering Units; a measure of a beer’s bitterness) are supposed to be about 67,” said Ryan Freismuth an Avery sales director who was showing visitors around on a recent afternoon. “With this new system, we were at almost 200 IBUs because it was so much more efficient.”

Other equipment will also keep Avery at the forefront of brewing technology, such as a CO2 capture system from Boulder based New Sky Energy (located literally down the street from the new brewery). The carbon dioxide produced during the fermentation process will be captured and converted to mineralized forms of CO2, like soda ash and baking soda. The former material will be used to make Avery beer bottles.

One of the best things about the new brewery is the larger lab, said Ryan Minior, another Avery Sales Director who was showing off the new digs. “The closet of our new lab is bigger than our entire old lab,” Minior said. “So instead of being focused on quality control, we are now focused on quality assurance, so we know the beer that leaves here is exactly what we want it to be.”

Despite the cramped quarters in the old brewery, Avery became a leader in the craft beer industry for its quality control focus on every aspect of the brewing process; something made much easier now with its new state-of-the-art lab and staff.

“We have seven microbiologists on staff here,” Minior said. “New Belgium, who brews about 10 times the amount of beer we do, have only one or two more scientists than we do.” Those beer geeks look at every aspect of every ingredient that goes into Avery beer to make sure it measures up. From the mineral levels in the water to the sugars available from the malted barley, to the viability and integrity of the yeast — several strains of which were developed by Avery — to the IBUs in each batch, no aspect of the brewing process and ingredients used goes unchecked.

And beyond that, Avery uses an extensive sensory program in which employees are enlisted to perform blind tastings of their beers to ensure they aren’t straying. “We like to say, ‘Our geeks are better than your geeks,’“ Minior said.

Other modern innovations include the use of natural sunlight in the brewery and its offices, through the use of solar collectors as well as an interconnected brewing system in which any brewing, fermentation or bright tank can be connected to any other in the system with only a 6-foot hose. Kind of like an old-fashioned telephone switchboard.

Additionally, walkways that crisscross the cavernous building about 15 feet off the brewery floor give visitors a birds’ eye view of the whole place. Members of the public can now see the entire brewing process — from milling to boiling to fermenting and canning — safely and without obstruction. Avery said it will let visitors do self-guided tours anytime they want.

“It’s a very transparent environment here,” Avery said. “Everything is in view; we even put windows in our centrifuge room (where wort is spun at high speeds to precipitate out any remaining solids). You can watch the entire process.”

And while much is new and improved with the new building, much has not changed. The barrel aging program, in which high gravity, sour or experimental beers are put up in whiskey, bourbon, rum, wine and tequila barrels to mature and assimilate the subtle, or not-so-subtle, characteristics of their containers.

The barrel room is still there, but it’s only visible through a sliver of a window in the lobby of the new building. Avery said it is not open to the public and is kept at negative pressure to ensure the funky bacteria, wild yeasts and other odd organisms doing what they do to the concoctions in the barrels won’t fly out and contaminate the other beer that they work so hard to control.

But according to Freismuth, the fundamental character of Avery hasn’t and will not change, despite the shiny new digs. “Avery is about making really bad-ass, quality beer,” he said. “It’s the best beer you can get. And we’ll keep on brewing the beer that we want to drink and hopefully there will be enough people out there that will want to drink it, too.”

And as for how fast this newly free goldfish will grow in its new container? “It already seems too small,” Avery said.

The post Nothing Subtle about Avery Brewing appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

As Boulder County distillers and bartenders expand their horizons to include an increasing number of ethnic spirits and concoctions, we, the drinking public, benefit from the fantastic array of cocktails that have joined the ranks of the old standards. Creative combinations, as well as classics with new twists, are set to reward the imbiber willing to stray a bit from the beaten path. Some special cocktails you could approximate yourself, but getting the ingredients—from organic fruit juices and lesser-known classic liqueurs to dwindling inventory of one-off distillations that aren’t available in stores—is challenging at best. For the true connoisseur, seeking out the growing number of artisanal distillers and mixologists along the Front Range is worth the journey. Whether they’re kicking up an old standard with high-quality ingredients and one-of-a-kind spirits from their personal stashes or flying off in a completely new direction, catching a buzz has never been so fun or flavorful. Here’s a beginner’s guide to what drinks inspired by faraway lands and liquors are to be had here at Boulder County’s doorstep.

Blue Agave @ Roundhouse Spirits

You won’t find tequila at the Roundhouse Spirits tasting room on Western Avenue—you’ll find something better. Ted Palmer and partner Alastair Brogan are serving up what’s left from the blue agave spirit he distilled three years ago and parked in American White Oak barrels (with a #3 char) to age. It was during the Mexican agave shortage, but Palmer was able to lay his hands on the good stuff. While the agave syrup came from Mexico, it was fermented, distilled and aged here in Boulder, so it can’t be called tequila. Regardless, the result is a bold and complex, yet delicately flavorful, spirit missing the raw, high-octane burn found in most of the cheap imported stuff.
The smooth, warming, faintly smoky, Roundhouse agave spirit is a great candidate for sipping straight. Its aromatic floral hints and subtle woodiness latch onto the alcoholic heat that gives your nose a tweak as you first approach—it begs to be sipped neat. But if you want something by which to measure all other margaritas, order up a Roundhouse Coin Marg, only available in the tasting room. Two ounces of the agave spirit are mixed with about the same amount of organic lime juice and just enough simple syrup to take the sharp edge off and let the alcohol shine through. The deft combination of tart lime, alcoholic heat and sweetness will place a benchmark on your taste buds to which you will compare all other margs. If that sounds good, don’t wait around; the Roundhouse agave spirit is only available at the tasting room because Palmer says there are only 300 bottles of his blue agave batch left.

Pimm’s Cup @ West End Tavern

While other “top shelf” eateries lean on their horns about locally sourcing their food, this iconic Boulder burger joint actually walks the walk when it comes to their bar. But in addition to the local flavors, The West End also works some mixologistic magic with Old World standards that have all but been forgotten by this side of the pond.
Pimm’s No. 1 Cup is a gin-based liqueur first marketed as a digestif and produced by a London oyster bar owner named Pimm in 1823. It contains a secret mix of herbs, fruits and other liqueurs which give it a deep reddish burgundy hue. On home soil, it’s typically served on the rocks or mixed with lemonade—the English version is clear and effervescent.
The good chaps at the West End have put together their own version that incorporates all of the above. The Pimm’s Cup starts with a muddled fresh cucumber and mint, an ounce of Pimm’s No. 1 which is then topped off with lemonade, a splash of ginger ale to finish and a mint sprig and orange slice for garnish. Served on the rocks, the result is an easy-drinking, refreshing cocktail with tons of citrus and herbal flavors and aromas that isn’t too high in alcohol. And when we say “herbal” do NOT think Jägermeister. Pimm’s is more fruity and herbal (think juniper and coriander) than the medicinal Jägermeister.

Hibiscus Cooler @ Dushanbe Teahouse

When Lenny and Sara Martinelli were putting together the teahouse’s initial menu in 1998, the first drink item on the list was the Hibiscus Cooler. And as other elements of the menu and drink options have come and gone (the selections of sangrias are outstanding), the Hibiscus Cooler has remained. And for good reason.
A muddy deep red to burgundy color, this cooler uses mildly floral hibiscus flowers brewed into a tea as its foundation. Teahouse Bartender Samuel Tallent keeps true to the roots of this chilly concoction saying the base for the mix hasn’t changed in more than 15 years. The aroma on this non-alcoholic drink doesn’t belie the sharp, tangy bite of the tea, which is mellowed with fresh lime juice and a bit of sugar. The whole thing is topped with soda water, giving the mixture a sparkling, bubbly character. This quenching drink is great for a designated driver looking to drive his fellow imbibers wild with jealousy. It’s that good.
The State Flower of Hawaii, the Hibiscus has a long history of use by Chinese herbologists and extract from the flowers is known to act as a natural sunscreen. The flowers and various spices are also boiled, which causes the mixture to generate a lather, which is used as a shampoo and conditioner. But even though you could wash your hair with it and get a nice tan, the Hibiscus is at its best when surrounded by ice and mixed with sugar and lime juice.

Zacapa Pineapple Colada @ Comida

While the romance and novelty of getting four-star food from a truck is somewhat lost in Comida’s restaurants, the overwhelming benefit is in the bar. Smart and varied beers complement the array of flavors and textures found in the food.
Like the food, the mixed drinks are simple yet extraordinary. Fresh ingredients creatively combined make working your way through the cocktail menu as much fun as exploring the food offerings. But as is the case with many top-shelf joints, it’s what’s not on the menu that’s fun. Case in point is Casalino’s own Ron Zacapa Pineapple Colada.
From that rich foundation of aromas and flavors, Casalino adds his own pineapple juice mix—including agave syrup, lemon and orange juices—cinnamon simple syrup and finishing with a splash of fresh lime and a pineapple wedge garnish. The result is not pretty—literally. This colada is a dirty pale amber color with little visual appeal. But once it touches your lips, the beauty of the flavor is undeniable. The punch of complex alcoholic heat from the rich dark rum is tempered by a puckering symphony of citrus fruits. And then, just in time, the cinnamon simple syrup takes its turn on your pallet, lingering politely as the others fade, waiting to be renewed with another sip. There’s only one person, in one place, that can deliver this marvelous concoction, and now you know. Drink up. And pass it on.

The Links cocktail @ Japango

Built with liquors we’d never tasted – like TyKu Soju and a foundation of Japanese Yamazaki 12-year-old single malt whiskey – this cloudy, pale yellow concoction with the lemony aroma has some tart that would pull your puss into a permanent pucker. But thanks to the inclusion of some Domaine de Canton ginger liqueur and the Soju (a 20 percent ABV, smoothly sweet, barley based rice and sweet potato liqueur), what could be a mouth-twisting palate crusher, instead becomes a satisfied smile.
Japango has stocked its bar with that rarest of ingredients: quality people. Regardless of whether you’re a booze noob and aren’t sure of the difference between Scotch and bourbon or you want to know if the 23-year-old Pappy Van Winkle’s is really better than the 15-year-old (and worth the extra coin — it is), the bartenders at Japango have the answer.
Smart, friendly and marinated in their craft, the bartenders – Dexter Hostetter and Michael Lombardo were on hand the night we were there – were happy to deconstruct the components of our cocktail, share the story behind (Dexter’s) Civil War era family bitters recipe and serve up a sample to make a point. As a result, the simple act of stopping by Japango for a drink morphed into an enjoyable, educational and fun evening. If there’s something more a bar can offer, we can’t think of it.

Tropical raspberry tea

You wouldn’t think that an uncommonly delicious, alcohol-free drink would be lurking amid the offerings of a national restaurant chain like TGI Friday’s, but there it is — Tropical Raspberry Tea — right there with a half a dozen other fresh and flavorful offerings.
Pouring outside the box, the Longmont TGI Friday’s has been tweaking its tap offerings to include more than the usual suspects from the national breweries. Present are dark and flavorful draughts from Left Hand, Oskar Blues and Avery, thanks to prodding from bar staff that know their customers have more discerning palates and like supporting the local brewing masters.
And that nod to quality and flavor has infused what would normally be some pretty mundane teas and fruit slushes tucked into a commendably varied cocktail list. The fresh brewed black tea is kicked up considerably with the addition of muddled fresh raspberries and guava purée. This combo gives the drink some body; it’s not thick like a smoothie, but it’s more substantial than straight tea. And to that comes agave sour mix — a concoction of TGI Friday’s that includes agave syrup and fresh lime and lemon juices — which turns this mixture into a bright, tasty, not-too-tart (or sweet) drink that would make any designated driver happy to be the sober one.

Strawberry-Lime Martini

Via Toscana is an Italian restaurant gem, hiding in the corner of the Centennial Center strip mall off Louisville’s McCaslin Boulevard. If you’ve never stopped by for dinner, introduce yourself with a visit for happy hour; hands down one of the best deals in Boulder County for price, variety and quality.
In addition to two dozen delicious happy hour food offerings, Via Toscana has a well-curated cellar of 90 bottled beers and a 500-bottle wine list — most from the key growing regions of Italy, with an assortment of offerings from France, South America and elsewhere around the world included for good measure.
But if you’re in the mood for something that will cleanse your palate from a frustrating day at the office, order up a Strawberry-Lime Martini created by co-owner Krista Castellino. This tequila-based martini includes fresh strawberry with strawberry pucker liqueur and fresh-made, in-house margarita mix (Amaretto, Triple-Sec and lime juice). This combo delivers a tart — almost sour — strawberry splash to the tongue that finishes with a mild sweetness and hint of smoky tequila. This and an assortment of olives is Via Toscana’s flavorful way of putting any kind of workday behind you, pronto.

The post Ethnic Libations appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

When it comes to being a successful craft distiller, the proof is in the distribution. Boulder Distillery—makers of 303 Vodka, 303 Whiskey and a soon-to-be-launched, barrel-aged rum—has hit the big leagues with a distribution contract with Republic National Distribution Co. of Littleton. And Boulder-based Roundhouse Spirits isn’t far behind with its distribution contract with Denver-based Elite Brands of Colorado.

When growing a business from the ground up—where sweat equity and family labor is the norm—success depends on growth. And growth, in turn, is a result of demand for a consistently high-quality product, successful marketing and distribution as far and wide as possible. Like a three-legged stool, no two legs will keep a business from failing for very long.

Getting picked up by state (Elite) and national (Republic) distributors is huge for the distillers and drinkers alike.

“We’ve had to triple production to keep up with demand,” said Boulder Distillery owner and founder, Steve Viezbicke about his flagship 303 Vodka. “It’s been awesome for us. We’re now on a 24/7 schedule and we’ve had to hire two more people.”

Ted Palmer, president of Roundhouse, said the impact of getting picked up by Elite hasn’t been huge, but it’s freed up his time to attend to distilling and getting their new offering—an aged Anejo—through the regulatory hoops and

onto shelves.

“Self-distribution is a full-time job,” Palmer said. “I could make more if I did it myself, but it’s a wash because of the time it saves you. I’m not a distributor, I’m a distiller. This way I can focus on doing what I’m good at: making gin and corretto liquor.”

Fans of these Boulder distillers also benefit because the products are easier to find in bars and liquor stores across the state.

“You’re finding liquor stores putting up Colorado sections because of all the craft distilleries that have opened,” said Rob Richardson, vice president of spirit sales for Republic about the 20 distilleries currently operating in

the state.

But as the numbers of craft distillers continues to grow, Richardson sees many parallels to the craft beer boom.

“Seven to 10 years ago, you saw craft breweries popping up all over the place,” he said. “Today they’re doing well and are starting to take market share away from the big boys like Bud and Coors. I think you’ll see the same thing happen with craft spirits. As people become more educated about what they’re drinking—and feel a loyalty to their local distiller—I think you’ll see much bigger (sales) numbers from the craft distillers.”

Does that mean that Absolute and Smirnoff need to start looking over their shoulders? Not quite yet. But like the robust growth seen in the craft beer market, just pulling 2-3 percent away from the big boys would be a huge victory.

The post Distribution Jackpot appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

Don’t say we didn’t warn you that the Great American Beer Festival (Oct. 11–13) would sell out fast. In record time, as a matter of fact. But don’t despair, the Denver Beer Fest
(Oct. 5–3) have again served up a worthy alternative.

Check out the Website—denver.org/denverbeerfest—for a full list of events, including special beer dinners, beer release parties, food pairings, beer cocktail tastings and rare keg tappings at tap houses and tap rooms in and around Denver. The quantity and quality of Denver Beer Fest events keeps getting better and better—beer and butterflies at the Butterfly Pavillion, anyone?—so much so that it (almost) takes the sting out of not getting tickets to the GABF.

The post Alternatives to the Great American Beer Fest appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

The rock-star status of craft beer is evidenced by the increasing number and popularity of festivals that give barley top billing with the music and food being featured. And among the best of such fests is the Telluride Blues and Brews Festival, being held Sept. 14–16 and now in its 19th year.

The again-sold-out Great American Beer Festival is the gold standard of beer festivals, but second-tier festivals are popping up all around the state as well as coast to coast. Some are focused, regional and low-key, like the Craft Lager and Small Batch Beer Festival in Manitou Springs in early August, celebrating its first decade. Not strictly limited to lagers, or even beer—participants  represent a nice mix of craft brewers and distillers—the vibe of the Craft Lager festival is intimate, laid-back and fun, with music provided as a side dish.

Others, like the Chili Pepper and Brew Fest in Snowmass in early June, gives the music, beer and food about equal billing. Acts like Gogol Bordello and Galactic are as much an attraction as the competitive chili cooks and local and regional craft brewers, both of which submit their creations for judging. Good beer and chili—especially the world-class creations that are concocted at this event—are a match made in heaven. Throw in some stellar tunes and you have a near perfect event.

But if you like world class music in heaping doses to go with a big assortment of craft beer—in an outdoor venue that is impossible to beat—Telluride Blues and Brews is ideal.

Yes, there’s camping, so you get some of the homespun campsite music vibe found at the Bluegrass Festival. But the juke joint jams at venues throughout town that last well into the wee hours eclipse the walkabout jams found in the campsites.

Big names draw big crowds and Telluride Blues and Brews regularly sells out by booking headliners like Phil Lesh and Friends, Gov’t Mule, the B-52s and Little Feat. But the fun of Blues and Brews is discovering a smaller band you’ve never heard of. For me, that included the raw guitar and snappy horns of Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears a couple years ago, as well as the barn burning blues of Jonathan Tyler and Northern Lights.

And the same is true for the beer. Every year at the Grand Tasting on Saturday, there are new, up-and-coming breweries that show up and surprise with their offerings, as well as much-sought-after beers that don’t make it to Colorado from regional breweries even further West. Headliners like Deschutes, Stone and official sponsor, Sierra Nevada, will be back. But as with the music, it’s the little guys—or the ones that don’t get around much— that are fun to check out. Like Sweetwater Brewery from Atlanta. Consistently excellent beer (including a gold and silver from last year’s GABF) that’s hard to find. Or Revolver brewing from Granbury, Texas. They launched this summer and Telluride will be one of their first festivals.

With a number of new festivals popping up around the state and the country, it’s easy to find one that matches your food or music interest with good beer. But for tasty and delicious blues to go with your beer—and world-class scenery to chew on—there’s no match for the Telluride Blues and
Brews Festival.

Telluride Blues & Brews takes place Sept. 14–16 in Telluride. Visit tellurideblues.com for details.

The post Beer Fests Galore appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

“We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold …” And so it began, with Hunter S. Thompson’s widow, Anita, launching into the opening chapter of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas in front of a mostly male crowd echoing the words along with her, many from memory, others from personal, dog-eared copies of various vintages.

Reading Hunter S. Thompson’s writing is akin to having a vividly-composed symphony of images and ideas playing in your head. In addition to the heft and edge contained in the meanings of his carefully chosen words, there are the additional layers of rhythm and melody they possess, the glorious chords of well-crafted sentences. The facts Thompson presented, the ideas he conveyed, the truth he relentlessly sought, and the harsh illumination of the sordid world of the rich and famous and politically powerful was the envy of his fellow journalists who were incapable of doing it justice themselves or too afraid to try.

Hunter’s Gonzo Journalism was the literary punk rock of the 70s and early 80s. Harsh and irreverent to the soft ears of staid, veteran journalists, his careening verbiage was vital, driving and honest to the youngsters eager for a fresh voice that spoke truth to power and backed up outrageous declarations with spot-on reporting.

This symphony was given voice, literally, on July 14 with a cover-to-cover reading of Thompson’s classic Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream by friends and fans alike. The occasion was to celebrate what would have been the acclaimed Woody Creek icon’s 75th birthday on July 18. It all began with the firing of a ham cannon, but I digress.

A standing-room only crowd gathered in the Library Bar of the Jerome Hotel in Aspen, within easy reach of copious quantities of Chivas and shaved ice (Thompson’s refresher of choice) and launched the reading at noon. A simultaneous reading was conducted by nearly two dozen aficionados at The Station Hollywood in L.A. by former Aspen Daily News editor and Boulder native, Troy Hooper. The Aspen confab was orchestrated by Boulder media consultant Matthew Mosley, author of Dear Dr. Thompson: Felony Murder, Hunter S. Thompson and the Last Gonzo Campaign.

Hunter relished hearing good writing read aloud, especially his own. Benders at his home, Owl Farm, often involved such readings, with Hunter admonishing “Slower! Slower!”

“The rhythm, cadence and texture of the words were everything to Hunter,” Mosely told me after the reading.

The event featured a who’s who of Thompson’s friends, fans, family and collaborators, like wife Anita, son Juan, grandson Will, collected letters editor Curtis Robinson, Aspen Daily News owner Dave Danforth, KBCO DJ Keefer, and Aspen Mayor Mick Ireland, to name a few. There was even a group of old guys who ingested some kind of confection and soon began laughing—giggling like girls is more accurate—uncontrollably during the reading. It was hilariously infectious. We all took turns (I chimed in on Chapter 12) and, despite trying to slow things down (as Hunter would have wanted), we were done in just over six hours.

After drinks and a barbecue at Owl Farm, the gang headed back to town after the sun set and the rains began. In all, Mosely’s initiative to celebrate Hunter’s 75th birthday by reading his iconic book aloud, in a bar, in Aspen, with family and friends and fans present was nothing short of brilliant.

The post Reading Aloud appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

If a rising tide lifts all boats, Leslie and Steve Kaczeus are riding a tsunami of beer. The couple took the brewing plunge this year and decided to join the Boulder County craft-brewing fray by opening a nanobrewery in Niwot. Tucked into a 1300-square-foot space about a 9-iron shot south of the Niwot Tavern at 79th and Niwot Road, BootStrap Brewing is set to open its doors mid-summer.

The cute 3.5 barrel (105 gallon/525 pint) brewing system—hence the nanobrewery moniker—will work double time to fill each of the three, 7-barrel fermenters and five 7-barrel serving tanks that will eventually populate the space. At full capacity, Steve says he could squeeze about 700 barrels of beer out of his space. But he’s in no hurry; he’s having fun.

“If we stay this size, we’re OK with that; it will take care of us,” Steve said, pacing and pointing out where the still-in-crates fermenters will go in the rough space that is fast becoming a dream come true. “If it grows, we’re OK with that, too. We’ll check in and see where we are in a year.”

The venture was 20 years in the making—starting with a home-brewing kit—and has come to fruition thanks to the couple’s methodical approach, lots of homework, support from Niwot businesses and a stiff shot of providence.

As almost every homebrewer does, Steve fantasized about running his own brewery. So he did his due diligence, attended last year’s Craft Brewers Conference and even graduated last year from the American Brewer’s Guild Brewery in Planning course.

“At the Craft Brewers Conference we met so many brewers who were so supportive,” Steve said. “One of the guys from Great Lakes Brewing (in Canada) said ‘take a week’s vacation and come brew with us,’ so we did.”

The Boulder-based Brewers Association was also a huge help, the Kaczeus’ said, especially Erin Glass who cheered them on at every turn. The Niwot space also fell into their lap after a friend was having a pint at Asher Brewing Company in Gunbarrel and overheard a guy talking about space that was available in Niwot.

For Steve and his associate brewer, Dave Mentus from the Pumphouse in Longmont, the first beer off the line will be a light lager (“something with flavor, but approachable for the non-craft beer drinkers”) and a chili beer. Then he’ll be putting together a big hoppy India Pale Ale, followed by his Left Hand Brewing Pro-Am award-winning brown ale, an amber, rye and (one of Leslie’s favorites) his stout. There will also be seasonals and other specialty beers.

“The camaraderie has been amazing,” Leslie said of the help and encouragement from fellow brewers, local restaurants and the Brewers Association. “They have been so supportive and helpful. It’s like they want us to succeed.”

Hot times in Snowmass

If you’re looking for a mountain get-away, head up to Snowmass for the 9th annual Chili Pepper and Brew Fest June 8 and 9. A two-day pass is $70 and includes chili and beer tasting, souvenir glass and music. Visit snowmasschiliandbrew.com for info.

Now or never

Don’t get left out of Great American Beer Festival (Oct. 11–13) or Telluride Blues and Brews (Sept. 14–16). Tickets to go on sale June 15 for Telluride and later in June for the GABF. With headliners like the B-52s, Phil Lesh and Friends, Gov’t Mule and Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue, Telluride is sure to sell out fast. And the 2012 GABF sold out in a week. tellurideblues.com, greatamericanbeerfestival.com.

The post Small but mighty appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

Summer festival season is here, and with my crew, that used to mean that you couldn’t let your guard down until the sweet corn was out of season. It was the summer of 1993 and I was headed to Telluride for the Bluegrass Festival.

The motley crew of usual suspects that appear there annually like a bad patch of poison ivy have mellowed considerably over the years. Johnny Rev, Doc, Teton Ron and Bonehead are highly reactive elements and the pranks they pull on each other when they come into contact are nothing if not inspired. Being on the receiving end was dangerous and to be avoided. But as a spectator, there was nothing better.

Telluride was unusually clear and hot that year and the stooges were all on edge, waiting for that “something” to happen. Shoes were checked carefully before feet were inserted. Beers were opened slowly to avoid a carbonated facial peel. Shampoo was inspected for alien substances (Nair) and underwear was shaken to rid it of cayenne. These were normal, automatic cautionary steps. But ‘93 was different.

It began in the middle of the week, before the music started. Doc had gone fishing with some of the kids and they had left four carrot-size trout in a cooler, sans ice, without gutting them. For a right thinking person, this now ripe catch should have been tossed into the trash without delay. For Doc, it was decomposition of mass destruction with a built-in, time delay fuse. The fish and a garnish of grass were placed Into two resealable plastic bags. The grass kept the bag from resealing and allowed it to “breathe.” While Johnny Rev and Bonehead were off somewhere during the day, Doc hollowed out a small depression under each of their tents and placed a bag therein.

As is the case with fine wine, single malt Scotch and some women, patience is rewarded and quality improves over time.

By Friday, there had been no carnage. Suspicions were high and trust was gone. Johnny and Bonehead knew something was up and were slowing going mad trying to suss out the scheme. Doc just watched, waited and grinned.

By Friday afternoon, Doc was getting worried. Despite the scorching heat, nothing was “happening.” Had they found the fish and removed the bags without telling him?  Saturday, too, was a scorcher and by noon, our campsite was an Easy Bake Oven. The first hint of olfactory evil was evident in Doc’s grin at breakfast. Festivarians all around us were taking out their trash and wondered out loud if someone’s camper had sprung a sewer leak. It was just before lunch when Bonehead let fly…

“Goddamn it, Doc! What the f%*&!” He unzipped his tent and proceeded to throw all of his belongings out the door, after first searching them for the offending odor. And what an odor it was. The fish, it seemed, had saved up all its stink powers and unleashed them at once. Either that or Bonehead (so named because of his prominent foreheadedness) had rolled over and caused the fishness to squeeze out of the bag. In any case, the stench from across the campsite was eyewatering. It’s hard to imagine what it was like at ground zero.

Once Bonehead had emptied his tent, he stood outside in his underpants, cursing Doc and trying to see through a blinding hangover that was only made worse by the stench. With one tug, he flung his tent from its moorings and there, lying innocently in the matted grass, was the baggie of fish. Bonehead couldn’t get the package far enough away fast enough. And once he did, the smell was still there; round two was on its way.

It didn’t take long for Johnny to get hit with the blunt force of the nasal trauma. Seeing the flotsam of Bonehead’s belongings strewn about and his collapsed tent, he quickly discovered the source and, like a trooper, promptly disposed of it.

Such pranks seem to have become things of the past, but in the retelling, we all get to relive the exquisite beauty with which it was constructed.

The post Summer festival shenanigans appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

In 1972, I earned my first paycheck, took my first guitar lessons, bought my first rock albums and fell in love (and got dumped) for the first time, all at the end of my third-grade year.
The girl I fell for was drop-dead gorgeous. Tall and bodacious with long, flowing wheat-colored hair; she was stern when I needed it and played hard to get. She liked how I read to her and, recognizing my prowess with the printed word, pushed me into an advanced reading group.
I so loved my third grade teacher, Miss Foster, that I gave her the clay gargoyle head I made in art class, along with “The House at Pooh Corner” single by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. That was our song.
But alas, she dumped me for an older guy. I didn’t find out until the end of the school year when she tried to break it to me gently by inviting me to the wedding.
Broken hearted, I threw myself into my work. I had a summer job pulling in a $1 an hour slingin’ books, filing, answering the phone, running errands and learning to type in my grandfather’s law office on the Square in Independence, Mo.
I wanted to be like the big kids on my street and listen to albums. And being the oldest of three boys, I set out to start my music collection and show my brothers The Way. For my first purchase I sought something familiar and catchy: The Partridge Family Album.
Nervous and unsure, I slunk into the Skaggs Drug Store next to the Safeway at 23rd and Noland Road and made for the record section tucked in between the self-serve Brach’s candy station and the Hallmark Cards.
Unable to recall clearly what the album looked like, I opted for the black one sporting a small square in the center with scrolled lettering that might have read “The Partridge Family.” I hurried to the checkout clerk with my purchase, trying to BS my way through my uncertainty about what I was buying. At $7.99, it was expensive for an album, but I was flush with my first paycheck, so what the heck.
Arriving home, I unwrapped the shrinkwrap and found not one, but two records, and photos of dimly lit stages. And there, in bigger type, was the name: Chicago Transit Authority. Missing were a blond mom and beaming children parked behind instruments too big to handle. Something was amiss, but it was too late for a return.
As my dear mother looked on, I needled up the first disk and let the 7-plus minute long “Free Form Guitar” play through. This hellish composition by guitar virtuoso Terry Kath included screeching feedback from a Fender Strat. The ashen look on my mom’s face told me that there was something wrong, but I wasn’t sure what.
I never did get that Partridge Family Album. But later that summer I found an abandoned Radio Shack cassette player with a tape of Jimi Hendrix’s Band of Gypsys with “Machine Gun” on it. At more than 12 minutes long, I wasn’t getting the message that rock tunes were short and sweet.
Finally, toward the end of the summer, I jumped into the mainstream and bought an album that was all the rage with the older kids on my street. It had great hooks and righteous bass lines: Joe Tex’s “I Gotcha!” I didn’t like the title track as much as I did songs like “She Said a Bad Word,” “Bad Feet” and “Give the Baby Anything That the Baby Wants.” I can only imagine what my parents thought as my music collection grew and the disconnect that brewed between what I was listening to—next up was Black Sabbath’s Paranoid—when I wasn’t practicing “When the Saints Go Marching In” on my plywood guitar from Mel Bay’s Guitar Method.

The post Music Education My Way appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

Triple A baseball is to the Major Leagues as home brewing is to craft beer. If you want to see tomorrow’s brewing stars in action—while meeting great people, stoking your inner foodie and enjoying a homebrew—join a homebrew club.

I say this because we are fast approaching National Homebrew Day (May 5) and American Craft Beer Week (May 14–20), so get your wort to boiling so you’ve got a homemade beer to raise in celebration. And as you ponder whether or not to add more hops (too much is always better than not enough), know that the foundation of homebrewing and the homebrewers monthly Bible, Zymurgy magazine, were created 34 years ago in Boulder. A tip of the pint glass toward the Flatirons will do.

The American Homebrewers Association was Charlie Papazian and Charlie Matzen’s brainchild, though for former gentleman became the iconic poster boy of the home brewing movement. Launched mere weeks after President Jimmy Carter signed legislation that included the legalization of home brewing on Oct. 14, 1978, the AHA today boasts more than 28,000 members.

Like the introduction of any virus, home brewing took a while to propagate. That next year, May 5, 1979, the first AHA National Homebrew Competition was held among 24 brewers submitting 34 beers in six categories. Fast forward to last year, which saw 1,650 homebrewers submit just fewer than 7,000 beers in 28 categories. Homebrewing, like craft breweries and brewpubs, has seen phenomenal growth over the years.

And while not every medalist in the annual National Homebrew Competition calls himself up to give it a shot in the big leagues as a commercial brewer, almost all of today’s successful brewers got their start over a foaming pot of wort in a kitchen of their late adolescence (read 20s or 30s). Dick Doore, co-founder of Lefthand Brewing with Eric Wallace; Adam Avery, president and founder of Avery Brewing; New Belgium, Odell, Twisted Pine, Oskar Blues—homebrewing is a common denominator among successful craft brewers.

“Commercial brewers who started as AHA members are more aware of issues going on, have more business savvy and are generally more likely to succeed,” said Gary Glass, director of the AHA.

“A lot of homebrewers dream of selling their beers commercially,” said Tim Myers, head brewer at Strange Brewery in Denver and a former AHA member. “Zymurgy magazine is a phenomenal resource, no matter what kind of brewer you are. I got a lot of ideas for new brews from the AHA and that magazine.”

For those wanting to see what the intermediate step is from being a homebrewer to going commercial, check out the annual entrants to the Great American Beer Festival’s Pro-Am competition. That is where award-winning homebrewers pair up with commercial brewers, scale up their recipes and brew like the big boys. Last year, Front Range AHA members Tom Gardner and Ted Manahan took home gold and bronze medals with CB. Potts in Westminster and Dry Dock Brewing in Aurora respectively in the Pro-Am competition.

The post Basement to Brewery appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

“No estampan mi passport, por favor.” A customs official, who couldn’t have been more than 25, slipped a piece of paper into my passport, pounded a blue ink dolphin stamp onto it, and my friend Johnny Rev and I were off for a week-long adventure in Cuba.

The whole week was stupid cheap, from the Spring Break round trip airfare from Denver to Cancun to the $30 a night (including breakfast and paid in U.S. currency, thank you) high-rise apartment accommodations, we were buzzing with excitement.

Both of us brought things to leave behind: Pencils, candy and gum for sure, but we each really wanted to play some baseball with the locals. That was our quest, and we were armed with gloves, hats, T-shirts and real Major League Baseballs.

It took us a couple of days of exploring out and around from our apartment on Avenida de los Presidentes to find it, the monolithic, abandoned, poured concrete edifice to sports: Parque Jose Marti Stadium.

The 10-block walk down to the ocean-front facility brought us to the dusty dirt expanse where dried weeds and bits of trash occupied the infield of what looked to be a soccer and track stadium.

Johnny and I brought our gloves and a ball in the hopes of playing catch. But the dirt field was already hosting a game among 14 or so college students. In my nearly forgotten college Spanish, I asked if we could play. At first there was hesitancy; these kids weren’t too keen on letting some old gringos who could barely speak the language horn in on their game. But when they saw the MLB ball—and realized they could replace the hard wad of masking tape they were using as a ball with the real McCoy—we were in. And being that there were two of us, it made it easy; I was on one team, and Johnny was on the other.

There’s something magical about throwing yourself at a random adventure. If you bring the correct gear and the right frame of mind, providence has no choice but to take your life to 11. Such was the case on that sunny March day 12 years ago.

Johnny took shortstop for his team and, as is his way, acquitted himself like an All Star. He made diving, Superman stops of sharply hit grounders. For my team, I roamed about in left center and chased down long, arching drives from the eager bats of kids who had never connected with a real baseball in their life.

Fielding is one thing, but in a pick-up game, it’s all about the offense. My team was thrilled that I scored three times on my four doubles in four at-bats. But Johnny capped a stellar defensive display with hitting for the cycle. We were heralded and cheered and our teammates chattered their excitement in machine gun bursts of Spanish.

We returned two days later for another game and were greeted like old friends. After the game, we left our gloves, balls (three), hats and T-shirts with our teammates, who shook with excitement about such gifts. I even traded my moderately worn Adidas tennis shoes for another guy’s cheap knock-offs of Converse All Stars that were held together with prodigious amounts of duct tape and twine laces.

I have no idea what the score was for either game we played, but I do know that Johnny and I were the undisputed winners.

The post Field of Dreams appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

It was 9:30 a.m. on a sunny and unseasonably warm Saturday in February when I settled down in front of four unmarked plastic cups of vodka in a windowless room in the bowels of the Omni Interlocken Hotel in Broomfield. Hair of the dog? No. Day four of a mid-week bender? No.

I had company: a dirty dozen of sommeliers, bar managers, distributors and liquor geeks. We were putting our pallets to work as judges for the first Denver International Spirits Competition.

Modeled after the hugely successful San Francisco World Spirits Competition, now in its 12th year, the Denver competition garnered just less than 100 entrants (compared with 1,100 entrants from 61 countries for the San Fran event). But competition CEO and co-founder Christopher Davies says he’s happy with the numbers.

“It’s all about the marketing,” Davies said. “Accolades help a distiller’s product stand out.”

The judging includes more than 100 categories with several broken up into sub-categories by price. Such a system ensures that a Gordon’s bargain vodka doesn’t beat out a Crystal Skull vodka at five times the price. And while there were some categories—like absinthe—that had only one entry, that doesn’t ensure a medal.

Davies would love to see this event grow like the others he produces, such as the Denver International Wine Festival (in its eighth year) and the Denver International Beer Festival (in its third year).

Unlike the iconic Great American Beer Festival (which last year sold out in one week; tickets go on sale in June so keep an eye out at greatamericanbeerfestival.com for details), it’s unlikely that there will be a mass sampling of spirits for the public.

However, the top spirits winners will be announced and featured at a spirits and food event at the Omni Interlocken on March 17. Tickets are $60 for the Pairsine: Shaken not Stirred competition that will feature six chefs and six mixologists from acclaimed restaurants and bars in the metro area to put the award-winning spirits to work in food and cocktails. See denverspiritscomp.com for info.

Among the Colorado-based gold medal winners were Breckenridge Bourbon, Dancing Pines Gin (from Loveland) and Trinity Absinthe Superieure (Loveland).

Pucker up and drink

Avery Brewing’s third annual Sourfest is June 2 and tickets ($45) go on sale in early April. Check averybrewing.com for info. But don’t snooze; the Strong Ale Festival March 9 and 10 sold out in less than three days.

Telluride Blues and Brews tickets on sale

Sampling dozens of craft beers from around the country while jammin’ to stellar blues in one of the most awesome locales on the planet; it must be the Blues and Brews Festival, Sept. 14-16 in Telluride. The lineup has yet to be announced (check tellurideblues.com in late May), but with icons like the Flaming Lips, BB King, Willie Nelson and Umphrey’s McGee headlining in years past, it’s a sure bet that the music will again be stellar. So if you’re even thinking of going, get your tickets early.

The post A Spirited Contest appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

First it was the increasing number of double-digit alcohol-by-volume beers, and then there was talk about how letting said high-alcohol beers age a year or more in wine, rum or whiskey barrels added all sorts of great flavors. And that was followed by buyers of high-alcohol beers letting said bottles age for a year or more (isn’t that what you do when there’s a cork in the bottle?) before drinking them. And now, as if beer wasn’t getting treated even more like wine, we have brewers blending beers.

Just as a vintner in pursuit of a high quality red wine will often combine the juice from Cabernet, Merlot and Shiraz grapes (to name a few), so, too, are brewers turning to blends to create new craft styles. And no, we’re not talking about floating some Guinness on top of some Harp or Bass for a Black and Tan.

Firestone Walker Brewery in Paso Robles, Calif., is among the veterans of blending beers. Their Proprietors Reserve XV is a combination of eight barrel-aged beers and the finished product—limited to only a few hundred cases—clocks in at just over 12 percent ABV. Serving suggestions are to let the beer “breathe” in a wine glass or brandy snifter, which let the chocolate and vanilla aromas shine and mingle with a subtle, citrusy flavor. Brewer notes say, “this beer will age well and change favorably for years to come.”

Closer to home, you can find delicious, interesting and innovative blends from Breckenridge, Oskar Blues and Avery that rarely find their way into bottles and are only available on tap until they run out, which is typically a couple of days at most.

Such a rarity is Avery’s Eremita Sour Ale #3, on tap now until it’s blown. This is a fermented version of a Warhead or Cry Baby sour candy that will put your pucker on big time. For that reason it’s hard to call it a session beer, even though it only registers in the single digit ABV range. But several barrels were blended by head brewer Andy Parker, and after 18 tastings, he settled on a mix that’s on tap at the Avery Tap Room.

Raise a pint for Danny

Boulder beer aficionado Danny Williams died Jan. 23 at his home after battling pancreatic cancer. He was 52. In addition to spending the last decade making sure the more than 4,000 beers received each year for judging as part of the Great American Beer Festival were handled properly and kept at the right temperatures, Williams was also legendary for his beer cave. Converted from an old mine shaft on his Sunshine Canyon property, his cave holds more than 3,000 bottles of (mostly Belgian) beer at an optimum 52 degrees F. Friends and beer lovers are invited to celebrate his life at a memorial service being held at 6 p.m. Feb. 11 at the Backcountry Pizza and Tap House, 2319 Arapahoe Ave. Parking is limited, so car pool or ride your bike.

It’s heeeere, again.

The dark love is flowing once again from the taps at the Mountain Sun, Southern Sun and Vine Street Pub in observance of the 19th annual Stout Month. The somewhat rare and creative (Addiction Coffee and Nihilist imperial stouts are back) black ales will be joined by periodic additions to the tap list. “Like” Mountain Sun on Facebook for daily updates on their offerings and special events; they try to keep up on their website, mountainsunpub.com, but FB is your best bet.

The post Blending Beer appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

What is a day? Most would say “24 hours” or the length of time from midnight to midnight or 86,400 seconds. All these definitions are correct in as far as they go. But how long is it really?

You see, good old Mother Earth is gradually slowing down. Friction from tides is the big culprit, but how mass is distributed around our globe in the forms of water and ice (or lack thereof), as well as shifting tectonic plates (earthquakes), have an impact, too. And let’s not even get started on the fact that, due to the elliptical orbit of our planet, in clock time, the earth can take longer to spin all the way around in a day depending on what month it is.

Because of this gradual slowing down (we know thanks to atomic clocks and precise astronomical observations) and because the definition of a second is a bit off, the world has (since 1972) been adding seconds to our official time (Coordinated Universal Time or UTC) to keep our wall clocks in sync with the spin of the earth. But because the slowing isn’t consistent—some days our watery ball spins milliseconds faster than others—we have only added 34 seconds in 40 years.

Adding a second every couple of years (the last one was in 2008 and before that in 2005 and then again back in 1998) isn’t like moving the hour hand back and forth twice a year so we can see to mow the lawn after dinner in July. It’s more akin to Leap Years—where we add a day to the end of February every four years because the earth actually revolves around the sun in 365 days and six hours— only
more random.

But the powers that be (officially the International Telecommunication Union) are set to vote on whether or not to get rid of leap seconds at its meeting in January in Geneva, Switzerland. This group sets standards that the world uses to keep things like the Internet, cell phones and the Global Positioning System running like, well, clockwork. The leap second has been a pain for telecommunications companies for years because it’s a sporadic event. It’s easy to program software to adjust for daylight saving time and leap years because we know they will happen and when; with leap seconds, not so much.

So what happens if we get rid of the leap second? First of all it won’t take effect until January 2018. And we may not miss the ditzy TV reporters trying, with mixed results, to explain the event (which typically happens on New Year’s Eve when the extra second gets slipped in between gulps of Champagne) to viewers who will never notice.

However, over the span of 100 years, our original timekeeper, the good old earth, will have gotten behind by about a minute compared with today’s super accurate clocks. One proposal is that we would have a leap minute to get us back on track, but no one alive today will have to worry about that (kind of like funding Social Security).

The idea of getting an extra minute at some point in the future makes it fun to think about how one would spend it. A second is rather fleeting for such a “what if” exercise, but there’s a lot you can do in a minute. I think everyone should get to say anything to anyone with no consequences. A comment like: “Honey, those jeans make your butt look HUGE!” would just roll off and be forgotten in a leap minute. Like it never happened.

I’m just sayin’…

The post When is a Day no Longer a Day? appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

Winter and beer were made for each other. Sure, the crisp, bracing refreshment of a cold Lefthand Juju Ginger or Upslope Craft Lager in the summer is nice. But when the sun is gone before you leave work and it’s barely crawling over the frosty horizon when your alarm goes off in the morning, it’s the season for something thick, rich, dark and potent. How else would you  stoke the inner fires without booze with alcohol in the double digits?

Avery is to the holidays what cookies and milk are to Santa

Winter is when brewers let fly with their creative concoctions and resurrect the potent ghosts of years’ past. Take Avery’s Rumpkin Ale aged in rum barrels. Even at $12 for a 12-ounce bottle, this sledgehammer (15.9 percent alcohol by volume) pie in a bottle flew off the shelves at local liquor stores when it was released this fall. But you can get one last glass until it’s gone starting at 5 pm Dec. 21–23 at the Avery Tap Room. The in-laws will be a lot more tolerable with a Rumpkin glow.

Avery is atoning for closing Dec. 9 for its staff holiday party by letting its Meph Addict flow New Year’s Eve. This coffee-infused 15 percent ABV Mephistopheles Imperial Stout pours like a moonless night and sports an espresso-brown head and a dark-roasted aroma that will restore the circulation to any extremity.

It’s beer, it’s wine, it’s Super Kind!

Get your glow on with Mountain Sun’s Super Kind barleywine. Brewed to 10 percent ABV, this malty wonder is dry hopped with Cascade pellets, giving it a piny aroma, not unlike the fresh cut trees for sale down at the church lot. And while it may be gone by the time this hits the streets, check and see if the rare keg of Samichlaus is still going. If it is, don’t delay and get thee to the Vine Street Pub for a glass of this 14 percent ABV dopplebock. One of the strongest lagers made, the honey and pear flavors barely stand up to the heat of the alcohol packed into this Austrian import. Mountain/Southern Sun and Vine Street Pub make prodigious use of Facebook, so friend them and watch for daily updates about what’s on tap.

Celebrate the light at Lefthand

If the Barrel-aged Widdershins Barleywine is blown when you read this, check back at the Lefthand tasting room; they are said to have more and will make it available later in December. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t head there now. ‘Tis the season for the barrel-aged Wake up Dead Russian Imperial Stout. This deadly brew (10.2 percent ABV) is outstanding on its own, but after lying  in an oak barrel for more than a year, it gets downright ethereal. And stay tuned for the 2012 Ambidextrous release in January. This is a mix of Widdershins and Imperial Milk Stout that only the mad brewing scientists at Lefthand can concoct. Though the sound of it is quite atrocious, you know it’ll be delicious.

Find your way to Twisted Pine

Another winning winter release is Twisted Pine’s award-winning Northstar Imperial Porter, on tap now when we need it most. Brewed to 9 percent ABV, this robust porter packs in the roasty chocolate flavors. Grab a growler to share with Santa and he’ll be sure to hook you up with that pair of Liberty Helix skis you wanted so bad.

The post The Strong, Silent Type appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

God bless Rollie Heath. Despite having his thoughtful ballot question, Proposition 103, shot down by a 2 to 1 margin, he exhibited something sorely lacking in modern government: leadership and vision. His proposal—to slightly raise sales and income taxes across the state—would have injected much-needed cash into Colorado’s decimated education coffers to the tune of nearly $3 billion in five years.

But the measure failed, thanks in part to the cowardly silence of Gov. John Hickenlooper and a large percentage of lawmakers, both local and state. The fate of the measure was guaranteed by the deafening silence of our Progressive In Name Only governor and his fellow lawmakers.

So now what?

Hickenlooper has threatened to have “a serious conversation with voters” about the need to fund education in the future. Right. That’s kind of like having a conversation with your kids about contraception in the delivery room.

Given the paltry resources We The People of Colorado are willing to put into our schools (2009 Census figures show we rank 40th in per pupil spending and that doesn’t take into account the past two years of Draconian cuts, which certainly drops us closer to the bottom), our workforce will soon be struggling to qualify for fast-food jobs, let alone the high-tech positions our governor hopes to lure to our state.

A beautiful mountain backdrop, great weather and major league sports go only so far in seducing companies to relocate here. Smart people who can handle the work—not to mention good schools that are up to the standards of the techies who move here—are the key to luring a high-profile, high-revenue company to Colorado.

So if we aren’t willing to spend the money to bring our schools up to even mediocre standards, I have a solution. Funnel all of our transportation money into the education budget. Decrepit roads should be considered a challenge, not a liability, for the ubiquitous sport utility vehicles that are the state car. And when bridges collapse, it’s just that much more of an off-road challenge.

And should some unlucky schmo get beaned with a loose chunk of concrete, they’ll win the failing transportation infrastructure lottery, with the survivors getting a tidy settlement from the state.

I’m only half kidding here. When a state spends (as of 2008, according to the U.S. Department of Justice) more than $20,000 per inmate and less than half that per student, we are seriously hosed. And don’t look for the prison expense to get cut. The prison guards’ lobby has ensured that any reduction in mandatory sentencing and the reduction in costs is off the table.

The only hope we had for sanity in our state spending was Rollie Heath’s Proposition 103. God bless him and the 10s of thousands of petition signers who put the measure before the voters. And shame on Hickenlooper for staying mum on the issue. He, along with many other Democrats, have failed to lead or even speak out for something that we all would benefit from: greater spending on education.

So, let the hand-wringing begin as the legislature gears up to hack even more from the state’s education budget.

It will be interesting to see what happens when the Regional Transportation District’s tax question shows up on the ballot in 2012. Will the usual suspects again be mute and get schooled at the polls or will they show they learned their lesson, demonstrate some leadership and support the measure?

If they continue to fail, we will all pay the price.

The post For the Love of Education appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

It pains me to write about Christmas when (as of this submission) we’re still two months out, but you don’t want to let opportunity slip by for the ones you love. Let’s face it, some people are hard to buy for; they have their hobbies covered, their Fruit-of-the-Looms have no holes and the bottles of Hai Karate from the ’70s remain unopened (eBay!).

But if your loved one enjoys a good beer or hand-crafted spirit now and again, there are plenty of easy options throughout Colorado. Wrap, drink and be merry. Oh, and save some for us.

Beer

If he or she likes a specific style of beer—stout or India Pale Ale or pilsner—grab the winners list from this year’s Great America Beer Festival and put together the medalists from a specific category. Granted, some of the winners are from brewpubs that won’t be available in bottles, so another option is to put together a sample of local award-winning beers. The ones in bottles or cans (like Oskar Blues’ silver-medal winner, Mama’s Little Yella Pils, or Odell’s gold medal Friek) are easy. But the tap-only winners, like the bronze medal Graham Cracker Porter from Denver Beer Co. will require a growler. That you took the time to hunt down some winners will warm your honey’s heart.

And speaking of the Great American Beer Festival, there’s nothing like scoring a ticket to the hottest beer event of the year. And given how fast it sold out this year, you’ll want to save the dates (nailed down for Oct. 11–13, 2012) and jump on tickets when they go on sale next summer. Sign up for GABF email news at the below web address so you don’t get left out of next year’s GABF festivities or tickets.

If rare, limited-release and high-quality beer is on your wish list, but you don’t have a specific brewery or style, avail yourself of the beer gurus at various local liquor stores. PJ’s Liquors at Sunset Street, north of the Diagonal Highway in Longmont, has an amazing selection of top shelf beers, as does Total Beverage at 770 E. 104th Ave. in Thornton. And of course there’s Liquor Mart at 15th and Canyon in Boulder. These stores have wise guys who know their suds and will help you assemble a high-octane collage of beer.

Spirits

Ahhh, the holiday spirit! Santa likes nothing better than a stiff White Russian (made with 303 Vodka and Roundhouse Corretto Coffee Liqueur and some raw milk—or cream!—from Rocky Plains dairy in Dacono). The spirits are top shelf and the raw dairy (milk or cream) is exquisite tasting and massively healthy for you. If you’ve never tried it, raw milk is a treat.

If you want something a little more refined that makes for a great after-dinner sipping toddy or a tasty flask filler for the slopes, try out the Peach Street Distillers selection of peach, pear and plum brandies made from fresh Palisade fruit. If you miss that juicy, bursting-with-flavor fruit from the Western Slope, these brandies are exquisite and do a stellar job of capturing the taste and aroma in a bottle. Find them at larger liquor stores.

The post Gifts to Open Twice appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

I have already purchased my multi-mountain season ski pass, so I can assure you all we will have a crummy snow year. There will be massive dumps, yes, but they will come mid-week and shut down I-70 in both directions depriving us Front Rangers of the bounty for days as the plow and front-end loader drivers clear the byways.

By the time the roads open, the Chinook winds will have scoured the thigh-deep powder from the ski runs and tossed it into precarious wind slabs and cornices on leeward faces making back country ski outings as safe as letting your blind grandma pick up the kids in the Hummer.

Or not.

Seasonal snow predictions and forecasts are, for good reason, impossible to conjure with any kind of precision. You might as well try to guess which big name personality will slather barbecue sauce on his or her foot and swallow it whole (doh! Hank Williams, Jr.!). But I can pretty much guarantee you we would definitely be looking at an epic winter had I not purchased my pass. I’m just sayin’…

I try to spread my voodoo weather superstitions around to better my odds. The one time in the last 20 years I didn’t get a pass it was a banner season. Yes, 1995: The year the Fourth of July saw a 90-inch base and a snowstorm (!!) at A-Basin. The ski area was forced to close on Labor Day weekend so its 1994-95 ski passes would expire (and to do some required lift maintenance) before the start of the new season.

Since then, I’ve never failed to equip myself with some sort of pass. But that doesn’t mean I don’t tap into some folklore and wives tales to get a peek down the road at what dumps may await.

Sure, there are the Wolly Bear caterpillars that have varying widths of black hair, signifying varying intensities of winter. I never paid them much heed until I found one that was almost totally black, with only a touch of reddish hair on each end.

I took it as a sure sign of pending dumpage, blew off buying much-needed tires for my Ford and sprung instead for new Technica ski boots. It’s amazing the mix of confidence and terror that stem from putting studs into nearly bald truck tires.

There are other signs, too. Thick skins on onions and copious clusters of berries on the raspberry bushes that signal deep and long-lasting snows to come. I also watch my chickens and geese closely for signs of extra-dense plumage, which can only mean a heavy winter awaits.

But then the nerd in me takes over and I get hold of The Man: ENSO (short for El Niño/ Southern Oscillation) Diagnostic Discussion produced by the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA.gov). They’re calling for another winter of La Niña conditions (negative sea surface temperature anomalies across the eastern half of the equatorial Pacific Ocean) similar to last year. In short, it’s no time to welch on the ski pass because we could be skiing from October to July. Again.

Wing Commander Ripper, do you copy? Over.

The post Ski for All appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

Second tier beer festivals in Colorado are growing, thanks to the success of the Great American Beer Festival. But the new element in these gatherings is a growing number of craft distillers in the state.

The recent 9th annual Craft Lager Festival in Manitou Springs the second weekend in August saw more than 4,000 lager enthusiasts in two days enjoy some 30 craft beers. But new this year was the introduction of craft distillers to the mix.

A relatively young bunch—seven years ago there were three craft distillers in the state; today there are 22—the addition was met with some skepticism by the brewers in attendance, said Rob Masters, distiller of Rob’s Mountain Gin, which is created at Boulder Distillery, also home to 303 Vodka and 303 Whiskey.

“They (the brewers) were a bit leary, but when they saw what we were doing, they thought it was great,” Masters said.

Much of the reason is that beer has become the new cocktail mixer. No longer are whiskey and vodka and gin relegated to dancing with cola, lemon-lime soda and tonic. Bartenders are starting to experiment with mixing stouts and whiskey as well as vodka and sour beers.

If you’re curious how this plays out, check out the Fall Harvest Brew Fest at the Drake Centre in Fort Collins Oct. 15. They, too, are welcoming Colorado distillers to serve up cocktails and other unique concoctions. In addition to the 20 regional breweries in attendance there will be a half dozen distilleries, including Boulder’s RoundHouse Spirits, Loveland’s Dancing Pines Distillery and Greeley’s Syntax Spirits, as well as 303 Vodka and Rob’s Mountain Gin.

Winner Winner

The sold out Great American Beer Festival was a boon for Denver (and has garnered enough respect from the managers of the Colorado Convention Center that they’ve booked next year’s festival for Oct. 11–13, so plan to get your tickets early). Several local breweries that had gone winless in years past brought home the hardware this year, and visa versa. Here, a list of area winners.

Blue MoonVintage Blond Ale: Bronze

Upslope, Upslope Pumpkin Ale: Gold

Bull and Bush, Turnip the Beets: Bronze

Copper Kettle, Mexican Chocolate Stout: Gold

Dry Dock, Coffee Milk Stout: Bronze

Denver Beer, Graham Cracker Porter: Bronze

Wynkoop, Belgorado: Bronze

Strange, Gluten-Free Lemon Pale: Gold

New Belgium, LeTerroir Sour Ale: Gold

Odell, Friek: Gold

Bull and Bush, Release the Hounds: Silver

Wynkoop, B3K Schwarzbier: Bronze

C.B. and Potts, Pavlov’s Pils: Gold

Oskar Blues, Mama’s Little Yella Pils: Silver

Del Norte, Orale: Bronze

SandLot Brewery, Move Back Oktoberfest: Gold

Coors Archive, PrePro Bock: Silver

Oskar Blues, Deviant Dale’s: Silver

Grimm Brothers Brewhouse, Little Red Cap: Gold

Crabtree Brewing, Berliner Weisse: Gold

Dry Dock, Hefeweizen: Gold

Funkwerks, Funkwerks Saison: Silver

Dostal Alley Brewpub, Shaft House Stout: Bronze

Crabtree, Oatmeal Stout: Silver

Oskar Blues, Old Chub: Bronze

Mountain Sun Brewery, Colorado Kind: Silver

The post Distillers Hit up Beer Fests appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

When I adopted Bart (short for Slartibartfast) from the Boulder Valley Humane Society, he was relatively young—about nine months—and without a name. Despite nearly dying of parvo virus curled up in my basement the day after I brought him home, he has been a great dog.

Does he catch a Frisbee with fighter jet speed and dexterity? No, but he is an affectionate companion, has personality to spare, is a good listener and a loyal friend.

But I felt guilty having to leave him at home all day while I was at work. Sure, he has a half-acre yard to run around all day and honey bees to bite at. But I thought he needed a friend, another dog with which he could run and play and share the day.

So it was with this idea in my mind that I contacted a border collie rescue group. They introduced me to Chadd—he came with a name to which I added a “d” to better reflect his unrelenting enthusiasm and drastic attention deficit issues. Chadd was 5 when I adopted him, about the same age as Bart, and he loves playing catch with a Frisbee. That is until something else—a goose, passing cyclist or car—catches his attention.

If I had it to do over again—and I knew then what I know now—I can’t say I would make the same decision. Chadd is a kind and loving dog, don’t get me wrong. If he would just look up when I throw the Frisbee, he would be catching 1,000. And I’m pretty sure he’s living the good life out on my farm, herding the geese around the yard, running in the fields and going for swims in the creek across the street.

To get a reality check, I consulted Brett Endes, a “canine counselor” in Longmont. He said my intentions were good but a dog is fine hanging out all day by him or herself, as long as I am present (throwing a Frisbee, interacting, going for walks) with them when I’m home. Which I am.

“If things aren’t going well while you are around, you’re not giving them any quality time while you are home, that’s where things can go wrong,” Endes said.

But it’s been a rocky road with Chadd, and is to this day. Chadd has a tendency to do his business in the house, on the carpet, as opposed to outside on the yard. It’s not a regular thing; I’ll just find his mess some random morning or at night before heading to bed. This led to him getting put in his kennel at night, which pretty much solved the problem. But it was nice to have him hang out in my room and, on cold nights, on the bed.

I’m not sure if he has some issues from his past owners (I don’t know about any abuse or other traumatic problems), but he can be highly skittish. Like when he sees the fur brush or when I fill the kiddie pool for his bath. Chadd tends to bark and snap at Bart when they go running through the yard to bark at a passing car with a dog hanging out the window. But again, not always.

I try to use Bart as the example because he just takes it all in stride; the brushing, the baths. Bart has never had an “accident” in the house. Although he did chomp a chicken once, which he ended up wearing for several days. That solved that.

Chadd remains the problem child who wants to bite the brush that grooms him. At Endes’ suggestion, I’ll continue to work with him and play catch and enjoy his help in rounding up the birds. But after talking with Endes and seeing what the results are, I would not recommend adopting a second dog as a friend to the first. Better to focus your attention on one furry friend at a time.

The post Double Duty appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

Probably the biggest beer-oriented event outside the GABF will be the Denver Oktoberfest on Larimer Street between 20th and 22nd streets Sept. 16–18 and 23–25. Craft beer icon Jim Koch, founder of Sam Adams, will kick the fest off Sept. 16, and there will be live music, food and, of course, beer from Sam Adams and cocktails from Boulder’s 303 Vodka. There are some 350,000 people expected to attend this week-long party—dubbed by Maxim magazine as the best Oktoberfest in the U.S. Enjoy non-beer related events such as a 5K race and “wiener dog” competition. oktoberfestdenver.com.

The Denver Beer Fest itself is a collection of events, tastings, food pairings and shows with beer as a uniting theme. If you want to see what makes a brewery tick, check out a tour of your favorite craft brewer or of the massive Coors facility in Golden. If you’re interested in meeting the minds behind your favorite suds, then the “Meet the Brewer” gatherings from 6–9pm on Thursday nights at the Wazee Supper Club are the place for you.

You can start your beer drinking day during the Denver Beer Fest at the historic Capitol Hill Mansion Bed and Breakfast Inn at 1207 Pennsylvania, where they will serve Wynkoop’s Railyard Ale from 7:30–9:30am every morning from Sept. 23–Oct. 1.

Get your hop on Sept. 26 at the Wazee Supper Club with the Attack of the India Pale Ales. Versions of this highly hopped style of ale from Ska, Mad River, Great Divide, Grand Teton, Wynkoop and more will be on tap through the evening. Side-by-side tastings of this popular beer style are a great way to get an accurate take on who does it best.

An excellent way to learn your way around the Denver beer scene is to book a seat on the Denver Brews Cruise. There’s nothing like being driven to the city’s best breweries to taste and tour. Breckenridge Brewery as well as the two newest players in the Denver beer scene, Strange and Renegade breweries. Tours can be booked at brewscruise.com/denver.

But probably the best place to be if you didn’t get a ticket for the GABF is at the Summit Music Hall at 1902 Blake St. in Denver. On Sept. 29–Oct. 1 from 4pm–2am there will be hundreds of beers on tap and in bottles. Put on in conjunction with Boulder’s Reuben’s Burger Bistro—a local mecca for Belgian beers—there will be tappings of one-off kegs from local breweries, specialty brews and Belgian beers never before available in kegs in Denver. Food offerings will also include five kinds of German sausages, soft pretzels and more. Check out summitbeergarden.com for details on what’s on tap and special offerings.

One thing is certain: The Denver Beer Fest makes getting shut out of the GABF much less painful.

Beer for Boobs

Left Hand Brewing is raising money for Breast Cancer research with the inaugural Polestar Pole Dance Competition at 9pm Sept. 28 at Platinum 84, 8485 Umatilla St., Denver.

The post Beer Mania appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

So you just don’t like beer. Maybe someone handed you a Hercules Double India Pale Ale from Great Divide early in your beer career, and when your face unscrewed from the full-body pucker induced by the grievous amount of hops, you swore if your taste buds ever grew back, you’d never again touch the stuff.

That’s understandable. Or maybe you’re a “wine” person. OK. But if you’ve ever considered giving barley pop a try again, now is the time.

Belgian beers inhabit a relatively mellow neighborhood in the community that is craft beer and are a great place to rekindle an affair with the suds. The majority are ales and, except for a few examples, they are judiciously hopped and are therefore not painfully bitter. Belgian yeasts, too, impart a somewhat sweet, fruity—often citrusy (think orange or lemon)—flavor and aroma.

A wide variety of styles, flavors and strengths are represented by Belgian beers, meaning there’s a beer here for everyone.

“Belgium is to beer what France is to wine,” said Reuben Verplank, an unabashed fan of the region and proprietor of Reuben’s Burger Bistro—a bodacious Belgian beer rathskeller on Broadway in Boulder that carries 11 varieties on tap and another 54 in bottles. “There is so much variety in the beers there.”

On the light side of Belgians are the pils beers made with lager yeast. These are lighter in color, body and hops—not unlike a Hamm’s or Rolling Rock. Not particularly flavorful or high in alcohol, these are passable summer beers that can be pounded as needed to assuage the blistering heat of the dog days. Blond ales, of which Duvel is a popular example, are more flavorful still.

And then there’s saison (French for “season”). The hempen homespun heritage of the saison has largely been lost in today’s controlled brewing process. Born in winter for summer drinking, this farmhouse ale was typically light in body and low (3.5 percent) in alcohol and as varied in flavor as the farmers who brewed it as a summer thirst quencher. Today they have crept up in potency, but have lost the funky flavors that came from widely varying temperatures during fermentation.

Getting heavier and much more flavorful are the amber, dubbel, strong ale, trippel and quadruppel. These are the heavy hitters in the Belgian lineup and pack a bunch of flavor—from rich malts to banana to currant to cloves and beyond—to go with the higher gravities. With Belgian beers, it’s all about the yeast, which imparts those fruity flavors and a slight tartness.

In addition to Reuben’s, you can get your Belgian fix in a big way starting in September at the Vine Street Pub on 17th and Vine in Denver when those good folks (who also own the Mountain and Southern Sun pubs in Boulder) will turn 16 taps over to Belgian beers for the month.

And Sept. 17, the pub will shut down Vine Street for a block party and beer Olympics featuring competition between other brewers in events such as tricycle races, keg tossing and the like. Friend them on Facebook to keep up with special Belgians that rotate in on the taps and to find out which special band’s playing at the block party.

The post Belgian Invasion appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

By most standards, the nearly universal success of tap rooms at our local craft breweries is an illogical anomaly that just doesn’t make sense. Because when you think about it, serving only beer (with maybe some free peanuts or pretzels thrown in to make sure patrons stay thirsty) in the sparse setting of a warehouse with no television (well, okay, Twisted Pine and Boulder Beer have one), no food, no mixed drinks and a last call way before a third-grader’s bedtime just doesn’t sound like a formula for success.

But without exception, tap rooms large and small around north Metro Denver enjoy robust business from a loyal and growing group of fans that seem oblivious to what they’re missing.

“The whole thing has become a fun type of atmosphere,” said Bob Baile, president and brew master of Twisted Pine Brewing Company. “It’s about the camaraderie.”

And games; no self-respecting tap room would be complete without Scrabble, dominoes, cribbage and Trivial Pursuit.

The fun of the destination must be the lure, because as locations go, tap rooms are married to the brewery and the brewery—unlike smaller operations that support brew pubs like the Draft House, Walnut, Mountain Sun and BJ’s breweries—is relegated to office and industrial parks.

This is where tap rooms collectively thumb their noses at conventional wisdom. To pack a warehouse like Oskar Blues’ Tasty Weasel on a Firkin Friday afternoon or the Lefthand Taproom all day Saturday you’d think you’d need a spot on Main Street, the Pearl Street Mall or some other high traffic locale. And you’d be wrong.

“We don’t have specials or a happy hour,” said Chris Asher, co-founder and brewer at Asher Brewing Company, located on Nautilus Court in Gunbarrel. “People come here for the beer.”

For Asher, that means getting his certified organic beer—one of only a handful in the country—served fresh from the tap; he doesn’t sell it in bottles or cans and it’s only on tap at 18 restaurants and bars in Boulder, Longmont and Denver. But as Twisted Pine’s Baile points out, there’s a lot for a beer lover to love at a tap room.

“We serve beers you can only get here,” Baile said, noting that a fiery hot beer made with wasabi, horseradish and other incendiary vegetable matter recently flew out of his taps. “We are truly a batch craft brewer and people come here to see what kind of crazy beer we’ve come up with.”

The regulars are all about what’s new and different on tap. Lefthand has cask-conditioned offerings at its tap room and on Friday afternoons the Tasty Weasel pops a funky firkin of something special, as does Avery Tap Room. But for those who just like good beer or who are educating their palate, tap rooms are where you can immerse yourself in one brewery’s goods.

“On Saturday, I’m pouring samplers all day long,” says Chris Asher. “People are into doing beer tours and will hit three or four tap rooms in an afternoon.”

The business is so robust that it’s showing up in bottom lines and square feet. Baile says he’s seen double-digit growth at Twisted Pine over the past 10 years and is up 50 percent from 2009 to 2010. He will max out his 5,000-barrel capacity soon and is “looking at ceiling height now.”

It’s the same story at Asher. They’ve signed a lease that will let them double their tap room to 4,000 square feet, also effectively doubling his outdoor patio space.

That’s another aspect of the tap room phenomenon: food. Most tap rooms don’t serve more than free peanuts and/or pretzels. But some are slowly putting a toe in the water. Avery offers Nick and Willie’s pizza and Boulder’s Upslope Brewing has teamed up with Dubbin’s Sandwiches in Boulder for offerings that can be toasted in the brewery’s panini machine. And then there are regulars who turn their local tap rooms into an extension of their home. Asher said one of his regulars dropped off a grill and popcorn machine and fires them up on weekends. It’s not unusual for Abo’s Pizza to be yelling someone’s name at the Lefthand Tap Room or for someone to show up at the Tasty Weasel with a bag of burgers from Five Guys.

Food or no food, the scene is all about beer and people.

“They have a wonderful atmosphere and great people,” said Larry Smith, a Boulder County aficionado of tap rooms. “That’s why people go there; it’s a great bunch of people that hang out in tap rooms.”

The post Oddly Hip, Just Down the Street appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

Tight lot lines, an eclectic architectural mix and sidewalks within lemonade handoff distance from front porches are the signatures of Prospect New Town. Residents love it but they admit it’s not for everyone.

Prospect, the spot-on execution of the archetypical New Urbanist planned community on the south end of Longmont, thinks it’s Mayberry, RFD. True, there is no Ernest T. Bass chucking rocks at Two Dog Diner. But the narrow, tree-lined streets that sport a funky collection of architectural styles are home to a remarkably close-knit bunch of residents who relish their unique neighborhood. Today, as Prospect approaches its 20th anniversary, it remains a work in progress, but it’s creators say it has more than exceeded expectations and revolutionized local land use planning.

The summer of ’92, Hurricane Andrew—one of the strongest Category 5 hurricanes to hit the US—blew into Florida, left serious destruction in its wake and changed lives forever. That same summer, Kiki Wallace made landfall in Longmont with a design charrette held at the Dickens Opera House and the results were similar; land use codes were laid waste (or at least pushed to their extremes) and New Urbanist development philosophies changed city officials forever.

“The conventional wisdom in terms of land development at the time that Prospect was coming through the system was one of wide streets, big setbacks, low density and it was completely auto oriented,” said Brad Schol, planning manager for Longmont, who has been involved in Prospect from the beginning. “It was big tract development.

“It was cool to see this project come in,” Schol said. “The whole template was different. It was denser and the emphasis was on the pedestrian.”

That design charrette asked a lot of questions about what people wanted in a neighborhood, and Wallace listened, assimilating much of what people described into a vision of how his family’s 80-acre orchard would be transformed.

“It has more to do with sociology than it does architecture,” Wallace said. “The site planning is what makes Prospect work; how a home sits on the lot itself, how does it relate to the buildings around it and how does it relate to the pedestrian.”

Such an approach to development isn’t foreign, just take a walk (or bike ride) through Longmont’s old town. A block or two off of Main Street between Third Avenue and Longs Peak Avenue is a fine example of what sane, thoughtful pedestrian-oriented land use once looked like. Unlike the “Planned Unit Development” crap that hit its stride 25–30 years ago, century old homes in Longmont’s downtown core—like those in Prospect—have front porches, the dominant design feature isn’t the two-car garage door, streets are straight and free of cul-de-sacs. Wallace uses the front porch as an example.

“The way a porch works is to make it 8 feet deep,” he says. “If you want to make them functional, you have to have an 8-foot porch; a 6-foot-deep porch is not functional.”

By functional, he means they become livable spaces—places for a table and chairs or a swing that would actually be used—not worthless elements tacked on for its looks.

But the success of Prospect, according to Wallace, is not porches and miniscule front yards. “Architecture isn’t what makes this work; it’s the people,” he said. “It functions better than it looks like it functions.”

And like dark beer, Brussels sprouts and Beethoven, Prospect is an acquired taste.

“Prospect is not for everybody,” said Noelle Aparelli from the porch swing on her “New Orleans”-style home. “There’s not a lot of privacy; people know when you’re coming and going. But that’s not a bad thing.”

While the design of the place compels interaction—mail is delivered to a central collection—it’s generally considered a plus.

“We moved here from Boulder five years ago, and I’ve made five times the number of friends here as I had in Boulder after 10 years,” said Steve Wilton as he wound his rainbow colored, winged box kite down into Prospect’s central park. “I love it here.”

In some respects, though, the love stops at the border. The downright disdain that outsiders have for the neighborhood occasionally rears its head when the place makes the news. Last March, a suspected drunk truck driver from Tennessee got “lost” in the narrow streets and went postal with his 18-wheeler. He trashed cars, signs, lamp posts, trees and houses before being stopped. The comments in local media ranged from calling the event “hilarious” to saying the guy couldn’t have done such damage if Prospect was a “normally sized and shaped neighborhood with more spacing between homes and wider streets.”

“Obviously the development is different and it carries some baggage with it and people are sensitive about criticism; they take it way too personally,” Wallace said. “But as long as the people who live here are happy, who cares what other people think?”

Indeed. But when you meet people who live there, it’s hard not to miss a tinge of superiority when they talk about how nice it is to know their neighbors, the family across the street and the retired couple on the corner. The folks in Prospect, by design or by desire, walk the walk of being neighbors. If that’s wrong, they don’t care about being right.

The post Modern Mayberry is an Acquired Taste appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

Photo by James Burrus

Getting around on two wheels in Boulder County keeps getting progressively easier, safer and more convenient as more roads get the “bike friendly” treatment. June being Bike Month in Colorado—and Bike To Work Day being the fourth Wednesday in the month—it’s worth noting the serious improvements to county roads that are used by fitness and commuter cyclists alike (like yours truly).

Probably one of the most hellish stretches for a cyclist in Boulder County is Valmont Road between 75th and 95th streets. It’s motley clumps of asphalt patches, complete lack of shoulders and not one but two sharp S-curves make navigating that stretch an exercise in survival. Contrast that with Valmont Road to the west of 75th Street, and the difference is stark.

Tim Swope, the county’s capital projects coordinator, said the stretch of Valmont will get the Full Shoulder Treatment—11-foot driving lanes and 5-foot shoulders—the whole way through. After some drainage issues are solved and culverts are replaced, reconstruction will begin in August and last through November. Other projects either nearing completion or set to begin this summer, Swope said, include:

Lee Hill Road from 4th Street in Boulder (just west of Broadway) to Olde Stage Road. That stretch is getting drainage issues solved, a wider roadway and 5-foot climbing lanes. That section of the popular cycling loop that includes the lung-busting climb up Olde Stage Road and 50 mph descent to Buckingham Park and out Lefthand Canyon Drive to U.S. 36 has been in need of shoulders since I commuted on that stretch daily beginning in 1987.

Boulder County has just begun adding 5-foot shoulders to Cherryvale Road between Arapahoe and Baseline roads; a project that should be done by the end of summer.

Completing a three-mile-long soft surface trail connection from 83rd to 95th Street near Niwot Road.

Engineering work and preparations will be finished this year in preparation for rebuilding Neva and Niwot roads from U.S. 36 east to 63rd Street. This includes side shoulders, too.
Other ongoing projects include working with the Colorado Department of Transportation on getting similar shoulders installed on Colorado 93 south out of Boulder. That stretch of highway is one of the few routes south to Golden, and while not a favorite with cyclists because of the precarious lack of shoulders, highway speeds and big trucks that use it, many riders still flirt with death and give it a ride.

But probably the most glaring place in need of shoulders is East County Line Road that forms the border with Weld and Boulder counties. The road offers a straight shot from Broomfield to Larimer County. Apart from a few sections widened for developments in Erie, the road is mostly a shoulder-less speedway. Boulder County hopes to get started on improving the Longmont to Erie section in the next year or two, according to Swope.

It’s worth pointing out here that all of these improvements are key to making the increasingly traveled road of Boulder County safer, both for motorists and bicyclists. And while progress may seem slow, it would be downright glacial without the .1 percent tax (a penny on a $10 purchase) that was passed by voters in 2001 and extended in 2007 to sunset in 2024. It generates about $3.5 million a year, about 15 percent of which goes toward regional trails and the rest is spent on road and transit improvements.

The success of Boulder County’s transportation tax is a great example of government being good stewards and improving our lives by using taxes. Next year, RTD will ask for a .4 percent tax (four pennies on a $10 purchase) to put some zoom in FasTracks and get that worthy project done faster. It’s money well spent and we should do much more because government can and does do good with our taxes.

The post Road Warriors appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

A recent visit to my brother in Berlin left me with a different take on that country and the almost reverent idolatry of their beer heritage. After all, it is the German Beer Purity Act of 1516 (called the Reinheitsgebot) that is pointed to by purists as the reason for the Reinland’s historically superior suds. The law (since repealed) limits what can be used in making beer to water, barley and hops.

This made for excellent beer that wasn’t polluted with cheap adjuncts like corn (sugar) or rice (used prodigiously by Budweiser USA, among others). But what I found odd was the somewhat common practice of using beer as a cocktail mixer and even adding other sodas to a brew. My sister-in-law likes a diesel, a mix of pilsner (or any beer) and cola. A Radler—German for “cyclist” (or a Shandy, as they say in England) is a beer mixed with either Sprite, cider or lemonade (hard or not). A Russ’n is a wheat beer with lemonade; it’s damn good and can be slammed en masse on a hot day without fear of becoming staggeringly hammered. Truth. Another strange concoction I tried was a Susi Sonnenschein, a wheat beer mixed with Havana Club rum and banana juice. It’s actually not bad, with the effervescent citrus notes of the wheat beer and the banana juice helping to push that flavor up front, but they can ambush your sobriety.

I have nothing against using beer as a mixer. There is room for experimentation. But seeing the zeal for it in Germany—the land of beer purity—was funny. You’d think there would be some law about fouling a perfectly good brew with Coke, but you’d be wrong. Don’t be surprised to see these zymurgic concoctions hit menus as the trend takes off.

Colterra beer dinners

Chef Bradford Heap has jumped aboard the beer pairing dinner bandwagon with a monthly offering at his acclaimed Niwot restaurant. The first Wednesday of each month, Heap will prepare four courses and pair them with specific beers from local breweries. He started off with Great Divide and is hooking up with Avery for the July 6 dinner. Cost: $45 per person.

Fooooore!

Upslope Brewery has a fourth beer out in cans: the Upslope Craft Lager. It’s somewhat light (4.8 percent alcohol by volume) and rather crisp and bright with a mild hop bite, as compared with other craft pilsners available in Boulder County. In addition to expanding and renovating the tiny tap room, Upslope has also expanded its hours to 2–8pm Tuesday through Thursday and 2–9pm on Friday and Saturday; closed Sunday. Gotta check out the new roomy digs.

Saison is French for Summer

Twisted Pine’s popular Le Petit Saison is back on tap for summer at the taproom on Walnut Street just east of 30th Street or in 22 ounce bottles at your favorite liquor store. This citrusy and lightly fruity beer owes its flavor profile to the yeast, and brewer Jeff Brumley says he keeps the malt and hops somewhat subdued in order to let the yeasty flavors remain front and center. At 5.5 percent AVB, this is a nice summer session beer, but only after you’ve put the weed whacker away for the day.

The post The New Mixer appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

Comfort and steeze are what riding a bike should be about. The idea that riding a bicycle requires being hunched over at the waist so you have to crane your neck to see where you’re going and placing much of your weight on your hands and shoulders is crazy.

For the small minority who are competitive racers (either on mountain or road bikes), the tuck position may be just fine. But for most of the rest of us, getting on a bicycle shouldn’t mean being uncomfortable.

Also, we aren’t going to warn you about buying bikes from discount department stores: Just don’t do it. Having your bike assembled by someone who just builds bikes and knows all about them is invaluable. Your local, independent bike store will have many to choose from and can help you trick it out with cool accessories.

What follows are our Yellow Scene bicycle picks, from cheap to pricey. These are bikes you’ll actually enjoy and look good riding and they’re also functional. You don’t need a full suspension rig or have to balance your butt on a black leather potato chip. Grab a helmet and let’s go!

Under $100

Yes, they do exist (at Walmart, mostly), but you’ll spend at least twice that much fixing the cheap parts that break. Better to find something used on Craigslist for a hundred bucks.

Under $350

Now we’re talkin’! The Trek Cruiser Classic (for men and women) is just that: a basic one-speed with fat tires, comfy seat, coaster brake, sweeping handlebars and beefy steel frame. It comes in matte black, red and green/cream. These babies are just begging to be accessorized with baskets, bells, lights and mirrors. They’re comfortable to ride, virtually maintenance free and durable. But best of all, you get to ride upright so you can easily see traffic and avoid the pain in the neck. Check them out at Bicycle Village in Westminster.

Under $500

Moving up just a couple hundred bucks adds all sorts of goodies to the classic cruiser. The Electra Townie sports a suspension fork, hand brakes, posh seat, Shimano trigger shifters and a slightly recumbent riding position that lets you keep full leg extension and easily put your feet down when you’re at a stop. If hills are an issue, or you just can’t get enough top-end speed with a single speed cruiser, this is the ride for you. And women, they even have a dandy step-through model. Available at Derby Bicycles in Thornton.

Commuter (under $1,000)

If you’re serious about riding to work and are putting in more than 10 miles each way, the Novara Fusion is the bomb. It’s lightweight aluminum frame cuts the weight, hand brakes have a built-in bell, the front Alfine Dynamo hub powers the headlight (which is always on while moving) and can be switched to stare-at-the-sun bright for nighttime riding. Puncture resistant tires, disk brakes, kickstand and a rear rack ready for panniers or bags for carrying groceries or clothes. Check it out at REI.

Road (Sky’s the limit)

If you put serious miles on a bike and do laps on the Peak to Peak highway from your home in Broomfield to train for next year’s Iron Horse Bicycle Classic, you want a Specialized Roubaix Expert. The composit frame is feather light but responsive. The stock components are top of the line and the seat is a gel number to which you’ll never give a second thought. The forgiving 72-degree head angle and long chainstays help smooth out that rough chip-sealed road chatter. See this work of art at Louisville Cyclery.

The post Keep on Ridin’ appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

If you want to combine great music and great beer, visit the Telluride Blues and Brews Festival (Sept. 16–18). Grab your Beer Drinker’s Guide and hit the road, zooming south on I-25 and taking the U.S. 160 route west to Durango. Fight the urge to stop in at Ska, Carver, Steamworks or Durango breweries; book a room for Sunday night at the massively cool, comfortable and historic General Palmer Hotel in downtown, steps from the breweries. You can crash there after the festival and spend Monday recovering with a progressive pint program at the aforementioned pubs.

Swing north on Hwy. 550 and stop in Silverton at the brewery there. Then drop down the road to Ouray and grab a pint of whatever is on tap at the Ourayle House on 7th Avenue. They only brew a barrel of beer at a time and who knows how that will turn out. But you gotta love the spirit and spontaneity of the enterprise. For a more traditional pint, and a menu full of good eats, head to the Ouray Brewery at 607 Main St. for a refreshing kolsch or crisp, dry Cascade Creek Rye Ale.

Then head down to the award-winning Colorado Boy Pub and Brewery in “downtown” Ridgeway. Not only will they teach you how to build your own brewery (as they did for Ouray Brewing), but they make stellar beer. The last stop is at the Smuggler’s Brewpub and Grille on Pine Street. The award-winning beers and solid pub fare are a treat after a long day. But take a break from the fermented beverages and sink a sweet tooth into Smuggler’s divine root beer or cream soda. The lineup for this year’s festival is off the charts: Willie Nelson, The Flaming Lips, moe., Dweezle Zappa plays Zappa and Louisville’s Lionel Young Band. If you don’t have your tickets by June, you’ll be missing the festival of the year.

The post On the Road Again…To Telluride appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

This kitschy jaunt takes you deep into the vast expanse and featureless tabletop of middle America. If you’re a short-attention-span type, take a pass.

Otherwise, head south and hit I-70 and go east to Hwy. 36 to Cawker City, Kan. With frequent stops on the way at small town flea markets and garage sales, this is a good 6- to 7-hour jaunt. Cawker City is where Frank Stoeber assembled the world’s largest ball of twine that, thanks to an annual Twine-a-Thon in August, is now about 40 feet around and measures an estimated 7.8 million feet long (unrolled it would stretch from Cawker City all the way to Boston).

You can call it a day at the Ball of Twine Inn, just across the street, and grab dinner, cheap drinks and beer at the Corner Bar and Grill, about three blocks down the street. From here, wend your way south on Hwy. 181 to Lucas, Kan., to Civil War vet Samuel Perry Dinsmoor’s Garden of Eden. The home is made out of “logs” of postrock limestone and no two windows or doors are the same size. The interior, finished in finely detailed oak, walnut and redwood, is a work of art in itself. From Lucas, head back east to Hays, Kan., and check in to the Tea Rose Inn Bed & Breakfast.

Head south from town on Hwy. 183 to the Postrock and Barbed Wire museums in LaCross, Kan., (open 7 days of the week during summer). Then head back to Hays for the night and dinner at Gella’s Diner and Liberty Brewing (home of two-time GABF gold medal-winning stout).

The next day, head south to Hwy. 96 and then east to Eads, Colo., and take in the nearby Sand Creek National Historic Site where Col. John Chivington and his men led a cowardly and shameful massacre of more than 100 Cheyenne and Arapahoe women and children Nov. 29, 1864, after a drunken bender the night before. From here, get on U.S. 287 and dash on home, knowing you’ve been to the heart of America and collected some fantastic tales.

Road Trips – And Countless Adventures on the Open Road

• In Search of Rapids
• Southern Exposure
• A Grand Journey
• Jack Dempsey’s Knock-Out Tour
• Into the West
• Northern Lights
• Utah Bound
• Middle America History Tour

The post Middle America History Tour appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

Anything that’s on its fifth iteration (except movie sequels) should be showing marked improvement over past versions. Mike Laur’s stellar fifth edition of the Beer Drinker’s Guide to Colorado—which includes some $150 in free or buy-one-get-one-free coupons—goes there in spades.

Laur’s love of maps is immediately evident in the beautifully rendered image of the state and the extensive information it contains.

The guide is completely updated, listing (as of the printing) all 142 breweries and brewpubs in Colorado. And while the glove compartment version takes up backside real estate with an illustrated guide to the brewing process and beer styles in pictures, the real compliment to the map is online.

At the website beerdrinkersguidetocolorado.com, the interactive map puts all sorts of information—as well as brewery websites—just a click away. Even better is the Scenic Drives link under “Beer and Nature,” where more than two dozen routes are featured, including a map, mileage and, most importantly, breweries along the way.

But don’t think putting brewpubs and taprooms on the map is an encouragement to drink and drive.

“Be careful and pace yourself,” Laur said. “If you’re going to be hitting several brewpubs, be sure to eat some food, or better yet, bring along a designated driver.”

The post Driven to Drink appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

National Public Radio has been in the cross hairs of Washington, D.C., Republicans for years. Mostly this is because the venerable news organization used to do a decent job of reporting. Facts, you see, are toxic to the tea partiers because they tend to expose the blatant lies and shameless misinformation that is their stock in trade.

But in recent years, as the old cows at NPR have gotten comfortable with their insider status, access to power and weekly taste of fame as token members of the “liberal” media dissembling on the Sunday news shows, they have begun to suck. And not for the reasons you may think.

When I want a news fix, I don’t want people lying to me—blatantly, by omission or with intentional slant. I want facts, context, pertinent background and good journalism that come from solid reporting. And balance where it’s appropriate.

Balance doesn’t mean you give equal (or any) airtime to the Flat Earth Society just because they have something contrary to say about a story on the space shuttle. Reporting blatant lies and false information in the name of “balance” and “fairness” is shoddy journalism and does a disservice to your news consumers. How lame has NPR become? Here are a few examples:

1. Despite getting lots of miles reporting on the content of the leaked State Department cables, nothing has been reported about the ongoing torture of whistleblower Bradley Manning who leaked them.

2. In the nearly year-old aftermath of the Gulf spill, toxins still present in the water are making Gulf Coast residents deathly sick. What have you heard from NPR? Crickets. (Note to NPR: When Al Jazeera does a better job of reporting on this, it’s a sure sign you suck.)

3. The incessant parroting of the right-wing talking points—absent any relevant facts—about how we have to cut Social Security benefits, now, to fix the deficit, with no mention that Social Security is completely solvent through 2037. (Social Security can be easily paid for into the next century by eliminating the cap that only taxes earnings up to $106,000. If everyone making seven-digit and above incomes were taxed at the same rate as the guys repairing our roads, SS would be just fine.)

I could go on. But kissing up to the enemy—and the Republicans are the enemy of factual, reasonable, non-fear mongering discourse—and giving their BS equal play is no way to run a news organization. Hell, they couldn’t even muster a decent job of reporting on, and debunking, James O’Keefe’s video hatchet piece that helped fuel this crusade. They instead wet themselves as they fired anyone involved in hopes of appeasing the bully who was going to kick their ass regardless. So I’m fine with giving their government dole the axe.

I judge a quality news organization—and a quality reporter, for that matter—not by whom they are friends with. I judge it (or them) by whom they piss off with their scathing reporting of damning facts.

Ironically, the Republicans who are turning off the drip of federal dollars are now in control of the House largely because a fearful and ignorant electorate put them there. If anyone had a clue about the draconian agenda this TeaBagger brigade had in store, they would have never won so many seats. But with our “Public Radio” reporting team asleep at the wheel of the journalism bus, they are headed for the ditch along with the rest of us.

I say good riddance. There are plenty of other sources of quality news, both national and local. Maybe now NPR will realize kissing the hand that beats you is bad business and bad journalism.

The post Off the Air appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

My credo of “too much is always better than not enough” has usually stood me in good stead. Whether dealing with money, snowfall, romance—vowels in Scrabble, not so much—dealing with excess is often preferable. And so it is with beer, especially when it comes to selection.

When confronted with a prodigious variety of quality beers, as we are here on the Front Range, the sane answer to the question of how to deal with this glorious bounty is to make as much of it available as possible. On tap, of course.

Back Country Pizza and Tap House (2319 Arapahoe, Boulder; formerly Dolan’s) has 54 taps and some outstanding offerings, both foreign and domestic.

Another rider on the tap-wagon is Oskar Blues Home Made Liquids and Solids in Longmont with 42 handles. Keen on American beers—“no imports, no bottles,” as they say—they are magnanimous with their selection and offer brews from local competitors such as Asher, Great Divide and Breckenridge breweries.

The post What’s on Tap? What’s not on Tap? appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

Getting around Metro Denver and the Front Range is getting easier every day. But making faster progress may mean digging in to our collective couches for the pocket change to make it happen.

In the next 10 years, transportation issues will be among the top political and policy items our lawmakers wrestle with. In a world of limited resources and rising costs—fuel chief among them—there are projects large and small that will vye for our attention and money. Some may seem out of reach; others are no-brainers. But they all impact our quality of life, level of safety and air quality. Here is our list of the top 10 transportation issues on the to-do (or at least the to-talk-about) list of many Front Range lawmakers and citizens.

1. The “last mile” solution: B-cycle

Most of us could use a long walk. But one of the complaints about busses and trains is that they don’t go quite far enough. In fact, the deal breaker for many people using mass transit is traveling the mile or two to their stop or from their stop to their destination.

Enter B-cycle, a bike-sharing program that lets you “check out” a
well-maintained, robust bike for a $5 daily fee (or $50 annual membership). Just swipe your B-cycle card (or a credit card) and off you go. Ride to where you’re going and lock it back into any B-cycle rack when you’re done.

The program launches in Boulder May 20 with B-cycle stations in the downtown core and around CU. Denver re-launched its 500 B-cycle bikes in March. The program’s success will depend on its saturation and scope.

Get all the info at boulderbcycle.com. So, now there is no excuse for not
taking the bus.

2. For whom the road tolls

Negotiations over the proposed Jefferson Parkway—the 10-mile, $800-plus million road that would go from 120th Street and McCaslin Boulevard to Colo. 93 north of Golden—are expected to continue between the city of Boulder, Boulder County, Golden and Jefferson County. Boulder has agreed to drop its longtime opposition to the road if they can work out a deal over a piece of land, known as section 16, which would become open space. Proponents, such as the city of Broomfield, say the road would realize the vision of a completed beltway around the metro area and it would help transport workers from suburban areas to corporate facilities like the ConocoPhillips campus. The city of Golden doesn’t want the toll road cutting its town in half and has threatened lawsuits to stop it; Superior has also expressed opposition because of potential traffic impacts. Despite those concerns, Jefferson County officials have told area media that construction could start within a couple of years.

3. How much is too much fun?

Denver, Boulder and even Longmont are embracing the bicycle as a source of fun and socializing. As the number of participants increases, dealing with the volume of riders is becoming an issue, and an opportunity. The Longmont Wednesday night ride—May 18 to Labor Day this year—has increased over seven years from an average of six riders a week to 75. This is dwarfed by Denver Cruisers, which gets upward of 3,000 on a big Wednesday night. Both rides employ costume “themes” for attracting riders and generating enthusiasm. While the Denver ride makes no bones about being a bar hop, the Longmont ride aims for being family friendly, despite occasional stops at breweries. What both ride organizers do is emphasize safety and obeying traffic laws, endearing them to police and making the growing events avenues for education about bike issues.

4. FasTracks: Just build it so we can all move on

FasTracks is a noble vision that—to the extent that it has been realized—is an unmitigated success. The rail system that today connects much of south Denver with downtown is growing to Golden and DIA. Ridership has exceeded projections and people want more of it, not less.

No one foresaw the financial apocalypse that crippled the economy, sent tax revenues plummeting and slowed the flow of funds for FasTracks to a trickle. In response, RTD is thinking of asking voters in November for an additional 0.4 percent sales tax increase to finish FasTracks faster, as opposed to dragging it out over decades at a much higher total cost.

The tax would amount to an additional 40 cents on a $100 purchase and would be the best money we will ever spend. As gas heads to more than $4 a gallon, a comprehensive, effective and efficient transit system can’t get here fast enough.

5. High-speed Rail on I-25 and I-70 Corridors

Installing high-speed rail from Colorado Springs to Fort Collins and from Denver to Grand Junction would cost an estimated $21 billion, according to a feasibility study finished last year for the Rocky Mountain Rail Authority.

As is the case with most Big Infrastructure, such a sweeping project would also fuel an estimated $33 billion in benefits to the state, including thousands of jobs, increased economic development, higher real estate values along the corridors, more productivity and better air quality. Travel times make your mouth water: two hours from DIA to Vail; an hour from DIA to either Colorado Springs or Fort Collins. And while such a system won’t eliminate rush-hour congestion in the Denver Metro area, it would make a decent dent in the I-70 gridlock in the Mountain Resort Region. We can dream…

6. Apocalypse soon: $5-a-gallon gas

The cognitive disconnect is amazing: As long as it costs less than $40 to fill a 16-gallon tank with gas, life is good. But toss some freedom fighting Libyans into the mix and send a full tank north of $60 and we’re sure to see the return of standing-room-only busses, lighter weekend ski traffic and waiting lists for hybrid cars. It’s fine to put an extra $30 to $40 billion a year in profits into the pockets of Big Oil, but God forbid if we were to tack an extra 25 cents onto a gallon of gas to pay for more (or free) busses, light rail and expanded transit service. That extra quarter would be a burden, but the extra dollar or more per gallon that does nothing but make Big Oil companies rich is just fine? We haven’t increased the 22-cent-a-gallon gas tax in 20 years. Figuring out that bumping that up by a dime or quarter will be a benefit, not a detriment, is among our biggest challenges.

7. Solutions for I-70

Congested I-70 traffic in the mountains isn’t just aggravating for drivers. Businesses from the Red Ram in Georgetown to the Dillon Dam Brewery in Dillon suffer. According to a six-year-old Denver Regional Council of Governments study, I-70 congestion in the Mountain Resort Region costs Colorado a couple of hundred million a year in lost business (people don’t want to exit and “lose their place in line”), lower productivity, personal lost time, sales tax revenue and air quality. One solution would be to poke additional tunnels next to the existing ones at the Eisenhower Tunnel and Twin Tunnels west of Idaho Springs as well as improve several interchanges (Cost: $16–$20 billion). The new tunnels could be used for rail in the future, but the cost is huge.

8. Boulder don’t need no stinkin’ Light Rail

The U.S. 36 Corridor—from Boulder to Westminster—is the backbone of Boulder’s transit system. Long before the promise of connecting Longmont and Boulder with Denver via commuter trains lured voters with rail lust to pass FasTracks, there were buses and EcoPasses that put butts in seats along one of RTD’s most heavily used transit corridors. Local officials, along with RTD Board Representative John Tayer, are twisting arms so money flows for improvements to make U.S. 36 slog faster and easier. Pending projects like Bus Rapid Transit (which includes more slip ramps like the newly opened one in Broomfield, High Occupancy Vehicle lanes and bike paths) will continue to need vocal support to ensure Boulder County doesn’t become a transit backwater as we wait for the train.

9. Smoother roads ahead for cyclists

If you want to see smart taxation at work, check out Boulder County’s transportation department schedule for road improvements for the next two years. The 0.1 percent sales tax (10 cents on a $100 purchase) will put wider shoulders for cyclists on Lee Hill Road and Valmont Road from 75th to 95th streets; Cherryvale Road between Baseline and Arapahoe; on Colo. 93 from Marshall Road to Colo. 128; and on Niwot/Neva roads from U.S. 36 to 63rd Street. The 2001 tax, extended to 2027 by voters in 2007, has put dozens of vital county transportation projects into high gear that would have taken decades to complete without a dedicated funding source. In addition to wider shoulders—which are nice for both cyclists and drivers—the work includes trails and drainage projects. Check out bouldercounty.org for a complete list, maps and schedule of work.

10. Crank up the fare box feedback

As RTD finally gets around to installing new fare boxes and Smart Card readers on all its busses, the transit agency will at last begin to get an accurate picture of its ridership and detailed information about who rides its busses, when and where.

This kind of information has been missing forever and the information vacuum led RTD staff and board members who oppose the EcoPass program to wrongly claim it loses money and should be cut. But with no hard data to prove otherwise, keeping the popular (at least in Boulder County) EcoPass program alive involved a full-time fight.

Now, as better information becomes available, RTD will be able to collect the fares it is due as well as fine tune its routes and schedules to maximize its service. And who knows, maybe better information will lead to an expansion of the EcoPass program.

The post Down The Road: Ten Transportation Issues Impacting You in the Next 10 Years appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

We owe a great debt to the printing arts, and I don’t mean what gets sprayed onto precisely sized sheets of bleached dead trees as it lurches its way out of that plastic box on your desk when you click “OK.”

I’m talking about the raw setting of moveable, cast type by hand, the carving of an image on wood or metal—all backwards, of course—and then feeding sheets of beefy paper through a gloriously loud, heavy and digit-endangering device that reeks of Industrial Revolution form, function, ink and oil.

Printers of yore, and the men and women who owned and operated them, gave voice to the people, politics and news of the day. My great grandfather, Olney, was one such character and for a time was editor and publisher of the Blue Springs News at the turn of the 20th century.

Just as turntables and the vinyl albums they played have all but been relegated to the landfills of history, letterpress printers are largely cast iron relics used as decoration. But in the hands of a few who can mind their Ps and Qs and coax a righteous print job out of one, they serve as the heavy rhythm section for the march of history.

Boulder County is fortunate to be home to a few who still know and practice the endangered art of type setting and letterpress printing. They gather as a group known as the Book Arts League—a non-profit organization dedicated to the art of letterpress printing, bookbinding, calligraphy and paper making. The group’s annual fundraiser—the 2011 Edible Book Show and Tea—will be held at the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, 1760 13th Street in Boulder, from 4-6pm April 10.

This fundraising event features edible “books” and other literary creations by local culinary artists and just plain folks who want to submit their “cooked books” for viewing and, upon the ringing of a cow bell at about 5pm, attendees get to eat their words, as it were. Those who would like to submit their own edible creations are encouraged to hit the bookartsleague.org website for complete info.

The two pros taking part this year are Linda Willetto from Indulge Bakery at Arapahoe Road and 95th Street in Lafayette and Sarah Armorese whose chocolate boutique, Piece, Love and Chocolate, is soon to open at 805 Pearl Street in Boulder. Slices of their creations sell for $5.

And while the majority of edible submissions from the public are of the sweet nature, there are those—like Edible Tea Committee Chairwoman and Book Arts League President Linda Peterson—who prefer the savory route. A submission last year included the “Kyoto City of Gardens” made with asparagus and broccoli and crackers and pretzels. “They just have to be edible, they don’t have to taste good,” Peterson said.

There will be working printing presses on hand and attendees can print bookmarks on the platen press or greeting cards from a wood block. And Mad Hatter and BAL member Earl Noe will be on hand practicing “Jell-O” journalism with his gelatin duplicator or hectograph printing on rice paper (edible, of course).

This crude form of printing—pressed into service by Stephen King and George Orwell in their youth—was used to avoid detection by subversives because the press could literally be eaten, leaving no trace of its existence. In fact, Allied prisoners of war used the process to print documents, maps and other items used in escape attempts from the Stalags in World War II.

Yes, there is a rich history to printing and the good people of the Book Arts League will let no pun go unturned in this, their annual gala. Good journalism may be a dying craft, but the art of letterpress printing is alive in Boulder County. Now, you can see for yourself.

The post Feeling Out of Sorts? appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

Craft brewers and liquor stores are girding for yet another battle at the state legislature with the big-dollar lobbyists paid for from the deep pockets of the national grocery chains.

Yes, the Safeways of the world say they look out for you by twisting arms and throwing money at elected officials to get them to allow full-strength beer, wine and booze sales in their stores. And on the surface it may sound great; you can grab a bottle of Sutter Home merlot to go with your frozen dinner and be on your way. But if you think you’ll get to choose from more than mainstream brands—let alone craft-brewed, fermented or distilled gems made locally—you would be wrong.

“I carry almost 1,000 beers in my store; how many do you think Safeway or 7-Eleven will carry?” said Jim Dean, managing partner of Total Beverage at 92nd and Sheridan in Westminster.

It’s not just quality and selection that get kicked in the shins. Jobs would be incinerated and many say we can expect underage drinking to rise.

“States that have beer, wine and liquor in grocery and convenience stores have higher incidence(s) of underage drinking,” Dean said. “The grocery stores don’t just want to sell it, they want 18-year-olds to sell it and 16- and 17-year-olds to handle it. When you put (alcohol) out there next to the Cheerios, there’s no control.”

Probably the biggest hit would be jobs. There are roughly 1,700 liquor stores in the state of Colorado and about the same number of grocery and convenience stores. In nearly every shopping center where there’s a grocery store, there’s a liquor store, too. Once booze goes in the big chains, the independent retailer selling wine and beer next door is toast.

The impact is felt up the line. Independent brewers and distillers don’t have the national distribution systems Target and Safeway rely on for stock. So the big boys won’t be carrying the local craft beer and spirits that used to get sold at the mom and pop liquor stores. So local producers’ sales go down and they’ll look at shrinking their workforce as a result.

The fight hasn’t started yet, but it’s still early in the legislative session. As of this writing, our elected officials were working on Senate Bill 60, which would allow low-alcohol beer and wine (less than 4 percent) to be sold in restaurants and bars. It is expected to pass.

As for the war on alcohol sales in grocery and convenience stores, that battle has been waged every year for the past four years, and each time the measure gets closer to passing. Those of us who value our local brewers, distillers and vintners can only hope that the Democrat-controlled Senate, along with former craft-brewer-turned-Governor John Hickenlooper, will keep the money grubbing greed heads at bay.

“Sometimes you’re better off just leaving things alone,” Dean said. “For the guy who buys Bud Light or Yellow Tail wine, he isn’t going to care. But for people who buy craft brews, which are 52 percent of my sales, that’s the guy who’s going to lose out.”

Six days a week

Boulder Beer’s tap room (pictured) at 2880 Wilderness Place, just off Valmont, will be open from noon to 8pm Saturdays starting in April. They’ll have their full pub menu, $3 pints for the 3–7pm happy hour and look for a smothered breakfast burrito on Saturday’s menu to help soothe your aching Friday night head. For their first Saturday, April 2, they’ll have live music on the patio.

The post The Beating is Sure to Resume appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

As local beer events go, you can’t do much better than Mountain Sun’s 18th Annual Stout Month. I like my dark beers year round, but some find the robust flavor and hearty strength of a stout especially appealing while caught in the icy clutches of winter.

Well, February is for you, stout lovers. The Mountain Sun and Southern Sun brew pubs—and Vine Street Pub in Denver, too, this year—are loading their taps with black gold and you will not be disappointed. Back again are perennial favorites Yonder Mountain, Thunder Head and Cherry Dip stouts (the latter made with a prodigious helping of sweet cherry puree). Head brewer Brian Hutchinson also concocted four imperial stouts (with alcohol by volume contents in the 8 to 11 percent range): Usurper, Addiction Coffee and two versions of the deliciously viscous Nihilist—classic (at 9 percent ABV) and a bourbon barrel-aged version.

Among the real treats during Stout Month is the visiting team. Stouts from internationally acclaimed breweries including Stone (San Marcos, Calif.), Bellhaven (Scotland), Port (Carlsbad, Calif.), Victory (Downingtown, Pa.) and Young’s Double Chocolate (England) will be on tap.

But be sure to check in at Mountain Sun’s website for the day and time so you can be on hand for the tapping of the various vintages of Avery Brewing’s Czar Imperial Stout. Mountain Sun Proprietor Kevin Daly has several kegs of this potent potion from vintages that go back years stashed in cold storage just waiting for their annual tasting. The event only lasts one night, so don’t miss it.

Spirited Growth in Boulder

Ted Palmer, owner of Roundhouse Spirits, tucked in a warehouse northwest of Arapahoe Avenue and 55th Street in Boulder, will soon own a 20-barrel brewing system. With it, he will be able to make his own wash (fermented wort from corn) that will get distilled in his 130-gallon hand-hammered copper still from Hoga Company. This beautiful piece of art cranks out an ever-growing number of cases of his award-winning flagship gin; a spicy mix of juniper, star anise, licorice and a handful of distinct yet subtle spices. “My grandpa made moonshine in a copper still, so I’m following in his footsteps,” said the Siebel Brewing Academy graduate. “We’re anticipating 200 percent growth in 2011 and, hopefully, for the next three, four or five years.” In addition to gin and a delicious Corretto coffee liqueur (made with Unseen Bean coffee), Palmer will add an organic Blue Agave spirit (don’t call it tequila unless it’s made in or near Tequila, Jalisco) to his offerings.

Infusions to Go

If flavored vodka doesn’t measure up, roll over to Steve Viezbicke’s 303 Vodka man cave, 2500 47th St. in Boulder. This tasting room offers a lot more than vodka. Among the delectables the Viezbickes (the operation is a family affair) soak in their spirits are peppermint sticks, vanilla beans, coconut, horseradish, blackberries/cucumbers, pineapple/jalapeno peppers and pickles. Yes, pickles. If you’ve never tasted a “Pickletini,” you haven’t lived. “(Our infusions) are from the heart; it’s not fake,” said wife and CEO Terri Viezbicke. “We just do what tastes good.”

The post Love is on Tap in February appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

Could we as a country be in deeper doo-doo? That was what immediately popped into my mind as I watched in disbelief and disgust the collection of video from news broadcasts compiled about the Black Friday shopper stampede.

Hundreds of corpulent capitalists bursting through the doors of department stores all over the country in order to save money by spending money on crap they really don’t need and that in all likelihood will break in the days and weeks after Christmas and be relegated to the recycling bin or, worse, the trash.

The economy is in tatters? Unemployment is still around 10 percent? You wouldn’t know it by looking at that bit of video. And I know that those breaking down the store doors aren’t in the majority, but they represent an ethos on which the big corporations have bet heavily: Don’t get in the way of our buying cheap crap and we’ll keep our mouths shut about how we get treated by a government that those same corporations have bought and paid for to act in their self-interest.

The horse race reporting about the holiday economy lets us know we, as consumers, must do our part and spend (or charge on credit cards) as needed to keep the purveyors of said crap afloat; or at least fuel the stock dividends that will keep investors and CEOs flush with obscene amounts of cash. In so doing, we are performing our patriotic duty as human fuel for one of the world’s largest economic engines.

Despite this being the holidays, I think there’s a little room, as a country, for being selfish. Specifically, I am advocating voting in one’s own self-interest. And by that I mean not swallowing the twisted message that we can’t afford the $33 billion needed to keep the unemployment checks coming to those out of work.

Whether we realize it or not, those unemployment checks will make the difference between this holiday season being one for retailers to celebrate or one to lament. The load of lies being spewed—that we can’t afford extending those benefits (but we can afford to put an average of $100,000 in the pocket of everyone in the country who makes over a $1 million a year); that they just make people lazy and not want to look for a real job in the first place—is disgusting. When compared to the billions in corporate welfare—read: the money we don’t collect from oil companies, manufacturers and the like in taxes and other fees—and the ever shrinking tax rate on the richest 2 percent of this country, we can more than afford to offer a helping hand to those who are still feeling the effects of an economic tsunami. A tsunami, mind you, that was created in by the millionaires and billionaires who gambled and lost at the mortgage roulette table. (Ironic, isn’t it, that we now can’t afford to save those now out-of-work taxpayers whose taxes paid to bail out those fat cats two years ago.)

Oh and just in case you’re wanting to swallow that garbage about how taxing the rich will kill jobs because they’re the entrepreneurs, know this: Only 3 percent of small business owners are in that top 2 percent tax bracket. And there are ways to deal with that. Also, rich people don’t go stampeding into Wal-mart the day after Thanksgiving. And they certainly haven’t been putting off buying a washer and dryer, or getting shoes for the kids or tires for the car; the Porsche came with new Pirelli’s after all. They instead use their tax break to buy more Wal-mart stock.

So do yourself a favor, whether you’re employed or not. Call Sens. Udall and Bennet and your Congresspeople—Polis, Perlmutter, Markey or DeGette—and let them know that extending unemployment benefits—not lowering taxes for the richest 2 percent—is the right thing to do this holiday season. There’s nothing wrong with looking out for yourself.

The post Who Would Jesus Help? appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

It took a couple hundred years, but beer is finally moving up in the world of barrel aging. Hoppy, more potent India pale ales acquired some woody balance from the oak barrels on long voyages. And to get that infusion of vanilla and lumber, home brewers have been tossing sanitized oak chips in their fermenters for years.

But as craft distilling took off—with pedestrian styles like pilsners, brown ales and porters being given the imperial treatment and seeing their alcohol content leap into double digits—it wasn’t long before brewers sought a new place to park their mighty ales to get aged and infused.

“Every one is different,” said Matt Thrall, head brewer at Avery Brewing, as he looked up at the wall of full white oak barrels that reach nearly to the ceiling in the temperature and humidity controlled aging room.

The beers that go in the barrels—which originally held everything from Stranahan’s Colorado Whiskey to Goslings Rum to Zinfandel wine—are typically high gravity beers because Thrall says the higher alcohol is up to the task of leaching out the delicious vanilla and molasses and smoky flavors and aromas that a Char Number 4 will impart (Char Number 4 refers to the most extreme heat used to burn freshly coopered oak barrels before they get filled with raw whiskey, rum and the like).

The fad of aging high gravity beers in used spirits barrels has officially graduated from fad to craze. Thrall is going great guns and Jake Norris, head distiller at Stranahan’s, located at 200 South Kalamath Street in Denver, says demand for his barrels—they only get used once for his whiskey—far outstrips his supply.

“Great Divide would love to have tons of them,” Norris said, referring to the barrel-aged versions of Hibernation Ale, Old Ruffian Barley Wine and Yeti Imperial Stout.

Finding such rich, barrel-aged brews in bottles is not as rare as it once was, but be prepared to put a dent in your wallet for them. Not only are they aged from 6 months to 18 months or longer, but the barrels themselves cost $85, Norris said.

Because of the one-off aspect to most of the barrel-aged beers, some of the more interesting, delicious and rare versions are often only found in a brewery’s tap room. Local examples include Left Hand’s exquisite Wake Up Dead Russian Imperial Stout and Avery’s Rumpkin, both barrel-aged—the former in Heaven Hill Brandy barrels, the latter in rum barrels. The Rumpkin is nowhere close to the cliché pumpkin ale that finds its way to tap handles and bottles this time of year. Cinnamon and allspice notes are there, but they play second fiddle to the monstrous double-digit alcohol content, and rum and molasses aromas and flavors. If this were pie, consider yourself hit in the face.

With the current barrel aging trend in full swing—and seeing as how some beers (notably Chimay ales) have been sporting corks for ages—it’s hard to imagine how beer could more closely mimic wine in how it’s bottled, aged, served and priced. Vintages can’t be far behind. So if your wine steward is a sommelier, what will we call our beer stewards, besides “bartender?”

Serious Bragging Rights

In honor of Mountain Sun Pub’s Stout Month (February), they are having a homebrewed stout competition. It’s open to non-professional brewers and entries must be delivered to the Southern Sun Pub noon–2pm on Jan. 2. The winner works with the Mountain Sun brewers to create six barrels of your brew and have it served along with famous stouts during February. mountainsunpub.com/beer.htm.

The post In Good Spirits appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

Thanksgiving is the best of all the holidays. Feasting all day on a table full of fresh, home-cooked food amongst family and friends is a true oasis amid the marketing tsunami of Christmas that gets its green light when the Halloween candy goes on sale. It’s a day we can all enjoy being consumers.

This true foodie holiday is marinated with tradition. Whether you’re rolling out grandmother’s oyster casserole or Lovely Lisa’s perfect turkey, the day never fails to bestow a soft kiss on the forehead from the comfort food doctor.

But if you really want to go back to our country’s blue-collar Pilgrim roots—most of the settlers were poor, uneducated farmers—pull out the beer. Not only does it go great with all manner of rich and coma-inducing foods, but it’s rooted in our nation’s early history.

There’s written evidence, in fact, that the passengers and crew of the Mayflower cut their New World Cruise short and called it quits in Plymouth because they had run out of beer. And when you run out of beer, what’s the first thing you do when you make land? That’s right; build a brewery. And that’s just what our forefathers and mothers did; got to keep those priorities straight.

So as you head out to strip bare local stores of stuffing mix, canned cranberries and shrink-wrapped turkeys, walk on past the white and red wines at your local liquor store and apply that booze budget to some righteous beer.

It’s so much easier and flavorful to pace the day with a variety of beers that will compliment all the foods—from football munchies on the couch to leaf-pile-diving in the front yard to the serious consumption of The Bird and all its trimmings—that going grape is just gauche.

To Start: Think session and go light. No need to fry your palate early with something heavy and bitter. Pace yourself; there are at least two games on before dinner should start. Cans are good. They go with raking leaves and other extra-kitchen activities.
Suggestions:
• Mama’s Little Yella Pils, Oskar Blues
• Belgian White, Blue Moon
• Rail Yard, Wynkoop
• Pale Ale, Upslope

Diggin in on the Nibbles: When mom breaks out her sausage stuffed mushrooms to get things started or, even better, when someone starts cutting the cheese—we’re talking the good stuff you find at Cheese Importers in Longmont, like Drunken Goat or a righteous cheddar with some hard salami—it’s time to turn up the volume and the flavor. These brews are packing a punch and flavor that will hold its own against a mouth full of aged Stilton.
Suggestions:
• Fade to Black, Left Hand
• Gubna, Oskar Blues
• Claymore, Great Divide
• 2° Below, New Belgium

The Main Course: Let’s face it, turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing and rolls are not the spiciest foods around and the L-tryptophan in the meat may as well come from a tranq dart. So if you’re going down for the count, go large.
• Smokejumper, Left Hand
• The Kaiser, Avery
• Northstar, Twisted Pine
• Obovoid, Boulder Beer

The Sweet Stuff: Pumpkin and pecan are among my favorite pies. Rich, creamy pumpkin custard can’t be beat and to do either one well requires several eggs; always a good sign. Make your after dinner drinks just as delicious. Try some digestifs like a wild-yeast fermented lambic or dry mead or cider—going a little lighter isn’t a bad idea, considering where your blood sugar has been.
• 2005 Black Raspberry Reserve, Redstone Meadery
• Big Shot, Twisted Pine
• Christmas Ale, Breckenridge
• Mephistopheles’ Stout, Avery

The post Don’t Fear the Beer at Thanksgiving appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

My nostalgia for Thanksgiving dinner extends this year to the Cretaceous Period. Yes, I’ll be feasting on dinosaur, or at least a cousin about 75 million years removed. Not Tyrannosaurus Rex or Stegosaurus or a Velociraptor—although I’m frightened to learn that the Velociraptor is pretty close. No, I’ll be sticking a fork in a cousin that’s been crapping all over my yard since June and eating my irises down to nubs.

Yes, I have turkeys; live ones. And if there were ever evidence that some of the little “terrible lizards” made it out alive after the Deep Impact of the Cretaceous–Tertiary (about 65 million years ago), these guys and gals are it.

Even when my dinosaurs were little—big enough to fit in the palm of your hand and make cute little peeping noises—there was a certain air of pending ugly about them. Their long necks and pointy heads were all covered in downy fuzz while their gangly legs gave them a certain spritely speed that would be long gone by the time they became young adults. Truly, it was their menacing feet that told the story early on. The scaly, three-toed claws could have been grafted from a T-Rex and, as they got older, this seemed the case even more so.

Turkeys are, according to scientists, distilled ancestors of walnut-brained dinosaurs—lucky survivors like the manatee, crocodile and John McCain. One look at them will tell you that. But the noises they make really give my yard a Jurassic Park feel.
Forget the “gobble, gobble, gobble” of the cartoons. Yes, they do that, especially when you make a noise—any noise—at them first. When someone would cheer a ringer in our summer games of horseshoes, there would be a chorus of gobbles from the turkeys on the other side of the house. (They were confined with a fence to fertilize only half the yard with their copious coprolites-in-waiting.)

But the noises at other times are just plain creepy. A vocal mix of barking and braying—a glottal screech of sorts—that sends crawling shivers up the back of my neck. It’s as if the vocalization resonated with a warning sequence in my DNA that was buried millions of years ago.

The Velociraptor is largely a myth created by the producers of Jurassic Park for use as a plot device (and comic relief with the dispatch of the loathed lawyer in the movie). But about four years ago, fossil hunters in Utah found bones of a “turkey-like dinosaur” that bears a striking resemblance to a modern-day turkey.

Labeled oviraptors, these gangly creatures were thought to have splayed tail feathers and wing-like protuberances like turkeys, only the “arms” were equipped with flesh rending claws that could do a julienne job on some prey that would make Ron Popeil blush. But what is truly fearsome about these long-dead creatures is that they stood seven feet tall; think a feathered Charles Barkley with serious speed, claws for hands and a beak that could part out a human in seconds. Kind of makes you wonder how modern day turkey hunters would fare against such prey today. Now THAT would be a hunting show I’d pay to watch.

I’m especially curious to see what my turkeys taste like. Unlike the assembly line Butterballs from the freezer section, mine have had lots of yard in which to roam and have gorged themselves on organic feed, scratch grains, grasshoppers and grapes (when I remember to get some at the store). In early November, they are going to Rocky Mountain Poultry Processing up in Nunn, Colorado where, for $9 a bird—and a two-day turnaround—they get plucked, cleaned, gutted and frozen.

It’s nice to know that, thanks to a chance encounter between the Earth and a big chunk of space debris, we humans are feasting on mini-oviraptors to celebrate Thanksgiving instead of the other way around. It gives us all a little something extra to be thankful for.

The post Prehistoric Thanksgiving appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.