I’m up to my eyeballs in work lately, which is why I couldn’t post about Saturday’s release of Asher Brewing’s organic Oatmeal Stout until today.  That being said, this post deserved some attention, so here it is!

It took many months for Asher’s brewers to obtain the organic ingredients required to brew a darker beer.  But they were ultimately able to find the specific ones to make this 5% oatmeal stout, which has an IBU of 40.

First impressions?  Wendy and Linsey, along with Brew Betties cohort, Meghan, and friend, Lynette, arrived just after the tapping of this new beer.  We were initially wowed by the nose, very crisp and clean with a hint of chocolate.  A first taste continued to impress us…it was a little more carbonated than traditional stouts, but the flavor was nicely balanced in its malty darkness.  We noticed that it was a touch bit watery with maybe a hint of metallic flavor at the back, but still very drinkable.  We continued to enjoy this stout until late in the afternoon, and I would encourage a trip to Asher in the near future, to try their new stout before it’s gone…and also to get a taste of their other amazing beer on tap!

Boulder’s Back Country Pizza, originally from Nederland, is my new first choice for grabbing a pint, day or night.  Located on Arapahoe Ave, just west of Folsom Street, they not only have killer pizza at reasonable prices, the service is great and their beer selection is incredible.

Sitting at the long, wooden bar, one can browse the handles of over fifty beers on tap.  The variety is immense…many local, some seasonal, but all very tasty!  Their “world-class draft beer” list includes rotating taps of over twenty beers, and we were surprised to see that a few of these were sours, a new favorite for this spring season.  I’m excited to share this as the new go to place in Boulder County!

A new taste combination has hit the brewing market…rather than bitter-sweet, how about sweet-sour?  The recent addition of sour beer (aka wild ales), a category of ale that is growing in popularity among beer competitions and the general public, is loved by some and disliked by others.  It all depends on your sensory ability to pick up the flavor range from lightly tangy to puckering.

The primary sources of sour flavor are from the activation of bacteria Lactobacillus and Pediococcus, both of which produce lactic acid.  Another bacteria, Acetobacter, creates vinegar, or acetic acid.  The complexity formed in a sour beer is from a combination of the acids interacting with the alcohol to form esters.  These chemical chains are what provide the intense flavor!

I have to admit I’m not a huge fan, although there is one sour beer that that I will drink.  It is Depuceleuse from Avery, a 9.7% sour cherry brew that ages for one year in zinfandel wine barrels.  It is tasty, my friends, and I encourage you to try it next time it releases, hopefully sometime this spring.

Whether you are a lover of sour beers or not, our next Brew Betties topic is on sour beers.  We will be looking to New Belgium, Russian River, Jolly Pumpkin and others for a thorough exploration into sour ale.  If you have a curiosity or interest, please join us on Thursday, April 21st from 7-9pm at Asher Brewery.  And if you can’t  handle this cheek-puckering brew, I’m sure we can hook you up with something else!

This past weekend we snowshoed 6.25 miles to the top of Boreas Pass, smack on the Continental Divide at 11,481 feet, to stay in the wonderful one-room hut called Ken’s Cabin. My pack weighed 27 pounds before adding about another pound of food, about 5 pounds of cold weather gear (it was a warm day) and 3.3 pounds of beer. Yes, I love my beer enough (Upslope’s Brown Ale to be specific) to lug 3.3 pounds of it up 1,210 feet in the snow. Linsey opted for 6 cans of Ska’s Modus Hoperandi, for a whopping 4.8 pounds!

Hut beers cooling in the snow

The snowshoe in was tough with a 35 pound pack, the steady climb, and the already high elevation. We took the singletrack Baker’s Tank Trail through the forest before joining Boreas Pass Road at the tank, our lunch spot in both directions. The road follows the old railroad route, circling up the side of the mountain and over the pass which the railroad workers renamed “Boreas” after the Greek god of the north wind. Boreas did not disappoint, with ample winds whipping each night and 8 inches of fresh snow turning into 6 foot drifts covering the road on our way back out.

Ken's Cabin on Boreas Pass

Life on the pass was beautiful and busy. Between games of Scrabble or Quiddler, napping, and playing in the snow we maintained our fire for warmth, filled large pots with snow to melt for drinking and washing, swept up snow we tracked inside, cleared snow from the doorway and windows of our mostly buried cabin, and kept fresh snow in the plastic trash can which served as our refrigerator. The weather provided us with whipping snow that kept us indoors, dusk and dawn worth bundling up to get out and enjoy, and a calm sunny afternoon that drew us out for a snowshoe followed by happy hour on the roof.

After two nights on the pass we donned our packs, lighter now with empty beer cans, much less food, and little cold weather gear (it was not a warm day this time) and began the journey down. We had been excited for the easy trip downhill, but breaking trail in fierce winds and focusing hard to follow the covered road turned out to be just as hard, if not harder than the trip up.

Session Pale Ale and Peak One Robust Porter at Backcountry Brewery

Our reward awaited us in a visit to Backcountry Brewery in Frisco. After a short sampling of each of their beers, I settled on their current seasonal, Session Pale Ale, which they expect to be a big hit this summer. While I went from dark malty browns at the hut to a light hoppy pale post-hut, Linsey did the opposite, opting for a Peak One Robust Porter after her hoppy hut beers. Watching the blowing snow outside, we toasted a successful trip and great Colorado beer!

Lately, we have had Upslope’s Brown Ale continually stocked in our fridge.  This afternoon, I decided it was time to try something new.  As I perused the bomber shelves at Ace Discount Liquors next to Whole Foods in Boulder, I found two different choices that looked interesting. First was the Special Brown Ale by Jolly Pumpkin Ales in Michigan.  While I have always admired this brewery from my old hometown, I have never gotten past the distinct Belgian base that is present in their ales.  So, I moved onto the next selection, which was Dogfish Head’s Red & White Ale.  Described as being an ale brewed with “coriander & orange peel” with added pinot noir juice and aged in an oak barrel, I knew this would be a big beer.  But, I was pleasantly surprised by how drinkable it was.  I believe that it’s a great combination between beer and wine, therefore perfect for those who like both beverages.  You should be warned that the ABV rating is 10%…perfect for pairing with dinner.

Next up…what do we bring on our trip to Ken’s Cabin this weekend?  We have quite the conundrum of weight verses taste to think about.  Backpacking 6.5 miles through big snow near Breckenridge means we have to be cautious about how much we bring.  Ideally, we would bring a flask of whiskey or rum, but I am not a liquor drinker.  That leaves us with which type of canned brew to drag along…and we are limiting our drinks to 2 per day with a total of 4-5 beers each in our pack.  I want to bring Dale’s Pale Ale for their heavy alcohol content, but is that the wisest choice?  Please give us your feedback!

On Thursday, the second Brew Betties meeting, we welcomed a dozen ladies to Asher Brewing Co for samplings of organic beers in honor of the St. Patrick holiday.  We began our evening together with an educational slide show by Aly, the manager of Asher.   She walked us through the process of brewing an all organic beer and why it’s better for both the product and consumer to use ingredients that haven’t been grown by use of toxic chemicals.  We followed this by enjoying a variety of organic beers, including:

Our Organic Beer Samples, photo by Lauren Walter of www.tagwhat.com

• Uinta Brewing Wyld Extra Pale Ale (Salt Lake City, UT)
• Deschutes Brewery Green Lakes Amber (Bend, OR)
• Mendocino Brewing Mate Veza Black Lager and Mate Veza IPA (Ukiah, CA)
• Eel River Acai Berry Wheat and Porter (Fortuna, CA)
• Funkwerks Brewing Saison (Fort Collins, CO)

According to an article in May’s All About Beer, the National Organic Standards Board is recommending that beer labeled organic must “contain 100 percent organic hops beginning January 1, 2013.”  Currently, beers considered organic only need to have 95% organic ingredients, with hops being the remaining five percent.  Until recently, it’s been difficult to find organic hops from anywhere but New Zealand, but farms across the US have been experimenting with growing hops without the use of pesticides and herbicides.  The area where this has been achieved in larger numbers is in the Pacific Northwest, where the warm, moist climate contributes to the production of some of the finest hops in the world.

Many growers of hops experience difficulties with downy mildew and Verticillium wilt.   These fungal diseases are typically combated with sulfur-based fungicides, a chemical agent that can’t be used when growing organically.  Additionally, farmers encounter problems with aphids, which can reproduce to damaging levels if natural predators don’t get to them quickly enough.  Along with finding a source for organic hop rhizomes, the roots of the female plant from which hop plants are grown, these factors continue to make the farming of organic hops a challenge.

On Thursday, a group of ladies joined together at Asher to learn more about craft beer.   They were hungry for information and samples, so much so that many of them ran out of beer before the tasting event was over!  Here’s what they discovered:

Historically, women were the first brewers of beer.  Dating back to the Middle Ages, women were the primary brewers of beer; they took over the process after it was originally established in the monasteries.  In many areas, certain laws declared that alewives were the only ones permitted in beer-making.  But, in medieval times, there was a gradual shift as brewing became more male dominated.  This was around the same time taverns were established, a domain for drinking men, so women not only brewed less but also drank less of the popular ale.

Chris Asher, co-founder of Asher Brewing, took the ladies on a tour of the brew room to describe, in nice detail, the process of converting the basic ingredients of beer into a tasty beverage.  Starting with the mash tun, a giant metal drum, hot water is mixed with malted barley and steeped for a couple hours to release natural sugars from the grain.  The resulting wort mixture is then placed in the kettle where the wort is boiled down and hops are added for flavor and aroma.  Passing first through a cooler, the hopped wort is taken to the fermenter, a large, cone-shaped metal container, to be mixed with yeast.  Here, the yeast converts the grain sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide, creating beer.  This process can take a couple weeks and possibly another step of fermentation before the beer is ready for packaging.

After our brewery tour, Steve Turner discussed the Flavor Wheel and sensory analysis of tasting beers.  Basically, there is a wide range of different tastes, aromas and mouthfeel sensations when drinking beers.  The Flavor Wheel was designed by Morten Meilgarard in the 1970′s to show the relationships between beer’s sensory elements.  It helps us to identify unique personalities and complexities when sampling a variety of beers.  As we tasted the five different brews that Asher had on tap that night, we were able to depict exactly what we were tasting, smelling and feeling in our mouths.  It is always amazing to see, in a group dynamic, who prefers which beer.  It seemed like the Greenade IPA was a strong favorite for this group.

Before the evening was over, we had a small survey and poll to determine the future name of our women’s beer event.  There were sixteen women voting and we had a great assortment of names to choose from.  I won’t go into details, but some of our collaborations were rather raunchy!  In the end, we combined the two most popular names, so I’m here to officially introduce the beginning of…Brew Betties, Mistresses of the Mash!  Please join us on St. Patrick’s Day (3/17) for our next meeting where we will discuss and sample a number of organic beers found throughout this state and those nearby.

Coming up this Thursday is the first Women and Beer night at Asher Brewing Company (Google map), from 7-9pm. We will gather on the third Thursday of each month to talk beer, taste beer, and delve into various beery topics. Asher is Colorado’s first all-organic brewery, located in Gunbarrel, just north of Boulder.

During this first meeting we will get to know each other, tour the brewery, and taste a sampler set of Asher’s current offerings. Brewer Steve will be on hand to answer your questions. Bring ideas for future topics, a crafty name for our group (we’ll be voting on it), and a friend or two.

Come join us! It’s just $5 for this first meeting, which includes the sampler set. Our March meeting falls on St. Patrick’s Day when we’ll focus on “green” beers — of the organic variety.

You can spread the word or let us know you’re coming via Facebook.

Charles Bamforth, Professor of Brewing Science, University of California at Davis

I’ll admit that my college alumni publication, UC Davis Magazine, usually ends up in the recycling bin without being read, but this time around the word BEER on the cover caught my eye. While I did celebrate my 21st birthday at Sudwerk, the German focused brewery in Davis, CA, my appreciation for beer did not develop until well after my undergraduate years. My junior year I did take a class on the basics of wine grape growing to fill in a few units, but wish I had had the option of taking Bamforth’s current popular offering, “Introduction to Brewing and Beer.”

The article, “The Buzz on Beer,” focuses on professor Charles Bamforth’s contribution to the brewing science program since his arrival in 1999 from the British brewing scene. He was recently interviewed on NPR’s Science Friday, “Searching for Science in a Glass of Beer” and featured in Discovery Channel’s documentary “How Beer Saved the World.” Bamforth has also has written a number of books on beer, including Beer is Proof God Loves Us: Reaching for the Soul of Beer and Brewing and Beer:Tap into the Art and Science of Brewing.

UC Davis Professional Brewing Programs

Two programs are offered through UC Davis Extension: an eight-week Professional Brewers Certificate Program in Brewing Science and Technology, or an 18-week Master Brewers Program on brewing science and brewery engineering. The Master Brewers Program prepares students for the IBD (Institute of Brewing and Distilling) Diploma in Brewing exam, which graduates of UCD’s program have claimed the top score in three years running. For a glimpse into the program, check out 2010 alumni Justin Burnsed’s blog on Brew Your Own.

If you’re hoping to get into the program, you’d better be prepared to wait a while. Sessions are full through 2012.

Ladies, there is a new group forming at Asher Brewing in Gunbarrel on the third Thursday of every month.  Join us at Women and Beer on Thursday, February 17th at 7pm to learn more about “different beer styles, women in the beer industry, beer and food, and homebrewing!”

There will be a $5 cover charge for this event.