GABF Beer Tasting at The Pumphouse

The Pumphouse in Longmont has been doing these really great beer tastings every month during 2010. I have attended them all except for the Strong Ale one in February (I missed out on getting my ticket in time).

The tasting for October focused on winners from the Great American Beer Festival. The guest speaker was Gary Glass from the Brewers Association. He explained how the judging process works and presented the 14 different winners. He also reviewed the category for each winner. There were 3,594 different beers entered in the GABF from 522 different breweries. These beers were judged by 150 judges. That's a lot of beer!

Our greeting beer was the Pumphouse 4-Alarm Copper Ale. This beer is a German-style Altbier that won a GABF medal in 2004.

The beers we sampled were:

Miller Light - Gold winner in the American-sytle Light Lager (category #29)

Trumer Pils - Gold winner in the German-style Pilsner category (#25)

Del Norte Manana - Gold winner in the American-style Amber lager category (#33)

Pyramid Apricot Ale - Silver winner in the Fruit Beer category (#3)

Deschutes Mirror Pond Pale Ale - Gold in the English-sytle Pale Ale (#43)

Mountain Sun Illusion Dweller Pale Ale - Silver in the English-style IPA (#44)

Firestone Walker Double Barrel Ale - Silver in Double Barrel Ale (#52)

Firestone Walker Pale 31 - Silver in American-sytle Pale Ale (#45)

Bristol Laughing Lab - Bronze in the Scotish-style Ale (#54)

Walnut Brewery Old Elk Brown - Gold in the English-style Brown (#56)

Ommegang 3 Philosophers - Bronze in the Belgium-style Abbey (#67)

Bristol Old #23 Barleywine - Silver in the Barleywine category (#79)

Twisted Pine Big Shot Espresso Stout - Bronze in the Coffee-flavored Beer (#6)

CB and Potts Dark Side Lager - Bronze in the European-style Dunkel category (#32)

My personal favorites were the Firestone Pale 31, Firestone DBA and Twisted Pine Big Shot Espresso Stout. Yum!

Summertime Pilsners

I attended the monthly tasting at the Pumphouse Brewery on 7/27. This month was Pilseners and our guest speaker was Bill Eye from Dry Dock Brewing Company.



We tasted: Corona (Mexico), Stella (Belgium), Heinenken (Holland), Pilsener Urquell, Czechvar, Bittburger, Paulaner Pils, Spaten, Budweiser (US), Boulevard Pilsner (american style lager), Pumphouse Pulaski Pilsner (German-style), Left Hand Polestar (German-style), Oskar Blues Mama's Little Yellow Pils (Czech-style), Gordon Biersch (Czech-style) and New Belgium Blue Paddle (Czech-style).


On Aug 2nd, I attended the monthly meeting of Ales for Females at Left Hand Brewing. The focus of this meeting was also on Pilsners. Head Brewer, Ro Guenzel, was our guest speaker. We tasted Left Hand's Polestar Pilsner, Pilsner Urquell and Miller Lite. These beers were served with german pretzels from Helga's Deli in Aurora, CO and Lowensent Extra Mustard (extra hot mustard from Germany).

Ro said that this is the beer he uses the most to judge the brewing capabilities of breweries since these beers are difficult to brew. I guess that is similar to how I use salsa to judge a Mexican restaurant. All good Mexican restaurants should be able to make an excellent salsa.

The Polestar Pilsner from Left Hand and Mama's Little Yellow Pils from Oskar Blues were my favorite of all the pilsners I tasted that week. But, I must admit that I am not really much of a lager lover.

Ales for All!

Lots of Springtime Beer Events

It's been awhile since I wrote anything here.. I am way over due.

Where to start? My brother came out to visit me for a week in late February. We toured New Belgium Brewery (highly recommend it), attended the 1st Annual Sour Festival at Avery and stopped by The Mountain Sun for Stout Month (where we had a most delicious Tangerine Cream Stout!!!).

The February Ales for Females focused on chocolates and beer. I have misplaced my notes on the pairings but will update you later.

Jeff Mendel was our guest speaker at the March meeting of Ales for Females where we discussed Wheat beers. The beers we tasted were:
Schneider Weisse Hefe-Weizenbier - more carbonated, sweet & spicy
Left Hand Brewing Hefeweizen Haystack Wheat - cloves
O'Dell Brewing Company Easy Street Unfiltered American Wheat - more citrus.

The April meeting of Ales for Females included a guest speaker from the Brewers Association - talking to us about women in the beer business. Our food/beer pairing revolved around fruit beers:
Great Divide Wild Raspberry Ale paired with a Blackberry
Left Hand Brewery Good JuJu Ginger Ale paired with a ginger crisp/cookie
Pyramid Audacious Apricot Ale paired with an apricot

The Pumphouse Craft Beer tasting series continues to be really fun and educational. I missed the one in February - Strong Beers. The guest speaker was Matt Thrall from Avery Brewing. In March, we learned about Belgian Ales and our guest speaker was Peter Bouckaert from New Belgium. This event occurred during a blizzard but all who attended had a blast. The April tasting was India Pale Ales and our guest speaker was Doug Odell. Another fun night.

Cheers!
Jennifer