Them Crazy Southerners Will Eat Almost Anything

This Sunday night, there is a beer dinner in Charleston, SC.

On the menu:
country ham, oysters, duck sausages, beef tenderloin and fried bologna and liver pudding.

Fried bologna and liver pudding??? Really? Oh yea, I forgot. Those crazy southerners eat parts of a cow that the rest of us throw away.

(laugh!)

Here are some great things to do this weekend here in Colorado.

Today (Friday, Nov. 13th)

It's Firkin Friday at Dry Dock and at Oskar Blues. Dry Dock is pouring a Bourbon Oaked Old Ale (www.drydockbrewing.com) while Oskar Blues is featuring Dales Pale Ale that's been dry hopped with a big dose of summit hops. (http://www.oskarblues.com/) Oskar Blues is also hosting a beer dinner tonight at Del Frisco's Double Eagle Steakhouse in Denver. (http://www.delfriscos.com/)

Left Hand Brewing releases their newest brew Fade to Black at a release party this afternoon (http://www.lefthandbrewing.com/) and down in the four corners, Pagosa Brewing's Nipple Mountain Nip is back! (http://www.pagosabrewing.com/)

Tomorrow is Cask Ale Saturday with their IPA at Bristol Brewing in Colorado Springs and Sunday morning, they host another session of Beer Yoga. BYOM (bring your own mat.) (http://www.bristolbrewing.com/)

Beer: Water to beer from Colorado snowpack
Local beer's long, loving trip to LoDo starts with gorgeous Colorado water

Douglas Brown--The Denver Post

People from around the world come to Colorado to make beer. Not for the hops or the grain. They come for the gorgeous water.

The collision of Pacific-borne storms and towering mountains yields enormous reservoirs of pristine snow in the state, much of which melts and submits to gravity, ending up in water-treatment facilities 5,000 feet lower and miles away along the Front Range.

And, eventually, in your pint glass. Hops, barley, yeast and time transform millions of gallons of Colorado water every year into ale and lager. Colorado breweries (more than 100 of them) pump out more beer — 23,370,848 barrels in 2006 — than any other state.

New Belgium in Fort Collins sits somewhere between brewing leviathan and microbrew startup. Hundreds of workers create an array of beers, from sour Belgian-style ales that cost $15 for a 22-ounce bottle to more-straightforward mugs of suds that sell for $4 at LoDo sports bars.

What goes into that six-pack of bottled blizzard? It starts with snow, in the northern fringes of the aptly named Never Summer Range.

Read the entire article here.

Reward? Ale Diablo from Steamworks

A couple weeks ago, I picked up a bomber of one of my favorite fall beers, Ale Diablo from Steamworks in Durango, Colorado. I stuck in in the 'fridge, figuring I'd save it for a special occasion.

Now, I am a man of very low expectations. Seeing me work hard enough to get the next Rocky Mountain Brewing News Hop Tips finished before deadline is good enough for reward time in my book. So, I grabbed the bomber, popped its champagne cork top, and poured myself a pint.

Ale Diablo is a one of those brews that I really look forward to drinking. There is a wicked, yellow eyed, red faced devil on the label (I give bonus points for good label art) and it pours bright golden, an almost hefeweizen color, keeping true to its American Blonde Ale roots.

Ah, but the taste is what I like best. Ale Diablo has a lot more going on in its yellow-ness than most of the other American Blonde Ales. There is plenty of fruity apples and citrus and cloves. There is a nice malty flavor in the background and the earthy hops run from first sip to swallow. It's almost like a Belgian. The flavors are there, but it's lighter. Not as bold as the Belgians we love so much.

I got it! Ale Diablo is a Belgian Lite. It's much more flavorful than most American Blonde Ales, but not as bold and complex as the Belgians.

Oh yea, respect the breath of this beer. You will feel it when you take a quaff. It's not an overpowering taste of alcohol, just a warning that this brew carries a very respectable 8.5% ABV.

The Downside? Availability. Ale Diablo from Steamworks is one of their limited releases and you only find it in the fall. So, buy it when you see it. Tomorrow could be too late.

By the way, the next issue of the Rocky Mountain Brewing News should be showing up at your favorite brew spot in a week or so...and, watch out for the email version of Hop Tips, covering everything beery for the last two weeks of November here in the Rocky Mountain West.

Not a subscriber? Drop me your email and you will be.

Cheers!