Bumblings from the Boulder County Brew Cruise

The 4th annual Boulder County Brew Cruise is history. Once again, two big busloads of happy hop-sters spent the day sloshing across some of Colorado's most fertile beer landscape. Here are some interesting flecks of malt and mash I picked up along the way.

First stop was Boulder Beer where BB brewer, the mysterious D Zuckerman, told me they will have an amazing beer tapped next Tuesday in the Wilderness Pub at the brewery. It's a keg of Igloo Ale that has been cellared for over 10 years. Talk about a blast from the past!

Interesting beer trivia of the day. Dan Weitz, Boulder Beer's bubbly tour guide and most excellent marketing man let it slip that the brewer who created their Hazed and Infused was attempting to make a beer with the aroma of weed. Yup, no kidding.

Next, to Longmont and Left Hand Brewing. We charged into the tap room and found Depth Charge expresso milk stout on tap. DC is the newest collaboration brew between Left Hand Brewing and Terrapin Brewing in Athens, GA. The gang on the brew cruise almost rioted when the Left Hand gang announced they were going to treat us to an early release of two cases of this amazing brew. I snarked up two bombers and will post up a review here on One Good Brew next week. I can tell you that Depth Charge is one of the best expresso milk stouts I have had in a long time. It should show up in front range liquor stores very soon and grab it when you see it. This will be a very limited release. It won't be around long.

Bubba Love, Left Hand's singing tour guide (and, Boulder County sales guru by day) told me Left Hand's Warrior IPA is being packaged right this very minute and it should start showing up on shelves soon, too. This beer warrior loves himself the Warrior IPA.

Oskar Blues hosted lunch for our little band of bodacious brew hunters in the Tasty Weasel tap room. Boy how they have grown! Before Oskar Blues starting putting their craft beer in cans back in 2002, it made just 700 barrels of beer a year. Next year, they are planning to brew up a heady 36,000 barrels of their brew to keep up with demand. By the way, they had oak barrel aged Gordon on tap that was nothing short of OMG Outstanding! Definitely worth the trip, just to get yourself a pint. In the brewery, there were stacks of whiskey barrels from Stranahans' Colorado Whiskey of Denver. Each was filled with Ten Fidy. I can't wait for that to be tapped!!!

Finally it was on to Avery, just in time for the release of Sui Generis. Those smart enough to grab some got the chance to have their bottles hand signed by Adam Avery himself. Sui Generis is the second of Avery's new Barrel-Aged Series. Brewers aged Sui Generis in several different oak barrels and fermented it with brettanomyces, lactobacillus and pediococcus. Only about 150 cases of Sui Generis were brewed so this new Avery beer is sure to become the gem of your beer cellar if you can get your hands on some. The price? About 48-dollars a six pack.

Speaking of Avery, their newest brew…duganA IPA will be released October 2nd. No doubt, duganA IPA should be another amazing brew from the Avery Brewing bunch.

That's all I heard...or all I remember...from this year's Boulder County Brew Cruise. It is a most amazing way to start your GABF adventures. Thanks to Left Hand Brewing for putting this puppy on.