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Rockin’s Brews 2010: Silverton Beer Festival

There were supposed to be Roller Races at the Smiley Building tonight (Wednesday January 27th) but according to Spencer Compton of the Durango Wheel Club those have been canceled. So don’t go down to the Smiley building with your bike tonight looking to race.

As for beer events, below is a list of some of the beer related (most taking place at a bar) events. Feel free to add anything in the comments.

Wednesday Jan. 27th, 2010

• 2nd Annual Snowdown Burp-Off Contest at Ska Brewing Co. at 6pm
• 6th Annual Polar Beer Plunge at Carver Brewing Co. at 8pm
• Guinness Games, Snakes and Ladders at The Irish Embassy Pub at 8pm

Thursday Jan. 28th, 2010

• Beer Pong Tournament at Pongas at 6pm
• Beard Growing Contest at Carver Brewing Co. at 8pm
• Guinness Games, Operation at The Irish Embassy Pub at 8pm

Friday Jan. 29th, 2010

• Snowdown Waiter/Waitress Race at Steamworks Brewing Co. at 2pm
• Snowdown Bed Race at Steamworks Brewing Co. at 3pm

Saturday Jan. 30th, 2010

2nd Annual Homebrew Competition at Ska Brewing Co., all day

• Snowdown Hash House Run meets at Best Western Mountain Shadows (3255 Main Ave) at 10:30am
• Guinness Games, Yahtzee! at The Irish Embassy Pub at 8pm
• 3rd Annual High Five Contest at Carver Brewing Co. at 8pm
• Kings of Air Guitar at Steamworks Brewing Co. at 9pm

Sunday Jan. 31st, 2010

• Hash House Run meets at Santa Rita Park at 11am

You can see the full list of events on the Snowdown website.

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Snowdown 2010

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Ska Brewing Co.’s Snowdown 2010 Beer: Hyper Fierce Gnar Gnar Hefe

Local breweries brought home a few awards from this past weekend’s 2009 Great American Beer Festival in Denver.

Durango Brewing Company took the gold metal in the American Style Amber Lager for their fall seasonal Durango Colorfest. At 6.2% ABV and 21 IBU it’s not your typical lager. I drank it for the first time yesterday and really enjoyed it. Perfect for the Indian Summer weather we had this past weekend.

Ska Brewing Company won three awards. They look the silver in the English Style Brown Ale for Buster Nut Brown and bronze in the English-Style Summer Ale and Sweet Stout categories for True Blonde Ale and Steel Toe Stout respectively.

Colorado breweries and brewpubs took the most awards out of any state with a total of 45 (California was second in total awards with 39).

Click here to see a full list of winners.

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2009 Great American Beer Festival Award Winners

• The Single Speed World Championships happened in Durango on Saturday, September 19th. Parties and other events took place both before and after. I was around for some of it, but missed the race. From everything I’ve heard it was a blast for everyone involved. This Durango Herald blog post mention’s woman’s winner Heather Irmiger riding a fixed gear, but I can’t imagine that’s right, anyone know for sure? Read about it at The Durango Herald, Denver Post,  Mountain Flyer, or Cycling News.
• Ska Brewing Co. released not one but two new beers in the last week. Euphoria Pale Ale (now in cans!) came out last Friday the 18th with a party at Ska in collaboration with Silverton’s Venture Snowboards (check out picture’s on Venture’s blog) and this past Tuesday the 22nd, Ska released Hoperation Ivy, their wet/fresh hopped beer.
• Race Across the Sky, a documentary about the Leadville 100 will premiere in Durango on October 20th at the FLC Comunity Concert Hall. In attendance will be Ken Chlouber, founder and president of the Leadville 100 as well as  some of the stars of the documentary/racers, Dave Wiens, Travis Brown (Durango local and former Olympian), Matt Shriver (Durango local and FLC Cycling coach) and Lance Armstrong, because of that last guest the premiere sold out in thirteen minutes according to The Durango Herald. The premiere is a fundraiser for Trails 2000 and FLC Cycling.
• Pagosa Brewing Co. today taps their wet/fresh hopped beer, Hop n’ Fresh. Like Ska Brewing’s Hoperation Ivy it was brewed with fresh hops from the San Juan Hop Farm near Montrose, CO.
• Carver Brewing Co. brewed up two new seasonal brews for the fall, Main Ave. Mild an easy drinking ESB is on tap now, I got to sample it last week and it’s good, won’t knock your socks off in alcohol content or over the top flavor, but it’s a nice beer when you want to have a few. They’ve also brewed up Harvest Festbier, their traditional Oktoberfest-style amber lager in preparation for this weekend’s Oktoberfest (more on that below), it wasn’t on tap when I stopped by Carver’s last week, so I expect it’ll be unveiled this weekend.
• The Durango Fall Blaze bike tour is happening this Saturday, September 26th. 37, 60 and 100 mile options are available. The tour is a fundraiser for FLC Cycling.
• Also happening this weekend is the Sixth Annual San Juan Citizens Alliance Oktoberfest. It will be on Second Ave between 7th and 9th Streets during the day on Saturday and Sunday with a pub crawl Saturday night. There’s a ton of music, beer and food with the daytime events free to get into (you still gotta pay for beer and food, but it’s for a good cause) and the pub crawl is $10, which gets you into Carver’s Steamworks, The Summit and the Abbey for great live music. There will be beer from all four Durango breweries on tap at the event.
• The 7th Annual Ned Overend & Bouré Bike Fweest is coming up next week, September 27th – October 3rd, 2009. Click the link above to see the full schedule. They’ve got some sweet rides lined up. I’m not sure if there is a fee to participate or if one can just show up and ride, if anyone knows leave a comment below.
• Word on the street is there’s a new bike shop in town. I haven’t been there personally but I’ve been told Papa Wheelies is open at 1077 Main Ave in Durango. They have both new and vintage bikes for sale, including fixed gears (yes the fixed gear trend has come to Durango, to paraphrase Russell on Cycle Squawk last week: they’re the guys on single speeds with skinny tires and girl jeans — full disclosure, I sometimes ride a fixed gear while wearing girl jeans)  There’s also a new weekly ride in town, Loops, which starts in front of the shop, Tuesdays at 6pm.

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News Tidbits and a Return to Blogging

Honeymoon Ale brought home a gold metal in the Honey Beer and Mead category and Alpine Abbey got a gold metal in the Strong Belgian category. Both will be on tap later this month at the Great American Beer Festival in Denver.

Nipple Mountain Nip brought home a silver medal in the Strong Ale category and Rodeo Rider Red took the silver in the Amber Hybrid category. Rodeo Rider Red is on tap at the brewery in Pagosa Springs right now, and Nipple Mountain Nip from 2007, 2008 and 2009 will be on tap in November.

Congrats to Tony and everyone else at Pagosa Brewing Co.

I overheard some talk of other local breweries winning awards while I was at the San Juan Brew Fest. If any of them are reading this shoot me an email, contact form is on the About page.

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Pagosa Brewing Co. Wins Four Medals at CO State Fair

18 breweries were on hand and plenty of beer was on tap. I didn’t get the full winners list, but Boulder Beer Company’s Mojo IPA won the “Beer with Balls” category. Steamworks Brewing Company’s Steam Engine Lager got an honorable mention in the Medium Beer category. For the second year in a row Carver Brewing Company’s Raspberry Wheat won the People’s Choice award.

Those are all great beers, but I had my own list of favorites. I tried Ska Brewing Company’s Local Series #12 Merlo Stout (originally homebrewed by Cortez local Chris Vest) for the first time and loved it. Even though this is a 9%+ Imperial Stout and it was at least 80 degrees farenheit Sunday afternoon I enjoyed it. I’ll be picking up a few bottles to save until the weather gets cooler.

In a VERY close second was Carver Brewing Company’s Monkey Wrenched IPA. Only the second time they’ve brewed this beer, it’s back on tap until it runs out (and I’m told it won’t last long). Monkey Wrenched IPA was a beer more appropriate for the weather but I’m just a sucker for Imperial Stouts, as you can see below by my third favorite beer of the festival.

I’d never heard of Eske’s Brewpub, I assumed Taos, NM must have a brewery (most mountain towns do) but was glad I made it to their booth. They had about four beers on tap and I loved the 10,000 Ft. Imperial Stout. I was told by the brewer that it was originally brewed at a cabin at 10,000 feet. Eske’s also had a Green Chile beer, which had a great aroma and tasted like green chiles, it was a bit much on it’s own, but while served as a “half and half” with the 10,000 Ft. Stout they complimented each other nicely.

Click on over to Buzztown to read about a few of my other favorites from the festival. And visit the Buzztown Durango Beer Club to see some pictures and a video shot at the festival.

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11th Annual San Juan Brew Fest

This isn’t the first time I’ve had Front Range envy. While I don’t envy the traffic and problems of the big city, I do envy all the awesome things going on in Denver, Boulder, Fort Collins and the surrounding areas everytime I read about events in Colorado.

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Tour de Fat, not coming to Durango