Seasonal beers ready just in time for holidays

Any Made in Colorado report would be incomplete without a sampling of the beers coming out of craft breweries in the Boulder Valley and Northern Colorado. Here are a few.

Images courtesy of respective breweries.

Boulder Beer

Boulder

If you’re feeling called to a full-bodied red ale, Boulder Beer’s Slope Style Red IPA is waiting for you.  This hearty, cold-weather IPA is darker in color than traditional IPAs and more balanced with a big malt backbone.  This is the first time you can pick it up in cans and take it skiing or tailgating. ABV: 6.4 percent

Avery Brewing Co.

Boulder

One of Avery’s seasonal brews is Chai High, an ale with Chai spices.  This rich and robust spiced beer checks in at 5.2 percent ABV.  Another choice is the Old Jubilation, an English strong winter ale with five specialty malts, hazelnut, toffee and mocha.  ABV: 8.3 percent.  After these two, be sure to taste the Fall Day IPA, spiced with Colorado spruce tips. ABV 7.3 percent  Still wanting more?  Ask for the Rumpkin — a rum barrel-aged pumpkin ale that weighs in at 16.9  percent ABV.

New Belgium Brewing

Fort Collins

If you’re curious about how to spice up a pumpkin beer, you have to try New Belgium’s Voodoo Ranger Atomic Pumpkin.  Imagine Habanero peppers, Saigon Cinnamon, hearty malts and a 6.4 percent ABV.  Move on to the Imperial Frambozen when you’re ready to shake things up.  With 70 percent pure dark Ghana cocoa husks that are roasted and ground in Fort Collins, this  raspberry ale tastes like chocolate, raspberry and cherry with hints of amaretto and coffee.  ABV: 8.5 percent.

CooperSmith’s Pub & Brewing

Fort Collins

With December comes CooperSmith’s Jingle Ale!  The spices are what really make this amber ale unique. Clove, mace, cinnamon, orange peel, cardamom, and ginger root turn it into a holiday party in a glass.  ABV: 6.7 percent

Oskar Blues Brewery

Longmont

Aged through four seasons and from a blend of top bourbons, Oskar Blues’ Ten Fidy has been described as a monster of cranked up flavor.  Think espresso, burnt sugar, rich chocolate, caramel notes all in a swirl of vanilla, oak and bourbon flavor.  ABV: 12.9 percent.

Left Hand Brewing Co.

Longmont

Left Hand’s Fade to Black, Vol. 1, a foreign export stout, blends the flavors of licorice, espresso bean, molasses and black cardamom.  ABV: 8.5 percent.  Next up, try the Bittersweet Nitro, an Imperial coffee milk stout with dark cherry flavors, spicy overtones and the feeling of a chocolate-covered espresso bean melting on your tongue.  ABV: 8.9 percent.

Loveland Ale Works

Loveland

Start your engines with Loveland Ale Works’ Hops In Translation – an easy drinking American pale ale with distinct pine hop bitterness.  ABV: 5.6 percent.  Then move on to the Cherry Saison, a garnet Belgian ale with aromas of spicy clove, pie cherries and floral esters.  ABV: 7 percent.

Brix Taphouse & Brewery

Greeley

The Brix Shoot Your Eye Out Stout shows up this year with chocolate orange flavor and weighs in at an ABV of 12 percent.  Next up, taste the NoCo coffee maple brown, made with NoCo Coffee Co.’s locally roasted coffee and real maple syrup.  ABV: 6 percent.

Wiley Roots Brewing Co.

Greeley

Ring in the holidays with Wiley Roots’ beer/wine hybrid : TRYGonometry.  The golden farmhouse sour has been fermented and aged for nine months in a Sangiovese foeder and then racked onto Tempranillo Wine grapes.  ABV: 6.7 percent.

Grimm Brothers Brewhouse

Loveland

Taking pages from Grimm Brothers fairy tales, the Grimm Brothers Brewhouse is proud to tap its Midnight Strikes Schwarzbier, a black lager.  With smooth malt flavors, the beer has a hint of caramel and is ABV 5 percent.  A second treat is Grimm Brothers Pack of Scoundrels, a spice beer that includes coriander, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, lavender and hallertaur hops.  ABV: 5.2 percent

Big Beaver Brewing Co.

Loveland

Round out your day with a stop into Big Beaver for its Merkin Marzen — a brew that combines Vienna and Munich malts to create a distinct malty aroma and toasty flavor.  ABV: 6 percent.

Big Beaver’s cranberry pumpkin ale should be ready to tap by the time you get there.  The details will be in your first sip.

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