‘Tis the season for hearty seasonal brews

LONGMONT — There’s just something about fall.

The cool, crisp days bring out cravings for hearty comfort foods, jovial occasions — and the rich malt-driven beers associated with the German tradition of Oktoberfest.

For the booming craft-brewing industry in the Boulder Valley and Northern Colorado, it’s the time to serve up seasonal pours that brewmasters say make up half or more of their sales in the autumn months. And if a visit to the booths at the annual Oktoberfest celebration in Longmont is any indication, cideries and distilleries in the region also are getting into the spirit.

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Longtucky Spirits is a great example. Two years ago, owners John Young and Howard Wallace and its distillers bought up some of Left Hand Brewing’s Oktoberfest seasonal beer and double distilled it in Vapor Distillers’ 1,500-gallon still into 230 gallons of white whiskey, then aged it for 18 months in 10 new 23-gallon charred American oak barrels. The result: Tiny’s Oktoberfest Beerschnapps.

“It’s our first time doing it,” said Longtucky bar and human resources manager Sarah Holland-Bozza. “We released it because we’re only a year old and wanted to have some partnerships with our friends at Left Hand. It’s the biggest release we’ve ever done.”

Firestone-based Wild Cider gets in on the autumnal action as well with pumpkin cider, which blends apple cider with pumpkin and fall spices, and its “Spiced Apple Pie.”

“We like to refer to that as liquid apple pie,” said officer manager Michelle Heath. “It’s a blend of 12 spices that we steep for most of the year and then we filter it and add it to the cider. It’s amazing. Our Pumpkin won two gold medals, but people love the Spiced Apple Pie so much they call us all year and ask us when it’s going to be available. There’s a real special flavor about it that people love.”

The heart of any Oktoberfest, though, is the beer — usually some form of Märzen, a toasty and moderately sweet lager with an alcohol content by volume of around 5 percent to 6 percent.

The Oktoberfest celebration of German heritage is said to date back to the marriage of Prince Ludwig and Princess Therese in 1810, and the beer was mostly darker stouts. But in the mid-1800s, the lighter Märzen lagers, which originated in Bavaria, came into fashion, and now highlight the Oktoberfest in Munich that extends for more than two weeks and draws upwards of 6 million people from all over the world.

Märzen lagers are the staple of Oktoberfests around the United States as well, and certainly were in evidence on Oct. 6 at Roosevelt Park in Longmont.

“People start thinking about different flavors at this time of year,” said Dan Ditslear, who with wife Jean owns 300 Suns Brewing in Longmont. “They want more winter-warmer beers, dessert beers. The lighter beers with citrus flavors remind them of summer, but when the weather gets cooler they start eating more hearty foods and want beer having more backbone in it. So we pull out the Märzen lager this time of year because that’s when they brew it in Germany too.

“We usually have it around for two or three months. It sells out pretty quick. We brewed it going into the beginning of September because we wanted it for the Great American Beer Festival, but then it’s usually gone by the end of October.”

The seasonal focus at 300 Suns isn’t limited to autumn. Moving into the holiday season, Ditslear said, “we have the Belgian strong ale going into the Thanksgiving and Christmas time of year; it pairs well with that type of food. We also have a Scotch strong ale, a darker beer that has a lot of scotch whiskey flavors. We have a salted toffee imperial brown that we originally brewed in February but it got to be so popular we brew it all year around now.”

Seasonals account for a big chunk of 300 Suns’ beer sales, Ditslear said. “It’s about 50-50, seasonals versus our flagship beers.”

For Boulder-based Mountain Sun, which feeds its brews to the Longs Peak Pub & Taphouse in Longmont, seasonals might make up “60 to 70 percent,” said Blake McNeece. “We always have our eight staples on tap, but then we fill the rest of our taps with seasonal, rotating beers.

“This time of year, we have our Headybrah Oktoberfest. It’s a traditional German-style lager with notes of light caramel and toasted bread and sort of a grassy aroma from the European hops. It sits in cold storage for a couple months. It’s a clean, crisp, very approachable beer.”

At Pumphouse Brewery and Restaurant’s booth, president and brewmaster Craig Taylor was pouring Passion Fruit Sour but also the traditional Märzen amber lager.

“Ours has a bit of a caramel, malty, toasty flavor,” he said, adding that “we have more types of seasonals than our year-rounds. In terms of volume, I’d bet it’s 50-50.

“Seasonals allow people to look forward to certain types of beers,” Taylor said. “People like seasonals because the variation is always changing. They’re able to experience new tastes. We do imperial stouts for winter, double whites for spring. You try to work in some darker seasonals for winter months, and then lighter, fresher brews for summer.

“Wintertime’s for stews, chilis, heartier fares, and beers pair well with that if they’re heartier, darker, sweeter,” Taylor said. “In summer it’s hot and they’re looking for a more refreshing, lighter taste. People don’t necessarily drink lemonade in the winter but they like it in summer. When it’s cooler, though, they might want hot chocolate — and beer’s kind of the same way.

“This way there’s something for everybody. Those adventurous enough to make the break from standard American lagers just have a plethora of taste experiences ahead of ‘em. That’s a lot of the fun. They get to learn what they like and don’t like — and why.”