Category: Tours

Touring Crooked Stave Brewery was a life changing experience. I know I sound like I’m being over dramatic, but I had truly never seen a brewery set-up like that before and it opened my eyes to new opportunities.

Although they started out only brewing sour beers, they have branched out into producing clean beers. We started our tour with a pouring of the Petite Sour Peach and the Coffee Baltic Porter, both of which we casually enjoyed while walking around the brewery.

All of their wort (basically just ground malt water) was originally contracted from Epic brewing, until 2016 when they obtained their own brewhouse.

Everything in their brewery is color coded; ‘green=clean’, ‘red= wood/sour’, and ‘black=no wood/additional culture’. This ensures that the Brett will not contaminate the other beers.

When making a sour fruit beer, tons of local fresh fruit will be added to the top of the large barrels. The fruit will be punched down to help avoid oxidation and promote color extraction.

All 3 main yeast cultures that they use are kept in their own personal lab and monitored/maintained for future use. The lab contained many useful machines like a pre-programmed spectrophotometer, along with a machine that could measure the CO2 and O2 levels in beer. There was also a machine that measured titratable acidity in beer, which is basically just a measurement of how sour the beer is/how much acid is present.

They’ve recently been canning their Brett beers, because they are more stable to package this way and the market has been reacting well. The petite sours are packaged with forced carbonation, while specialty sours and fruit sours are packaged still. This is done by adding sugar and yeast in and recirculating.

The owner Chad has a published research paper on his Brettanomyces project which can be found here: http://brettanomycesproject.com/dissertation/

Although Black Project Brewery operates on a smaller scale than Crooked Stave, they produce jaw dropping beers and are certainly a force to be reckoned with. The owners originally ran a clean beer brewery, before deciding they wanted to dabble in the art of spontaneous fermentation. Currently they push their limits on a five barrel brewing system and double batch to produce enough to fill their cool ship of ten barrels.

Once the beer is transferred to the cool ship, hops and other flavor additives (such as grapefruit zest) may be added in. The window by the cool ship is left open so microbes and yeast living in the area will ‘fall’ into the beer. There is no inoculation done. None of their starters have ever been sent into a lab yet, so they are not sure what yeast strains they are working with; it could be an entirely new strain!

From the cool ship, the beer is then transferred into french oak barrels from Napa Valley. These barrels have been previously steam cleaned. Research shows that Brett lingers 3/4inch into the wood, but one of the owners of Black Project found in his research that glass vs. wood fermentation had no difference.

As time goes on the beer is rotated into the barrels below it and continuously moved downwards over time. The yeasts in the new barrel help to further overall fermentation.

Black Project either uses local Colorado malts or European malts/hops for euro style beers. All of the whole fruit they use is local, with an exception getting their cherries from Utah. When fruit is out of season, they will use pasteurized purees from Oregon. The fruit, honey, wood, and beer that they use/produce all contributes to their house culture. (A house culture being the unique strain of yeast that is dominant in their building.)

All of their beer was amazing, but I was most obsessed with their ‘Gemini’ beer. Gemini was bright, with strong notes of fruity coffee. It was a sour beer made with washed Ethiopian coffee from Corvus Roasters down the street (who I had the pleasure of getting a mocha from later that day!) My memory of this beer is a sad one though, because it is only available on tap at their brewery, because coffee oxidizes in bottles and will turn into a green pepper flavor. Gemini will be held on a pedestal in my mind forever.

Located in Boulder, Colorado Vapor Distillery is a small batch producer of gin, vodka, and a few other unique spirits. The owner started off using a small pot, graduated to a 600 bottle pot, and finally obtained a pot large enough to produce 6,000 bottles at a time. The pot is originally a Chinese method, whereas the column is an English method. Using a column will often create a higher alcohol proof than a pot.

The ‘head’ of the spirit consists of acetone and other poisons. It is removed and used as flex fuel in the owner’s truck. The ‘body’ is 65% ethanol and will be transferred out. Finally, the ‘tail’ is anything above the boiling temperature of ethanol; all of this will be saved and reused in the next batch.

 Originally, gin was first produced by the Dutch and it was cheap and of poor quality. Then it was produced by the French and was very floral. The English made it strong and then there was American gin. Vapor Distillery is classified under a new category known as ‘New Western’.

Only the minimum amount of juniper required by law is used to produce their gin, so the other flavors and ingredients have a chance to shine through. (Examples: coriander, anise, orange zest, lemon zest, green tea from japan, hibiscus, etc.) The Rhok Gin aroma and flavor was very botanical and there was minimal burning as it slid down my throat. The Rhok 114 Gin was made exactly the same, but was just a higher proof. It qualifies as ‘navy proof’ meaning if it spills the gun powder would not be affected. Ginsky is a trademarked gin that is barrel aged for two years in English oak barrels; although it now says barrel rested on the label due to a dispute with the government.

The Arrosta Coffee Liquor is produced using coffee from Unseen Bean (Boulder, CO). It was a delight to the tongue and tasted like coffee with no residual syrup texture on the tongue. Finally, my favorite was the Pumpkin King. This Fall flavored delight contained 2lb of local baby pumpkins in each bottle, processed in a community kitchen that provides job training to the houseless/recovering addicts/jobless people in the area. Usually I’m not into pumpkin flavored foods and beverages, but I had found my exception; this was unique and so delicious. Suggested pairings include mixing it with hot apple cider or creating a layered shot for Christmas that contains eggnog. (YUM)

As our tour came to an end, we found ourselves meandering towards the bar in search of a cocktail and pretzels (not my first choice, but I was starving). My partner ordered the ‘Cowboy Coffee’ which was a mix of Arrosta and Ginsky.

I ordered the ‘Elder Moon’ which contained Gin, Elderflower syrup, and watermelon juice…perhaps a bit too strong for my taste.

Some farmers markets can be drab and lackluster, but the farmers market in Boulder was what dreams were made of. After taking a stroll through the market, I was ready to pack my bags up and move to Colorado. Residents in Boulder had it made and I was yearning to take everything home with me but I only had a carry-on and a limited budget. (I still weep over the jar of olives I couldn’t purchase.)

Of course there was fresh produce and a food truck/stand area, but what really caught my eye were the vendors selling things like natural homestead beef or bean-to-bar chocolate.

Il Porcellino Salumi is a Denver based company that makes small batch, artisan style salumi using heritage breed hogs (or cattle) from local farms. They also make specialty sandwiches, party platters, and own their own store front.

Bloombox is a Boulder company that create lettuce specific dressings that are incredibly tasty and worth the hype. The kale dressing is a honey-sherry vinaigrette, whereas the arugula dressing is a cumin-coriander vinaigrette. Another interesting vendor was Highland Honey, because they sell raw “herbal honey”. They’re infused with herbs and each jar has a different purpose; one is labeled ‘nervous relief’ while another is labeled ‘tummy soother’ but what thye have in common is that they all tasted delicious!

Healthy Harvest is another small company selling organic olive oils and olives. As I tried various samples of olives handed to me on a small piece of paper, I awkwardly spilled olive juice on their display table and all over my leg. Thankfully, she didn’t notice and neither did my partner, so I casually moved on to the next booth.

Of course no market would be complete without sauerkraut, but I honestly wasn’t that impressed because I am such a loyal devotee to OlyKraut back home.

As I neared the end of the long stretch of vendors, I was impressed to see delicious looking bread baked with 100% organic heirloom wheat (Turkey Red). This farmers market truly had everything and I felt my experience there was wholesome albeit twinged with jealousy for not having a market this perfect back home.

 

After a long drive, we were out of Denver and among the farms that fed the people. The surrounding area was beautiful and we drove around to admire the scenery and back roads, since we were more than a little early for our tour of Fruition farms.  Eventually, we drove back and entered the farm property.

Reluctantly getting out of our car we looked around for someone to speak to. Kittens were playing at the foot of the house, making the whole scene very picturesque. Ultimately distracting me from my goal of finding Jimmy our tour guide for the day. Off to the side, I noticed a group of people deep in conversation so I timidly walked over and stated that I had a tour scheduled with Jimmy. They enthusiastically introduced themselves and luckily Jimmy was among the group.

He started the tour by taking us inside the barn where they kept their animals. Their menagerie included black pigs, ten sheep, llamas, and goats. The purpose of the animals being to maintain the pastures by grazing them down, which will help to rebuild the pasture. Originally they were milking their sheep daily and had more than just ten, but the labor and demand were just too much. So now they get their milk delivered 2000lb at a time from Nebraska, which helps increase their production and their sales.

Their milking room was designed by them personally and has a unique sliding gate system for keeping the sheep in place for milking. A large window between the milking room and cheese making room was also included in the design, so there is no separation from tasks and full visibility for the workers.

As we moved from the barn to the next building, we put on rubber clogs for sanitary reasons, since we would now be in the area where cheese is made. All of their cheeses are made from clean and healthy sheep’s milk and this creates the best raw milk cheese. (They are also the only sheep’s milk cheese producer in Colorado.) The raw cheese must be aged between 6 months and 1 year by law, to ensure the safety of consuming the cheese. Jimmy spends five days a week making cheese to keep up with demand.

Bulk pasteurization is done at 145 degrees Fahrenheit for thirty minutes; this is the minimum allowed by law. It is done at a low temperature for a long amount of time in order to keep the product unadulterated. Starter cultures used in the various cheeses come freeze dried and bought from other places.

Cheese is made out of four key ingredients: milk, a bacterial culture, a coagulant (like rennet), and salt. Minimizing the variables is a huge part of being a cheese maker and the process is “extremely detailed” according to Jimmy.

Next came my favorite part of the tour, entering the cheese cave. The smell, the sights, the temperature…it was all a beautiful dream come to life. I was absolutely entranced by the cave and listened excitedly to everything Jimmy had to say about it. He explained that the cave was alive and growing; the mold growth on the cheese depended on the cave. Everything imparts flavor onto the cheese, including the smell and humidity within the cave. He pointed out the different colors of mold on the cheese, explained what he wanted and how sometimes blue wasn’t the desired mold color on the cheese. Oftentimes he will give rounds of cheese a citric acid wash to eradicate unwanted mold.

Something new he was trying on his current batches of cheese was rubbing them once  a week with Sicilian extra virgin olive oil to help maintain sweet grassy flavors and to help mold grow.

Before leaving the building he casually showed us some of his finished cheeses and let us sample a too salty cheese, that still tasted like heaven. I slipped my boots back on and we were transferred over to a new tour guide, so Jimmy could focus on cheese making. Elsa was our new guide and she took us into the greenhouse.

Working here for the past four years with a degree in ornamental horticulture, Elsa was a overflowing well of knowledge. She talked about the greenhouse fondly, apologizing about the mess like someone would apologize for their state of their house. To me everything was picturesque, new, and interesting…no mess to be seen.

They grow year round in the greenhouse and heat it during the winter time with 2 space heaters plus cloth/plastic covers. This method allows the greenhouse to freeze but the plants do not.

During the winter, they grow plenty of microgreens and transplants. Summer includes a large variety of radishes, arugula, edible flowers, and many other plants. Many of the beds are surrounded by cinder blocks which retain heat and sometimes they employ the use of shade curtains.

 

As we moved outside to look at the other garden plots, Elsa described the challenges of being at an even higher elevation than Denver, which leads to an even shorter growing season. Although they do have a four season hoop house for growing heirloom tomatoes (Cherokee green and purple, brandy wine, and striped German), cucumbers, and peppers.

Elsa pointed out all the pest problems and diseases they were currently dealing with like thrips damaging the flower parts or blossom end rot on the tomatoes. After awhile Jimmy came over and joined us, asking when the garlic would be ready and how much was left. Elsa dug around in the ground a bit to find the single clove garlic and Jimmy brainstormed for a special dinner out loud. The simple act of hearing him brainstorming and picking various things out of the garden for the event dinner was inspiring. He put together dishes with ease with a creativity I could only aspire to have one day. As time went on the conversations heavy with knowledge died down as thunder was heard in the distance. We exchanged goodbyes and set off on the road right before the rain came pouring down. Our tour completed and the day still young, we headed back to Denver.

After going on the Vapor Distillery tour the day before, I felt like I had a leg up on the older couple who were the only other people on this tour with us. I asked our tour guide if the yeast strains varied for any of their whiskeys and he looked pretty impressed, so my ego only ballooned from there. (They use the same strain of yeast for everything.) When it came time to taste whiskeys though, my confidence turned sour in my mouth as I chocked and grimaced. Whiskey was apparently not my cup of tea…or anything close to tea in that manner. So when the opportunity came to add water to my whiskey, I happily obliged.

The original whiskey is a blend of years 2, 3, 4, and 5; it’s 94 proof and not labeled as a blend since it is all technically the same whiskey, some of it is just aged longer. This whiskey was complex and had different levels to its flavor. My favorite (out of the two whiskeys in this situation, considering I don’t plan on drinking straight whiskey again) was their Diamond Whiskey. Aged for four years, it was sweet with notes of caramel and vanilla.

Although we didn’t sample it, Snowflake is a unique whiskey that they make every year using special barrels from all walks of life and then all of the different whiskey is blended together. Only 1200 bottles are made and it can only be bought at their store. Apparently people camp outside their store waiting patiently to buy a bottle every Winter.

All of the barrels used for aging the whiskey contain a 3rd level char. The barrel room itself is sealed off and temperature controlled, because of the risk of too much evaporation at such a high elevation. This meant the room contained ethanol vapors and if you fell asleep there over night, you would wake up drunk the next morning.

Something unique they do, is have their bottling done by volunteers. You sign up online and are chosen at random to work the bottling line. You work a few hours and get a bottle of whiskey and pizza for free.

Fun Fact: Instead of using a pot or a column, they use a hybrid that combines the two together.

Fun Fact: The ‘head’ is removed and used as a cleaning agent around the brewery.

In the midst of my food coma (induced by Watershed Cafe), we wandered the streets of Leavenworth in search of an establishment serving terroir influenced libations. The local brewery didn’t intrigue me and the idea of sampling hard alcohol was not appealing either. So we settled on finding the winery we had passed earlier in the day offering chocolate and wine pairings. After walking up and down the streets, it seemed to have disappeared, so we meandered down the stairs to Icicle Ridge Winery instead. The room was cute and not quite country-chic…it was more sophisticated than that, with sceneries of railroads and cedar wood furnishings.

We decided to split a tasting of five wines, starting with two whites. The first was a 2014 Riesling, crisp with notes of honeydew and cantaloupe. Not really anything special, but overall a nice wine. The next white wine was made from grapes on their property; which was only four miles away from Leavenworth in the town of Peshastin. The 2015 Blondes Gewurztraminer was named after the owner’s three blonde daughters and featured three cute blonde angels on the bottle. The marketing didn’t really appeal to me and I thought it was a weird wine to sip on considering our current racially charged political climate…but wine is wine, right? The estate wine tasted even more crisp and refreshing than the previous and was heavy with notes of grapefruit and honey. But for once in my life I was excited to move onto the red wines and away from the whites.

A dark beauty was a nice way to describe a wine that I found much too reminiscent of a smokey scotch filled man den. The notes of tobacco overpowered any of the raspberry notes I should have tasted in the 2015 Romanze Red Blend. Overall, I was not a fan of the pepper-y notes and now consider myself biast against dark wines. The next red, was much more delightful considering it was full of many bright characteristics. The grapes used in this 2014 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon came from their own property as well. One sniff left me so satisfied I almost didn’t want to drink it; the wine smelled purely of berries and I couldn’t stop smelling the delicious aroma. When I finally took a sip and let the blood red wine seep over my tongue, I got notes of earthiness and fresh berry. The wine wasn’t very dry either; this was the clear winner in my perspective and a clear demonstration of terroir. Hopefully, I will be able to venture out to that area again and see their vineyards to get a better understanding of how the Cabernet Sauvignon came to be so wonderfully berry filled, aroma and taste wise.

Finally, we ended our tasting with a Sangiovese Port. Heavy in my mouth and oozing with cinnamon and tobacco notes, I was not a fan. Luckily, my partner enjoyed it and finished off the glass. I sleepily thanked our wine steward and headed back to the car ready for the day to come to an end. Terroir opportunities were everywhere in Leavenworth, as long as you know how to look past the tourist traps.