Read Part II before going any further. Thank
you.
The Rails & Ales Brewfest came
to a close and soon so, too, would the Epic Beer Weekend. Rails & Ales may
have been the climax but the story’s not over yet; there’s still the dénouement—the resolution—to attend to.
When we travelled to Alamosa, we
took the Front Range route down I-25, cutting west at Walsenburg, over the
pass, and to our destination. Going
home, we took the scenic route but not to rubber-neck; Nicole and I have both
driven these particular highways before—we knew what the surroundings looked like. I guess we’re just jaded Coloradoans;
flatlanders would gape for hours at the natural beauties we flippantly passed
at 75 MPH. Grandiose though the drive
may be, we had another mission in mind—a mission for beer.
Poncha Springs and Salida are two
dot-on-the-map towns nestled in the southern corner of the Arkansas Valley and,
at first glance, you’d be surprised if they even had one brewery between the
two of them. You must remember, though,
that this is Colorado—the beeriest state in the union! There are actually three breweries in this remote corner.
First stop: Moonlight Pizza & Brewpub in Salida. Upon arrival, it’s
difficult to determine if Moonlight is, indeed, a brewery; there’s no outdoor signage
to indicate they serve homemade beer with their pie. This, I think, is a mistake. New York and Chicago are the pizza capitals
of the country but, when you get down to it, every town across the nation has a
pizza parlor or two; it’s not the most unique restaurant concept. Happily, today, the independent American
brewery is less a rarity than it used to be but
it’s still much less common than a pizza joint.
Let the people know you make beer, Moonlight. You do more than pizza and you should
advertise it especially in Colorado
where the population craves craft beer—don’t hide your true self!
 |
| See? It is a brewery! |
We walked in, the glint of
polished tanks in the corner exposed Moonlight’s brewpub status, and we took a
seat on the patio. As usual, we ordered
a flight of everything: MoonLite Cream Ale (5% ABV, 17.3 IBU), IPA (6.1% ABV,
120 IBU), Amber Ale (6.1% ABV, no IBU data), Robust Porter (5.3% ABV, no IBU
data), and ESB (no data).
MoonLite is a clear, straw-yellow
beer with white foam and a corny, yeasty, bready flavor. As the name suggests, it has a creamy
mouthfeel and a dry finish.
The IPA is slightly hazy with a
brassy orange body. Pine needles and
orange fruit take front-and-center in the aroma and a bitter, pine resin-like
hop flavor grabs on to the back of the throat and doesn’t let go.
Again, brassy orange is a good
descriptor of a beer. This time, I’m talking
about the Amber although it is slightly darker than the IPA. Caramel aromas and a light, malt-forward
flavor complete this beer.
The porter, with black body and
reddish brown highlights, is all chocolate.
The foam looks like frothy chocolate milk, the nose is similar to
chilled hot cocoa, and milk chocolate dominates the palate.
A light, coppery color, toffee
and caramel aromas—like taking a whiff of an open Cracker Jack box—and a flavor
that’s also reminiscent of the aforementioned ballpark treat defines ESB’s
characteristics perfectly. Despite the “B” in the style’s name, ESB is actually not too bitter—at least not bitingly so.
 |
| From near to far: MoonLite, IPA, Amber, Porter, & ESB |
We snarfed our pizzas (damn good,
by the way), listened to the street performers squeeze their accordions, and
were on our way to Amícas Pizza & Microbrewery (yes, another pizza parlor/brewery in the same, small town—there’s always
room for more of a good thing, I think).
Unlike at Moonlight, Nicole and I
ordered one beer to share but, good lord, what a beer it was! For their tenth anniversary, Amícas rolled
out Honey-Bourbon Imperial Brown (10% ABV) brewed with Salida-made honey and
aged in bourbon infused oak barrels.
There’s nothing about this beer that doesn’t sound fantastic!
Tan head. Dark but almost transparent mahogany
body. Sweet, vanilla-like aromas. A slight, never overpowering alcohol burn from
the bourbon intermingled with vanilla/oak flavors. A wood quality, like a dry Popsicle stick,
that can be tasted nearer the end of the glass.
This is what Zeus drinks on Mt. Olympus.
 |
| Honey-Bourbon Imperial Brown |
We left Amícas shortly thereafter. It’s a fine, hippie-centric establishment but
we had one more brewery to hit before concluding our Epic Beer Weekend.
Elevation Beer Co. in Poncha
Springs—which emphasizes barrel-aged and specialty beers—is one of the newest
breweries to grace our state. Located
near the county fairgrounds, it’s actually somewhat hard to find considering
the size of the town. The simple, metal
siding-clad exterior of the building conceals an interior that appears to be a
millionaire rancher’s personal living room: copper accents, tractor seat bar
stools, furnishings made of corrugated metal and weathered fence posts. This taproom is the visual definition of the
word “rustic.”
We’d already had our fair share
of beer by this point so we each ordered a single taster. Nicole had the Mount Blanca Saison (5.5% ABV)
and I ordered Barrel Aged Apis IV (10.7% ABV)—the “IV” referring to the fact
that the beer is a quadrupel.
 |
| Mount Blanca & Apis |
Apis, like Honey-Bourbon Imperial
Brown, is brewed with local honey. It is
a clear but dark beer, a piece of cherry wood with one too many coats of stain. A thick, beige head holds in a wood and dark
fruit aroma—black cherries, perhaps.
These same dark fruits along with black licorice complete Apis’s flavor.
Mount Blanca is hazy, a darkish
shade of yellow, with a spicy aroma not unlike that of a Hefeweizen. It boasts a citrusy and peppery flavor.
After leaving Elevation, we made
the long way home back to Denver, plopped down on the couch, and napped for
days. Questing after Colorado’s hidden
gem breweries takes a lot out of a person, even beer warriors such as us. No matter, we did more in one weekend than
most beer geeks do in a year; we could sit on our butts for the remainder of
the summer and have had our fill of locally-crafted beer. Epic heroes never truly rest, though. We have plenty more adventures planned for
the upcoming weeks. Stay tuned.
Prost!
Chris
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