Favorite Colorado Lagers!

I've never had Pinhead, but I love Post's pilsner, although it's hard to tell how old those boxes are. But at 4.5% abv, it's got killer flavor.

 

Finally made it to Zwie... yeah, they win. All of their Lagers are top notch, I especially love their classic pils.

 

Sounds like next time i am in Colorado and up in Fort Collins I have to pay Zwei a visit. I tried one beer from them before and really did not care for it, but questioning now if that was just a matter of wrong beer/wrong time.

 

Everything I've had from Zwei has been full-on wonderful. Granted, I've only had the German/Austrian stuff, but that's mostly what matters to me anyway.

Ever so slightly off topic - if anyone is curious what a legit Bavarian helles tastes like (that isn't extremely old), the Bull & Bush has a fresh keg of Mahr's Hell on right now. It's as good as any. It isn't quite "Bamberg fresh" but it's not too far.

 

This thread (and @Domingo's glowing reviews) inspired me and the wife to stop at Zwei on Sunday. Everything we sampled was incredible. They've got such a great handle on lagers, expertly crafted beers no doubt. Filled a growler of Provelo Pils which might have been my favorite of everything we tasted. If I lived in FoCo, I would spend way too much time (and money) there.

 

Absolutely agree on Zwei. Love the Helles especially! I've got to make it out there.

 

Palm Tree Caribbean Lager from Odyssey Beerwerks hits the spot for me.

 

Bierstadt is set to open on August 13th. Been a long time coming, but I'm psyched.

 

Oh yeah. Not sure if we get it, but La Cumbre Beer (yup, that's the name) is damn good. It's "just" an adjunct (corn) lager, but it's delicious.

 

I need to try the Posts's Top Rope lager; I really like Howdy beer, so I suspect I'd like Top Rope. I also need to pick up a 6er of their Mild next time I see it.

 

Picked up a sixer of Howdy after reading this thread. Interesting stuff. Tastes like a biscuit; would go great with the Post's fried chicken, actually.

 

The best part of that beer is that it's only 4.5% abv, but it has big flavor and is totally satisfying (to me).

 

You need to read the 2015 guidelines. "Top fermented lager beers", Koelsch is under Pale Bitter European Beer, and Alt is under Amber Bitter European Beer.

 

Fun story! Someone correct me if my memory is failing me, but Top Rope was actually initially made by Upslope. The Post is owned by Big Red F Restaurant Group, and before The Post existed, they wanted a house lager for their mexican restaurant, El Centro, in Boulder. Upslope was still pretty new, so they made Top Rope as a house beer for them. Fast-forward to the future, and the now have a brewery with which to make it themselves.

What I don't know is if it's the same recipe or has changed in any way. Anyone know?

 

All true. And im pretty sure Bryan said there have been some tweaks to the recipe.

 

German and Mexican breweries used that excuse for the exported to the US beer labels' wording? Wow. Kinda ignores the fact that for the last 25 years or so, BBC's Samuel Adams Boston Lager has been among the very best selling "craft" beers and Heineken during much of the Van Munching era in the US, when it was the #1 import was typically labeled "Heineken Lager Beer" for the US market.

The importers of a lot of German and other European beers used "malt liquor" instead of "ale" for their US labels (Samichlaus and Lowenbrau two of the most notable) since either was permissible according to the TABC.

I'd say that many American brewers used "ale" for their bottom-fermented products' label rather than "malt liquor" because there was a stigma attached to that term in the US.

Never understood why some breweries, like the New Belgium example, actually called the beer a different style simply because of the Texas labeling requirements when apparently the TABC was OK with this sort of fine print "ALE IN TX" labeling that BBC used (in this case, for Noble Pils in its original 5.2% version):

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There's a lot of different styles of lager, of course, but for the most commonly brewed ones, like pilsners and helles, freshness IS absolutely essential for many drinkers.