Favorite Colorado IPAs?

Anytime someone tells me about some hot new Denver restaurant it's invariably some overpriced, trying too hard foodie nonsense with some dumb looking pretentious "presentation" and/or a small plate restaurant. Screw both of those things six ways to Sunday, just give me some classic good food. I'll take some fried chicken at Steubens every day over some duck confit braised lamb tits with a western slope dandelion aioli drizzled artistically around the plate.

And small plates/sharing can go to hell. I'll order my food, you order yours. Touch mine and I'll rap your knuckles.

 

He obviously means chipotle aioli

 

Around here I probably meant "cha-pole-tay"

 

Backcountry Double IPA is back, always has been one of the tops in CO. Has anyone tried the new batch since the change of guard there?

 

Just poured a codename superfan. It has all kinds of brown floaties and also a huge chunk of brown stuff on the bottom of my glass I have not seen this before, anyone else see this. I took a pic but can't upload it here

 

We've noticed some yeast in the second most recent batch. We are definitely taking steps to reduce the amount of yeast in the can. Do you have the date code?

 

The date is mostly scratched off but seems to be the 07/16 date. But sure of the actual day.but July 16 is main part..

 

Re food: Having been in Denver for the better part of 35 years, I readily admit that the "street food" or "cheap eats" is lacking here. It always has been. But...on the other end of the spectrum, I'll take Frasca against anything Chicago (or NYC or SF or...Venice?) has to offer. I know I'm cherry picking, but the upper end of the dining scene in Denver/Boulder has improved immensely in the past 5 years. Fruition ain't too shabby either (and they have a solid beer list, e.g., Pliny and Casey).

Re IPAs: I was a little disappointed by Honeyman No. Nein. Thought it was boring and didn't hold a candle to the Superpower I had afterwards.

 

I'm currently drinking the new 2016 Crooked Stave Hop Savant. Pretty damn good! They went with a three hop blend and I quite like it.

I miss the pick-your-hop thing from last year and would much rather have Galaxy or Citra single Hopped over this, but I can dig it.

 

Backcountry IIPA was simply not good...at all.

 

I spoke with @Golden303 and he said it wasn't what it used to be. Very unimpressive.

 

Will have to grab some Backcountry DIPA out of respect, but it wouldn't shock me at all if it isn't the same. That was one of those labor of love items. It was one of a kind for a while and I'm not sure if I dig any hoppy beers more than that first draft batch of 2.0. It wasn't until Superpower (and S26's IPA's) that we got anything else like that here.

 

That's sad to hear about the back country DIPA. That was a pretty amazing beer.

 

Count me in as another who is extremely disappointed with the new Backcountry DIPA. It is nothing like it used to be. What the hell happened to these guys? They used to be one of my favorite breweries. Now their release schedule is very sporadic, and when they do release something we get an absolute clunker like this.

 

Long story, but they're spread a little thin and 2 of their main brewers (including the heart of the operation) moved on. I haven't had much from them lately, so I can't personally comment on any potential quality issues.
I think there are still a few big and BA beers floating around that can be attributed to Alan and the old team. The Falling Rock definitely had one recently. No clue if there are any more.

 

Son of a...

I guess I somewhat expecting that though.

 

I'm still holding out hope they can right the ship but it may take a while. I was up there in November and their lines were a total mess and the DPA at that time was no bueno either. I attributed it to the lines issue but this recent release has me a bit more concerned.

 

I'm just going to leave this here:

http://www.beerinbigd.com/2015/12/colorados-backcountry-brewery-purchases.html
http://www.backcountrybrewery.com/texas-home

 

That's likely the batch I was referring to. It's actually the last batch that we used "best by" labels instead of "packed on". It's still pretty fresh and tasty, but if you'd like replacement cans or the equivalent in growlers, bring what's left by the tap room. I definitely understand that yeast clumping like that is visually unappealing and like I mentioned we are adjusting processes to make the amount of yeast in the can at packaging more consistent. For reference, we are targeting the cell count at packaging of Allagash white. Our head brewer used to work there and he feels that level of yeast leads to the appearance, flavor and aroma we are targeting without too much clumping over time.