Favorite Colorado Lagers!

105w has their shit together. Except their ipas. For me anyways. Their hefe was one of the best I've had.

 

Just had a Tivoli Slam Dunkel. It's real good, super easy to drink. I'd take Prost over it, but this is great.

 

Their Helles is still one of those beers, if says its on tap I generally order it. Would definitely try this.

 

Great Divide American Lager is quite good despite the June 19th canning that I bought today. At this point, I reckon that it tastes like a fresher Hamms, which I have not seen. Btw it's the first time I have seen it; sitting in the distributor warehouse all this time?

 

I had some of the Great Divide Lager in Glenwood Springs over the 4th of July. That's probably the same batch that's on shelves right now. I really like Great Divide, but I don't really see the point of that beer. It isn't bad, but it's no different and no better than the dozens of other "American Lagers" flooding shelves right now. With the way they ninja'd that one on to shelves, I bet they realized they got beat to the punch.
It wasn't that long ago when GD was putting out new beers ahead of everyone else.

 

I really like their American Lager so hrumph.
And who's to say that it bothered them that they didn't come out with one earlier than they did? Now I have 2 Lagers that I can enjoy from Colorado. It and Upslope's.

 

I'm not saying it's bad. It's just a bandwagon beer, and they're kinda late to grab market share. You also have 2 from Avery, Odell's, 2 from New Belgium, 1 from OB, 2 from Ska, 2 from the Post, 2 from Epic, as well as the Wibby line-up, Colorado Koelsch, and more showing up every day. We also have our neighbors like Melvin and La Cumbre and the new wave of similar lagers from FW, Founders, Deschutes, etc.

 

I had it on draught at Frontier Brewing and Taproom. Except, they had to give it a different name. Was called Nail Knot.

 

As well liked as CO Lager has been I wouldn't be surprised if they started sending it (or "Nail Knot") elsewhere. It's easily my favorite lager that isn't trying to be a helles/pils/macro/etc.

 

I've always been a fan. Both when labeled as an Ale and as a Lager.

https://www.craftbeer.com/editors-picks/lager-or-not-ale-like-you-a-lot-new-belgiums-1554

 

With apologies to the local purists, I've been diggin the HELL out of the Aecht Schlenkerla Helles Lager. 4.3% and with some campfire smoke? YES YES YES. Good stuff... hadn't seen it in CO before a few weeks ago and my fridge is running out of space. Cheers!

 

That beer is world class. It's also a nice intro (or even an alternative) to rauchbier for people that have been scared off by Schlenkerla's other beers or stuff like Alaskan smoked porter.

 

People get scared off by Alaskan Smoked Porter??? Juneau anyone that was?

 

A.S. Rauchbier has long been one of my standbys but that Helles Lager was a real eye-opener given its light weight. And it's refreshing? WTF. Delicious.

 

Most rauchbier fans tend to greatly favor either Schlenkerla or Spezial. Schlenkerla tends to be boldy smoky (especially in bottles), while Spezial is more reserved. I'm in the Spezial camp most of the time. Unfortunately they don't distro to the US anymore.
However that Shlenkerla helles (and the Krausen if you can find it) are exceptions. The smoke isn't as heavy and the beers are drier, too. I love 'em both. I've had skunky bottles of that helles before, but it has been a while. Lately most have been quite good. Oddly enough, the helles doesn't seem to have a draft version. At least not in Bamberg. I've been to Schlenkerla a dozen times and have only seen it in bottles. If a draft version exists, it would be from B. United only.

 

Possibly urban legend, but someone told me that the Schlenkerla Helles doesn't use any smoked malts and it's just lightly smoky because of how inundated the brewhouse is with smoke.