Oskar Blues

About:
Great canned beer? The term has been an oxymoron for craft beer lovers used to getting their full-flavored beers from bottles palonly. But in November of 2002, Oskar Blues Brewery (in tiny Lyons, Colorado, pop.1400) changed that by launching its “Canned Beer Apocalypse.”

The brewery began hand-canning its hoppy, assertive-but-elegant Dale’s Pale Ale on a table-top machine that sealed just one can at a time. The move made Oskar Blues the first US craft brewer to brew and can its own beer.

Why cans? “We thought the idea of our big, luscious pale ale in a can was hilarious,” recalls founder Dale Katechis. “And it made our beer immensely portable for outdoor enjoyment fun.” Katechis and his crew then discovered other bennies of aluminum cans. “Cans keep beer incredibly fresh by fully protecting it from light and oxygen.”

And unlike cans of old, the modern aluminum can is lined with a coating so beer and metal never touch. Cans are also easier to recycle, free of glass breakage issues, and less fuel-consuming to ship. (35% of the weight of a bottle of beer is the bottle itself.)

But it’s the beers inside of the Oskar Blues cans that have wowed beer experts and consumers. The many honors for Dale’s Pale Ale include Top American Pale Ale from the New York Times and World’s Best Canned Beer from Details magazine.

Honors for Oskar Blues’ Old Chub Scottish Style Ale — an 8% ABV, semi-sweet dark beer with luxurious flavors of coffee, chocolate and a kiss of smoke — include Top Rated Scottish Ale from Beeradvocate.com.

G’Knight is an imperial red ale (8.7% ABV) with an intense aroma, a rich middle of malts and hops, and a surprisingly comfy finish for a beer of its size. Its honors include a 2008 World Beer Cup medal, “Top 5 US Extreme Beers” from the New York Times and “Best in Show” at the 2009 International Canned Beer Festival.

The brewery’s new Mama’s Little Yella Pils is an all-malt pilsner (5.3% ABV) made with hearty amounts of pale malt, German specialty malts, and a blend of Bavarian hops.

“We’re in this to have fun and put some extra joy on the planet,” Katechis says. “We love the way people’s heads spin around after they try one of our four-dimensional canned beers. ‘That came out of a can?’ We hear it all the time.” Get more details at http://www.oskarblues.com

Contact:
Oskar Blues Brewery
1800 Pike Rd, Unit B
Longmont, Colorado 80501
Dale Katechis, dale@oskarblues.com
John Bryant, John@oskarblues.com
Chad Melis, Marketing chad@oskarblues.com
Wendy Weathers, Sales wendy@oskarblues.com
Tree Rogers, HR & Customer Service tree@oskarblues.com
Sam Vondra, Web Orders / Merchandise sami@oskarblues.com

Oskar Blues Grill & Brew
303 Main Street
Lyons, Colorado 80540
303-823-6685
Anita Gray, Manager anita@oskarblues.com
Hours of Operation:
Restaurant Hrs: Monday through Sunday 11:00 AM to 10:00 PM
Bar Hrs: Sunday through Thursday 11:00 AM to 12 Midnight
Friday and Saturday 11:00 AM to 2:00 AM

Oskar Blues Home Made Liquids & Solids
1555 S Hover Rd
Longmont, Colorado 80501
303-485-9400
Anita Gray, Oskar Blues Home Made Liquids & Solids Manager anita@oskarblues.com
Hours of Operation:
Restaurant – Monday through Sunday 11:00 AM to Close

Oskar Blues Tasty Weasel Tap Room
1800 Pike Rd, Unit B
Longmont, Colorado 80501
303-776-1914
Beth Daugherty, Manager beth@oskarblues.com
Hours of Operation:
Monday through Firkin Friday 3:00 PM to 8:00, Saturday & Sunday 12PM to 6PM

Dave McIntyre, All band bookings, dave@oskarblues.com

 

New Belgium Brewery

About Us:
We’ll set the scene.
1989. Belgium. Boy on bike. (Ok, make that a young man of 32).

As our aspiring young homebrewer rides his mountain bike with “fat tires” through European villages famous for beer, New Belgium Brewing Company was but a glimmer in his eye. Or basement. For Jeff Lebesch would return to Fort Collins with a handful of ingredients and an imagination full of recipes.

And then there was beer.

Jeff’s first two basement-brewed creations? A brown dubbel with earthy undertones named Abbey and a remarkably well-balanced amber he named Fat Tire. To say the rest was history would be to overlook his wife’s involvement. Kim Jordan was New Belgium’s first bottler, sales rep, distributor, marketer and financial planner.

And now, she’s our CEO.

Electrical engineer meets social worker; ideals flourish

The other side of the New Belgium story isn’t as romantic as bicycling through Europe, but it gives testament to our dedication and hard work. And it goes like this: Jeff, an electrical engineer by day and tinkerer by nature, builds a homebrewing kit in his basement out of repurposed dairy equipment. His Belgian inspired brews garnered enough praise from friends and neighbors that Jeff and Kim take their basement brewery commercial in 1991.

Kim, social worker by day and mother to two always, began the marketing process by knocking on their neighbor’s door. Anne Fitch was that neighbor and her watercolors are the artwork we continue to use on our labels today. With labeled bottles and local encouragement, the first Belgian-style beers brewed in the United States were officially for sale.

What else continues today? The ideals that Kim and Jeff built New Belgium Brewing Company on, from their basement operation to our first brewery in a railroad depot to our current sustainable home on 50 acres.

Contact Us:
New Belgium Brewing Company
500 Linden Fort Collins, Colorado 80524 USA
1-888-NBB-4044 or locally at 970-221-0524
New Belgium Web Site

 

Boulder Beer

About Us:
In 1979 two CU professors applied for and received the 43rd brewing license issued in the United States creating the Boulder Beer Company, Colorado’s first microbrewery.

Contact Us:
Boulder Beer
2880 Wilderness Place
Boulder, Colorado
303-444-8448
303-444-4796
Boulder Beer Website