On Tap in Gilpin
Howlin' Nice
Lighter in both color and body than a traditional Oktoberfest beer, but with more malt character than the American lager. Sweet bread notes are imparted from a blend of Munich and Pilsner malts. We’ve utilized traditional Perle and Hallertauer Mittlefruh hops, imparting pleasant aromas of herbs, spices and slightly floral notes. Resulting in a stein-worthy German festival lager.
ABV: 4.5%
Not Gluten Reduced
Very Nice Bart
Brewed in collaboration with our longtime friends over at Großen Bart Brewery in Longmont CO. This bright amber beer with its frosty head is sure to delight. A tribute to that oldest of American craft breweries from San Francisco, it may be compared to a steam lager but officially known in our industry as a California Common. It combines the crispness of a lager with the complexity of an ale. Luscious maltiness and bright herbal notes, accompanied by some hop forward late Idaho 7 additions and a slight bitterness on the back end. We hope you enjoy it as much as we enjoyed our beer loving fellowship with Großen Bart.
ABV: 5.0%
Gluten Reduced
Very Nice Pale Ale
Brewed to be simply Very Nice. An easy and balanced ale strong with aromas of lemon and lime, melon, peach, and tangerine. Secondary notes include coconut, lemongrass, and candied fruit. Some folks even notice hints of pineapple. Mostly featuring the Cashmere hop, but joined with Citra hop for more complexity. Brewed with a very nice light body, perfect for summertime sipping.
ABV: 6.0%
Gluten Reduced
Very Nice IPA
Our latest solution for the insatiable hop fanatic. The star of this beer is the strata hop. Strata’s hallmark Strawberry, Passion fruit, Grapefruit, and danky sage all come together to play with the classics mosaic and citra creating a juicy hop forward delightful IPA! It’s Very Nice!
ABV: 7.0%
Gluten Reduced
Royal We IPA
Huge hop forward character delivered with a double dry hop of Enigma, Citra, and Mosaic. This provides a beautiful grapefruit and orange essence characteristic of the American IPA. The body is kept light with only a small amount of crystal malt to allow the hop bouquet and flavor to shine through. Early additions of Centennial hops balance out the hop forward with an appropriate bitter background.
ABV: 7.2%
Gluten Reduced
Fuggly & Brown
Mono-hopped and named after the earthy and mildly citrus hop, Fuggles. A malty beer with low hop aroma and bitterness, brewed in the tradition of an English brown. Some slight fruity esters. Traditionally, brown sugar would be used, but we stuck with our locally sourced honey instead, lightening up the body and contributing some slightly floral notes.
ABV: 6.0%
Gluten Reduced
Monk's Phunk
Strong ale named after a strong woman! Our brewer’s dear mother! This recipe is crafted as a tribute to the tradition the Monk’s started in Belgium over a thousand years ago. It includes lots of Munich, various crystal malt, and a shot of chocolate malt, giving it a deep burgundy color and a heavenly rich caramel taste that literally would bring people to cathedrals in Europe. It has enlightening fruity esters from the Belgian yeast as well as divine sweetness from a gallon (12 lbs) of wild Colorado honey per barrel.
ABV: 9.0%
Gluten Reduced
Logical Fallacy
This beer challenges the Logical Fallacy that says if a beer is a stout, it shouldn’t be bittered. We brew it with generous hop additions of Hallertauer and Centennial. This hop bill is challenged with the smokiness of black patent malt, coffee tones of chocolate malt, and a decadent mixture of caramel malts. This is a unique stout that will make you look deep into this beer, and lose yourself in its complicated malty taste and intense oil like blackness. Add an espresso tweek for $1.
ABV: 5.5%
Gluten Reduced
Available in 22oz Bombers
What is Kveik Yeast?
As is often the case, what’s old is new again and for many brewers kveik is proving to be no different. To put it simply, kveik (think “kuh-vake”, as a native speaker would pronounce it––not “kwike”) is a traditional Norwegian word for a type of ancient, domesticated yeast. After many generations of home-brewers cultivating it and passing it down, this hardy yeast has begun making a name for itself on a much larger scale.
Where most of today’s brewers utilize modern methods in order to carefully isolate yeast strains for specific flavor profiles, historically, those brewing with kveik relied upon a decidedly different fermentation process. Cultures between different towns could vary widely, and as a result, traditional kveik would likely contain a blend of strains sourced from many different brewers. While some commercial brewers using kveik have changed to keep up with demand, many have continued to use those same tried and true techniques.
Most notably, kveik has proven to be an extremely resilient yeast...kveik ferments not only at extremely high temperatures (up to about 110ºF), but also at significantly higher alcohol concentrations. Where other yeasts would produce odd flavors or die, it’s under these conditions that kveik’s magic happens. Kveik also produces a variety of flavors depending on the temperature at which it’s fermented.
Because of its high heat tolerance, the chemical reactions occurring during fermentation do so very quickly, making kveik quite the time-efficient yeast for brewing. For instance, Lars Garshol reports of one extreme example in which dried and dormant kveik had begun visibly fermenting within 30 minutes. Also, kveik can be easily dried and reused, allowing cultures to be preserved even after the batch is complete.
GLUTEN REDUCED DEFINED
Most of our beers are “gluten reduced”. What does this mean? We use a product called ClarityFerm, it is an enzyme. Theoretically it reduces the levels of gluten down to less than 5PPM which is well below the international standard of 20PPM. However, having each batch tested is far too costly so we do not claim gluten free, only crafted for gluten reduction.
The enzyme is extracted from Aspergillus Nigerus. Commonly know as bread mold. Bread mold is very good at cleaving up gluten and uses the enzyme to do it. The enzyme is very similar to Amylase, the enzyme that all brewing depends on. Amylase breaks down starch and turns it into Glucose (sugar). The enzyme from the ClarityFerm is just specific to gluten.