Last week, Stevens Point Brewing of the eponymous town in Wisconsin, released their summer beer, Nude Beach Summer Wheat, with a label featuring nudists frolicking in the sand and surf, with beach accessories showing up in conveniently immodest places making the whole scene decidedly PG. And that might have been the end of it, were it not for the sudden and apparently unexpected support of the American Association for Nude Recreation.

From the press release: Summer Wheat Ale is Point Brewery’s Latest Seasonal Beer Summer is coming so it’s the perfect time to take the wraps off and enjoy Point Nude Beach Summer Wheat, a new hand-crafted seasonal specialty beer from the Stevens Point Brewery. Beginning May 1st, Point Nude Beach Summer Wheat, a satisfying unfiltered wheat ale, will be available in 12-ounce bottles and kegs wherever Point brands are sold. Point Nude Beach Summer Wheat is a fun, refreshing beer for hot summer afternoons and evenings, according to Joe Martino, Stevens Point Brewery Operating Partner. “It’s the perfect summer brew for summer thirsts. What can be more fun than a nude beach?” he said. “Where and how you enjoy Point Nude Beach Summer Wheat is up to you. Clothing is optional.” “Wheat beers represent one of the most popular segments of the 8-million-barrel U.S. craft beer market and have recently enjoyed double-digit sales growth in many regions, including the Midwest where Point sales are strong,” Martino said, adding that he expects wheat beer sales to keep up their brisk pace this summer, too. Brewed with Wheat and Barley With a rich golden color reminiscent of an early summer tan, Point Nude Beach Summer Wheat is brewed with “au naturel” raw white wheat, malted red wheat and highly kilned specialty barley malts, according to Point Brewmaster John Zappa. “The barley malts are very different from other malts used to brew Point beers and add a slightly sweet maltiness to the flavor,” he said. The Stevens Point Brewery In addition to the seasonal beers Point Oktoberfest, Einbock and St. Benedict’s Winter Ale, the Point brands include Point Special Lager, Point Classic Amber, Point Cascade Pale Ale, Point Belgian White and Point Horizon Wheat. Point Special Lager won the gold medal in the American Premium Lager category at the 2003 Great American Beer Festival.

According to a story in today’s Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, the new seasonal beer “quickly drew attention from the nation’s nudists, said Carolyn Hawkins, spokeswoman for the American Association for Nude Recreation, a group that claims 47,000 members who enjoy sunbathing, swimming and other activities au naturel. The Kissimmee, Fla.-based group bills itself as ‘a trusted source for nudist information on such topics as what to expect at a nudist club, a nudist resort, or even from a skinny dipping experience. Our members have bombarded us with messages’ about Nude Beach, Hawkins said.”

So she got in touch with the brewery and inquired if they would be willing to provide beer for the group’s annual convention, which this year will be held in the nearby “Turtle Lake Resort in Union City, Mich., which is south of Battle Creek, from Aug. 11-17.” Steven Point Brewing agreed to give the AANR twenty-five cases in exchange for some advertisements in the newsletter and convention program. The group’s second choice was New Belgium’s Skinny Dip, but it’s not distributed in Michigan.

The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel piece ends with:

Nude Beach will probably see a spike in sales thanks to the buzz among nudists, Hawkins predicted.

“The nudist organizations all stick together,” she said.

Martino welcomes the fans of his nude, uh, new beer.

“It’s a whole subculture that I didn’t know existed,” said Martino, whose company is probably best known for brewing Point Special Lager.

He had me going up to that point, but here’s how the brewery’s website describes the beer:

Point Nude Beach is the perfect summer pleasure. Available only during the warm months of summer, this lively and unfiltered wheat ale is well balanced using “au naturel” raw and red wheat, then delicately finished with Yakima hops. With a refreshing light flavor, Point Nude Beach is perfect while enjoying summer activities or just hanging out with friends. Clothing optional.

Introduced: 2008
Availability: May 1 - August 1
Suggested Pairings: Chicken, Pork, Summer Salads, SPF 30 and Swim Suit (optional.)

Sounds like their tongue was fully inserted in their cheek from the get-go. If they didn’t know it existed, how did they manage to depict it so well on the label? Anyway, false modestly aside it’s still pretty funny. especially that the nudists so quickly embraced it.

You can get a better look at the label on the six-pack carrier.

Leave it Sierra Nevada Brewing to figure out a way to release their fresh hop beer, Harvest Ale, not once, but three times throughout the year. The regular harvest ale, which they’ve been making since 1996 — and which was released in bottles for the first time last fall — will continue to come out seasonally right after the harvest in Yakima, using Cascade and Centennial hops. But in May they’ll release another Harvest Ale, known as Southern Hemisphere Harvest Ale made with freshly picked hops from New Zealand. Then, at some point during harvest season, they’ll also do a separate bottling of Harvest Ale, using hops grown in the hopyard adjacent to the brewery. This version will be called Chico Estate Harvest Ale and will only be available in very limited quantities, determined by the yield from their own hops.

From the Press Release: Sierra Nevada, the pioneer of fresh hop ales in America, has expanded its Harvest Ale Series with the release of another ground-breaking product introduction, Southern Hemisphere Harvest Ale. This marks the first time in known history that a fresh hop ale has been available in America in the spring since hops are harvested in the fall in the northern hemisphere. The inaugural ale will debut in early May. To make this project happen, Sierra Nevada traveled to New Zealand to harvest fresh hops, and then transported them from the southern hemisphere to Chico where they were immediately used in brewing. Like their award-winning Celebration Ale, the fresh hops in this beer are dried right after being picked then shipped immediately to Chico for brewing, so that they retain their peak aromatics and flavors. Freshly harvested hops are richer in hop oils so they impart more hop aroma and hop spiciness into beer. “We love fresh hop ales, but until now fresh hops were only available here once a year – during the fall hop harvest,” said brewery owner and founder Ken Grossman. “So we journeyed to the southern hemisphere to catch their hop harvest, which occurs during our spring.” The result is the North-by South fusion of fresh-picked New Zealand Pacific hops with the finest North American malts. Southern Hemisphere Harvest will feature fresh Pacific Hallertau, New Zealand Motueka and New Zealand Southern Cross hops, all from New Zealand. The introduction of Southern Hemisphere Harvest gives Sierra Nevada three fresh-hop ales in their Harvest Series. In addition to Southern Hemisphere Harvest, Sierra Nevada produces Chico Estate Harvest in late summer and its original Harvest Ale in early fall.

Chico Estate Harvest is one of the very few estate harvest ales produced anywhere in the world today. All the hops in the beer are grown organically on the premises at the Chico brewery. The brewers pick the hops themselves and then take them directly to the brew kettle, without being dried, just after picking so they retain nearly all of their natural oils and resins. It is made with Cascade, Centennial and Chinook hops. Until now, this beer has only been available in draft. Starting this year, Sierra Nevada will bottle it on a very limited basis (Chico only this year) with plans to expand its availability as they expand their Chico hop field in the coming years. The cornerstone of their Harvest Series is the beer that started the modern-day fresh hop ale phenomenon in America, the original Harvest Ale. Created in 1996, Harvest Ale features Cascade and Centennial hops from the Yakima Valley in Eastern Washington. These hops are harvested and shipped as “wet,” i.e., un-dried hops—the same day they are picked—to their brewery in Chico where the brewers eagerly wait to get them into the brew kettle while their oils and resins are still at their peak. Representing the journey following the hop harvest around the globe, the Harvest Series includes hops sourced from new regions and brewed using new methods in an effort to maximize the oily, resinous qualities of the hops from each harvest as they transported them to the brewery in Chico, California.

 
It will be fun to compare the two that come out around the same time. It’s too bad we won’t really be able to compare all three, but the Southern Hemisphere Harvest Ale will not be fresh at the same time as the other two, but ces’t la vie. That’s the point of fresh hop beers; here today, gone tomorrow.
 

On St. Patrick’s Day I wrote about how many American holidays have been ruined by by overzealous marketing campaigns by the big alcohol companies, suggesting that there were very few not tainted. Well, Easter is one of those that has few beer associations. Less than a couple dozen breweries, most from Europe, make a special beer for Easter.

Given our track record for trying to ban labels for Christmas beers because they might also appeal to kids, it’s hardly surprising that so few of these beers make it to our shores. I’m frankly somewhat surprised this old bottle of Jubelfest from the now defunckt Privatbrauerei Franz Joseph Sailer in Germany I pulled off of my shelf managed to get label approval. Those are cartoons of bunnies on the label for chrissakes, children might pick one of these up and — gasp — look at it.

Goudon Carolus Easter Ale, a Belgian beer that I sampled at the annual Keene Tasting last week in Seattle. This one, so far as I know, has not been imported to the U.S. (at least not with this label), and I suspect if they even tried it would make the average neo-prohibitionist’s head spin. You can at least buy the beer in Ontario, but because of the asinine regulation that “graphics that might be appealing to children” are forbidden, with a censorship sticker covering the bunny in the lower left-hand corner. You can read all about it by Greg Clow from Toronto’s beer, beats & bites post entitled LCBO: Let’s Censor Bunnies, OK? . I guess there’s some consolation in knowing we’re not the only idiots when it comes to these things.

Dan Gordon, of Gordon Biersch Brewing in San Jose, California, has just released their newest seasonal beer, an authentic unfiltered Dunkleweizen.

He stopped by the Celebrator offices the afternoon before we scheduled our most recent blind panel tasting for the April/May issue with beer in hand so we could taste the new beer.

It’s an unfiltered authentic Bavarian-style dunkleweizen, delightfully dark and murky. When first poured, it had that wonderful pillowy head that juts out above the top of the glass with a small dimple in the center. It tasted great and makes the case against too much filtering, because so much more of the flavors come through. It would be terrific with hearty dishes, say German cooking. This will be Gordon Biersch’s spring seasonal and will be the first of a program of four seasonal beers per year. It’s one of the best new beers they’ve made in a long time, though Gordon explains it’s been one of his favorites for a number of years. He used to make a draft-only version from time to time before deciding to package as Gordon Biersch transitions to four seasonals per year. It’s easy to see why he loves it. Having spent a little over a week in Bavaria last fall, I enjoyed this style in a variety of circumstances, and oftentimes dunkleweizens are filtered for bottling. That this delicious beer isn’t makes it one of the more exciting new releases in a while.

The Barley Wine made by Bridgeport Brewing, Old Knucklehead, has long had one of my favorite names for a beer. For whatever reason, I’ve always loved the word knucklehead. As insulting epithets go, it hearkens back to a gentler age when people called each other big galoot, nincompoop or goof ball. To me, they’re the kind of insult you call your friend when he makes a mistake that you want to point out, but without really hurting his feelings. They seem more in the good-natured ribbing category of name-calling. And that’s how I see Old Knucklehead. With each label, a different beery luminary was featured in an illustration. Batch No. 11, for example, had Portland beer writer Fred Eckhardt on the label. The new one, which makes its debut today, has John DeBenedetti on it.
 

 
DeBenedetti owns F.H. Steinbart, a well-known homebrew shop in Portland. Batch 12 was aged in bourbon barrels and then was blended back into a cask. 1,100 cases will be bottled. John Foyston has the full story in today’s Oregonian.
 

Beginning on February 1, 21st Amendment Brewery and Magnolia Pub & Brewery, both in San Francisco, will team up yet again to host their sixth annual Strong Beer Month. Each brewpub will create six different seasonal beers — and if you haven’t figured it out yet, they’ll all be strong — that will be available at the two locations throughout February. Many of these dozen beers have been created especially for this month, and will be available only until they run out. Sample them all, and you’ll receive a commemorative glass.

 
And this year’s poster is hilarious, a near perfect parody of AC/DC’s album cover for Highway to Hell. Compare it to the original below.

Full Sail Brewing in Hood River, Oregon will be re-launching their seasonal LTD series that they debuted in 2007. Though curiously, they’re starting over again with Recipe 01, so perhaps re-booting might be more accurate.

From the press release: Full Sail proudly announces the return of its lager seasonal program — the LTD series. Our first offering is a wonderfully balanced medium, copper colored lager with subtle hop accents, and a caramel aroma, that goes down smooth - perfect for the winter season. Since its release last year LTD has been embraced by both the critics and consumers alike winning a gold medal in the World Beer Championship and becoming one of the fastest growing new beers in the U.S. (I.R.I 12/02/07) “We are excited to be able to branch out and brew some interesting lager beers as they are such a huge part of brewing tradition. It is one of the best parts about being an independent, employee owned company - we get to celebrate our creativity as well as the rich heritage of beer styles,” said Brewmaster Jamie Emmerson. “It is such a pleasure to brew these beers and have them develop such a fervent following — it is why I love my job!” LTD Recipe 01 will be available in six-packs and in draught and will begin shipping from the brewery again in January 2008. The bottle labels describe LTD Recipe 01, as an easy drinking, nonetheless way tasty limited edition lager. Featured on the six-pack is a “Malt-O-Meter” that will tell you at a glance that LTD is a medium body, perfectly balanced malty beer with a lovely hop aroma and caramel notes. For the beer aficionados, or the aspiring ones, the bottom of the six-pack features an easy to read chart of “Today’s Recipe”, including hop (Czech Saaz, Hallertauer) and malt varieties (caramel, chocolate and wheat), Plato (16 degrees), I.B.U. (26), alcohol by volume (6.4) and even secret sauce! Full Sail will follow up with a limited edition bottling of LTD Recipe 02, this spring.

This month’s Session, sponsored by Barley Vine, is Let It Snow: Winter Beers. Of all the seasonal beers, the ones released during winter are my favorites; the ones I look most forward to sampling each and every year. The category of winter beers lacks the tradition of, say for example, oktoberfest beers or springfest beers, both of which owe their existence to the seasons, a lack of technology and brewers having to adapt themselves to the weather. And, of course, even calling them winter beers is a modern conceit to be politically correct and, perhaps more importantly, to try to insure they will continue to sell beyond December 25. Because for the most part, whether we say so or not, most of the “winter beers” are really Christmas beers. And they are, like Christmas itself, largely a modern invention.

For centuries, the most important Christian holiday was Easter, because — as I remember it being explained — the redemption and resurrection it represented was the miracle that made Christianity different from other religions and so it was the centerpiece of an ecumenical year filled with celebrations Sunday after Sunday. Our present calendar system, the Gregorian calendar (named for Pope Gregory) was created precisely to more accurately predict the date when each year’s Easter would be because under the prior system, the Julian calendar (which is still used today by some Christian denominations) had allowed the year to drift by several days because it did not accurately reflect the true length of a year. (For a riveting account of the history of our calendar, read David Ewing Duncan’s Calendar: Humanity’s Struggle to Determine a True and Accurate Year.) The calendar geek in me could go on and on about this but the point is simply that for the majority of Christian history, Easter was the big day. Beginning in the 1840s, things gradually shifted toward Christmas so that now most people would say Christmas is the number one holiday.

The first Christmas beers were most likely brewed in medieval times by monks making a special beer — and stronger — at Christmastime to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. But it would take far longer for commercial breweries to begin making and bottling seasonal beer. And while there were breweries in decades past that made a holiday beer (I have, for example a full bottle of Ballantine Christmas Ale that was brewed in 1946 but not bottled until 1957), it was not the big business it is today. In my experience, here in the U.S. Christmas beers were more the exception than the rule until somewhat recently.

Germany has a rich tradition of Weihnachtsbier, as do several other Scandinavian countries. So does Great Britain with winter warmers and Belgium with beers like Delirium Noel and many others. My friend and colleague Don Russell (a.k.a. Joe Sixpack) is currently working on a book about Christmas beer which will be published next year. I can’t wait for it to come out, it should be a very interesting read. For a time, there were only a few holiday beers, and most of them were quite obviously Christmas beers. Sierra Nevada’s Celebration, Samuel Adams’ Winter Lager and even Noche Buena (from Mexico’s Grupo Model) were all early favorites. Little by little, more breweries began making a holiday beer and by around 1996 practically every brewery made one and a large number bottled it, too. And they all sold pretty well. But oddly enough, the day after Christmas sales would abruptly stop. With the exception of the most popular two or three brands, you could barely give away a Christmas beer once the holiday was over. This made it tricky for retailers trying to balance not running out before Christmas but not wanting any inventory immediately thereafter. When I was a beer buyer, I can’t tell you how many offers at rock bottom bargain prices I would get in the weeks after Christmas by breweries trying to unload their remaining Christmas beer. So what most breweries did was secularize the beers, calling them names like winter ale or holiday beer. Whatever the name, it de-emphasized Christmas in the hope that the fickle consumer would continue to buy them after December 25. And for the most part the strategy worked and eventually led to many breweries having a seasonal beer year-round, whether four different ones quarterly or more often. The reason for this is more business-related than you might assume at first blush. Most grocery stores have very specific beer sets (which is a schematic layout of what beers they carry and where they will be put on the shelves).

Breweries work very hard to get a slot on a grocery store’s beer set. No one wants to put in the effort to get their Christmas beer in the beer set over the holidays only to lose it as soon December ends. So what many did was get a seasonal sku authorized in the set that would be filled with whatever the seasonal beer happened to be. In other words, the same hole would be filled in summer with a summer seasonal beer, etc. throughout the year. One seasonal release would follow the last so that all year long there would be a rotating beer in that same slot on the store shelf. In that way the brewery would not lose it’s spot on the shelf and as a result, today we all have much more diversity on the shelf, a boon for consumers and breweries alike. Nielsen and IRI data confirms that the category “seasonal beer” is one of the fastest growing and best-selling categories of craft beer today. And this all grew out of Christmas beers and trying to figure out how best to sell them.

In modern times, one of the first and to my mind still one of the best is Anchor’s Christmas Beer. Technically, the name of this beer is not Christmas Ale as it is usually called but it’s more proper name is actually Our Special Ale. The first one was brewed in 1975. While there are certainly many other truly great holiday beers, this is always the one I look most forward to each year. It used to be released the Monday before Thanksgiving each year, making it one of the last Christmas beers to come out. A few years ago they bowed to market pressure and it’s now available in early November, usually the first week. I can’t say I don’t like getting it earlier now, but there was something grand about having to wait for it that built up your anticipation and made it somehow more special.

To me, there are two (or three) other factors to this beer that make it so great. First, they change the recipe each year. So not only is there anticipation about its release generally, but also about what it will taste like this year. How much time have I spent sitting around with friends trying to figure out just what spices are in each year’s version? I know there a lot of people, including many beer enthusiasts and the entire nation of Germany, who don’t like spice in their beer. I am not one of those people. I love spicy beers. Not every day, of course, but the more different types of beer loose in the world, the better off we are. The more choices, the better we can experiment and decide what works best when and with what. And there are times when spices in beer work perfectly. I usually pair my Thanksgiving meal with Anchor Christmas, for example, because the spices work so well with turkey’s modest flavors, making both taste better. In addition, the mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce and stuffing all benefit from being lubricated with a spicy beer.

Second, they change the label each year. Each year it’s a new mini-work of art featuring a different tree (which I confess I’ve always had a thing for: trees, that is). They’re beautiful labels and each year they create a new poster featuring all of the labels from 1975 up to the current year. I have one from a couple of years ago framed and hanging in my kitchen. You can see this year’s poster at Anchor’s website and you can even buy one in their gift shop. That also adds to the anticipation, finding out what tree will be featured on each year’s incarnation. They also do a kick-ass neon sign. But there’s one more thing about this beer that I love. It can be aged.

Despite it’s modest strength and most likely due to the spicing, Anchor’s Christmas Ale can be laid down, usually for almost ten years and still be drinkable. For a time during the late 1990s, when the beer was more heavily spiced, it actually seemed to taste better after being aged for at least a year and I would lay down quite a bit of it to take advantage of that phenomenon. I still have several Magnums from year’s past in one of my beer refrigerators, as well as at least a case of 12-ounce bottles from various years stretching back to the early 1990s. There’s nothing more enjoyable than doing a vertical tasting of Anchor Christmas beers. I’ve done a few myself, at least one at the Celebrator and twice at Anchor Brewing with older beers from their private cellar. It’s great fun to compare both the different year’s recipes and also what the aging process has done to the beer.

Last night was Anchor’s annual Christmas party and it was my first chance to have this year’s Christmas Ale on draft, though I’d had bottles several times. To my mind, this year’s tastes quite similar to last year but I haven’t yet had a chance to do a side-by-side comparison. The spicing is mild, as has been typical in recent years. As a result, it has a wider appeal — though for myself I miss the heavily spiced days — and is still a wonderful beer. I won’t even try to speculate on what spices are there, that’s a better thing to do with friends over a shared pint or bottle.

One last thing about winter ales that is somewhat different from most traditional seasonal beers. Unlike springbocks or marzens, which are distinct styles, holiday beers can be any style that the brewer chooses. This has led to much more diversity in Christmas beers than in any other kind of seasonal. Even summer ales, which have no style attached to them, still tend to be lighter so they’re more appropriate during that season’s warmer weather. This makes tasting all of the holiday beers the most enjoyable one each year, because you never know what you’re going to get. It’s fun seeing what a brewery decided to brew when left to do whatever they fancied. Since brewers under such circumstances tend to make what they like, you can learn different brewers’ personal tastes, which can be useful in evaluating their other efforts. Plus, it’s just plain fun, the best time of the year to try different beers is without question the winter when strong, full-flavored beers of striking diversity are king. It’s the most wonderful season of all.

Holding a cup of Christmas Ale by the Anchor “tree” at their annual Christmas party last night.

The 19th annual holiday beer tasting at Pacific Coast Brewing in Oakland is this Saturday from Noon to 4:00 p.m. Sad to say, I’ve never managed to make it to this one but everybody tells me it’s a great event.
 

12.8

Pacific Coast Brewing’s Taste of Holiday Beers (19th annual)

Pacific Coast Brewing, 906 Washington Street, Oakland, California
510.836.2739 [ website ]

Downtown Bar & Grill, located in the Cobble Hill neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York at 160 Court Street, will be hosting a pretty spectacular tasting of Dogfish Head beers on the 27th of November, including the debut releases for 2007 of World Wide Stout, Pangaea, and Golden Era, along with seven other Dogfish Head beers on draft. The festivities will begin at 6:00 p.m.
 

Almost a dozen years ago, Sierra Nevada head brewer Steve Dresler was having lunch with renowned hop expert Gerard Lemmens. He had just returned from England, where he’d been helping a brewer there figure out how to use whole, unkilned hops. Gerard asked Dresler if he’d ever considered using fresh hops.

He hadn’t, of course, but the idea marinated and a few days later he mentioned it to Ken Grossman who told him to “go for it.” The first year, Dresler made only one 100-barrel batch. In the intervening years, as demand for the beer has risen quickly, many obstacles have been overcome, such as how to ship that many hops or how to convert a recipe from regular hops (which are 8-10% water) to fresh hops (which can be as much as 80% water). Also that first year, an entire UPS truck was filled with small boxes of fresh hops bundled together with holes poked into them. Today, they’re overnighted in mesh onion sacks laid out flat in a single layer of a 18-wheel refrigerator truck. Each year, both Cascade (@2/3) and Centennial (@1/3) hops are used, but because they’re different from year to year — and because the exact quantities of each differ — the beer has to be reformulated on the fly. When it’s brewed is always a moving target because it’s contingent on when the hops are ready to be picked. Often it’s around Labor Day weekend, but you never know. Over the last eleven years, the most Harvest Ale they’ve made in a single year has been around 800-900 barrels available on draft only. This year, however, Sierra Nevada is taking a giant leap and is planning to brew 3,000 barrels, using 16,000 pounds of fresh hops in two batches. And more exciting still, two-thirds of it will be available nationwide in 24-oz. bottles. I suspect it will sell out fast, not least of which because even though they’re making triple the usual amount, it will be sent all over the country meaning only small amounts which reach most markets. I’ve learned that the final brew was done last Thursday, September 6, and they hope to have it in the bottles as early as September 24. Keep an eye out for it, and buy it right away. But more importantly, drink it right away, too. This is the very antithesis of a beer meant to be aged. Make up your own special event to drink it. Get some fresh, locally made food and cook up a great meal. Invite your favorite people over to share it with you. This is the best way to celebrate harvest time, with the fruits of the harvest, both food and drink.

Great Divide Brewing has been making some terrific beers for years and years, and with the recent addition of brewer Brit Antrim, I only expect them to get even better. They’ve just released a pair of new seasonal beers, Hades and Samurai that are in a slightly different direction for the brewery.

From the press release:

Hades is a Belgian-style strong golden ale (7.3% ABV) brewed with a proprietary Belgian yeast strain originally from Belgium’s Moortgat brewery. The yeast gives the beer a distinctive spicy flavor and aroma. A noticeable hop level and a medium malt character make the beer an assertive, yet extremely well-balanced and crisp ale.

Great Divide founder Brian Dunn decided that a Belgian-style strong golden would be the brewery’s next beer and set the general parameters, while Brit Antrim, brewery operations manager, developed the recipe for the beer.

“I wanted a Belgian-style beer with lots of character and flavor,” Dunn says, “but with slightly lower alcohol for drinkability reasons. You can drink a couple glasses of Hades and not end up with a helluva buzz.”

Dunn says the beer pairs up well with steamed mussels, crusty breads and virtually any artisan-style cheese. He says the beer’s spicy charm makes it a fine summer time refresher.

Hades is only the second Belgian-style beer brewed by Great Divide. The company made a Belgian-style wit back in 1999. Hades is available in all Great Divide markets in 22-ounce bottles, and on draft in limited supply.

Brewed with rice and barley malts, Samurai is an easy drinking and unique version of unfiltered ale. The addition of rice gives Samurai (5.2% ABV) a crisp, refreshing and clean taste that pairs well with fish, Asian food, and lighter styles of cheeses.

Dunn points out that Samurai is not an Asian-style beer despite its name and rice component. “Asian beers are typically tightly filtered lagers brewed with rice and barley,” Dunn says. “Samurai is very different, it’s fermented with an ale yeast and it’s unfiltered. The ale yeast gives Samurai a slightly fruity flavor and aroma.”

“I felt,” Dunn says, “that we needed an accessible, super-quaffable beer for the summer, but one that wasn’t brewed with wheat. The rice makes Samurai crisp and clean, and gives it a unique twist for a craft-brewed summer beer.”

Now available in six packs and on draft, Samurai has been a draft-only beer in the Denver market for the past 2 years. Growing interest and demand for the beer in the Denver area prompted Great Divide to release the beer as a bottled summer seasonal.

Dunn is proud to acknowledge that his company’s two new beers may come as a surprise to Great Divide fans. “We’ve become known for Yeti-sized, hoppy, assertive beers,” Dunn says. “But these beers allow us to flex a different set of our brewing muscles, and mix things up a bit for our fans.”

I’ll be in Denver at the end of the month, so hopefully I’ll get a chance to give both of these a try while I’m there.