{"id":797354,"date":"2019-07-04T18:08:00","date_gmt":"2019-07-05T00:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/news\/welcome-to-summit-suds-summit-dailys-newest-column-to-spotlight-the-communitys-craft-beer\/"},"modified":"2019-07-04T18:08:00","modified_gmt":"2019-07-05T00:08:00","slug":"welcome-to-summit-suds-summit-dailys-newest-column-to-spotlight-the-communitys-craft-beer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/local-news\/welcome-to-summit-suds-summit-dailys-newest-column-to-spotlight-the-communitys-craft-beer\/","title":{"rendered":"Welcome to Summit Suds: Summit Daily\u2019s newest column to spotlight the community\u2019s craft beer"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Bruin, not puite the legal drinking age, begs for a beer at the Outer Range Brewery in Frisco.<\/strong>
Hugh Carey \/ Summit Daily News<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

This may come as a shock for some, but I didn\u2019t always enjoy beer. Whenever I had a drink during my European vacations I preferred simple cocktails like rum and Coke, whiskey sours and dark \u2018n\u2019 stormys. The mass-market beers available didn\u2019t appeal to me.<\/p>\n

Jon, my brother four years older than me, came of age during the dominance of bitter, grassy India pale ales, which I wasn\u2019t a fan of either when he\u2019d let me take a small swig from a can or bottle.<\/p>\n

Then, everything changed when I had a brief study abroad stint in Germany and Belgium.<\/p>\n

I first enjoyed a deceptively strong golden Duvel and watched the cobblestones of Ghent sway beneath my feet. The next night out I became enthralled with the banana esters of Kwak and its unique, albeit gimmicky, glass that requires a stand to keep its rounded bottom upright.<\/p>\n

With the beer cheaper than water, on a hot afternoon my friends and I ducked into a mom and pop cafe after a hike in the German mountains and I treated myself to schnitzel and a half-liter of Bitburger. When in Rome.<\/p>\n

I landed back in the states on my 21st birthday and as I student at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, there was no shortage of quality drinks in Colorado\u2019s Napa Valley of Beer. I was a convert who was lucky enough to be in the holy land without needing a pilgrimage.<\/p>\n

My first local love was Odell Brewing Co. I will never say no to a 90 Shilling Ale, I look forward to enjoying the fruity characteristics of Myrcenary Double IPA on a patio and Lugene Chocolate Milk Stout<\/a> will always have a special place in my heart.<\/p>\n

Just down the road, Funkwerks introduced me to the wonderful world of saisons, a Belgian beer style brewed for farm hands to drink in the summer. Though I will always try whatever French farmhouse ale I can find, it just isn\u2019t the same as Funkwerks\u2019 flagship. Horse & Dragon Brewing Company opened up during my last semester and I still think about a beer they made with juniper berries and cedar, along with their stellar Sad Panda Coffee Stout.<\/p>\n

As the only person over 21 at the student newspaper\u2019s arts and entertainment desk aside from my editor, I got \u201cstuck\u201d reviewing beer. Each week I\u2019d get a new flight of whatever struck my fancy from the Mayor of Old Town, a bar with 100 beers on tap that displayed their menu across four projector screens.<\/p>\n

The choice of craft beer narrowed when I moved back down south to Alamosa. However, the quality was still there. I had the amazing opportunity to report on Square Peg Brewerks<\/a> taking home a gold medal at the Great American Beer Festival \u2014 the first in the entire San Luis Valley \u2014 for their historical Dutch-style kuyt. Months later I told the story of how Colorado Malting Company opened up The Colorado Farm Brewery<\/a>, making them a unique destination that controls the whole process of growing ingredients, malting and brewing their beer.<\/p>\n

Now I live in Summit and we\u2019re fortunate to have two breweries per town. My family and I have been patronizing Dillon Dam Brewery since we moved to Colorado over a decade ago. I\u2019m a mug club member at Angry James Brewery, I\u2019ve been going to HighSide Brewing practically since they opened mere weeks before I moved here and \u2014 as an obvious admirer of Belgian beers and sweeter New England IPAs \u2014 I was a fan of Outer Range before they started canning their goods.<\/p>\n

Which brings me to Summit Suds. This column will highlight the county\u2019s craft beer bounty. It\u2019ll be a place for local beer reviews, previews of nearby drinking festivals, explainers on fundamentals of fermentation, and whatever else pops into my head as I pour a cold one.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t claim to be an expert, just a passionate connoisseur. I\u2019ve never worked in a bar or brewery. I\u2019ve only homebrewed two one-gallon batches of beer that were both barely passable. I don\u2019t have Cicerone certification, which is essentially the beer world\u2019s answer to sommeliers. But, as a journalist who views himself as a professional student always asking questions, I may be persuaded to take the test one day. At the moment, though, I\u2019m simply doing this for the love of the craft.<\/p>\n

I hope you enjoy reading this column as much as I do writing it. If you happen to see me at a local establishment, feel free to introduce yourself and let\u2019s chat about this industry over a pint or two. Cheers.<\/p>\n

Jefferson Geiger is the arts & entertainment editor for the Summit Daily News and managing editor for the Everything Summit publication. Have a question about beer? Send him an email at jgeiger@summitdaily.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bruin, not puite the legal drinking age, begs for a beer at the Outer Range Brewery in Frisco.Hugh Carey \/ Summit Daily News This may come as a shock for some, but I didn\u2019t always enjoy beer. Whenever I had a drink during my European vacations I preferred simple cocktails like rum and Coke, whiskey […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-797354","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-17 14:36:12","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=797354"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797354\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=797354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=797354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=797354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}