One thing Provo will probably never have is a brewery.  The subtle nuances of freshly made beer escape many the keystone drenched yokel local.

First, Here’s What I Like From Utah

Utah isn’t completely bereft of delicious microbrew, my favorite would be Wasatch brewery in Park City.  Their Apricot Hefe was probably the first taste of Utah I had, and their Evolution ale is a classic amber ale.  The Polygamy Porter is award winning although I’ve been turned off to porters as of late.

Squatters is also a must for any judge of decent beer, with their Full Suspension Pale Ale which carries more of a spicy piney finish than I’ve tasted in pretty much any pale ale.  Before my recent Colorado beer run, I religiously drank Squatters’ Hop Rising beer, a Double IPA (India Pale Ale).  Double India Pale Ales typically have 50% more malt and twice as many hops as its already heavy IPA brother, giving it a richer and hoppier taste and a higher alcohol volume.  Hop Rising is around 9% and so is only bottled and sold in Utah liquor stores, never off the tap.  Pitty.

Uinta’s Cutthroat Pale Ale is another staple session beer and is very similar to Squatters’ Organic Amber Ale to me.  As you can tell I like Pale Ales and IPAs, I just love hops.  If you’re like me and you’re stuck in Utah, you’ll love the ambers, pales and IPAs I’ve mentioned here.  I don’t usually like what’s popular, but in this case Pale Ales are quickly becoming the Western Palette and preferred microbrew.  At least, as far as I’ve heard, it’s the fastest growing type of beer.

Can’t Find This Beer In Utah

Now that you know what I like, here’s what I like in Colorado.  Colorado has roughly three times the amount of breweries than Utah.  Their culture and history gave more room to beer.  One thing going for both Colorado and Utah is the delicious natural water resources they have at their disposal.  I really love the water here, and pretty much everything else the people don’t add to.

You must realize that to enjoy Colorado beer in Utah means grabbing a bunch in Colorado and bringing it with haste to my refridgerator.  The reason why you won’t find any of this beer in Utah is because of strange liquor practices here.  The state controls all liquor trade in Utah that exceeds 3.2%.  This means every craft beer from inside or outside the state can only be purchased in a State Liquor Store.  Utah run liquor doesn’t use refrigeration.  Hops go bad if they are not refrigerated and New Belgium beer requires it.

Whenever I go out to Fort Collins I do two things.  I go on the free tour of New Belgium brewery, perhaps the greatest brewery in our fine Country.  Here are some fun facts about New Belgium:

• New Belgium Brewery is completely employee owned.  Every employee owns a stake in the company.
• New Belgium is partially run off the energy produced when yeast magically converts the sugary malt to alcohol.  As much as 15% of their operational energy is derived from this chemical reaction.
• Every employee is responsible for maintaining the New Belgium taste/brand.  This includes the warehouse workers who are required to taste the beer throughout the day and guarantee that there are no off-tastes.

To enjoy all of these great fresh tastes takes dedication.  That means dedicating most of my fridge to beer.  This makes the second thing I do whenever I visit Ft. Collins– I stock up on beer.  I usually buy it the last day before I leave; you can buy the beer directly from the brewery for the freshest beer around.  We’re talking week old beer.  If you are leaving Ft. Collins on a Sunday, I’d recommend Wilbur’s Total Beverage- a pretty impressive beverage emporium.  I drive the beer over in 8 hours and get it straight into my fridge.  This is at least 6 months worth of beer for me.  The first several months are bliss.  This run I got mainly New Belgium and ODell beer.

New Belgium’s Fat Tire

Best to start your tasting with a Fat Tire.  This is probably Colorado’s most famous microbrew.  It is a delicious amber ale by New Belgium.  New Belgium specializes in, well, Belgium style beers, which means they tend to have interesting and subtle herbs and flowery tastes enveloped in their fresh and hoppy blends.  This is opposed to the rigid German tradition.  Anything that strays from the most bare beer ingredients ceases to be beer to a german.

Fat Tire’s name comes from Jeff Lebesch’s bike trip through Belgium before opening the New Belgium brewery in 1991.  The Belgium people made fun of his mountain bike because they hadn’t seen such “fat tires” ever before.  The Fat Tire is probably one of New Belgium’s more middlin’ beers and suitable for session drinking (but not my stash… having just a case around makes me cherish every last one).  To me it reads slightly brown ale with a sweet malty finish that claims to perfectly balance the hoppiness but for me has an ever so slight edge over the bitter; finishing sweet.  I consider myself lucky and in heaven whenever I’m in Vegas and find myself in a place classy enough to serve it.

Fat Tire is a Colorado favorite but not mine.  Although I love the beer, brownish amber ales are second only to pale ales in my preferred spectrum.  I’m not a super refined taste, I’ll have to admit I love the brash snap of bitter hops, even to the point of over powering other tastes.  The Fat Tire still has a special place in my heart and is great with a wide variety of foods.  I love it with Sushi.

Stay tuned for still the best of my Colorado bootleg trip bounty coming up…