[beer]
Pagosa Brewing Co. excels at both innovative and traditional beer styles Many of the beers have won state, national, or international awards
Nick Gonzales/DGO
»» Clockwise from left: the Chile Verde Cerveza, Peachy Peach Wheat, Rodeo Rider Red Ale, and Powder Day IPA at Pagosa Brewing Co. (or four very liquidy, alcoholic muffins).
Pagosa Brewing Co. stands out as a place to find both beers with wild flavors and very good examples of traditional brews. As an example of the former, its Salty Caramel Stout — it tastes exactly like what it sounds like — occupies a space in my mind as a perfect dessert beer. When we dropped by this time, as Pagosa began to reopen its restaurants and breweries for dine-in service, the brewery had conveniently organized all of their beers into four flights of four beers (with three extra unclassified ones). I chose Flight Two, featuring the Peachy Peach Wheat, Rodeo Rider Red Ale, Powder Day IPA, and Chili Verde Cerveza. I didn’t find out until I looked them up online after the fact, but they’ve all won awards at various beer contests. Then again, so have many of Pagosa Brewing’s Beers. Brewmaster Tony Simmons is a professional beer judge and seems to
know what he’s doing.
Nick Gonzales/DGO
»» Pagosa Brewing’s pub pretzels come with beer fondue cheese and beer mustard.
citrus without being fruity beyond what the hops added.
The fondue cheese was cheesy, obviously, but you could also really taste The Peachy Peach is true to its name, The Chili Verde Cerveza, much like packing a lot of fruity peach flavor into the beer in it. I’m a fan. This is less true the Peachy Peach, is all about the fruit — of the beer mustard, which has more each sip (while still being recognizable after all, green chile is technically a fruit, of a yellow mustard taste than a brown as, well...a beer). It surprised me by not isn’t it? At least locally, this style of beer being particularly sour at all, as many mustard taste – it’d taste better on a hot invites a comparison to Steamworks beers on the fruitier side of the specdog than a bratwurst, I idly speculated as Brewing Co.’s Prescribed Burn. While trum are. It is on the sweet side, but not overwhelmingly so, and if you close your both beers taste of green chile, Pagosa’s I masticated my pretzels. (Here’s a cheat brew better captures the taste of the code I discovered: Take a sip of the Chile eyes, you can pretend the feeling of the carbonation in your mouth is peach fuzz. plant when you ignore the spiciness. Verde Cerveza and then immediately eat (Don’t worry; it still burns going down, I’m typically reluctant to recommend a cheese-laden bite of the pretzel. The fruit beers to puritans who demand their just not as much as Steamworks’ chile result is an explosion of chile con queso beer.) Have you ever had green chile beer taste like nothing but beer, but I jelly? It has that sort of green chile flavor. in your mouth.) think even they might get a kick out of The brewery was practicing social this. There’s not much I can say about the distancing rules and advertises the Rodeo Rider Red. It’s a perfectly malty, I’m typically not the world’s biggest easy-to-drink version of an Irish red ale. ability to reserve seats, but it’s worth fan of IPAs, but even I can tell when It finishes very dry. I love red ales, and they’re pulled off perfectly — which is noting that even with the extra spacing this one is great — it’s just hard to stand what the brewery accomplished with inside and out, they’ve got a ton of room out among so many other winners. the Powder Day IPA. The brew has an available, and if you sit outside you can interesting hoppiness that unfolds across Finally, alongside the beers, I got the get a great view of the mountains. the tongue in the aftertaste. It had brewery’s pub pretzels, which come with —— Nick Gonzales fresh-tasting notes of pine and especially beer fondue cheese and beer mustard. Thursday, June 18, 2020 | 7
