Speaker 1: This is Beer in Front, part of the Odd Pods
Media Network and the Beer Media Group. Sometimes the Beer
in front of you is the best one yet. I'll
talk to people around the beer world and get their
stories all about beer. That's Beer in Front and it's
coming up now. Welcome to episode two hundred and twenty
eight to Beer in Front. I'm your host, Dave's Alataurus
and Beer in Front is a proud odd Pods Media
Network member and charter member of the Beer Media Group.
Today's show I'm having on Abby George. She's the co
owner of Barrels and Bottles. They're located in Golden Colorado,
and on Wednesday, October ninth, they're hosting the Chris be
King Lagger Competition. This is really cool. Abby's a fun person.
That was a good chat, so stay tuned for that.
I had a show out a couple days ago with
shlanda White Afro beer chick. So there were two shows
this week, so if you missed the one that came
out on Monday, you could check that one out. That
was a fun time as well. Starting next week, all
the shows they're not going to be out on Mondays anymore.
I'm gonna put them out late Wednesday night early Thursday morning,
per your commute, So look for that upcoming. I'm gonna
have a new weekly release date to coincide with my
days off at work, so there'd be a slight change
when the show comes out, but it's still gonna come
out every week, so stay tuned. Abby George is coming
up next. You've probably heard for years that this is
going to be the Year of the logger. Well, a
stop clock is right twice a day. Twenty twenty four
has seen so many great loggers available all across the country.
For those listening in the Denver area or attending the
Great American Beer Festival this year, the Krispy King Lagger
Competition will be held on Wednesday, October ninth at Barrels
in Bottles Brewery and Golden Colorado. Abby George is the
co owner of Barrels and Bottles and is joining me
now to talk Chrispy King. Abby, thank you so much
for coming on.
Speaker 2: Of course, thanks for having me, Dave. We're excited for
the event and to talk about it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I love the idea about this. How
did the Krispy King Lagger Competition? How did this come about?
Speaker 2: You? Know, we have to give credit to our brewer,
Chris Monda. He actually came up with the idea a
few years ago. He's going on three years brewing with us,
and he likes to drink you know, Chris Laggers, and
he wanted to kind of you know, he loves Alfa
King of as well, the big Happy coppetition, and he
likes to sit around drink bloggers with his friends. So
we kind of put these two things together and kind
of came up with like brought it to our.
Speaker 3: Attention saying, hey, can we do something with my friends.
Speaker 2: I got the beer enthusiasts and brewers and so yeah,
so let's go ahead and do that. That was the
first one, and then the second one second year kind.
Speaker 3: Of grew a little bit more.
Speaker 2: And then last year when we were finishing the second one,
we're like, you know what, we got to make this
bigger because it has the potential to grow. So so
then all together between the three of us, between Chris,
our brewer, and my husband Zach and myself, we just
you know, we're like this this has the potential to
go somewhere.
Speaker 3: So that's kind of where it came from.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's like the perfect time because everyone's in
the Denver area to begin with that week for the GABF.
Speaker 2: Yep exactly, and being able to sit around and drink
Chris Lightloggers and with the fall in the air, it's
perfect timing.
Speaker 1: So you mentioned this is the third year. Now looking
at the website, you're going to have thirty five Esteam
breweries from coast to coasts that are participating this year.
Did you ever think it's going to grow to what
it is now? You know?
Speaker 2: We I guess we had hoped, but we never knew
it was going to get this big. We have quite
the waiting list too. People keep hearing about it and
wanting to get into it. But we are privileged enough
to have, you know, just a widely known brewery called
Beer Stop lagger House, and Ashley Carter the owner and brewer.
She her and I are really good friends, so I
know great lagger and so it's only made sense to
you know, celebrate something that you know that is like
the format of Alpha King, but with Laggers.
Speaker 1: Well, one of the breweries that's participating is Fair State
Brewing Cooperative out of Minnesota. I had their pills here
that I'm going to pour Unfortunately, that's like the only
brewery of the ones participating in Krispy King that I'm
able to get here in Chicago. So I'm a so
I need to crack this one open because I had
not had their pills there yet. So while I'm cracking
open the pills from Fair State, what else can people
expect when they come out for the competition?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, first of all, I'm jealous because I
don't think I've ever had that beer either, So I'm
excited to have some of their beer when they're here.
But some of the things they can expect is this
competition is a little bit different as we're judging it
on the sixth, so a few days ahead of the
kind of the actual event. Everything will be judged, and
a little bit different than Alpha King is all the
beers that were judged will be on for them to taste.
So we're selling like fourteen ounce glass glasses or pints,
not pints, but if you will, pours for everyone to try,
and so you can just try different things. And then
as as kind of fun with different events, as we
have food specials, we have a really cool cigar lounge.
This guy comes with this really awesome trailer and you
know he hits buttons and this this little luxury ciicard
trailer comes down and you can buy different cigars and
enjoy it while you sip on a nice logger. We
have a local lady who makes trucker hats and it's
called Tattered and Torn. She makes really cool any kind
of designs you want, so she presses them right. There
be really cool free arcade bus, live music, Logger Donuts,
so there's a lot of things for people to do
besides slipping on some esteemed great laggers. So it's gonna
be a fun time for all.
Speaker 1: We hope you've had me sold at Logger Donuts and
make your own trucker hat and then their cigar sign
me up. I am actually off that day, but before,
like I heard about this, I worked. I'm working for
somebody that day. I'm like, I work for an airline.
I mean, I know it's a hard ticket to get
to Denver that week is all the flights are full
and I have to fly stand by. But next year
I'm gonna pack that in mind for Logger Donuts and
trucker hats.
Speaker 3: Yeah right.
Speaker 2: You have the another brewer you probably heard of, Cannonball
Creek obviously here in Golden that we're also great friends
with their bar room manager. Her name is Nikki and
she has she makes donuts.
Speaker 3: So again, three years ago we were talking.
Speaker 2: To her and we said, hey, that would be really
cool if you could make kind of a lagger like
a donut with Logger beer.
Speaker 3: She's like, that's a great idea. So her her little
business called Needful Rings.
Speaker 2: Uh yeah, it's it's been taking off and and this
is the third year she's been with us also to
make donuts. And this year, all the brewers that are
participating in they get a little gift bag and each
will have a Logger donut and she's going to be
selling them there too. So it's just just a fun
little spin, especially with the name Krispy King Hid of
Krispy Kreme.
Speaker 3: It's still that little play on on on all the words.
Speaker 1: Now the donuts, are they sweeter? How does the donuts taste?
You know? Only?
Speaker 2: I think only if you have a really refined palate
can you really pick up on on the Logger u
She puts different toppings on it, like you know, she
has you know, depending on which how she's feeling that day.
But definitely light in color. In the past, she's used
one of our loggers. I just told her to grab
one from Cannonball, so she's that does kind of have
a little bit of that, a little bit of that
multi little bit of hot taste to it. But it's
actually I think it's a great balance of flavors.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I'm going to have to try those. Well.
This one from Fair State, this is phenomenal. This is
just an absolute crisp, clean lagger. This is only four
point nine percent alcohol. All the beers there at the competition,
they're all pretty low in the ABV compared to other
beer festivals, right correct.
Speaker 2: And that's one thing that's really attracted tech, I mean
text a lot of different people. Is last year, I
think the average ABV we had was four point nine
percent out of out of the twenty breweries we had.
Then it's a little bit higher this year on average,
I think we're about five four at the moment. The
brewers still had the chance to change their beer if
they have to, all the way up until they bring
it to us by next Wednesday, so we feel it'll
stay around there. Is that is that the Italian pills
from Fair State or just their pills.
Speaker 1: No, this is the regular pills. Had I known they
had an Italian I would have picked it up. But
I think I might have hit one more from them,
like a year or so ago. But this is the
only one that I could find here in the Chicago
land area. But this is excellent.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's what they're scheduled to submit as their Italian Pillser. Oh,
then I'm looking at their list here it says it's
a four.
Speaker 3: Point two and it's called Tomorrow. Is today the name
of their beer. So we'll see how that goes.
Speaker 1: Yeah, hopefully they could send that down the Expressway down
here to Chicago. I like to try that one. But
that's really cool. With everything being such, you know, so
lower in alcohol, a lot of beer festivals like you
need an uber because you're staggering out of there. Everything
that's at a reasonable ABV. You could have a couple
and have a couple of different samples and you're not
going to be you know, is that wrong?
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2: And another great thing we're providing is we do have
two smaller buses. They are going to be running from
the Denver Convention.
Speaker 3: Center to our location for from three to seven.
Speaker 2: So hopefully some people will take advantage of that as well,
especially if they've been buyed a little bit too much.
They can always get back to Denver if they need
to by the buses we're providing.
Speaker 1: Oh cool. I'll have to tell my friend because I
have a friend that comes on every year because he
lives in the Denver area and goes to the GABF
so he's a fellow podcaster. So I told him about this,
you know, last week, and he's going to try to
make it out, but I'll let him know that there's
buses there too.
Speaker 3: Yep, awesome, he would be great.
Speaker 2: We're hoping people take advantage of it.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Now the brewery itself barrels and bottles. You guys
opened up in twenty thirteen. What made you decide let's
open up a brewery?
Speaker 3: You know, that's funny.
Speaker 2: Definitely alcohol was involved in that decision making. But my
husband and I were living overseas where we had met
and he was in the Marines. I used to work
with the military, and we did a backpacking trip through
Europe and we were in Amsterdam and you know, first
part of our trip and we're like, we should own
a bar.
Speaker 3: You know, we're sitting at a bar, you're just drinking,
just enjoying.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that's where that's where it came from initially,
and then it just kept growing the different you know,
oh let's try this, let's do this, and so we
knew we wanted to have beer, wine, food and friends,
so we kind of had That's where we opened a
grouphub for that reason. So our original location opened in
downtown Golden across the street from course, you could throw
a can, you would land on their property. But it
was great having you know, that location was just great
to have. And then of opportunity came available for us
to buy a building in late I guess it was
late twenty eighteen and we were supposed to open March
twenty twenty and that location, so you know, so that
kind of put a little damper on things. But we
earlier this year we finally closed our original location because
we we rented that and we all own the other
building and it's next to our home, so we have
many things that that you know, made it great for
us to close the other location and just have the one.
It's much larger and obviously we own compared to rent.
But you know, we just really enjoyed different beers and
wanted to to have a brewery, so it kind of
just just developed into that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you're not just a logger brewery if that's
what people are getting from this. Looking on your website,
you have a wide variety of styles for all palettes
and a food menu. I just got home from work.
I haven't eaten yet. I'm hungry looking at the food menu,
so everything there looks great. Do you have a beer
that's like a flagship or one that you know keeps
the lights on?
Speaker 3: We do?
Speaker 4: We do?
Speaker 3: We have?
Speaker 2: You know, I was talking with our brewer and my
husband earlier today about that. Obviously, being in business for
eleven years, we've had a lot of different beers, but
the one that's really carried on the longest is an
orange Creamsickle.
Speaker 3: It's a blonde aale.
Speaker 2: But since Chris has been with us our brewer, we've
really developed some more stable flagships to include. We have
one that we submitted last year. It's called our Nippolis Cage.
It's an American pilsner that's a fun one. And our
Camp George West Hellas that that we are submitting into
the competition who called the hop is a hazy and
then we have another one. It's called the Human Fund.
It's an I P a kind of a West Coast style.
Speaker 3: So those are those are.
Speaker 2: Those fastly became our our flagships in the last three years,
and that we brew the most and people really look
forward to.
Speaker 1: I mean, I was just going to mention the beer
names because I saw a Human Fund and you have
a dimebag beer. So whoever is in charge of the
beer names needs a raise, right.
Speaker 2: Well, you know what, It's funny. We actually started a
dry erase board for our staff. Sometimes people just will
come up with something and it gets on the board.
A lot of things get canceled out too, on the
names because sometimes you're like, that's not gonna fly. We
sometimes it just comes out to be you know, we
just sometimes we're at someone else's place drink and having
a good time and somebody said something and I just
recorded on my phone and we keep ideas that way.
So I don't know how it happens. We just come
together and think of things. It's hard to name beers though, Yeah.
Speaker 1: Espeter, something that hasn't been used before. You know, everybody's
looking on tap to look at all, right, what's been
used before or whatever, you know, especially if something's trendy.
I know, like the day after it happened, there was
like one hundred hawk Tool of beers. I'm like, you
people are clowns.
Speaker 2: Who's coming up with Yeah, yeah, that's so true. We
had a bunch of references for when Prince died and
then also David Bowie. We had a couple back then
that were fun, but I would say they only really
last for like a one off and then and that's
about it. But yeah, we try to stay away from
those those trendy, trendy things. Yeah, try to have fun
fund names.
Speaker 1: Now, what else can people expect at the brewery because
looking at the pictures on the website, it looks like
a really cool neighborhood type of place that hands great
beer and food.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean the thing about our neighborhood brewer, which
is exactly how is our model.
Speaker 3: It is fun.
Speaker 2: We have a small staff, we have great neighbors, and
we really attracted people that want to find the great beer. Also,
what's wonderful about our neighborhood is there's also a nice
towny bar across the street that also serves a great
purpose and we have a great relationship with them, so
a lot of parking they allow us to do parking
over there. But at this event, it's just going to
be a great time for live music for friends. I mean,
we get to see a bunch of our friends we
only get to see once or twice a year and
just have a have a great time with it. We're
hoping so last year bag Be Beer one first place
in this and obviously you know they're not in business anymore,
but Jeff is coming in and so he should be
here for the event to put the cape on one
more time, because when when you win, you get to
wear a big red cape and you give you a crown,
and we have a stem from a broken you know,
keg that we paint gold and it's like a staff
that get to carry around and they get a medal.
So we're hoping if he's here, he gets to put
on the cape and walk around, you know, one time
before we announced the winner. So it's just a lot
of fun, smack talking and just paraderie around around the
whole industry.
Speaker 1: Back to the festival. Who are the judges for Chris B.
Kreme in Do You judge this like a typical fest
or do you use like a different criteria for laggers.
Speaker 2: So the judges the past three years has been Ashley
and Bill from Beerstatt, So they don't enter competitions. That's
just kind of their motto with things, and of course
reaching out to you know, two of the most louder
professionals that I that I know. So Ashley, like I said,
she's been great. She's also really instrumental in us getting
some of these other breweries here because she was helpful,
help will help us put in touch with these people.
Speaker 3: So so we have Ashley Carter and Bill I that are.
Speaker 2: Judges, and then also another gentleman named Jamie Williams who
is a BCJ b c JP certified judge. He's a
previous brewery owner, worked for a yeast company for a
lot of years. So three three well known industry judges,
so we're excited for that as well.
Speaker 3: This year.
Speaker 1: You have some really good sponsors on board for this year.
Who's helping to make the Krispy King Lager Competition the
success that it is.
Speaker 2: You know, it really comes down to the breweries because
they want to do it. That's that's the number one
success of this of this whole event. And I know
we mentioned Beersout a few times, but they really have
been instrumental in helping us. You know, they not only
volunteer their time to judge, you know, just talking with Ashley,
like I said earlier, she was really able to put
us in touch and make it much bigger this year.
Speaker 3: So I really want to thank them. And like you said, the.
Speaker 2: Top three sponsors are huge, and what we did was
rereached out to different suppliers that we personally use and
that are also kind of nationwide. So we reached out
to those three and then Grandstand is providing some of
the glassware.
Speaker 3: For the event.
Speaker 2: And then on Tap credit Union, which is credit union
here in Golden that used to be Cores credit Union,
now it's on Tap and they do a lot of
business with a lot of breweries.
Speaker 3: Across the whole country. So those are our top five sponsors.
Speaker 2: But honestly, it really is the people because they want
to come out and drink the beer and make us
want to do this event bigger and bigger each year.
Speaker 1: Oh well that's great, yell. I can't make it this year,
but five yeah, I'm definitely there. And if Fair State's
going to bring the pills next year, I'm already judging
this one high because this one is excellent.
Speaker 3: Nice.
Speaker 2: Nice, And to answer your question, so the judging, basically,
when when the breweries signed up, we had a form
and basically we just said a crispy Logger is notably sharp, clean,
clean cut, and a clear and clear I'm sorry, a
crisp beer will be dry, meaning it has very low
residue of sugars and its flavor won't linger in your
mouth after you've taken a sip. And Loggers will be
judged based off the following criteria drinkability, crush ability, no
discernible off flavors, overall flavor, body color, carbonation perceived ABV,
and overall christmas. So the judges will not know what
the style is going into to the first round. The
final round, they'll know the style, but they still obviously
they won't know the brewery and they just have a
reasonably really simple scorecard that Ashley and Bill wanted.
Speaker 3: To use, and so they keep they just base it
on those things.
Speaker 2: Crush ability, you know how, chrisp clear, those kind of things.
Speaker 1: I'm looking forward to going online and see who won this.
This is such a cool thing, Eddie. I appreciate it
so much for coming on talking about the competition and
talking about the brewery itself. So if you're listening and
if you're in the Denver area, Wednesday, October ninth, Barrels
and Bottles Brewery. They're located at ten fifty five Orchard
Street in Golden, Colorado. It's the third Krispy King Lagger Competition.
It will be between three and seven one pm, with
the awards announced at six pm. So go check it out. Abby.
I really appreciate you coming on and talk today. Enjoy
the competition.
Speaker 2: Thank you, I think Staves for the opportunity for us
to talk about something we really like doing, and for
the support with this. It's definitely, definitely, really very well appreciated.
Speaker 3: Thank you.
Speaker 1: Yes, well, let's thank Emily from Radcraft because Emily put
all this together. Emily is the.
Speaker 3: Best, Yes Stace.
Speaker 2: I've actually known her since before we opened the brewery,
so been great funds with there for a long time,
so it was only natural to connect with her. Daalpa
spread the word about this.
Speaker 1: That's the other reason I have to get out there
next year to meet Emily and porse it.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, she's a lovely person, so sweet.
Speaker 1: So yes, all right, well Abby, thanks so much again,
I really do appreciate it. Then, all the best with
the competition Krispy King Logger competition next week on October
the ninth.
Speaker 3: Thanks, they have a great afternoon.
Speaker 1: Thanks you too.
Speaker 2: Hey.
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viral social media post and so much more.
Speaker 1: All right, the beer from Illinois I'm gonna have I'm
gonna have Della. This is from Old Irving Brewing. This
is a coulsh and this one is silver medal with
the twenty twenty one Great American Beer Festival and talking
about loggers on the episode. So I figure i'll have
a good one from the state of Illinois in Della
is definitely a great one. So let's crack this one open.
That's an award winning open right there. Beautiful color here
with Della. This one checks in at five point two
percent alcohol. Lovely rom I really like this. It's just
a clean, crisp smelling Beard's beer, smelling beer. This smells phenomenal. Yeah,
that's wonderful. Great multiprofile here, little bit of bitterness, not
a lot. I really like this one. This is just
a great kulsh from Old Irving. You may think of
them as just an ipa place, but no, they're bloggers.
Their coulsh is great, their barrel age program is fantastic.
Everything from them I like. And it helps that I
could park right across the street when I go to work,
and then I could just on my way home, I
could just stop and pick something up like Della. So
if you see this, you could pick it up all
around Chicagoland. Liquor stores, bottle shops, you name it, Binnie's,
you could grab it. But Della is definitely a winner.
If you see this one, you have to put it
in the carts. All right. That's going to wrap things
up for this edition of Beer in Front. I thank
you very much for listening. I want to thank once
again Abby George, the co owner of Barrels and Bottles.
And also they're hosting the Great Krispy King Lagger Competition
that's going to be held Wednesday, the ninth of October,
so you got to check that out. If you're in
Denver area or you're heading to the Great American Beer Festival,
be sure to check out Krispy King. Have a great
week everyone. I will talk to you next week. And
remember sometimes the Beer in Front interview is the best
one yet mm hm