Here comes the 4th of July.....

Greetings beer lovers Tod here for a Saturday chat. I was able to slip out of the East coast with my wife for a much needed break. We escaped to Colorado to visit my brother and his wife. They live on the Uncompadre plateau ( southwest corner) in a town called Placerville just a few miles from Telluride. What beautiful country to visit. We happened to be in the area on purpose to go to the famed Telluride Bluegrass and Country festival. Wow! what gas the fest was. We were able to grab two days at the fest with all the Festafarians...... lots of organic hemp cloths, dreads and peace signs not to mention some wicked good beer provided by New Belgian. Lots of 1554, Fat Tire, Skinny Dip and Sunshine Wheat. So good from such a cool brewery! We saw some amazing musicians like Jerry Douglas and Tim O'Brian who played typical bluegrass with abandon, the Lovell Sisters from Atlanta playing similar to Jerry and Tim. The Zac Brown band, then there was Peter Rowan of "Old and in the Way" fame ( who played on the album with with Jerry Garcia, David Grisman and Vasser Clamments). Then there was Emilylou Harris, Shawn Colvin and Patty Griffiths with thier Buddy playing some traditional country,and one show stopper Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band who were awesome. Lastly of the night was the most enticing David Byrne of Talking Heads fame with a dance ensemble playing new and old music.... and that was the 1st day!! We had so much fun dancing and grooving to some amazing musicians that we went back for part of day two. Two notables from the day were Bela Fleck and Elvis Costello. What a great fest. If you find yourself out in southwestern Colorado during June check out the fest...... Enough about my vaca......
Here's a taste of what is comming down the proverbial pipe. As I said earlier, here comes 4th of July and we will, again, be putting a 7 barrel batch of Blueberry along with the Wit and Red ales to have a sampling of Red white and blue!! Oh, how patriotic!! We also have on the Milk Stout which we added in some cold extracted coffee.It is awesome! Bold smooth and rich yet not filling. Enough said. We've got some more wheat beers to come soon such as the Thaizenheimer made with Kaffir lime leaves, ginger and lemongrass.... yum! and the Weizenheimer as well as Hefeweizen. It looks like we'll be putting in a Summer Rye and perhaps 5C's will make a summer appearence. Lastly, I'v asked Zach our assistant to do a Bier de Miele ( Saison made with honey) for his Honeymoon! that we'll feature here. I can't wait as Saison is one of my favorite styles.
Well, that's about as much rambling I can do for today. Hope your summers are enjoyable and do stop in for a pint soon. Cheers! Todm