5.2.23
Atrevida's Golden Birthday is this Friday!
Cumpleaños Dorado: Atrevida Turns 5
That’s right! Atrevida celebrates their fifth birthday this Friday! They’ll live music and entertainment throughout the day, 21 different beers on tap (including 8 all-new), cornhole and more!
Beer Showdown of the Week
Instead of just providing you with a bland beer review, we’ll be taking two similar beers in town and putting them up against each other, head to head, mano-a-mano, brew to brew to see which one you should drink first (or most). We’ll have a new matchup each week!
This week’s showdown is between two beers that I recently had on a solo excursion to Urban Animal. Released at different points last week, these two beers represent vastly different (yet somewhat similar) styles of IPA. Hazy IPAs once were considered a fad-style until they took over craft beer, and Cold IPAs were last years’ darling style, and we hope they don’t just disappear into the ether. Appearance-wise, Hazy and Cold IPAs represent a stark contrast, but the hop presence in both allow them to tread some of the same flavor and aroma paths in terms of juicy, hoppy notes.
Hidden Track - Urban Animal
Style: Hazy IPA
ABV: 5%
IBUs: 34
Cost: $7 for a 12oz
Brewed with El Dorado, Simcoe, Mosaic, and Cryo-Columbus hops, Urban Animal’s latest haze offering definitely pulls no punches. At a quaffable 5% alcohol by volume and only 34 IBUs, Hidden Track is way too easy to drink 3 or more by accident. Hop-wise, there was a faint vegetal or grassy note, but luckily the citrus-y flavors more than compensated.
Zealander - Urban Animal
Style: Cold IPA
ABV: 6.6%
IBUs: 30
We didn’t even know Cold IPAs were still a thing, but this one was definitely a crusher. Crisp, hoppy and brilliantly clear, Zealander was raved about by our crew. Brewed in collaboration with Peaks N Pines, this Cold IPA was made with Nelson Sauvin, Motueka and Rakau hops. It was so good, I had to get another.
Winner: Zealander, by a frozen whisker. The slightly off-putting grassy note we tasted in the Hidden Track was just enough to nudge the clean, crisp, crushable Zealander past the finish line.
What should enter the arena next week? Let us know in a comment!
Our Team is Growing: Meet Emily
This past week, we’ve welcomed the newest member of our team, Emily O’Keefe. Emily (pictured here with her husband Tommy) is a BJCP Beer Judge and brings her own unique perspective on beer to our crew. Look for articles from her soon, but in the meantime, you can read more about Emily here: https://www.focusonthe.beer/meet-emily
Beer Jobs
Brand Development Manager at Founders Brewing
Cellarman/Deliveries, Bartender at Colorado Mountain Brewery
Brewer/Brewery Intern at Trinity Brewing
Production Line Tech, Taproom Server at Bristol Brewing
Want to get your job listing featured? Send us a link!
Upcoming Special Events
Friday May 5:
Atrevida’s 5th Anniversary (but you knew that from the above info)
Cinco de Mayo celebrations: Fossil, Red Swing, Mash Mechanix, Whistle Pig
Margarita Gose release at Lost Friend
Cerveza Sabrosa Release at Goat Patch
Saturday, May 6:
Saturday, June 10:
Saturday, June 17:
Want to get your beer event on this list? Email ryan@focusonthe.beer with a link to your event and we’ll include it!
Brew News
Want to get your beer release or other special announcement on this list? Email ryan@focusonthe.beer with a link to your event and we’ll include it!
Are you a Foodie too?
Check out our partner-blog Side Dish with Schniper! They have food reviews, previews and all things restaurants for Colorado Springs.