Jack Dempsey/Associated Press

Bonfire Brewing out of Eagle, Colo., has jumped on the Tim Tebow bandwagon with its “Tebrew” barley wine. The logo features “a man crouching as if in prayer but holding up a mug of beer, with the tagline ‘The Sunday Sipper.’ ” Is there anything Tebow can’t do? No. Here’s the story via the Associated Press:

EAGLE, Colo. – A beer inspired by Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow has produced big interest for a small brewery in Colorado’s mountains.
Bonfire Brewing’s “Tebrew” is a barley wine, a high-alcohol type of beer. Tebrew has a logo featuring a man crouching as if in prayer but holding up a mug of beer, with the tagline “The Sunday Sipper.“
Bonfire Brewing, in Eagle, Colo., plans to enter the barley wine for competition at the Jan. 7 Big Beers, Belgians & Barleywines Festival in Vail. The Vail Daily reports that after the brewery put the logo on its Facebook page, calls started pouring in seeking the limited brew.
“It’s been great for the brewery, great for Eagle and great for the state,” brewery co-founder Andy Jessen said.
Jessen acknowledged that he doesn’t know whether Tebow drinks beer or not. He said the brew is more about fans and football than the player.
“It’s just a good time to be in Colorado and be a football fan here,” Jessen said.
Brewery owners say they’re flattered by the attention, but the batch is only 150 gallons. “Tebrew” is available only at the festival and at the small brewery’s tasting room, in 10 ounce servings.
“In the style of 4th quarter heroics, we’re waiting until the last minute to serve it up,” according to the brewery’s Facebook description of Tebrew.
The brewery is also selling T-shirts and mugs featuring the logo.

- Matt Pritchard

A snifter of Blacksmith's Barrel-aged Barleywine back-lit by the most barrel-aged blog around.

It’s like wine … It’s like bourbon wine … IT’S LIKE BOURBON WINE!!!

Yes, friends, Blacksmith Brewing has re-unleashed their Barleywine. After a year of aging in bourbon barrels in the deep, dark recesses of their Stevensville brew house, this sweet, substantial concoction is back and (truly) better than ever!

According to the bartendress of the eve, there are only a delicate few barrels available (sorry, no growlers) … so, if you want a taste, better boogie on down to Stevi!

Bald Beaver Barley Wine from Glacier Brewing Company

Prost,

GG

And much like an anniversary or birthday does, it reminds one of how old they are. In this case, it’s a good thing. Craft brewing got it’s rebirth in the 70s, and it took all of these people to bring it to where it is today. Which is why it gives me goose bumps.

Here is a look at a few of the beers:

Fritz' and Ken's Pioneers Stout

Charlie, Fred and Ken Lager

However, if you live in the Pacific Northwest and you can get yourself to Seattle on Saturday, you will be rewarded with an amazing array of barley wines like you’ve never seen before.

Having been to the Big Wood Festival at Brouwer’s Cafe, I know this year’s Hard Liver will be amazing.

Prost,

GG

Widmer Deadlift IPA

When my friend Jon told me he wanted to give his Barista Manifesto at the Ignite Missoula event, I wondered how difficult it would be to give a manifesto with a five-minute time limit accompanied by a PowerPoint presentation. I still don’t know if it was easy, but it was done and brilliantly.

Jon’s a master barista, a coffee judge and an advocate for coffee farmers around the world. He works for Cup of Excellence, a Missoula non-profit with world-wide connections and influence. And as one friend put it recently, “the only people who seem to really understand what Fair Trade really means.”

But I digress. Jon’s Barista Manifesto touched many people last night, not the least of which was Missoula’s honorable mayor John Engen, who shook Jon’s hand shortly after the presentation and then proceeded to hug Jon. I thought that I might have seen a tear in the mayor’s eye briefly, but it could have been the lighting.

The crowd of mixed ages mingled casually, sipping craft beer out of bottles and enjoying the eight five-minute presentations ranging from early childhood development to how to start running when you hate exercise.

Our group, which had gathered to support Jon, moved casually from the Elks Lodge to Jon’s house, where we gorged on fresh-baked cookies left graciously by the babysitter. I really need to find one like that.

A six-pack of Sierra Nevada Brewing Company’s Bigfoot Barley Wine showed up as if by magic, and we broke out tall red wine glasses and poured a whole bottle in each glass. The foam bubbled up creamy and beige, like a cappuccino, and we swirled and talked about flavors like fig, banana, coconut and dried pineapple as we tasted the big beer.

It took almost any hour to kill that bottle, but that’s the beauty of a barley wine, it just opens up the warmer it gets. Soon you’re smelling a veritable jungle of tropical fruits and tasting rich roasted graininess and a strong hop presence. We sipped and talked, sipped and talked. We slipped through the health care debate and rehashed current events here in Missoula. We relived Jon’s awesome Barista Manifesto several times and then came back to the beer. You always come back to the beer.

Until you finish it.

Another beer appeared, as if by magic, and we poured it’s clear, bronze liquor into our wine glasses and smelled a tremendously green and floral hop presence. This was a Widmer Brewing Company Deadlift Imperial IPA, and the use of Nelson Sauvin hops from New Zealand certainly defines this beer. At a reported 9.5 percent ABV, this beer is all in the nose. I couldn’t put my glass down, and we just kept passing it around the room letting everyone stick their noses in our glass.

If I could only smell this beer and not taste it, I would rate it very high, and it’s made me far more interested in those Nelson Sauvin hops than any beer brewed with them I’ve tried before. But I did taste it, and I just wasn’t as impressed with the big-bodied beer with a funky middle to it. Something just below the tongue picks up some dark chewiness that isn’t bad, but it’s funky, and it’s difficult to describe. My friend Beau decided he liked the funk after a few sips. I drank the whole beer and still wondered whether it was growing on me or not. The funk that is.

The barley wine had better alcohol heat balance than the Imperial IPA had, and I’m a huge proponent of keep the imperial designation for beers that really deserve it. A 9.5 percent ABV IPA is good, but it’s still just an IPA. An imperial IPA should stand up for itself and take a bow in anything above a 10 percent ABV range. I see far too many in the 7.2 o 8.2 range.

We could’ve kept our conversation going until all hours of the morning, or if the beer ran out, but it was a Thursday night, and we knew there were more beers to meet on Friday and Saturday.

Prost,

GG

I just talked to Brad at the Rhino and we’re going to stash a keg of Barleywine in his basement cooler for a year. Crack it open next year for Barlyewine fest. Which is going on now at the Rhino. Check it out.

Anybody got any more info? Guess I’ll see you at the Rhino!

GG

But Washington brewed and drank great beer, as did many of the founding fathers.

In honor of the proud tradition of early brewers, my pick for a President’s Day beer is Stone Brewing Co.’s Old Guardian Barley Wine.

According to the Stone Brewing Co. blog, the 2010 release of this beer is today, so you won’t likely get any unless you live in Southern California, but if you see some, pick it up and put it away for next President’s Day.

Prost,

GG

Old Guardian

kettlehouse Brewing Co.'s Barley Wine

There are a lot of really bad things going on. Monster snowstorms that just confirm that Montanans are and always will be superior to the East Coasters, earthquakes in Haiti and war in Iraq and Afghanistan. I bet you forgot about those, didn’t you?

But there are simple reminders of all that is right with the world. This is not one of them.

In fact, Kettlehouse Brewing Co.’s Barley Wine is nothing short of biotechnology in a glass. It must be so. If you follow the smell and taste procedure required to look like an idiot while you’re sipping a beer from a snifter, you’ll notice a sweet, fruity and malty nose that hearkens to dried fruit of the tropical variety. I’m talking coconut flakes, fig and banana with something I can’t quite put my finger on. Must be a fruit I’ve had but can’t remember the name. Then you take a sip, and sure enough those hints of the tropics are right there, along with a smooth maltiness that just seems to want to stay in your mouth all day. Then BLAM! the hops descend on you like Attila the Hun. They pound your brain until your eyes want to water, and there is a strange effervescence that seems to run around your mouth like pop rocks mixed with Coca Cola.

I think I shook my head three or four times, probably involuntarily, after the first sip. And I dipped my nose in the glass to see what telltale signs of magnanimous hop usage must surely be there. But there were none, only a tame, fruity barley smell. In a few minutes, my senses calmed down and I sniffed again, followed by a big sip, which I swished around my mouth trying to find that illusive fruit I must have eaten as a child in some foreign country. But it wouldn’t come to me. Star Fruit, no, Jack Fruit, no, I have no idea, but that Kettlehouse Barley Wine surely has something unique on it that makes me want to put it under a microscope and dissect it.

If you get a chance to stop in to kettlehouse Brewing Co.’s Southside location at Myrtle St., please do. This is one fine beer that needs to be appreciated enough to convince Tim and the crew to bottle it, can it, put a few kegs away for next year to see how it ages or otherwise keep this bad boy coming.

Kudos K-Hole!

GG

Last night Beau brought a couple bottles of his homemade barley wine over for the Super Bowl. This is one of the few of his beers I hadn’t tried yet, and I was really looking forward to it. This one blew me away. Like I said, I haven’t had a bad Beau beer yet, but this bad boy was not only one of the best homemade beers I’ve ever had, it was one of the best barley wines I’ve ever had.

When I say it was like Nilla Wafers in a glass, I do not exaggerate. Sweet caramel and toffee with vanilla and tropical fruit are simplistic ways of describing a very complex and exciting beer. The yeast characteristic  in this beer seriously has a cookie-wafer taste to is, which really brings out the vanilla and some sweet dried pineapple and coconut.

So why am I writing about a beer that you will probably never have?

Because I think Beau, and the other homebrewers around here deserve a little notice once-in-a-while. It’s easy to focus on the craft beer industry and forget that if it weren’t for homebrewers, well, we wouldn’t have much of an industry.

So the next time your neighbor or homebrewing friend offers you a bottle of something they made in their garage, take it and pour it in a good beer glass. You never know, you just might be drinking the best thing you’ll ever drink.

And if you have an inclination to brew something amazing yourself, join the Zoo City Zymurgists. There are plenty of people like Beau out there who will be glad to help you get started.

Prost,

GG