20 Years, Day 6
Casey Brewing and Blending. First off, we didn’t go make this beer. Due to all the challenges of coordinating schedules of 12 breweries plus my schedule (complete with unannounced emergencies) we weren’t able to make it happen, but Troy graciously pulled out a couple kegs of his beyond fantastic Blackberry Cut. Not Bad. Anyway, on to the story… We’ve always had a great relationship with the brewers down the street at Sandlot, part of the relationship has been that they bring visitors to their brewery, most from other parts of their company, in for lunch. Through this interaction, we’ve been able to meet the folks at their specialty beer arm, A.C. Golden. Troy Casey was part of this division & really latched on to the Barrel aged beers fermented with differing strains of yeast & bacteria. Some of the staff of Falling Rock (Kelley, Beth & Myself) went for a very special Coor’s Brewery Tour. We checked out all the different projects they were working on, but the highlight was definitely the barrel room over on the side. We got to sample quite a few of the barrels & when I was given free rein to re-sample any of the barrels we had tried, I, of course, couldn’t help myself from blending a few together. When Troy announced that he was leaving A.C. Golden to do his own thing a couple years later, we all knew we would be getting some really special beer out of it. Last Summer, my wife Cheryl & I decided to take a short trip around Colorado & ended up in Glenwood Springs for the day. We had a wonderful visit to the blendery sitting out on the picnic tables & watching the river flow by beneath us while sipping on some really tasty treats. I love doing tappings with Troy, super simple, it’s just about the beer. Last winter we did a tapping where Troy called me up & asked if we could do a tapping in a few weeks & if it were OK if we didn’t announce it till the day of, or maybe 2 hours in advance. The thing was that the beer still needed a little time to finish carbonating in the keg, & he wasn’t sure just when that would be. Didn’t bother me. Kegs were gone in a little over an hour. Onward…