Oskar Blues

In November of 2002, tiny Oskar Blues Brewery launched its “Canned Beer Apocalypse” and became the first US craft brewer to brew and can its own beer.

The brewery began hand-canning its hoppy Dale’s Pale Ale on a tabletop machine that sealed one can at a time. The move defied the brown-bottles-only mantra of the craft beer movement.

Katechis then discovered that cans keep beer especially fresh by fully protecting it from light and oxygen, the two biggest enemies of fresh beer. “Cans are a beer’s best friend,” Katechis says. Besides cans are also easier to recycle, and significantly less fuel consuming to ship since about 40% of the weight of a bottle of beer is the bottle itself.

In 2006, Oskar Blues was deemed the largest-producing brewpub in the US, despite being in a town of just 1500 people. Today it is one of the fastest-growing craft breweries in America.

The year before launching its uncanny effort, Oskar Blues produced 700 barrels of beer. The brewery produced 12,409 barrels in 2007 and is now canning in a second facility with an annual capacity of 30,000 barrels.

About 25 craft brewers have now entered the microcanning niche, many with help from Oskar Blues.

Honors for Dale’s Pale Ale include Top American Pale Ale from the New York Times, Top Colorado-Brewed Beer from the Rocky Mountain News, and World’s Best Canned Beer from Details magazine.

Get more details at Oskar Blues.

Dale's Pale Ale

Dale’s Pale Ale is their flagship beer and America’s first hand-canned craft beer. It’s an assertive but deftly balanced beer (somewhere between an American pale ale and an India Pale Ale) brewed with hefty amounts of European malts and American hops.

It features a meringue-like head, a copper color, and a hoppy nose, thanks to a big post-boil addition of Centennial hops. To complement its hoppy first impression, Dale’s also sports a rich middle of malts and hops, and a bracing finish. Dale’s is 6.5% alcohol by volume, and features 65 International Bittering Units.


Old Chub

Old Chub is a Scottish strong ale brewed with hearty amounts of seven different malts, including crystal and chocolate malts, and a smidge of US and UK hops. Old Chub also gets a dash of beech wood-smoked grains imported from Bamberg, Germany, home of the world’s greatest smoked beers. Old Chub is 8% alcohol by volume.

While Dale’s satisfies the hop addiction, Old Chub takes care of the deep affections for malt.

The cola-colored beer (almost black) features a tan head, a creamy, skim-milk mouth feel, and rich, semi-sweet flavors of caramel and chocolate throughout. The addition of smoked grains gives Old Chub a delicate kiss of smoke on the finish.


Gordon.

Gordon is a hybrid version of strong ale, somewhere between an Imperial Red and a Double IPA. We make it with six different malts and three types of hops, then dry-hop it with a mutha lode of Amarillo hops. It is 8.7% alcohol by volume, and has 85 International Bittering Units.

It features a gooey, resiny aroma and a luscious mouth feel. Gordon is brewed with a dash of chocolate malt in it, to round out its load of hops and balance the beer. The result is an assertive yet exceptionally smooth version of strong beer.

Gordon is brewed in tribute to the late Gordon Knight. In addition to opening some of Colorado’s first microbreweries, Knight was a Vietnam vet, grade-A citizen, and huge promoter of craft beer. He lost his life in 2002 while fighting a wild fire outside of Lyons, Colorado.

Originally their winter seasonal beer, it has become a cult favorite of extreme-beer lovers, so now they brew occasional batches of Gordon throughout the year. Released in bottles in 2003 and 2004, Gordon is now sold in four packs of hand-labeled cans and on draft in select markets.