A Hop, Skip, and a Grape

When you’re in good company, DIY is a snap

"If you don't taste the grain, you're slighting yourself," Mike Kasian, Head Brewer at the Colorado Brewing Company {boulderdrafthouse.com}, says.  This Midwestern transplant cut his teeth in Chicago and now crafts a balanced selection of brews in a rather small room at the back of the Boulder Draft House-adhering to traditional methods but adding his own subtle twists. He recommends that home brewers pick a style, buy a few different types of malt, and buy several different brands of the style you plan on making. Tasting the different beers while nibbling on a variety of malts will enrich your palate to the subtleties of the beer and help you figure out what you like. "Brewers are essentially selling their palates," Kasian says. "You come in here and you're going to get my palate."

Brewmaster Marc Anievas of BJ's Restaurant {bjsrestaurants.com} in Boulder (BJ's also has locations in Aurora and Westminister) says that as long as they keep things clean, clean, clean, homebrewers have an advantage over professionals in that they're free to experiment more. "You can't play around as much when you're making beer in the volume that we do," he says, though when the spirit catches him, Anievas will occasionally purée some berries and add them to a small batch of BJ's beer, for his own enjoyment.

Brewmaster David Zuckerman of the Boulder Beer Company {boulderbeer.com}; says that one of the biggest mistakes he sees homebrewers making is not keeping accurate records. "That's a key component. Times, temperatures, interesting things that you did-you can only benefit from keeping those details on hand." Even though he brews 50 barrels at a time these days, his beginnings were humble: "My first batch was a disaster," he laughs. "I used it for boiling sausages-that's all it was good for."

Co-Owner Kurt Marquardt Caveau Wine Bar {caveauwinebar.com} has friends here and in California who make wine in their garages and is always eager to point them to new wines which they should be taking notes from. Most of his pals are making Napa Cabernets and Bordeaux blends, though he says it's a good time to be making Merlot at home because the wine's popularity has waned in bars and restaurants and quality grapes are less expensive. With warm weather approaching, Marquardt has been selling more whites and is excited to see his customers getting adventurous with unfamiliar styles like Alberino, a Spanish white. "Lately, more and more people are willing to try different wines and break out of their comfort zone."

"It's like a chess game-you have to think 20 moves ahead," Winemaker Ben Parsons says. It simply doesn't get any more DIY than his operation, Infinite Monkey Theorem Urban Winery {theinfinitemonkeytheorem.com}. Parsons does everything himself, including hauling grapes down to his outpost at 5th and Santa Fe from the Western Slope (where the majority of his grapes come from) on a flatbed that's hitched to his pick-up; processing the fruit in the parking lot in between an office that he wants to turn into a restaurant and the Quonset hut where he actually makes the wine; and fermenting, aging, and bottling his juice. Formerly a rep for Sutcliffe Vineyards, Parsons's connections in the Denver restaurant industry have proved beneficial, as his first round of whites are available in more than 50 area eateries. His reds are set for a fall unveiling and, based on the tastes we snuck from his barrels, they should make quite a splash.

Three Adjectives and a Celebrity - Pairing Fame to Foam

How would we compare our favorite local artisan's products to celebrities?  Choose your actor and your beverage: