A Non-Traditional Belgian-Inspired Brewer Creates Colorado-Style Beers
Harvesting their own strains of wild yeast and infusing the flavors of Colorado, Paradox Beer Company brings rare and delightful tastes to the Belgian Brew Fest
Tell Us About Paradox Beer Company
We are about to celebrate our 6th year in business as Paradox Beer Company. Everything we do is barrel-aged and we focus on wilds and sours. We have our own yeast strain that we harvested from our barrels early on and all of our beers are inoculated with the same wild yeast. A lot of our inspiration comes from the Belgian style and the history of barrel aging.
Our whole point of view is that we want to create our own American style of barrel-aged, bacterial-soured beers. These beers are designed to cellar and age. They’re never filtered or pasteurized, and they continue to grow in the bottle and develop on the shelves. This last part is not a typical process with other craft brews. It’s a true Belgian brewing process. Now that we’re into our 6th year, we’ve been able to library some of our beers, and we pull them out, and taste them and it’s amazing to see what these beers become. We have a coolship up here, and probably the highest elevation-wise in the country.
So many beer festivals these days to promote craft breweries. Why Belgian Brew Fest?
This is our first time at the Belgian Brew Fest. Because our beers are still brewed the same way they were originally inspired, and they live in oak, this festival is right up our alley. It’s a nice change from a brew fest where you normally have 100 breweries. We often choose specialized fests that speak to the beer drinkers we want to talk to. It’s important for us to get in front of the right people, and so often these are the fests that we attend; the ones that feature beers like ours. It’s more likely that the right craft beer enthusiast will be there, and they tend to appreciate the time and effort that goes into crafting these beers. We often think that out of the 10% of folks who appreciate craft specialty beers, we’re looking for that 1% that really want to elevate their beer experience.
Taster trays, “intelligent” taps and more; how can events like Belgian Brew Fest and tech marketing apps like Spigot Lab’s Taste Tracker, help promote your brand to the growing audience of craft brew enthusiasts?
It’s the right crowd of beer drinkers that we want to reach, the ones looking for our beer. They are there to experience the craft. The beer nerds. The people who are discerning drinkers. People who want the best of the best. That’s really what our company’s about. We can put a face to a customer, and they can put a face to the brewer. And we can make that connection personally, and now, also, electronically.
Lots of work goes into attending these festivals. What’ll make it worth the effort?
At a smaller fest they limit the number of tickets. When we have time to talk to people, and there’s not a mass of people walking across our booth, that’s what we look for. We have the time to connect. And that makes it worth the effort for us.
Brews to look forward to at the fest
We’re bringing some of our Divide Ethos, our coolship beer that’s inoculated with a host of local microbes then fermented and aged in oak barrels. Another amazing beer that’s been fermented in oak, End of the Beginning v.3, and our tribute to the state of Colorado with all home ingredients, will be there. It comes in a 1.5 liter bottle. Both beers are cork and caged. And lastly, the Cafe Vibrante, Skully #61, a barrel-aged wild sour golden, which combines two of our favorite things, coffee and beer. And, we’ll probably bring some goodies out of our cellar from previous releases.
Your personal favorite brew at the moment
We have a special release that’s only available in the taproom. It’s called Whiskey Reaper Take My Mind. And this is a truly mind-blowing beer. The base of this beer is a sour amber that we aged in Laphroaig Scotch barrels. It’s got this nice smoky character to it, palisade peaches, and just a hint of peppers. It’s a one of-a-kind beer! A wild one. It’s tough to pick a favorite for sure. And, the Divide Ethos, we had so little of that we put them in a smaller bottle so more people can try it.
Our annual Belgian Brew Fest is coming up April 28th. Get your tickets now before they sell out! 10+ breweries, food trucks, live bands, killer time!
