Boulder Beer Company - Flashback India-Style Brown Ale

“What’s an India-Style Brown Ale?” you might be wondering. Well, in recent years brewers across the country (and across the world, in fact) have been experimenting with merging the bold, fresh, aromatic hoppiness of the India Pale Ale (IPA) style with darker, maltier brews (with varying degrees of success). Some of the resultant beers have used the terms Black IPA, Cascadian Dark Ale, or India Black Ale. Flashback is Boulder’s twist on this trend, and is a brownish dark amber ale that’s been amped up on a big-ass dose of Cascade hops. Another Looking Glass Series beer, Flashback was first brewed to celebrate Boulder Beer Company’s 30th anniversary, and we think it’s quite worthy of holding that distinction. On the nose you’ll notice the citric, piney, and floral volatile hop oil aromas normally found in an IPA, but there’s something a little different. The malt character is not only more pronounced, but also of a different character than an IPA, with a toasty, lightly chocolate, and deep caramel attitude. Opens on the palate with big hops right away, along with toasty grains, some chocolate malt, and a light candied fruit component that emerges a bit more as you swish it around. With five sizable Cascade hop additions during brewing, the hop flavors are naturally quite prominent and citric, and last well into the lingering finish along with a toasty, almost nutty, grain-like note. Congrats on 30 years and a great anniversary brew, Boulder. Cheers!

The history of Boulder Beer Company goes all the way back to 1979, when it became the first microbrewery in the state of Colorado. Two professors at Colorado University, David Hummer and Stick Ware, founded the brewery, which at first was located on a small farm outside Boulder. In fact, the small one-barrel brewing system was forced to share space with a few goats! (The brewery itself notes that “When a company is founded by guys named “Hummer” and “Stick” in a goatshed, you kow it’s gonna be crazy.”) But, success would eventually change that rather unconventional situation, and five years later a new brewhouse in Boulder was built to house the expanding Boulder Brewing Company operations. After being a publicly traded company since 1980, the brewery came into the private ownership of Gina Day and Diane Greenlee in 1990, who changed the name subtly to Boulder Beer Company and convinced Brewmaster David Zuckerman of Portland, Oregon’s esteemed Bridgeport Brewing Company to come out to the blue skies and snowy mountains of Colorado and join their operation. Upgrades to the entire brewery followed, including transforming their small tasting room into a full brewpub restaurant. Now boasting a 50-barrel brewing system, the brewery can churn out 43,000 barrels of awesome craft beer annually. There was another name change in 1993, when they adopted “Rockies Brewing Company,” but in 2005 they went back to their roots and switched it back to Boulder Beer Company while also establishing their annual “Goatshed Revival” outdoor summer beer festival, which is one part birthday bash and one part charity fundraiser and pays homage to their humble origins as one of the country’s first craft breweries. To learn more about the brewery, the brewpub, and scheduled tours, call (303) 444-8448 or check out their web site at www.boulderbeer.com.