Crazy Mountain Brewing Company - Snowcat

Produced in collaboration with Denver's Coda Coffee Company, whose artisanal coffee is incorporated into the beer's recipe, Snowcat pours a deep, dark, virtually black brew with a rich brown head which drops to a persistent ring. Look for roasty aromas of dark chocolate, brown bread, deep caramel, and coffee, with a touch of earth and spice. Unsurprisingly, this is a bold brew on the palate, with robust roasted and ashy notes and mild to moderate residual sweetness. So many of the coffee beers we sample come across very heavy-handed with regards to that special ingredient, but Snowcat is quite a bit more refined. We really enjoyed how this beer came together, with the coffee addition complementing the core stout as opposed to dominating it. Hop bitterness is not shy at 57 IBU, merging with the roasty malts to easily provide counterpoint to the residual malt-driven sweetness and ultimately ensure a dry overall taste experience. Crazy Mountain recommends pairing this coffee stout with stout beef stew, oysters, or braised lamb with coriander, fennel and anise. We think a coffee and spice encrusted steak would do the trick too. Cheers!

Crazy Mountain Brewing Company was founded in January 2010 by Kevin Selvy and his wife Marisa, and it is the Vail Valley’s first production brewery. A Colorado native, Kevin had worked in finance after graduating from Colorado State, living in Europe and California while pursuing that career, and developing a taste for great beer. It was while he was in California that he got his big break in the brewing industry when some of his homebrew crossed paths with an Anchor Brewing Company employee – leading him on a new path that would take him to positions at several California breweries.

One day in 2007, Kevin got off his shift at Anchor and went to have a beer in the tasting room. It was here that he met Marisa, who had just finished a tour of the brewery. Three short years later the pair would find themselves married, relocated to Colorado, and the owners of their very own brewery. Named after the Selvy family’s Crazy Mountain Ranch, the brewery demanded a ton of hard work to turn it into the success it is today. In the early days, the husband and wife team did everything, including brewing, packaging, remodeling, running their tasting room, and delivering beer to their local accounts via an old pickup truck. While Kevin leads the brewing operations, Marisa leverages her extensive experience working with marketing and advertising agencies in her position as VP of Marketing. The last seven years have delivered tremendous success, with the brewery being expanded twice to meet increased demand, and the tasting room becoming a popular destination for Vail tourists. The brewery currently produces ten year-round offerings and four seasonals, as well as their limited-run "Local's Stash" beers in corked and caged 750-ml bottles. For more info, contact them at 970-926-3009 or visit www.crazymountainbrewery.com.