Goat Patch Brewing October 2019

November 5, 2019November 5, 2019 Jesse

As we may have mentioned in the past, we typically celebrate Thirsty Thursday every week. Well, it just so happens that, this year, Halloween falls on a Thursday so we decided to give Wet Your Whistle Wednesday a go.

Now, you may be thinking “Gee, I didn’t realize that Mike and Jesse were such sticks in the mud that they would decide to not go to a brewery on Halloween!”. While it may, or may not, be true that we are the proverbial mud-bound sticks, we had fatherly duties to perform on All Hallows’ Eve, so we moved the beer drinking day to Wednesday.

Be that as it may, this week we decided to, once again, take advantage of the Colorado Springs On Tap Craft Brewery Passport and go to Goat Patch Brewing (I’m telling you, that passport has got to be one of the best purchases I made this year). Goat Patch has been a favorite of ours, and one of our suggestions to “out-of-towners” looking for a great brewery since we went there late last year. Truly top notch beer with a great, relaxed vibe to the taproom. I’d like to note one thing about this brewery.

[climbing up on soapbox] One of the things I take some issue with is the noise level at some breweries/taprooms. I understand that there is a certain aesthetic and cost efficiency to having the open ceiling, industrial look, but the downside is that normal conversations tend to reverberate and bounce around in there like a BB in a tin can making normal conversation, heck, even thinking, extremely difficult at times. I was extremely happy to see that Goat Patch recognized this as well and installed some sound baffles on the walls and ceiling and did it in such a way as to not detract from the “feel” of the place. That simple thing made for that much more of an enjoyable evening. I can only hope other venues take note and do the same. [stepping off soapbox]

We were joined by Bill, Scott, Jerry and Dave AGAIN! This is some sort of record, I think. It’s great to have that number of people in on the action and getting that much more input on the beers. I have to give Scott some credit, this week. He was trying some new styles of beer in an effort to expand his beer-palate horizons. I think he may have surprised himself with some of the beer he found himself enjoying. We’re going to make beer ~~snobs~~ aficionados out of some of these guys yet!

I was the last to arrive so I chose some of the beers that no one else did. If you read on, you’ll see that my tardiness wasn’t an issue for me. I’d like to share a ‘funny’ anecdote that makes me appreciate the job of the beertenders at the breweries.

I take a small amount of pride (for lack of a better word) on how much my taste in beer styles has grown since we started this a year or so ago. But, as I was ordering, I was having trouble deciding on which beers I wanted since they all sounded interesting and delicious. The beertender immediately asked “What kind of beer do you like?” with an ever so slight hint of frustration thinking I was having trouble finding a beer I’d like rather than trying to narrow down my selection to only four. I can only imagine that it would wear on a person to have to deal with that on a daily basis. Maybe on a slower night I’ll ask about some of their horror stories. To my credit I didn’t fire back with a smart ass comment like “Yes!” or “All of them.”. Anyway, on to the beer…

Kettle Sour Pale Wheat – 3.1% ABV 5 IBU – There was a time I used to let Mike check out the sours on the menu, but in the last several months, sours have become one of my go to beers to try when I see them on the menu. I have to say, this is definitely one of the more sour sour beers I’ve had in some time. I found that, being a light wheat beer, it really allowed the sourness to take center stage. But the more I drank it, the less the sourness was hitting me in the face. It mellowed a bit. But, even with the mellowing, I’m sure glad I ordered a taster if it, I’m not sure I would enjoy a pint. Bill ordered a pint for his second beer and I’m not sure he finished it, to be frank.

Belgian Wit – 4.3% ABV 7 IBU – As Belgians are my jam (as the kids are saying these days (they’re not)), I had to also get the Belgian Wit. Not disappointed I did. I would get a pint of this is a second and recommend it to any Belgian beer lover. The Belgian character was not as prominent as some wits I’ve had in the past, but coriander and just a hint of orange peel were present. Smooth with a light body and mild effervescence, this was a pretty good beer.

Stout – 6.5% 27 IBU – I checked out their tap list online prior to the visit and noticed that they had a few stouts on tap. Well, since the weather is starting to cool down, I figured they would be excellent choices to sample. Once I got there, however, I found out that the Mocha Latte Stout wouldn’t tap for another two days. This stout, however, was chocked full of coffee goodness, form nose to finish. It has slightly less body that I was expecting, but the build up and lingering of the coffee flavor was great.

Hazy Unfiltered IPA – 6.4 % ABV 44 IBU – As I was ordering the flight, I went into Brain Freeze when I was trying to decide on my last beer. The beertender said that the hazy is popular… OK. Hook me up with that. I can see why it’s so popular. It’s a pretty tasty hazy IPA. It started slightly sweet and finished with a prominent pine with a hint of citrus. One think to note about it is that it’s not cloyingly sweet, just the right amount. Basically, it still tastes like beer. I would drink a pint (or more) of this anytime.

Pumpkin Patch Punch – 5.9% 8 IBU – We decided to stick around for one more taster when we finished our flight and I decided to give the pumpkin beer a try. Even thought I’m not particularly a fan of them – ‘Tis the season, after all. With a definite clove and nutmeg flavor, this was a pretty good pumpkin beer, I have to admit. I find that sometimes, they tend to be a bit too sweet for my liking, but with this beer, it wasn’t the case. Chances are that I would not order a pint of it, but I’m glad I got a half-pour.

[Mike] The tap list says that this beer was fermented with a blend of German Hefeweizen and French Saison yeast, and that really intrigued me. I’m assuming they didn’t let it get very warm, because I didn’t really pick up much of either of their characters in the flavor, maybe a little clove or a smidge of saison character? It was still a really nice pumpkin beer though, and I enjoyed it thoroughly. Mild nutmeg flavor was dominant to me, but not too strong at all.

[Mike] It was a lot of fun having so many of the gang out for this trip. It was great seeing everyone, and on top of that, I think I may have ~~suckered~~ talked Jerry and Dave into brewing one of the 12 beers of Christmas recipes. That’s kind of a long term project, so you’ll be seeing something about that eventually.

Oh, and the beers were great too! What more can you ask for?

Blackberry Habanero Hazy Double IPA – 7.6% ABV, 55 IBU – The menu lists this as Jacob’s first brew, and I just want to let Jacob know he should keep up the good work. If this is any representation of your skill level, then I’m expecting great things 🙂 The berry flavor really starts to come out once it warms up a bit, and there’s only the slightest hint of spiciness in the back of the throat. It had beautiful color, and was super tasty. I would gladly drink a few of these.

Brut Rose Pale Ale – 6.8% ABV, 40 IBU – I’m fairly new to “Brut” beers, and most of those I’ve had are IPAs. Seeing how they are getting popular because of their lower calories, I’m sure we’ll be seeing more of them. Keeping the low number of Brut beers I’ve had in mind, I have to say this one is probably my favorite so far. It had a really pleasant berry aroma, and a citrus flavor that I quite enjoyed. The finish gave me an impression of sweetness, while still finishing very dry.

Cantaloupe Gose – 3.9% ABV, 7 IBU – You have to know that I’m a big fan of Gose by now, and I couldn’t pass up one made with cantaloupe. I think my biggest surprise is how hard it is for me to spell cantaloupe (thank you spell check), why do we need a “u” in there? Anyway, this was really a nice refreshing beer, had great melon flavor, complimented very nicely by the tartness. The cantaloupe aroma was terrific. I suggest putting this thing in cans during the hot summer weather.

Full list of beers we’ve reviewed at Goat Patch Brewing: