Glenwood Canyon Grizzly Creek Raspberry Wheat

The mountains of Colorado harbor many niches, nooks and crannies, within which lie a bounty of hidden mines, towns and even the occasional bakery (Silver Plume). Glenwood Springs is not what you’d call a quaint mountain town, exactly, but it’s not a global tourism destination either. Home to a therapeutic hot springs, it sees its fair share of visitors, and those who do go get a chance to visit the local brewpub: Glenwood Canyon Brewing Company. It is by no means an infamous brewery, or a landmark in craft beer, but it provides better beer to a town with one foot still in the past, and that makes it all the more charming. My family and I ordered a sampler to get a well rounded taste of the offerings, and I came away reasonably impressed, considering my expectations. This beer came highly recommended from a kind gentleman staffing the coffee bar at the famous Hotel Colorado, not too far from the brewpub itself. Also, it takes very little to get me excited for the promise of a nice, new fruity beer. I thought my family might enjoy its light, sweet and appealing flavors. In a way, I was correct, but while they may have enjoyed it, I found it to be disappointingly flavorless. In the same way that unseasoned food is markedly bad when it can be markedly good, so too does this Raspberry Wheat give the sense that it is exceptionally wrong when it could be right. It is a bronze, clover honeyed beer, chatoyant, with no head to speak of, silently sitting in a crowd of bright, glittering brews. The smell is wonderfully sweet, emanating with all shades of artificial and natural raspberry flavors; most prominent is a distinct waft of Kool-aid powder. A little bit of quality, raspberry jam, just like mother used to bottle, appears as well, alongside a hefty dose of cheap pink lemonade, again in powder form. Not sure what to make of this pre-fabricated variety of smells, but it’s not repugnant or oppressive. The mouthfeel is full and very sudsy, crashing and cascading with waves of bubbles, both feeling and tasting exactly like club soda. Somewhere in the back, lingering ruefully with a long, sad sigh is a raspberry quality, but it has nowhere to go. The aftertaste too is a kind of dying wheat squeal, but is crowded out by the neutral, if not nasty soda-water quality. Though it may receive the affectionate love of the local populace, it’s a bit off-putting to me. I may do better to drink the salty hot springs water than give this another try.

on tap-pours a white head and orangy gold color. Aroma is creamy raspberry, cotton candy, bubble gum. Taste is raspberry, somewhat tart, wheat. OK carbonation. Nice.

No head, but certainly tastes like raspberries. The best part is their is enough of them to cover up the wheat, at least till the finish. This beer w/out the aftertaste would be fantastic.

Draft at brewery: Apple-red hue. Soft, bready malts with sweet and sour raspberry notes. "Quenchy" and refreshing beer. Chewy raspberry element has a nice level of tartness to round out the sweetness. Grainy, wheaty malts. Not too shabby.

Peachy-red with sticky foam. Full-on berry tone in the aroma. Tart side of the raspberry is in the flavor, like biting on the little raspberry seeds.