The Denver Post- Beer in Review 2015: Sam Scruby of Upslope Brewing

• December 22, 2015
• upslopebrewing
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Our friends at The Denver Post interviewed Upslope’s head brewer, Sam Scruby about his perspective on the craft brewing industry in their latest installment of “Beer in Review 2015”. Here’s what they had to say:

Upslope head brewer Sam Scruby

As 2015 comes to a close, we’re once again asking leading figures on the Colorado beer scene to reflect on the past year and look ahead to next.

This next installment in our 5th annual Beer In Review features Upslope Brewing‘s head brewer Sam Scruby.

Upslope has been on a tear lately, producing limited-release interesting new beers to complement their five year-round beers, including an award-winning pumpkin beer, a recently released Christmas beer and a Thai-style white IPA.

Now, onto Sam’s picks:

Favorite beer of the year: I purchased more Modus Mandarina from Ska Brewing Co. than any other beer this year, I feel like this counts towards a favorite beer tally. I truly loved the deep and bright citrus notes followed by the assertive bitterness. I also was lucky enough to find a bottle of Dry Hopped Oak Theory from Casey Brewing and Blending and found it to be a truly superb flavor endeavor of pungent funk and juicy hops.

Colorado brewery of the year: Casey Brewing and Blending, so hot right now. Troy Casey is on fire and everyone knows it.

New Colorado brewery of the year: Call to Arms. They had, what appeared to be, an unrealistically high expectation for a new brewery and just went ahead and blew past all expectations. It was completely refreshing to walk into CTA and be greeted with a completely different aesthetic and take on brewing compared to so many newer breweries. I’m super excited to see what these guys have up their sleeves for 2016.

Colorado brewery to watch in 2016: The castle is built and equipment in place, and I am interested to see what Avery Brewing Co. has planned for 2016. With reports of truckloads of barrels arriving and a couple years of pent up production, I am expecting some big things from their new facility.

Most notable craft beer news or trend of 2015: Mergers and acquisitions. Firestone Walker, Lagunitas, Ballast Point — I would have never have thought those names would be included in this year’s round of big buy-outs.

Craft beer trend to watch for in 2016: Mergers and… nope, I won’t say it. How about fruit in everything? How many fruited IPAs will we see next year? What beer style have you never thought about including fruit in? Because it’s coming next year…