Colorado's legendary brewpub and music venue and America’s first microcanning craft brewer.
Since 1997, Oskar Blues Grill & Brew has served as a friendly, down-home community fixture in Lyons. The brewpub specializes in delicious southern-style and Cajun cuisine and hospitality, live music throughout the week, and some of the nation’s most celebrated craft beers.
Today the brewpub draws families, Rocky Mountain National Park visitors, music fiends and brew-loving travelers from around the United States.
Many of these people come to Oskar Blues to meet the grinning rule breakers behind their beloved canned craft beers. The very term has always been an oxymoron for microbrew lovers, who’ve enjoyed their beloved small-batch beer from bottles for the past 25 years.
But little Oskar Blues Brewery changed all of that in November of 2002, when it became the first US microbrewery to brew and can its own beer, one can at a time on a table-top machine.
“We thought it’d be funny,” says Oskar Blues founder Dale Katechis, “to squeeze our big, lusciously hopped Dale’s Pale Ale into a can. It was sacrilegious in the craft beer world, and no one had ever used ‘hoppy’ and ‘canned beer’ in the same sentence before.”
Today the brewery’s bodacious hand-canned beers and its “Canned Beer Apocalypse” have rolled into 25 states and changed the way beer nuts view canned beer. The brewery’s rule-breaking move also allowed it to grow from 700 barrels of beer in 2002 to an expected 30,000 barrels in 2009. This continued, rapid growth makes Oskar Blues one of the nation’s fastest-growing craft breweries
Not bad for an inside joke aimed at drawing attention to the Oskar Blues brewpub.
But while Dale’s Pale Ale’s trailblazing packaging landed it loads of attention, the beer’s assertive-but-elegant flavor has earned its own accolades. The New York Times deemed it the Top American Pale Ale, its other honors include Top Colorado-Brewed Beer (from the Rocky Mountain News) World’s Best Canned Beer (Details Magazine) and Top Five US Pale/Amber Ale from Ratebeer.com.
These accolades have helped Oskar Blues crush the misconceptions about cans. “Cans are actually good for beer,” says Katechis. “They keep beer especially fresh by fully protecting it from light and oxygen. Cans are also easier to recycle and less fuel-consuming to ship, and much easier to take outdoors.”
Today Dale’s is joined in cans by Old Chub Scottish Style Ale (a chocolatey Scottish-style strong ale), Gordon (a hybrid strong ale that oozes hop aroma and flavor), Mama’s Little Yella Pils (an all-malt, Czech-style pilsner) and a massively malty and roasty winter seasonal, Ten FIDY Imperial Stout.
In early 2008, Oskar Blues opened a second brewery in Longmont, Colorado to help it meet demand for its pioneering brews. The brewery features a tasting room (the Tasty Weasel) for visitors, and a much larger brewhouse and canning operation. (Get details at www.oskarblues.com .)
That an aluminum can has a place in a craft beer lover’s refrigerator makes Katechis very happy. “We’re in this to have fun and put some extra joy on the planet,” Katechis says. “We love the way people’s heads spin around after they try one of our delicious, four-dimensional canned beers. ‘That beer came out of a can?’ We hear it all the time.”
Keywords: brewpub, craft beer, canned craft beer, live music, cajun food, downhome ambience and food
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