Drink Beer Fervently

Peaks N Pines Brewing Co.: Serving Great Beer to Great People

  By: Paul Vieira, Owner, Brewmaster.
Who could have imagined that nearly 40 years ago when I concocted my first batch of homebrew, that I would one day be a brewmaster and brewery owner. So how did I get to be Brewmaster? After nearly 4 decades of surviving failed fermentations, stuck mashes, demoralizing infections and exploding bottle episodes, I realized that science and process rule the day, but relying on a pound of confidence and a few ounces of luck is a must for any brewer. Likewise our four partners relied on each other in the quest to open an amazing brewery and thus Peaks N Pines finally opened in November 2015. 

My wife Terry, also our general manager, was the spark three years ago that ignited the joy, exhilaration, passion, and yes, craziness which cheerfully continues at Peaks N Pines today. Owner Mike Hagen is our indispensable head brewer and special events organizer; our fourth owner, CPA Eric Bowers, is our quintessential financial numbers guy. Peaks N Pines is a family affair of sorts, my two sons and daughter have worked the taproom and my youngest son is also our marketing director and one of our assistant brewers; head brewer Mike Hagen’s wife Dee is also a taproom server! Our energetic and dedicated employees, Sarah, Kayla, Scott, Dee and Michelle know all about our beer and enthusiastically provide top-notch service to our customers. Want to know something that drives our passion at Peaks N Pines? We believe in advancing the common good of our community, so throughout the year we lend our talent, time and treasure to various non-profits and charitable organizations.  

In the taproom, we serve 8 flagship beers and 4 rotating seasonal/specialty beers. We’re very excited about serving at Steers and Beers for the first time because we savor conversations with fervent beer fans and good-natured fellow brewers. We’ll likely be one of the smallest production breweries at the festival this year but our owners, employees and our devoted customers believe the Peaks N Pines experience makes our brewery larger than life! 

At this year’s Steers and Beers Brew Fest, we’ll be pouring our flagship Blizzard Pilsner (ask us why it’s called “Blizzard”), award winning Backcountry Brown and Peaks N Pines Blonde, along with another specialty beer. See you at the festival! 

Paul

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Being a New Belgium Beer Ranger

 by Travis Flett

Being a Ranger for New Belgium is truly a dream job, especially for the beer enthusiast like myself. I am currently the Ranger Specialist for the Southern Front Range of Colorado and am in my 15th year with the brewery. I started my beer career with a wholesale distributor in Columbia Missouri 18 years ago. I still remember when we got the New Belgium brand and that quirky beer with a bicycle on it that tasted unlike anything I had ever had.

The New Belgium Beer Ranger encompasses so many things from selling into retail accounts in the on and off premise channels from educating the staff at those accounts on our beer and beer culture. We are constantly doing quality checks while out in the trade from checking dates and rotation on package in liquor stores to making sure draft lines are maintained and cleaned on a bi-weekly basis. There is absolutely nothing worse than getting an infected Fat Tire because the line hasn’t been cleaned in a month or whatever.  

We do Beer Festivals on weekends, Beer Dinners at night and everything in between. I think a good Ranger is able to be nimble and savvy in this ever changing landscape of beer. Having feet on the street is imperative to a brewery’s success no matter the size these days. Being able to bridge the gap from retail to our distributor partner’s is a big play for us. People like the one on one face time you get with a brewery representative in the market.
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I believe we will pouring Citradelic Tangerine IPA as well as Dayblazer Easy Going Ale and our new Voodoo Ranger Series of hop forward ales at the Steers and Beers Brew Fest. See you there!! Cheers~
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