Clutch gets a beer named after it courtesy of New Belgium Brewing in Fort Collins

Colorado brewers love their music, whether they are talking about it, naming beers after it or rocking it in the brewhouse at volumes loud enough to malt barley on its own. Boulder Beer recently worked with String Cheese Incident keyboardist and song writer Kyle Hollingsworth on a beer called Hoopla,...

By Jonathan Shikes

July 26, 2011

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Colorado brewers love their music, whether they are talking about it, naming beers after it or rocking it in the brewhouse at volumes loud enough to malt barley on its own. Boulder Beer recently worked with String Cheese Incident keyboardist and song writer Kyle Hollingsworth on a beer called Hoopla, while Twisted Pine, also in Boulder, named their wildly hot, chile-infused brew, Ghost Face Killah, after the Wu-Tang Clan rapper.

Then there's Ska Brewing in Durango, which has dedicated itself to an entire genre and made a video earlier this year about a fake beer honoring the Toasters.

The latest musically-oriented beer -- from New Belgium Brewing in Fort Collins -- pays tribute to a more obscure band, however. Clutch the beer is named for Clutch the hard-rock Maryland-based cult band that first played in the early 1990s.

Clutch is still touring, though, which is how New Belgium brewer Eric Salazar came upon them one day in Fort Collins after they'd made a trip through town. The band had stopped at New Belgium, which was closed, but ran into Salazar coincidentally at a local restaurant later in the day. He gave them a tour, and the rest is musical history.

The beer, which will hit liquor-store shelves next week, is part of New Belgium's limited-edition Lips of Faith series of beers, all packaged in 22-ounce bottles.

It is a sour stout that the brewery says "has a pronounced bass line of dark chocolate, coffee and black malts that bridge the sourness of the dark wood ale for a fluid riff."

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Jonathan Shikes is a Denver native who writes about business and beer for Westword.

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