Meet the Team: Stefan Beck

Why run a distributor? It’s the People!

The thing that makes our industry so special is not just the wonderful beers, ciders, spirits, and meads we get to taste and explore, but the people we meet and work with along the way. We wanted to highlight the awesome people we are lucky enough to work with here at Culture. So it’s time to meet Stefan Beck (if you don’t already know him!). We have known Stefan for more than 8 years and are so lucky to have him as part of our team. He is one of the most down to earth and honest people we know, and is one of the best people to share a pint with in our industry.

Cheers.

Xandy and Sheila

Where are you from? What is the coolest part of where you grew up?

I was born in Boulder and grew up in the foothills just northwest of town. Growing up in Boulder in the 80’s was very cool, but also it was nice being in the mountains and having lots of room to run around outdoors. 

What is your first memory with Craft Beer?

In my early twenties, I decided I liked IPA. Before I really even knew what it was, or that those intense flavors were derived from hops. It was just the biggest, most expressive flavor I could find at the time. Later on, like every good beer geek, I learned to love Belgian beers and lagers.

What did you do before joining the Culture family?

I worked in sales with Elite Brands of Colorado before Culture Beverage and CR Goodman before that. My previous work life before joining the wholesaler side of the industry was in restaurants.

What are your favorite things about being a distributor salesperson?

I love meeting all of the different people, sharing beers that I love with them, and hearing their perspectives. We are lucky to work in a business full of good hearted people. It goes without saying that I also love to taste all of the amazing beverages we have access to. I try not to take it for granted - we have incredible suppliers who are constantly innovating and upping their game.

If you could give one piece of advice to our producers what would it be?

This is kind of tough to put into words, but I think producers and distributors sometimes lack outside perspective on how customers see the market. We get really into minute details, chasing the latest styles, etc. but people can sometimes be overwhelmed by all of that and need things plainly laid out. Most of all, clearly put the style of beer on the can in an obvious place.

Which one of our suppliers do you wish people knew more about?

Fenceline! They make wonderful ciders with tons of character using heirloom cider fruit. It’s definitely one that I like to taste with people and have them realize how complex canned cider can be. When they try them side by side with some other canned ciders, it’s clear that Fenceline ciders are worth spending an extra dollar or two on. 

What do you wish customers would do more of?

I love when our accounts have staff education programs. Our portfolio definitely benefits from having a well educated and informed staff that can hand sell. Likewise, it’s always a good idea for breweries to host staff from accounts and give them an opportunity to taste their wares and ask questions.

What is your favorite style?

I love pretty much all beer but have a soft spot for saison, especially with brettanomyces. I will always drink IPA and have been really into lager for the last few years. Also, I love a good pale ale, I hope that there is more enthusiasm for this style in 2023.

What are your desert island beers?

Rather than naming specific beers, I’ll just say that I hope my desert island beer cooler was well stocked with German style pilsner, West Coast IPA, and funky saison.

What do you enjoy outside of work?

I like to cook and enjoy pairing beer and wine with food. I also love to hike and enjoy this beautiful state we live in. Live music is one of my favorite things in life and I go to a lot of concerts. I am also a musician and spend a lot of time outside of work making weird sounds (https://goldenbrown.bandcamp.com for the curious/brave).

An Interview with Primitive Beer

Méthode Traditionnelle comes to Culture

We sat down for a long chat with Primitive Beer, a spontaneous fermentation side project from Lisa Boldt (Odd13) and Brandon Boldt (Four Noses/Wild Provisions). We wanted to learn more about what makes Primitive so special and share why we are happy to bring them on as the newest member of the Culture Beverage Family.

Why start a brewery in one of the countries most competitive craft beer markets?

We’re in good company here! Even before starting Primitive Beer, we chose our migration to Colorado to experience the Beer Renaissance in “real time” at its epicenter. The abundance of craft breweries creating world class beer have fostered a feverish passion for creative fermentations, an accelerated exchange of ideas within the industry, and a highly educated consumer base. The spirit of healthy competition encourages us to rise to the challenge to meet the expectations of fellow brewers and consumers and perform our best work. Additionally, given our ethos for sourcing/supporting local ingredients and developing an authentic terroir, Colorado agriculture supports the growth of the barley, wheat, hops, and fruits that comprise the structure of our beers.

The koelschip at Primitive Beer.

Tell us what makes your beer different from other spontaneous projects and breweries?

There are only a handful of breweries concentrating on spontaneous beer (it’s a fool's errand that demands immense time and patience) and to our knowledge, we’re the only spontaneous beer brewery focused exclusively on Méthode Traditionnelle for the rules that govern our production and aging techniques. In other words, our goal was to create Lambic blendery outside of the traditional appellation (and therefore cannot be called Lambic). We believe in the history and tradition of lambic and therefore give it the utmost respect by following the specific guidelines that have been honed over the last couple centuries. 

You have an interest, specifically, in the history of lambic - what sparked this?

We were (pre-COVID) avid beer travelers! We believe the best way to get to know a new place  is by the handmade foods and drinks that people are passionate about. When visiting Belgium we were able to tour and taste some truly fantastic Lambic and G(u)euze that pair so perfectly with the local fare. It was during these times that we got to meet and talk to people from the region and learn what makes Lambic (as a beverage and especially as a culture) special, beyond the flavors and difficult brewing process. The rich traditions and history as well as the familial pride in Lambic production for generations really spoke to us. It is a form of fermentation genuinely connected to time and place and that speaks to the importance of skill and technique. As a beverage, no two batches can be identical, despite the use of blending to “close the gap”, and these fermentations have the potential to evolve and change continuously. As brewers and drinkers, Lambic is the one style that never seems to lose it’s mystical allure.

Who are some of your influences? What are your favorite beers?

Our main influences are, not shockingly, in Belgium. Lambic producers that have been running family breweries and barrel houses for generations are so fascinating to us. We love Oud Beersel, Girardin, Cantillon, 3 Fonteinen, and Boon, to name some of our “go-tos”. Some of the newer kids on the block in Lambic production/the up-and-coming experimental producers very much speak to our spirit as young brewers and blenders; this group includes De Cam, Antidoot, Bokke, and Tilquin. 

For American breweries and blenderies that were a huge influence on our journey we look to Allagash, Jester King, The Referend, and De Garde. Allagash and Jester King paved the way for a koelschip- and spontaneous-focused brewery to exist. The Referend and De Garde are two places a lot like us, focusing solely on spontaneous beer and sticking to it! We’re excited to see how they, like us, grow and evolve. 

Another batch naturally carbonating.

Describe your consumer, who buys your beer?

Our customers are the best! We’ve been blown away by the support of people who love “AmLam,” koelschip beers, and all things tart, funky, fruity, and oaky. In the beginning, we grew our consumer base exclusively through bag-in-box, uncarbonated, young beers, which selectively pressured a group of adventurous fermentation fanatics from all walks of previous beer experience. We are so grateful to our customers, and have been perpetually impressed with peoples’ readiness to be open-minded and try something new. The addition of bottle conditioned, sparkling, aged spontaneous blends has only made the fandom stronger and a bit more widespread, with a product and format that fits in with the greater understanding of “beer”.

Where do you see your products in a liquor store? What do they add to a store?

We represent the terroir of Colorado and have blended toward our own tastes. While we are not a replacement for Belgian gueuze and lambic on a bottle shop shelf, we add another value with the flavors of Colorado, highlighting our state’s incredible agricultural gems, and our own blending preferences. Similarly, our products can sit unassumingly on shelves, gathering dust, only getting better with time evolving gracefully, patiently awaiting a new home.

Why is your beer expensive?

We make no secret about what goes into our beer. We buy locally grown grains (Arnusch Farms), malted in Fort Collins (Troubadour Maltings), hops from the mountains (High Wire Hops), and fruit from Hotchkiss (Deer Tree Farm). These high quality ingredients are not the cheapest option, but we feel strongly about supporting our state’s agriculture and our friends’ respective businesses. Building these relationships is as valuable to us as the beer we’ve been able to produce. The youngest beer we ever released was aged nine-months and the oldest will be our three-year blend (with a Golden Blend to follow). Barrel aging to this extent is accompanied by necessary destruction of product (bad barrels get the boot!) and requires a range of resources in addition to time (which we’ve been told is money) and climate control. All that being said, we believe that beer, in all forms, should be an affordable beverage and available to all. We chose price points that we believe are fair to our customers and reflective of the costs of making our favorite weird beers. 

Every one of their beers spends time maturing in oak barrels, with the goal of having most releases be blends averaging over three years.

Desert Island style, desert island brewery go:

I mean….I think its gotta be a young bag-in-box lambic. Probably the boxes from Oud Beersel. Maybe our desert island can get one of their dispenser fridges so we can have two bag-in-boxes on tap??? Please?!

What gets you excited? What are you pumped up for?

We love that people are adding koelschips to their breweries in droves... or at least a couple here and there, and it’s EXCITING! While koelschips can be implemented for the production of numerous historic styles of beer, given these vessels were used in nearly all breweries before the advent of modern cooling techniques, more brewers will now have the option to try their hands at the production of spontaneous beers. In other words, the proliferation of koelschips means that we’ll have more options for drinking unique and delicious spontaneous fermentations sooner than later, which is a prospect to which we can raise a glass!

Why did you decide to work with us as opposed to another distributor?

We love Culture Beverage’s approach to the smaller breweries of Colorado. You understand that we don’t have year-round beers, seasonal rotators, and/or a holiday ale. It’s a special company that can let its clients dictate the direction of releases and availability. Working with a large distributor with dozens and dozens of brands just wouldn’t be a good fit for us - we are sooo needy!! Furthermore, as an extension of Shelton Brothers distribution for Colorado, your knowledge of our exact niche and inspiration is unparalleled. We’ve heard a distribution partnership can be a lot like marriage, which is founded on trust and mutual respect.  

Where do you see primitive and your beers in a few years? What is the end goal?

We’re excited to see how the characteristics of our beers change over the coming years. We’ve already seen changes in our overall terroir and are loving the direction things are going. It’s been fun to blend to our tastes, which are also always changing. As far as the end goal, for us it’s about the journey. We are not sure what the future will hold, be we are confident about facing it together as a team!  

To learn more about Primitive Beers check out their website or follow them on instagram.

Culture will be starting with two fruited two year bottled blends; Maximum Hijinx and Harbored in the Fuzz as well as boxes of Lean into the Chaos and Eternity of Gibberish.

Cellar West: History and terroir in a world of hype

Cellar West: History and terroir in a world of hype

By Xandy Bustamante

I watch as Zach steps back and smiles from behind the bar as he pours us another glass.  This one, his classic Westfield, is a beautiful unfiltered farmhouse ale with a thick collar of white foam.

“I was always attracted to the tradition and history of saisons,’ says Zach Nichols, who is the Founder and Head Brewer of Cellar West Artisan Ales, ‘I grew up in Wisconsin surrounded by farms and something about the mythology around saisons as a farmhouse beer for the working man really called to me.”

As a recovering liberal arts graduate I could immediately relate to Zach’s attraction to beer mythology and history, after all it is what drew me into the world of rustic beverages as well. After all, the history of saisons is something that is still hotly debated in beer nerd circles.  One side arguing that they are simple traditional farmhouse ales first made during the middle-ages in Belgium with farmers paying their workers in saison as well as money for their work during harvest.  The other side argues that this is pure fairytale, told by brewers, both American and Belgian, to sell their rustic beers in an age when hazy IPAs, hop bombs, and fruit smoothies dominate Instagram and the hidden beer trading pages of Facebook.

“I know I could be making a killing dropping a new Hazy every week, but that is not what I want to do, I want to brew beers that are highly drinkable, yes, but I also want them to have character and mean something.’  Zach says, ‘most of my beers take at least seven months to make, are conditioned in barrels, and carbonated the hard way, bottle-conditioned; even our limited cans of IPAs, saisons, and Keller Pils are can-conditioned.”

That is what attracted our small team at Culture Beverage to Cellar West, and why we brought them on as the first Colorado brewery in the Culture family.  Zach’s passion, dedication to developing his own terroir, his tiny brewhouse and humble plans in a world tilted in favor of mega-corporations and buyouts was simply something we believed in.

“I just want to brew saisons and sell them to people who care about great beer,’ Zach says from behind the bar, ‘what happened to subtlety and finesse? You can make beer that has soul and can also be drunk in quantity while watching a Packers game.”

While I can’t forgive Zach for his love of the Packers, I couldn’t agree more with him about his beers and philosophy.  History, not hype, is what got us both into beer in the first place.  

Cellar West got their start in Boulder, a few years after Zach left his first brewing project, Sanitas Brewing Company.  Opening their tiny tasting room on the northside of Boulder in 2017, Cellar West survived by selling glasses of saison over their bar to locals who were looking for something different from the IPAs at Avery or lager at Upslope.  Winning a GABF Silver with their Make Hay, a speciality saison, the year that they opened brought some attention to the brewery.  Their reputation has continued to grow, with Westfield winning a Silver medal in 2019 at GABF as well, and Cellar West is consistently rated one of the top Colorado breweries on Untappd.

As we sipped on Westfield, I couldn’t help being taken by the beer’s subtlety and depth, something that rarely happens with American made saisons.  His beers are reminiscent of the Belgian classics, similar to the beers of Blaugies and Fantome. Westfield itself is amazingly versatile. On Sunday afternoon, you can quickly and easily enjoy a pitcher of it, and then on Monday evening, you can linger over a single sip, and stare into its depths to analyze its brilliance.

As we talked beer with Zach while he relaxed behind his bar, we knew almost immediately that Cellar West was the perfect fit as a partner.  Zach’s passion for Belgian beer and his easy-going manner made him the kind of brewer we started Culture to work with in the first place.  His beers are a shining example of what saisons can be, bright, balanced, and full of the flavors of the countryside, hay, wheat, and stone fruit. 

“I love brewing beer that takes time,’ he said, ‘that is one reason saisons call to me, but it is also why unfiltered pilsners and complex IPAs are something I enjoy making too.  I don’t want my beers to be everywhere, but I want them to be accessible to those that care about well made beer.”

When we set out to find the select Colorado breweries we wanted to represent, we knew that our partners couldn’t be people who wanted to see their beers on the shelf at every grocery store; instead we were looking for partners that wanted to be sold by those who are as passionate about their products as we are; at bottle shops, bars, and restaurants who know what makes a beer like Westfield stand above the hundreds of other saisons made in Colorado.  We knew that we needed partners that could explain the history and who looked beyond the hype.

While the debate concerning the modern origins of Saison may never end, and that saison may never have the hype of Hazy IPAs or fruit slushies,  we know that we couldn’t be happier to have Cellar West’s farmhouse ales as part of the Culture family.  Zach may not be Colorado's most famous Belgian-style brewer, or even the biggest Saison producer in the state but we definitely think he is the best, because of his ability to create beers with subtlety, intention, and flavors unmatched in most modern breweries.

Is Culture on Hold?

A Memory of Flavor

By Lauren Shepard

 Last month, Culture Beverage was to have hosted a food and performance event, called FEED: Culture, at our headquarters, pairing our drinks with local theater company The Catamounts’ performances.  It was meant to explore “culture” in all its forms - from the fermentation of drinks to folk art.  We considered cancelling the event entirely because, we thought, what is there to say about culture right now?  When everything is shut down, and people are alone in their homes, is culture on hold worldwide?  If culture is about connections in society, what will it look like when we emerge?

Serving cider at a past FEED event at Lone Hawk Farm in Longmont, CO (photo by Michael Ensminger)

My interest in food and performance started with Eats 101.  My junior year of college as a theater major at UNC-Chapel Hill, I enrolled in this cult favorite seminar on food and culture, started by a passionate history professor, that explored the connection of, well, everything to food and drink.  We had a weekly reading/discussion group, went on field trips to places like farmer’s markets and fine dining restaurants, and once a week we gathered in his huge kitchen to cook, eat, drink, and continue conversation. I learned that what we consume connects us to, and helps us make sense of, the world.

I moved to Chicago when I graduated, with a theatre degree and a bunch of ideas about food, drink, art, and connections.  I got a part-time job at West Lakeview Liquors, where I thought I was going to learn more about wine while exploring my food and performance projects.  But then I met Ron.  

Ron tapping a gravity keg at West Lakeview Liquors in Chicago, IL

Ron and I hosting a Mikkeller tasting at West Lakeview Liquors, circa 2009

Ron Extract was one of the original “Shelton Brothers” and also worked part time at West Lakeview.  He talked about beer, he talked about cider, and he introduced me to new parts of the world through the glasses of imported things he gave me to taste.  I asked questions about the origins of hops, malts, and apples and the people and places that produced such diverse drinks.  I liked how connected beer and cider were to traditions, to farmers, and to the land.  

Most of all, I loved the history.  A sip transported me!  In theatre, that can take months of rehearsals and boatloads of people to achieve.  Yet here, in a single sip of Achel Blond or Oliver’s Perry, I felt transported and connected to a faraway place. Even after Eats 101, I thought I was going to spend my days telling stories on stage, but my time at West Lakeview cemented how visceral and immediate beer and cider were, and when I left Chicago for Colorado, it was to join Shelton Brothers Importers.  

After ten years of making friends all over the world with Shelton Brothers, we decided to launch a distributor in Colorado focused on this flavor history.  Colorado is brimming with beers packed with flavor, but we have a relatively new culture, as far as cultures go, and the innovative beers being brewed here are inspired by beers of the past.  What I love about the beers and ciders we work with at Culture is that they are simultaneously ancient and distant but present and accessible.   They are being produced on the same equipment, from the same trees, in the same farmhouses, and by the same families that have produced them for generations. The interconnections of all these things in a single sip.   They are hundreds of years of wild yeasts.  And antiquated beer laws.  And springs filled with apple blossoms and falls filled with harvests.  They have the ability to transport and connect Coloradoans to each other and the world.  

Toasting with Oliver’s Bottle-Conditioned Perry at our wedding at the Altona Grange Hall in Longmont, CO

Last night, while talking with The Catamounts about our performance event dilemma on a Zoom call, I remembered my first visit to Tom Oliver’s cidery.  It was a chilly spring day - that time of anticipation right before the orchard wakes up.  Tom walked my husband and I through the cold, dank, barrel rooms where his cider sleeps (sometimes for years) before bottling.  It smelled like grass, brick, oak, apple skins, and wetness.  It was so quiet, that we felt we had to whisper.  Tom told us that it's the stillness that makes the cider.  He presses the juice, puts it in barrels, and leaves it alone in darkness to become what it is meant to be.  

In the stillness of the barrels at Oliver’s Cider & Perry in Herefordshire, UK

We realized that stillness doesn’t mean culture is on hold.  When you cap or cork a bottle of beer that has sugars still left to ferment, it’s the confines of the bottle, along with what’s inside, that create the magic.  The culture happens in the confines, until one day you open the bottle and it all comes tumbling out (hopefully gently and into a glass).  Without boundaries, we wouldn’t have bottle-conditioned beer.  

Maybe we are all just conditioning in the barrels and bottles of our homes, waiting for the cap to come off?  What will happen when it does is anyone's guess.  What we do know is that, in the stillness of our homes, we are reaching out for connection in new ways.  So The Catamounts are producing a virtual version of the event, and delivering Culture’s beer and cider to people’s homes.  We are Zooming, but we are also sipping.  

In quarantine with the same harvest year of Oliver’s Bottle-Conditioned Perry in Boulder, CO

We are opening bottles of Oliver’s and Peckham’s, of Drie Fonteinen and Coniston, closing our eyes, and remembering.  Earthy, musty, lemony aromas of Drie Fonteinen evokes a flash of a cellar filled with barrels.  A slightly bitter, grassy, rich and fruity sip of Peckham’s cider lands us in a sunny field off the coast of New Zealand.  We can also travel backward through time, with a sweet sip of Achel Blonde brewed in a monastery, and maybe forward in anticipation of next year’s apple harvest in Spain with Ribela in our glasses.   We are grateful for these drinks that connect us in all directions so completely and so easily, through memory & taste, through stories & history.   We are grateful for the people who make them.