Brewery Showcase | Jade Mountain Brewery & Teahouse Opening

It’s been a prolonged path for Sean Guerrero to achieve the grand opening of Jade Mountain Brewery & Teahouse in Aurora, CO. The brewery, which blends American and Asian tradition in its beers, celebrates its opening weekend beginning on June 11, 2021. Together the way, Guerrero’s journey spanned 13 a long time, two continents, a pandemic and innumerable examination batches of beer.

This coming weekend, readers can glance ahead to impressive new releases, costumed lion dancers with drums and Asian food items trucks–that’s in addition to Jade Mountain’s regular tap listing which attributes gentle, Asian-fashion beers tuned up with special adjuncts like tea and tropical fruits. The teahouse aspect of the menu offers a extended list of non-alcoholic teas.

Discovering New Frontiers

Guerro’s journey started out in college or university when he took a class in Chinese mostly to healthy his plan. He rapidly identified a enjoy of the language. This preliminary interest expanded for the duration of various visits to China training English and absorbing the tradition.

Guerrero’s odyssey culminated in a move to the Chinese city of Huzhou with his spouse, who is Chinese. Composing for an English-language beer journal, Guerrero regarded the lack of craft beer alternatives in China and made a decision to put his homebrewing competencies to get the job done.

Around the program of two months, Guerrero reworked a former teahouse into a brewery and taproom with a self-crafted 10-gallon system. When the locals were being not exactly acquainted with craft beer, they were being certainly curious about the foreigner-owned small business and many stopped by just to examine it out.

Cross-Cultural Training

Strengthening his Chinese-language abilities to clarify the nuances of craft beer, Guerrero savored bringing American craft beer lifestyle to Asia and educating curious people. “It was very interesting to practical experience the tradition and introduce folks to craft beer who’ve never expert it,” he stated.

Presented the considerably-flung locale, getting substances presented problems. On regular visits out of the nation, Guerrero packed his bags with yeast and hops for new batches of beer.

In spite of his results in the local marketplace, Guerrero understood that finally his get to in China was restricted. The Chinese government is not accurately supportive of overseas-owned company ventures. As a final result, Guerrero bought the brewery to a mate and returned to his hometown of Denver.

Bringing Asia Again to Denver

Guerrero wanted to expose the Denver craft beer current market to new and intriguing Asian-influenced flavors and models in undertaking so, he started a a few-year saga. At a single position, his fully built-out Denver brewery was just months from opening, only to have it derailed by COVID-19. The complications ended up exacerbated by new, fiscally prohibitive business rules dictated by the metropolis.

As a result, Jade Mountain initiated a lookup for a new residence. Guerrero in the end finished up using over the vacant house that experienced formerly been Pilot Household Brewing in Aurora, a Denver suburb. Guerrero rebuilt the nautically-themed brewery as an Asian taproom and a teahouse.

All the when Guerrero kept brewing check batches to refine his design.

Beer Blends Cultures

Guerrero’s beer philosophy facilities on pushing boundaries and blending cultures although remaining obtainable to typical beer craft beer drinkers.

“The beers are a mix of anything,” Guerrero spelled out. “I’ve acquired culture in a glass. You’ve received distinctive flavors and east and west mixing with each other.”

Guerrero also aims to get some of the pretentiousness out of craft beer by serving obtainable, enjoyable brews.

“I’m brewing beers for people today who can take pleasure in flavors,” he claimed. “This is beer for every person.”

Asian Ingredients Infuse Beer

The cornerstone of Jade Mountain’s brews is an Asian spirit that’s conveyed by way of their names and substances. With names like Silk Street and Lion Dance, Guerrero’s beers integrate exotic adjuncts like jasmine, dragonfruit and Oolong tea.

Rice also plays a sizeable role in several of the beers, but in a substantially additional beneficial way than people usually count on. For illustration, in the Happoshu sequence, Guerrero utilizes 33% rice in the malt monthly bill which offers the mild-colored beers substantial body and a dry complete.

“By putting that significantly rice into the beer it seriously dries the beer out super dry and has that great floral sweet flavor from the rice,” Guerrero mentioned. He additional that it absorbs other flavors very well and he has already launched a jasmine variation.

Similarly, in Silk Road–his Asian take on a hazy New England IPA–Guerrero can make purposeful use of rice to build a distinctive beer.

“Many hazies have huge system and residual sweetness,” he expalined. “I place 10% rice in this beer to dry it out with no getting too hop forward.” The complicated beer beverages thick and layered with flavors and with out any of the bitterness typically involved with IPAs.

Irrespective of Jade Mountain’s Asian topic, Guerrero attempts to use local substances any time achievable. He resources his malt from Root Shoot Malting in Loveland, CO and his yeast from Propagate Lab in Golden.

Ground breaking Brewing Builds Taste

Thanks to the small sizing of the brewery, Guerrero makes use of an unusual procedure to increase the flavors of his beers and produce Lager-esque brews without the additional lagering time. Making use of ale yeasts, he ferments less than tension to capture flavors and essences that may well usually be blown off. According to Guerrero, the strain generates an finish end result identical to Lagers.

To prime it off, Guerrero provides fruit to numerous of his beers — up to 100 kilos per barrel. “I constantly want to have beers exactly where, if I say there’s mango in it, yeah there is mango in there,” he stated.

Really do not Neglect the Tea

As to what the long term retains, Guerrero desires to preserve experimenting with adventurous brewing methods and flavors even though also raising the profile of the teahouse. He at present has about 20 teas out there and plans to perform tea ceremonies and tastings in the close to future to expose Coloradans to that entire world of flavor and culture as properly.

Guerrero succinctly encapsulated what he needs Jade Mountain to develop into: “I want to make a spot in which it is not just about the beer and not just about the tea, a area in which you can have an practical experience.”

Highlighted picture courtesy of Scott Grossman