English Style Bitter. Low-gravity, hand-drawn on beer engines, which incorporates creamy walls of lace. A “session” beer with a balance of light body with wonderful hop aroma and flavor. Our unique twist is the addition of Cascade hops.
Malts: Pale, Crystal 77, Carastan
Hops: Cluster, Willamette, Glacier, Cascade
Yeast: English Ale
O.G. 12.2 Plato F.G. 2.2 Plato
The Damm Bitter is named after the Damm baker. Specifically, German immigrant Albert Damm, who in 1889 opened his bakery in the very building that houses CooperSmith’s. The facade of his bakery is thought to have been where the Mountain Avenue patio now sits. A few years passed then Albert pronounced that his was the first bakery in Colorado to wrap their bread. Not content to toil with yeast and flour, Albert subsequently built two frame cottages on the corner of W. Magnolia and S. Meldrum streets. His great grandson paid us a visit a few years ago, touring the structure great granddad helped make world famous.
Our delivery system caused quite a stir when we first brewed Damm Bitter in 1989. Prior to that,Fort Collins beer drinkers were used to the traditional CO2 tap delivery system. The bitter was brought to the glass via the beer “engine,” which we explained at the time was not unlike drawing water out of a well in the old days. Times change, but that analogy still holds. The beer engine incorporates outside air into the “drawing” of the beer, which results in a creamy “mouth feel” of the end product.
A “session” beer is typically one with low alcohol, wherein participants of a discussion believed to last for an extended amount of time might imbibe enough libations to a) last throughout the palavering and b) remain coherent enough to make their points known.