Arts & Crafts Beer Review: Colorado Native Amber

I love smuggling beer back to Omaha for the purpose of reviewing it on the Arts & Crafts podcast. Every time I travel, I keep an eye out for a locally-brewed beer to bring back home with me. Sometimes it’s as easy as throwing a six pack in the car. Sometimes it involves carefully packing a few cans away in my suitcase, hoping they don’t cause problems at the airport. I realize it’s not true smuggling, but it’s fun nonetheless. Oddly enough, this month’s beer makes mention of smuggling it right on the packaging!

This month on Arts & Crafts, we enjoyed an amber lager from Colorado Native. This beer is only available in Colorado, so it was a good one to bring home with me. It was actually part of a mixed sampler pack from Colorado Native. The “Trail Pack,” as they call it, featured their Mountain Pass Pils, West Slope IPA, Cerveza Nativa, and the Amber. I never got around to trying the other beers in the sampler, so you’ll have to ask my co-host, Reid Doehling, his thoughts on those brews.

The Colorado Native Amber is smooth and delicious. This amber lager measures at 5.5% alc/vol and is noticeably smooth for the style. The malitness is quite apparent, which is to be expected from an amber lager. I didn’t find it overly malty, as some ambers tend to be.

What caught my attention in this amber lager was the hoppiness. Not nearly as hop-heavy as an IPA, of course, but enough to be noticeable. Most amber lagers don’t give off a notable hoppiness, so this one stood out. It’s listed at 38 IBU, which makes sense given the bitterness. I found the sweet style of the amber lager balanced well with this relatively hoppy flavor.

Colorado Native describes the Amber as a “beer for any Colorado occasion. Sessionable, yet flavorful. Crisp, malty sweetness. Balanced hoppiness. You’ll like it. Probably love it. Maybe even smuggle it.”

They were right.

The branding is actually what put me on the path to purchasing this beer. While spending time in Denver and the surrounding area, I noticed a few billboards advertising the Colorado Native Cerveza. The branding grabbed my attention and stuck with me. I found myself keeping an eye out for anything from Colorado Native. It wasn’t until the last day of my trip that I even had time to stop into a liquor store. As I browsed the local beer selection, the now-familiar Colorado Native branding caught my eye.

Colorado Native has impressive branding that utilizes local themes and imagery. The brewery loco features the familiar red ‘C’ with a yellow circle found on the Colorado state flag. The packaging makes use of mountain imagery, trees, streams, and other local elements of nature. Each beer style features a different animal on the packaging. Moose, hawks, rams, and coyotes adorn the cans. The colors vary from style to style as well, each using a different color to represent the sky. The Amber features tree imagery and a moose standing before orange mountains, set against a dark green sky. The matching orange type is perfect.

I’m not sure I’ve ever encountered beer packaging I’ve admired more than this. It’s absolutely perfect. From the imagery, to the colors, to the typography, and everything in between, the Colorado Native packaging does an excellent job of telling the story of the brand. As someone with experience in beer packaging design, I’m thoroughly impressed.

I highly recommend picking up this amber lager if you find yourself in Colorado!

Check out episode 10 of Arts & Crafts, in which we discuss how social media has changed music and art as a whole. The podcast is available on your favorite streaming services. We’re now releasing two new episodes each month! Look out for a new episode on the first Friday of each month.