Mountain Sun marks 30 years of Stout Month in Boulder with massive tap list

The Mountain Sun family of brewpubs is embracing the dark side once again with the return of Stout Month, its annual February tradition dedicated to bold, flavorful stouts.

Now in its 30th year, Stout Month brings nearly two dozen versions of the style to the taps at Mountain Sun’s original Pearl Street location, Southern Sun on South Broadway, and the Long’s Peak Pub and Taphouse on Long’s Peak Ave. in Longmont. This will also be the first year since 2020 that Stout Month returns to the company’s Vine Street Pub & Brewery in Denver; the location closed during the Covid-19 pandemic and reopened last summer.

Each location will have Mountain Sun’s core beers on tap, along with a rotating selection of 10 stout taps. Different batches will roll out at different times throughout the month to keep the lineup fresh.

To kick off the month, the tap list will feature:

• Addiction Imperial Coffee Stout
• Coconut Cream Stout
• Dropkick American Stout
• Megatron Imperial Hoppy Stout
• Mountain Sun Cream Stout
• Nihilist Russian Imperial Stout
• Norwegian Wheat Stout
• O’Stengl’s Dry Irish Stout
• Spice Rack Chai Cream Stout
• Thunderhead Stout

Additional variations appearing include Oatimus Prime Imperial Oatmeal Stout, Montserrat Foreign Export Stout, Girl Scout Stout and 2019 GABF medal-winning Yonder Mountain Oatmeal Stout. Stouts are available for on-site pours only in the tasting rooms and are not eligible for growler fills.

An exciting addition to this year’s lineup is Strong Shot, a rye barrel-aged imperial coffee stout, according to head brewer John Fiorelli. The beer is based on Mountain Sun’s Addiction Imperial Coffee Stout but aged in rye whiskey barrels.

“We’ve done this before, but we haven’t had access to barrels for quite a few years now, nor the labor or the time to deal with filling barrels,” Fiorelli said.

The coffee for both beers is sourced from Salto Coffee in Nederland, and the blend has been tweaked to complement the barrel character in Strong Shot.

“Their owner and roaster has worked with us for years. It’s an amazing collaboration we have with them,” he said.

Another new addition to the lineup this year is Warm. With a base of imperial oatmeal stout, the beer is aged in barrels made from Brazilian amburana, a hardwood native to South America that “does the craziest things,” Fiorelli said.

“This wood infused all kinds of baking-spice character into the finished beer,” he said, adding cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla notes to the final beer. “Anyone that tries this beer and doesn’t read the description is definitely going to think that it’s a spiced beer, but there are no spices whatsoever.”

Fiorelli emphasized that he and the Mountain Sun team work to ensure a variety of options will be available at any given time. There will be heavy beers, strong beers, light beers, easy-drinking beers, flavored and unflavored varieties.

“Our big mantra for Stout Month is that there should definitely be something for everyone on the tap wall,” he said. “A lot of people think stout is just a big, heavy beer because it’s dark in color, and we love to educate people that we do have very approachable, low-ABV stouts. We really take the time to diversify the tap wall.”

The Stout Month tradition began with Mountain Sun’s first brewer, Jack Harris. Mountain Sun owner Kevin Daly said Harris began brewing a variety of stouts and sourcing guest stouts from all over the country for the early iterations. As the company increased its brewing capacity over the years, more of those brews came from in-house.

“The last few years we made exclusively our own stouts,” he said, noting that brewers started cranking out batches of various stouts in the summer to have roughly 190 barrels, or 380 kegs, worth of beer.

While stout may seem like an unusual style to feature — it lacks the cachet of IPAs or the easy approachability of lagers — Daly said Stout Month has become a highlight on the company’s annual calendar.

“It’s become a phenomenon, one of our busiest months. It’s become a celebration, a big party,” he said. “We have customers that will come in almost every day to try different stouts.”