Colorado Brewery Embraces the Comfort Trend
Over the last year, the restaurant and brewery industries have had to pivot and reinvent ourselves so many times we might just be permanently dizzy. From expanding our outdoor seating on our patio into the parking lot, adding heaters and putting HEPA air-filters inside — to washing our hands more times than any human should. But, we’re confident 2021 will bring some huge relief from Covid-19 restrictions and bring us back to something more like normal. Relaxing, times of hanging with friends on the regular, enjoying good conversation over delicious food and a finely crafted beer are on the horizon. In the meantime, take advantage of all the new-normal has to offer.
The upspin of Covid-19 restrictions is it
forced us to launch full force our to-go take-out service. We were happy to
have been able to be one of the first local places to be able to implement this
service shortly after the initial shut-downs for our customers and we expect
the trend of to-go to continue for quite some time. We are definitely making
this a permanent feature for our customers.
Our heaters are also here to stay. We’ve loved extending the patio season so we
can enjoy the 300 days of Colorado sunshine, and this is a feature you will be
able to enjoy for years to come.
So, when you are looking for some delicious Longmont food and beer from one of your favorite Longmont breweries or Longmont restaurants, know we will continue to be here for ya!
Want some recommendations of what is hot right now at 300 Suns?
Indulge your inner Longmontster with comfort food in 2021.
After a year like 2020, we all need some comfort food. At 300 Suns we know there is great joy in having a good friend by your side, a craft beer in your hand and a plate of something that makes your mouth water in front of you.
Nashville Hot Chicken Sandwich
Hey, we didn’t invent the Nashville hot chicken sandwich, but we are excited to be one of the first locations in Longmont to bring this now-trending favorite to our customers. And boy is Chef Nate and the Nomad Kitchen team doing it right. If you never heard of Nashville Hot Chicken, then you are in for a treat and something you won’t soon forget.
Nashville Hot Chicken probably originated in Nashville’s African-American communities back as far as the 1930’s. One establishment, Prince’s Hot Chicken Shack, owned by André Jeffries claims the origin’s lie with his great uncle who owned the establishment in the 30’s: “my uncle was a womanizer, and he was out late one night, and by revenge his lady friend the next morning cooked some chicken and to get him back she poured all this pepper on it, to get him back. But he liked it; so he told his friends about it and the word got around, so he asked her to keep cooking some more. So that’s–that’s the story; so but it was for punishment but it was something that turned into our business.” (Interview, southernfoodways.org)
We’ve heard that our spin on the Nashville Hot Chicken is the closest to getting it in Nashville you will get west of the Mississippi. Our hand-breaded chicken is doused in your choice of heat level – Classic which is mildly hot and made with the Cayenne pepper (30,000-50,000 Scoville Heat Units), Habanero (350,000 SHU), Poultrygeist which is made with Ghost Peppers (1,041,427 SHU) or The Reaper which is screamin’ hot. It is made with the world’s hottest pepper, the Carolina Reaper at 1,400,000 SHU. But of course, the sandwich is topped with homemade pickles and slaw to help cool your mouth down with each bite. This sandwich is such a natural pairing with any beer — try it with a milder Czech Lager, SMASH or pair it with the hoppy bite of an IPA which is actually tamed by the heat of this sammy.
Birria Tacos
Pronounced “beerrrreeeahhhhh” (followed by “yummmmmm”), Birria refers to a rich Mexican goat stew, originating from the Mexican state of Jalisco that has likely been around for hundreds of years. Apparently, the Conquistadors introduced goats to the indigenous peoples of Mexico and they became quite like pests. So native peoples began eating them to control the population of goats, and birria was born.
Birria Tacos take that delicious slow-cooked meat and put it on tortillas with the broth used for dipping. Our take on the birria taco features braised beef short ribs with Monterey jack cheese grilled to melty deliciousness on flour tortillas and served with a side of chili beef broth topped with cilantro and onion for dipping your taco into.
Our Trail Marker IIPA with its malty backbone and piney undertone is delicious with the rich, sweetness of our Birria Tacos.
Beer, Cider and Cocktails To-go – Keepin’ It Fresh
2020 brought us a unique option in to-go beverages. Not only could we continue to offer our beer in 32 oz. fresh-canned crowlers™ to-go, as well as 64 oz. glass growlers, but we were given the leeway to send cider and canned cocktails home with our customers, too.
We aren’t sure how long this relaxation to the liquor laws will last, so take advantage now!
Here are some recommendations on keeping your craft beer fresh when getting them to-go:
Growlers (62 ounce glass, or otherwise, containers)
Properly sealed and kept cold, growlers can last for several days. Quality deteriorates daily past that, but we can say we’ve open growlers several weeks old with little loss in quality. Once opened, however, you’ve introduced oxygen and released CO2, so the clock is ticking. Some references say if you cap it back off you have 36 hours before it goes flat, but you might find loss in quality much sooner than that.
Crowlers™ (32 oz freshly canned beer or cider)
Imagine hand canning a beer. Well, don’t imagine it, just watch it as we can them for you behind the bar on-demand. In theory, properly purged with CO2 and sealed, these beers “should” last as long as any canned beer from a canning line, but because it is a hand-process we err on the side of caution when predicting their freshness. You should probably drink within a few weeks. If you get a twist-off lid, you probably have less than that as it is filled more like a growler (see above). I wouldn’t sit these on a shelf and expect them to stay fresh, best to keep ’em cool in the fridge.
Beer in a plastic cup:
Thanks to losing of laws during the
pandemic, you can get any of our beers to-go in a single serving plastic cup if
you don’t have a long drive home (otherwise, we wouldn’t recommend letting your
beer sit for any length of time to go flat). We never would have dreamt when we
started our brewery almost 7 years ago we would be sending someone off with a
beer in a plastic lidded cup (with a government warning and tamper-proof seal
of course)!
Canned cocktails to-go:
We also sell locally-produced canned cocktails to-go. We encourage you to support your local craft distilleries by grabbing one from us (or them!)