SPICE from Page 50

much of his trip to the spice shop to pick out the right peppers.

“It was kind of fun,” Guenzel says.

“Dan and I started pulling peppers off the shelves.”

Hayward says he steered Left Hand to the right chili powders to give the beer a kick.

“We kind of went through the whole chili wall,” he says. “We just started smelling a few things, he took some samples with him and they came up with anchos, smoked serranos and brown chipotles to make their pepper porter. And it’s been a huge hit.”

Usually, Hayward says, he works with breweries on a much smaller scale. Brewers from Left Hand, Avery, Twisted Pine, Oskar Blues and others come to the spice shop for a small

quantity early in their process, when they’re making samples, test brews and taproom-only beers.

Guenzel says he and other Left Hand brewers go to Savory “as often as we can, whenever I have something that calls for flavorings or spices.” Unfortunately, he says, that’s only about once a year, although Left Hand has been working with Savory for six years, starting with the spice shop’s Denver location.

And once the spices are picked, Left Hand typically works with the store and its suppliers to get the volume the brewers need. Guenzel says the pepper porter required “close to 700 pounds” of the chili powders.

Penzeys did not respond to requests for an interview by press time.

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