A toast and a suggested brew for three Colorado athletes (and an honorary Coloradan) who won medals

By Steve Graham

Colorado sent 36 athletes to the winter Olympics underway in South Korea, and three of them (plus one sort-of honorary Coloradan) have won medals. We thought we would honor each of these athletes with a fitting Colorado craft brew.

Red Gerard

Red Gerard of Silverthorne won the first gold medal this year for Team USA. The 17-year-old snowboarder isn’t old enough to drink (and we can’t confirm which beers his family was apparently shotgunning on the morning bus to the slopes), but we’re going to drink a Colorado Red in Red’s honor. Fittingly, Snowbank Brewing makes this strong and complex American red ale, which nicely balances caramel and malt flavors with citrus on the nose and some tropical hops.

Mikaela Shiffrin

Vail native Mikaela Shiffrin won gold in the women’s giant slalom, making her this season’s blonde. Originally a fittingly named spring seasonal, Aspen Brewing Company now brews This Season’s Blonde year-round. It is a light English pale ale with bright floral notes, and it is widely available in cans statewide.

Arielle Gold

Colorado snowboarder Arielle Gold may have celebrated her recent 21st birthday at Mountain Tap Brewery in her hometown, Steamboat Springs, before traveling to Pyeongchang and winning a bronze medal.

If so, it would have been appropriate for her to have been drinking the gold-hued Locals’ Lager. This light German pilsner is a smooth lager with a spicy hop finish.

Shaun White

OK, we know the Flying Tomato is from California, but we consider him partly local. He has honed many of his tricks at a private halfpipe in Silverton, and he is famous for his epic runs at the X Games in Aspen, where he has won more gold medals than any other athlete.

It all makes him something of a Cali-Rado collaboration, just like the Snowllaboration. Weldwerks brewed this juicy and delicious double New England IPA with Casa Agria in Oxnard, Calif.