Colorado Breweries Tour

My wife and I visited Denver for a week back in November. We visited many of the fine breweries and other institutions of Colorado. Here is a recap of all of them. Some might be old news at this point since when I wrote most of this stuff up it was only like a week after we got back.

Tasty Weasel - Oskar Blues Production Facility and Brewpub
1800 Pike Rd.
Longmont, Colorado, 80501

http://picasaweb.google.com/danielgn...selLongmontCO#
A pretty big facility that just got a couple of new 200 barrel fermentation tanks. The place was empty when we arrived on Sunday afternoon, so we got to talk a lot with Beth the bartender. She was super cool. Our tour was awesome as well since it was just us. Nick, the hungover tour guide, let us look at whatever we wanted and go anywhere in the facility. He mentioned that they are experimenting on a barleywine right now. I noticed that there is some in one of the barrels. Wish I would be around when that was getting tapped. Even with the new fermentation tanks they don't have any plans to expand into new states right now. The only disappointment was not getting to see the canning line in action as they only work during the week.
As for drinks, I was able to have Barrel Aged Ten Fidy, fresh Gordon and Barrel Aged Old Chub. All were awesome. This was my favorite place of all of the ones visited. It would definitely be my hang out if I lived in the area.

Oskar Blues Homemade Solids & Liquids
1555 South Hover Street
Longmont, CO 80501

http://picasaweb.google.com/danielgn...idsLongmontCO#
Oskar Blues' newest restaurant is about 3 minutes away from the Tasty Weasel. Unlike Tasty Weasel which was a ghost town, Homemade Liquids & Solids was very busy. Luckily we were able to score a table without wait, but about 15 minutes later there was a wait the rest of the night we were there. About 35-40 taps with some really good choices, plus the option to get 5 2-3 oz samples for $10 allows you to put a good dent in the list. In addition to the great beer and food, they have a game room full of pinball, classic games and a couple of units with tons of games on it.

Mountain Sun
1535 Pearl St.
Boulder, Colorado, 80302

http://picasaweb.google.com/danielgn...nSunBoulderCO#
We stopped at the Mountain Sun for lunch prior to heading to Avery for the afternoon. Pretty good beers. The FYIPA was actually pretty freaking awesome. One of the better IPA's I've ever had. Comparable to Odell IPA I think. The Super Kind is a barleywine-esque beer. They double up their Colorado Kind Pale Ale. The burger was decent. Our hippy waiter reminded me of this guy. His vocabulary consisted of Right On and Alright Alright.

Avery Brewing
5763 Arapahoe Avenue Unit E
Boulder, Colorado, 80303

http://picasaweb.google.com/danielgn...ngCoBoulderCO#
Arriving after lunch expecting to have a couple of beers and then go on tour at 2 pm. I was surprised to see that tours are at 4 pm. Looks like a case of dyslexia hits again. So with about 3 hours to kill, I got a couple of samplers and searched the game shelf for something to do. Scattegories was the choice. 6 beers and 20 some odd games later it was time for the tour. The tour was very interesting. Avery's facilities are spread out between a few different buildings. Compared to all of the other breweries visited Avery is pretty tiny. Avery is on track for 17k barrels this year according to our guide.

Falling Rock
1919 Blake St
Denver, Colorado 80202

http://picasaweb.google.com/danielgn...gRockDenverCO#
Greatest bar ever. Bartender with a missing tooth, 70+ beers on tap, chilling at the bar in the middle of the day and you have yourself an awesome experience. The sheer number of tap handles and bottles throughout the place is an impressive site. Chicken wings were a nice snack. Not much else to say. If you are ever in Denver and don't go to Falling Rock you suck at life.

Great Divide
2201 Arapahoe Street
Denver, Colorado, 80205

http://picasaweb.google.com/danielgn...ivideDenverCO#
A couple of trips were made to Great Divide during the week in Denver. The first was to stop in and grab a bottle of BA Hibernation. While there I had a Berliner Weiss which had a really nice aroma, but the flavor really lacked. We came back later in the week for a tour, which was led by a pretty cool and cute chick. The Great Divide tap room had the best looking females of all of the places. Just saying if that is part of your visiting criteria. Great Divide just added a bunch of new tanks as well. They are also going to be moving to 24 hour brewing in the next week. I got to get seriously up close with some bottles of BA Ruffian. It tried to get one, but they were not having any of it. It's supposed to be released on Dec. 15th and the BA Yeti on Jan. 15th.

Bull and Bush Brewpub
4700 Cherry Creek Dr. South
Denver, Colorado, 80246

http://picasaweb.google.com/danielgn...dBushDenverCO#
This was a quick lunch stop on the first day we arrived. Allegedly one of the oldest brewpubs in Denver, this old cottage looking building sports one of the best logos. I had the Stonehenge Stout. It was a solid version of an English Stout. Not much else to say about this place. Didn't spend enough time to sample more beers.

Odell Brewery
800 East Lincoln Ave.
Fort Collins, Colorado, 80524

http://picasaweb.google.com/danielgn...llFtCollinsCO#
On the outskirts of downtown Ft. Collins, Odell is a newer looking facility that is still undergoing construction as it expands both it's brewpub and brewing areas. They have samplers of 6 beers for $4 and then give you a wooden coin that allows you to either donate the $4 to their chosen charity of the month or take $4 off merchandise. They had a few different beers on tap, including their version of Hoptimus Prime (brewed by CSU students) and a peach beer which I thought was a pretty good version. Had a nice fresh peach aroma along with a good tart flavor. The tour was a little short and kind of hectic as we went on a Tuesday in the middle of the day. The brewing facilities is not that big so it felt like we were in the way the entire time. Forklifts were moving pallets of beer from the bottling line to the cooler. I did find it interesting that the only place they keep note of what is in each of the fermentation tanks is on a dry erase board. The tour guide said that it might be a bit of an issue if the board was erased.

New Belgium
500 Linden Street
Fort Collins, Colorado, 80524

http://picasaweb.google.com/danielgn...umFtCollinsCO#
The 3rd largest craft brewer and their facilities show it. This place is freaking huge. Multiple state of the art buildings that boast many "green" features. If you are going on a tour they give you a free drink token and then 5 free beers throughout the tour. Unfortunately, unless you are on a personal tour those beers are the pretty boring standard lineup. Their fall wild ale was about the most interesting offering available and it was mostly mediocre. Didn't get to see the area where all of the the barrels that creat New Belgium's prized sours are stored. The bottling line they have is in an entire building to itself and is seriously impressive. The passion that the employees of New Belgium have for their company is inspiring. After one year of service they get to become a stockholder and partial owner of the company as well as a cool ass cruiser bicycle. Despite not being cool enough to see or taste any of the beers that I actually like from NB, it was cool to visit.

Dry Dock
15120 E. Hampden Ave.
Aurora, CO 80014

http://picasaweb.google.com/danielgn...ewingAuroraCO#
GABF Gold Medal winning small brewpub of the year was the final stop in our week of travel throughout the Denver area. Growing up in Aurora, IL, it was cool to get to another Aurora. In a strip mall this smallish space connected to a homebrew shop was blowing up around 4 pm on Friday. We were able to grab the last 2 open spots at the bar. All of the 6 beers that I had were really good. Favorites were the Hefe, DIPA and Vanilla Porter. Plus free popcorn is always a positive.

Last set is a little bit of beer porn that was shipped back home.






Thanks for reading. Hope the post is enjoyable and informational.

Good job. I've been to most of the places reviewed - quite of few times for some of them - and have always enjoyed the experiences.

Sweet trip! Looks like you hit all the big ones - we were in Colorado for the Great American Beer Fest in September, and made most of the same stops. If you broaden your colorado travelings, Colorado Boy Brewery is small, but worth the trip. Very close to Ouray, "Switzerland of America", which is full of hot springs, jeep tours, and similar activities. As a side note, it also inspired Galt's Gulch in Atlas Shrugged.


Colorado Boy Brewery
( 604 Clinton Street
Ridgway, CO 81432
(970) 626-5333