From Moab, Utah just west of the Colorado border we drove the journey to Salt Lake City. The unusually wide streets and a remarkable “old city” feeling struck me immediately. The city was easy to navigate; actually it’s probably the easiest city to get around in than any other its size in the USA. Skiing and mountains are only 30 minutes to the east; the brewers who live in Salt Lake live here because they really like it here.
I learned to like it too – especially the beer from the city’s eight breweries. Squatters Pub Brewery(and their partnered packaging Utah Brewers Cooperativehosted a gathering of Utah brewers during my first evening there. The topic was groundwork discussion concerning the establishment of a Utah Brewers Guild. A great spread of food followed with a spectacular variety of award winning house brewed ales and lagers. The beer was brewed by award winning brewster Jennifer Talley. Jennifer has since moved to Washington to take on a brewers position with Redhook Ale.
Uinta Brewing Companyhosted an American Homebrewers Association rally the next evening. A capacity crowd turned out to be treated to draft beers and special, hard to find barrel aged brews.
In between Guild meeting and American Homebrewers Association rally I managed to visit The Utah Brewers Coop, Bohemian Brewery and Grill, Desert Edge Brewery, Epic Brewing, Hoppers Grill and Brewingand Red Rock Brewing.
A meal at the Red Rock Brewing was a destination worth repeating along with its full menu of house brewed beers. They are doing it right with excellent food and cranking a lot of beer out of a relatively small brewhouse. Great stuff.
Epic Brewingjust opened within the past 10 months at the time of my visit. Their plan was to reach 3,000 barrels in two or three years. They blasted through that milestone within the first 6 months. Lots of great 4% abv draft, but their specialty offerings were bottled and exquisite barrel aged brews along with some powerful IPA’s and just plain phenomenally balanced brews. They have a retail shop inhouse and are able to sell direct to the beer drinker, but they are finding distributors far and wide asking for their brews – for good reasons.
Bohemian Brewery and Grill was a morning visit. Packaging their beers in cans they offer excellent 4% abv Czech style light lager, Vienna style and black lager as their mainstays. The Czech style restaurant and menu was inviting and when I go back a visit is in my plans. Their brews were full flavored and offered the opportunity to have several in one session. Check out the antique motorbike collection upstairs – that’s a real trip itself.
Hoppers offered a quick tour and visit in the morning hours while they were closed. Nice brewery equipment and an enthusiastic brewer took me around. That afternoon, I also made a quick visit to Dessert Edge: “3.2 and proud of it.” Offering a full variety of well brewed ales and lagers all at 3.2% abw/4.0% abv. Great ambiance and place to relax with a well thought out menu.
The weather was warming up and offered the opportunity to travel back home through southwest Colorado. So we did.
Next: Rural Southwest Colorado and a small malting company.
Comments