[Posted February 15] Once or twice a year I get to rendezvous with a local group of six veteran “beer guys,” led by beer maestro Lew Cady. Our mission: to find a day we can all meet to visit Colorado breweries we haven’t visited yet. That’s getting easier with over 130 breweries in Colorado and more than 60 in planning.
We made it a date both in April and October 2011. We didn’t have to go too far.
April showers grow hop flowers
Our afternoon tour in April took us first to Bull & Bush Pub & Breweryin Glendale a suburb of Denver. It’s a solid and well grounded English style pub established in 1971, brewing its first beer in 1997. Good grub and solid English style ales and assorted German and American craft styles thrown in for superlative measure. From there we journeyed to the south metro area of Denver to Dry Dock Brewing Company– brewery and pub in Aurora. If you find yourself crossing their threshold, be prepared to get blown away with their astounding variety of extraordinary beers. If the beers aren’t enough for you, adjacent in the open space area you’ll find an expansive and complete homebrew supply retail shop, called The Brewhut. View the aging barrels of specialty beers. I marveled at the fact that they were selling 600 half-gallon growlers of their beer each week. That comes out to nearly 10 barrels of beer a week sold as growlers filled fresh and out the door weekly. It was hard departing, but we did.
We don’t need no stinkin’ limes
Next we scooted to a growing packaging brewery called Del Norte Brewing Company, in a very out of the way warehouse area in south Denver. They specialize in Mexican style lagers made in Denver a la “del norte” or to the north (of Mexico). Their beers impress. Smooth! - Each beer subject to 5 to 13 weeks of lagering time. Last April, the owner, brewer, truck driver, accountant, sales person and everyone else was wrapped up in one Joe Fox, a one man operation. With his motto, “We don’t need no stinkin’ limes,” he was looking forward to the day when he didn’t have to self distribute his beer to the 200+ retail accounts he was delivering to. Del Norte beershave won several medals at the Great American Beer Festival. These beers are not your typical Mexican beers offered in clear white glass bottles! I particularly enjoyed the 2010 Great American Beer Festival Gold medal winner in the American-style amber category, Mañana. His beers give me hope that local Mexican restaurants will someday have Mexican-style beer the way it used to be made.
Later in the afternoon things got strange. Actually we cruised over to the then one year old brewery, Strange Brewing Companyin Denver. It was a nano-size operation, busting at the seams. Started by homebrewers John Fletcher and Tim Myers, the brewery’s tap room offered pints of their latest creations brewed then on a one barrel system. On the loading dock sat several pieces of a recently delivered brewhouse waiting to be installed as an upgrade.
I concluded with a taste of cask-pulled English style ale at Pints Pub, across the street from the Denver City and County Buildings and Courthouse. Interestingly I was shown by my side-kick at the time, Marty Jones (Wynkoop), the small enclosed room where courthouse jurors frequently come for lunch. Whether they actually have a beer is not known, but they certainly would need one.
At this point it was time to call it a day – until October when …
Autumnal communion
…We met again in Loveland, Colorado as Autumn was under way. Loveland seems to get little respect, being overshadowed by nearby Fort Collins and their breweries. But I found Loveland has some spectacular local brews worthy of anyone’s beer escapade.
We started with lunch at the expansive and airy Loveland Rock Bottom Brewery - Centerra Promenade. They were doing a respectable lunch time mid day in mid week. The nearby movie theatre is the only one for many miles around, so it’s a go to tap room and restaurant for the locals from the area. The brown ale I had with lunch was as good as brown ale could ever get.
From Rock Bottom it was a short drive to craft brewery and tap room, Grimm Brothers Brewhouse. All their beers are named after Grimm Brothers Fairy Tales. You MUST go to the brewery website and click on the “No I am not over 21” button for a “What the …?” experience. Back to the visit: Wow, what a pleasant an astonishing experience. It’s a brewery specializing in old world pre-Reinheitsgebot German style beers. All of us must have said wow at least a dozen times as we sipped our way through Snow Drop Köttbusser Ale (an oat honey molasses light ale), Little Red Cap (Great American Beer Festival 2011 Gold Medal) Alt, Mater Thief German Porter (made with German hops, Kölsch yeast and described as sweeter and hoppier than English porter), Sooty Bros Gratz (a smoked light ale using malt smoked with oak and apple wood; 50% smoked Wheat and 50% pilsener malt) which was surprisingly smooth and sessionable. Jason Vangilur head Brewer presided over our visit and showed us their expansion under construction across the parking lot.
Our penultimate destination was a small tap room at the Big Beaver Brewing Company. From there we headed to my house for a tasting of my latest and aged homebrews.
Next: Getting really local with visits to Boulder and Denver breweries.
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