I'll be in Palmer Lake CO for a wedding from Thursday the 24th through Sunday the 27th. I didn't see any places listed in the directory so was curious if there are any decent bottle shops and/or breweries there or close by. I should have time to make a run either down to Colorado Springs or up to Denver if I need to find a good bottle shop. I figured Coaltrain in Colorado Springs would be the best spot if I head that way. If I go into Denver, I'll probably want to stay close to the I25 corridor. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Cheers!
If you are going down to the Springs: Bottle Shios Coaltrain Veterans J and K Cheers If you want to hit breweries there are plenty around. With so many opening it's getting hard to keep track but I know @StrongRepublican is a good resource.
Cork & Bottle in Monument usually has a pretty solid selection of beers. You're right there...and their prices are great. Pike's Peak Brewing is also right there in Monument...about a mile or two from Cork & Bottle on the other side of the highway. If you don't want to stray far from Palmer Lake, both are solid stops. If you want to venture north towards Castle Rock, Bubbles Liquor is right off I-25 and carries a lot of what other shops in Denver and the Springs carries.
Palmer Lake / Monument is a nice jumping off point in between Denver and the Springs, so really you can pick your poison. Definitely swing by Pikes Peak Brewing Co in Monument while you are in town and then based off your travel plans, you can decide on COS or DEN. Monument really only has one good bottle shop IMO (Corks & Bottles) and even then, a lot of beers just sit on the shelves (which can be good for hard to find stouts/scotch ales/etc and not so good for anything you want fresh). DividedAvery hit on our best bottles shops here in the Springs pretty well. As for breweries, I'd say Trinity is a must-visit spot for the beer, food, and overall atmosphere. After that, Ivywild School (home of Bristol Brewery) is a sweet spot - beer, cocktails, deli, bakery, everything under one roof. If you are doing some sight-seeing, check out the recently opened Manitou Springs Brewery (in Manitou of course) after walking through the town, checking out gift shops, etc.
^^^ Bubbles has a great selection of six packs and cans (and a solid pick-6), but is shit for bombers/750ml/small batch releases.
Thanks for the tips. I'll definitely check out both Cork & Bottle as well as Pikes Peak Brewing. I'd love to go to a few of the other breweries as well, but I'll have to see how much time family events are going to take up. Cheers!
Just wanted to give a big thank you to skeeterboganski, strongrepublican, dividedavery for the advice. My trip was a major success. Oh, and the wedding was nice as well. I hit up Pikes Peak and sampled a flight of their offerings. Solid across the board, but I really enjoyed the seasonal Berlinerweisse as well as the Little London English Mild Ale. I also took home a T-shirt to advertise my beer geekery as well as a couple bombers of the barrel-aged stout. Time commitments meant I couldn't make it to Trinity or any other breweries but I have a list for next time. I also emptied my wallet at both Cork and Bottle and Coaltrain. I picked up a wide variety of local Colorado beers including Boulder, Upslope, Paradox, Trinity, Epic, Dry Dock and Oskar Blues. Also found a great bounty of other deliciousness including The Bruery, Fiftyfity, Peche Mortel, Oak-aged La Trappe, Port/Lost Abbey, Beercamp and the last Dogfish 120 that Cork&Bottle had. So again, thanks. My taste buds and cellar love you, but unfortunately my wallet hates you.
I got my 2 bottles from Coaltrain in the Springs. They still had maybe 4-6 bottles on the shelf as of Saturday about 11am.
