My girlfriend and I just started thinking Colorado in the summer months would be a great outdoor activity trip. Perhaps some mountain biking, white water rafting, hiking etc.. I'd love to hear some recs of how I can optimize brewery visits with outdoor activities. Please voice all opinions, where to stay, how to get around, where to eat, what to drink. My girlfriend doesnt want to stay in Denver as she thinks it will turn too beer focused. Another thing I'd like to mention is, I want to try Casey beers for sure while im there. Help a BA out.
Great food, beer, social activities with some Mountain adventure: Stay in Boulder, as close to the mountains as you can. Great hiking, rock climbing, fly fishing, mountain biking, trail running right in town. Within an hour is rafting and excellent hiking/mountaineering/backpacking. Tons and tons of breweries within biking distance. Great mountain adventures with some food, beer, and little social activities: Stay in Salida/Buena Vista. Climb a 14er, do some whitewater rafting, mountain biking. Sparse but excellent breweries and some decent food. Almost nothing going on after 10pm, though. You'll have a hard time finding Casey with either of those, but a harder time with Boulder.
It's a little pricey, but we really enjoy Beaver Creek and Vail valley. Tons of outdoor rec: mountain biking, hiking, fly fishing, white water rafting, etc. You can get any of the above via a local guide service, or do some research and go it by yourselves. I recommend the Booth Falls hike, not too tough with a beautiful water fall - trail head off the East Vail exit. Save a few bucks and stay in Edwards or down in Eagle. While your girlfriend will absolutely love it, the brewery selection is not like down on the front range. New brewery in Vail, which is open, but we have not been over. Crazy Mountain Brewery in Edwards doesn't have a pub, but when we went, they showed us around and we had a few tastes. Gore Range Brewery in Edwards has decent beer and food, and there is at least one brewery in Eagle (15 miles west). I think I'm missing a couple of others. The good news is a large portion of the bars and restaurants are craft brew friendly. Excellent happy hours at E-Town in Edwards. The Vail Alehouse has a decent selection in tap. Try to hit a couple of the best breweries in Denver on the way up to the mountains, and on the way out - tell your girlfriend she needs to compromise somewhat because of the great time she had in the mountains.
I forgot - there are four breweries 20 miles to the east in Breckenridge, Frisco, Dillon, and Silverthorne. Also, a brewery in Idaho Springs you could hit on the drive up I-70.
What do you really want to do and how much time do you have? If you are an average american then stay in Boulder and do what Alexipa suggest. You will have a good time and can get out and do the things he mentioned while hitting good breweries in the afternoons. If you are an avid outdoorsman and really active then get to the high country. Crested Butte, Salida, Aspen, Durango or Steamboat or all of em. Elevation is real here and you can get seriously hurt rafting, hiking or biking in the mtns, you need to do your homework and evaluate you own skills before asking for outdoor suggestions in the mtns. With all the snow the mtns have had lately the rivers will be running high and fast. You will be mtn biking or hiking in real mtns that are rocky and steep. The news here has articles all the time about people getting hurt who thought it would be fun to do something in the mtns without doing there homework.Are you bringing bikes or renting when here? Good beer is easy to find here.
Casey B&B is open the first Saturday of every month and is located in beautiful Glenwood Springs. There's plenty of great hiking spots in the area including Hanging Lake.
If you end up staying on the north/west/Boulder part of Denver, a short trip into Denver (not far off I70) to Small Batch Liquors will solve your Casey fix. They currently have plenty of bottles of East Bank and Saison on the shelf. Let me know if you want me to pick up one or two to guarantee them for you as I don't live far from there at all.
We did a Casey release last year in the morning, hiked hanging lake in the afternoon, then camped a couple nights off Cofee Pot Road in White River National Forest . I would recommend a vehicle with 4WD but not necessarily a truck or SUV. We made it in the girlfriend's Subaru without trouble. The road to open campgrounds is narrow and steep with no guardrail, and is genuinely terrifying in places, but the view of the canyon from the top of the plateau is incredible and the camping is wooded and secluded.
You can definitely build at least a weekend around a Casey release, we've done it 3-4 times now. If you're coming in the summer I'd recommend checking out Carbondale for Roaring Fork brewery, Carbondale Beer Works, an extensive mountain bike trail system, and good hiking (Mt. Sopris is nearby if you want a real challenge). Carbondale is only about 15 minutes from Glenwood Springs. You can also drive down to Aspen (about an hour from Glenwood Springs) for a ton of other outdoorsy options and a better food/nightlife selection. There is some awesome high desert mountain biking in Fruita (to the west of Glenwood Springs) but it would probably be too hot in the summer unless you hit it on a cooler weekend. Happy planning!
You could also go the Colorado Springs route. Theres tons of cool light trails to hike in the area like Helen Hunt falls, Garden of the Gods, and Cheyanne canyon, all of which is fairly close to Trinity. Woodland park has a couple tap rooms that I have heard great things about, and you can shoot west from there to spinney reservoir or 11 mile for some gold medal trout fishing.
Thank you so much everyone for your generous replies and useful tips.. I will undoubtedly contact a few of you for help in the near future.. Let the posts coming for future BAs who wish to do the same
I'm realizing that someone needs to create a new beer festival/oudoor drinking challenge with the same title as this thread: Colorado Mountain Man + Beer Adventure! I'm sure it's totally illegal...I've got the patent pending though!
Chill every time I've been there. It helps that they're located 2.5-3 hours away from the closest metropolis. People get there in the wee hours of the morning but it really is nonsense. The fact of the matter is - if you're in line right before the door open at 11AM, you're going to get what you came for. This has been the result of the last couple "BIG" releases.
Thanks a lot for the info.. People show up in the wee hours for magnums or what? What are the wee hours - 8:00, 9:00?
Earlier and many (most?) of them didn't even purchase magnums at the last release. Try and figure that one out... Troy has done a great job on figuring out his bottle limits vs turnout. I'd say get there at a reasonable time in the morning and you'll be fine. If you sleep through your alarm and get there right at 11AM you're still fine. Again, this is just how the past couple releases have gone.
I showed up around 12:30pm for the April release and was still able to get everything. Also it's worth sticking around for a while because there's a good chance Troy will pour a few bottles of stuff he's working on later in the afternoon. I have a buddy flying in for the July release which i'm sure will be pretty packed since it's their 1 year anniversary.
