Colorado BAs - Tips for travel

Sounds like you're camping in RMNP but if you find yourself in Estes Park for an afternoon you gotta check out The Barrel. Although it's a bar and not a bottle shop it's right downtown and has a great tap list (link) with a lot of great stuff you can't get at home.

It's new and worth taking a peek.

 

is that the place right on the main drag downtown with a big outdoor area? Walked past it last week and it looked like a great tap selection and a cool spot

 

Yep, same place. All outdoor seating and the serving area is a converted shipping container. Pretty outlandish set up but I dug the vibe.

 

Awesome! Thanks! I looked at the tap list and while I'm probably focusing on Colorado beers while there, they've got Moose Drool on nitro - which I must say - I fell in love with in Jackson Hole a few years ago! Cheers!

 

Glad I found this thread. I'm heading to the area tomorrow night for a long wedding weekend. I got some good tips in the three breweries to visit thread, but this was a good supplement.

Any tips or suggestions for the Longmont/Lyons area for bottle shops or beer bars not already mentioned? We have an air b&b in Longmont and the wedding is in Lyons. I hope to hit up Oskar Blues and left hand at a minimum in between my duties as arm candy to a bridesmaid.

Also - I will be hitting up comrade while staying in aurora with an old buddy before the wedding festivities begin. Any other recs for that side of town? We may want to catch a preseason game on Thursday - any recs on a great beer bar that has a ton of tvs and satellite package? Does falling rock fit the bill?

 

Powder keg is in Niwot but close enough to where you'll be. Definitely worth a stop - and since you'll be down the street, hit up Avery.

Falling rock generally has sports on. But I would recommend knowing what you want when the bartender asks you. Otherwise...

 

Yak and Yeti is great in Arvada if you're also looking for a meal (Indian). They have a gabf gold winning IPA among other fine beers.

 

If you go to Comrade you should hit Grapevine! It's close and one of the best bottle shops in town. Be SURE to hit the cooler, ask if it's not apparent

 

I can't help with anything beyond OB in Lyons and the places already mentioned on the southeast side, but, go Pack!

 

For bottle shops, PJs and Three Rivers in Longmont. If you go to Boulder, Liquor Mart, Hazels, and Whole Foods.

Agree with Powder Keg in Niwot.

 

One more thing, Oskar Blues HMLS in Longmont is having a Crooked Stave Artisans Tap Takeover tomorrow night. Not sure everything that they will have, but know of a few things that could be worth your while.

 

Thanks for all the tips. I ended up hitting places that were convenient for all the other stuff happening on this quick trip.

Comrade was great. They were out of super power but the honeyman was excellent. Could've gone without the music from the guy wandering around with an electric guitar with a wireless feed into the house pa playing with laptop tracks though.

I hit all three Oskar Blues locations. The tasting room was great and I got to try ba ten fidy, death by coconut, one nut, and Bolivia Newton John. All very good. Food at the Longmont restaurant was good. Wings were some of the best I've had in a while.

Also hit lefthand. Nice enough, but nothing really stood out.

For shops, I picked up mix six at liquor mart in Boulder and a few bombers from whole foods. The odd 13 pineapple mango sour was really good, as was the st. Bretta with tangerine from crooked stave.

Thanks for all the tips along the way!

 

Thank you for that tip, my searches for the Estes area were coming up fairly short for the Beercation next week.

 

If you are going to Estes Park you may end up going through Loveland. Loveland has 7 small breweries but the biggest is Grimm Brothers which is german-style beers. Good stuff.
Loveland also has one of the Largest sculpture parks in the country (Benson Park) and the most sculpture foundries of any city in the united states.
Black Bottle in Fort Collins makes really good beers, but they also have a really nice tap list of guest beers as well- and they also have a full bar.
Liquormax in Loveland has a surprisingly huge selection of singles (I am about to write a place review) and decent prices.
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For the Denver stuff, I really like Epic and I also like a little place in arvada called Odyssey Bierworks.

 

We were planning on taking 34 into Estes from Ft. Collins. A stop in Loveland is now sealed, wasn't on the radar before so thank you.

 

Don't forget about Verboten in Loveland!
It's pretty close to Grimm and also offers some great brews.

 

Yeah Verboten has some good stuff as well. But Verboten is temporarily closed until January 2016 while they relocate.

 

Rambo's is an excellent beer store - it's about a mile out of Estes Park and Matt Rambo takes great pride in his family store - small shop but excellent selection. So my take having done it and being from the East Coast - there's no need to "stock up" before you get to Estes Park (unless you're a local who is more familiar with CO beers!).