New Colorado Breweries

Checked out Cerebral last night. Probably the smallest parking lot on the planet, but there was plenty of street parking on Colfax right by the brewery. A big, open tasting room with the usual set up of tables and chairs. Nothing spectacular, but it serves it's purpose.
I tried their oatmeal stout, english brown and robust porter. They were all solid representations of the styles. None wow'd me and I wouldn't go back for those beers, but I will definitely keep my eye on them.

 

Well I had a Brett pale ale dry hopped with Amarillo today there that knocked my socks off although that's exactly the kind of thing I've been home brewing pretty much exclusively for the last few years so I am a sucker for that.

last night 2 Amalgamations at Little Machine very very good (therefore 2 of them) & tasted my wife's Winter Lager (I would call it munich dunkel-like) and it was very good too.

 

So I guess according to the Westword Coda's splitting up and becoming two newish breweries. Denver area one is getting renamed & there will be a new Coda in Golden.

http://www.westword.com/restaurants...er-coda-brewing-after-ownership-split-7633089

 

I saw the name change on another beer news website but didn't actually read it, not ever even having been to Coda. Reading the Wesword article now though... yikes that does not sound like a pretty situation. I wonder how that will translate into future business for them both.

 

Weird about Coda. I kinda like that place, although parking is a total nightmare outside of off-hours. It's definitely not the area where you want to chance parking where you shouldn't either.
I'm assuming this won't affect the Cedar Creek Pub...will it?

 

Taking the day off and heading to FoCo. Any new breweries (opened in the past 0-8 months) you'd put your name on?

 

Zwei Brewing has been responsible for the best German beers I've had since Prost first opened.
Looks like their team is made up of former CB&Potts brewers.

 

Sounds like it's safe to say they trained under Bill Eye then? Am I reading between those lines correctly?

 

Domingo is right on Zwei. Kirk and Eric have something like 24 years combined brewing experience. Flawless German styles and actually some of the best IPAs in town. Love that place.

Others that are new and worth a stop: Jessup Farm Barrel House, McClellans for cask ales (though it ain't no Hogshead), and if you haven't visited it, Horse & Dragon (I think they are turning 2 in May).

 

No clue if they trained under him or if they are/were just buddies. From what I've heard, the guys at Potts have incredibly strict quality standards that they have to match. Apparently it's their ass if something isn't exactly to spec. As a result, anyone who has worked at one for any length of time = technically sound.
Looking at the Zwei website, it looks like they're even a step beyond that: http://www.zweibrewing.com/beers.aspx
Lots of hardware there.

 

Agree they are really making excellent style examples

 

So I checked out Jessup since it looked like they had an amazing barrel program. Pretty disappointed. The atmosphere was great and the employee pouring the beer was really cool, but then there's the beer. To start they only age the beers from a couple weeks to the most was 3 months. The aroma was there on some but the taste was lacking on all. Seems like they just want to crank out a lot of BA beers instead of taking the time and producing something of quality. Their non BA beers were better than their BA ones. Maybe they'll change in the future.

 

Definitely check out Zwei- their lagers are incredible...

Horse & Dragon makes arguably the best beer in town- Sad Panda. Once they get to packaging it, I predict it will take over the world.

 

Well now, I'd take you up on this. Best in Fort Collins? Nah. That means it's better than anything New Belgium, Odell, or Funkwerks put it. It's good yes, but I'm not gonna say it's close to the best.

 

I love it. Best flavored stout though? Yes.
Sorry, Lugene!

 

That's sort of the point. Jeff wants to create beers that aren't going to blow your face off with barrel character. I think it's fun. I think the place has a lot of potential and I'm sure once time passes he'll have some year+ aged stuff to release, but I guarantee there will always be not-so-old aged beers around.

I do agree that the base beers are better to my palate, but I very much enjoy the stuff in the barrels.

I hope you get another chance to go in the future!

 

Saw that New Image brewing has opened in the Arvada area. Per their Facebook

 

Just happened to see they had a beer on tap at Tap Fourteen (which I haven't been to yet). Might be worth checking out both spots

 

I'm going by New Image tomorrow night. I will report back.

 

Not brand new, looks like they've been open since June, but I haven't seen any mention of Vision Quest Brewing on this thread. I've been into the Boulder Fermentation Supply many times but somehow never realized there was a small taproom next door. The light up brewery sign caught my eye Thursday night on the tail end of a bike ride so I stopped by for a few tasters.

Really dig what these guys are doing. Super creative use of adjuncts and some unique twists on styles (a dunkleweiss using smoked malt for instance). If you're into brewing and want to talk recipes and techniques, this is probably the best place in town to grab a pint. Greg was super cool and offered tastes of a few small batches he didn't currently have on tap. The coconut IPA was the bomb! Really well executed Helles Lager too, probably one of my favorites I've had outside of Germany.

Edit: missed the post 2 pages ago by @WildDalby18 who went to the opening. Cheers!