Earlier this month I noticed Rockyard had revamped their line up of beers, and put them in cans now. I previously have not enjoyed their beers, but I found myself eating there tonight and thought what the hell and ordered a flight of their new stuff. I was pleasantly surprised by the new offerings. The pils, coffee stout, single hop IPA and especially the doppelbock were very good to great. I'm not saying they are the next weldwerks or comrade, but if you happen to be in castle rock, 105w should be a for sure, but don't count Rockyard out any more.
Rockyard is old school as hell. They were around before like 99% of the breweries in the state. Who else remembers that crazy collaboration Buddha's hand beer where Chad Yakobson, Jason Yester, Troy Casey, Dave Thibadeau, John Schneider, etc. all brewed down there? They had a BA stout on back when the only other ones were from Goose Island and the B&B. It feels like every few years they end up trying something new. Sometimes it works. Often times it doesn't and they go back to their wheelhouse. Hopefully this is something they can maintain. I've had some amazing beers down there and some horrid ones. The place is nearly always full so they might just not care about the beers as much as some places. I still see boatloads of Rockyard stickers/posters in Munich and always think it's funny. If only they knew how obscure that place is.
You are not wrong saying we are old school. We opened our doors 4/20/1999. Flatly, we needed to change. We listened to our customers, who needed more from us. So, in turn, the last two GABFs we've brought home 2 gold medals. (1 each each year) These include gold for barrel aged sour 2017, Plum Creek Sour, and gold for our Eisbock warning sign in 2016. We also took home a world beer cup silver for the Eisbock in 2016. We as a staff are really proud of the turn around we've been able to achieve. I'd love to say thanks for the shout out here as well. It's awesome to see our efforts are not going unnoticed! Hope to have a beer with y'all sometime soon!
The plum creek sour was surprisingly good. I don't imagine you "accidentally" make a gold-medal winning beer in a tough category.
I need to try some of the new stuff. I don't think I've had a Rockyard beer in 2-3 years. I have fond memories of the old Bourbon Barrel Stout. It was way ahead of its time. There was a period of time where I'd drive down to Castle Rock from Englewood just to hit them up. The rougher beers I recall were mostly lagers. Feels like the focus has been on them and then off them at different moments in time. The joys of a rebrand/refocus I'm sure. Glad the place is still moving forward. My friends down that way say it's still perma-packed.
Definitely get back down there, Domingo! The packaging changes were huge but the new flavors are spot on. Easy drinking, crushable and hit the style in a 2018 way even though they've been open nearly 20 years... Props to the success of the rebrand, Rockyard - haven't tried the Pilsner yet by will be swinging by on Thursday to grab a pint and say Hi!
I'll be honest, the only beer I enjoyed from the old line up is silver back, and I was stoked to see it come back. The flight I grabbed surprised me, I wanted to try that blood orange wit but the keg kicked. That big secret ipa may be the best hoppy offering I have tried from you, the pineapple is huge. Keep it up!
Where are you? I think I saw some at Superior Liquors (Hwy 36 & McCaslin) last week. Will confirm next time I'm there.
