Denver trip

I usually get a six pack in to Red Rocks. Equal mix of beer in pants and in hooded sweatshirt hood (they never seem to check there). That's a savings of approximately $72, and my beer is actually good.

 

Hi all, I'll be in Denver area for roughly a week in May. Looking like I'll have Wednesday afternoon and Thursday free to roam and get out of Denver for one night (if I want to). Thoughts on spending a night in either Boulder or Fort Collins? Mainly from a beer perspective, but also in a general "which city would be fun to hang out in sense?" No huge ambitions for the evening. Thursday day I may jump into the mountains for a quick trip in and out then back into Denver on Thursday night.

So, basically, if I had a midweek night to get out of Denver... Boulder or Fort Collins? Or somewhere else? I'll have a car.

From a beer perspective, I know the big names in these places, but don't know much about some of the smaller places like Odd13, etc. So interested in feedback. In terms of tastes, I'm pretty open to anything... like hops, big boozy stouts especially, but enjoy sour/funky stuff. Less interested in places devoted mostly/totally to things like lagers, although a spot with lots of options including some tasty lagers is great!

On other question if I may... for the first few days I'll be staying at the Denver Tech centre. Any decent bottle shops for some hotel beers nearby?

Anyway, thanks for the input, greatly appreciated!

 

Greeley. Hit up Weldwerks and Wiley Roots. Between WW and WR I feel this is your best bet. They will have sour/funky covered, big stouts, and hoppy beers. You're all set, and they are 3 minutes apart. They both have numerous to-go options if you want packaged beer.

If you want less driving, Odd13 / 4 Noses / Liquid Mechanics. Odd13 has hoppy and sour covered, they don't really make too many "big" stouts. 4 Noses is a great all around brewery and hidden gem. Liquid mechanics makes some tasty stouts and has some nice IPAs as well.

If you love IPAs, you can feasibly reach Outer Range in 1 hour from Denver if the weather is relatively normal. Plus you get to see awesome mountains. They also make some Belgian styles. I highly recommend this trip if you've never seen ski country in CO.

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From the DTC, your best bet is Davidsons to the S/W (~12 min). Check out the beer cave in addition to the cooler wall. They keep all the beer cool/cold.

 

If your intent is to get out of Denver and hit literally two breweries and enjoy some incredibly strong and unavoidable ‘agricultural aromoas’, Greeley is THE spot!

Otherwise there’s nothing there. Those breweries are fuckn great though...

Fort Collins and bolder are better options if you wanna do anything else... at all.

 

I'd also go with Ft. Collins. There are now something like 15 breweries to choose from, and that kind of competition has kept the quality really high. Plus, FoCo is actually a pretty cool town without the beer.

Boulder is probably the least beer-centric city that has been mentioned, but it's probably the one with the most other stuff to do. I'd keep that in mind depending on how beer-centric your visit is.

 

Thanks all!!!

When I travel I enjoy two things especially... exploring neighborhoods/areas on foot as much as possible, and drinking good beer. I'm not massively into touristy stuff, although I certainly do that as well. I just like "feeling places" if that makes any sense at all.

My plan was:

Leave tech centre Wednesday early afternoon... drive to a city/town. Explore, dinner, explore, beer. Bed. Next morning, get up, head into mountains (was thinking Estes area), back down into mountains and Thursday evening to end of weekend in Denver.

Weldwerks looks super attractive, but yeah, I'd like to have a bit more to do than just drink beer. Although maybe I could just pop by Fort Collins or Boulder for the afternoon and early evening, and then hunker down in Greely late evening. Not sure how much moving around that would mean and how workable it would be.

Thanks for the input all, really appreciate the advice!!

 

Greeley has a couple of really great breweries, but meets none of your other criteria and especially gets you further away from the mountains. Unless you have a couple extra hours to get in and out of there, I think you skip it. The other snag is that you won’t be around for a release day, so you can’t put that on the “plus” side of the ledger.

Fort Collins is great. Endless beer options, but maybe not a ton of cutting edge hops or boozy stout breweries (but some really good taprooms and bars). One downside is the best path to Estes from that angle is closed, so you’d have to get down to the Longmont area to hop over anyway.

I think the play here is Boulder/Boulder County. Big stouts screams Avery to me, and their brewery is destination-worthy itself. Boulder itself has all the “feeling places” across different walkable neighborhoods you could want. Expanding to Boulder County, you’re a 20 minute or less drive to Odd13 for your hazy hoppy stuff and the aforementioned and underrated 4 Noses for a mix of West and East Coast hops. Boulder is a good jumping off point for the mountains, too.

 

4 Noses legit might be one of the best in CO

 

You all rock, thanks!

 

Just to close the loop on my part of this thread, just got back from a fabulous week in Denver/Boulder. Thanks to everyone for the recommendations. Man, I hit up sooooo many cool spots!

 

You ever hit Bellwoods in TO? Love that spot.

 

Yeah been a bunch. Definitely a must do in Toronto!

 

Heading out in a few weeks. Mind sharing what you enjoyed?

 

Just got back from Denver yesterday. I hit quite a few places like cerebral, epic, black project, crooked stave, etc.

I really like black project. Great atmosphere and the sours were amazing. Cerebral was pretty sweet also. And they had some nice grilled cheese options if you're hungry. I was surprised epic had 4 NEIPAs on tap and they were pretty solid.

My friends wanted to hit Breckenridge, which I wasn't too excited about. The beer was average of course, but the food was solid and their facility is a really nice place. Had dinner and 2 beers and rolled out to another place.

 

Sure, as long as nobody gets judgy with all the beer spots I hit! I did see Denver and Boulder non-beer... I promise! :-) But it was hot, needed to stay hydrated.

***Highlights for me


Denver Bars/Breweries:

• ***Falling Rock Taphouse: Rep is well deserved. Something like 80 taps with a great mix of local/regional/national. Dive bar vibe, some people could be put off by some of the folks manning the bar (I F&#$#KING HATE IPA SO DON"T ASK ME WHAT TO TRY), but for me it worked.
• EPIC: New big industrial spot in RINO area. Cool place, great list with lots of range.
• ***Crooked Stave at the Source: Super cool taproom on the far east of RINO across the tracks. Maybe 30 of their beer on tap in a cool converted warehouse that contains lots of other interesting shops/bars. And right across the street from...
• Great Divide Barrel house: Big industrial location, the associated taproom is fun with maybe 20 of their taps.
• Freshcraft: good selection of local and regional beers with really good food, lively spot downtown.
• Comrade brewing: Wide open industrial tap room south of downtown. Beer was ok, pretty lively spot.
• ***Cerebral brewing: Man, this was a fun spot. Maybe 15-20 taps, wide range and everything I had was fantastic. East of downtown.
• Bierstad: In RINO in a building shared with a cidery. Odd space in the loft area of the giant building. Fun though, lively spot. Just had their pils which was fantastic.
• Great Divide taphouse: downtown right next to Coors Field. Smaller spot, looked to be same beer list as the RINO location, was super busy the couple of times I popped in.
• TRVE: Death Metal and sour beers!! Beers were solid, decor was all goth/death metal. Only time I found the service to be an issue in Denver, dude didn't want to help out much at all.
• Terminal Bar @ Union Station: Man, this was cool. They have a window from the bar inside Union, grab a beer and just enjoy the action in their beautiful Union Station. Maybe 25 local and regional beers on tap.
• Our Mutual Friend brewery: Really neat spot, again in RINO (you could almost literally swing a dead or live cat and hit a brewery all over RINO). Had one great beer while there as a nightcap after baseball game. Fun place.
• Ratio brewery: lively place in RINO with big outdoor area. Solid beer.
• Denver Beer Co: Fun spot just north of downtown. Maybe 12 beers on tap, good range and what I had was really tasty.
• Lucky Pie: saw this recommended by a few. Every time I walked by and at different times of the week and day, place was dead. I stopped in for a quick bite. Pretty good range of local/regional/national stuff and my food was solid, but by far the deadest place I was in for the whole week.
• ***First Draft Taproom: Pour your own beer!!! Grab a scanner card, walk up to a tap, and pour your own amount. Good range of something like 30 taps, was awesome being able to try a bunch of stuff. Super busy spot with a cool loft upstairs where you can look down on the crowd.
• Coors Field: Was a bit disappointed in the beer selection. I mean, I get the Coors connection at least in the name, but still, this is DENVER!! On the lower Mezzanine you have to work to find interesting beer, and even then it's pretty standard stuff like Avery IPA or Odell 10 schilling. There is a Hop Valley (owned by Coors) spot in the back left field corner. Better options up in the rooftop area but even then a few taps and stuff that is pretty widely available (i.e. Sierra Nevada Hazy IPA). Still, neat to order a giant can of Oskar Blues Dale right from a vendor walking up and down the aisle. AAAAND, most impressive... the prices were the best I've ever seen at a ballpark. 12oz pour of SN Hazy was $6. Giant Oskar Blues was $9.

Bottle Shops:

• -Mrs Bs: downtown right next to Coors Field. Solid selection of local and national beers. Pretty much anything interesting in 4 packs only.
• ***Grapevine wine and liquor: this was an awesome spot south of downtown. Lots of beer in main area and in walk in cooler.
• Small Batch Liquors: Similar size to Mrs Bs but really well curated selection.
• Mile High Wine and Spirits: had to return the car near here, pretty solid spot, similar to Small Batch or Mrs Bs.

Boulder:

• ***Backcountry Pizza: Wow... most impressive beer list I saw in the area, including better than Falling Rock. Pizza was also crazy good. Lively spot on a Wednesday night, service was great.
• Avery Brewering: Giant spot in industrial park, multiple areas to drink beer. Maybe 30 of their beers on tap, cool spot.

There were TONS of places in Boulder, I only made it to those two, but could have hit up 4-5 more spots easy.

All in all, an incredible beer area, which shouldn't be surprising.

 

Heading out to the Denver area in a few weeks for the run of Widespread Panic shows at Red Rocks. Going to spend a few days prior up in Rocky Mountain NP, then will be staying at a hotel in the Lakewood area southwest of Denver. Will have a couple of afternoons to check out Denver. A few questions if anyone has thoughts:

-Any recommendations for a dinner spot in Estes Park that may not be in the Places database?

-Any good places for a lunch stop on the drive between Grand Lake and the Morrison area on Route 34 / 40 / I-70?

-I read on Great Divide's FAQ page that Colorado brewery licenses don't allow them to serve outside hard cider or liquor without a brewpub license. Which is bummer compared to things here in PA, where most breweries have options for my non-beer drinking wife. Are there any notable good breweries with brewpub licenses, or that also make hard cider? Or am I relegated to hitting up beer bars?

 

No brewery manufacturer or brewpub license is allowed to make wine that I'm aware of. Bull & Bush is the your best bet for great beer, wine, cider and an unbelievable whiskey selection.

 

What about hard cider? Here in PA some breweries brew cider as well.

Thanks for the recommendation, how is their food?

 

Fruit juice is fruit juice. Whether it's juice from grapes or apples, it's a winery license in Colorado.

Food is great too. @Domingo goes there regularly

 

Food is great. Burgers are solid. But, get the prime rib if they're serving it the night you go. You will not regret it.