Brewery Tour Vacation

Le Cumbre in Albuquerque.
Elevation in Poncha Springs.
Equinox in Ft. Collins.
Prost in Denver.
Crazy Mountain in Edwards.

There is a Marble brewing taproom in Santa Fe that was good.

 

In Flagstaff go by Flagstaff Brewing, Beaver Street Brewing, and Lumberyard Brewing. Lumberyard is a really cool brewery with several award winning beers in it's lineup. Flagstaff is also really nice and has a great outdoor patio. They advertise their beer is "Just like your mom used to make". The food is really good as well. Beaver Street is a sister brewery to Lumberyard and also has several Award Winners in it's lineup. Also a fun place to kick back a few as the food and atmosphere are both great. You are also within walking distance of the historic train station in Flagstaff as it is only a block or so away. A nice walk to work off lunch and the beers which accompanied it.

 

Avery in Boulder is a must. For a great beer bar, go to Falling Rock in Denver.

 

santa fe brewing company in santa fe is solid. Check out
Kokoman Fine Wine & Liquor in pojague as well, amazing selection

 

Crooked Stave in Denver is a must. I'd also check out Funkwerks (down the st from Odell's) and Trinity in Colorado Springs

 

Denver will boggle your mind... I'd do some research first.

Crooked Stave is great if you like Brett/sour beers. Small taproom in a not-so-flattering neighborhood. It's probably also the best place to pick up some of their bottles.

If you love British-style beers, check out Hogshead... their cask beers are some of the best I've ever had... particularly their Chin Wag ESB.

Prost had some amazing traditional German beers and I'd say their Hefeweizen rivals Live Oak. Neat brewpub as well with a very affordable flight (I think it was $7 for 6-7 2oz samples of all their beers... if you're going there you can cross over on a nearby footbridge over to the Denver Beer Company and Falling Rock Pub.

Also visited Great Divide & Wynkoop on my trip. Bottle/cans and growler fills are available at all breweries.

My best advise is talk to the locals and see where they're going right now.

 

I would look at stoping in Santa Fe on the way up there and rerouteing on the way back to go to poncha springs to elevation, pagosa springs and then Durango for multiple places. If you could manage to be in Durango the Friday after the Breckenridge fest there will be a slew of beer peeps in town from Avery, left hand, Oskar blues, etc as that will be the last day of the boulderango bike ride. I'd also look at stops at funkwerks, upslope, strange and renegade in addition to those others already mentioned

 

Stop by the Vine Street Pub & Brewery in Denver. Oh yeah, and then go to everywhere else. A trip to longmont is advisable also.

 

Pagosa Brewing (best salmon fish n chips and fried green beans i've ever had) in Pagosa Springs and Durango Brewing in Durango are cool spots.

 

Avery is great for the food/beer combo...I'd hit there for lunch. Crooked Stave is great if you like sours. River North is small but very good as well...it's very close to Coors Field if you are going to a game. If you want a great meal with beer, Euclid Hall is awesome! If you do Oskar Blues, go to the restaurant instead of the brewery...much better tap selection.

 

Dogs were in most places in Denver I went to.

I find it incredibly annoying when places don't allow a well behaved pooch.

 

With Denver there are so many breweries you either need to winnow down the list of where you are desperate to go or drop in to a good bar that serves predominantly local beer so you can sample a lot of the local offerings without spending your time driving from brewery to brewery to have a single beer. Wynkoop often has some interesting options from around the Denver area and Falling Rock would always be a safe bet. The downside is that you may not get all the beers you really want out of a particular brewery so maybe hit Falling Rock plus one or two places in town you are desperate to go.

In Fort Collins it is worth it to nail the whole Lincoln strip of breweries from Funkwerks to Fort Collins Brewing to Odell. Odell always seems to have killer stuff in the taproom but FCB has a few great beers too. New Belgium is always a great visit and there's some taproom-only stuff to try. If you want to hit the two hour NB tour you better get on the list now because it fills fast.

 

Definitely hit up McGaughs Smoke & Bottle in Flagstaff, great bottle shop and great people.

 

We are doing a 7 day CO trip at the end of August. Here are the breweries we are going to hit:

Coors
Strange Brewing
Denver Beer Co.
Breckenridge
Great Divide
Wynkoop
Left Hand
Oskar Blues
Odell
Equinox
New Belgium
Funkwerks
Grimm Brothers
Loveland Ale Works
Avery
Boulder Beer Co
Crooked Stave


Hope that helps. I've been reseraching the trip for a while and these seem to all be solid selections.

 

Make sure you hit Falling Rock Tap House in Denver and Mayor of Oldtown in Fort Collins. There's an awesome bar in Boulder but I can recall the name. They have alot of high ABV stuff on tap. I had Parabola and Black Butte 24 among other things last time I was there.

Also consider Dry Dock and Upslope. I want to hit TRVE in Denver as well.

 

fyi, if you show up at NB, you can get on stand-by for a tour. they'll fill the no-show slots with stand-by people. and since its free to sign up online, they tend to have a decent number of no-shows.

 

I actually got online yesterday and got a spot for us. Got the 1st tour at 11 on the day we were planning, we are lucky that is still a month a half out, all the other days that week were pretty full.

Mayof of Oldtown is on the bar list, I hadn't heard about Falling Rock, I'll have to check them out. Thanks for the suggestions!

 

The Boulder bar possibly could be The Sink or The West End Tavern but really hitting Avery should be enough to satisfy anyone.

 

Should be an awesome trip...

I'm not going on a brewery vacation per se.. but on our upcoming family vacation, I've managed to make it where we will hit Victory, DogFishHead and Hardywood which is in Richmond, Va.

I'll hit as many restaurants with craft beer as possible.

 

West End Tavern is it. I highly recommend this place.

 

When in Flagstaff, AZ the breweries you should not miss are Mother Road Brewing - Wanderlust Brewing & Lumberyard Brewing. Wanderlust just hosted the Brewers Guild meeting. Lumberyard and Mother Road hosted Guild parties after the meeting. Zero complaints from anyone. Every Brewery in Flag is within walking distance sans Wanderlust (free tastings) but well worth the short trip (check hours) You might want to check out the Flagstaff Ale Trail for discounts and suggestions. The AZGPO selected the above mentioned breweries for their June 20th trip with Arizona Brewery Tours.

and..
Funkwerks, New Belgium and Odell Brewing Company in Ft Collins, CO