Just wanted to put out a thanks to all the great discussions here. My wife and I just got back from a five day visit to Denver/Golden/Boulder/Estes Park and I did a lot of reading of several threads here to sort out what breweries to visit. Sadly we ran out of time to go to all the ones I had flagged, but we had a great time at all the ones we made it to! In addition to the beer, we saw Brit Floyd at Red Rocks, went to the Colorado School of Mines Museum in Golden, hiked the Flat Irons in Boulder, went to the Shelby North American Museum, toured Celestial Seasonings (pretty cool actually), and drove to 11,700 feet in Rocky Mountain National Park (ran out of time and had to get back to DIA :sadface. Breweries we visited: Great Divide Barrels & Bottles Brewery Golden City Brewery Cannonball Creek Brewing Company Holidaily Brewing Co. Mountain Sun Pub & Brewery Sanitas Brewing Company Asher Brewing Company Avery Brewing Company Upslope Brewing Company Avery was amazing (duh). Sanitas, Cannonball Creek, Golden City, and Mountain Sun were the most memorable. Had the Comrade Superpower and Station 26 Juicy Banger at Falling Rock based on the IPA thread - both were incredible. Biggest surprise - The Barrel in Estes Park. They had Blind Pig on tap!?! That is an extremely rare treat even here in Sacramento where we're not to far from Russian River. It's been said that Blind Pig is even better than Pliny... I can get Pliny all over the place and I agree. Anyway thanks again. You folks live in a beautiful part of the country and we can't wait to come back again someday. Prost!
A big round of applause for using the forums like a pro!!! Happy you enjoyed the trip, and expect to see you living in the foothills in six months
+1 This post was a refreshing change of pace from "Tell me where to go in 'X' ". It's nice to know all the recommendations we seem to constantly give don't fall upon deaf ears...or eyes rather.
To the OP: As others have posted, glad that you enjoyed yourselves. And for the moment, you had two of the best IPAs in the area when you had Superpower and Juicy Banger. To everyone else who doesn't live here: Imagine what it's like when you live here and don't have to rush from place to place.