Fruita, CO beer scene

I was (un?)fortunate enough to be on a business trip to Fruita, CO last week and I wanted to report on the goings on there.

Despite its size (pop ~13K) it has one brewpub - Suds Brothers Brewery - and one microbrewery - Copper Club Brewing Company (which is attached to the homebrew shop in town).

Both are located on Aspen Avenue, the main drag in town and are a block apart. Both have 9pm posted closing times during the week; with Copper Club being closed on Tuesdays. You can walk to both from just about any part of central Fruita, including from the south side of I-70 where the truck stop and La Quinta are located.

I went to Suds Brothers on Monday and was barely under the 9pm wire to get one beer while the staff cleaned up. I had the Pale which was OK. They didn't have an IPA on tap. I was encouraged by the sign for $2 beers on Tuesday and went back for dinner and back again after dinner. I went through the whole lineup and had nothing spectacular and nothing horrible. They did have a dunkelweiss which you don't find everywhere. The did stay open later than 9pm because there was an NBA game 6 crowd, but asked everyone to leave when the game went into OT. All the beers were well worth the $2 price.

I was able to go to Copper Club on Wednesday and was very impressed. I think they had had a homebrew bottle share earlier in the evening but I missed it. I had the 7 beer / $8 sampler which was a great deal and allowed nice samples of their 7 offerings. My favorites in reverse order: summer ale, scotch ale, oatmeal stout, rye, hefeweizen, and my favorites were a tie between their IPA and a coffee porter. Even though the summer ale was my least favorite, I enjoyed it. All beers were of high quality. I had a nice conversation with the wife/taproom manager for about an hour, then great conversations with the "locals" and the husband/brewer. One of the locals even shared an Epic smoked porter which was very much appreciated. On Thursday, I was able to convince my coworker to stop in for some growler fills. I got the hefeweizen, he got the coffee porter. I brought in my own jug and it received a thorough cleaning which was appreciated. All in all, if I lived near Fruita I would spend a lot of time here. I think they have bands on Saturdays as well.
They are hoping to distribute locally (western slope) soon, and have filled out paperwork for GABF; I hope to see them there.

All you folks heading to Kannah Creek in Junction... don't forget to check out Copper Club in Fruita as well. (I had dinner at Kannah Creek on Monday, and I liked the Copper Club beers much better.)

I hope to have another business trip to Fruita soon!