Going to Denver...where should I go?

I hit Colorado exactly 4 years ago and hit the following:
-The Wynkoop
-Great Divide
-Breckenridge
-Oskar Blues (old facility)
-New Belgium
I would hit them all again if I could, but New Belgium and Breckenridge were tops in my opinion. Breckenridge especially due to the incredible BBQ and hospitality (the bartender wasn't busy so she gave us a private 15 min tour along with a free round of beers).

 

If you will only be in Denver, get thee to Falling Rock Tap House. Not a brewery, but a pilgrimage. Very close to Great Divide and Wynkoop.

 

casa bomita on 6715 colfax ave. fun family mexican restaurant, beeen around 37 years. the sopillias are worthe the visit. been many times , the kids love it. A must stop in denver along with the Brown Hotel.

 

I visited Denver in May on a beercation. It is an awesome city for sure. I will second Falling Rock Tap House. It has a cool atmosphere and the tap list was amazing. We happened to be there during Russian River week and got to sample a lot of their sour lineup. Great Divide is also worth the stop. We actually got an impromptu tour and the service was excellent.

There is a restaurant on the corner directly across from Great Divide that had great food. I recommended the Deep Fried Bleu Cheese balls. I would fly back to Denver just for those.

 

Don't go to casa bonita unless you want the squirts. If you're there go to chicago across the street. Can't beat the italian beef, just don't ask for a fork.

 

With Great Divide and Falling Rock already mentioned, I guess next is to decide how far you want to go and if you only want to hit the biggies or not. There is a Breckenridge right in LoDo, not far from Wynkoop, Falling Rock and Great Divide. I find their beers alright. I actually liked the one further out on Kalamath Street , that one does have great BBQ.
But if you like to hit the little guys, there is Strange and Renegade, both usually with that one beer that stands out to go along with the solid standards.
Wit's End gets lots of love, but I personally found their 3 beer, all IPA selection lacking and unimaginitive, nice bunch of guys though. Trve is new and small (and right around the corner from the Breckenridge BBQ), also with only about 3-4 beers to go around.

Now if you want to do a road trip head to Boulder. Twisted Pine, Avery are musts and Mountain Sun wasnt too bad, but I thought Walnut was all bland. They fell into the trap that Rock Bottom did : lets jump into the craft brew business but make it all as generic as possible to satisfy the masses. Good for business maybe, but very boring. That rant is done. Boulder Beer is out there too, but I only find them to be meh.

After Boulder, head to Longmont for Left Hand, Oskar Blues and their tasting room, the Tasty Weasle. If you can hit Tasty Weasle on a tuesday, they usually break out at least one stunning Ten Fidy barrel beer.

Hope this helps .... cheers!

 

I should mention that I was talking about the Breckenridge location on Kalamath st too. Didn't actually hit the other location.

 

I love the nanobreweries that have popped up (somewhat) recently, with Renegade and Denver Beer Co my favorites. The Ryetous IPA at Renegade is a go-to of mine right now. Not a huge fan of Strange Brewing... If you want to travel to Ft. Collins, you can hit a few "heavy hitters" like Odell and New Belgium.

 

I forgot about Denver Beer Co, I pop in there whenever they break out a specialty.

Its not near anything else, but do yourself a favor and make your way to Copper Kettle for their Mexican Chocolate stout.

THE best brewery tour I have been on is New Belgium, plus theyve had Cocoa Mole on tap. Thats a haul though, roughly 90min drive from Denver.

And if you do go to Boulder for a day trip, stop by Yak and Yeti in Westminster on your way up, they usually have a couple gems on hand.

 

I wish we had a sticky for these during the GABF season. Check the Mountain Forum going back a page or two - we get a lot of these.
Here's a pretty good start: http://beeradvocate.com/community/threads/coming-to-denver.28408/

 

The beers at the Breckenridge Ball Park Pub (not a brewpub) are brewed at the Kalamath location. The Kalamath venue is a great lunch stop!

 

We really need a sticky thread for traveling to colorado. Or people should use the search feature to find the other 500 threads about the same thing.

Denver Metro Bars/restaurants Craft beer focused

Hops and pie
Falling rock
Freshcraft
Lucky pie
The kitchen
Euclid hall
Cheeky monk
Rackhouse (stranahans whiskey)

Denver brewpubs and brewery's

Great divide
Wynkoop
Vine street
Bull n bush
River north
Denver beer co
Renegade
Dry dock
Copper kettle
Strange
Breckenridge
prost (opens end of month)
Hogs head
Yak and yeti
Arvada beer co
Trve

Addresses etc are easily searchable can knock out a lot of these breweries in a day or two.

 

Ha my thoughts exactly. Took me a while to get my post posted.

 

^This. I was there for 3 days for business and easily made it to the Great Divide and Falling Rock. Falling Rock has a sick menu including Fresh Pliny, which I drink because I live on the east coast. Fort Collins can be a hike...

 

ISO: a mod who can sticky one of these threads
FT: left arm