I'll be in Colorado Springs at the end of the week. I've read reviews of Coaltrain Wine & Spirits and plan on making a stop there. I'm from the Austin, TX area so I'm going to be looking for beer that I can't get at home. Any suggestions to help narrow down my search before I walk into a store and get overwhelmed?
Hit up Trinity. Their stuff is so limited that we don't even get it an hour north up here in Denver. Their sours are some of the wildest you'll every try, too.
According to SeekABrew.com, Colorado gets the following beers that Texas does not. What kind of beers are you looking for? IPAs? Stouts? Sours? Anything? That might help refine your search: Anchorage Boulder Crooked Stave Dry Dock [Limited] Durango Eel River Elysian Epic (Utah) Firestone Walker Fort Collins Funkwerks Goose Island [Limited] Grand Teton Grimm Brothers Hoppin Frog Jolly Pumpkin Lakefront Lost Coast Mad River (Steelhead) Marin O'Fallon Odell Port/Lost Abbey Russian River [Limited] The Bruery Trinity (CO) Uinta Upslope
Trinity is a must and you should go by Bristol as well. I don't know if Rocky Mountain Brewery is still around but Duane is a hoot and they had some very unique brews.
Summitt House Barrel Stout at Pikes Peak. I also like their ESB and IPA. Their brown just won best beer at State Fair Beer competition. Rocky Mtn. does a lot of different stuff and is a very laid back place. You'll probably like Trinity if its your first time visiting. Service is hit or miss. Paradox just release 3 different barrel aged beers. You won't find this stuff outside of the greater C Springs area. Great Storm makes decent beers as well.
Coaltrain just put a couple different Anchorage brews on the shelf, if you are into brettanomyces those are a very good choice.
Thanks for the comments. I'm an IPA guy but I dabble in stouts as well. My knowledge of sours is very limited but I'm always willing to try something that comes strongly recommended.
Brewer's Republic and Another Pint are good stops for beer bars (along with Trinity and much more reasonably priced) and occasionally have something interesting (not normally available)on tap.
Well then I would recommend Odell IPA, Uinta Hop Notch IPA, Firestone Walker Union Jack and Double Jack for sure. If you're into Black IPAs/Cascadian Dark Ales/whatever I'd look at Odell Mountain Standard and Firestone Walker's Wookey Jack. Not sure if Dry Dock is available in the Springs. I am also a big fan of Grand Teton's Pursuit of Hoppiness.
Coaltrain definitely gets Dry Dock, but with their Double IPA freshness is always a question. The latest batch dropped somewhat recently (a week or two ago?) so it should be fresh enough.
Crank Yanker (From Eddyline out of Buena Vista) is at Coaltrain - again, not sure on freshness but in tallboy cans.
