New to craft beer

Go to Falling Rock and just start trying all of them...then do the same at Freshcraft...then hops and pie...then ....you get the idea. With such a great selection of bars and breweries to chose from in Denver, and the fact people are always willing to talk craft, you will find something you like - then just branch from there. Just plop yourself down and start drinking..
also...variety packs are great.

 

My non-conservative advice to really delve into some interesting stuff (perhaps down the road when you get fully sucked into the art of craft beer) would be to check out the Denver Colorado based brewery “Crooked Stave,” and as many others have suggested “Great Divide.” If you want to try a triple from a Colorado based brewery, I’d suggest Great Divide Orabelle

 

Denver has some really great beer diversity so at least you're not stuck in an area with little to no selection. The recommendations about founding a local brewery or two and getting a flight were spot-on. You'll never know what your preference truly is until you experience several different styles. Then you can start digging deeper into a style or two and really getting into some great beers. Also nice to see a newbie put a question out there of this nature and get only helpful positive feedback and no ass clowns coming on and degrading him for his question. Reaffirms my faith in the craft beer community. Cheers!

 

Have fun, try things that interest you for any reason- it could be the style, the label, the locality of the brew... don't let trying one thing and not liking it stop you from trying another of the same. There is such a fun array of beer, even within styles. A chocolate stout is different from an oatmeal stout, and there is a huge range of bitterness in IPAs. I recommend beginning with these new session IPAs that are out-- Firestone Easy Jack, or Sam Adams Rebel IPA are nice, solid places to start. I second the Young's Double Chocolate Stout and Anderson Valley Barney Flats Oatmeal Stout recommendations. Also, the Heretic Brewing Shallow Grave Porter is really good! Have a lot of fun, and welcome!

 

Embrace the Mix-a-Six. Embrace it good...

 

Welcome to craft beer! The best advice I can give is try, try, try. Get as many flights as you can under your belt and you'll start to see what beers you prefer and you'll start gravitating your choices to those types. You're very fortunate to live in CO, lots of great places to sample beers. Cheers!

 

Some great suggestions. My only thought, when you've read countless threads as I have; remember,to keep your APA's, your IPA's, ... any PA's as fresh and/or as cool as possible before consuming.

 

You live in CO. Pretty good state to start getting into craft beer.

 

If you are in Denver, you are in beer Heaven! Go to Ft Collins, hit the tasting rooms at several brewerys and try try the samples and flights. Take someone with you, spend the weekend, get a room! Then try some of the brewerys in Denver, and the bars.

After you find out what you like, there are a few really good bottle shops in Denver and the surrounding area. Knock yourself out!

As beer goes, start with the milder stuff. Wheat beers, pale ales, ect. As a newby, you probably will not appreciate a really high end IPA or even a high alcohol porter. No shame here, just start slow and work up.

Seek out a mentor, another BA to answer your questions and guide you. Don't be afraid to revisit beers that you tried, early on, and did not like.

Oh Yeah, kiss your extra money and time goodbye!

 

Do what I did when I started getting in to craft beer. Buy a four pack of Sierra Nevada Hoptimum and Left Coast Hop Juice. Trial by fire. Been hooked ever since.

 

I completely agree with those who have said to pick up variety 12 packs. They are readily available in most supermarkets/liquor stores. A few brewery suggestions to give you a national flavor of many varieties of beer styles:

Magic Hat
Shipyard
Sierra Nevada
Boston Beer (Sam Adams)
Anchor
Goose Island
Widmer Brothers
Sea Dog Brewing
Leinenkugel
Kona
Redhook
Uinta

And I'm sure there will be local variety packs from larger craft brewers in your area, but most of the above are readily available in variety packs in most states' supermarkets.

I am pretty sure most BA's have cut their teeth on one of the above breweries, or something similar.

 

Colorado rules for craft beer. Check the local forum for goings on, there's a BA social @ old tom's coming up. Good way to get to know some other ba's.
As for mix a six, be careful, a lot of places use these to move old beer. I have grabbed some old ass beers from a few "reputable" bottle shops. Other than that, check out one of the gajillion brew pubs we have popping up. Bull and bush is solid, as is dry dock, and both places offer almost every style you can imagine on tap at any given moment. If you like white rascal check out funkwerks white. Great brew. If you are overwhelmed by the bitter bombs stay clear of ipa's and pale ales for now. Dry dock apricot blonde is a solid entry point. It's bready, yeasty, and has a touch of apricot tartness. If you feel like trying something a bit hoppy, but not too bitter, check out dry dock breakwater pale ale. Sooooo good.

 

Buy yourself a little notebook, just a spiral notebook that fits in your pocket. When trying a new beer jot it down on the book. If you liked it, why, if you didn't like it, why. If it's a bottled beer, peel off the label and glue or tape it to a page. Don't get so drunk you forget to jot anything down. Getting drunk gets in the way of enjoying your beer and puts you off having more until the hangover is forgotten. And always, always, always, drink what you LIKE and LIKE what you drink and HAVE YOURSELF SOME FUN.

 

wheat beers are always safe bets. if you want to try a couple of exceptional, relatively easy to find wheat beers, try allagash wit, weinstephaner Hefe, hoegaarden, and Sierra Nevada kellerweiss.
samuel smith's oatmeal stout and samuel smith's nut brown ale are very drinkable and quite tasty. great for beginners.
Lagunita's hop stoopid, Lagunita's sucks, six point global warmer, and troeggs nugget nectar are quite fruity and not too bitter, very balanced and great for breaking into IPA's.
paulener original, weinstephaner original and victory prima pils are exceptional lagers, great for people who are used to BMC and are looking for a more refined version of what they are familiar with.
Goose Island matilda, leffe blonde and ommegang Hennipen are easy to drink, very fruity, not too heavy, and great for breaking into belgian ales.
welcome to the world of craft beer

 

I would avoid going overboard with the flights/make-your-own-6ers right away. If you were to go with 6 or 12 packs, you can stop and think about what you're drinking. You should have a few pints of a new beer when you go to a bar. Don't just wet your lips with a few sips of one beer and move on before you even know what was going on with the one you were just drinking.

Also, I'd say that when it comes to reading books about beer, I wouldn't jump right into that either. You would have a huge advantage over me when I was just getting really interested in beer if you were to read over this material: http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/101/

I, like many other beer advocates, did not answer our first glimmer of interest in beer by racing to become an "expert" in beer. We started by slowly exploring those other options on the market that we had always overlooked, and enjoyed the new discovery by pouring it in a mug, saying cheers to our friends, and savoring the brew the way it was intended to be. I, unfortunately, think that a lot of people have forgot about those days, and have turned in favor of checking in to Untappd as many times as they can in order to earn some "street cred".

 

I love the idea of the mixed six. A good place to start is a mix of Samuel Smith:

• Famous Taddy Porter
  
• Imperial Stout
• Oatmeal Stout
• Nut Brown Ale
• Organic Chocolate Stout
• Winter Welcome Ale

A plus here is that it won't be too hard on the wallet.

If you're a bit more flush, though, you could go high-end Belgian:

• Trappistes Rochefort 10, 8 and 6
• St. Bernardus Abt 12, Prior 8 and Witbier

Of course, there's always the cross-section of Californians:

• Lagunitas Imperial Stout
• Sierra Nevada Ruthless Rye
• Anchor Steam Lager
• Stone Smoked Porter, etc.

and so on.