Trip Report: Sloans Lake Brewery Loop

Since it was (and is) still unbelievably nice out the wife and I wanted to go on a long walk on Saturday, so of course I pulled out Google maps to plan a course that included some "pit stops." We live in the Berkeley neighborhood, so this is what I came up with: https://goo.gl/maps/6HwZ5LUzsq12 I've been to Call to Arms a ton, and to Joyride and Hogshead a number of times as well, but had never been to Briar Common, Little Machine, or Seedstock. Sloan's Lake Tap & Burger was to be our lunch stop. With the wife's stamp of approval, we left around noon...

After about 2.5 miles the first stop was Briar Common. What a beautiful building right across the street from Jefferson Park. We sat out of the sun at the downstairs bar, where the wife had a mimosa (they have a full liquor license) and I enjoyed the Thistle IPA:



The Thistle is definitely West Coast style, bitter and piney. Nice.

From Briar Common we cut across the park and in less than a mile we were at Little Machine:



They have a huge selection of beers that they brew themselves:



I had the Sky-Wired Wet Hop Strong Pale, and the wife had tasters of the Syrah barrel aged wheat wine, Razz Against the Machine, and the Stick-Shift Brown Ale. She loved the wheat wine, as did I when I tasted it. I liked my beer as well, but to be honest after I've had a couple beers my palate isn't in the right place to fairly judge the beers, so from here on out I'll just say I had a great time drinking a bunch of Colorado brews. The experience made everything taste great! Anyway, looking out the back window you can see how close this place is to Mile High Stadium; it must be a zoo on Sundays when the Broncos are in town:



From Little Machine we walked a mile or so and stopped at Seedstock Brewery:



It's located on a busy Colfax intersection, so, you can probably imagine what the immediate surroundings are like, but actually the front patio felt semi-secluded in a corner of the building and with the food truck serving as a third wall that blocked the street. And speaking of food trucks, it was called the Cheesery or something like that and my wife loves grilled cheese sandwiches, so we opted to eat here.

Oh yeah, beer. I had the IPA (shocker), wife had the Pumpkin Wheat and a Weizenboch.

From Seedstock we walked a short ways to Sloan's Lake Tap & Burger. Since we'd already eaten I didn't need to stop here, but the wife wanted to check it out so we did. It was a madhouse. Apparently it's a Virginia Tech spot, as the football game was on and Hokies banners were everywhere. I tried the Dry Dock Sour Apricot and we didn't stay long.

On our way to Joyride we wandered around Sloan's Lake at dusk:



And then we stopped at Joyride just in time to still enjoy a Hormone Collector on the bar looking out at the lake. If you're in to the New England-style IPA thing, this is a nice one...



I also sampled the So Fresh and So Cream Ale with Blueberries.

By the time we left Joyride it was getting dark, but that's ok because Hogshead was less than a mile away.
Love this place. Since English ales are their specialty, I had the Chin Wag ESB from the cask. I wouldn't mess with this hog:



Well, the wife was now resting her head on my shoulder so I knew it was time to start heading in the direction of home. Instead of Call to Arms, though, we pulled an audible and stopped at West End Tap House so she could have her favorite mac n cheese for dinner. I had the Crooked Stave Origins (Burgundy sour) for dinner...and a steak sandwich on the side.

And finally, I was recording a basketball game at home so we made a stop at my favorite bottle shop in Denver (note the hop vine growing along the left side of the sign):



I purchased a 4-pack of Lizard King and a bottle of Epic Oak & Orchard: Pinot that I'll save for later. Looking forward to trying this one. Anyone had it? And one last beer for the game (in my new glass, of course):



What a day. We had a blast. I don't normally drink this much in a single day, but with all the exercise (my phone says we walked 10.4 miles) and drinking tons of water I was surprisingly semi-coherent by the end. Woke up on Sunday feeling great and wanting to do something like this again soon! Cheers all.

P.s.: I originally had twice as many pictures, but apparently I can only insert 10 pics per post. Oh well.