Beer in Denver

Kinsee and I took a quick trip up to Denver this past weekend, we were only there for about 36 hours, but I’d never been to Denver so I was excited to go.

My goal for the weekend was to check out some good Denver beer. In my opinion, Denver (well the Front Range or Denver metro area), Portland and San Diego are where some of the best and most exciting beers are coming from, so I was excited to check out a bit of the beer culture in Denver.

Our first stop was the Denver location of Breckenridge Brewery. I’ve had a few of their beers and haven’t been too impressed, not bad beer but nothing extraordinary. The brewpub had all of their normal beers that I’ve seen available in bottles, as well as a few beers in what they call the “471 Series”, limited release, stronger beers.

I was about to order the 471 IPA, a 9.2%ABV 70IBU Double IPA when I saw the Thunder Stout listed on menu under the “471 Series” as well. It didn’ t have a description so I asked the waitress about it. She said it’s their regular Oatmeal Stout on nitro. It seems like it’s not very often I get to have a non-Guinness on nitro so I gave it a try and it was good. Nice and velvety. Breckenridge had one or two guest beers on tap in addition to their own. Kinsee tried the Great Divide Wild Raspberry Ale. I wasn’t too impressed, but I’m not a big fan of fruity beers.

As for the restaurant itself, it is just down the street from Coor’s Field so it had a sports bar vibe to it. There was a large area around a tv, a bar area with tv’s, bar seating and a few tables, and some larger tables tucked away in the corner. We didn’t try the food, so I can’t comment on that. But it seemed like a good place to have a beer before or after a ball game.

Our next stop was Falling Rock Tap House. They have something like 75 beers on tap, with plenty more in bottles. They’re located just down the street from Breckenridge Brewery in the ballpark area as well. They have some outdoor seating in front of the bar off the sidewalk, large windows that open up most of the building, as well as nice hardwood tables and a long bar for seating inside. There’s even a pool table downstairs. The inside of the bar was fairly dark, even with one of the front windows open, but it had a nice cozy feel to it.

The weather was beautiful so we decided to sit outside. Our server had very little personality and seemed to be in a bad mood. If I would have known this before had I would have wanted to sit at the bar. It didn’t destroy the experience however. I got to try a Mexican beer I’d never heard of before, brewed in Mexicali, called Cucapa Brewing Company Chupacabra Pale Ale. It was by far the best Mexican beer I’ve ever had. It might have been the first Mexican ale I’ve ever had also. It was everything I expect from a pale ale, not too hoppy, not too malty but with plenty of flavor. Kinsee had Bristol Brewing Co’s Laughing Lab Scottish Ale. More malty and less hoppy than the pale ale I was drinking, which is to be expected, it was still a quality beer.

We made our way a few blocks up to our third and final stop of the afternoon, the Great Divide Brewing Company tap room. As regular readers of this blog might know, I’m a huge fan of Imperial Stouts. Great Divide makes the Yeti Imperial stout, which I haven’t been able to find in Durango. They also make a few variations on it, an espresso Yeti, oak aged Yeti and now a chocolate Yeti. Unfortunately none of those were on tap (or even available in bottles to go), but I still got to try the regular ole’ Yeti. And it was good. It wasn’t overpowering, but definitely strong. One of the better Imperial Stouts I’ve had, which makes me want to try all the seasonal variations even more. I’ll be out scouring the liquor stores next week when the Chocolate Yeti is released. Kinsee had the DPA, Denver Pale Ale. She liked it, I can’t really comment on how it tasted because after a few sips of that Yeti I couldn’t taste much of anything in the DPA.

I loved the Great Divide Tap Room. It was small and cozy, close to the ballpark and other bars, but far enough away from things as well. They’re only open in the afternoons, closing around 7 or 8 most evenings. The seats had a good view of their brewing equipment, they had nice art on the walls and some clothing to purchase. It was a nice laid back spot to enjoy a beer.

While that might have been the last beer bar/brewery we went to, it wasn’t the end of the beer related part of the trip. I stopped by Whole Foods while up there and picked up a loaf of the Oskar Blues Old Chub Beer Bread. Each loaf is made with almost an entire can of Oskar Blues Old Chub beer. It’s a wheaty sourdough with honey and sunflower seeds and topped with the same smoked malts they use to make the beer. It was a delicious and fluffy loaf of bread and made some awesome sandwiches.

Tags: 471 series, beer bread, breckenridge brewery, bristol brewing, chupacabra pale ale, cucapa brewing company, denver beer, denver pale ale, dpa, falling rock tap house, great divide brewing company, great divide tap room, great divide wild raspberry ale, laughing lab scottish ale, mexican ale, old chub, old chub beer bread, oskar blues, thunder stout, top rated mexican beer, yeti stout

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 20th, 2009 at 4:54 pm and is filed under Beer. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.