Best Beer Visits Outside Denver

November 10, 2015 by 2 Comments

For half a day while on my GABF Beercation (which I recapped my GABF session here, and another day we visited just Denver city brewers here with Beer Tasting in Denver: Great Divide, Crooked Stave, First Draft), we took a beer visits outside Denver excursion. We drove from Denver to the Longmont area to visit two brewery tasting rooms, and then on the way back went to Boulder area for a brewery to have lunch and more beer. Our stops for beer visits outside Denver were

Left Hand Brewing

Left Hand Brewing Tasting Room in Longmont Left Hand Brewing Tasting Room in Longmont celebrated their 20 year anniversary of 1993 to 2013
Left Hand Brewing is best known for their Milk Stout, which is a creamy (especially here from their taps) chocolate coffee beer flavors. They have been around for quite a while – more than 20 years as they started in 1993.
Left Hand Brewing, a delicious glass of their Milk Stout Left Hand Brewing, a delicious glass of their Milk Stout

What I also know them for is I think being one of the most thoughtfully designed beer tasting rooms I’ve ever visited. Their tasting room includes a patio area that faces out into their parking lot near the food trucks (Left Hand does not offer food but the food trucks too) and if you face the right way and it’s clear, a glimpse perhaps of the Rockies.
Left Hand Brewing Tasting Room offers no food, but there are food carts available outside Left Hand Brewing Tasting Room

There is also a small area by that patio showcasing local artwork, a small merchandise store, and then it opens up into a long main bar that proudly displays certificates of various bartenders who have gotten beer cicerone status and has two areas to pull taps, plus that’s where the cask conditioned beers are in the back of the main bar. The TV displays upcoming events, varying from their monthly free yoga session to celebrating/promoting women in beer with Ales 4 FemAles.
Left Hand Brewing Tasting Room Left Hand Brewing Tasting Room Left Hand Brewing Tasting Room Left Hand Brewing Tasting Room Left Hand Brewing Tasting RoomLeft Hand Brewing Tasting Room - al those certificates hanging up there are for certifications of cicerones Left Hand Brewing Tasting Room in Longmont holds events such as yoga the last Sunday of the month Cask Conditioned Taps at Left Hand Brewing Tasting Room Cask Conditioned Taps at Left Hand Brewing Tasting Room

Go past the main bar and find another backroom with more taps and seats by a stage area,
Left Hand Brewing Tasting Room - additional taps in the back Left Hand Brewing Tasting Room Left Hand Brewing Tasting Room Left Hand Brewing Tasting Room

There is a lovely back outdoor patio that also looks out into some cornhole too.
Left Hand Brewing Tasting Room cornhole outside within the hand fence Left Hand Brewing Tasting Room cornhole outside within the hand fence

I love the detail of the “handy” custom fence, as well as the left hand in other design motifs throughout the tasting room. It really says something to me that a brewery puts this much attention to detail to their environment.
Left Hand Brewing Tasting Room cornhole outside within the hand fence Left Hand Brewing Tasting Room cornhole outside within the hand fence Left Hand Brewing Tasting Room in Longmont - hand on the wall Left Hand Brewing Tasting Room in Longmont - hand on the floor Left Hand Brewing Tasting Room in Longmont really celebrates their left hand logo

When you get a flight of beer, they thoughtfully provide laminated cards to help mark which beer is which as well as provide descriptions.
Left Hand Brewing Tasting Room tasting trays comes with small laminated cards to help you track the beers you have selected Left Hand Brewing Tasting Room tasting trays comes with small laminated cards to help you track the beers you have selected

You can order sampler sizes in a flight of 4 or individually.
Left Hand Brewing Tasting Room tasting trays comes with small laminated cards to help you track the beers you have selected Left Hand Brewing Tasting Room tasting trays comes with small laminated cards to help you track the beers you have selected

In the restroom, there is a little handle so you can open the bathroom door with your foot instead of having to use a dirty door handle. I like the way they still celebrate beer even in their bathroom stalls with their stalls showcasing grains.
Left Hand Brewing Tasting Room - restrooms Left Hand Brewing Tasting Room - restrooms

At only a 45 minute drive from Denver, Left Hand is definitely worth a visit, and while you’re out here and making your way back to Denver, there are 2 other stops I recommend…
Left Hand Brewing Tasting Room sampler Left Hand Brewing Tasting Room sampler

Left Hand Brewing Company Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

Oskar Blues

At only a 10 minute drive away from Left Hand, it makes sense that if you’re out here, you might as well visit Oskar Blues Brewery. There are two possible places to visit- either their restaurant/foodery locations, which offers beer and food (Home Made Liquids and Solids offers Cajun and Creole food as well as burgers, bbq, and pizzas, while the other Longmont location of CyclHops focuses on a celebration of bicycling as well as tacos and tequila with their beer, and third foodery CHUBurger specializes in burgers and their beer) or you can go to the brewery and canning location and tasting room, the Tasty Weasel.

We went to the Tasty Weasel as we were saving lunch to be at our next stop. All these locations have their attitude of laid back casual.
Oskar Blues Tasting Room the Tasty Weasel Oskar Blues Tasting Room the Tasty Weasel

At the Tasty Weasel, as soon as you walk in to your left you can watch their can production, and some skeeball.
Oskar Blues Tasting Room the Tasty Weasel - a small room on the left gives you a glimpse of the canning production plus skeeball and seating for drinking your beer Oskar Blues Tasting Room the Tasty Weasel - a small room on the left gives you a glimpse of the canning production plus skeeball and seating for drinking your beer

Meanwhile, the main long bar area with lots of tables and huge patio area (you can see a glimpse behind the sampler tray) expresses their attitude of completely laid back, like a mix between industrial hard working brewery and canning facility but the bro-ness fun of a friendly frat house. Notice the tons of stickers in support of their fellow brewery friends, and the creepy mannequin in the window looking into their tanks.
Oskar Blues, The Tasty Weasel Tap Room Oskar Blues, The Tasty Weasel Tap Room A look inside the patio and a sampling tray at Oskar Blues The Tasty Weasel

Make sure you check not just beers listed on the main board, but the smaller Specialty Beers board on the right side.
Oskar Blues, The Tasty Weasel Tap Room

You will also see that they are really proud to totally use cans instead of bottles – even their tap handles proudly showcase this.
Oskar blues tap handle at the Tasty Weasel Tap Room

As always, I suggest getting tasters of beer in order to sample the most. You will also notice they have big bins of peanuts for you to enjoy for free as you drink their beer. My favorite here is the Ten Fidy, with second place going to Old Chub.
Oskar Blues Tasting Room the Tasty Weasel Ten Fidy by Oskar Blues Brewery

Tasty Weasel doesn’t serve any food themselves, though they will often have a tent from a food vendor onsite grilling up sausages for instance – if you want food with your Oskar Blues beer visit one of their foodery locations as Tasty Weasel is focused more on being a tasting room.
Tasty Weasel Taproom Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

Avery Brewing

With 30 some taps, Avery Brewing has the biggest and nicest facilities of the 3 beer visits outside Denver.
Avery Brewing in Boulder Avery Brewing in Boulder Avery Brewing Avery Brewing Restaurant upstairs

They just opened a new facility earlier this year which now features two giant tasting rooms – one on the first floor outside where you can sit on the grass and patio furniture enjoying the outside. It has lost some of the coziness of the smaller original brewpub all wood location, but greatly expanded the space in the new grander warehouse-like building.
Avery Brewing downstairs bar and patio Avery Brewing downstairs bar and patio Avery Brewing downstairs bar and patio Avery Brewing

Or go upstairs past the merchandise store to where there is a full fledged brewpub restaurant with food created with matching their beers in mind.
Avery Brewing in Boulder Avery Brewing in Boulder Avery Brewing Restaurant upstairs Avery Brewing in BoulderAvery Brewing in Boulder Avery Brewing

Their offerings of beer are a large variety from German style to Belgians to sours and tarts with Brett or aged in barrels that include for instance
Avery Brewing beer and their beer menu Avery Brewing beer and their beer menu

  • Seducer – a sessionalbe apple-beer hybrid
  • Liliko’i Kepolo – a witbier with tropical passionfruit
  • 10lb Strawberry Sour – a Belgian style wit with 10 pounds of fresh strawberries per keg and then soured in neutral oak barrels
  • White Rascal Belgian Style White Ale – unfiltered and spiced with coriander and Curacao orange peel
  • San Juan Sour – Ross and Rachel’s wedding beer inspired after their favorite Efrain’s cocktail the “Pink Cadillac Margarita”
  • Nora – an intensely sour pumpkin ale aged for 9 months in neutral wine barrels
  • III Dolia – a sour blend aged in a combination of Maderia, Cabernet Sauvignon and Carcavelos barrels which are the rarest and most expensive barrels Avery has very filled

Avery Brewing in Boulder Avery Brewing in Boulder

Some of the food we enjoyed for our lunch included

  • Isabelle Farm Tomato Salad with Heirloom and Sungold Tomatoes, Munson Farm Corn, avocado, farm greens, croutons, manchego and shallot vin
  • Smothered Cheese Curds and Potatoes, with cheese curds, spiced fingerlings, and andouille gravy
  • Cheeseburger with ground chuck, smoked gouda, sherry greens, pickles, stout onions, and choice of a side (here you see pork belly green beans
  • Sloppy Seitan with barbecue seitan, pickled vegetables on a sesame bun with a choice of side (here spiced fingerlings)

Avery Brewing menu for September 22-27 Avery Brewing Isabelle Farm Tomato Salad with Heirloom and Sungold Tomatoes, Munson Farm Corn, avocado, farm greens, croutons, manchego and shallot vin Avery Brewing Smothered Cheese Curds and Potatoes, with cheese curds, spiced fingerlings, and andouille gravy Avery Brewing Cheeseburger with ground chuck, smoked gouda, sherry greens, pickles, stout onions, and choice of a side (here you see pork belly green beans Avery Brewing Sloppy Seitan with barbecue seitan, pickled vegetables on a sesame bun with a choice of side (here spiced fingerlings)

Of all the breweries in Denver we visited, this was my favorite. I would call this a must visit every time I’m in the area, even on revisits.

Avery Brewing Company Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

Which of these three breweries style of tasting room appeals the most to you and why?

I’ll still pick Portland as the winningest beercation city in the US though. 🙂

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Visiting Denver for Beer Vacation / Beercation and GABF in September 2015

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Beer Tasting in Denver: Great Divide, Crooked Stave, First Draft

November 3, 2015 by 11 Comments

Today for Travel Tuesday I take you back to my September trip to Denver, Colorado when I was there for for GABF – the Great American Beer Festival. We were there for several days, but only attended one session/day of GABF (I recapped that here). On other days, we explored the rest of the beer scene in Denver. This post will focus on my favorite beer stops within the Denver city limits itself – I will cover our day trip to Boulder and Longmont in another, separate post. These 3 in this post are all within 1 mile of each other.

Denver Brewery: Great Divide

Great Divide Brewing has two locations. We visited both. Their original location is the Ballpark: Brewery & Tap Room with 16 taps of seasonal and year-round brews.
Great Divide, downtown location Great Divide, downtown location

Though the Ballpark taproom is small, the downtown location near Coors Field can’t be beat and it’s small size makes it more intimate and cozy. Right by the bar you can see through the doors to the original beer production area.
Great Divide Tap Room sign outside the location downtown by the baseball field Great Divide Tap Room sign outside the location downtown by the baseball field

I highly recommend getting samplers of everything. Their menu offers some suggestions for flights of beer to create.
Great Divide Tasting Room, their year round beers and suggested sample flights

In addition to the smaller sample size allowing you to taste all their beers, 100% of the proceeds from sample pours are donated to local nonprofits. During our visit, the nonprofits benefiting included the Denver Public Library and Urban Peak (servicing homeless youth).
Sample beer at Great Divide Tasting Room Sample beer at Great Divide Tasting Room

Their new location also open is the RiNo: Barrel Bar & Packaging Wonderland located in the River North aka RiNo neighborhood of Denver and includes the year-round as well as seasonal, Barrel Aged, and limited release offerings. They also offer Crowlers here.
Great Divide Crowlers at the RiNo location

This location is easier to fit groups and has a more hip vibe to it than the more casual ballpark tasting room.
Great Divide RiNo: Barrel Bar & Packaging Wonderland Great Divide RiNo: Barrel Bar & Packaging Wonderland Great Divide RiNo: Barrel Bar & Packaging Wonderland Great Divide RiNo: Barrel Bar & Packaging Wonderland

You are apt to a bit more “Yeti sighting” here in RiNo than the Ballpark location.
Great Divide Brewing tasting room in RiNo Great Divide Brewing tasting room in RiNo

Both locations offer brewery tours.
Great Divide RiNo: Barrel Bar & Packaging Wonderland Great Divide RiNo: Barrel Bar & Packaging Wonderland

Both locations do not offer food, but food trucks can usually be found outside to get a little nourishment. The food truck will vary based on the day. During my visit my friends and I shared a pizza from Basic Kneads Pizza at the Ballpark location, offering wood-fired pizza from their food truck. You can see the flames and them hand tossing the dough to order.
Basic Kneads Pizza, offering wood-fired pizza from their food truck Basic Kneads Pizza, offering wood-fired pizza from their food truck

The 16″ Wise Guy Pizza with Olive Oil, Mozzarella, Sausage, Roasted Onions, and Fresh Rosemary pizza was incredibly delicious and really went well with the beer. At the RiNo location, during our visit a food truck called Amazeballs specializing in baked ball items (chicken balls, beef and ricotta balls, eggplant feta balls, etc) was outside.
Basic Kneads pizza, the 16
Great Divide Brewing Co. Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato Great Divide Brewing Co. Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

Denver Brewery: Crooked Stave

First off, I’ll tell you upfront now that Crooked Stave Artisan Beer Project is a brewery that specializes in beers aged in brett and sour beers. Located in a building called The Source, the tasting room is one of multiple food and drink artisan businesses including cheese, wine, and located in the shared market space inside this renovated brick warehouse in Denver’s River North District. The Source is located only a block down the street from Great Divide’s RiNo tasting room.
Denver's RiNo The Source building Denver's RiNo The Source building Denver's RiNo The Source building
This taproom offers 20 some taps of their beers that are bravely experimental and unapologetic in their funkyness and tartness (not all are sour, a few can be subtle Belgian styles as well).
Crooked Stave tasting room, located in Denver's RiNo in The Source building Crooked Stave tasting room, located in Denver's RiNo in The Source building Crooked Stave tasting room, located in Denver's RiNo in The Source building

For instance, we tried a special one off collaboration with Hawkshead Brewery in the UK, a Key Lime Tau (2π) which is mixed fermentation ale aged in oak with lactose, fresh lime peel and fresh lemongrass, which I loved. Another beer was Colorado Wild Sage, an artisanal saison with sage.
Crooked

Another beer were various versions of Sin Frontera, including bourbon barrel, cerveza aged in sherry barrels, aged in whiskey barrels with cherries – it was fun tasting the flight and trying to detect/recall which one is which one.
Sin Frontera from Crooked Stave Brewing

Again, I recommend getting sample pours so you can try many. The Crooked Stave tasting room doesn’t serve food, but you can easily wander a few yards outside to its neighbors within The Source building for a bite.
Samplers of Crooked Stave Brett and sour beers Samplers of Crooked Stave Brett and sour beers
Crooked Stave Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

Denver Pour Your Own Adventure: First Draft

Located only a mile away from RiNo and Crooked Stave’s tasting room, First Draft is a unique beer bar. You see, here you can pour your own beer – and you only have to pay by the ounce.
First Draft in Denver, Colorado First Draft in Denver, Colorado

When you first enter, you are asked to show ID and also a credit card to hold your charges. This then nets you a special wristband.
First Draft in Denver, Colorado you put down a credit card and get a wristband in order to track your pours at this pour your own and pay only by the ounce beer bar First Draft in Denver, Colorado you put down a credit card and get a wristband in order to track your pours at this pour your own and pay only by the ounce beer bar

You pick the kind of glass you would like to use.
First Draft in Denver, Colorado - select your own glassware as you see fit

You can then walk up to any of the 40 some taps (mostly beer, but also some are ciders or wine) and tap your wristband to the screen of any tap activate the green light that means you can now pour.
"At First Draft in Denver, Colorado

Then you pour however much you desire- be it a full glass, half a glass, even just a few ounces of sample. I poured just a few ounces of several beers that were more on the expensive side, like The Bruery Smoking Wood (usually found only in bottles, and is a delicious Imperial Smoked Porter at 10% ABV) at $1 per ounce as well as normal priced side like Bell’s Brewery Coffee Moustache at $0.60 per ounce.
Pour however little or much beer you'd like for yourself at First Draft in Denver, Colorado Pour however little or much beer you'd like for yourself at First Draft in Denver, Colorado

After you finish your pour, you are given a readout of how much you poured and your current total. Before you pour, you can also touch the screen to get more details on the beer before you select it beyond the initial brewery name, name of beer, type of beer style, ABV, IBU, and cost that is displayed by default on the screen for each tap.
First Draft in Denver, Colorado First Draft in Denver, Colorado

The high ceilings of the main room, a patio outside, as well as a balcony area seating overlooking the tap stations make the beer bar seem airy and never too packed even though there may be quite a gathering of people reading the taps depending on when groups enter.

They do serve a few snacks of food including cheese plates, charcuterie plates, and snacky things such as grilled shishitos, pretzels, fries, fritters, as well as more substantial sandwiches such as burgers, fried chicken sandwiches, brisket grilled cheese, or churros. One of the best ideas they have is you can get a little ice cream in a glass that you can then pour your beer over for your own craft beer float!
Pour however little or much beer you'd like for yourself at First Draft in Denver, Colorado Pour however little or much beer you'd like for yourself at First Draft in Denver, Colorado

So for a unique experience in beer travel and beer drinking, and the chance to try a lot of beers for a super affordable price as long as you carefully control your pours, I definitely recommend First Draft!
Pour however little or much beer you'd like for yourself at First Draft in Denver, Colorado

First Draft Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

Have you been beer tasting in Denver and visited any of these beer locations? What beer tasting rooms in Denver have you visited? Have you been to the RiNo area of Denver? What do you think of First Draft’s concept (it wouldn’t fly in Oregon because of OLCC regulations sadly)?

I’ll still pick Portland as the winningest beercation city in the US though. 🙂

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Visiting Denver for Beer Vacation / Beercation and GABF in September 2015

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Denver/Boulder visit: Beer at Left Hand, Avery, and Oskar Blues

October 17, 2011 by 1 Comment

Left Hand Brewing Company has been on my radar thanks to their smooth Milk Stout (which I first had in Chicago), so when I had to go to Denver/Boulder area for some customer visits for work, I made it a stop on my list. List? You betcha. The way I travel for work is that I map out the customer locations, pick a hotel convenient to them, and then immediately look for highly rated reviewed restaurants in the area- I don’t leave it to chance to just find a place though I can flex that way at my coworkers’ discretion. I may be working, but that doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy some of the local specials.

At Left Hand, you can make your own sampler at the Left Hand tasting room, four tastings for $4, from the tap list of a dozen-  and in additions one of them you will have a choice of nitro or normal tap. When you pick out your tasters, they have little laminated cards from an index card box the bartender will pull so you can enjoy your mini-snifters with a description as well.

For my sampler I went the dark beer route with the Milk Stout on nitro- both the cream and the nitro made it quite smooth and silky indeed; the BlackJack an English style porter that was quite chocolatey; the Wake Up Dead whose licorice aftertaste in the Russian Imperial Stout gave it a kick, and the Fade to Black 3 Pepper Porter that had a very small hint of a taste of spicy tobacco but mostly darkness as appropriately titled.

I should also say there was NO ONE in the bathroom which is why I was ok with taking this photo of what the stalls looked like in the (of course) ladies room… glass filled with grains! They have very minimal food- just snacks like chips and pretzels, nothing that could even be a meal- so keep that in mind and eat beforehand or have plans to eat nearby. If you are looking for a suggestion, try SugarBeet which is where we had local seasonal American cuisine for our dinner.

The next day, we had dinner at Avery Brewing, which I saw had excellent reviews from those who visited. Opening the beer menu to see 21 beers listed was quite eye opening- as is the fact that you can get any of these in a tastings so you make your own flight. For the picture I borrowed my coworkers’ beer to show the rainbow at our table of tasters, they aren’t all mine.

I tried out the Hand Drawn Ellie’s Brown Ale, Out of Bounds Stout (if it wasn’t for dinner and not wanting to be up from caffeine maybe I would have braved the Out of Sight House Blend that adds a cold coffee toddy to the beer), Hog Heaven Barleywine style ale, and Freckles Saison (a wedding ale brewed with rosehips, cherries and orange peel). I would have had the Fumator which is a strong ale that is smoked and aged in whiskey barrels for 3 months but they were unfortunately out. It was amazing we found this as it is way back from the main street with a small sign, but we felt like we had found a hidden secret and were happy with our experience. They serve food here, though it is mostly appetizers and burgers and sandwiches.

Oskar Blues’ Liquids and Solids was conveniently located across the street from the hotel, and offers beers in the pint, half sized for half price, and also beer flights of 5 tasters. I enjoyed the Honey Badger Smoked Porter, which unfortunately spoiled me for the One Nut Brown I had second.

So close to the several Marriott hotels that you can walk there and back, just be careful crossing the local highway. Of the three breweries, this one was most friendly to family dining as it can offer a full meal and had a big menu that could satisfy anyone, including mostly southern food but also healthy and vegetarian items (even if it’s tongue in cheek, such as an item named “There’s a Hippie in My House” for one vegetarian sandwich and a Margherita pizza includes “yuppies unite” in the description even as their pizza dough uses beer as part of the dough to give it a bit of hop).

The only food I remembered to photograph was a fast food lunch that I had picked out as we were in a tight timeline between appointments: Freddy’s Frozen Custard and Steakburgers. The atmosphere showed its history from the original Freddy with pictures on the wall and the semi-nostalgic 50s diner fashioned feel that I hadn’t seen since. And, they are insanely generous with their crispy thin cut shoestring fries, which you can have with ketchup or add their own special seasoning or their cheese sauce. The meat is lean sirloin rather then just ground beef and thin so when grilled they become sorta crispy, especially the edges which are so thin they are almost like lace made of meat or burnt cheese on a grill.

Next stop: Boston

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