Beer adventures were out for Monday night due to conference activities. I’m not complaining though; I got to drink free Fat Tire in Mile High Stadium.
Tuesday was my big night. I’d mapped out a number of places that I wanted to hit up, so I didn’t dilly dally. I pulled a bit of a jerk move by ditching my coworkers, who were having dinner together, but Denver wasn’t going to see itself. The first place I was headed to was Great Divide’s tap room. It was about a mile from the hotel, and after some detours, I arrived at the tap room right as a storm broke. I sidled up to the bar with other business-travel types and ordered some samples. Sadly, there’s no food, and there was no taco tent like I’d seen on the bus in. Undeterred, I sampled the Hoss, Espresso Oak Aged Yeti, Belgian Style Yeti, Rumble, and Hades. They were all great, though Hades and Espresso Oak Aged Yeti were my two favorites. The Hades had such a perfectly crisp bite to it. and the Espresso Yeti was just layers of delicious. After all those samples, I needed some food.
I had planned on heading to Flying Dog, but their tap room was closed on Tuesdays, so I had to venture on. I decided on Breckenridge’s place adjacent to Coors Field, and again sat at the bar. I ordered their 471 IPA and was kind of shocked to learn it was in excess of 9% ABV. That wasn’t listed on the board, and I don’t think I’d have started with it. However, both it and the Lucky U IPA were good, as was the bartender and the conversation. A growing birthday party pushed me on to the next destination though. A few blocks west was Falling Rock Tap Room.
Falling Rock is damn impressive, but might be a dangerous place to be in an earthquake – not that you’d care. I ran in to my first ever “too drunk to be served” Pirates fan who was over-celebrating the NL defeat of the AL (finally). As you can see, I was seated right by the bear engines, so I had to order a cask. I had the Dry Dock Double IPA, which was fantastic in that medium. A rich roiling of malt and hops in a smooth body. Highly recommend. I was joined by a marketing guy from Subaru (based in Portland) and another LMS admin type from PSU and we talked Beer, Higher Ed, Portland, Hillsboro, and then got to take a break to watch a fantastic thunderstorm and downpour. I finished my night with Odell’s IPA after catching a waft of it from JD’s glass. Hot damn did it smell fantastic. The whole package was an IPA lover’s dream. Slightly hazy golden body with a boiling white head of foam. The aroma was so shockingly fresh and bold I was immediately smitten. The first sip more than met my expectations after the aroma – bright, bold and hoppy but still had a solid body on which to scaffold the whole IPA experience. Thank you Fort Collins.
I apologize for drinking predominantly IPAs. That’s sort of my thing. And Colorado has clearly figured out the style and is doing it justice. As an addendum, on Monday I also tried the Funkworks Saison which was on guest tap at Wynkoop at Josh’s recommendation. It was very good – a very nice fit for the style without any surprises. Great aroma, great flavor, and really satisfying. Plus, what a great homage for a brewery name?
