Denver Craft Beer Overview – Part I
Denver is a beer town. No one can dispute it. There are many beer towns, and I’ve been to some, but Denver ranks near the top. Why is that? What makes Denver such a great place to be a craft beer aficionado?
I don’t know the history. I’m not sure how the Mile High City earned its Mount Olympus of Beer moniker (I just made that nickname up, actually. Feel free to use it.). I’ll look into where it all began, and get back to you. But I do know what makes it awesome today.
Breweries. Brew pubs. Beer bars. Bar bars. Homebrewers. Festivals. Events.
We have a lot of each, and we have some of the best of each.
I’m going to run through a few things about each of those categories, and I’ll dive in deeper in future posts. If there’s a spot you want me to check out, or think I need to know about, leave me a comment. If I leave out your favorite, or completely misrepresent your local hangout, I do not apologize. Just leave me a note, and we’ll see what happens.
For some geographical reference while reading this, please see the Beer Mapping Project for Denver.
Breweries
Contrary to popular belief, there are not ten million breweries in Denver. In fact, in Denver proper, there are only three: Great Divide, Del Norte, and Breckenridge (I’m including Wynkoop in pubs, it’s ok). Expand that to surrounding towns, and you can add a bunch more. In the greater Denver area, you have Caution (new brewers in town!), Dry Dock, Golden City, Left Hand, and Oscar Blues. In Boulder alone, we have Avery, Upslope, Boulder Brewing, Twisted Pine, and Asher. And then if you spread out across the state, you can throw in New Belgium, Odell’s, Fort Collins Brewing, Bristol, Ska, Trinity, Steamworks, Durango Brewing, Cooper Smiths, Grand Lake, Tommyknocker, and more. But this post is about Denver, so I’ll stick with that for now. And, just a quick note.. This post a few years ago would have included Flying Dog. But no more. Sad face.
This is meant to be an overview post. So I’m going to talk about three breweries, and then stop. But I plan to talk about each and every brewery in depth at some point.
2201 Arapahoe Street • Denver • Colorado • 80205 • greatdivide.com
Anyone who knows me knows I go to Great Divide a lot. Like, a lot. There are some weeks when I can be seen there three or four times. Great beer, great staff, great people, great location. Great Divide. (I just made that marketing slogan up, but I’ll take royalties for it. Thanks.)
Anyway, Great Divide is awesome. They’re a pretty massive micro brew in terms of capacity, distribution, name recognition, different kinds of beer, awards, etc., but the brewery itself isn’t all that huge. It takes up about a quarter of a block in the northern part of downtown. Great location for any reason, but especially fantastic due to its proximity to Coors Field. Their new patio makes for excellent summer time craft beer enjoyment. The tours are a little shorter now, as the back tank room is chock full of new 100 bbl tanks. But they sure are shiny.
Great Divide offers your first four 4-ounce samplers for free, and the next four for $5. Pints are generally $3-$5 as well, depending on the brew. They have great events, including cheese pairings, meet-ups, and charity events. Definitely a great place to visit, and visit often.
Golden City
920 12th Street • Golden • Colorado • 80401 • gcbrewery.com
My first (and embarrassingly only) trip to Golden City Brewery – The Second Largest Brewery in Golden – was at the hand of my friend Shannon. I got there right at closing, which is a little early, but you’ll understand why when you go, and she had 3 pints waiting for me. This beer was amazing, big, strong, delicious, and perfect. Golden City has an awesome beer garden. It’s a bunch of plastic picnic tables in a gravel backyard. It’s amazing.
If my memory serves correctly, and I’m going to assume it does, Golden City stops pouring at 6pm on weeknights, and kicks everyone out at 6:30. Now, I got there around 6:05, and had 3 pints of awesomeness sitting in front of me. Twenty five minutes is fine for some fizzy yellow water, but not for the art that Golden City creates. Dilemma! Solution? Get the owner to sing. I’ll leave it at that, and let you find out what happens on your own. A teaser: I had plenty of time to finish my beers, smiling the entire time.
[Edit] @comat0se informed me that GCB doesn’t actually kick you out. They stop serving pitchers at 6, pints at 6:30, and in the winter, they have a fire pit!
Breckenridge
471 Kalamath Street • Denver • Colorado • 80204 • breckenridgebrewery.com
Breckenridge Brewery is technically not in Denver. Their corporate headquarters are, as are two pubs, but the brewery technically resides in its mountain town namesake. I have heard great things about both pubs, but I’m going to be honest and tell you that I’ve never been to either. I have been to the brewery in Breck, but not to the pubs in Denver. I will, now that I write for this blog, and I will relay my experience, but for now, all I know is the beer.
And I’m not a huge fan of the beer. Sorry. I think their 471 Small Batch IPA is pretty tasty, but for the most part… I haven’t been super impressed. I’m not saying I won’t drink it when it’s available, I just need to be convinced further. So, die hard Breckenridge fans, convince me.
Brew Pubs
While we don’t have ten million breweries here, I do believe we have at least twelve million brew pubs. There are a few chains that actually make good beer, including CB Potts and Rock Bottom. Wynkoop, and all their related restaurants, also generally have good beer on tap. And then there are about a hundred others in town as well. Boulder also has some amazing ones, including Mountain Sun and Southern Sun, BJ’s, and Walnut. I’m only going to talk about three here. Please, request one you want to hear about. I love market research.
Bull & Bush
4700 Cherry Creek South Drive • Denver • Colorado • 80222 • bullandbush.com
I don’t even know where to begin with this place. Think of a quintessential German brewhaus restaurant building (I don’t know what that would be, but I spelled quintessential correctly, twice, so just go with it) next to a retirement home, outside the richest part of Denver. With great beer. And awesome food. And plenty of parking.
The last time I was there, I went to watch a soccer game. We got there around noon on a Sunday, hangovers in tow, and were greeted with a dark, cool room, soccer on the TVs, and a waitstaff waiting to wait on us. The beer was tasty. The menu was delicious. The scotch and gin lists made me want to drink scotch and gin. Overall, it’s an awesome example of what a brewpub should be.
Wynkoop
1634 18th Street • Denver • Colorado • 80202 • wynkoop.com
The mayor of Denver had a hand in starting Wynkoop. That is pretty cool. The brewpub is an establishment to be reckoned with. Everyone knows it. The Company, as it shall be referred to henceforth, owns some pretty awesome locations, including the Cherry Cricket, Pearl Street Grill, Phantom Canyon, and a few others.
I feel similarly about Wynkoop’s beer as I do about Breckenridge’s. In all honesty, I generally find it a bit lackluster, with the occasional star rising above the rest. I don’t mean to imply I dislike it, but more that I crave more flavor, more experimentation, more innovation, and generally just.. more.
However, I find the atmosphere makes up for it. Wynkoop has a great bar, pretty good food, big high def TVs to watch the Broncos dominate all others (no bias there…), and a ton of pool tables. The staff, brewers, and management are great people, and it’s truly a fun place to meet and experience Denver.
Denver Chophouse and Brewery
1735 19th St # 100 • Denver • Colorado • 80202 • chophouse.com
I love steak. And bacon. And good food in general. And.. well, I love beer.
So it goes without saying that this place wins on name alone. But then I ate there. And drank there. It’s amazing. The food is spectacular, and the beer is pretty good as well. They serve 8 or 10 different styles, and will help match the beer with the food. The service was also superb, and I value good service pretty highly, especially when the check is more than the dollar menu.
The location doesn’t hurt. A massively hit foul ball could land in your soup.
To be continued…
That’s it for now. I want you to read my words, not just scroll down looking for pictures of puppies. Stay tuned next Friday for an overview of homebrewing, events, and festivals, all of which take place in a plethora of awesomeness on the Mount Olympus of Beer.
21 Comments to “Denver Craft Beer Overview – Part I”
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I just got back from honeymooning in Denver, and since my husband and I are homebrewers, we spent a lot of time in the breweries and brewpubs.
As for Bull & Bush, which has an AMAZING Big Ben Brown ale (much better than most browns…really bold and flavorful), the pub is actually modeled after the original Bull & Bush in Hampstead Heath, England—though the exterior does look a little brewhaus-ish.
Good to know! Where else did you guys go when you were in town?
You can read about our Denver Honeymoon here: http://www.bathtubbrewery.com/2010/01/11/honeymooning-in-denver-a-homebrewers-dream-part-i/
and here:
http://www.bathtubbrewery.com/2010/01/20/honeymooning-in-denver-a-homebrewers-dream-part-ii/
Cheers!
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Does Caution have a website?
http://cautionbrewingco.com/
PJ, what qualification do you have to critique beers? if i recall both breckenridge and wynkoop have won medals at the great american beer festival…and the reason that denver is the “Mount Olympus of Beer” is because the distribution laws in Colorado are more lax than other states…before pretending to be a beer aficionado, do your fucking homework
Hi something,
Thanks for your comment. The difference between my rating of beer and GABF’s is that GABF rates based on style guidelines, and I rate based on whether or not I like the beer. Many great beers don’t win medals at GABF because they don’t fall within style guidelines, as set forth by the BJCP.
As far as the reasoning behind Colorado being the beer mecca that it is, that’s a great point. I’ll look into that more and see what came first, the beer or the laws.
Thanks for reading!
PJ
Something,
As much as I love to follow the BJCP guidelines for my own personal beer reviews, I do not think that they are the end all be all. The ever growing trend of the industry is to produce unique beers that fall outside of the traditional categories. Should breweries be neglected and “punished” for not producing stylized beer? I think not.
I respect the GABF awards ceremony, however, when beers like MWE BEAST, Keystone ICE and Steel Reserve win medals — one tends to raise an eyebrow at the system.
Milwaukee Beast won a GOLD medal. A GOLD!!!
My value on GABF medals is not high. In my opinion, the palates of other craft beer connoisseurs is a much better judge of beer than whether or not the brewery won a medal at GABF.
But then, we are all entitled to our own opinions. Just because I don’t agree with Robert Parker on his wine reviews does not mean that he “needs to do his f*ing homework.” It just means that we all entitled to our own opinions. PJ has stated his (in a nice way, I might add).
The Wench
All of it is actually flawed because none of them have YOUR pallet. Only your pallet can judge if you like this or that Some beer also travels badly. People neglect that when reviewing.
I totally agree that tastes differ person to person. I don’t think that people neglect that, though. Maybe I’m wrong there, but I definitely apply the qualifier of “this is what I think, your thoughts may differ” when reading reviews.
Granted, obviously not everyone tends to make that distinction. So, official fine print:
My reviews of beer are based on my own tastes. You may agree or disagree. No one will think less of you for having a different experience.
Thanks for reading and commenting, tdtm82.
I am cool with PBR winning..
Please don’t take my blog away from me for saying that!
Wow. First off, your initial question :
“what qualification do you have to critique beers?”
I will not speak for PJ, but I will answer for myself, and I think he may agree.
I am qualified to critique beer, first and foremost because I drink them. Secondly, and almost as important is that I care enough to critique them. I could go off on my merry way and by a 30 block of coors light for the same price as a six pack of craft beer, but I don’t because I demand quality.
I base that quality off of how I, me, the beer drinker that matters most to me, enjoys the experience of a craft beer. You may completely disagree, and that is your prerogative. It is the variety in life that makes it interesting.
Why would someone care about my opinion, or PJ’s for that matter? Because we very likely drink a hell of lot more beer then most people do. So we have a lot more experience in what may be enjoyable to certain palettes and what may not.
Our opinion is our own, and you may take it to heart, or ignore it. Ultimately the key is that we are all helping the craft beer industry raise the bar and that is what matters!
Great post PJ! Stay Safe and Drink Beer!
-New Brew Thursday
I do drink a lot of beer…
Thanks for the note.
wrong side of the bed there Something? that or you happen to be the brewer… I’d agree with the comments about the brews at wynkoop/breckenridge. ‘meh’ for the most part, although the milk stout is pretty good. I go there a fair bit for the pool, but definitely not for the beer or the overpriced food. and I do love Breck’s Vanilla Porter, but the rest of the lineup, not so hot in my eyes.
This looks great so far! As a recent transplant to Denver from the east coast, I am looking forward to keeping up with this. I am already a regular at Bull and Bush, Vine Street, Falling Rock, and (on occasion) Great Divide, but it will be really helpful to have some ongoing feedback/overviews of some of the other area beer places. Keep up the good work!
I’m glad you enjoyed it! Please let me know of some of your favorite spots, should you come across any new ones, and let me know if you want me to go explore a new spot as well. I’m always willing
Breckenridges production brewery is in Denver at 471 Kalamath. While the one in Breckenridge is the original all major production has taken place in Denver for about 10 years.
So true! I should have looked at that better before writing it. I was basing my location statement off the Colorado Brewer’s Guild site, which still lists Breck as being based in Breck. Thanks for pointing that out!
Actually, I believe that the lax laws on the distribution side of the equation has worked to hamper the beer scene in Denver (and all of CO). There’s what I might call a semi-Tied House reality there. Brewers can decide to discount their beers to a certain bar, effectively (and often intentionally) shutting out other brands. Thus some bars don’t make decisions on the beers that they carry based upon diversity, selection, or what they think the *best* beers are, but based instead on which brands give them the best perks. CO, along with IL are the two most lax states. Yes, a terrific craft beer scene is in CO (and IL) and I count myself among the many fans. However, it is my opinion that Denver is not a more mature craft beer market because the rule of the day is often more of competition (and shutting the competition out) versus cooperation. Other than a handful of known (and wonderful) craft beer bars in Denver, the selection one might find narrows down but quick. There are many other cities in which you’ll find diversity and selection all over the place.
Please note that this is not a knock against Denver or CO, but a commentary on some of the lax laws and the business practices that take place as a result. It is my opinion that with tighter laws, the craft beer scene in pubs and restaurants would be poised to take an incredible leap forward.
If I’m in Philly, Seattle, San Diego, Portland, NY (and others), you’ll find me in one of about 20 or so different great beer spots in each of those cities. If I’m in Denver, you’ll find me in one of about five great beer spots. Denver should have more.
Once again, I am a fan of Denver. I am a fan of the CO craft brewing scene.
Cheers,
Greg
[...] finished the night with a Breckenridge Christmas Ale. I’ve said before my feelings on Breckenridge beers. Allowing for that bias, I think the beer was pretty good. Not [...]