July 4th Weekend in Colorado

Over the holiday weekend, I had the pleasure of traveling to Colorado for a friend’s wedding.  It just so happend the wedding was being held in the same town where one of my favorite beers is brewed: Lyons, Co.  More on that in a bit.  My girlfriend and I touched down in Denver, and we were soon in hot pursuit of somewhere to eat.  I knew that Great Divide Brewing company was nearby, so we headed in that direction.  As it turns out they don’t serve food at the brewery, but we took a quick gander inside the brick building.  When you walk in, there is a small tap room, with a glass door that leads into the brewery itself, where stainless tanks, kettles, and fermenters can be seen.  Along the wall to the side of the bar, were the countless medals they’ve won, hanging from what looked like a wooden coat rack.  Although I was dying to please my taste buds, we were gaunt from hunger, so we did not stop to taste, but headed next door to The Lobby American Grille restaurant, where I did get a chance to taste the Great Divide DPA on tap.  The Denver Pale Ale was a extremely well brewed English sytle pale ale with a nice malt character with balanced bittering.  After tasting this beer, I was kicking myself I didn’t get a taster at the actual brewery.

After the meal, we headed to Lyons, Colorado–a tiny town situated on the edge of the Rocky Mountain National Park.  We set up camp, and met up with the bride and groom at no other than Oskar Blues Brewery.  My anticipation was palpable, and my hope was that the brewery would live up to their amazing craft beer in a can that is Gordon Ale.  Speaking of Gordon, as we were walking around, two buildings over from the Brewery was a small house with a wood carved sign that read: Gordon.  I never did get a chance to ask whether that was THE Gordon.  We were given a table upstairs and things were looking good when they placed the tap list on the table.  There were two, no three OB beers on tap that I’ve never had, but then the fanboy glaze began to clear, and all of a sudden I found myself in Red Robin lookalike.  There were kids running around, and ceramic elvis’–vibrant colors and cushion booths.  The waitress came over frazzled. We ordered the sampler to get started because the server did not provide much information about the beer.  When the pours arrived, she did not know which glasses were which, and I had to put my tasting skills to the test to line them up correctly.  I was disappointed that they were out of the Velvet Elivs (although I thought one of the tasters, the one she had marked mystery because she didn’t know, tasted a lot like a velvety stout), but the One Nut Brown was tasty–a very sessionable brown ale.  Of all the samples, I thought Gordon was best, with a close tie between Gubna and Dale’s Pale Ale.  Good beer can make up for any shortcomings, and I was feeling pretty good after the samples and food, and we headed downstairs to see what it was all about.  There is a black lit room at the bottom of the stairs filled with classic arcade games and pinballs machines for just a quarter to play.  I immediately ordered another Gordon and headed inside to lose myself to an hour of Galaga and Ms. Pacman.  Outside the arcade room was a pool table, bar, and stage where a “Violin Blues Band” was playing jam band type music.  All in all, the downstairs made up for the upstairs, and by the end of the night I was very pleased.

As we lounged in the sun the next day, I had a Ska Brewing Modus Hoperandi–a very bitter hop bomb IPA with tons of citrus and grapefruit that hit the spot on a sunny afternoon day.  The ceremony took place, and we all headed into the tent to see what was on tap (or at least that’s why I was heading there).  As it turned out, the groom had a friend that worked for Left Hand Brewery, and worked a deal to get two kegs and a bunch of bottles on the cheap.  I consumed my share of Left Hand that night.  400 Pound Monkey was my favorite–English IPA brewed to style and turned up a notch, but the Pilsner was also enjoyable and the Amber Ale as well.  I was not a fan of the Good JuJu ginger beer that they offered.

After an excellent wedding, we packed up camp, and headed into the moutains for a drive through the gorgeous Rocky Moutain National Park, and landed in Boulder for the evening.  We rented bikes and stopped off at BJ’s for dinner.  I’ll refrain from digging into BJ’s, but I’ll just say I was not a fan at all.  Then there was the tornado threat, fireworks, followed by some much needed sleep.

The next morning we went for a 15 mile bike ride up into the moutains and around the city, and finished the weeked with a meal at Hapa Sushi Grill & Sake Bar, and then a final beer before our flight at Walnut Brewery.  I had the Hapa Japanese Rice Beer brewed specifically for Hapa by Great Divide Brewing Company, and was blown away by it.  It was very refreshing, had a perfect amount of hops, and a lot of body and taste for a rice beer.  Walnut Brewery was yet another example of a case of don’t judge a book by its cover.  From the outside, it looks like your regular generic brewpub, but once inside, we were greeted with excellent service and a very large tap list.  We were late for the plane, so we just had a 10 oz taste of their June IPA, and it was spot on–malty with columbus, amarillo I would guess.

Colorado is a destination that must be made by everyone.  I’m sad I didn’t get to even bite into a corner of the entire cookie, but what I did taste, left me wanting more.  I know I’ll be making another trip to the great state.