So I went to Colorado from Saturday the 3rd to Wednesday the 7th. My brother-in-law Darrin invited me to go over there to watch the Super Bowl with his friend Chris who lives in Longmont. I was told we'd also be visiting a ton of breweries, as there's a ton of them over there. As soon as I heard that, I was all set to go. If you didn't know, I love beer and work for a Coors/Miller/craft beer/wine distributor). Saturday, the first day I showed up, set the scene for what I'd be doing for the next five days: drinking beer! Chris and Darrin picked me up from the airport and we immediately went to our first brewery, The Tommyknocker brewery in Idaho Springs. Being from Idaho, this town reminded me a lot of my home state. It was a small town and reminded me a lot of Wallace, only prettier. It totally looked like an Old West town, which was great. So the first thing we ordered was a sampler for each of us. Their sampler consisted of eight 5-oz glasses of every beer they made. They had some interesting brews, including the Tundra Beary, which was a pale ale made with raspberries, blueberries and other fruits. Interesting. They had a Maple Nut Brown Ale, which was pretty damn good, although Chris didn't care for it. It tasted like beer with maple syrup in it. Sound gross? It wasn't. Other notables were the Butt Head Bock (got a t-shirt of that one), and the Imperial Nut Brown Ale. The Imperial is a bigger, bolder version of the Maple Nut Brown Ale, with about twice the alcohol. This was my favorite beer here. They had some excellent food here, too.
Our next stop was the Coors Brewery. You didn't think I'd miss the opportunity to see the beer the state of Colorado is most famous for, did you? Hell no. Although I'm not crazy about the major beers in America (Bud, Coors, Miller), I do drink Coors every now and then if I can get it cheap at work when it goes out of date. But generally, my tastes lean toward craft and foreign beers. And Coors actually does make one of my favorite craft beers, Blue Moon, so that was a sell for me. We went on the tour of the brewery and I learned a lot about beer. At one point in the tour we got to sample the freshest Coors one can possibly drink. I think it had been brewed that day or the day before. Like I said before, this is Coors so I wasn't expecting anything all that great, but this fresh stuff was delicious! It exceeded all my expectations. If only the stuff you buy in the stores was this good, I would drink it more often. After the tour was over, we got to go to their tasting room and drink two of any product they sell. I went for the Blue Moon Belgian White, which is always good, and this crazy drink that they just do at the brewery where they mix the Blue Moon with George Killians Irish Red. Not bad at all. We then went to the merchandise store where I got a couple of hats.
After this, we were going to go to another brewery but we had to take a detour because people in Colorado don't know how to drive in the snow. I couldn't believe it. I thought people in the Rockies would be pros at driving in winter weather. There were wrecked cars everywhere! It was bizarre. Chris told us that snow and ice don't build up on the roads like it does in Idaho, so people there are as clueless as southern Californians when it comes to snow! So we ended up getting kind of lost. By the time we found our way it was late so we just went back to Chris' place.
Chris has a nice place and I'd heard that his bar is fantastic, but I wasn't prepared for this. It's totally decked out in beer signs, neons, a dart machine, foosball table, pool table, air hockey, a huge TV, a nice beer fridge, a keg fridge with a fresh keg in it, and his impressive tap handle collection. I didn't count how many he had, but it was quite the collection. We ended up playing Triapoly and then went to bed.
The next day was Super Bowl Sunday. Chris has a reputation for throwing the best Super Bowl parties in town and he didn't disappoint. At the height of the party there was probably close to 80 people in that house. Every TV room was filled to the brim with people. Two of the people there own one of the breweries we would be going to in a couple of days. Chris is friends with the brewmaster. I got to talk with him a little bit about beer which was cool. He was an interesting guy. It was great. We ended up playing darts all night, which was a lot of fun.
The next day we realized that it was quite the party. There were pistachios everywhere, not to mention all the empty beer bottles and keg cups. After we got our hungover asses into gear, we headed out to visit more breweries. Our first stop was the Budweiser plant in Fort Collins. I was a little leery going in here. I work for Coors/Miller so this was enemy territory for me and I detest anything Budweiser related. I don't understand why it's the biggest beer in the world. In my eyes, it sucks ass. Everybody else wanted to go, so I agreed to check it out. We went on the tour which was, again, very informative and interesting. We got to see the Clydesdales and a 1910 beer delivery wagon, which was pretty neat. At the end of the tour we went to the tasting room. We got to do a blind taste test. Our tour guide wouldn't tell us what we were tasting. She gave us two different glasses and told us to tell her what our first impressions were--taste, color, and scent wise, and which one we liked better. I liked the first sample better. I thought it was more crisp and refreshing. The second sample had a malty flavor that I didn't care for as much. After we were done, she told us that the first sample was fresh Budweiser, less than ten days old. The second sample was also Budweiser, but was 100 days old and had been sitting in the sun for awhile. So I supposed I picked the right one, although Chris liked the older beer better--he thought it had more flavor. Darrin agreed with me that the first one was better. We got to have full glasses of some of their other beers. I had their winter seasonal, which is a beer made with vanilla beans and other spices aged in bourbon barrels. I've tried this beer before and I think it's pretty good. I then had a Michelob Honey Lager which was pretty good too. Darrin, Chris, and I also shared their Stone Mill Organic Pale Ale, which was actually pretty damn good. On the tour we learned about these flavor shots that Anheuser-Busch sells. You can add a variety of flavors (the ones I can remember were mango, lime, and chocolate) to your beer to get a whole new flavor experience. So in their tasting room we decided to try one. We got a Bud and added the mango flavor to it. You should have seen the grimaces of disgust from Darrin and Chris! I didn't think it was that bad. It made it taste like a Mike's or a Zima or something (aka cheerleader beer). It was interesting, but it's something I'd never buy.
After Bud, we went into the heart of Fort Collins. Chris told us Fort Collins has more breweries per capita than any other place in the world. He was right. I was in beer heaven! Our first craft brewery was Coopersmith brewery. As far as atmosphere, this place was my favorite brewery of the whole trip. They didn't have the best beers I tried on this vacation, but it was a neat looking place. To get to it, we had to walk through an area of town that reminded me a lot of Pioneer Square in Seattle. The streets were cobblestone and there were shops, restaurants, and bars everywhere. Walking in to Coopersmith I was immediately impressed. It was a very fashionable place, although some of the art kind of sucked in a new age/modern kind of way. We ordered two 5 oz samples of every beer they made. They make 14 beers in this place, which meant we had 28 glasses of beer on the table. Beer heaven I repeat! Some of my favorites here included the Columbine Kolsch, the Sigda's Green Chili, the Scrumpy Cider (not a beer, but still great), the Dunkel Munich, the Opus Mega Alpha IPA, and the Black Powder Barley Wine. My favorite here was the Sigda's Green Chili, which is ironic because I thought it would be disgusting. I've had chili beers before (anybody remember Cave Creek Chili Beer?) and they're always nasty. This one was awesome! It was pretty spicy and tasted like I was drinking a liquid Mexican dish. That doesn't sound good does it? I think you need to sample it yourself before you pass judgement. Coopersmith also had an absolutely disgusting beer called the Bourbon Barrel Existential Porter. This thing did not taste like a beer. It tasted like straight whiskey. We were in a hurry to get to as many breweries as possible this day, so we had to down these samples in a hurry. Chris downed one of the glasses of this shit beer in one swallow, which would prove to be a terrrible mistake on his part later on. When we finally left this place, we were all feeling pretty tipsy. We got some great pictures which I can't wait to see.
Next stop was the New Belgium brewery. I've always wanted to come here. Fat Tire is probably our best selling craft beer at the distributor where I work. We each got a sampler here. I think there were seven or eight beers total. There wasn't a bad beer here, but my favorites were the Trippel (it tastes so authentically Belgian you'd think it was a Chimay--my favorite beer in the world by the way), the Abbey, and the 1554 Black Ale. I got to talk to the servers about beer, which is obviously a subject I love talking about. I told him I worked for one of their distributors in Idaho and he told me he just got a shipment ready for us the day before. I thought that was cool.
Next stop was O'dells (I think that's what it was called--I was pretty hammered at this point). I don't remember all the beers we drank, but I think there was five or six to sample. My favorite was their porter. This place was cool, but so far the least memorable.
After this we headed back to Chris'. I was writing earlier about how it was a mistake for Chris to be pounding all those beers. This is where that mistake comes into play. He ended up puking his guts on the side of the road. He didn't feel too good, but we were laughing our asses off! We got back and Chris passed out. Darrin, Darby (Chris' wife), and I stayed up until about 1 AM talking and drinking and then Darrin got Chris' ass up out of bed. He got up and we ended up watching Boston Legal til four in the morning!
Needless to say, the next day, Tuesday, was our lazy day. We layed around and watched TV until about 3:00. Then we got up, went to the mall, came back, and then went out to see some more breweries. This time Boulder was our destination. Our first stop was supposed to be the Avery brewery but they were closed. We then went to the Walnut brewery. Our days of ordering multiple samplers were behind us. We were all feeling a little under the weather I believe. We tried two beers apiece here. I had a Devil's Thumb Stout and an Old Thumper Barleywine. Neither were anything to write home about, but I liked the Old Thumper better.
I don't remember the name of the next brewery we went to. It was a cool looking place, though. All the kettles were right behind the bar, totally visible. I got a sampler here and we shared it. My favorite here was the Imperial Stout. Yummy.
Our last stop of the night was the Left Hand brewery. We did indeed save the best for last. It wasn't the best as far as atmosphere, but they had the greatest beers by far. Not only did they have the greatest beers of the trip but some of the best beers I've ever tried. Their milk stout might be the greatest stout I've ever had. I don't know, I'd have to have some of my other favorites on hand to compare them side by side. It seemed to me as good if not better than classics like Samuel Smith's Oatmeal and Imperial Stout and Rogue's Shakespeare Stout. They also had a fantastic smoked porter which was in the same league as Alaskan Smoked Porter. They also had a delicious Trippel, again reminding me of Chimay. They also had another great porter and a spiced ale called Ju Ju Ginger Ale. It tasted like a gingerbread cookie. Every beer here was delicious.
Then we went back to the house. The next day was Wednesday, and our last day in Colorado. Darrin and I flew back to Idaho around noon. Over the course of three days we visited nine breweries and tried between 50 and 60 different beers. It was an experience I'll never forget. The two of us seriously began talking about starting our own brewery after this trip. It's been my dream job for about ten years now. Going on this trip really got me anxious to stop dreaming and start acting. Let's hope it happens.