If you're ever planning on doing any beer touristing in Colorado, here's my cliff notes version, read on. If not, skip this post.
Regardless, make sure you skip taking Frontier Airlines. Nothing like checking in the night before to see your flight is on time only to show up at the airport to find out that your 4:40pm flight has been moved to 1:12am (but don't go anywhere because there's a slight chance it might leave early and if it does, it's your fault, not theirs).
We hit:
Arvada:
Yak and Yeti ( Yak and Yeti Himalayan IPA=best Colorado IPA I had, great Indian buffet)
Boulder:
Avery (lots of unmemorable beers, though admittedly I was sick as a dog, barking constantly)
Backcountry Pizza (pizza was pretty average, awesome that Bilnd Pig is always on draft)
Lyons:
Oskar Blues Brewpub (nice laid back vibe)
Estes Park:
Nothing, despite being there for five days. Cooked our own food in our cabin and drank beer we picked up in Boulder.
Fort Collins:
New Belgium (best tour ever, and i've been on plenty, loved their backstory, the enthuiasm of the workers/guide, awesome how much free (good) beer they gave us, daughter loved the curly slide)
Odell (second favorite Colorado IPA, cool place)
Funkwerks (good saisons but nothing special)
Fort Collins Brewpub (entirely too corporate vibe, terrible IPA, tasty flatbread)
Longmont:
Oskar Blues Brewpub (much bigger draft selection than Lyons but vibe was a bit too slick, Bonnie Raitt and Stevie Ray Vaughn at 11 in the morning with my Lost Abbey saison? No thanks.)
Denver:
Hops and Pie (excellent food and nice draft selection, great vibe)
Prost (excellent dunkel, good weisbier, and a kolsch and award winning keller-pils that were entirely forgettable)
Great Divide (only beer i remember was the Oatmeal Yeti which was nothing special. Surprised the place was so small but i heard they are moving to a bigger place)
River North (mixed bag ranging from decent to drain pour (the Quad), far short of Belgian beer actually made in Belgium)
Cheeky Monk (can't beat $6.99 lunch specials with half price drafts, the creamy, tangy penne pasta was amazing pair with a Cuvee des Jacobins Rouge. Wife had a Pliny, which was not half price, understandably)
Crooked Stave (my favorite tasting room visited, Surette and Orgins are both great beers)
Epic (pretty average beer except Big Bad Baptist, which is very good but far short of BCBS)
Falling Rock (no seats available so we actually left two minutes later)
Freshcraft (good food, nice $4 pint special for happy hour)
Dry Dock (maybe the surprise of the trip, drove up not expecting much when looking at its sububan stripmall location (though i had been drinking their awesome hefe while in Estes Park)...seven of the eight beers we sampled were very good to excellent, only one was a miss)
Comrade (my third favorite Colorado IPA, the PGA Seniors Golf and the canned Motown music didn't really seem to fit the "comrade" theme)
