Beer-cation: Denver Brewery/Beer Bar Crawl

After a somewhat short day of traveling, I was ready to hit up the Denver bar scene. I kept notes of my night, so here are my thoughts.

My crawl started at my AirBnB in the top right corner and I walked to the Epic Brewing Company. I stepped out the door, plugged in my buds, hit play on a Mac Miller album, and got my stroll on.

I really enjoyed Epic Brewery. Aside from their great beer, they had a great ambiance and all around good feel.

Beer # 1: Escape to Colorado, brewed with Mosaic and Apollo, nitro tap. Grapefruit, passion fruit, dank bitterness, citrus fruit, soft creamy mouthfeel, bitterness lingers. 6.0%. 7/10

Beer #2: Brainless on Peaches, Belgian strong ale, brewed with peaches, aged in French Oak white wine barrels. 11.5%. Sour, then sweet peach aroma. Punches like a strong ale, then goes to peaches, finishes with the alcohol bite of a chardonnay. 7.5/10 (Picture wouldn't upload)

They had a couple TVs over the bar, so I was able to catch a few innings of the Pittsburgh shellacking before heading to the second bar.

After two beers I was already feeling the effects of the alcohol in my head, but I hadn't planned on eating dinner until Bar #4. Danger.

I settled my tab and headed to the River North Brewery, singing along to the bubbly indie sounds of Vampire Weekend. On my way I caught my first sighting of a marijuana dispensary as well as a huge building for the Church of Scientology. I was caught off guard by the latter and I later learned that this is actually the headquarters for the "Church". Amazing - our schedule is still clear on Saturday so I'm thinking a tour of the headquarters to learn more about our dianetics is in order.

I arrived at River North, their taproom was very small, but it was a pretty hip spot, with artistic prints of things around their brewery and a wall covered in stickers of other American craft breweries. I really love the culture of the craft beer industry, it's like no other industry in the way that they treat each other like family. When it came to the beer, this was the bar I was most excited for based on what I read online, particularly their barrel aging program. In the end, I was a bit let down. The quality of the beer didn't quite meet my expectations.

Beer #3: J'Marie Whiskey, Farmhouse Ale aged in Whiskey barrels. 7.5%. Caramel, toffee whiskey notes. Vanilla/Whiskey burn flavour, clean crisp finish (only similarity to a saison, not barnyard/funky at all). 6.5/10

Beer #4: J'Marie Barreled with Brett. I think I have a bias towards Brett. As soon as a smell it, my knees tremble. I wish I could get this scent in candle form. Aroma: don't know how to describe it other than simple and bretty. Flavour is a bit to bitter competing with the brett, but that makes sense since the base beer is a saison. It tastes good, but it smells better. 8.0/10.

 

Next up was the Great Divide, I paired the walk to this brewery with a little Big D & The Kids Table.

Beer #5: Claymore Scotch Ale, 7.7%. Leathery, slightly smoky, malty aroma. Very slight scotch aroma, a bit burnt smoky flavour. Finishes rather dry, not much residual sweetness. 5.5/10.

 

Beer #6: Yeti oak aged Imperial Stout. (ABV unkown). Chocolate, Roasty, coffee aroma. Bitterness from the roasted coffee and a bit an astringent mouthfeel from the coffee. Still pretty sweet, a style I love. 8/10.

Next up was the beer bar Fresh Craft. Finally it was Bar #4, where I planned on eating dinner. Suffice to say, I was pumped for food, I was listening to Sleigh Bells and jogging/heel kicking on my way. As I waited for my beer to show up, I chugged a glass of water and inhaled a aged cheddar, bacon, beer soup. This was delicious, so much cheddar and smokey bacon flavour. It was thick, creamy and very rich.

I ordered Dogfish Head's Punkin Ale as I've never had it and I wanted to use it as a base to compare against my Basic Bitch Pumpkin Ale that I'll be cracking open in a week. Unfortunately they were out of stock, so I settled for the Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA, not a bad backup.

Beer #7: Dogfish Head 90 Min IPA. 9.0%. I've had it before, obviously love it. Sweet like a liqueur, fruity taste, but dank bitterness, finishing a bit sweet. 8.5/10.

For my main I had the meatloaf sandwich with coleslaw, which was pretty good and very rich/full flavoured, but it didn't quite measure up to the Black Dog's meatloaf sandwich, which sets the bar high.

I set sail for the final bar of my crawl, Falling Rock Tap House. I got a bit lost on my way and started a conversation with a couple San Fran Giants fans. I talked to them for a while about the game and they decided to join me at Falling Rock as they were looking to celebrate their team's win.

Beer #8: Crooked Stave. At this point I was more worried about conversing and less about analyzing the beer. I didn't even document the name or style of the beer. All I remember is that it was puckering in sourness and very yummy. 8.0/10.

It was just about midnight and I had to get up somewhat early to head to Golden, so I hailed a cab and hit the hay. It was a great beer crawl journey and with the number of breweries in Denver, you could switch up your route many times and never get bored. 

Thanks for reading!