Denver/Boulder

[rejtable]

Hi all, kind of surprised that no Denver report on here. Saw one from almost 10 years ago that included some Denver info, but also stuff on the way down. So figured I'd make one just for Denver. Mods merge it with the older one if you prefer.

Just spent a week in Denver, awesome city!! And beer is certainly (and not surprisingly) part of that. Here's my quick rundown:

Denver Bars/Breweries:
- Falling Rock Taphouse: Rep is well deserved. Something like 80 taps with a great mix of local/regional/national. Dive bar vibe, some people could be put off by some of the folks manning the bar (I F&#$#KING HATE IPA SO DON"T ASK ME WHAT TO TRY), but for me it worked.
- EPIC: New big industrial spot in RINO area. Cool place, great list with lots of range.
- Crooked Stave at the Source: Super cool taproom on the far east of RINO across the tracks. Maybe 30 of their beer on tap in a cool converted warehouse that contains lots of other interesting shops/bars. And right across the street from...
- Great Divide Barrel house: Big industrial location, the associated taproom is fun with maybe 20 of their taps.
- Freshcraft: good selection of local and regional beers with really good food, lively spot downtown.
- Comrade brewing: Wide open industrial tap room south of downtown. Beer was ok, pretty lively spot.
- Cerebral brewing: Man, this was a fun spot. Maybe 15-20 taps, wide range and everything I had was fantastic. East of downtown.
- Bierstad: In RINO in a building shared with a cidery. Odd space in the loft area of the giant building. Fun though, lively spot. Just had their pils which was fantastic.
- Great Divide taphouse: downtown right next to Coors Field. Smaller spot, looked to be same beer list as the RINO location, was super busy the couple of times I popped in.
- TRVE: Death Metal and sour beers!! Beers were solid, decor was all goth/death metal. Only time I found the service to be an issue in Denver, dude didn't want to help out much at all.
- Terminal Bar @ Union Station: Man, this was cool. They have a window from the bar inside Union, grab a beer and just enjoy the action in their beautiful Union Station. Maybe 25 local and regional beers on tap.
- Our Mutual Friend brewery: Really neat spot, again in RINO (you could almost literally swing a dead or live cat and hit a brewery all over RINO). Had one great beer while there as a nightcap after baseball game. Fun place.
- Ratio brewery: lively place in RINO with big outdoor area. Solid beer.
- Denver Beer Co: Fun spot just north of downtown. Maybe 12 beers on tap, good range and what I had was really tasty.
- Lucky Pie: saw this recommended by a few. Every time I walked by and at different times of the week and day, place was dead. I stopped in for a quick bite. Pretty good range of local/regional/national stuff and my food was solid, but by far the deadest place I was in for the whole week.
- First Draft Taproom: Pour your own beer!!! Grab a scanner card, walk up to a tap, and pour your own amount. Good range of something like 30 taps, was awesome being able to try a bunch of stuff. Super busy spot with a cool loft upstairs where you can look down on the crowd.
- Coors Field: Was a bit dissapointed in the beer selection. I mean, I get the Coors connection at least in the name, but still, this is DENVER!! On the lower Mezzanine you have to work to find interesting beer, and even then it's pretty standard stuff like Avery IPA or Odell 10 schilling. There is a Hop Valley (owned by Coors) spot in the back left field corner. Better options up in the rooftop area but even then a few taps and stuff that is pretty widely available (i.e. Sierra Nevada Hazy IPA). Still, neat to order a giant can of Oskar Blues Dale right from a vendor walking up and down the aisle. AAAAND, most impressive... the prices were the best I've ever seen at a ballpark. 12oz pour of SN Hazy was $6. Giant Oskar Blues was $9.

Bottle Shops:
- Mrs Bs: downtown right next to Coors Field. Solid selection of local and national beers. Pretty much anything interesting in 4 packs only.
- Grapevine wine and liquor: this was an awesome spot south of downtown. Lots of beer in main area and in walk in cooler.
- Small Batch Liquors: Similar size to Mrs Bs but really well curated selection.
- Mile High Wine and Spirits: had to return the car near here, pretty solid spot, similar to Small Batch or Mrs Bs.

Boulder:
- Backcountry Pizza: Wow... most impressive beer list I saw in the area, including better than Falling Rock. Pizza was also crazy good. Lively spot on a Wednesday night, service was great.
- Avery Brewering: Giant spot in industrial park, multiple areas to drink beer. Maybe 30 of their beers on tap, cool spot.
There were TONS of places in Boulder, I only made it to those two, but could have hit up 4-5 more spots easy.

All in all, an incredible beer area, which shouldn't be surprising.

[cratez]

rejtable's recommendations will give me lots to run with, and I've always found his reviews to be accurate. But I wanted to see if anything has changed in the Denver area over the last 6 years, and also seek advice on Vail and Fort Collins.

My family and I will be in Denver, Vail and Fort Collins from July 13-21. Current schedule is Denver Saturday to Wednesday, Vail Wednesday evening to Friday morning, and Fort Collins Friday afternoon to Sunday afternoon (flying home Sunday evening). In Denver we're staying right downtown near the major tourist attractions. In the Vail area we'll be in Avon visiting family. In Fort Collins we're in the south end of the city about 15 minutes south of downtown.

This is a family vacation with our 3-year-old son in tow. However, great beer will still be in the picture. We'll be visiting attractions in the morning and afternoon, so looking for good breweries, brewpubs, restaurants, and bars to hit at lunch and dinner time. If they're family-friendly, that's all the better. Also seeking beer store recos, as most nights we'll be drinking in the room/on the patio from 9pm onward.

Unlike all previous vacations, I haven't had time to do the beer research I normally do. So any recommendations you can give are much appreciated. And if you have advice on destinations/fun things to do, I'll take it. I'm not worried about safety in Vail and Fort Collins, but if safety tips are needed for Denver, I'm all ears. Thanks in advance for your help!

[JerCraigs]

My usual research these days is to start with the places maps at Ratebeer (mostly to identify spots. There aren't enough people actively rating places anymore to be enough on their own), do a venue search on Untappd, then when i get to destination check to see what people are checking in where. The latter has been a good way to find places that have a decent selection but don't necessarily make the beer geek radar. I found lots of places of the "worth a stop because it's right beside our hotel / some other thing we are doing." style like this.