Vacation In A Few Weeks - Nevada, Utah & Colorado

It's my 10th anniversary in a couple weeks and my wife and I are driving to Colorado via Las Vegas and Utah. We have some stops planned, but I want to get some local opinions on where to go. We will be in Vegas for two days so I have a little bit of time there, and Utah will be mostly the southern half, not up to Salt Lake City.

In Colorado we're staying for a couple days in the mountains before coming into the Boulder/Denver/Colorado Springs area. I already plan to go to Avery, so no need to list that one. And I already checked, and the day we would have to be in Ft. Collins, New Belgium and Odell are closed.

I like pretty much everything and really want to try local stuff that I can't get in LA, so any suggestions on breweries, beers or establishments? Or anything else not so touristy to do/see?

Funkweks and Ft. Collins Brewery are also good stops for beer if you're going to be in Fort Collins. Also consider hitting up Left Hand or Oskar Blues. Great Divide, Breckenridge and tons of smaller breweries are all over in Denver.

Off the top of my head in the Lodo area downtown there's Great Divide, Breckenridge, Denver Beer Co and some other ones. It's kind of cool to go to Wynkoop because it was Colorado's first micro-brewery and was founded by our now governor. If you want to try a variety of the local breweries Falling Rock Tap House has a pretty fantastic selection of Colorado stuff. If you like Scotch, Pints Pub has an insane selection and they brew their own cask conditioned English style beers. That might get you started.

Well, I'm leaving this morning and will be in Las Vegas this afternoon. If anyone has any other suggestions I'd be glad hear them.

If you get thirsty for beer I like Sin City's hefeweizen in Vegas. Can be found at the Sin City outposts at Flamingo, Miracle Mile shops and Venetian but can also be found at other bars. If you are just looking for good beer in Vegas The Pub in Monte Carlo is my favorite although I seem to remember most of the beers were west coast and mountain state beers. Huge selection though.

I posted this in the GABF thread for those visiting the city, but I'll post it here as well for your information.

Renegade Brewing Company. My favorite local brewery.
Wit's End Brewing Company <---IMO, they make the city's best Hefe
River North Brewery. They primarily use Belgian yeasts in their brews, so if you're into that sort of thing be sure to check them out!
Strange Brewing Company. In a quirky spot under the interstate, but they always have something creative on tap or firkin.
Copper Kettle Brewing Company. A little further from downtown, but nearly everything they make is grade A solid.
TRVE Brewing Company. Brand new brewery just a hop and a skip from downtown, just a few months old but demand for their brews is high.
Hogshead Brewery. English style brews on tap and in casks.
Breckenridge Brewery. Most should be familiar with them.
Bull & Bush. They recently took home 4 medals at the World Cup, plus you can do tableside hop infusions!
Del Norte Brewing Company. Mexican style beers. They just opened a new tap room.
Dry Dock Brewing. Previously mentioned in this thread. Kinda far from downtown in Aurora, but they have a lot of taps and a huge tasting room.
Vine Street Pub Sister to the Mountain Sun of Boulder, they recently opened their own brewery. FYI, CASH ONLY, so be prepared.
Caution Brewing Co.
Yak and Yeti. This is actually a Indian/Nepalese restaurant, but they also make their own beer.
Golden City Brewery. Located in Golden, their tap room is crazy tiny, but they have a large backyard patio with great views of the mountains. Second Largest Brewery in Golden, CO!
Great Diving Brewing Company. No need to explain. Go get some Yeti.
Wynkoop Brewing Company. Conveniently located downtown, plus they have a full kitchen unlike most of these other places.

Also, there are plenty beer centric bars in the area:

The Cheeky Monk. Lots of Belgian imports on tap plus a few hard to find American craft beers.
Rackhouse Pub. They are attached to Stranahan's Distillery but have 20 taps, 19 of which are dedicated to Colorado breweries. Plus you can try out beers from places like Elevation Brewing Co. or Crazy Mountain which are kinda far from the city or Prost Brewing Co. which isn't even open yet! Food is awesome as well, buffalo or lamb burger ftw.
Ale House at Amato's Awesome patio and tons of taps.
Falling Rock Tap House. Duh. They probably have the most selection of any place in the city.
Freshcraft. They're trying to upseat Falling Rock as owner of the most taps, I don't think they're quite there but they are close.
Euclid Hall Bar & Kitchen. Great food, lots of selection beer wise.
Star Bar Has a dive-y feel, but looks can be deceiving. They consistently have a wide and varied list of beers to choose from both on tap and in cans.
Satellite Bar. Not too far from downtown located on Colfax on Cap Hill. They have about 6-7 taps with usually one on nitro, however their bottle and can list is huge.
Highland Tap & Burger. Good food. Nice patio. And again, lots of beer.

As far as breweries in the mountains I'd say Crazy Mountain Brewery in Vail or Elevation Brewing Company in Poncha Springs.

There are a lot of breweries in the Boulder area besides Avery. There's Asher, Boulder Beer, Mountain Sun, Upslope, Twisted Pine, plus Left Hand and Oskar Blues (albeit, not their original location) in Longmont.

Colorado Springs has Bristol, Trinity, and Phantom Canyon.

Ft. Collins also has plenty to choose from with Equinox, Funkwerks, Pateros, Fort Collins Brewery, Crooked Stave, and Coopersmiths. I'd also recommend The Mayor of Old Town. Huuuuuge tap list.

As far as breweries in the mountains I'd say Crazy Mountain Brewery in Vail or Elevation Brewing Company in Poncha Springs.

I have to add my two cents for dry dock. They only serve beer they made and you get to watch them work. Plus a nice brew shop "brew hut" is attached. Good beer people who hang there!

you could do a moab brewery tour if it's offered after you hit I-70 on the way to colorado

Edit: btw, congrats on 10.. it was my 13th yesterday

When your in Salt Lake City, check out Epic Brewing Company, they're a nice alternative to the Utah Brewers Cooperative.

Epic only produces "full strength" beer, as opposed to the watered down 3.2% ABW that the Co-op produces.

I will, second, third, and fourth Epic Brewing. Yum and cheap! whooooo

they have a small tasting room and their bombers are delicious and on the low end of pricing spectrum.

I guess I can update everybody where I went. In Las Vegas I went over to Tenaya Creek and Had a few of their beers. Pretty good stuff, I think I had an IPA, their Oatmeal Stout and a small tasting of the Barleywine.

Went to Moab Brewing and had the Pale Ale and their Stout. Again good beer and great food. A big thumbs up for excellent beer at 4%.

We hit several places in Colorado, first we stopped by Oskar Blues. Their beers are great and the barbeque rocks. Next we went down the street to Left Hand. My wife and I split two samplers so we tried eight of their beers. I was able to side-by-side the IPA regular and on cask. The biggest kudos to them for the 2.5% Mild. Excellent beer. Later that day we made it up to Ft. Collins and went to Funkwerks. Awesome beers, and great use of brett. Had the Saison, the Bastogne and the Tropic King imperial saison.

Avery Brewing in Boulder is just all around awesome. All the beers are excellent, and the food is great from the catering place next door. I had a Bahn Mi sandwich, yum. The staff there is great. My server was awesome all day long, and the guy on the tour let me take up his time with all kinds of beer-geek questions.

We had dinner at Wynkoop, again good beer and excellent food.

We made it to the other end of the state and went to Durango Brewing. A cool little place that was definitely a local hangout, and we got there on $2 pint tuesday. I wanted to hit Ska Brewing but couldn't fit it in.

In Arizona we went to The Lumberyard in Flagstaff. Fantastic food and equally good beer. The Black IPA was excellent and the chicken wings are amazing. Crispy and awesome sauces.

The last place on the trip before getting back to LA was Prescott Brewing. There was something wrong with the Red ale, but the IPA was good. The food there was pretty good.

In all, most breweries have excellent food, and I was impressed at the quality of the beer. Need to plan a trip so I can hit the other 100 places I missed.

Heading east on 70 make a stop in Dillon and have a meal at The Dillion Dam Brewery. One of only a few places I've found that does food and beer well. Great burgers.