Good brewpubs/tasting rooms in Denver?

[Beavdowg]

I'm headed to Denver middle of this week and would like to try out some good Denver craft beers. Other than New Belgium, which I don't even think is Denver, I'm not knowledgeable on Denver craft beer. Can I get some recommendations, please? I like pales, IPA's, and stouts/porters.

thanks and Cheers!

 

[73Drvr]

Crooked Stave is a must. Great Divide is right across the street and Falling Rock Tap Room is just a few minutes away.

 

[tagz]

If you like sours/wild beers Crooked Stave for sure. And grab some grilled tacos at the Mexican place while you are there. Avery just opened a new, much larger tasting room in Boulder.

I've also always liked Mountain/Southern Sun. It's more of a brew pub and their beers aren't going to blow you mind but it's a fun place to go. They have open blue grass jams, board games, super nice staff, and a monster pile of nachos.

 

[GeorgeH2013]

River North is fun. Slightly off the beaten path, but full of locals. We had a great time there, and a local even gave us a ride to our next brewery stop! Can't complain about that. We should have made it to Crooked Stave. Not smart on my part. Errrr....

 

[GeorgeH2013]

And if you are downtown, stop in a Euclid Hall. Great food, and lots of interesting beers to choose from. Killer place. We ended almost every night of our trip there.

 

[fourfarthing]

Second Euclid Hall and Falling Rock. Falling Rock was THE beer bar in Denver for a very long time.

 

[BrewerE]

Denver Beer Co. over by the big REI is cool.
Wynkoop is a neat old building.

Crooked stave is only a 'must' if you like spoiled beer...

 

[303Dan]

As a local, I'll take a slightly different approach and recommend the places I think are making the best beers in the styles you said you are into instead of just the places I think are cool to visit or have the best overall beer selection.

For Pales and IPAs in Denver: Comerade Brewing and Station 26.
If you're willing to go just a little outside of Denver, I would recommend Odd 13 in Lafayette and Cannonball Creek in Golden. There's also Weldwerks, but they're way the hell up in Greeley. All of those places are doing great hop-forward beers right now. If you're into the current "northeast IPA" thing, Codename Superfan from Odd 13 is about as close as you're gonna get in Colorado. Honorable mentions for me in this category would be 4 Noses in Broomfield and Joyride in Edgewater.

For Stouts and Porters in Denver: Denver Beer Co makes a Graham Cracker Porter that people go Ga-Ga over. They also usually have a barrel aged version of it or two available at their tasting room. My favorite stout in Colorado is Left Hand Milk Stout(the regular version, not the Nitro), but they are in Longmont about 45 minutes north of Denver. Epic has a cool Denver tasting room and I like their dark beers. And there's always the various versions of Yeti from Great Divide.

Anyway, I hope that helps. And if you're looking for places with great tap lists where you can try lots of local beers, as others have already recommended, it's hard to beat Falling Rock Taphouse. Freshcraft is also cool.

Dan

 

[DevilNuts]

I never made it to Denver proper, but if your trip takes you through Ft. Collins, New Belgium has a great taproom, as does Ft. Collins Brewing Co, and Coopersmith.

 

[brew_dawg23]

What a coincidence. I'm in Denver for work and was about to post the same question when I came across your post. I'm interested in sours lately and getting ready to try my hand at brewing one so it looks like Crooked Stave will be a must visit for me.

 

[Murphys_Law]

As a local, I'll take a slightly different approach and recommend the places I think are making the best beers in the styles you said you are into instead of just the places I think are cool to visit or have the best overall beer selection.

For Pales and IPAs in Denver: Comerade Brewing and Station 26.
If you're willing to go just a little outside of Denver, I would recommend Odd 13 in Lafayette and Cannonball Creek in Golden. There's also Weldwerks, but they're way the hell up in Greeley. All of those places are doing great hop-forward beers right now. If you're into the current "northeast IPA" thing, Codename Superfan from Odd 13 is about as close as you're gonna get in Colorado. Honorable mentions for me in this category would be 4 Noses in Broomfield and Joyride in Edgewater.

For Stouts and Porters in Denver: Denver Beer Co makes a Graham Cracker Porter that people go Ga-Ga over. They also usually have a barrel aged version of it or two available at their tasting room. My favorite stout in Colorado is Left Hand Milk Stout(the regular version, not the Nitro), but they are in Longmont about 45 minutes north of Denver. Epic has a cool Denver tasting room and I like their dark beers. And there's always the various versions of Yeti from Great Divide.

Anyway, I hope that helps. And if you're looking for places with great tap lists where you can try lots of local beers, as others have already recommended, it's hard to beat Falling Rock Taphouse. Freshcraft is also cool.

Dan

I was at Odd 13 a few weeks ago and really got the impression they were more of a "sour house". I had an IPA and liked it but the majority of the beers were sours I thought??

 

[303Dan]

I was at Odd 13 a few weeks ago and really got the impression they were more of a "sour house". I had an IPA and liked it but the majority of the beers were sours I thought??

They definitely do some sours. But Superfan is the beer they're becoming known for and I put them on that list on the strength of that beer alone.

 

[Beavdowg]

I appreciate a sour beer but not really my thing to have a couple pints of. I have never loved Belgium area beers due to the estery flavors you get from their yeast but have recently become intrigued a little with Saison's as I had one a few weeks ago that was super refreshing and really light on the estery flavors. Thanks for all the help! I'm looking forward to checking it out. I really only have 2 nights for beer so I'm thinking I might stick to Great Divide and that Falling Rock. Do either of those two have a decent food menu? Cheers!

 

[TannerG]

Avery has a nice new setup just East of Boulder.
Odell, in Fort Collins, is a must visit IMO.

 

[303Dan]

I appreciate a sour beer but not really my thing to have a couple pints of. I have never loved Belgium area beers due to the estery flavors you get from their yeast but have recently become intrigued a little with Saison's as I had one a few weeks ago that was super refreshing and really light on the estery flavors. Thanks for all the help! I'm looking forward to checking it out. I really only have 2 nights for beer so I'm thinking I might stick to Great Divide and that Falling Rock. Do either of those two have a decent food menu? Cheers!

Falling Rock has pretty decent pub food. Great Divide doesn't serve food, but will always have a food truck of some kind right outside and they'll bring your food right to you in the taproom. Some of those food trucks can be fantastic. Some, not so much.

 

[betarhoalphadelta]

Second Euclid Hall and Falling Rock. Falling Rock was THE beer bar in Denver for a very long time.

Falling Rock isn't THE beer bar in Denver anymore. Is it Euclid Hall that replaced it or somewhere else?

I'm out in CO regularly but have been stuck down in Englewood rather than downtown. But I'd love to know if something has eclipsed Falling Rock for future visits... Since Falling Rock is my favorite beer bar in the entire USA

 

[betarhoalphadelta]

Falling Rock has pretty decent pub food.

I've always described it as "some of the best greasy bar food you'll find." Because it's definitely greasy bar food. But very satisfying.

And coming from California, I'm always floored by how cheap the restaurant food is there in CO.

 

[Derp]

I like pales, IPA's, and stouts/porters.

Copper Kettle is a nice place with friendly people. Their Mexican Chocolate Stout won gold at GABF when they were just starting out.

http://www.copperkettledenver.com/tap-list.html

 

[applescrap]

Awesome stuff here and most of the good breweries have been mentioned. 303dan is on it. My 2 cents, I think a lot of it depends on what you're looking for. I mean one of my favorite breweries is The Sandlot at Coors Field. There's plenty of breweries downtown for preparty-Wynkoop, flying dog, Breckenridge Brewery, and tons of bars with great micros. Then you go to the game and The Sandlot Brewery is inside the stadium. They have a new rooftop deck where you get a cheap ticket and get to hang out up top drinking killer beer that is if you didn't find our mj, and find yourself being "cool" with one.
Just drove by Oskar Blues Brewery the other day coming back and going to Rocky Mountain National Park. I've never been inside the brewery but their beer is really good and their new IPA with new Zealand hops is super good. Then maybe you drive the 30 minutes to Estes Park to go to Rocky Mountain National Park. As mentioned you could go to my hometown and drink New Belgium, Odell's, coopersmith's, and many others. And on your way to Fort Collins Drive the back way through Longmont and stop at Left Hand brewery. If you don't want to leave the metro area there's lots of great options. Epic Brewing I think is really good. Haven't drank a lot of their stuff, but they have really good beers. Sours, stouts, super strong beers and really amazing somewhat pricey fruit and rasberry beers. They also have a great selection to buy and take home. The 12% brainless on peaches is really cool and good. I know a member who always goes to living the dream and he knows his stuff and I would bet that place is really good. But there's like a hundred of them that have popped up that are worth trying as well. You might like to find one of these bars out here that have 100 beers on tap and a huge selection that way you can get everybody's.last the guy who runs the liquor store by me and has an amazing selection of all these beers said locavore is really good. Locavores IPA is supposed to be really really good.

 

[fourfarthing]

Falling Rock isn't THE beer bar in Denver anymore. Is it Euclid Hall that replaced it or somewhere else?

I'm out in CO regularly but have been stuck down in Englewood rather than downtown. But I'd love to know if something has eclipsed Falling Rock for future visits... Since Falling Rock is my favorite beer bar in the entire USA

Spoken from a place of "I don't live there anymore" as opposed to a place of "it got outclassed by another bar". I miss Denver...