just got home from boulder beer company.

[jonp9576]

i went to boulder over the weekend to see my sister for her birthday. she tore her achellies so it was up to my other sister and I to entertain ourselves.

we went to the boulder beer company up the street. it was an awesome day. we went in, had a brew. I had the "mojo" IPA and my sister had the "sweaty blonde", blonde wheat ale. both were great.

we took the tour(must not have been a busy day) it was just the two of us and our guide. we were allowed the run of the place, opening every door we wanted, and going anywhere.

here is a video of the blowoff of one of the 100bbl fermenters.





after the tour we got to go to the bar for a tasting. this was no normal tasting. we figured, since the tour was free, we might get a pint, or maybe a few samples. we sat down at our place to 13, 4oz samples. needless to say we stayed for lunch and got our buzz on. we enede up walking back to my sisters house and getting the car the next morning.

props to the boulder beer company. awesome people, and great beer. and really good food as well.

 

[fhryssd]

After a long day of work, my habit is to have 2-3 bottles of beer while watching my favorite comedy films of Jim Carry Movies. It's a great way of hanging out and manage my stress.


Carol Burnett

 

[jonp9576]

what does that have to do with anything

 

[SwampassJ]

what does that have to do with anything

Whenever I see that much gunk blowing off I think of Jim too.

 

[Sedge]

After a long day of work, my habit is to have 2-3 bottles of beer while watching my favorite comedy films of Jim Carry Movies. It's a great way of hanging out and manage my stress.


Carol Burnett

Man I am super confused.

On Topic: Boulder Beer rocks. I will never turn away a Hazed and Infused. Sounds like you had a blast, I'm adding that to my list of stops when I can afford to galavant around the country.

 

[Turlian]

Not to rub it in, but I love working within 2 miles of Boulder beer and living within 3 miles of Left Hand.

 

[ColoradoXJ13]

Not to rub it in, but I love working within 2 miles of Boulder beer and living within 3 miles of Left Hand.

uh, I work 100 yards from boulder beer...I win

except that there are much better breweries in town...at least i can ride my bike to all of them

 

[zman]

uh, I work 100 yards from boulder beer...I win

except that there are much better breweries in town...at least i can ride my bike to all of them

I used to work really close to Boulder Beer and Twisted Pine. TWP was 10 feet from my office. I also worked really close to the now defunct Oasis Brewery. Now the closest place is Great Divide (3 blocks) man I love Colorado!!!

 

[steinsato]

I'm headed to Denver this weekend for a Yeasayer concert. What are some must see places to go that pertain to beer? I think Wynkoop will be on the list, maybe Flying Dog as well.

 

[isleofman]

After a long day of work, my habit is to have 2-3 bottles of beer while watching my favorite comedy films of Jim Carry Movies. It's a great way of hanging out and manage my stress.


Carol Burnett

..........anyways, i hate all of you living in CO. love it there.

 

[Sedge]

I'm headed to Denver this weekend for a Yeasayer concert. What are some must see places to go that pertain to beer? I think Wynkoop will be on the list, maybe Flying Dog as well.

Sorry buddy, Flying Dog is no longer in CO. You now have to make your way down here to Frederick, MD.

 

[jmkratt]

I'm headed to Denver this weekend for a Yeasayer concert. What are some must see places to go that pertain to beer? I think Wynkoop will be on the list, maybe Flying Dog as well.

If you have time you should head up to Fort Collins and tour New Belgium, Odells, and Fort Collins breweries since they are so close together. If you do, have dinner at Coopersmith's (oldest brewpub in Colorado).

If you don't you could hit up Great Divide, Breckenridge, Bull and Bush, etc etc etc.

 

[celticcolorado]

I believe Flying Dog moved to MD, but there are a lot of breweries depending on where you are going to be. Your best bet is to check out Boulder and Ft Collins and hit as many breweries as you can, there are a lot in those 2 towns.

 

[TeufelBrew]

Throw Oscar Blues and Avery into the mix if you will be north of Boulder.

If you end up south, Aurora area, Dry Dock is a MUST see and taste.

 

[Wayne1]

have dinner at Coopersmith's (oldest brewpub in Colorado).

Sorry, not quite right. Wynkoop Brewing Company was the first brewpub in Colorado. Next was Breckenridge Brewery in Breckenridge. Coopersmith's was an offshoot of Wynkoop. As well as was Phantom Canyon in Colorado Springs.

 

[celticcolorado]

Throw Oscar Blues and Avery into the mix if you will be north of Boulder.

If you end up south, Aurora area, Dry Dock is a MUST see and taste.

+1 on The Dry Dock.

 

[jmkratt]

Sorry, not quite right. Wynkoop Brewing Company was the first brewpub in Colorado. Next was Breckenridge Brewery in Breckenridge. Coopersmith's was an offshoot of Wynkoop. As well as was Phantom Canyon in Colorado Springs.

Interesting, when in college I worked at the Ft. Collins Marriott and Coopersmiths paid for a load of the room key cards. Their motto on the cards read "oldest brewpub in Colorado". I clearly see Wynkoop has the same thing on their website and Coopersmiths now refers to themselves as "World Famous", I stand corrected!

+1 on The Dry Dock.

Great LHBS too!

EDIT:

Shortly after Wynkoops was open and wildly successful, Hickenlooper hooked up with the owner of Old Chicago’s at the time to open up Coopersmith’s in historic downtown Fort Collins in 1989.
http://lostfortcollins.com/2010/02/16/hickenlooper-and-coopersmiths/

The Breckenridge Brewery was founded by Richard Squire, a Colorado resident who enjoyed skiing and great beer. Skiing was plentiful in Breckenridge, but he found the great beer to be lacking. He began to brew beer in his home, and they were so popular that he found he no longer had time to ski! This was when he realized he could make a living making the drink. It was in 1990 when he opened the Breckenridge Brewery and Pub. The restaurant uses Richard’s original recipes when making their brew.
http://www.luckymountainhome.com/Breckenridge_Brewery_Restaurant.asp
There you have it. Though by these sites it looks to be Wynkoop > Coppersmiths > Breckenridge. Whatever it was within a couple years and I am very happy to support them.

On an unrelated side note my father was really good friends with Hickenlooper (who gave me my first swing set when I was like 5) and wanted to open what became Wynkoop with him. My father turned him down, way to go Dad FAIL.

 

[EricCSU]

I used to live in Fort Collins and I went to Coopersmith's a lot. Great food and fantastic beer. I love that place. If you go, ask for a Hanjabi. (Hand-drawn Punjabi Pale Ale). It is fantastic.

Eric

 

[EricCSU]

Oh, and that video of the blowoff is awesome!

 

[Wayne1]

jmkratt,

You are probably correct in the order of Wynkoop, Coopersmith's, Breck.

Those were busy, very sudsy times and I forget the actual order of openings.

Russ Schehrer , the original brewer for Wynkoop was my brewing mentor. We founded the Unfermentables homebrew club in Denver. He was the consultant for the Hubcap Brewery and Kitchen in Vail, CO which was the 4th or 5th brewpub to open in CO in '91. Because of our friendship, I was hired to be the brewer there.

The student surpassed the master by my winning medals at GABF before Russ did, although he was Homebrewer of the Year in '86. I greatly miss him.

Boulder Brewing is a great place to visit and they do make some incredible beers.

 

[jmkratt]

jmkratt,

You are probably correct in the order of Wynkoop, Coopersmith's, Breck.

Those were busy, very sudsy times and I forget the actual order of openings.

Russ Schehrer , the original brewer for Wynkoop was my brewing mentor. We founded the Unfermentables homebrew club in Denver. He was the consultant for the Hubcap Brewery and Kitchen in Vail, CO which was the 4th or 5th brewpub to open in CO in '91. Because of our friendship, I was hired to be the brewer there.

The student surpassed the master by my winning medals at GABF before Russ did, although he was Homebrewer of the Year in '86. I greatly miss him.

Boulder Brewing is a great place to visit and they do make some incredible beers.

Wayne,

I appreciate you bringing my error to my attention. I actually got lost in the internet reading about brewpubs founded a deacade before I could legally drink...pretty interesting stuff! I am sure I met Russ though I would have been a little guy and don't recall. I am sorry to hear your friend passed, sounds like a great guy :rockin:

 

[Wayne1]

Wayne,

I appreciate you bringing my error to my attention. I actually got lost in the internet reading about brewpubs founded a deacade before I could legally drink...pretty interesting stuff! I am sure I met Russ though I would have been a little guy and don't recall. I am sorry to hear your friend passed, sounds like a great guy :rockin:

Thank you. Russ was a trip to be around.

To get the thread back on track and still keep a bit of a touch to the past, the early Denver homebrewers were very taken by Boulder Brewing. This is before they built the big brewing cathedral in Boulder. They were literally brewing in a goat shed in Longmont. The beers all had a special flavor to them. We all thought it was because of the special yeast they used. They were all bottle conditioned. In fact they had an ad series about the "Ugly Brew" because of the yeast in the bottle.

Anyway, I cultured the yeast from a few of the bottles and sure enough the beer I made from it had that special flavor. I happened to mention this to a brewer from Boulder Brewing at the GABF one year. He just shook his hear and said they used EDME dry yeast and never repitched.

 

[psymonkey]

Just found this thread, and I'm not sure how I ended up here. Weird. At any rate, Wayne, you mentioned that you were a brewer at Hubcap. I'm from Vail and am curious if you happen to know Danny, who was on the brewstaff there and a friend of mine. We called him potato, though I'm not sure why..I must seem like a very confused individual, uncertain of many things

 

[Wayne1]

psymonkey,

Of course I knew Danny. He was one of the best people I ever had work for me.

He was a steady customer. At one point we were looking for volunteer labor to put labels on our bomber bottles. He and JR (another eventual brewer) would work for beer. After some time we needed some part time brewery help. It came down to Danny and another guy. The owner favored the other guy, Gulf War vet and very clean cut. Danny looked a bit like Charles Manson. We gave them both a shot. Danny was always on time and worked his butt off. Clean cut could never show up when he was scheduled and always had a reason to leave early.

Danny got the job and became a full time brewer. He and JR were still there the last time I was in Hubcap before it finally closed in the late 2002.

 

[psymonkey]

Pretty cool! Thanks for the reply. I wonder what Danny's up to now - I haven't seen him in at least 10 years either as I moved to VA in 2002. I always loved the hubcap and was sad to hear it was gone. I guess they took my mug with them when they closed down