Gonna be there in July with a buddy. Staying downtown. Any recommendations? Was thinking of putting my own list together and getting a car service vs. signing up for actual "tour company."

Thoughts?

Thanks.

Only been to Denver once but I went to Breckenridge Colorado Craft on the corner of Blake and 22nd and would recommend it. It is basically Breckenridge Brewery's brew pub but it also serves beer from other craft places. Had a good beer list and I liked the food as well. Not exactly a brewery but a good place to start if you just want to try a lot of different beer. Sit at the bar and talk to the bar tender. Most of them have a pretty good feel for the local breweries and could offer you some guidance too. Also, i highly recommend the 50/50 burger.

Bigger places:
Wynkoop
Breck
Great Divide

Smaller, better places:
Renegade
River North
Crooked Stave (<-- Sour ale place with a cult following. See about 10 pages of the Beer Thread for reference)

I would recommend doing your own thing.

quote:

---

Breweries:
(weighted by beer avg/number of ratings)

• Crooked Stave Brewery & Taproom - 3350 Brighton Blvd, Denver
• Comrade Brewing Company - 7667 E Iliff Ave #F, Denver
• TRVE Brewing Co. - 227 Broadway # 101, Denver
• Wit's End Brewing Company - 2505 W 2nd Ave Unit 13, Denver
• Great Divide Brewing Company - 2201 Arapahoe Street, Denver
• River North Brewery - 2401 Blake St Ste 1, Denver
• Hogshead Brewery - 4460 W 29th Ave, Denver
• Black Shirt Brewing Co. - 3719 Walnut St, Denver
• Prost Brewing Company - 2540 19th St, Denver
• Former Future Brewing Company - 1290 S Broadway, Denver
• Mockery Brewing Co. - 3501 Delgany St, Denver
• Jagged Mountain Craft Brewery - 1139 20th St, Denver
• De Steeg Brewing Company - 4342 Tennyson St, Denver
• Bull & Bush Brewery - 4700 Cherry Creek Dr S, Denver
• FERMNTRA - 1715 E Evans Ave, Denver
• LowDown Brewery + Kitchen - 800 Lincoln St, Denver
• Ratio Beerworks - 2920 Larimer St, Denver
• Diebolt Brewing Company - 3855 Mariposa St, Denver
• Goldspot Brewing - 4970 Lowell Blvd, Denver
• Copper Kettle Brewing Company - 1338 South Valentia Street, Unit 100, Denver
• Renegade Brewing Company - 925 W 9th Ave, Denver
• CAUTION: Brewing Co. - 12445 E 39th Ave, Denver
• Platt Park Brewing Company - 1875 S Pearl St, Denver
• Rock Bottom Restaurant & Brewery - 1001 16th Street, Denver
• Station 26 Brewing Co. - 7045 E 38th Ave, Denver
• Beryl's Beer Company - 3120-C Blake Street, Denver
• Strange Craft Beer Company - 1330 Zuni St, Unit M, Denver
• Epic Brewing Company - 3001 Walnut St, Denver
• SandLot Brewery @ Coors Field - 2161 Blake Street, Denver
• Declaration Brewing Company - 2030 South Cherokee St, Denver
• Chain Reaction Brewing Company - 902 S Lipan St, Denver
• Denver Beer Co. - 1695 Platte St, Denver
• Lost Highway Brewing Company - 520 E Colfax Ave, Denver
• Wynkoop Brewing Company - 1634 18th St. At Wynkoop, Denver
• Baere Brewing Company - 320 Broadway Ste E, Denver
• Breckenridge Brewery - 471 Kalamath St, Denver
• Black Sky Brewery - 490 Santa Fe Drive, Denver
• Our Mutual Friend Malt & Brew - 2810 Larimer St, Denver
• Denver ChopHouse & Brewery - 1735 19th St., #100, Denver
• Pints Pub - 211 West 13th Avenue, Denver
• Big Nose Brewing - 511 16th Street #310, Denver
• Fiction Beer Company - 7101 E Colfax Ave, Denver
• Zephyr Brewing Co. - 1421 26th St, Denver

• ---

NColoradoAG gave some good recs on page 216 of the beer thread. I don't know what's new up there but we really liked Falling Rock Tap House (Pliny on draft, as well as other great beers), River North Brewery, TVUE, Renegade, and of course, Crooked Stave. Rioja has a great Sunday brunch. My trip highlights start on page 226 of that thread. That trip damn near killed me! Literally, I had my diagnosis about 10 hours after landing back in Houston! I blame it all on getting so hammered with NCol.

Prost. Do it.

We had a good time at Great Divide and thought My Brother's Bar was a cool place to have a drink or two, especially if you're a fan of Kerouac/On the Road.

I didn't get to venture out much while I was there but I'll second crooked stave and falling rock tap house. NoCo recommended a good bottle shop too called Mr. B's that will not disappoint if you plan on bringing bottles back home.
Wynkoop was cool but nothing to go out of your way for unless you like playing pool.

Thanks everyone.

BSD: I shoulda known,...

A few years ago some friends from around the country met in Denver for GABF. Once day we rented a small bus w/driver and did a beer tour. Started in Boulder, went over to Ft. Collins, and worked our way down to Denver.

Didn't take any actual tours (you've seen one you've seen them all) but hit every breweries tap house. Amazing time.

FWIW Great Divide and Rock Bottom while great are both chains so you can check out locations elsewhere some other time if you're making a cull list. I strongly recommend Denver ChopHouse and Brewery, and the Bull & Bush also has an awesome whiskey menu and all you can eat fish and chips on Friday. Some of the best fish & chips I've ever had.

Avery in Boulder is worth the drive. Shoot me an email if you go, I am old friends with their brewmaster and their operations manager.

quote:

---

Didn't take any actual tours (you've seen one you've seen them all)

---

You obviously didn't tour New Belgium.

Strip center brewery.. I agree, all the same. But the big ones are all quite different. I did Pike's brewing in Seattle, that was an amazing brewery. Not like any other I've ever seen. I've also heard Anchor is an absolute must tour. Same can be said for NB. Oskar Blues is nothing special, but it's pretty dang big.. bigger than you may think. I haven't seen the new Avery yet, and Breckenridge is almost done with their new monstrosity.

Will second bull & bush. Great whiskey menu and really reasonable prices.

You can definitely make an afternoon of the breweries downtown and not have to worry about transportation. We really liked great divide.

Also, a trip to golden is worth it. We did red rocks and coors. Coors gets a bad rap amongst craft beer folks but the tour was really good. Plus it's free and comes with several beers.

quote:

---

Great Divide... while great are both chains so you can check out locations elsewhere some other time

---

Great Divide isn't a chain.

Some good recommendations so far. Depending on time you can do three solid days of breweries.

You can hit about 8 places downtown without walking much. The best way to do it IMO is to take a cab to The Source and start at Crooked Stave. Then you can just walk back into downtown as you go.

The next day you can hit all the places south of downtown. You arent doing a proper beer trip in Denver these days if you don't go to Comrade.

Another day you can work your way out to Boulder hitting the broomfield/Louisville/Lafayette spots on your way.

quote:

---

quote:

---

Great Divide... while great are both chains so you can check out locations elsewhere some other time

---

Great Divide isn't a chain.

---

My mistake. ..thought they had multiple locations, must be thinking of somewhere else.

quote:

---

quote:

---

quote:

---

Great Divide... while great are both chains so you can check out locations elsewhere some other time

---

Great Divide isn't a chain.

---

My mistake. ..thought they had multiple locations, must be thinking of somewhere else.

---

You may be thinking of Yardhouse, which is near Rock Bottom on the 16th Street Mall

Great advice, guys. Many thanks. This could be scary. Was also gonna hit the Monkey Theorum wine place.

Don't pass up brunch at Rioja. and I think there's another restaurant near there called the Kitchen that was really good for brunch too.

Not beer, but a damn good breakfast place is Snooze AM.

quote:

---

Not beer, but a damn good breakfast place is Snooze AM.

---

Snooze is definitely the tits. If the line is too long for your taste, Sams #3 and Dozens are two of my other favorites.

More casual restaurant recs please! Will be there next month with the family. Any of the breweries ok to take the kids to? From the ones that I have been to (outside of Denver),some are just more family friendly than others.

If you can head up north a little bit, we always loved going to Lefthand Brewery in Longmont.

I haven't been to the new one yet, used to go all the time when it was in the old warehouse. Shoot me an email and I will get you connected to my buddy.

Visited Community on Saturday and Lakewood today. Not a bad weekend, but time to head back to CS.