Denver Brewery Expedition 2013 Day 1

Boreal Brewers Chad and Jack decided to make a run to Denver and surrounding area to check out several of the area’s brewpubs and small breweries.  The rains and flooding around the Boulder area may limit their sampling a bit, but hopefully the area will dry out and some exploration will be made.

We arrived in Denver at about 6:00pm and made our way to the Hotel VQ located downtown near the Mile High Stadium.  Okay, there are better hotels around, but this one is clean, central and priced about right.  But the real selling point is their great shuttle service — anywhere within 3 miles for free (we tip well).  And there are lots of microbreweries to check out within that distance.

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Wednesday the 18th is our first night, and we got a late start, but still did okay.  We started out with the Ale House @ Amato’s.  Not a brewpub, but great choice of local beers on tap.  We had dinner and a brew, then headed to our first brewery…

Prost Brewing Company was our first stop.  Just a few blocks north of the Ale House, it was a nice little place.  No food inside, but there was a food cart vendor who sets up every day outside.  We might have been better off eating here than at our previous stop.  But I’m not complaining.

Prost makes a few traditional German beers.  I had the sample flight of 5, which include a Pils, Kölsch, Altbier, Weißbier, & Dunkel.  Jack had a pint of the Altbier.  They all tasted quite true to the style.

Next Stop – Denver Beer Company.  Located just across I25 on North Platte street, this place is a little gem.  They are not a large volume producer, but they have a huge number of their beers on tap (for a small place).  I tried the following on the beer flight: Cascara Pale Ale, Citra IPA, Fresh Hop and Hide the Rum (a quadrupel).  The Cirta was my favorite, though the quadrupel was quite warming as it went down my throat.  Jack had the Graham Cracker Porter, and said it was not quite what he expected, more of a smoked flavor than porter.

If we cannot get into Boulder, we’ll probably check out DBC again on this trip.  As for tomorrow, there are several stops planned downtown.  Will post more then.