3/27/2013 Denver Beer Company

The next stop on our tour took us to the fairly-obviously-but-catchily name Denver Beer Company.

Denver Beer Company was started in 2011 and inhabits one of, in not the, best spots for a brewery - right across the Platte from downtown in the LoHi neighborhood.  It's uber close to downtown, easily accessible by bike, and housed in a former garage making for a huge space for the tasting room.  Plus it's complete with garage doors that open up to a sizable patio, making it an awesome space for some afternoon beers in the summer time.

Shirey was introspective.

Time for some beer.  DBC sports a pretty large menu of brews that rotate on a seasonal basis.  There were 10 on tap during our visit, all of which deserved a taste.

The tasting size was larger than a lot of places, so Shirey and I elected to share one.

Not sure what that face means.  But, the key thing to notice in this picture is that Shirey, in his infinite wisdom, brought a small notebook to write down some beer thoughts.  Some highlights:

Karrir Lime - Bud Light Lime clone.  Tastes like Fruit Loops

Pinapple Pale - Definitely taste the pineapple.  Funky aftertaste.

Dubbel Trubbel - Sweet, hints of Laffy Taffy

With that, lets break down the results.

Winners

Incredible Pedal IPA - Luke's favorite.  Not insanely hoppy, pretty easy drinking.

Graham Cracker Porter - Shirey's favorite.  On the bitter end for a porter.  Definite hints of chocolate and coffee.

Losers

Beer Geeks Sahti V - Our notes described this beer as having "hints of rotten milk".  Not something I'd drink again.

Confluence Pale Ale - Tasted like they used water from the Platte River

Overall

All in all we had some pretty strong mixed feelings about the beer here.  We didn't really love any of the beers - our winners above were really just the least disappointing of the bunch.  Maybe instead of winners we should termed them "least offensive".  Seriously, there were some brews that had some big-time funk going on, and nothing stood out or made us want to come back.

But, the brewery itself is awesome.  Huge space, plenty of seating, great location and an awesome spot for summer time patio drinking.  To wit:

So we're a little torn about DBC.  Mediocre beer, awesome bar.  Fortunately, beer can always be brewed again, so we'll definitely be coming back in the hopes that we just caught DBC in the midst of some bad batches.

3/17/2013 Bull and Bush

Despite the lack of updates, the Brew Tour has shown no signs of slowing down.  St. Patrick's Day 2013 was no exception, so we thought, what better way to celebrate Ireland's biggest holiday than by hitting a British Pub!  Wait...nevermind.

The Bull and Bush!  Denver's oldest sportsbar and one of the oldest brewpubs as well.  It's located is the somewhat odd area of Glendale, surrounded by apartment complexes, Targets and strip-clubs, so Shirey and I felt right at home.

Being that it was St. Patty's day, and it was a Sunday, and blah blah blah we didn't do the best job of documenting this trip.

Shirey contemplating the menu.

Shirey deeply contemplating our flight of beers.

Not sure what I was looking at or who I was talking to.

Shirey getting fancy with depth of field and focus and stuff.

That's pretty much it from a beer standpoint.  Time to talk turkey.

Winners

Man Beer - Luke's favorite.  An IPA, but not bitter or too hoppy.  A tiny bit fruity.

The Tower ESB - Shirey's favorite.  Umm, that's about all I remember (I really need to bring a notebook!)

Losers

No real losers here.  This is a brewery with serious pedigree; they've have years of practice at making their brews and the results show it.  Everything tastes good.

Overall

Bull and Bush is a great brewpub with a serious British vibe.  Great beer and great food.  And, when St. Patrick's day falls on a Sunday, it's also THE place to be for the over 65 crowd.

First was this cute old couple that sat down next to us, decked out in their St. Patty's day finest.  The man was like looking into the future for Shirey.  That IS Shirey in 50 years.

When we arrived the B&B wasn't too crowded, we easily got a table, sat down and got to drinking.  But a few brews in, we noticed that things were picking up and the place was getting crowded.  Then we noticed that we were probably the youngest people in the bar by 50 years.

The camera-phone video just didn't quite capture the pure amount of age in that room.  It was like waking up in a nursing home.  But hey, everyone was having a great time.  And it was St. Patty's day, so time to celebrate with some music.  Only, wait, this is the B&B.  Irish music would be too cliché.

Booyah, nothing says St. Patrick's Day at a British pub like Dixieland Jazz!!

3/8/2013 DeSteeg Brewing

What up party people, time for some more beer tour madness.  After getting shut down last time by their very selective hours of operation, we decided to give DeSteeg another shot.

DeSteeg is the definition of nano-brewery.  First off, their entrance is back in an alley and the only indication that the brewery even exists is a small sign sticking out.

Inside they have a number of taps (8 I think) but due to their limited brewing capacity and growing demand they were only pouring three beers when we visited.

Three beers: Douple IPA, Saison and a Winter Ale.

Shirey was ready for some beer.

All three ready to be tasted.  On to some details!

Winners:

Double IPA, best of the bunch.  Hoppy but not terribly so.

Losers:

No real losers here.  The Winter Ale started out a with hints of the sweet/syrupy flavor we don't really dig, but after a couple of tries it grew on us.  The 9.7% ABV may have had something to do with that.

Notables:

For only having three choices we sure drank of ton of 'em.  Seriously, this was the biggest bar tab we got BY FAR.  So DeSteeg must be doing something right flavor-wise.

They could stand to spruce up the place a bit though...notices and licenses leave a little to be desired.

Here is a picture of a beer.  With my tab ticket.  Just your regular beer and a tab ticket picture.

All in all we had a good time at DeSteeg.  A little sparse compared to other places we've visited, but we're curious to come back and try some different beers once they get them brewed.

2/27/2013 Renegade Brewing

Mark Twain once said - "Of the demonstrably wise there are but two: those who commit suicide, & those who keep their reasoning faculties atrophied with drink."

Being that we consider ourselves to be amongst the wisest people we know, Shirey and I decided the prudent course of action would be to do our best to stave off suicidal tendencies and adequately atrophy our minds with another stop on the Brewery Tour. Onward to Renegade Brewing!

Renegade opened in 2011 in the Sante Fe arts district - a cool stretch of bars, restaurants and art galleries just south downtown. It's also home to the best Mexican food in Denver at El Taco de Mexico. Cheeks meat tacos what??

Anyways, being so close to downtown definitely makes a good spot for a brewery.

A little look to the right down Sante Fe near Renegade...

...and a little look to the left (I'm very safe when I cross the road).

And the brewery!

Renegade has a nice size tap room - very open with a nice sized wrap-around bar. Will definitely make for a great spot during the summer.

I arrived a little before Mr. Shirey so I thought I'd help myself to a beer just to get "warmed up".

The beer list.

Mmm beer indeed.

Well hello sir.

But wait...What sound doth Renegade's streams appal?

The Shirey's voice they hear;

Before that herald's solemn call

Let soft sleep disappear!

Shirey finally arrived, better late than never. Onward to drinking!

A sampler for me...

...and a sampler for Shirey. Lets breakdown our list of hits and misses.

(Note to our dear readers (all three of you)...at this point in the night my phone start acting real screwy - all my notes keep deleting themselves, and all my pictures look like crap. So I'm going to have to pull this next section from memory, and my memory sucks in general, not to mention when I'm many beers deep)

Winners

5pm Afternoon Ale - Not the most memorable of beers, but incredibly drinkable. Shirey said "I could drink a bathtub full of this".

Midnight in Bruges Belgian Black IPA - All aboard the flavor train! My favorite beer of the night by far.

Hammer and Sickle Russian Imperial Stout - Shirey's favorite beer of the night. Dirty pinko commie.

Losers

None really. Unlike some of the other breweries we've visited, there weren't any beers that just plain sucked. We did like some less than others, but overall each beer delivered.

Notables

As we were finishing up our sampler we noticed some activity up front at the beer board...

Hmm, what is she writing?

Shirey was incredibly curious.

I was less intensely curious.

And here came the announcement. The guy on the right is the head brewer at Renegade, and the half of a human on the left (how about my awesome picture takin skillz?) is the head brewmaster at Wit's End Brewing (still on our list!). Together they collaborated on a new brew...

Judge Whoppner - an imperial malted milk ale. Well holy shit. Looks like we had another beer to try.

Yep, the rim is crusted with Whoppers candy. Note - there isn't actually glowing blue orb in the beer (as cool as that would have been). That's just my camera acting weird. All in all Judge Whoppner was interesting, but a little too sweet for both our tastes.

Verdict

Renegade was a pretty kick ass brewery. The beers were excellent and the tap room was big. It also seemed to do a pretty good business - it was one of the few breweries that we've visited so far that was actually busier by the time we left:

Dare I say...this might be my favorite stop thus far on the tour.

2/18/2013 Strange Brewing

Is there a better way to celebrate President's Day than by visiting another fine Denver brewery?  How about taking advantage of the day off from work and visiting another Denver Brewery at 3pm instead of 5pm!  2 extra hours of beer sampling!

Unfortunately Prez Day is on a Monday, and many of the nano/micro/tiny breweries in D-Town have limited hours ie are only open 2 days a week.  So our original plan had to be altered to visit a brewery that was, y'know, open.  Fortunately Strange Brewing was not only open on a Monday, but at 3pm to boot!

Strange is kind of tucked back in this industrial area near Mile High.  It's actually a part of town I don't think I've ever driven through; in fact I didn't even know it existed.  Lower Colfax?  Never heard of it.  But thanks to beer I now have.

Strange is apparently in the midst of a lawsuit from a group back east claiming they had rights to the "Strange Brewing" name first - these signs could be an endangered species!

The interior of the sampling room/bar.  Shirey felt like Strange had the most "bar" feel of any of the breweries so far.

Menu.

On to the sampling.  Strange seems to brew a wide variety of beers, although they definitely lean toward the Belgian side of things.

Strange's nifty flight rack had the beer types listed underneath.  Here are the highlights:

Winners

Strange Pale Ale - My favorite of the night.  Good amount of hops, very drinkable

Seasonal Porter - Shirey's favorite.  Said it made him feel funny "down there".

Notables

Cherry Bomb Belgian Stout- This was a pretty drinkable, albeit sweet, beer, but not exactly stout-esque.  Shirey said it tasted like sacramental wine.

Le Bruit du Diable Farmhouse Ale- Roughly translates to "Noise of the Devil" (according to Google).  This was my second favorite beer of the night.  Due to the high alcohol content (at least that's my excuse), I started spouting off to Shirey about the differences between farmhouse ales, saisons and biers du gardes (basically a bunch of B.S. I know nothing about) and was promptly put in my place by the server.  Damn you devil!

Losers

Paint it Black Honey Coffee Stout - Ok, so this one is a weird one.  First off, we both like stouts, Shirey especially.  When we first tried this stout we both gave it a thumbs up - not the best stout in the world but good.  Then, after trying a number of other beers Shirey said "What's that weird taste in the stout...it tastes like...rubbing alcohol?"  And then holy shit, that's all we could taste.  The stout tasted like you were drinking a cup of coffee, sliced your finger while cutting up vegetables for your morning omelette, went to the bathroom to disinfect the cut, and whilst holding the rubbing alcohol in one hand and the coffee in the other said fuck it, lets do this.  Not a good combo.

All in all Strange gets a thumbs up.  Overall their beer menu was pretty kickass, and their location would make for a good pre-game spot before Broncos games.  Or a good spot to get nice and toasty before hitching a ride on a coal train to Kansas City.