Colorado Plus Brewpub

As we drove to our next pub adventure, Mari pointed out the stores and restaurants in Wheat Ridge, the Denver community she lived and taught in for many years. Each location had a story, a previous incarnation, and a special memory. Our destination was Colorado Plus Brewpub, at 38th and Reed, the past location of Valenti's Italian Restaurant, a family owned fixture in the neighborhood. It reopened this year as Colorado Plus Brewpub, with original beers from Adam Draeger, the head brewer for Yak and Yeti. In addition to their own beers, C+ has 56 taps featuring Colorado craft beer.

With so many beers to choose from, the waiter gave us copies of their ever changing tap list to build our own flight. As it happened, Mari and I had slightly different lists. After some confusion, our waiter explained they updated the list as they ran out of a beer.

We started with the three available house beers and added two from the extensive tap list.

C+ Cinnamon Almond Winter Warmer has a distinctive flavor of the roasted almond found in the German Christkindlmarkets. A good seasonal brew for the cold winter months.

C+ Lil'l Orange Hon Annie is Belgian style brew with orange blossom honey and orange juice. I found the orange flavor understated, with the honey on top.

C+ Smokey the Beer is a smoked Rauchbier brewed with smoked malt. We could smell the smoke before we tasted the beer. We both liked the beer, but agreed it would have limited food pairing options.

For our additional pours, we chose :

Crabtree Brewing Co.'s Barrel Monkey, a bourbon barrel aged brown ale. Perhaps our favorite of the afternoon, the notes from the bourbon and wood made for a interesting, complex brew.

Prost Brewing's Weisbier, a German Hefeweisen. We both like Hefes and agreed this was a fine example, with the traditional banana and bubble gum notes.

Colorado Plus is justly proud of their food menu as well as their beers. Mari had the daily special of a BLTA (bacon, lettuce, tomato, and avocado) sandwich on artisan bread. C+ cures their bacon in house, and it was lean and flavorful. I chose the burger with bacon and cheese and was not disappointed. All the food is local sourced and fresh. I look forward to trying the rest of the menu.

With such an massive tap list, we opted for a second flight to sample more local craft beer. The second flight was:

Strange Brewing's Pumpkin Saison brewed with 150 pounds of pumpkin. As we have sampled season ales this fall, pumpkin has been on many taps. This brew had a definite pumpkin flavor with spice notes associated with the seasonal pie, it was not as sweet as some we had tried, and finished on a dry note, offsetting the sweet start. Overall one our favorite pumpkin brews this year.

Lone Tree's Let's Bock, a bock lager with some hops forward notes. Mari let me have this sample.

Prost Brewing's Dopplebock, Another fine German brew from Prost.

Epic Brewing's Big Bad Baptist  a bourbon barrel aged Royal Imperial Stout. We sampled this after trying the Barrel Monkey, both barrel aged, but this one a stout with strong coffee notes. Something I will be ordering again.

Wynkoop Brewing Co.'s Brewjolais Nouveau is a collaboration with New Belgian Brewery, brewed with Foch grapes. The grapes color the beer purple and give it a strong grape jelly taste. I am glad I tried this, but it was perhaps the least favorite of the afternoon. Neither a beer or a wine, it was hard to compare to other brews and too sweet for my taste.

 With it's good brews and food and ever changing tap list, this is a local pub we will return to many times.

Mountain Sun Boulder Colorado

On a cold December night, we headed north to Boulder for a taping of the e-Town radio show and some beer. We found our beer and dinner at Mountain Sun Pub and Brewery on Pearl Street. Brewing since 1993, Mountain Sun has four pubs in the Front Range area and has won many awards for it's beers. The Pearl Street location is the flagship site for the group.

We started with a flight recommended by our server, mixing six of the many available brews from light to dark.

 First was the Bohemian Pilsner, a crisp light well balanced beer.

 Next was Mari's favorite, Annapurna Amber, malty with little hops.

Number One Triple, a Belgian ale brewed with yeast from the Trappist monks, is a great example of the craftsmanship at Mountain Sun.

Isadora Java Porter is as dark as a stout and brewed with free trade coffee beans. The coffee aroma is strong and out front. It was Joe's favorite of the night.

Hooligan Porter was a nice porter, but drinking it after the Java Porter was a mistake. Mari liked it because it did not have the coffee taste.

Per our waiters ordering of the flight we had the Colorado Kind Ale last. A hoppy amber ale, it has won awards for Mountain Sun. It is a fine ale, but maybe we should have tried this before the porters.

We only tasted six of the many hand crafted beers available. The list changes weekly and we will have to return to work our way through the fine products of the skilled brewers.

The pub is small and was full on the night we visited. We arrived early (5:00 pm) and had no wait, but people were waiting for a table by the time we left. It has a distinct neighborhood vibe, with families playing board games and friends sharing stories at the bar.

The menu is a mix of hand crafted pub food including sandwiches, burgers, and some Mexican dishes. Good fresh locally sourced food served quickly, we had a fine repast on burgers and fries.

After our visit to Mountain Sun, it was time for the concert at e-Town Hall, a short but brisk one block walk away. David Bromberg opened the show with his five piece band playing songs from his new album. Great to hear him in such a small venue, playing both electric and acoustic sets, still going strong in his sixties. The second artist was Wanda Jackson, the rockabilly pioneer, still singing in her seventies. Her stories between songs were worth the ticket price. Check the e-Town channel on Youtube for postings from the concert.

A great night for beer and music in Boulder.

Beer Today, Gone Tomorrow

With over 130 craft breweries in Colorado, there are hundreds of beer to sample. But without some type of record, it is becoming hard to remember what beer we sampled where. So this blog is an attempt to chronicle our Tour of Colorado.

Saturday found us at the Denver Beer Company in the River North area, along the Platte River and east of the Highlands neighborhood. Situated in an old warehouse, the owners have opened up the space by adding garage doors to the street side, with picnic table on the deck toward the street. The tasting room/bar is open to the brewery with a industrial retro look.  This is truly a tasting room, not a restaurant. The only food offered are pretzels. There are often food trucks in the area, and we lucked out with a little trailer just outside selling home made pierogis and kielbasas. The smell of grilled onions is their best advertisement.

We met our friends Melissa and Russ for an early afternoon beer tasting. A sunny sixty degree day, perfect weather for the last day of November. We started with the Graham Cracker Porter. Mari was disappointed in not tasting the graham cracker, but I enjoyed the rich dark porter with coffee notes.

We ordered a flight that sampled the other eight beers on tap. The first, Hey Pumpkin was a light ale with very light pumpkin flavor, good but not a standout. The Belgian Swinging Single reminded me of a Heffewizen, with a banana flavor. The Barrel Room Bock was my favorite, aged in an oak Chardonnay barrel, there was a buttery smooth feel with great favors from the wine and wood. Mari's favorite was the King of Jacks Imperial Pumpkin, a true pumpkin pie in a glass. The Tart Saison had a tart green apple taste in a clean light saison. Russ liked the Four on the Floor 2x IPA, double hopped in your face IPA. The seasonal Tis the Saison was brewed with spearmint and peppermint, and brought back memories of Christmas hard candy.

The house filled up as we tasted beer and ate pierogis. A family and dog friendly venue with a shelf of board games, the brewery has a laid back neighbor vibe. Plenty of bike rack space in front, but very limited parking. The light rail stop is a short walk southeast of the brewery.