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.