Day 3 Colorado Beer Trip (continued)

Saturday, May 23rd, 2009 Ring, ring, ring… No one ever answered the phone at Great Divide Brewing Company in the weeks leading up to our trip so I had no way of knowing if the tap room would be open on Memorial Day. Had I known ahead of time that they were indeed open we would have gone to Boulder from Longmont to hit Avery, Mountain Sun and/or Boulder Beer. But alas, we shall save that for another trip. After three days of driving we finally arrive at our final destination, the Mile High City. Before even stopping at the hotel we find our way to Great Divide. This unassuming two story brick building in the heart of downtown appeared closed from the outside but was bustling with people once we got in. We cornered up to the bar and were given a list of available taps. We picked a few we wanted to try and the bar man returned with some attractive mini-snifters. We sipped for a while on the Belgica, Yeti, Hercules, Titan, Wild Raspberry, Saison, St Bridget’s and Hades. We were three days too early to taste the Chocolate Oak Aged Yeti which was too bad, but best not dwell on what we didn’t drink. I liked the Belgica and Hades, but Carolyn really found them yummy. She’s a big fan of Belgian beers. Very well done in my opinion. This was my first taste of the Yeti and I thoroughly enjoyed its roasty yumminess. The Wild Raspberry Ale was very good. Very nice aroma of natural raspberries, like you were smelling a handful of them. Not sweet like raspberry puree but tart like fresh picked raspberries. The beauty of this one was the flavor as it was not overly raspberry. I like fruit beers but only if the majority of the fruit is recognized in the aroma. I don’t like a sweet fruity taste. Berry Weisse would be an extreme example, but even Sam Adams Cherry Wheat is too much for me. Their IPA (Titan) and DIPA (Herc) were amazing but I was most impressed with this Wild Raspberry. Another beer I enjoyed was the St Bridget’s Porter. Lot’s of chocolatey smoothness, mmmmm. I even learned something new from this beer; St Bridget was a Patron Saint of Ireland and is said (among her many other acts of benevolence) to have turned bathwater into beer to nourish lepers and visiting clerics. We must remember in those days the water was not always potable, but beer was always safe. I’ll raise my glass to this legendary lady of the Emerald Isle, Sláinte! Luckily we arrived just in time for the 4pm tour. It was a good tour given by one of the brewers so it was very informational. It wasn’t one of those tours where you're taken into a big room, given the grain-to-growler spiel and you're done. You actually get guided from room to room with an entertaining narrative of the brewing process. We finished the tour, finished our beers and off we went.

We checked into our hotel and took a load off. It was good to finally slow down and relax and it was nice to know we wouldn’t be packing up again in the morning and driving somewhere else. This would be our home for the next three nights. We stayed at The Oxford Hotel and we really enjoyed the place. Everyone was super friendly and very helpful. When we checked in they asked us why we were travelling and we enthusiastically shared that we were on a beer tour of Colorado. About an hour later there is a knock on the door. It’s room service… except we didn’t order room service. Turns out the front desk sent up three bottles of Odell Red Ale. What a classy move! And we got a great rate on the room, too. We would definitely recommend this place if your plans ever bring you to Denver.

So anyway, this isn’t HOTEL THIS, it’s BEER THIS, so let’s get back to the beer. My buddy Joe, with whom I was neighbors during my post college days in Sioux Falls, was going to pick us for dinner. He is originally from Denver and moved back to the area about eight years ago. I told him Care and I were thinking of heading to the Bull and Bush for dinner and he was really excited we picked that place. Just southeast of downtown sits this little English brewpub which happens to be very near to where Joe grew up. Regrettably, I only had two beers here, the Allgood Ale and the Man Beer IPA. I didn’t want to fill up on a bunch of samples and I didn’t really want to think anymore so I just enjoyed a couple of pints and a great conversation with an old friend. The Man Beer was quite good. This American style IPA was certainly American in the hop aroma and flavor however, I thought he malt base was more English. Appropriate I suppose since we were sitting in an English Pub. I’m not criticizing, just thinking out loud, I could care less about stylistic accuracy. I certainly did enjoy it. I could have had another but thought I should try something else. I went with the Amber Allgood Ale and I wish I would have gone with a Brown or Stout. What was I thinking? This was an English Pub. The Allgood wasn’t bad, just not very exciting. Ambers aren’t really ever exciting, but it seemed like the flavors were muted a bit. At any rate the visit was still enjoyable. The food was excellent and the mood was electric as the Nuggets-Lakers playoff game had just begun. By the end of the meal the day’s activities had caught up with us. We were tired. We headed back to our hotel as happy as a clam and moving at about the same speed.