Boulder(s) and Broken Windshields – Pt.1
I’ve been to Denver twice over the last 9(ish) months. I wanted to write about my first trip right after it happened but, as they sometimes do, life/work/laziness got in the way. I had also traveled to Paris and Brussels within the same month of visiting Denver and figured those Euro trips might be a bit more worthy of my keyboard time. But, as it turns out, these Denver trips may have been just as interesting, if not more.
Anyway, excuses out of the way, here we are. Two trips to Colorado and some great breweries and adventures to write about.
Here’s Part 1, the summer trip to Colorado…..
AllTrails, You’ve Got It All Wrong!
As I do with most trips, I researched ahead of time my what, where, when (and sometimes why) for my time in Colorado. When I hopped off the plane in Denver I grabbed my bag and double checked who my car rental was with to avoid a mishap like last time. Strapped in to the Kia, I was en route to Boulder, Colorado.
With over 175 different trails Boulder is a hiker’s paradise. They also have rock climbing, snowshoeing, mountain biking and more. It kind of reminds me of Squamish, BC because of it’s small town mountain vibes and emphasis on outdoor activities. I didn’t have time to experience a lot though as I had to get back to Denver that evening so I made my way to the #1 rated hike on All Trails, Royal Arch Trail.
All Trails rates Royal Arch as “HARD” but I’ve gotta be honest, when I saw the amount of kids and elderly at the trailhead all I could think was “way to go, All Trails, ya blew it”. There’s no way this 6.5km out-and-back trail could be that hard, and for the first 1/3 of the hike I was right. Picture me, smile on my face, shoulders up, basking at how physically fit I am as I pass groups of hikers along the trail. Then, the elevation kicked in. It’s worth noting that the base elevation of the city of Boulder is 1624m. Royal Arch trailhead starts at 1740m and tops out at 2108m. For reference, Whistler’s base elevation 653m.
If you followed my Instagram story that day you probably heard me wheezing as I talked and you probably noticed my sweat soaked t-shirt. Elevation is no joke, people! It ended up being a fairly difficult hike with a lot of incline but the reward at the end was worth it. You get amazing views of the arch but my favorite part was actually going through the arch and getting epic views of the flatirons on the other side.
Okay, AllTrails, you were right! This was a tougher one than I thought. I even got a battle scar from a tree while passing someone on the trail. Oh, and all those kids and elderly I saw at the trailhead? Most were just going to a picnic area up the first little hill.
TIP #1 Before I went to Royal Arch I stopped at Whole Foods in downtown Boulder to get some lunch. They have a Whole Foods Wine & Spirits right next door that had some amazing beer choices. I was able to score a couple different cans from Weldwerks as well as a collab from TRVE x Other Half. Definitely stop there if you want some epic beer selection.
Stouts & Hazys & Helles-Rauch-Weizen-Doppelbocks, Oh My
With a quick wardrobe change in the car to get out of my sweat soaked clothes (gross, I know) I was on my way to my first brewery stop, Avery Brewing.
Avery has been around since 1993 and although they aren’t technically a craft brewery anymore (they sold 30% in 2017 and 40% in 2019 to Mahou-San Miguel) they’re still cranking out some great beer. Especially their barrel aged lineup.
Their whole operation is massive and you can actually do a guided or self-guided tour of their brewing facility. To contrast the scale of the brewing side they have a modest tasting room with an awesome patio. When you’re in the tasting room you kind of forget how giant the surrounding building is.
I sampled a trifecta of styles but my standout favorite was Uncle Jacobs stout. The other two beer were decent but paled in comparison to ol’ unkee Jake.
Stop #2 was about 40 minutes outside of Boulder on the way to Denver. New Image Brewery is a cozy little spot in Arvada, Colorado specializing mostly in juicy IPAs and sours but they have a pretty diverse beer menu overall. The food menu is pretty impressive as well so I decided to eat my dinner here while I enjoyed a juicy “East Coast Transplant” DIPA.
With my belly full and my whistle wet it was time to head to the last stop before checking in to my horror story hotel (more on that later). I had never heard of Burns Family Artisan Ales before this trip. It mysteriously showed up as one of the top ranked breweries in Denver on Untappd. After doing a bit more research it turns out Wayne Burns, co-owner, is a multi award winning brewer who has been involved the Michigan and Colorado beer scenes for over two decades.
After a falling out with his partners at Jagged Mountain Brewing in 2015 and a couple short stints brewing at Wynkoop Brewing and Holidaily Brewing, Burns decided to give it a go on his own again. This time taking over the old Wit’s End Brewing space in 2017 and specializing in high ABV cellarable beers.
Their tasting room has a ton of character and feels like somewhere you would go to chill in the summer and read a book while drinking amazing beer.
Speaking of amazing beer, well, their beer is just that. I tried two while I was there; “Non Binary” a smoked beer defined as a helles-rauch-weizen-doppelbock (???) and “Old Norway//New England” a hazy triple IPA made in collabortaion with Weldwerks Brewing. Both were great! “Non-Binary” was super tasty and I typically don’t enjoy smoked beer.
The real winner for me though was the taster I had of “Carouse”, an Anejo tequila barrel aged barleywine. I bought a bottle and it’s currently sitting in my cellar waiting for a special occasion.
The Horror Hotel
It was a great day so far. I hiked up to some amazing views. I visited some great breweries. I didn’t have any rental car issues. It was time for a good night’s sleep to prepare for work the next day. I just had to check in to my hotel, kick my shoes off and turn on Pornhub Netflix.
It was Pride Weekend in Denver and my hotel was right in the heart of the party. The main performance stage was literally in the parking lot beside my hotel. No bother, that’s what earplugs are for and I’m sure the city wouldn’t let the festivities go too late on a Sunday. I checked in, parked two blocks away, hauled my luggage down the street and back to the hotel.
I took the musty elevator upstairs to the 2nd floor and walked down the hallway to my room. I passed two open doors to other rooms that had at least 8 people in each. Looks like the party wasn’t just in the parking lot. I put the card in my door and pushed it open to the wonderful sound of creaking. I tossed my bags on the bed, shut the door and closed the curtains. That’s when I saw the slash marks. Interesting, looks like someone had a knife fight with the curtains. I moved towards the bed and saw the giant brown stains on the floor. Then I saw the holes in the blankets on my bed. I lifted the mattress, phew, no bed bugs.
On to the bathroom. Pretty clean I guess. Well, except for the pubic hairs in the corner of the tub. Not just one, a whole….bushel? This hotel room should’ve come with a complimentary hazmat suit!
Needless to say, I spent the rest of my night looking for a new hotel. The only problem was that I was in town for one of the biggest tradeshows in the country. No hotels were to be found in the area unless I wanted the Ritz-Carleton at $500 USD per night. I’m not sure work would approve for that expense. Alright, I’ll just tough it out. I’ve been camping before, this wouldn’t be any worse than that, right?
As I lay in the bed fully clothed with shoes on, in my room that was literally shaking from the dance party going on in the parking lot and in the two rooms next to me, I couldn’t shake the dirty feeling I had in that horror hotel. I got back online and found a hotel near the airport about 35 minutes outside of downtown Denver. I’ll take it!
After a sleepless night spent fully clothed, I went to the front desk in the morning and asked for a refund on my remaining 3 nights. The unconcerned front desk clerk checked me out and gave me my refund, no questions asked. I assume this wasn’t his first early check-out request.
TIP #2 – Never, EVER, stay at the Days Inn by Wyndham Denver Downtown…..EVER!
Beer/Wine Cuvee. AKA: Oenobeer
After a couple quick meetings at the tradeshow I bounced for lunch to check out a spot ranked pretty high on Untappd. Liberati Restaurant and Brewery (which has sadly closed their restaurant operations since I was there in January, but they’re still producing beer) specializes in something called Oenobeers. They’re essentially a wine/beer hybrid with at least 49% of the fermentables coming from grapes. Although, as there’s no official definition of an Oenobeer, brewers have more freedom to experiment with the style.
On Liberati’s website they cite Cantillon as being the first brewery to commercially produce an Oenobeer back in 1987 with their grape based beer, Vigneronne. Although, they’d been experimenting with the style for 15 years prior to that. In 2000, Dogfish Head produced the first year-round offering with “Midas Touch“. They were aiming to closely reproduce the dried components found in a receptacle from King Midas’ tomb. Which, according to Dr Patrick McGovern, were; grapes, barley, honey and saffron.
Liberati is on a very short list of breweries actually brewing this style of beer. Trillium, Woods, Stillwater and Avery have all done a few but if you check out beers tagged with “oenobeer” on RateBeer the list is primarily made up of Liberati’s concoctions.
It’s sad to hear that they’ve closed down the restaurant as it actually had some really good food but the good news is they’ll still be producing Oenobeers going forward. I’m just not sure in what capacity. If you ever get the chance to try some I highly recommend!
After my lunch and another short stint at the tradeshow I took the Kia up to the RiNo District of Denver to visit Crooked Stave. RiNo is an awesome little zone of Denver that has deep roots in art and music especially in the underground punk rock scene. Lonely Planet named it one of the top 10 “hoods” in America that you need to visit. It’s definitely not as “punk” as it used to be but it’s still a really cool area where you’ll find lots of street art, cool shops, restaurants and 12 breweries mixed in and around this industrial part of town. That number used to be 13 but upon writing this I found out Crooked Stave actually closed down their RiNo location in the Source Hotel & Marketplace. They still have their smaller tasting room up in the Sunnyside district of Denver, which is also right near one of my fav coffee shops in Denver. More on that in part 2 of this post.
That’s 2 breweries I visited on this trip that have since closed down. Damn, am I bad luck?
Self Pour Beer? Yes, Please!
After checking in to the Holiday Inn, which seemed like the St Regis in comparison to what I had the night before, and checking some emails it was time to look for a dinner spot. As I mentioned earlier, I was now pretty far outside of downtown Denver so I figured options would be limited but a place called Stanley Marketplace piqued my interest from my Google search.
Located in the bordering city of Aurora, Stanley Marketplace is made up of over 50 locally owned and operated restaurants, ice cream shops, artists, local clothing & jewelry makers, and much more. It’s a really cool spot that has some great history. I was chatting to the owner of one of the shops inside and he give me a quick history lesson…. Bob Stanley opened the hangar in the 50’s on what used to be Denver’s main airport. It was a manufacturing plant and test area for Stanley Aviation. Here’s the really interesting part though, this is essentially where the modern day ejection seat was invented by Stanley and his team. They actually borrowed live bears from the local zoo to test the seats. Sorry PETA.
My visit brought me here for the Stanley Beer Hall though, the rest was just a welcome surprise. The beer hall boasts over 25 self pour taps with an innovative iPourIt system. You just swipe your credit card when you go in, they give you tap card system and then the rest is up to you. All the beer is priced per ounce so you can try as many as you like before making your full pour choice. Their beer menu is pretty impressive as well featuring a lot of local breweries like; Cerebral, Crooked Stave, New Image and many more. They also have a few taps from out of state breweries like Fremont (Seattle), Ecliptic (Portland) & Maine Beer Co. (Maine, duh).
The food menu consists of pretty standard pub fare (I had the buffalo cauliflower) but let’s be honest, the novelty of pouring your own beer is the main attraction here. They also have a massive seating area and a huge heated outdoor patio that were both pretty packed for a Monday night. This seems like the hot gathering spot in Aurora.
After my cauliflower dinner I decided to offset the saved calories by devouring a giant milkshake at Sweet Cow Creamery which is right next door to the beer hall. The ice cream is amazing and they have a ton a flavor options.
The marketplace also features a Mr. B’s which is arguably one of the best bottleshops in Denver. They have a downtown Denver location as well but is you’re in the marketplace you definitely need to go load up.
That Sweet Cheba…Hut
My 3rd day was mostly full of tradeshow walking and meetings, boring work stuff, blah. But I will mention, if you’re an outdoor enthusiast and you ever get the opportunity to check out the Outdoor Retailer show, you definitely should. It’s an outdoor enthusiast’s wonderland of new products to check out.
All the nerding out on product had me famished though. There are bunch of options to eat near the Colorado Convention Center but my quick go-to is always Cheba Hut. They have over 30 locations across the US but the majority of them are in Colorado. They specialize in delicious sandwiches that all have weed themed names like; Kush, Acapulco Gold and AK47. They also have a pretty impressive beer menu for a sandwich shop.
Later that night, after a work dinner at the The Way Back, a low-lit hip spot in Berkeley (try the “KG” whiskey sour), I went to one of my favorite breweries in Denver, Cerebral Brewing. Their tasting room is always lively and full of people and the beer is always amazing. The specialize in IPAs and sours but I’ve been there 4 times now and haven’t had a sub-par beer from any category. On their website they say their goal is “to combine scientific methodology with an artistic viewpoint to create extremely drinkable beers spanning a broad spectrum of styles”. Whatever science they’re doing, it works!
Strap In, Gotta Keep Those Doughnuts Safe
For my last day in Denver I decided to take an early morning drive out to Lookout Mountain before heading to the tradeshow. I love this spot. It’s about 30-40 minutes outside of Downtown Denver and has trails all over the place. But if you don’t have time for a hike (which I didn’t that morning) you can checkout countless viewpoints that are scattered along the roadside throughout the mountain.
I kicked my feet up for a short while and breathed in that cool Colorado air before heading back to the convention centre.
Back at the show I slapped some high fives and said my goodbyes but not before meeting the one and only Alex Honnold. He was doing some PR work for the new electric truck company, Rivian. They had the R1T model on display and it’s pretty epic. Definitely built with the adventurer in mind.
Well, that’s it. I was on my way to the airport but not before making one more stop. VooDoo Doughnuts! If you’ve ever been to Voodoo then you know how epic it is. Doughnut flavors you’ve couldn’t even imagine like; the Old Dirty Bastard, the Ring Of Fire and The Cock n’ Balls. If you’ve never visited but have been told stories then I’m sure you’ve heard about the eclectic decor, the seedy areas their locations are in or the fact that you can get married there (I actually have a friend that did that).
I grabbed myself one to go and a box to bring home with me. Gotta keep the family happy too!
Til next time Denver. See you in 6 months! (stay tuned for part 2 of this post).
Tip #3 Don’t bring doughnuts through an airport unless you’re prepared for every airline employee and TSA agent you encounter to say “Thanks for bringing me doughnuts”.
