I am originally from New York, Long Island to be specific and hopefully you the reader will put any personal feelings of disgust and hatred for New Yorkers aside and accept what I post here as accurate, and very much my bias opinion(s).

Upon coming to Colorado and seeing the immense scale of beer that is produced here (more than Munich. Germany from what I have read), as a beer lover, you can't help but feel gratified with the variety of breweries and social atmospheres that they all provide.
In my travels in and around Denver, I have visited as many breweries and brew pubs that I could find on a map. I've established a few breweries as being personal favorites and established a few others that I think totally suck.

I'll break these down into several categories:

*** Three Stars = Outstanding beer and atmosphere!
** Two Stars = It was OK, but I would not go out of my way to go there again
* One Star = A waste of my fucking time and money
NA (Not Applicable) = Which simply means I don't know enough about the brewery or the beer they make to offer an honest rating.

(NOTE: There may be some other breweries that have not been included here. I will add more for future reference. I did not include a number of breweries that are located further away, mainly in the more remote towns of Colorado.)

Avery Brewing Company ** I would rate this brewery higher if it wasn't for the fucking annoying bartender with the stupid English accent. Fire him and it would be a drastic improvement to the business.

Backcountry Brewery ** It was OK. Stick to improving your pizza.

BJ's Pizza, Grill & Brewery NA I haven't been in there yet because its always crowded with tourists.

Boulder Beer Company *** Terrific place! Great atmosphere, dog friendly on the patio, decent beer and I was totally impressed by the brewery itself. Very cool architecture.

Breckenridge Brewery ** Pretty good place, however the infamous "commercialization" plague seems to be seeping into that business. Too many yuppies flock there to have the "retro-Beer drinker" look. Stop opening up locations and instead, stick to making better beer.

Bristol Brewing Company NA

CB & Pott's Restaurant and Brewery * TGI Fridays with a bigger beer menu... "yawn".

Coors ** I gave it two stars not for the beer or the atmosphere, but because Coors is Colorado, what would this state be without Coors. It doesn't get three stars simply because they don't have great beer, its just OK. I would have given them another "half star" if they weren't partners with Miller.

Denver Chop House & Brewery ** I have only been there once. The beer was decent and if you plan to stay for diner on a beer drinkers budget, plan on only a very small appetizer.

Dillon Dam Brewery NA Every time I intend to try this place, I always ditch them and end up going another half mile down the road to Pug Ryans.

Flying Dog Brewery NA Flying dog officially moved their main brewing operation to another state so I am not including them in this rating.

Golden City Brewery NA I haven't been to this one yet, but if I owned a brewery located down the street from Coors, I wouldn't advertise my business as the "Second Largest Brewery" in Golden. It makes you look stupid because your telling the world that you live in the shadow something bigger and better (Coors???).

Great Divide Brewery *** Without a doubt the best brewery in the state hands down (in my opinion). Absolutely incredible beer that has flavor far and beyond 3/4 of what is in the market currently. Very strong beer in both alcohol and flavor variety. Real fun atmosphere, always offering something new.

Hops Restaurant & Brewery * Nothing but a corporate conglomerate, like adding a brew tank to Mcdonalds. Blah Blah Blah.. yawn...

Left Hand Brewery ** I haven't actually been to this brewery yet, however I have been to several beer festivals where they were present and I tried a good variety of their beer. Its was OK, I am motivated to go check out the brewery one of these days. (I have to say though that their ginger flavored beer was like drinking a cup of vomit.)

Mountain Sun Pub and Brewery NA I haven't actually been to this brewery and the reason is because when I was there to check it out, I was thwarted from going in by the group of about a dozen dirty disgusting hippies that were all sitting in the doorway. Sorry, I have no desire to sip a beer when all I can smell is the stale stench of BO around me. The 60's were almost 4 decades ago.Time to take a fucking shower!

New Belgium Brewery * Sorry Fat Tire fans, its just another one of the 500 amber beers already on the market. I did check out the brewery tour and while they did talk about the beer brewing process (for all of about 5 minutes) they wasted about 25 more minutes yapping about their recycling and earth friendly bullshit. Hey, people come there for the beer, not a hippy lecture on the environment. Lame!

Odell Brewing Company NA

Old Mill Brewery * The only thing worse than the beer was the service. I am trying to forget this place.

Oskar Blues Brewery *** I have yet to go to their brewery, however I have to say that they have some pretty damn good beer in a can!

Phantom Canyon Brewery NA

Pug Ryan Brewpub & Steakhouse *** Without a doubt the best place to grab a beer if your going skiing. Great little place, good beer and fun crowd!

Pumphouse Brewery NA

Rockbottom * I already used TGI Fridays and McDonalds so this is Chilis with brew tanks in the background.

Rockyard Brewing Company ** Average beer, good atmosphere, nice place, overpriced food.

Sandlot Brewery * Its owned and operated by Coors and its in the baseball stadium... Enough said.

Tommyknocker Brewery * Breckenridge Brewery wannabees with overpriced food.

Wynkoop Brewing Company * OK to all the people up in arms over this rating, I've been to Wynkoop over a dozen times for various reasons. Every time I have been to that brewery except for one occasion, which was St. Patricks Day, the beer in those taps was skunked. Either they don't clean the lines or they have air leaking in with the CO2, I don't know what the reason is, but the beer always has a shitty aftertaste from either poor sanitation or its just stale beer. Decent food, but the beer fucking sucks!

(I saved the worst for last)
Anheuser Busch Fort Collins ( No Stars ) I officially boycott Anheuser Busch products since being taken over by Inbev. To further explain, Inbev (if I'm not mistaken) is a Belgium/Brazilian corporation that distributes their line of products world wide. Last year as I am sure you all heard in the news, Inbev purchased Anheuser Busch for something around $70 a share, which is now worth something in the range of $20 a share. So basically, Budweiser, which once proudly made a point of saying on their brewery tour that they were a 98% American owned operation is now nothing more than a foreign Walmart for the brewing industry. I currently work for a vendor of the former Anheuser Busch (now ANHEUSER BUSCH INBEV) and I am amazed with how Inbev is now trying to strong arm harsh discount pricing out of the American vendors, potentially forcing those businesses to either outsource labor to lower cost regions of the world or lose the account all together. They are trying to make up losing $50 per share of cash flow because they were too stupid to foresee the credit crisis. I am glad the former share holders got their $70 worth while screwing over something as American as Bud. Take my advice, drink american micro-brewed craft beer. It tastes better, its made with real beer ingredients (not rice) and you are support American workers and the American economy.

March 2009

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