I am having precious little time to make it to pubs, but I have been shuttled nightly to various bars where parties are being held. The last two nights, I was at a jazz club one night and a kind of chic upscale place the other night. These are roughly equivalent to places you'd find in the pearl. I wouldn't expect them to have a good or large beer selection, but I'd be shocked if I didn't see a couple-four micros on tap. I don't haunt the Pearl, but that's my sense. And a jazz bar--definitely.
But both these places had NO draft beer. Zippo. They offered some bottled beer: macros of an assortment I failed to note, Stella, Flat Tire. In the first, they had Blue Moon, which I ordered, in the second Sam Adams. I like Sam Adams, so that was fine, but I was really shocked--how could it be so sparse?
If you can't get a draft micro downtown in Denver, I think that speaks for itself.
Not even the Napa of Beer…
ReplyDeleteWhy not try an actual Beer Pub or Brewery??!!
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't think a single Jazz club would equate into a summary of an entire city...
While Denver may not be Beervana, I think some proper investigation of real pubs and breweries may provide a little more insight than an unexplored write off of city known for some decent brewing... Don't expect your blog readers to be that swallow and gullible.
If we're talking Jazz clubs representing a cross section of a cities beer quality; The Jimmy Mak's Club in downtown Portland wouldn't paint a very pretty picture of Portland's brewing. Here's the Beer list from Jimmy Mak's:
Draft Microbrews - $4.50
Deschutes Mirror Pond Pale Ale
MacTarnahan's Ale
Lagunitas IPA
New Belgium "Skinny Dip"
Widmer Hefeweizen
Stone Brewing Arrogant Bastard Ale
Draft Imports
Guinness Stout - $4.75
Stella Artois Lager - $4.50
Czechvar - $4.50
Domestic Drafts
Pabst Blue Ribbon - $3.00
Bud Light - $3.50
Bottled Beer - $3.75
Heineken
Heineken Light
Corona
Coors Light- $3.25
-What was that? Three standard Portland beers and bunch of crap you could find at your Shari's??
Jeff! Stick with the politics, your beer insights are falling a little short... ;-}
BTW, have a beer dude & try to enjoy yourself!
Did you see your own list, D Wort? ELEVEN beers on draft. Compare that to the bupkis at the two places I've been to.
ReplyDeleteI am unlikely to make it to a proper brewery. The time crunch is huge. Sorry.
You mean this list....?
ReplyDeleteDeschutes Mirror Pond Pale Ale
MacTarnahan's Ale
Lagunitas IPA
New Belgium "Skinny Dip"
Widmer Hefeweizen
Stone Brewing Arrogant Bastard Ale
Guinness Stout - $4.75
Stella Artois Lager - $4.50
Czechvar - $4.50
Pabst Blue Ribbon - $3.00
Bud Light - $3.50
Most of this is crap! Draft/Bottle/paper bag... What's the difference?
Just because something's running through a tap and pushed by CO2 doesn't make it anymore desirable.
Bud in a bottle sucks just as bad as on tap.... and so on... ;-}
If Jimmy Mak has 2 interesting beers, which they don't, that's not a major upheaval in the beer world when it comes to quality and selection...
....But nice try... ;-}
Run Jeffery! I hear Hillary speaking!!
Portland is the same way; sometimes you happen to find the one `jewel` in the immediate vicinity that doesn't serve beer from kegs. The lesson is: remember that place, and don't go back. It is Beervana, after all, they should show some respect for their customers and support the local economy.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, you're in Coors Country, which (as dr wort said about Bud) sucks just as bad in the bottle as it does on tap, so it's not terribly surprising that some joints don't have much (if any) selection of beer on tap.
However, The Wynkoop Brewpub is right across the street from Union Station in downtown Denver, partway in between the Pepsi Center and Coors Field. It's worth a stop, in my opinion.
A stones throw from Coors Field and the Wynkoop is the Falling Rock Tap House. Take a seat and enjoy this 'on tap' list:
ReplyDeleteCOLORADO
Avery IPA
Kaltenberg Weisse
New Belgium Trippel
New Belgium Sunshine Wheat
Odells Easy Street Wheat
Sandlot Barman Pils
Tabernash Weiss
UNITED STATES
Anchor Liberty Ale
Anderson Valley Hop Ottin IPA
Blue Moon White
Bridgeport IPA
North Coast Pranqster
Pyramid Apricot Ale
Redhook Blonde
Widmer Blonde
Widmer Hefe Weizen
GERMANY
Paulaner Hefe Weizen
Paulaner Pils
Paulaner Urtyp Lager
Reissdorf Kolsch
Warsteiner
GREAT BRITAIN
Fullers London Pride
CZECH REPUBLIC
Pilsner Urquell
CANADA
Harp
SCOTLAND
Tennents
HOLLAND
Grolsch
BELGIUM
Hoegaarden White
La Chouffe
Amber
COLORADO
Bull & Bush Man Beer
Cheshire Cat Arrogant Brit
Flying Dog Doggie Style
Great Divide Denver Pale Ale
Left Hand Sawtooth
New Belgium Fat Tire
Oskar Blues Dale's Pale Ale
Rockyard Hopyard IPA
Tabernash Oktoberfest
UNITED STATES
Anchor Steam
Full Sail Amber
Redhook ESB
Sierra Nevada Pale Ale
GERMANY
Diebels Alt
Hacker-Pschorr Oktoberfest
Paulaner Oktoberfest
Spaten Oktoberfest
Dark
COLORADO
Avery Hog Heaven
Bristol Laughing Lab Scottish
Bull & Bush Big Ben Brown
Golden City Old Centurion
Great Divide St. Brigid's Porter
Left Hand Black Jack Porter
Odells 90 Shilling
Redfish Angry Monk
UNITED STATES
Anchor Porter
Redhook Nitro-Blackhook
Shiner Bock
IRELAND
Guinness
Beamish Stout
Germany
Paulaner Salvator
HOLLAND
La Trappe Quadruple
'nuff said.
Denver has some fantastic spots for sure (Falling Rock @ GABF time is def a highlight not to miss). But, the averge joint in Denver is pretty lacking, compared to Portland/Seattle.
ReplyDeleteI love CO and much of its beer, but I've never been too impressed by Denver; even when you take beer out of the equation.
And, Dr. Wort....you just painted a picture of why the NW is such a great beer spot. Is that the WORST tap lineup you could pull out?;-) I'd be happy with several of those draft beers at a "bad" beer spot.
Geoff,
ReplyDeleteYou're obviously more easy to please than myself... ;-}
I can't stand drinking the SOS, over and over again. If I was that kind of beer drinker, I'd be bouncing back between Bud and Michelob. Of course, that's an extreme example, I wouldn't really ever put either of those beers to my lips and haven't for over 20 years.... ;-}
With the exception of Arrogant Bastard, most of the Jimmy Mak beers are drinkable AVERAGE Flagship beers. I guess I'm at the point where the beer has to be beyond run of the mill....and I've drank enough Cascade hops to choke three horses.... I'm really not interested in the tasting anymore cascade hops. We could have been done with using Cascade after Sierra Nevada put out their Pale ale in the 80's.
BTW, I'm sure I COULD pull out a worse tap list or a NON-tap list from some Portland establishments, but that wasn't the original point. The original point was that Jeff can't wrap up the entire Denver beer scene by reviewing a Jazz club menu! That's like judging the quality of Hamburgers by only going to a McDonald's.... ;-}
I do agree, Denver doesn't have the Tap variety and quantity that Portland, but I wouldn't bash Denver so lowly, so quickly to the general public blog reader. I think there needs to be a little research behind any statement....
I can say Miller High Life sucks, but I can tell you why I think it sucks.
Cheers!
just go to the local grocery store, and buy a beer
ReplyDelete