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Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Denver: Not Beervana

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.

9 comments:

  1. Not even the Napa of Beer…

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  2. Why not try an actual Beer Pub or Brewery??!!

    I 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!

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  3. 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.

    I am unlikely to make it to a proper brewery. The time crunch is huge. Sorry.

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  4. You mean this list....?

    Deschutes 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!!

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  5. 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.

    Unfortunately, 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.

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  6. A stones throw from Coors Field and the Wynkoop is the Falling Rock Tap House. Take a seat and enjoy this 'on tap' list:

    COLORADO
    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.

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  7. 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.

    I 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.

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  8. Geoff,

    You'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!

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  9. just go to the local grocery store, and buy a beer

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