Why Does Denver Have Such a Great Craft Beer Scene?
My boyfriend Mike and I are quite the beer enthusiasts, especially craft beers. When I was planning our somewhat spontaneous trip to Colorado, I couldn’t help but look up all of the awesome breweries in the area for us to try. At the time of this writing, Denver is home to over 80 craft breweries. With so many brews concentrated in one area, I knew we’d be spending some time trying the local options. So, I set out to find the best options for our DIY Denver Craft Beer Tour.
You wouldn’t necessarily think that Colorado, home of Coors Brewing Company and one of the largest brewing facilities in the world, would be a great place to start a craft brewery. However Denver craft breweries have thrived, and each year the Great American Beer Festival is held in Denver to celebrate beers from around the country.
Denver Craft Breweries in River North (RiNo)
The River North area of Denver (referred to by locals as “RiNo”) alone has approximately 13 brewers based on the estimates of one of our bartenders throughout the trip. The area was previously an old industrial section of Denver with many abandoned warehouses. Some of these warehouses have now been turned into breweries as they have enough space to hold all the equipment and supply.
We decided to concentrate our craft brewery tour around this area of Denver since we could easily walk from place to place after getting dropped off in our Uber. Some of the flavors and options for beer are very unique, I assume in order to differentiate themselves from their local competitors. Because of this, we got to try things we would never have in other areas around the country, including a yam beer and one that tasted like a margarita. Here’s where we went and what beers I recommend trying at each location.
Beryl’s / 14er Brewing Company
Since we decided to work our way from north RiNo towards the south on our Denver Craft Beer Tour, we decided to make our first stop Beryl’s Brewing. It turned out that Beryl’s was recently sold to 14er Brewing Company down the road, and that they would be turning it into a secondary taproom/production area. We were the only ones in the place since it was early on a Monday evening, but the bartender was friendly and gave us some suggestions of the best craft breweries in the area to visit. We started with a flight of four beers, a mix between Beryl’s reserve stocks and some of 14ers.
Beers We Recommend (if Available)
Key Lime Pie (Cream Ale)- This cream ale did taste like a key lime pie! Just slightly carbonated and in liquid form. A smooth way to start off our tour.
Mila Rouge (Fruited Petite Sour Saison)- I’m a sucker for a good fruity sour as long as it isn’t too overwhelming. This one was a bit on the sour end but I really enjoyed sipping on this as we talked to our bartender about the area and breweries to try.
Epic Brewing
This place had an awesome atmosphere and was clearly a popular spot on any night of the week. Epic Brewing was founded in Utah but opened a taproom in Denver, clearly making it one of the larger craft places we went. It’s not often that you can find entire flights composed of different sour beers. They have food trucks come almost every evening and sponsored events like bringing your knitting projects every Monday so you can knit while you drink I suppose? I’m not quite sure the purpose of that one but I can highly recommend their beers. They also offer tours of the site on weekends and sell Epic merchandise.
Beers We Recommend
I don’t think there was one beer here we really disliked, but some of our favorites were:
Mid Mountain Mild Ale- You know the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears? This one is not too hoppy, not too malty, but justttttt right.
Telegraph Santa Margarita Lime Gose- The name here says it all, drinking this is like the beer form of margarita mix without the liquor strength of the tequila.
Our Mutual Friend Brewing
Our Mutual Friend Brewing was one of the smaller establishments we visited on our tour, but one with a lot of personality. I personally appreciated the bookshelf full of books behind the bar and all of the interesting decorations. Here we couldn’t get the smaller flights like we did at other breweries for everything, so we ended up splitting some of the smaller sized beverages.
Beers We Recommend
Gelber Rauch (Smoked Blonde Ale)- I’ve had a few smoked beers and every time I’m surprised at how they are able to get that smoky, fire grilled taste into a beer. Its an interesting mystery to ponder as you grab a Gelber Rauch and reminisce about summer campfires.
Riot of Color (Mango Lime Berliner Weiss)- THIS WAS SO GOOD! Although I think it’s hard to go wrong with the sweetness of the mango and the tart, tangy lime.
10 Barrel Brewing
10 Barrel is also not local to Denver and has several other locations on the West Coast. Their taproom in RiNo is a huge facility with a large variety of beers and food options. We didn’t end up having any food at this establishment, but all of it looked (and smelled) delicious. While you can get 5 beer flights of your choosing, we recommend getting the 10 Series Sampler which I really haven’t seen at other establishments. We weren’t a fan of all these beers, but it enabled us to try a larger selection than we normally would at a brewery.
Beers we Recommend
Since the beers in this sampler changed depending on time of year / location, we’ll just recommend you get the (pretty cheap!) 10 beer sampler and call it a day.
Other Denver Breweries to Try
Wynkoop Brewing
Wynkoop was Colorado’s first brewpub, located on (you guessed it) Wynkoop Street near Union Station. While this wasn’t on our Denver Craft Beer Tour (we actually made it here earlier in the day while exploring the city), it’s definitely worth a stop if you’ll be in the area to visit Union Station or check our Coors Field. We found some interesting choices of beverages at this brewery.
Beers We Recommend
Yam Beer- I can’t seem to find the name of this one on their website so it may be seasonal or from a guest brewer, but if you happen to find it let me know what the name is because it was amazing!
Rocky Mountain Oyster Stout- We weren’t quite brave enough to try this stout with Rocky Mountain Oysters, but it is a novelty and specialty beer at Wynkoop. If you’re itching to try them without actually eating the real thing, maybe this is close enough.
Cucular Proliferation (Salted Cucumber Gose)- The cucumber gose was one of the biggest surprises of our trip I think. It was definitely a summertime, refreshing beverage with just a hint of cucumber.
Odell Brewing Company
We tried to make our way to ODell because it came highly recommended, but unfortunately they were having a private party and we couldn’t do a tasting. Thankfully our walk there wasn’t completely in vain, as we were able to get a mid-beer tour Shake Shack burger next door. Fun fact they have a green chile burger not available on the East Coast!
Ratio Beerworks
We didn’t stop in this particular brewery, but it’s worth mentioning since it was very close to the rest of the breweries on our craft beer tour through Denver.
Fiction Beer Company
I’m so sad I didn’t get to go here because Fiction Beer Company combines two of my favorite things- books and beer! Unfortunately it was quite a bit farther away from RiNo so we didn’t make our way over during our short time in the city.
More DIY Beer Tours in Our Future
After getting a chance to take a few trips together, Mike and I are finding that trying some of the local food and drinks is one of our favorite parts of visiting a new city. Our last trip took us on a guided beer tour in Montreal which was amazing, but the sheer number of unique beers we got to try on this trip was more than I anticipated. Definitely looking forward to doing more food and beverage tours on our trips in the future! Check out below for a map of all the breweries mentioned!
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