Great Divide

Went hiking in Golden Gate Canyon State Park today. It was beautiful, even though we had to deal with intermittent light rain. We'll post pictures soon.

On the way back, we tried to stop by Golden City Brewery, "the second largest brewery in Golden." They stop serving at 6:30pm every day, so we missed the boat. Onward to Great Divide in downtown Denver.

We hadn't been to the Great Divide taproom since November. Besides the usual suspects, they had Rumble IPA and Smoked Baltic Porter. The porter was pretty much perfect. Similar to O'Fallon's Smoked Porter without invoking bacon, and balanced enough to drink more than one. Of course, I only drank one and then moved onto the Rumble IPA. This is easily one of my favorite beers. If you've heard me bullshit about beer, you know that I'm all about balance. I really don't care for the over the top west coast IPAs, nor do I care much for one-dimensional (I'm looking at you, Shiner Bock) darker beers. Rumble IPA is wood-aged, 7.1% ABV, balanced bliss. Snag some, if you can find it. We picked up a six pack on our way out of the brewery.

Now, if we can only make it to Golden City on time..

Hop-ricot

Support your local brewery. Or breweries. Seriously. You'll never know what kind of delicious beer you're missing out on until you find and then visit them.

Our new home is very close to Dry Dock Brewing Company in Aurora, CO. Dry Dock won "Small Brewing Company of the Year" at the 2009 Great American Beer Festival. They've also won "Best Brewpub" the past three years from the local ABC affiliate, which is quite a feat given the number and quality of brewpubs in the area. Of course, when I think of a brewpub, I think of a restaurant that brews beer. There's no kitchen at Dry Dock. There is popcorn, and you're welcome to bring your own food.

The real star is the beer. I have much respect for any brewery that has a Double IPA included in their year-round ("home fleet") lineup. Especially when it's a damn tasty Double IPA. They also tap a Firkin keg every Friday afternoon. From what I gather, it's usually one of their regular beers with a twist. Today's Firkin is called Hop-ricot and is half IPA, half Apricot Blonde. It was fantastic. Hazy peach color with a hop bite on the front and apricot finish. Sort of like a kicked up Magic Hat #9.

So far I've really enjoyed the Pale, IPA, Double IPA, and ESB from Dry Dock. I look forward to trying the rest of their beers. What's brewing in your neighborhood?