American Craft Beer The Best Craft Beer, Breweries, Bars, Brewpubs, Beer Stores, And Restaurants Serving Serious Beer.
Summertime in Nebraska. Sweltering heat, drenching humidity, ever-changing weather. Especially in July – that’s when the heat and humidity really ramp up. What better time to leave The Good Life and head one state to the southwest and into the sunny yet somehow still cool (or at least mild) climate of Colorado? That’s why, every Fourth of July holiday, my family makes the journey across Nebraska for a weeklong beercation in Colorful Colorado.
In Colorado, you can do no wrong with your location choice – you are bound to find a great craft brewery or pub that serves a plethora of fantastic local brews. In fact, we went to 21 breweries while in Colorado, and a few of them multiple times. That does not include the local spots that we found serving great cuisine along with a variety of Colorado brews on tap.
Since there were so many locations to choose from, on this trip we decided to skip Fort Collins and go to one of our new favorite spots – Loveland, Colorado – about 30 minutes south of Fort Collins and on the way to our final two-day destination of Boulder. Currently, there are four craft breweries in Loveland, and our favorite of the four is a relatively new place called Loveland Aleworks. The variety and quality of the beer is phenomenal, and the atmosphere in their taproom is very clean and modern, with beer-related quotes on the wall and swanky tap handles. Loveland Aleworks is definitely worth a trip off of I-25 and away from the craft beer meccas of Fort Collins and Boulder. To nail down a favorite beer that they brew is not possible for me – I even enjoyed their IPA, and I’m not one known to have a palate for hoppy beer – though I would say that their Belgian Dubbel and Tripel rank up there as favorites.
As for Boulder – one of my personal favorite craft beer destinations in the country – the brews did not disappoint. We stopped at Avery Brewing Company and Upslope Brewing Company three times throughout our entire beercation. We also tried a few new-to-us places, including FATE Brewing Company and Boulder Beer. However, the brewery that stood out most of all in a town of such incredible craft beer was a new gastropub called BRU Handbuilt Ales & Eats. I could honestly go on forever describing our three delectable experiences at BRU. It is clear that passionate people delicately craft the food and beer here, and they put the time and effort into making the drinking and dining experience truly exceptional. One of the more surprising aspects of BRU is that it has not been in operation for very long at all – the head brewer set out to open the BRU Handbuilt Ales & Eats location just this past February 2013! I would highly recommend BRU as a stop on your list when visiting Boulder – especially for daily happy hour, when the prices cannot be beat. I savored every single sip of their beer – even in the form of a Citrum IPA Bloody Mary when we stopped back for Sunday brunch before heading up the mountains.
The entire family spent the majority of our trip up in Summit County, though we did a bit of traveling while up in the mountains. For one of those day trips, we headed an hour and a half south to Salida, Buena Vista, and Poncha Springs. While we had visited Salida and Buena Vista during previous beercations, Poncha Springs (home to Elevation Beer Company) was a new and happy addition to our travels. Walking up to the brewery and taproom, we noticed that the large dock garage door was open, and inside was a sight to behold: an entire wall, nearly floor to ceiling, covered in barrels. To say that I am a fan of barrel-aged and Belgian-style beers would be an understatement. It was clear that we had found a new favorite craft beer destination! As we expected, the beer was all fantastic, with a great variety to choose from – two versions of quadrupels, a tripel, and a couple of different takes on Imperial and hoppy beers. As my in-laws walked out with a newly purchased case of bombers, one of the brewers handed them two 
bottles of, at the time, a not-yet-released beer. The Wild Flowers Imperial Saison that he gave them turned out to be one of my favorites of the whole beercation, which definitely says something about the quality considering all of the beer consumed. It was smooth, yet bubbly and flavorful – definitely not your typical Saison-style brew.
As you may have guessed, these were merely the highlights on our week-long beercation to Colorado. It would take a series of articles, or one damn long one, to tell you about all 21 breweries and multiple other craft beer hotspots that we patronized. But that’s the beauty of visiting Colorado. There are always lovingly crafted micro/nanobreweries popping up throughout the state, so every new beercation experience will be a brand-new – and tasty – adventure.
