Now that I’ve gushed on and on about the fabulous time we had at GABF, it’s time to cover the rest of our trip out to Colorado!

Our first day was insanely busy… We landed in Denver around lunchtime, and of course we immediately wanted to go to a brewery. The first thing we did was drive over to Boulder and head into The Mountain Sun Pub & Brewery. We were able to briefly see the brewery and talked with the brewer there. Because they have a small system (I believe he said it was 5 bbl), they’re able to brew a lot of different beers, something I always appreciate!

The server was nice enough to bring out a bunch of samples for us. All the beer was excellent. The ones that stick out in my mind are the Kind Ale (a nice, floral amber ale), the Java Porter (made with coffee, rich and delicious), and a really awesome double IPA, the name of which escapes me. Not only was the beer awesome, but the food rocked too! I had a buffalo burger with mango salsa that was just amazing. Seriously, check this place out if you’re ever in Boulder.

After that, it was time to check out Avery Brewing for the first time! That day, they were having a release party for Sui Generis, the newest of their Barrel-Aged Series. But first, we took the brewery tour.

Now, after a few years of experiencing Avery’s beers from afar, I sort of had an idealistic image of Avery as being some fantastically enormous, gargantuan brewery, all shiny and magical in an expansive brewhouse. But as it turns out, it’s actually just a hodgepodge of tanks, strewn about amongst a bunch of unconnected garages. Not quite what I expected, but pretty darn cool nonetheless.

After the tour, we sampled some of Avery’s offerings, all delicious as usual. Of particular note was the 2005 Beast, a Belgian strong ale that blew my mind. It was thick, rich, and strong, with hints of raisins and port. It was like a glorious punch in the face, and I loved it!

When we finished our samples, we went into the back where they house all their barrels. We picked up a few bottles of Sui Generis since it was only being sold on premises, then headed out to our next beer destination…

We took a quick drive over to Left Hand Brewing, which turns out to have a pretty huge brewery.

We got a sampler, which of course rocked. The Oak Aged Imperial Stout was excellent, as was the Barleywine and the Tripel.

Since we were feeling ambitious, we decided to go to brewery #4 of the day, Oskar Blues Brewery in Longmont. The taproom was attached to their brewing facility, and you could walk right into the warehouse and see all their massive brewing equipment. We got to check out the canning line; I would have loved to see it in action!

I got a pint of Oak Aged Mama’s Little Yella Pils. I’d had Mama’s before, but never oak aged. It seriously rocked!

Oskar Blues is probably the biggest promoter of cans out there, and I say more power to them! They had a bunch of empty cans with beads attached to them. I made sure to take one of each (which all surprisingly survived the plane ride home!) and posed for this lovely picture.

By this time, shockingly, we were tired (sarcasm). We drove up to our friends’ house in the mountains to pack it in for the evening.

It’s amazing how much we accomplished in just one day! Since this is pretty lengthy, I’ll cover the rest of our trip in my next post!