It’s the end of the year and time is running out! Here’s a quick and dirty post about Zephyr Brewing Co., Fiction Beer Company, and Creede Brewing Company—the last three
Denver breweries Nicole and I had yet to visit.
Going into 2015, we can say for the third time that we’ve conquered all
the Denver breweries.
Zephyr Brewing
Co.
Thoughts on the
space: Yet another brewing addition to the River North (RiNo) neighborhood,
Zephyr is located on the garden level of a multi-tenant building at the corner
of Walnut and 26th Street.
Sunken into the earth, it’s a pseudo-basement and feels like a venue for
a hardcore punk rock concert with its exposed pipes and concrete walls. Despite the industrial nature of the space,
it retains a warm and welcoming ambiance with a glass garage door letting in a
surprising amount of light as well as a massive, curved bar decorated to look
like a barrel.
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| Inside Zephyr |
Thoughts on the
beer: Sampling three beers, the stand-out was Dark Chocolate Raspberry
stout. It tastes just like it sounds:
dessert in a glass.
General
thoughts: Another brewery in RiNo?
Yes, and here’s hoping a lot more move in. I love the concept of a brewery neighborhood. A brewery city (e.g. Denver) is great but the
convenience and, for lack of a better word, coolness
of having so many beer-makers in a single, defined area is hard to beat. RiNo is Denver’s beer showcase to the rest of
the world. If you beercation in Denver,
please check out lots and lots of different neighborhoods but remember this paraphrased Elitch Gardens slogan: “not to drink in RiNo is not to drink in Denver.”
Fiction Beer
Company
Thoughts on the
space: Three walls-worth of windows
makes Fiction, a book-themed brewery, quite dissimilar to the dark canyons of shelves
and catacomb-esque study rooms of a traditional library. This bright and airy taproom features comfy leather
seats, lively artwork, and, yes, books.
In fact, the entire front of the bar is faced in hardcovers. Don’t worry, bibliophiles, I checked a number
of the titles used in the bar’s construction and it doesn’t appear as though
they actually used any “good” books. The
world won’t be any worse off with one less Sue Grafton novel in it.
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| Left to right: 42, Communal Synergy, & Autumn Stars, a pumpkin saison |
Thoughts on the
beer: Green Tea Chocolate Milk Stout is a minty delight and Communal
Synergy, a double IPA, was surprisingly tasty.
With so many IPAs on the market, it’s hard to get noticed in the crowd
but Communal Synergy caught my attention
nonetheless. It wasn’t anything unusual;
it was just really, really good and fresh.
I have no qualms putting it in my top ten list of favorite double IPAs. 42,
a bourbon porter brewed with 33 pounds of maple syrup, 30 pounds of donuts from
Glazed & Confused, and 27 pounds of donut glaze sounds like a wild and wacky beer but the flavors are actually
quite traditional. It’s a decent beer
but, with a backstory like that, I’d prefer a little more pizzazz.
 |
| Fiction's bar |
General
thoughts: Both Fiction and Lost Highway claim to be the first Denver brewery to open on Colfax. One of you is lying! And, if my quick Google research is to be
believed, Lost Highway is the fibber. It
looks as though Lost Highway opened on September 26th of this year
and Fiction six days earlier on the 20th. Not that it matters; they’re both exceptional
breweries; But, there can be only one first.
Unless they both opened at the same time on the same day. Which they did not.
Creede Brewing
Company
 |
| Creede is pretty hard to spot from the road |
Thoughts on the
space: Way up north in
unincorporated Denver, off an unpopulated stretch of Washington Street, sits
Creede at the end of a nondescript strip mall.
There’s not much on the outside that lets you know there’s a brewery in
there, especially with cars parked in front blocking the low-hung banner. Once inside, the taproom is small and simple
with a moderately-sized bar in front of a modest walk-in cooler. Wooden tables, Old West-style photos on the wall,
and a smattering of Denver Broncos paraphernalia fill-out the rest of the space.
 |
| Inside Creede |
Thoughts on the
beer: Being located in the boondocks
and in a shopping center that time forgot, Creede’s in an inauspicious and
unknown location. Who would expect good
beer to come from there? Those who search, however, are rewarded with a true hidden gem. Creede is pumping out some very interesting
brews like an IPA made with an experimental, as-yet-named hop variety boasting
strong tropical fruit aromas and a powerful, bitter bite as well as a tart
peach ale and a chili ale that can be ordered straight or with a splash of the
house Bloody Mary mix.
General
thoughts: In most businesses, it’s
location, location, location. Not so
with the brewing industry, there are plenty of tucked-away breweries in Denver:
Wit’s End, Strange, CAUTION, DeSteeg,…etc.
Creede is in good company and, so long as they keep brewing innovative
beers, local beer geeks will keep making the trek up to that isolated beer oasis.
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| Quite a creative beer menu at Creede |
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All these breweries deserve an entire post dedicated
to them but time waits for no man and I wanted to give them at least some credit before we hit the New Year. Sparse though this post may be, there’s an
easy and fun way to accrue more information on each of these breweries: go
visit them!
Prost!
Chris
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| Artwork at Fiction |
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