It’s scarcely a month old yet it’s been a busy year in
beer for me and Nicole. We’ve hit
multiple breweries over the past few weekends and, by doing so, reached a milestone
in our mission to imbibe in every brewery in the state. We’ve reached our Centennial State sesquicentennial:
150 Colorado breweries visited!
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| Mu Brewery |
Our path to that landmark number began with an
eastward jaunt to Aurora’s
Mu Brewery.
Now, I’ve been to breweries in the factory district, I’ve been to
breweries tucked away in alleys, and I’ve been to
breweries in the backwoods of North Carolina where I’d hardly be surprised if the locals complimented my “purdy
mouth” but Mu may well take top honors in the sketchy location contest.
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| Left to right: Cranberry Pilsner, Blumpkin, Aurora Town Brown, Boone's Maple Cream Porter, & Da Bomb Black IPA |
Near the corner of infamous Colfax Avenue and
less-than-notable Dayton Street, I was warned about Mu’s neighborhood by my
brother and sister-in-law who live in the general area. In short, they said don’t go there at night. Intriguing.
Is there actually an area in the Denver metro that’s truly intimidating? Up until this point, I’ve certainly noticed
that certain places around Denver seem rough
er
than others but none that appeared simply rough. Not dangerous enough for me to think twice
about walking down the street, at any rate.
 |
| Inside Mu |
Having now been to Mu’s neck of the woods, I’ll say
that I would have no qualms in returning—day or night. But, I’ll stick to the main road. When Nicole and I turned a corner to park on
Dayton, we drove out of the relative safety of commercial Colfax and directly
into the mean street: disgruntled and suspicious stares following us as we
rolled by, folks drinking mystery liquids from brown paper bags, loiterers
propped against chain link fences—it was
Clark Griswold’s St. Louis odyssey in real-life (Roll ‘em up!). To be fair,
this particular ‘hood was, like, one block long; once we got to 16
th
Street things got back to normal.
 |
| Mu's bar |
After circling the block and leaving the car in a
spot less likely to result in the tires being replaced by cinder blocks, we
entered Mu’s storefront taproom. In
stark contrast to its urban surroundings, Mu possesses a sort of old-timey, rustic
saloon vibe albeit with a few modern twists such as the metal-cut mountain
profile with rotating backlights. Of
course, no amount of homey ambiance will prevent already-drunk patrons from
stumbling in and boisterously ordering
Bud Light.
The beers at Mu are decent enough. Many of their offerings leave some room
for improvement but I was surprised how much I enjoyed the cranberry pilsner
and, despite the disgusting name, the
Blumpkin pumpkin beer wasn’t too shabby,
either. Don’t know what “blumpkin”
means?
Go to UrbanDictionary.com because
I’m not going to explain
it to you. Apparently, the assistant
brewer jokingly scrawled the name on the recipe sheets and the head brewer, not
understanding that it was a joke, went ahead and made “Blumpkin” the beer’s
official appellation. Also, they offer a
blend that’s Blumpkin mixed with one of their darker beers. They call it the Dirty Blumpkin (as if there
were any other kind).
Since we were on that side of town, Nicole and I also
dropped into
Coda Brewing Co.—only 2.5 miles away but in an entirely different
and gentrified world. At the foot of a
condominium near a golf course, Coda’s suburban surroundings stand in stark
contrast to Mu’s gritty, down-trodden locale.
 |
| Sleepyhead, a Kolsch |
As unexciting as Coda’s neighborhood might be, the
taproom is hip enough to compensate: chalkboard pillars, drinks served in Mason
jars and chem lab beakers, stringed festival lights, weathered wood furniture,
and, being as it is a music-themed brewery, a stage. I only had one beer at Coda plus two tasters but that's all I needed to have a high opinion of the brewery. A spine-shivering Scotch barrel-aged Scotch ale, a nitro American red, and a Kӧlsch brewed with passion fruit were the sometimes-unconventional
yet delicious treats that swayed me to Coda’s side.
 |
| Left to right: Dogcatcher American Red & McDrums Scotch Ale |
We rode the desolate prairie of Broomfield’s
outskirts, rolling over brown knolls of tallgrass and treeless steppes, finally
coming across a commercial strip as featureless as the landscape. Like Coda, Four Noses doesn’t have much in
the way of outward personality. Also
like Coda, though, it’s what’s inside that counts.
 |
| Inside Coda |
 |
| Inside Coda |
Cavernous ceilings, like an industrial cathedral,
greet drinkers as they walk through Four Noses’ doors. A looming logo, stretching from floor to
ceiling, is painted on the far wall much like
the enormous “E” which hangs in Dr. Evil’s lair; lest you forget where you’re drinking, the wall will gladly
remind you. Breaking up the steel
structure is an overhang of wooden planks which envelope the center of the room
like a rustic cocoon. The brewing
equipment, seemingly too massive for a brewery as young as Four Noses, sits
soundly behind glass in the back of the building. I enjoyed the
Anarchy Ale III, a strong
English-style IPA; a double English IPA, if you will. It’s a clever if subtle twist to the style to
intensify the usually mild-mannered English IPA or British-ify the
American-born double IPA (depends on which way you look at it).
And then it happened.
After leaving Four Noses and jetting across Broomfield, we arrived at
what appeared to be a former rec center; the general layout and construction of
the building as well as the multi-hoop basketball court by the parking lot seem
to suggest that notion, at least. A rather
immense, metal-sheeted building with spacious outdoor seating and open-concept
taproom, Wonderland was fittingly grandiose to mark our 150
th
Colorado brewery visit.
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| Spacious patio at Wonderland |
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| Large room for rent at Wonderland |
Walking into Wonderland, one notices a
gymnasium-sized room for private event to the left and a near-equally expansive
taproom to the right. Granted, half the
taproom is devoted to ping-pong tables but, even then, the seating is ample.
 |
| Inside Wonderland |
It’s difficult to describe the atmosphere of
Wonderland. In some regards, it feels
like a dive bar with its several arcade games, aforementioned table tennis
section, diner-style chairs, and vinyl booths.
On the other hand, it exudes the mountain lifestyle with snowboard
accent pieces and wood-cut alpine profile behind the bar—a timber version of Mu’s
metallic mountains, almost. On the other
other hand, a black ceiling, black
tiling, and a stage in one corner make the place feel like a Las Vegas
lounge. It’s a real hodge-podge at
Wonderland, nothing seems to be cohesive.
Then again, as it’s themed to the fantastical and ethereal world of Lewis
Carroll’s Alice, perhaps the whimsically mix-matched décor is appropriate.
 |
| Inside Wonderland |
After downing a
Vaderade Irish Stout (Vaderade?
Is this the Sith lord’s post-exercise electrolyte replenishment?), Nicole and I left Wonderland satisfied with our accomplishment.
There was a time not long ago where, if
we’d visited 150 Colorado breweries, it meant we had visited them all. It’s a testament to the growing popularity of
small and independent brewers that we’re no closer to meeting our goal today
than we were when we first set out on this quest. It’s a Sisyphean task that Nicole and I are
on; for every brewery we visit it seems two more pop up. But that’s okay with me. I never want this adventure to end.
Prost!
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