Beer in Colorado: 14er and Liberati

For better or worse, the outside and inside of 14er looks like your typical repurposed River North building—an old brick industrial space. Some decry the homogenous atmosphere of Denver breweries, but I appreciate the conformity. I appreciate the sense of place. They look the same because that’s what Denver looks like! 14er’s building ties the present to the city’s industrial past and it’s good to have those callbacks to history, especially as character-ridden old buildings are razed to make room for new glass high-rises and boxy duplexes.

Here's River North in a nutshell: an old brick building, a new condo, and a dumb electric scooter

During renovation, most people tear down non-load-bearing interior walls and go for an open concept but 14er left one former office space intact and that's a perk for 30-something beer geeks with kids like Nicole and me. We stuck our children in that semi-enclosed box and they ran around causing a ruckus without disturbing the other patrons. It's like a cry room at a church except maybe it's more of a wild ass room. I’ve gotten word that this particular taproom (because 14er has a few in the works) is “rudimentary” and is slated for further renovations, so that parent-friendly corner may not last long.

My kid trapped in the play box

I’ve had plenty of 14er beers because they contract brewed before they had their own space and they were a staple at many beer festivals thus I ordered one of their specialty offerings: Bananas Foster Cream Ale on nitro. Pretty decent flavor but the nitro wasn’t behaving appropriately. In my non-expert surmising, I’d guess they carbonated the beer first and then tried to put it on a nitro tap, which doesn’t work. If you’re going to serve a nitro beer, it must be dedicated to nitro from the very beginning.

For any non-Colorado readers, the name 14er refers to the mountains of Colorado that exceed 14,000 feet. As of this writing, I've only summited one: Uncompahgre Peak. I should probably bag a few more at some point, but where does one find the time?

Bar room at 14er

Back room at 14er; the office/play pen is in the back

From the flannel-clad hipster masses of 14er we drove less than ¾ of a mile and entered Tuscany. Tiled floors, Art Nouveau posters, leather-wrapped bar seats, cloth napkins: you’re gong to feel out of place when you visit Liberati if you're dressed for brewery hopping and have two fidgety kids in tow. Not to say the ambiance at Liberati is bad, they’re just trying to be a fancy Italian restaurant first and a brewery second. They cater to a higher-end crowd to which almost no other Denver brewery pays any mind. But that means they might not be paying mind to the majority of craft beer drinkers. I, for one, might visit Liberati once a year or once every other year for a special occasion meal like a birthday or anniversary and, of course, have a few beers when I'm there. However, it's not the kind of establishment where I see myself meeting a friend after work and catching up over a few brewskis. It feels like a place that requires reservations, not a place where you just drop in.

I’m a very lenient craft beer drinker. 96% of the beer I drink is perfectly adequate, 2% is bad, and 2% really astounds me. The beers at Liberati fall into that latter category. It’s really good stuff! They’re not just good beers but different beers—oenobeers. You can read the whole spiel on oenobeers yourself but, basically, we’re talking about a beer/wine hybrid; beer made with a certain percentage of grape (on the menu, they list the percentage of grapes used in each brew). The offerings are familiar craft beer styles like saison, IPA, stout, and Kölsch and all would have been lovely as straight-up beer but the inclusion of grape gave them that little something extra.

A nice spread of Oenobeers

I ordered a flight of almost all the beers and, although there wasn’t a bad one in the bunch, I was most impressed with the beers that had a high percentage of grape like the Dictum Factum stout brewed with 25% Cabernet Sauvignon grape. In a beer like that, you can really get a sense of how grapes impact the flavor. The Calboni Docet Kölsch, on the other hand, only had 7% Chardonnay grapes. A fine beer but my palate isn’t refined enough to suss out an ingredient that accounts for only 7% of the entire product. Hit me in the face with that big grape flavor!

Despite Liberati’s formal setting, the brew space, like any brew space, is quite industrial and separated from the customer space by only a handrail. The juxtaposition is stark.

The two sides of Liberati

Prost!

Chris

Brew equipment at Liberati

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