Project 365: Day 57

After a looooong week away, Nick and I decided to spend Saturday afternoon on a leisurely bike ride touring some of the new breweries around town. We picked 3 that we had never been to before, chose a route and headed out. It almost reminded me of something we might have done on our backpacking trip in SE Asia and it was good to be out exploring our own city together.

Our first stop was River North Brewery down by the stadium - it's only been open for a couple of months, and I'd say they're off to a good start.

Nick got the sampler and I got the white ale and all in all the beer was pretty good. It's only a couple blocks from Coors Field and with tickets to 20 games this season, I'd say there's a pretty good chance we'll be visiting again soon.

Right now it's just a three-man operation and one of the guys was nice enough to take us on a little informal tour. The site used to be the Flying Dog brewery so they have plenty of room to expand their capacity as they grow.... it's pretty cool!

Next we hit the Cherry Creek trail on our way to Strange Brewing company.

There was actually a pretty good crowd at the brewery, despite the completely random location, and everyone was sitting out in the sun enjoying the afternoon.  

Nick and I split the sampler which included all 9 beers that they had on tap including a dunkelweizen and a cherry bomb stout. I have to say, I wasn't too impressed by their beers and based on how completely in the middle of nowhere it is, I'm not sure we'll be back.  But we had a fabulous pork sandwich from the card vendor and enjoyed a nice and relaxed atmosphere.  

Our third stop was Wits End Brewery which wasn't too far from Strange and was also in the middle of nowhere.

This was a cool brewery. The vibe was totally laid back and we ended up talking with the other patrons about various microbreweries in Denver and the best places to get kielbasi and German mustard. Scott - the owner and brew master - was a really nice guy and took some time to hang out with us as well. 

This was supposed to be our last stop of the day, but Scott gave us a tip that the Colorado Cider Company was just around the block so we swung by to try a sampler flight of their hard cider.

Both Nick and I are more of beer people, but the cider was pretty good, and since Nick really wants to go back to Wits End one of these days, I wouldn't be surprised if we saw a bit more of this place.

This, again, would have been our last stop, but while we were at Strange Brewing Company we discovered that there is a place called Pints Pub in our neighborhood that also brews their own beers!

It was practically on our way home and we needed to eat dinner anyway, so we stopped by for one more round.  Not too shabby! I can't believe we never knew this little gem was right down the street.

Finally after Pints Pub, the sun was going down and Nick and I were sufficiently exhausted. We headed home and were in bed by 10!

All in all a fabulous Saturday! I can't wait to do it again. Me + Nick + my brand new bicycle + good beer... what more can you ask for?