Crawl

One of my brothers was in town this past weekend and we did a brewery crawl. It was in everyone’s best interest not to go hard, so we did one beer (ish) each at each stop. It ended up being about one beer per hour, which isn’t bad! We also saw a Colorado Switchbacks game (the highlight!) and stopped in at the best Irish pub in town.

Brewery #1: Bristol Brewing

Near to my house, and thus a common stop. Pretty good beer.

Beers:
- Laughing Lab Scotch Ale; 8 out of 10. Great Scotch ale; no overpowering malt flavor.
- Mass Transit Amber Ale, 7 out of 10.

Ricoh GRIII

Brewery #2: Urban Animal Brewing

Closed for private event! No bueno.

Brewery #3: Uprise Taproom / C.O.A.T.I.

Not technially a brewery but it was next to Urban Animal and it had beer so, whatever. We played a game of chess to a draw. (He went easy on me.)

Beers:
- Cream Ale, 2 out of 10. Like a bad Bud Light. We didn’t bother to write down who made it.
- Lone Tree Vanilla Caramel Amber, 9 out of 10. Just a really great dark beer. They didn’t overdo the flavors.

Ricoh GRIII

Brewery #4: Brass Brewing

This is basically a military bar. “Brass” refers to officers and there’s a bunch of military paraphernalia on the wall. It took 15 minutes, at the front of the line, to get drinks.

Beers:
- Blood Orange Belgian Ale, 7 out of 10. A 7% that doesn’t taste like a 7%. Kind of like an amber.
- Dust Off White IPA, 7 out of 10. Slightly citrusy, pretty good.

Ricoh GRIII

Brewery #5: Phantom Canyon Brewing

At this point - mid afternoon - we got hungry. And oh man did Phantom Canyon deliver. I had a lemon tobasco fried chicken that was outstanding. The beer was pretty good as well.

Beers:
- German Festbier, 7 out of 10. Bready, light Oktoberfest style.
- Mountain Moo-nlight Milk Stout, 7 out of 10. Light caramel, roasty.

Ricoh GRIII

Brewery #6: Cerberus Brewing

This was probably the highlight of the day in terms of beer. We split a flight and ordered another pint of the brown ale, our collective favorite.

Beers:
- Van Amber, 9 out of 10.
- Elysium IPA, 7 out of 10. (Not to be confused with Elysian Brewing.)
- Johnny Martzen, 7 out of 10.
- CCN Stout, 8 out of 10.
- Colin’s Feral Wookie Brown, 10 out of 10. Probably the best brown ale I’ve tried. A truly excellent beer.

Ricoh GRIII

The Western Conference Final

At this point we made our way to Weidner Field - only about a mile from my house! - to watch the Colorado Switchbacks play the Las Vegas Lights in the USL Western Conference Final. We had seats but spent the whole game making a lap around the stadium instead. I shot probably 100 photos during the game; the GR III never skipped a beat, even after what was already a full day of shooting. (Also, the Switchbacks won.)

Ricoh GRIII

After the game we walked down to the main strip to Jack Quinn’s Irish Pub, my favorite bar in Colorado Springs. We spent the next two or three hours fixing the world’s problems by bitching about them over pints of Smithwick’s.

Ricoh GRIII

At some point we packed it in and walked home. And all was right in the world! We didn’t have a single drop of alcohol the next day. It was an excellent weekend all around.

Ricoh GRIII