Denver Follow Up

Round 2 of the Falling Rock happened Friday night, but before hitting the bar, I hooked up with my cousin and her husband in a suburb of Denver. Mike, my cousin's husband is a fellow homebrewer, who's Belgian Dubbel I learned took 1st at the Iowa State Fair last year. Mike had emailed me to see if I wanted to brew the night I planned to hang out. We decided to brew a saison, and I was excited since it was my first all grain experience. We brewed and sampled some of Mike's great beers as well as some New Belgium Abbey and Pilsner. As Mike was taking me back to the city, he asked if I wanted to be dropped off at Falling Rock...well...I guess I did have quite a few beers left to try there... So, we drank a special New Belgium release that was tapped that night, called Mike's Golden Ale. It was an excellent golden ale brewed with grains of paradise. As I mentioned before, I sadly forgot my beer geek moleskin for notes, so I don't have any details, and Friday's were fuzzy anyway. I followed Mike's Golden Ale, with another wonderful Belgian Golden Ale, this time from Russian River, their Damnation. Damn! Another phenomenal beer from this brewery...so worth the hype. An excellent Belgian strong ale, crisp and fruity and smooth. This was followed by Russian River's Pliny the Younger, a triple IPA that was a fantastic hop bomb and worth the hefty price. There were a few more samples that night and an Alaskan Smoked Porter to cap it off, which was a shame because I've had the beer before, but it was too smokey and roasty following all of the Belgian sweetness I'd had leading up to it. Even though I have somewhere around 60 beers or so left to get through at the Falling Rock, it'll sadly have to wait until another visit. A great bar, with great service who were nice enough to feed me samples as I poured over which beers to pick from. Again...if headed to Denver, hit up the Falling Rock.

Back in the Minneapple, I have spring break next week and plan on brewing at least one if not two beers. I also will get to my reviews of my final version!! of the El Muerto. Finally I'm satisfied with that recipe. Also will be getting around to my double IPA reviews and probably some other thoughts as well.
Stay tuned...
Salud!
Bearded Brewer