BRECKENRIDGE / KEYSTONE, COLORADO
These two Rocky Mountain ski towns, sojourned August ’07, enjoy the bountiful libations of two highly respected brewpubs. Veritable municipal staple, BRECKENRIDGE BREWERY, has been operating since 1992 and Keystone’s prominent WOLF ROCK BREWING opened its doors a decade or so later.
Log cabin-styled loft-fronted side-decked BRECKENRIDGE BREWERY fortifies bustling Route 9-bound ski community. Central 14-seat bar fronted silver brew tanks servicing sided dining areas and left side billiards room. I had appetizers, salad, and sandwich while proficient 23-year-old brewer Drake Schmid poured many brews not bottled by Breckenridge’s Denver-based brewery.
There was grassy hay-dried oats-honeyed cereal-grained lemon-dried Pilsen 100% German Malt, grainier-than-fruity citric-spiced molasses-teased Summer Bright, citric-glazed floral-dried vegetal-finishing Trademark Pale Ale, tea-like orange-cherry-zested fig-date-vested Avalanche Ale, and astringent Cascade-hopped Breck Lite Golden Ale (with its husked maize and cracked corn parch).
Those were fine warm-ups for assertive floral-hopped orange-peeled grapefruit-embittered cherry-peach-apricot-perfumed 471 IPA and creamy black chocolate-y coffee-roasted walnut-cola-daubed chipotle-spiced espresso-finishing Oatmeal Stout.