DILLON / FRISCO, COLORADO
Beautiful Alpine area of Rocky Mountains is too gorgeous and pristine for mere words. My wife and I took a 3-hour pontoon boat cruise around Dillon Reservoir between visiting three fine area brewpubs, August ’07.
Dillon’s DAM BREWERY, a freestanding building with grain silo at the Route 6 mall, had definite sports bar atmosphere. Tan-wood-paneled green-sided Dam featured U-shaped central bar (with opposing flat screen TV’s), left brew tanks, rear umbrella-covered deck, loft level billiards-seating, and separate back dining area.
Build-your-own burger, appetizers, salmon, and rib-eye went well with lemony corn-sugared wheat-husked oats-honeyed dry-hopped Dam Lyte, light popcorn-like rye-breaded lemon-fizzed Paradise Pilsner, floral-fizzed honey-glazed vanilla-sweetened grapefruit-tangy Vienna-styled Dam Straight Lager, and exemplary lemon-candied floral-teased eucalyptus-cooled grain-dried Wildernest Wheat.
While alcohol-burned woody-hopped currant-embittered apple-orange-spiced Extra Pale Ale and mild caramel-molasses-like, hazelnut-macadamia-pecan-backed Sweet George’s Brown were just alright, banana-honeyed citric-spiced Hefe-Weizen and creamy black chocolate-y hazel-nutty Mc Luhr’s Irish Stout truly captivated. Bitterer than most Colorado competition, perfumed floral hop-embittered India Pale Ale placed grapefruit rind and wood chipped hop dryness alongside tenacious red-yellow fruiting.