DENVER, COLORADO

Initially a dusty golddigger mining town, Denver’s booming cosmopolitan metropolis retains a pioneering frontier spirit. In ’96, visited Denver’s Pyramid Brewery’s Left Out Field Beer Garden at Colorado Rockies Safeco Field, Blue Moon Brewery, and Breckenridge Brewery. During ’03 at Great American Beer Fest, I found sundry hard-to-find brews from California’s EJ Phair and B.J.’s breweries; Oregon’s Pelican Brewery; Texas’ Saint Arnold; Tennessee’s Rocky River; Kansas’ Little Apple Brewery; Indiana’s Upland Brewery; Missouri’s Boulevard Brewery. Also, Georgia’s Terrapin Rye Pale Ale and Michigan’s No Disputin Putin Imperial Stout.

Finally did extensive 11-day Colorado brewpub tour, August ’07, with adoring wife, Karen. First stop, Denver’s NORTH STAR BREWERY, run by 10-year Wynkoop brew master Kyle Carstens, opened November ’06. A small café cornering Tejon Street, its interior had oak furnishings, cozy Formica-countered mirror-backed bar (with small TV’s), and back dining area. Sliders, potato skins, salads, and sandwiches were served, but silver kettle brews such as Northside Negra Schwarzbier, Citrus Ale, and Pics Pale Ale were temporarily out. Happily, Rye Red Ale efficiently contrasted honeyed cereal oat sweetness against dry-hopped grapefruit-soured bruised orange bittering.

Unfortunately, North Star closed its doors for business, 2008.