GLENWOOD SPRINGS / EDWARDS, COLORADO
Ten miles west of arresting Bavarian-styled mountainside resort, Vail, off Route 70 in a new mall zone, lies Edwards’ excellent GORE RANGE BREWERY. A freestanding ruddy brick building with stone backdrop and outdoor deck, Gore Range’s amenities included stone rotisserie at entrance, right side bar (with windowed brew tanks), left dining, oak furnishings, cornered TV’s, exposed ducts, and wood-fired pizzas. Adventurous brews were all over the proverbial map.
Alongside tuna melt, had risqué-named Great Sex Honey Ale, a honeyed wheat-informed barley-biscuit-y orange-ripened mainstay. Afterwards, sampled cereal-grained cherry-dried tangerine-strawberry-sugared Fly Fisher Red Ale, lemony honeysuckle-endured corn-floured floral-softened King Schwing Pilsner, and stimulating orange-lemon-fronted hop-fizzed White Water Wheat. Though the latter truly sufficed, sweet honey-citric cherry-peach-juiced floral-spiced Powder Day Pale Ale and molasses-thick cantaloupe-apricot-fruited grapefruit-soured wood-dried IPA proudly held their own. Nitro-injected black chocolate-chalked espresso-embittered cedar-burnt tobacco-roasted nut-charred Biker Stout impressed less.