The Great American Ale Trail - Christian DeBenedetti [65]
The endeavor has been fruitful, to be sure, but its success, Black says, comes at a price: “The hardest thing about this job is this week,” he says of the Great American Beer Festival every fall, when Falling Rock bursts at the seams every day. “Physically and mentally, it’s completely exhausting. I average five hours of sleep for over two weeks. It’s a double-edged sword.” Black, who wears a goatee and a contented grin, indulges in the odd cigar, and takes great pleasure in a good bottle of red wine when the workday is done, brief though the respite may be.
EUCLID HALL
BAR & KITCHEN
1317 14th St. • Denver, CO 80202 • (303) 595-4255
euclidhall.com • Established: 2010
SCENE & STORY
In bringing her new restaurant Euclid Hall to Denver’s tourist and foodie district, Larimer Square, noted Denver chef Jennifer Jasinski has also brought craft beer directly into the heart of the city’s food scene. Craft beer lovers laud this development: surely other restaurants in the area will need to step up their approach, which ought to have a ripple effect. Once home to a Masonic lodge, the Colorado Women’s Relief Corps, and a high-end brothel (among other organizations, some more dubious than others) the centrally located, two-story brick building is both a bit dramatic and immediately welcoming. On entry one is greeted with a massive chalk-board overflowing with edible ideas. There, Jasinski’s open kitchen feeds the cozy downstairs area while a wide staircase leads upstairs to more gastropub tavern tables.
Upstairs or down, the hand-cranked sausages, poutines, and schnitzels shine, and the pickle assortment is a must-order: one pickle is infused with hops. Mustards are also hand-ground and house cured; you can’t throw a napkin without hitting some sort of high-low riff like the gourmet corn-dog and chicken-and-waffle plate. For the beer-obsessed, there’s PEI mussels steamed in New Belgium Tripel, beer-battered cod, and an ice cream dessert made with Guinness. It’s a fun menu and environment, both resolutely urban and yet down to earth (a credit to the unpretentious staff), and it’s often very, very busy. One of the axioms of Euclidean geometry is that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, which is a fitting assessment of Euclid Hall itself. Its food menu or beer list are both excellent on their own, but taken together, you have something approaching ideal.
PHILOSOPHY
The motto is “Crafted. Not Cranked Out.” The canned and bottled beer list is divided into somewhat kooky categories (arithmetic, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, calculus, quantum mechanics) meant to relate to complexity of flavor, but there’s no extra credit for only drinking from the complicated end of the spectrum.
KEY BEER
Make sure you eyeball the “Very Special Brews” list, though be prepared for some sticker shock. On a recent visit, Port Brewing Company’s Older Viscosity, an American Strong Ale, was going for $36.95 for a 375-milliliter bottle. On the standard can and bottle list, Del Norte’s Mañana Amber Lager is a solid, food-friendly choice (way up in the “easy” arithmetic section, a bit unkindly, as it happens—it’s not easy to make). And Durango’s Steamworks makes the smooth, tasty house beer on draught, Euclidean Pale Ale (5.5% ABV).
Rocky Mountains Region
WILD MOUNTAIN
SMOKEHOUSE &
BREWERY
70 E. First St. • Nederland, CO 80466
(303) 258-9453 • wildmountainsb.com • Established: 2007
SCENE & STORY
About seventeen miles west and 3,000 feet higher in elevation than Boulder, tiny Nederland—an old Ute Indian trading post turned silver mining town (population: 1,700)—is home to a lot of hippies, mountain bikers, and “the Frozen Dead Guy,” aka Bredo Morstoel, a Norwegian whose body has been kept at -60°F by the townspeople for more than twenty years (long story), making him something like the town father. It’s also home to a reasonably priced little beer and barbecue getaway very much worth a drive out of Boulder.
With well-made beers, a mountain view from the back patio, and high marks for