The Great American Ale Trail - Christian DeBenedetti [66]
PHILOSOPHY
Beer and barbecue go together like peanut butter and jelly, right? This is a restaurant dedicated to the relatively simple mission of making great beer for great barbecue and vice versa.
KEY BEER
There are always four house brews on tap; try the Brewski Sampler (samples of four draughts and a guest tap for $5.95) to see what’s freshest. The house brew Otis Pale Ale has been a standby, and the bottle list has included selections from Russian River, Lost Abbey, Stone, and Left Hand.
THE GOLD PAN
SALOON
103 N. Main St. • Breckenridge, CO 80424 • (970) 453-5499
thegoldpansaloon.com • Established: 1879
SCENE & STORY
This swinging door saloon has the enviable distinction of having the longest continuously operating liquor license west of the Mississippi. It also has a wide, old classic bar, a bunch of taxidermy elk heads, foosball, flat screens, some decent pool tables, and the addictive ring game, an iron loop on a string one tries (and tries and tries) to land on a hook, with limited but eternal-glory-giving success.
PHILOSOPHY
While Breckenridge—or “Breck,” as it’s often called—has a lot of good, even excellent restaurants, this has not traditionally been one of them. Until recently, it wasn’t the place to find much in the way of craft beer, either—Coors Light was the brew of choice. These days, there are five taps, and you can at least get 1554, an excellent schwarzbier from New Belgium. And there are still further signs that the old Gold has picked up the scent of craft beers for good: Last year the pub convened its second annual Beer Fest, with about thirty beers on offer, including the superb Trumer Pils from Berkeley, California, and Alaskan Brewing Co.’s Winter Ale.
KEY BEER
Many a local will still order that light lager, whatever it is, but ask the bartender what’s freshest. In a bar like this, it can be the safest bet to stick with something that’s very cold and very light unless you can get a sample first to make sure the beer is in good shape.
BRECKENRIDGE
BREWERY & PUB
600 South Main St. • Breckenridge, CO 80424
(970) 453-1550 • breckbrew.com • Established: 1997
SCENE & STORY
Breck was fortuitously founded beneath a soaring peak which would later become one of the top ski areas in North America, with steep, exposed, and sought-after black diamond runs like the Lake Chutes. Runs like those wild steeps were the first love of local Richard Squire, who, when not skiing, was home brewing, and doing it very well, as it turned out. As the state’s craft beer industry fired up, Squire saw his chance and took it; today Breckenridge beers are available in more than twenty-five states. The original location of the Breckenridge family of brewpubs (an aggressive expansion strategy was scaled back in the late 1990s), this spacious spot has mustard yellow and deep red walls, with metal railings and plenty of space, giving it a somewhat modern feel. The hearty fare, if nothing really adventurous, is just right for après-ski. Score an outside table with a view of the peak (and those Lake Chutes), and the picture is nearly complete.
PHILOSOPHY
Squire had a dream: ski all day and drink great beer every night. That about covers it, doesn’t it? Still, there are more wines than beers on the menu, which, for a Colorado craft beer pioneer, is inexcusable. It will take more innovation from this company to keep pace with the fast-evolving craft beer drinker who spends his or her days shredding the fine local powder and looks for sublimity in