Just returned from a short trip to Colorado. Visited Fate Brewing, Upslope Brewing, and Avery among others. All were exceptional and I only had one beer out of every offering they all make that I would not try again. Sampled everything each had available. Brought a few home. The food was equally good. Spent a few days in Nederland and Boulder. Here are a few words to give you a snapshot of my experience. Subaru, Obama Stickers, beards, sandals, body odor, "dudes", weed, mountains, beer, bikes, more Subaru's, peace, love, hippies, more weed, live music, really good food, more really good beer, elk, more weed, sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy, more Subaru's with Obama stickers, more great beer, friendly, snow, bare feet, long hair, relaxed, beautiful, cant wait to go back. (except for the Obama stickers) lol We will likely spend time in the mountains when we are retired. Amazing.
My buddy said he just returned from Colorado himself, witnessed a pretty brutal crash. Subaru slammed head on into a Prius.... there was granola everywhere.
Haha I look forward to visiting many of the same places you did this summer. What town/brewery was your favorite?
Boulder is a must. Avery and Upslope were smaller tasting room type setups that were very simple but great. Fate is more of a brewery/resturant that is large and very upscale. All of them have exceptional brews. I think you just have to try them all and see what best fits your personality. I would go back to all of them quite honestly. Fate might have the nod when it comes to food. Apparently it is very new and I am sure it will make a big splash in the area. If you just want to get lost and be a "dude" for a couple of days, Nederland would be a good place to hide. Very friendly and relaxed. This is where a lot of the Jerry Garcia "deadhead" followers landed after Jerry died. If you take sandals and a wrinkled shirt, you will fit right in. There are great local brews there also and the food is outstanding. Our bartender at one pub said his car caught fire there 7 years ago and it took two weeks to fix. At the end of two weeks, he could not leave. I can kind of see why.
There seems to be a deep, inner peace with being a hippie Democrat. Obama must be doing a very good job of taking care of them. No worries apparently.....sadly enough. lol
I am a part time resident of Colorado. No question it is becoming more liberal, especially Boulder and ski resort areas (where I am), but Ft. Colilins, Colorado Springs, and most of Denver still moderately conservative. The eastern 1/3 of the State, the farm country, is very conservative. I have a home in Breckenridge and they are in process of taxing you 10 cents per bag, plastic or paper, at the grocery store. I have a neighbor who is against everything productive in the mountains like timber, livestock grazing, and mining. But he thinks skiing, harvesting wild mushrooms and smoking pot while doing so are acceptable uses of our national assets.
The dumbing down of our society. I saw a LOT of very free spirited (read that as LAZY) people there. Content to just barely get by and do little to nothing to contribute to society beyond being "green". But, they were all happy. Maybe they have the last laugh....?? I asked a lot of people where they were from. Without exception, the ones that were working and productive, were from somewhere else. The majority were from the midwest. Most of the "hippie" types were either from Colorado or from further West. Several from California. shocker.......
