I kicked around camp all morning, showering, cleaning up stuff after Durango’s bad weather, etc. I went into town to see and photograph the Benson Sculpture Garden. I spent a lot of time there in March of 2004 when I visited friends in Loveland after my wife died. It was a good place for solitary walks and contemplation then, and still is. I revisited my favorites from that previous visit and got acquainted with some of the recent additions.
Octopus sculpture at the Benson Sculpture Garden
Since I was in town, I again Googled “brewpubs near me” to find a place for lunch, going first to Grimm Brothers Brewhouse, then to the Pourhouse for lunch then to Crow Hop after. Colorado breweries have taken to selling 4 oz. tasters at a set price per. That let me taste three at Grimm Bros, two at Pour House, and three at Crow Hop without getting in trouble. I enjoyed the beers at Crow Hop the most, interesting beers more than competently brewed. I got to talk to the brewer at length and got to discuss some of his philosophy of making unusual beers at a brewpub.
That evening I drove down to Gunbarrel, a suburb of Boulder, which is in turn a suburb of Denver, to meet Bill Davis, an acquaintance from the old days at Altera. Bill moved to Google just as I retired in ’08 and transferred to their operation in Boulder shortly thereafter. Bill’s an avid bike racer, both mountain and road. It was good to catch up with him and sample some of Avery Brewing’s beers. Avery Brewing is a huge operation with packaging lines for both bottles and cans. I had never seen their beers in the stores, but they are obviously shipping a lot of beer. Their tasting menu held at least 40 beers and I had trouble keeping the first beers in my mind while I read to the end. I ended up having a glass of their Gose. It is unusual to find Gose in a brewpub, its salty, slightly sour flavor takes some getting used to. Theirs is not as salty as I would like and is very citrusy and grapefruity.
While passing through Longmont on my way back to camp, I stopped at Skye brewing, just on a whim. It’s a very small taproom-only place with six beers on tap. I had the porter, which was much too thin and light colored to be a porter, and the red ale, which was a competent pub amber beer. The highlight was that their 4 oz. samplers were $1.50 each. After Avery’s $3.00 – 4.00, it was a bargain.
Crows at Benson Sculpture Garden