Colorado’s Craft Beer Trail

Drinking in high altitude is definitely an endurance sport and the folks at Breckenridge Brewery in Summit County, Colorado really know how to sweeten the odds. Er, make them even more difficult, that is - with their 9% alcohol volume 471 Double IPA. Try having your usual 2 or 3 pints if you’re only drinking that ... well, good luck. It’s the best tasting beer they have, in my opinion, but it packs a punch. Settle instead for a flight and experience all the goodness that is Breckenridge Brewery without limiting yourself to one.

You’ve got two options: a drink at Wynkoop Brewing Company, or a wander through the Denver Modern Art Museum. I chose wrong. It took half a dozen pints of Cowtown Milk Stout to wash away the memory of that museum’s dreadful third floor exhibition. It took at least one Mile High IPA to get me back on my feet, and a Railyard Ale to make sure I was ready to have fun again—just for good measure. Wynkoop is an essential stop on any ‘Foam on the Range’ tour to northern Colorado. Just make sure you visit before someone drags you to the most pretentious art gallery in America. You’ve been warned.

The ample space, enormous lodge-like room, and huge stack of highchairs and booster seat make this restaurant and brewery very popular with neighborhood families who can no longer fit in the smaller, original restaurant, the Mountain Sun, downtown on Pearl St. They have games, kids menus, and tasty brews for mom and dad.