With a beautiful extra day in Denver we drove downtown without an official brewery destination in mind. It wasn’t hard to find one. We parked and turned the corner and saw "Breckenridge" written in big red letters. We were told by the friendly bartender they are not technically a brewery anymore. Starting small in Breckenridge, the third oldest brewery in the state, this location was their first production spot in Denver. The bartender actually told us the building itself has an odd history of once being a casket shop. This first Denver location was created before the Colorado Rockies built their stadium right across the street! But as they grew, production at this here was no longer possible and was moved, first several miles away, and now to their present day location in Littleton, Colorado. The place we were sitting in is now considered “Breck on Blake” and regardless of brewing on site we were ready for a flight! We sat up at the bar and ordered the Breckenridge Flight. They only offered pre-set flights and have a wide variety of craft beers from other local breweries on tap. The flight came with the Agave Wheat, The Avalanche Amber Ale, the Vanilla Porter and the 471 Small Batch IPA. They were out of the IPA and so they substituted in the Ophelia Hoppy Wheat. We started off tasting. We knew what the first in our flight was but decided to hide the names of the rest and try to guess each one as well as note what we tasted. We’d ruined the fun in the agave wheat, but it was still my favorite. Super wheaty from the beginning to end. It starts with a wheaty smell then you take your sip and it lingers on the tongue. You end with a light sweet after taste. The distinction between honey and agave is clear. The sweetness of honey is always thicker. Here it is very subtle. For the second we snuck no glances at the menu, going right to left, the color gave a lot away and at first sip; obvious. It was the amber. And it was a classic amber at that. Nothing too extraordinary but yummy. All malt, very little hop. At this point we’d struck the bartender’s attention. Just starting out at Breck on Blake, he had been looking at sites like Beer Advocate and Untapped to really be able to give advice on the beers. He’d written a bunch of notes and wanted to talk out the beers with us, tell us what we should be tasting, and then ask what we did taste. He compared the amber to the Colorado Native, a reference I wouldn’t have known had we not just been to the Coors factory a couple days prior and had it as one of our three free beers. I noted a comparison but enjoyed the craft one more because it had a little more to it. But maybe that’s purely psychological since I know I like craft beer more. We continued on without much guessing since there was a light colored and a dark colored beer left. In the middle, towards the left, this had to be the IPA. We tasted it and nodded, ya, IPA. Only it wasn’t. Its funny how when you’re told to taste something you do, that’s the psychological aspect of taste getting you. It was actually an American wheat ale. Hoppy with a light citrus flavor, the first taste carried the hop with a mosaic aroma. The bartender let us know it had a very high rating on beer advocate. We sipped more and more and noticed each distinct flavor differing it from a traditional IPA as we went from full to empty. Lastly, we had a porter. I’d had some stouts and porters recently I wasn’t a fan of, so in comparison it stood out. A nitro with a good head, it was creamy and smooth, and simple. I think part of what threw off the others was too many strong flavors. There was a light hint of vanilla as it trickled down. We were told it isn’t usually a nitro, so we'd been in luck. We had just eaten before we arrived so we didn’t take anything from the kitchen but looking down the menu there was a lot I’d want. They have items that perfectly pair with their beer. Top choices for me would have been the sausage and cheese board with the 471 small batch IPA (had it been available) or as my sweet tooth would have it, the chocolate cream pie with the vanilla porter. The caramel on top is stout infused!
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