Favorite Ski Town Beers

This past season, I was unfortunately sidelined by injury.  From an après ski and beer consumption standpoint, this wasn’t so unfortunate.  It became my responsibility to hold down a spot at après or the brewery for all my colleagues, friends, and randoms that agreed to buy my beer in exchange for saving them a table.  Here are my top 5 favorite ski town beers:

The “Independence Pass IPA” from Aspen Brewing Company.  This is any serious beer drinker’s best friend. Based off of the India Pale Ale style, the masterminds over at ABC use a ton of Palisade hops to create this masterpiece.  On the brewery’s official website, they “HIGHLY recommend that the inexperienced beer drinker is EXTREMELY careful drinking this high-alcohol brew at such altitude.”  You have to love the sense of maturity and responsibility shown by the brewery’s co-owners, a group of entrepreneurial lads in their mid-20’s who recently graduated from the University of Colorado, Boulder.

.

Aspen Brewing Company co-owner Brad Veltman preparing for a big delivery of pure goodness.

The “Bridal Veil” Rye Pale Ale from Telluride Brewing Co.  As someone born without a sense of smell (and probably a subpar sense of taste as a result), I was attracted to this beer when I heard it was “so powerful that it could even arouse the most dormant of taste buds.”  With my name written all over it, I went for it, and it didn’t disappoint – I finally tasted something.  Known for the fact that it’s brewed with both Rye malt and hops, it’s best paired with Vietnamese cuisine (pho pho life), nachos, and/or jambalaya.

The “Agave Wheat” at Breckenridge Brewery.  Also known as the “Nectar of the Beer Gods”, this beer is so big-time that it has its own Twitter handle (#AGAVEWHEAT) – a must-follow for all tweetheads.  This brewery, started by your typical ski bum in the 1980’s, offers so many tasty beers that it was tough to choose just one.  Good thing that, unlike my blog, you don’t need to choose just one.  Diversify your Breck Brew portfolio – and make sure you have nothing of importance to take care of the next day.

The “Epic IPA” at Mammoth Brewing Company.  The favorite beer of my co-worker/desk neighbor/friend/hero Taylor Lucas Rhoads, this beer is hopped at two pounds per barrel.  When I asked Taylor to share some thoughts about the beer, he responded, “Bro, it’s just really good.  It’s like 8%.  ‘Nuff said.”  If that doesn’t make you want to try it, the fact that this is the consensus favorite of the MBC staff should.

The “PBR” from [insert any bar name here], more formally called Pabst Blue Ribbon by the ultra classy.  If you try this beer and love it so much that you want to replicate the taste, simply take two units of hydrogen and combine that with one unit of the element oxygen (let’s keep that trick on the down low, people).

No picture needed here: if you can’t picture the Peebs, we’ve got a much bigger problem at/in/not-in-your hand.

What’d I miss?  What’s your fave?  Please do share!