Mountain Sun Brewpub (Vine St.)

Location: Denver, CO

Overall: *** (3/5)

Curtosy of the Mountain Sun website.

Mountain Sun originals and guest beers on tap.

This is where I spend most of my days, chillin’ out, maxin’ and relaxin’ all cool... most likely cause they’re right down the street from me.  You should know that Mountain Sun has three locations: (1) Mountain Sun on Pearl St in Boulder, (2) Southern Sun on Broadway in Boulder, and (3) Vine St Pub on (cough) Vine St & 17th Ave in Denver.  Confusing, I know.  I say, stick with one name and just have various locations.  Anyways, we’ve been to their two brewpub locations: Mountain Sun in Boulder and Vine St.  They’re both pretty similar and since I’ve been to Vine Street multiple times, most of my reactions will be coming from there.

Mountain Sun Sampler

Here are my quick notes:

Cash Money: Bring cash!  They don’t accept credit cards (I’m not sure they know what year it is…)  They do have an ATM there and it only charges a measly $1 to use, but I NEVER remember until I get there, because, well frankly, I’m not carrying cash type.  They do accept checks though... really?  Really.

Feel of Brewpub: Super relaxed.  The staff there works on a tip pool so at one time it can feel like you have 10 people waiting on you, which isn’t a bad thing.  Everyone who works there is extremely nice and, lucky them, they get to wear basically whatever they want.  Oh, and if you go around 10ish when the kitchen closes, they all conspire behind the bar, sing, toast and drink a beer.  Don’t expect to get a beer during that time.  They have board games you can play there as well and a sweet patio set up of cornhole.

Food:  I’ve only eaten there once with my friend Casie.  We both got burgers (Junk Burger & Basil Blue Cheeseburger).  Casie loved hers and I loved mine as well.  I would definitely recommend their food… easy pub fare, fairly priced but quality ingredients and interesting combinations.

Beer Here!: There beers are pretty good but there’s nothing there that I’m overly excited about.  You can do a sampler there, which I would highly recommend because it’s fairly priced.  I’m a fan of the Java Porter, the Dropkick Stout and the Annapurna Amber.  Again, they’re very similar to other beers with the same style, but they’re done right and they’re great to drink.  I hope in the future though they really start testing the boundaries of what they can do.  They are devoting September to Belgian beer which sounds interesting, except that we won't be in the great state of CO anymore.  Oh, and lastly, they always have a few of their beers on Nitro, which is pretty sick.

Music/Events:  On Sundays, Vine Street has some pretty excellent live music, which is fantastic!  Lots of bluegrass bands, yayyy!!!  Kind of sucks that they only have music on Sunday nights, but since I don’t have a job out here, I’m not one to complain.  They also do some beer competitions and I did drop in there once when they were having Comedy Debates (think Jason vs. Freddy).  Pretty fun stuff.

Fresh Hops performing at Mountain Sun (Vine St.)

Jason enjoying himself... awkwardly.

Overall and honestly, it’s not really the beer that drives me to Mountain Sun, it’s the atmosphere.  I love going there because it’s very down to earth, they draw a big crowd and they sometimes have fun, live events.  I always have a hard time picking out a beer though because nothing excites me too much.  Not that their beer is bad, but I feel like they need to push the envelope just a tad bit more and get some super creative stuff on tap.  Hopefully I’m wrong and they come out with some spectacular original brews.  If not though, I’ll still go there… it is just a short walk away.