Tommyknocker Brewery & Pub

Tommyknocker Brewery & Pub

Location: Idaho Springs, CO

Overall: **** (4/5)

Oh, how I love you Tommyknockers.

One fine day, in the beginning of our trip here in Colorado, we decided to go to a small town called Idaho Springs.  I would recommend anyone whose looking for that small, mountain-life kind of town to check out Idaho Springs.  They have a small main street with restaurants, bars, shops and best of all: Tommyknockers.

Literally (I mean literally) the smell of the malt pouring into the street drew us to this wonderful little brewpub.  We decided to take a small detour from hiking up St. Mary’s Glacier to enjoy a few beers and some food in the bar.  Jason and I have been back since then one more time as well, on the way back from another hike.  Nothing like hiking and then celebrating with some buffalo meat and delicious, delicious beer.

** Okay, so here’s the deal about my blog posts from Colorado.  Since most of the time I randomly stumble upon good beer, bars and breweries, my notes are minimal but I’ll write what I can remember and try better next time.**

So here’s a condensed version of all you need to know:

Duck Drummies:  That’s right ladies and gentleman, duck drummies.  Delicious duck drums prepared like chicken wings but more savory than hot.  We ordered them immediately.

Buffalo Burgers & Nachos:  You just can’t get this on the east coast, not like this.

Black Rye IPA (Cask):  I knew the whole “Black IPA” thing was so in, but a Black Rye IPA?!?!  So freaken good and clever!  Btw… this is only one small example of the experimental beers you’ll find here.

Jalapeno Ale: This is also “in” for a lot of breweries, but it’s also a fantastic idea and Tommyknockers is definitely hitting the style spot on.

Char D’Zon:  What’s that, you say?  A chardonnay wine barrel aged saison??  Who does that?!  On a side note, I hate chardonnay, so I didn’t actually try it, but it’s worth a shot out for creativity.

If you’re in the Denver/Boulder area, I would definitely recommend making a trip out to Idaho Springs and visiting the main drag along with Tommyknockers.  So far I’ve only been able to find their beer in 12-pack variety cases in local stores but I’m hoping they start distributing to further places… Like Syracuse.

You could do the Krysten & Jason method to visiting Idaho Springs.  It goes, get up early, go for a hike (say Chief Mount. or St. Mary’s Glacier) and then hit up Idaho Springs on the way back for some brewskis and foodums.  It's also the beer that we sunck into the the Trampled by Turtles concert Winter Park.  Jason says... "next time you're in Colorado, make sure you don't 'wait so long' to try this beer."