Colorado Springs Pub Crawl

And mosey you should, although be SURE and get there between 3 & 6 for happy hour. A chalice of Gulden Draak on tap for $2.75? Why, I'll TAKE IT!

_Randal

Now, you've got my attention! This is where? Any other Belgians available?

nb

Point. But there's not a lot that you can't get from other places up and down the West Coast - granted, not typically all in one place. And there is some variance amongst locations. I will give them credit for including local breweries, though, that you don't often find on tap even in their home areas.

And I will say, that as far as mega-multitap places go, the Yard House has been the best I've seen in the genre, both in variety and care of beer. I still do think that anything above 20-30 is overkill, though. Give me a place like the Hop Leaf in Chicago or, local to me, Cafe Boogaloo in Hermosa or Father's Office in Santa Monica, over the Yard House any day. The fewer beers actually tend to have more variety, and they turn over quicker and are thus better cared for.

-Steve

Sure do. You got a problem with that? It's not at all difficult to find a 115-tap bar with an utterly unimpressive selection. Add to that sins like frosted mugs and overchilled, and you'd better believe it's "ho-hum," with or without the quotes.

Used to be interesting back in the days of the wooden barrels. Now being turned by SABMiller into yet another international label.

Please tell me you're kidding.

Nice for beginners who like something sweet. Give me Hanssens or Girardin or Drie Fonteinen or Cantillon, please.

They're nothing special. Next?

You must be a Bud drinker, then, if you think these three are the pinnacles of brewing and beer styles. They aren't.

My local has far less than 115 beers on tap, but the folks there make a far better effort to make sure that the beers they pour are interesting, they have a rotating selection, and they have a decent bottled-beer list too. I'll take them over over-chilled, boring beers in frosty mugs any day, no matter how many taps they have.

Did you actually ever have any of the wood barrel PU? IIRC, wasn't that change made long before the Iron Curtain fell (I want to say the late '70s) and before PU became widely available in the west?

If you have and you can attest to a taste difference, that's quite interesting. Otherwise, a part of your anatomy that shouldn't be capable of speech is doing a lot of talking.

Depends on what you're looking for. If you look at Lindeman's as a lambic, it falls short. If you look at it as a simple fruit beer, it's pretty damn good.

BTW, speaking of FG lambics, Drie Fonteinen is now in the States. Picked some up last night in Costa Mesa. I was quite happy. Now, if Girardin made it here, life would be really good.

-Steve

"Steve Jackson" wrote in news:XM%Id.1870$rv.444@fed1read03:

Girardin black label gueuze *is* available in the US now (Georgia, for one), so it may make it to your neck of the woods eventually. D&V Intl is the importer.

Cheers, Ern

I remember seeing Hoegaarden as well but their list is alphabetical, not by region or style so I don't recall. I will definitely be back though.

They are located in Lakewood Colorado, on the east side of the Colorado Mills Mall. Looks to be very new.

_Randal

DGS speak truth. The Yard House in Long Beach claims something like "250 Beers on 180 Taps" or somesuch. (Yep, Miller et al is in fact available on more than one tap so that it's always close.) The beer menu is two (used to be three) pages long. If your [sic] lucky, one or two will be beers you've never seen/had before.

OTOH, they will bring you a full yard of Old Foghorn.

Ohdontbesuchababy.

They serve everything from a downright (technically) impressive "cellar". It all has to be Bud temps, and they make no apologies. I'll take too cold: I can correct for temp in that direction.

Scott Kaczorowski Seal Beach, CA

The change didn't come until a couple of years after the end of the Iron Curtain era. The open fermenters were retired in 1995. There is still a teensy tiny proportion aged in some wooden vessels, ostensibly for "quality control" purposes.

I also had PU on draught before the Iron Curtain fell, as it was sold in Germany and Austria back then, and available on draught. The stuff was quite good. Wood character was not overwhelmingly evident by any means - IIRC, the vessels were pitch-lined to prevent that - but the PU

12-degree lager of yore trod a fine line between rustic old-fashioned beer and something a little more current and smooth. I think the old-fashioned rustic character is much more subdued. They claim they try, and I believe they do, but ... ah, memories.

I have, and it's too bad that those days are gone forever. The problem is, there's no way now to compare a fresh example of the "old" PU with the modern, cleaner version. Or at least there's no easy way.

That would likely be true anyway, of course. And that part of my anatomy routinely pronounces words like "spat" and "fit" just fine. It isn't so different from listening to politicians or used-car salesmen.

This is true. The lambic character underneath that beer is drowned out by the sweetness to a certain extent, but a glass of Lindemans Framboise with a nice little assortment of Neuhaus pralines is not a bad thing, as desserts go. Still, if that's all someone has to hold up as an example of how great a 115-tap bar is, that's kinda stretching. If, out of a ridiculous number of taps like that, I find 11 really exceptional beers, I figure that's about as good as it gets for those kinds of places. But if I go into my local with maybe 20 taps, and find five great beers, I take that for granted. The fact that all of the beers aren't ice-cold and served in frosted mugs or glassware is a good thing, too.

Be prepared to be even happier, then. A distributor of imported beers let me have a look in their book about a month and a half ago, and on the list was Girardin Guezue. Black label, too. *sproing!* Reminds me to go bug the guys at the best beer shop in town. Maybe in a couple of weeks.

Drie Fonteinen has been in some U.S. markets for a while, but with typically sporadic distribution and availability. My local managed to lay in a stash of the 1999 and 2000 gueuzes. They also cornered a stash of some Oud Beersel Kriek and Gueuze. (I like my local. A lot.) Good on you that you can get some reasonably nearby (by LA standards, anyway).

I'm going to have the bug the buyer at Hi-Time. Girardin ranks as one of the most amazing beers I've had in my life, no question.

You know, now that you mention it, I think I have managed to latch onto it once before, probably from Sam's when I was still living in Chicago and before their beer selection started to slide.

Hi-Time' always had both of those. Still might be a few bottles left, actually.

Shit, Costa Mesa's 15 miles from my door. In LA, that's down the block.

-Steve

I still think it can work out in some modified manner. Lately I've been frequenting Cleats Bar & Grill, any thoughts on this place?

buuuuuurrrrrrrrrrrrrp

I live near that one, but have never made it inside. What do they have on tap? How's the food?