When my wife and I went out to Colorado a couple years ago we ended up starting out in Fort Collins and trying some of the brew pubs there. However, after a couple three days of that, we decided to head over the mountains to Steamboat Springs, a lovely mountain town in northwest Colorado. We immediately fell in love with the town and the area and made plans to go back out there again at some point. That time was this past September when the weather began to change from summer to winter then to fall in that order. As we are wont to do when we go on vacations, we have to check out the local craft breweries. We'd done that on our first trip a couple years ago, but since we were going to linger in Steamboat a little longer this time, we were able to truly enjoy the different brew pubs in the area.
There are four brew pubs in Steamboat Springs - Storm Peak Brewing Company, Mahogany Ridge, Mountain Tap Brewery, and Butcherknife Brewing Company. There's also a distillery - the Steamboat Whiskey Company - and all five are stops on the Steamboat Brew Trail tour that is promoted by the Steamboat Springs Chamber of Commerce. On our first trip to Steamboat two years ago, we hit them all, with the exception of the distillery. This time we knew we wanted to hit three of the four again.
During our first trip, it turned out that our favorite brewery in Steamboat was a funky little place called Butcherknife Brewing Company on the far northwest end of town on the road out to the airport. (see map) Mike Fitzgerald and Nate Johansing started the brewery after Johansing - a Steamboat Springs native - had spent a year studying at the World Brewing Academy in Munich, Germany. Fitzgerald had spent time in Czechoslovakia a few years prior to moving to Steamboat Springs about 15 years ago and he came up with the idea for a microbrewery in 2009. Plans were in place for two years before Johansing returned from Europe and they debuted their first beer at an Oktoberfest event in Steamboat Springs in 2011. They moved to their present day location in early 2014.
In 2017, Johansing bought Fitzgerald out of the partnership and became the sole proprietor of Butcherknife Brewing. To take over the brewing process at Butcherknife, he was able to convince Grant McFarren to come to Steamboat from Asheville, NC where McFarren worked at the popular Wicked Weed Brewery there. (Click here to read about Wicked Weed and a few other impressive small breweries in Asheville.) McFarren has been with Butcherknife since late 2017.
We liked Butcherknife for a number of reasons. It was a fun and hip little place that had board games for patrons to play while they enjoyed a beer. Artwork from local artists was on display and offered for sale. And they had some very good beers. Their Sunshine Express pale ale made with Australian hops won a gold medal later that year at the Great American Beer Festival, and I especially liked their Amputator American IPA. It was bold and hoppy, yet very smooth.
But probably most of all we liked their Director of Sales and Marketing, Erin Orr. Orr grew up in Cascade, IA, went to Iowa State and graduated with a degree in apparel merchandising. She went out to Oregon for a few years before going to Steamboat Springs for a change of scenery - a place she had visited with her ski club when she was going to college. She found out that a new microbrewery was opening and she applied for a job there. She landed a part-time gig pouring beers and working on events for the brewery. She eventually got the top sales job at Butcherknife and spends a lot of time out around the state of Colorado selling their beers to retail establishments, bars and restaurants.
When we went to Butcherknife the first time, Erin happened to be there and saw our Iowa license plates. She about freaked out. "Are you guys from Iowa? Where? Davenport? I'm from Cascade!" (Cascade is about an hour and 15 minute drive north and west of the Quad Cities.) We sat with her, she told us her life story, we told her our story, we drank beer and had a great time with a fellow Iowan.
Butcherknife was our first stop for brewpubs when we got to Steamboat on this trip. Unfortunately, we found the place was closed up due to COVID-19 restrictions. Their taproom was just too small to host people. And they suspended their brewing operations so you couldn't find any Butcherknife beers around Steamboat. That was probably the most thoroughly disappointing part of our trip to Steamboat Springs. We hope they're able to reopen after all this madness has subsided.
Conversely, we never really cared much for Mahogany Ridge all that much. This upscale bar and grill in downtown Steamboat was formerly called the Steamboat Brewery and Tavern, the first brewpub in Steamboat Springs. (see map) The brewmaster at Steamboat Brewery, Charlie Noble, bought the place in 2003 and transformed it into Mahogany Ridge. The beers they had at the time we were there two years ago were sort of "meh!" to us. They had a pale ale that was a little too fruity on the backend for me, and they had a lighter pale ale that didn't trip my trigger all that much. Coupled with an atmosphere that was more like a wine bar and a food menu that was geared more to tourists with copious amounts of money, we decided to pass on Mahogany Ridge on our most recent visit to Steamboat.
With Butcherknife closed down and Mahogany Ridge off our list, it gave us time to focus more on the two other brewpubs in town. We liked both, but we liked one a little more than the other.
Mountain Tap Brewery is located on Yampa Street in the heart of downtown Steamboat. (see map) It's sort of near and dear to my heart as co-founder Rich Tucciarone was once the head brewer at Kona Brewing Company, the maker of my favorite beer, Big Wave Golden Ale. In 1990, Tucciarone was bumming around Steamboat Springs and he happened to meet a fellow ski bum by the name of Richard Squire. Squire had just opened the 3rd microbrewery in Colorado - Breckenridge Brewery. Tucciarone had tried Squire's craft beer and immediately fell in love with the beer and the concept of small batch beers. When Breckenridge opened a bottle facility in Denver in 1992, Squire hired Tucciarone to work in the brewery there.
Tucciarone worked for Breckenridge for nearly 6 years before taking time off for a travel sabbatical with his wife, Wendy. They toured breweries in Europe, most notably Germany and Italy. After his travels were over, he was recruited to become the director of operations and head brewer for the Kona Brewing Company in Kona, HI in 1999.
Tucciarone stayed with Kona for a dozen years before finally getting island fever - or as some people in Steamboat Springs call the "Yampa Valley Curse" which supposedly pulls people who have spent appreciable time in Steamboat back to the area after years of being away. He and his wife moved back to Steamboat where Tucciarone became a salesman for a company that supplied ingredients to small breweries around the state of Colorado.
But Tucciarone wanted to eventually get back into the brewing game and a new mixed-use building was going up along Yampa Street in the fall of 2015. The Tucciarone's took a large space on the end of the building and made a small brewery out of the space. Mountain Tap Brewery opened for business in July of 2016.
Mountain Tap Brewery has a large outdoor patio in the front of the place with large garage doors that will open on nicer days. Inside, they have a bar area and a number of community tables for people to use. Mountain Tap has food in terms of sharable plates and wood-fired pizzas.
My wife and I trekked up the steps to a second level that had some tables back in sort of a small area near the restrooms. The ordering procedure was a bit confusing to me and I didn't remember doing this during our first trip to Mountain Tap a couple of years ago. They had an order sheet with their beers and glass sizes listed on the table. I ordered up a pint of the Picking Hops IPA from Chad who collected our beer order sheet. Chad was a good guy and took good care of us while we were there on this visit. My wife got the Current IPA in a 10 ounce glass.
The Picking Hops was a little too fruity on the back end for me. My wife let me try some of her Current IPA - a forward tasting hoppy beer that's perfectly mixed with malt to mellow out the hoppiness of the flavor. I liked it tremendously better than the Current IPA. So did my wife. Chad came back to check on us and I said that I wanted to switch to the Current IPA. I still had a little bit of the Picking Hops left - about a 1/3 of a glass. We got to talking about the difference between the two and he said that he, too, liked the Current more than the Picking Hops. He picked up the rest of what I had and I sort of protested that I would still drink it. He said, "Let's get you what you want."
I had two of the Current IPA's that day in addition to what I had with the Picking Hops. It was a very fine beer. When it came time to pay our bill, Chad didn't charge me for the Picking Hops. He got a good tip.
And that brings us to Storm Peak Brewing Company. Storm Peak was high on our list when we were in Steamboat two years ago and once we found out that Butcherknife was closed, we went down the road back toward the city and went to Storm Peak instead. (see map) For a consolation prize for not being able to go to Butcherknife, Storm Peak is definitely no slouch.
If you're a longtime reader of Road Tips, you'll find a recurring theme in the history of many of the brewpubs that we've visited - they start out in someone's garage. And that's what happened with Storm Peak as Tyler and Wyatt Patterson started to experiment with brewing beers when they were growing up in the suburbs of Denver. After graduating with an MBA from the University of Denver in 2013, Wyatt Patterson knew that he wanted to open his own brewery. He checked around Denver to see if there was any space available, but he soon realized that the area was too crowded with other microbreweries. The Patterson family used to go to Steamboat Springs for vacations in the past and Wyatt Patterson decided to look at the area for a possible small brewery.
Along with brother Tyler, Wyatt found a space in downtown Steamboat Springs along Lincoln Ave. - the main road through town - that would be perfect for their brewery. With investment help from their father and a local bank, the brothers started the build-out of their brewery in late 2013. With the help of a third Patterson brother, Zach, the family was able to get everything in place for their grand opening in June of 2014.
In their first year of business, the Patterson brothers produced 300 barrels of beer in their seven barrel system. The following year, they more than doubled their output and by 2016 they were nearing 1000 produced barrels of beer. It was in 2016 that they realized that they needed to move to a new location.
In September of 2016, they found out that a body shop located on the far north and west side of Steamboat would be moving to a larger building across the parking lot and their old building would be available in early 2017. The Patterson's jumped on the new location that nearly doubled their square footage of their original location. They were able to put in a 20 barrel system to help with increased production and they completed their move in early May of 2017.
In September of 2018, Dave Eliason - who has been involved in a handful of restaurants in Steamboat Springs over the years including Back Door Grill (click here to see the Road Tips entry on Back Door Grill) and O'Neill's Tavern and Grill - opened a pizza place in a space attached to Storm Peak, How Ya' Doin' Pizza and Eats. This place wasn't open when my wife and I first came out to Steamboat in 2018, so it was definitely new to us when we pulled up in front of Storm Peak on our most recent visit.
There is a nice patio in front of Storm Peak - which is named after one of the mountains in the Steamboat Springs area - with a fire pit and outdoor patio heaters for when it gets a little cold, like it was the days we stopped in for a couple beers at the brewery. Inside the front door is the front counter where you order your beers. They have 18 beers including sours, fruit beers, and hard seltzer on tap at Storm Peak.
With most microbrewery operations, the brewing systems are usually hidden, or they're behind glass windows separating the operation from the tap room. At Storm Peak, it's like you're sitting in the brewery. It's cluttered and sort of smelly from the brewing process, but there's something sort of charming about that. I equated it to being able to eat in a chef's kitchen. The atmosphere was definitely laid-back and very informal. The employees at Storm Peak were friendly and accommodating.
They have a number of very good to excellent beers at Storm Peak on their beer menu. The Penny's Pale Ale is an American pale ale made with Pacific Northwest hops, their Money Tree IPA is a forward hoppy beer with a fruity backside, the Copper Ridge Cali Common is similar to an Anchor Steam beer down to its amber color, and their Mad Creek Kolsch is a very good tasting lighter beer that has a hint of a hoppy flavor.
But my favorite beer at Storm Peak is the Chowder New England IPA. It's a full-bodied hazy IPA that they make with oats and wheat, then they add in three different types of hops including a Citra hop for a floral backend. Now, I'm not big on wheat beers, but this is some seriously good beer. When my wife and I go on extended trips and we're flying, we usually ship our dirty clothes, some purchases and other things that we pick up on the trip back home via UPS. I stuck a six pack of the Storm Peak Chowder in the box with all the other things. Two days after we got back home, the box showed up on our doorstep. I immediately chilled the beer and enjoyed one for dinner that evening. It's a very tasty beer.
One day while at Storm Peak, my wife was a little hungry and needed a late afternoon snack. As I said, right next door was How Ya' Doin' Pizza. There was a connecting hallway between the microbrewery and the restaurant and my wife ended up heading over there to see what they had for something light to eat on their menu.
What she found were these little bruschetta bites they had next door. She placed the order and a young lady brought them over to us a few moments laters. They featured chopped tomatoes and basil with small slices of mozzarella cheese drizzled with balsamic vinegar. The were very tasty, but not so heavy that they would spoil our appetite for a nice meal later in the evening.
My wife and I love finding great little breweries and brewpubs on our trips, and the ones that we liked in Steamboat Springs are definitely some of the more memorable ones we've come across in our travels. We hope that Butcherknife is open the next time we're in Steamboat. But if it's not, we can always go to Storm Peak or Mountain Tap. We just wish we had these breweries closer to our home.
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