BREWERY: Upslope

Oh boy, Oh boy

So Curley and I had this awesome idea to throw our bikes on the bus and head up to Boulder to visit Upslope Brewery.  Bless Curley's sweet little heart, he had it all planned out.  Figured out what bus we needed to take up there, what time it leaves, where the brewery is, all that jazz.  So we get off the bus near CU and look up the brewery and realize that we didn't get off the bus at quite the right time.

So I'll tell you this right now, "Upslope" is Boulder speak for "Uphill, five miles, in the rain, with the wind against you, what the hell were you thinking bringing your bike you dumb ass Denverite?!"

I will give Curley credit, he was fine.  I haven't owned a bike since I left Savannah a year ago so I haven't been riding at a mile high, nor going on long uphill rides.  I was admittedly pooped when we got there and wasn't even able to form a tangible thought until after my first beer was down my gullet.  The good news it that when we left and I was all frosty toed I mostly coasted downhill back to Boulder proper.

Biking aside, Upslope was pretty friggin' awesome!  It isn't the first brewery and tap room I have visited but it is by far the smallest, which I think makes it the perfect first brewery blog.

Now I am going to have to admit that between the bike ride brain smash and the beer brain smash I might have scrimped on the real locallyness of the whole adventure, aside from the fact that it was brewed locally.  Here is an example of my great reporting skills, notes dictated by me and translated to paper by Curley.

Maybe I should explain what some of these things mean:

barley  ready for the cows.

• "Wheat/Barley in mouth"= Alex ("brew guy") let us try some of the spent barley.  It was actually pretty tasty.  They said it makes great dog treats but they donate theirs to a local farm.  It sure does make for some happy cows!!
• "Sweet Couple - You go home, you drink it, you finish it"= The regulars we talked to who were describing how the smaller sized growlers are just right.  You can also get kegs AND if you ask real nice they will hand mix a six pack for you, three I.P.A. and three Pale Ales!
• "Canning Process"= a pretty rad raddness that happened... 

So Upslope is a pretty small operation.  They only distribute as far south as Denver and as far north as... just a little ways outside of Boulder.  They can two of their beers, the Pale Ale and the India Pale Ale.  Because I have never seen any of their beers on tap I kinda thought that was all they had.  Unfact.  They have six taps in their tap room, two are reserved for their Pale Ale and the I.P.A. but the other four rotate with a few of their other beers.  When we were there they also had a Mexican Lager, a Dunkel Weiss, a Belgium Wheat and a Stout.

All of them really were so good!  Right when we got there we had the Mexican lager which is the perfect, bright, summery beer.  It is called Tightrope and is by far one of the best Mexican Lagers I have ever had. The wheat was my favorite though.  I was hot and the coriander (which is organic by the way) was just what I wanted.  They also use a trappist yeast or "Monk Thing" according to the notes.  My notes for the Dunkel Weiss simply say, "Fun to say, Also very delicious".  That is all true.  The Stout was also very good although I only had a little sip of it.  As a little extra treat while we were there Chad, the tap room manager, cracked open one of his home brews.  It had nothing to do with Upslope but what an awesome little taster of his bourbon stout!  Chad, by the way was awesomely knowledgeable and friendly.

So onto the "canning process" note.  II never seen this done before and Upslope made it even better by letting us can our own beer!  WOAH!  Luke A.K.A. Our Dawg as Curley's notes refer to him, gave us a super casual and super awesome tour of their facility and when he asked if we wanted to can a beer I just about peed my pants. This might have been one of the coolest things I've ever done.

Curley at the can filling machine.

This is the spiny machine that seals the lids on (I learned no technical words apparently)

 

 

 

 

Every one at Upslope was so nice and so hospitable.  I wish it were a little closer to home.  Curley and I had a pretty awesome time, we had a really unique brewery experience, we talked to a lot of the regulars and boy howdy did we drink some good beer!  I'd like to thank everyone at Upslope for being so welcoming and for producing such quality brews!

Chad, Curley, Luke, Me and Alex