The big day was finally here! Like kids waiting for Christmas, we had been planning our Breckenridge trip for weeks to attend the Breckenridge Summer Beer Festival. Sure there are other, bigger beer festivals in town – but this one is still one of our favorites and in our opinion, one of the best in Colorado. They offer beautiful mountain views, a cozy lakeside location at Main Street Station, and lets face it, some great breweries from across the country. Plus it’s in Breckenridge, and we love Breck. If someone would just give us a lot of money, we’d be living there right now. Since that hasn’t happened (yet!) we’ll just keep visiting every chance we get!
Breckenridge Summer Beer Festival
We started the beer festival this time the same way we did last time: at the original Breckenridge Brewery brewpub. Although we were just at Breckenridge Brewery in Denver last weekend to celebrate their 22nd anniversary, the mountain brewpub is totally different. In fact, they brew all their beer on site at this location, and it’s all served here exclusively. We’re told they can sometimes be a little loosey-goosey with the recipes up here, trying different variations than the Denver brewery. I don’t know if I could tell it was different, but it was all very good! We had a few Avalanche Amber pints and a gigantic plate of nachos to gear us up for the beer fest. Was it the best decision to stuff our bellies before a beer fest? Maybe not. But damn, it was worth it.
So after a few Breckenridge Beer Festivals, here’s something important I’ve learned: Bring a raincoat! It rains every time we’ve been lucky enough to visit, and today was no exception. We had a good heavy downpour the first hour of the festival, but that didn’t stop anyone from enjoying the beer and the fun! It was like a raincoat fashion show, and since mine wasn’t quite up to par with the rain, I snagged a new one at Christy Sports without even having to put down my beer. Score!
There were tons of great breweries on hand this year. Since the Breckenridge Beer Festival doesn’t limit themselves to Colorado breweries, we got to visit with a few favorites from out-of-state, such as Stone Brewing Co. We love those Stone folks, they are the best! Other out-of-towners include Kona Brewing, Boston Beer and Alaskan Brewing, to name a few. Colorado breweries were also very well represented with New Belgium, Upslope Brewing, Left Hand Brewing, and Bristol Brewing, plus many, many more. Our friends at Renegade Brewing were there, which I think makes this the 4th or 5th weekend in a row that we’ve run into the Renegade folks at a beer event. I’m pretty sure the restraining order is coming soon.
I really cannot tell you what beers I enjoyed the most at this festival, because we enjoyed them all! Honestly, only the best breweries participate in the Breckenridge Beer Festivals, so we didn’t have a lousy beer. I like to think that’s because we’ve learned a lot about what we like and don’t like, so we stick to our favorites. At this festival, they were all favorites!
The music at the Breckenridge Summer Beer Festival rocked! The stage is center of everything, and the bands we saw were great. Rob Drabkin was amazing, as was The headliner, Muskateer Gripweed. Nothing better than a little music to go with your beer! Best of all, beer + music = dancing, every time. No, we didn’t drink enough to dance, but plenty of others did, and that made for some great entertainment!
Rain and all, it was a fabulous day. We left a little damp, a little drunk, and with great memories and for me, a sweet new raincoat! Thanks for another great festival Breck. Let’s do it again real soon.
Cheers!