The Brew Chronicles: The Great Divide Pub Crawls Parts One( 2008) and Two (2009)

Modern technology is something I both love and despise. I go stupid when I cannot find my cell phone, yet I get pissed when it rings. I cannot remember the last time I used a pay phone. Since I purchased a HDTV, I can not imagine living with out it. I think I shall have to get a Blu Ray player soon. I really do want a set of better computer speakers. Being without my computer is like being without a fix. Since I have began to blog I can not imagine life without this way of expression. I do not,have nor do I intend to have, a face book account or my space thingy. I have no idea what a twitter is. I am not wanting to know either. In August 1990 I took a job working in and around Bakersfield, California. I had been laid off from my previous job with the pipeline company for over a year. I had taken "odd" jobs and lived off of unemployment and my new wife's pay check. My first actual check (which included my travel pay) was for more money than I had made for an entire year. I loved the job. I loved the people I worked with. I loved living in Bakersfield. Yes, I loved Bakersfied. I love California. I was promoted to Supervisor (over 17 other employees) after less than one month on the job. For the first three months or so, my job consisted of me leaving Bakersfield (at approx 250 feet elevation) and driving about an hour up California Highway 58 to a town called Tehachapi which was nearly 6,000 feet elevation. While it would rise to over 115 degrees in B Town, I would need a sweater at times up in the mountains. My task was to sit in my car and be available to "deal" with landowners if and when needed as our crew of "dope smoking" surveyors traipsed around their property. Once I was eating breakfast at a local diner and I set next to Chuck Conners (The Rifleman) and Jack Palance (both residents of Tehachapi). I had this huge Motorola "bag" phone that I could use to make phone calls at the rate of 32 cents per minute. Today I own another Motorola that I can hide inside my hand. I can take 3.2 mega pixels pictures with it and I can store up to 500 tunes on it. Most of the pictures on this blog were taken on it actually. I own a computer that has more memory and can operate faster than the computer I first accessed in 1971. The former occupied an entire floor of an office building. Mine can be placed in a bag smaller than the aforementioned phone bag, and can be stored in the overhead compartment of a small airplane. During my sojourn in The San Joaquin, I visited my first Micro Brewery. It was named Okie Girl Brewery and it was located at the top of "The Grapevine" in Lebec, California. The beer was good but the root beer was toi die for. The brewery is no longer open. If you look at the label pictured here you can see images of b

lue and yellow umbrellas. This is to represent an art project by the artist Christo . He chose two sites to display his umbrellas: an area which is 60 miles north of Los Angeles along Interstate 5 near Lebec, through the Tejon Pass, and Ibaraki, Japan which is 75 miles north of Tokyo. The California umbrellas were yellow in color and the Japanese umbrellas were blue in color. The 1,340 blue umbrellas in Ibaraki and the 1,760 yellow umbrellas in California were placed sometimes in clusters covering entire fields, or deployed in a line, or randomly spaced from each other, running alongside roads, villages and river banks. The project was to last about 3 weeks but a freak wind storm occured and one of the umbrellas to crush a woman to death. My father and step mother actually witnessed it. As a result the umbrellas were removed. I took several pictures of them and I am posting one of them in this writing.

Uncle Rog and I left at around 6:00 PM and we took the truckers route to Denver. First to Cowtown then to Wichita Falls , Amarillo, Dumas and continuing on US 287 all the way to Lima Co.

Almost exactly one year earlier (actually on March 23rd) I left in the Big Blue Luxury Liner (company truck) at 2:00 AM. I picked up two travelers and we proceeded towards the top of the continent. We had a job in Ogden, Utah. I had done some homework and I had a litany of breweries and brewpubs to visit on my way to, there, and from. The first one was Trinidad Brewery located in Trinidad, Co. (Fort Llatikcuf, Co.) It is pronounced (Fourt Yat tie cuuf) (or you can reverse in and it is pronounced differently). I had planned to arrive there at about noon. Trinidad, Colorado is 14 miles north of Ratan Pass (the stateline between New Mexico and Colorado). We arrived 3 minutes early actually, but to my dismay they were closed. They would not be open till 3PM. I was tempted to stay but I had other stops planned. My itinerary was for us to stop and spend the night in Fort Collins Co. We had motel accommodations waiting for us there. Fort Collins, home of the Mighty Rams, is the home of New Belgium Brewery , Odell, Brewery, Fort Collins Brewery and Coopersmith's Brewpub (recommend to me by none other than my tee totaling brother in law and current boss). In addition AB InBev has a brewery there as well. The actual largest brewery in the world is located in nearby Golden. I guess you have to admit that Forty Collins has some serious beer vibes. I really wanted to visit New Belgium but I learned they were closed on Mondays. Odell's was open till 6 as was Fort Collins Brewery. In order to get there in time I would have to really fly and I still had Shamrock Brewery in Pueblo, and Left Hand Brewery in Longmont, on my list to visit. I also had a brew pub in Wyoming and three in Utah and in Western Colorado (planned as my return route). As we left Trinidad Brewery I looked at my watch and decided I would not stop at Shamrock Brewery and would go on to north of Denver to Left Hand.
We made it through the Mile High City and was heading towards my second stop of the day (Left Hand Brewery) .
I had been driving for some time and I decided to let Ben drive. Especially since I was planning to partake of the hops. While in Denver, Ben entered a bus only lane. I kept telling him that he was going in the wrong direction. To make a long story short, his brilliant move cost us about an hour. By the time we arrived in Longmont, I realized that we would never make it to Fort Collins in time to visit any of the places I had wanted. So I decided I could drink two beers and perhaps spend a little more on gifts. The picture of the tee shirt is the $ 30.00 dollar one I mentioned in an earlier blog. It is one of my favs. The beer was excellent. My two travel mates were like bumps on a log. Neither of them drank beer or for that matter, any sort of alcohol. Ben's previous job prior to working for us was an independent pharmaceutical salesman. He eventually left our employment after he peed in the wrong cup. So on we went to Fort Collins. My watch said 6:30 I decided to go to Coopersmiths at least. (They are a pub and grill). I went to my room and waited as Ben and Benny took the company truck to get them something to eat. They returned and I decided that I would at least drive past some of the places I had wanted to visit. Much to my surprise Forty Collins, Odell's and New Belgium (Fat Tire) were all located on the same street and were about a half a mile apart from each other. (Well, technically speaking New Belgium was on a connecting street). As I was driving past the places I had wanted to visit I noticed a grinding noise emitting from the vehicle. It seemed as if something was wrong with the brakes. I was not too happy about the prospect of crossing the great divide with poor brakes. I eventually went downtown to Coopersmiths and as I parked the blue beast, I called my brother in law (the boss) and told him the news about the truck. "Are you sure" he said. I confirmed the bad news and then asked him what I should do. He informed me that he was a little over an hour East on I-70 from Denver. Fort Collins is about an hour and a half North of Denver so I had at least 2 hours to eat and try out a few of the brews made at Coopersmith's. I had a Buffalo Burger and a two of their beers. The burger was excellent and the beer was good (not great) but good. I returned to the Super 8 and sure enough, Tony arrived about 30 minutes later. As he peeled out of his motor home he exclaimed. "What in the hell did you do to my truck?" I knew he was joking. He got inside the truck and drove it a few feet and then said "yep, it's the brakes" I had been scheduled to be in Ogden the next afternoon at 4:00PM. That would have meant I would need to leave Fort Collins no later than 8:00 AM. "Well you are going got have to stay here and get her fixed. So you are excused from working tomorrow." he said. He then took some tools from the truck and loaded them inside his vehicle. Then he was gone. As he left, he instructed me to call the office the next morning and have them make arrangements for me to take the truck to a repair shop. I told him I was capable of finding a place but he insisted that I allow the office to choose the place of repair.
The next morning I did as he requested. I called and spoke to the office manager (my wife) and waited for her to call me back with the location of the repair shop.

If you recall earlier, I said that three breweries were all within a half of a mile from each other and were on the same street. That street is E Lincoln Street, and damn the luck, the repair shop I was instructed to take the truck was Lincoln Street Auto Repair. In fact, it was directly across the street from the Fort Collins Brewery and I could see Odell's as I stood in the parking lot. The Beer Gods were with The Third that day. The office and my wife had no idea of my good fortune. So I took Ben, the other driver, and we went to the repair shop. I left him there and around 10:00 AM and I strolled down to Odell's and had a few pints (on the house of course). I really enjoyed their beer. I especially loved the 90 Shilling (which I have had before). I really liked their IPA. It is awesome. I purchased a tee shirt from them and then I walked to Fort Collins Brewery. They did not serve beer until noon and it was only 11:00 AM. I purchased a sampler 12 pack and a tee shirt and walked across the street and placed the shirt and beer in the back of the truck. I was informed that it would be at least another hour and a half before the truck was finished so I informed Ben that I would be at the New Belgium Brewery and he could pick me up there. Wow! I was really impressed with their facilities and I sat at their bar drinking free beer (see picture) for over an hour. I purchased a tee shirt and a cap while I was there. I even got to pet Arrow II (a descendant of the Border Collie of which The Mighty Arrow is named). The mainstay beer of New Belgium Brewery is of course, Fat Tire. Their logo has a bicycle on it. The brewery has several bicycle racks on its premises and many employees actually ride their bicycles to work. I was really impressed with the guy behind the bar. He let me sample several beers that are not marketed (as yet). As I set at the bar several of my friends called me from Utah wanting to know when I would arrive. Little did they know I was drinking beer at New Belgium.

Well, the truck was finally finished and Ben picked me up and we began our journey to Ogden. I soon realized that my good fortune was still with me. I had found a small brew pub (on the computer) located in Rock Springs, Wyoming. Bitter Creek Brewing was not going to open until noon and my original itinerary would have put me there well before noon, but with my late start, another window opened up. Rock Springs is a mining and rail town located along Interstate 80 in Southwestern Wyoming. We stopped there and parked the truck in a small parking lot across the street from the brewery. Ben and Bennie sat in the truck as I went in to "only purchase a tee shirt" ( A Beer Named Bob) Well little did they know I downed a pint of Bob and a pint of Coal Porter. Mighty fine beer actually. We got back on the road and we arrived in Ogden around six o clock. It had been a good day.

While in Ogden I got to visit another Micro Brewery/Pub by the name of Rooster's and had a few pints of Polygamy Pale Ale. We also went to a bar across the street from Roosters and tried out several other Utah beers including Wasatch Brewery's Polygamy Porter.
One of my co workers, from Minnesota brought me two six packs of Fat Squirrel Beer. So I had a lot of good beer. Unfortunatley he too peed in the wrong cup.

The plan was that we to return through Southern Utah and as a result I have a few other micro brews and brew pubs to visit. But things changed and I was assigned to a week long project in St. Joseph, Mo. That worked out pretty good to. I found my way to down town Lincoln, Nebraska and the Emporium Brewery and later to Murphy's Pub in Weston, Mo. home of Weston Brewery. As were leaving Missouri . I had the chance to visit the Boulevard Brewery in Kansas City and then drink a Flying Monkey Beer (made in Kansas) at a local BBQ joint.

The Great Divide Pub Crawl Part One was truly great. In addition to all of the beer, I got stuck in a blizzard, help another employee who was stuck in snow and saw two of my fellow employees fail a drug test. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +

So there we were cruising up US 287. We got to Limon, Co. around sun-up and we began to heading West towards Denver. It began to snow and then it got pretty heavy. It took over two hours to go less than 70 miles. A few hours later they closed I -70 west bound. Fortunately we were at our motel and I was sound asleep with visions of Colorado beers dancing in my head.

It was my goal to drink Colorado beers. I was looking for beers that I had never had before and particularly beers from Avery Brewing, Boulder Beer, Ska Brewing, Tommy Knocker Brewing. Odell's, Oskar Blues,
New Belgium, Brekenridge, and Left Hand Brewery beers are available around here so I decided I would pass on them.

The first day I was there my fellow pub crawler , now known as The Blue Whale, took me to a nearby liquor store in search of Centennial State beer. I particularly wanted to find beer from the Ska Brewery. The store did not have as much selection as I had hoped. I purchased a 12 pack sampler from Tommy Knocker and a sixer from a brewery called Palisade. (Farmer's Friend). I must admit I was impressed. A few days later I found another "gourmet" liquor store near our work location. I purchased a sixer of Odell's I.P.A. and a a sixer of Avery's Old Jubilation. The Odell's is now my favorite I.P.A. That is saying a lot since I felt Harpoon made the best. The Old Jubilation tasted like a Winter Seasonal Beer (which it is) But damn it was Spring even if it was 19 degrees outside and snowing like a bitch. They too, did not have Ska. A day or so later the Blue Whale and I went to Old Chicago Pizza. They are a chain and claim to have an amazing selection of beers. They did...well sort of. I asked the guy at the bar if he had Ska on tap. He said no but he did have one in a bottle. Wow, it was good. I took a picture of it and and I am displaying it here. Then I had a Drydock Pale Ale made in Aurora, Co. Since we were actually working in Aurora I thought it would be cool to have a beer from there. Shit, that bastard was damn good. Then I chose a beer from Odell's (5 Barrell Ale). I was impressed and I was beginning to think that Odell's was beginning to be my favorite brewer. We played a trivia game while we were there. We did not win. I discovered that dinosaurs were not the largest animals that ever lived. Come to think of it I already knew that.

Our job was going pretty good but we learned that due to an engineering mistake, we had to stay a few days extra. That was good news for The Third and obviously good for The Brew Chronicles.

Friday night found most of us at an over priced pub (Trapper's) two floors above our motel room. I partook of several Mighty Arrows and had some amazing Lamb Chops. With a ten dollar off token I still spent over forty bucks. It caused me to recall rubbing Arrow II's belly and all of the great Lamb dishes I had at Basques Restaurants while I lived in Bakersfield.

Saturday at work was pretty much a waste of time. We were there only 3 hours and did absolutely nothing. The materials we were supposed to receive was not delivered on time so we were released early. That evening a few of us dined at Carino's and I had an Italian beer. I mention this only because it was the only non Colorado beer I drank on this past trip/crawl.

The Beer Gods once again smiled upon me. Like I have mentioned before, I road with Uncle Rog (my son in law's uncle actually) He planned the trip to Denver and we took a back road route. It really was a good one actually and it looked as if we would return the same way. But I -70 was closed due to heavy snowfall and and ice storm. When we finished work Sunday , I asked Rog how we were travelling back to Texas He replied we would be travelling South on I-25. My mind began to whirl and soon I was on the phone with Trinidad Brewing to see if they were open. They were. So Roger and I arrived there at around 4:30 and I had a beer ( We Heavy Lassie)(It was 11% ABV) and I purchased the tee shirt that I had hoped to purchase a year earlier. I love it. The Great Divide Pub Crawl Part Two was great too. I drank a lot of Colorado Beers but sadly learned three of my fellow employees quit, two were fired for a "rooming violation" and three were dismissed for a snowball fight.