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A basic description of social life in Colorado goes like this: an outdoor activity paired with a beverage. A hike and a cold beer on the tailgate at the trailhead. A ski day celebrated with a slopeside bloody mary. A trail run and a follow-up latte with friends.
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This is why Colorado consistently ranks among the top states in the nation for spending time outdoors, staying fit, and yes, drinking alcohol. We love our microbrews and our mass-produced beer, our high-altitude Western Slope rieslings, our craft cocktails but also our mocktails. One of my favorite very-Colorado memories is sipping champagne atop a mountain at sunrise after hiking with headlamps, at my birthday request. Another is relaxing on the Winter Park Express ski train, hair wet with melted snow, drinking cabernet out of a plastic cup.
Plenty of us have planned a hike or a scenic drive around the bar or coffeehouse that is actually the day’s main event. Wild Goose Coffee at the Granary in Hayden is worth the drive, and Shaggy Sheep near Grant and South Park Saloon in Alma are on my summer list.
Some of the drinks central to my core Colorado memories are gone now. RIP to the hot-toddy chocolatey French Kiss at the Derailer Bar in Winter Park and to the Champagne Powder in a cup at Truffle Pig in Steamboat Springs. But new ones, probably even better ones, are out there waiting for our next adventure.
Jennifer Brown | Reporter
Coors Brewery
That Coors is made with Rocky Mountain water has always been a special point of pride, and marketing, for the company. The Golden site where Adolph Coors established the beer company in 1873 still pulls water directly from Clear Creek for cleaning and other tasks. In 2024, the brewery fired up a 200,000-square-foot addition full of gleaming new technologies that Peter J. Coors, great-great-grandson of Adolph Coors, hopes will propel the company into its next 150 years. The famous 90-minute factory tours offer visitors a glimpse into the company’s history, as well as its current malting, brewing and packaging processes, and ends with everyone’s favorite: samples.
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Parts and Labor Brewery
If you’ve had a busy time of late, and anonymity and a manageable road trip sound like heaven to you, then motor out to Sterling, 120 miles northeast of Denver, and park yourself quietly and joyfully at a back table in the Parts & Labor Brewing Company. Parts & Labor took over what used to be the repair bays of a Cadillac dealership. The beer game is tops every day, with a wide selection of dark to light, chewy to refreshing. But their graphics game may be even tighter, with hats and tees featuring the iconic tow truck that is the brewery’s logo.
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The Storm Cellar
A husband and wife team who left sommelier jobs in the city for the North Fork Valley, where they purchased and planted The Storm Cellar, their small-batch vineyard between Paonia and Hotchkiss. The outdoor tasting room is perched 500 feet above the valley floor, offering epic views to pair with the vineyard’s specialty whites and rosés, described as “dry, crisp and refreshing … and, above all, food friendly” by the vineyard owners, and described as “some of the BEST white wines I’ve had, and I’m a wine snob,” by Sylvia Harmon, The Sun’s sales director and resident wine snob.
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Aquila Cellars
Aquila Cellars is known for its unfiltered wines full of “energy” and “freshness.” In other words, these are funky summer sippers. While they don’t have an onsite tasting room at their North Fork Valley vineyard, Aquila is constantly collaborating with tastemakers all over Colorado on playful pop-up tasting rooms, while also getting served up at some of the state’s finest dining establishments, including the Michelin-starred Brutø in Denver and James Beard finalist Bin 707 in Grand Junction.
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Bread Bar
Silver Plume is often driven right by on Interstate 70, or passed up for its neighbor, the more tourist-friendly Georgetown. But if you happen to be there on the right night, especially on a chilly one, you’ll find a particularly special building at the end of the main road, coated in light and condensation from the dancing, drinking, singing bodies inside. The building was a bakery in the 1800s. Now, it’s the well-named Bread Bar, where the cocktails are creative, stiff and delicious. And there is a beer fridge for those who preferred a trusty Coors Banquet.
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Prodigy Coffee House
What sets Prodigy apart from hundreds of other coffee options around metro Denver are its baristas. Prodigy Ventures, which runs three cafes, has become a gentle landing pad for young adults who haven’t quite mapped out their future. The nonprofit offers yearly apprenticeships for teens from northeastern Denver, helping them hone not only their abilities to pull a perfect espresso, but a range of life skills, including financial literacy, civic engagement, nutrition and active living in an onsite classroom for a few hours each week.
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Celestial Seasonings
Don’t be lulled by Celestial Seasonings’ adorable address — 4600 Sleepytime Drive. The tea company’s Boulder HQ is as bustling as any brewery could be on a Saturday afternoon. A popular tea tour takes you through the factory’s innards, where you can learn more about how they’ve gone from foraged herbal blends in hand-sewn muslin bags to serving up more than 1.6 billion cups of tea per year. If you don’t have time for a tour, visitors are still free to enjoy the tea room and gift shop, where you can sample dozens of signature tea blends, including the one that launched Celestial Seasonings to its global success: Sleepytime Tea.
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Trinidad Lounge
Drive up the brick-paved Commercial Street in Trinidad and you’d be forgiven for rolling by the Trinidad Lounge, a crumbly stone facade in the town’s historic core. But inside, the ‘Dad Lounge is “the wood-paneled, nautical-themed, Wild West bar of your dreams,” as described by co-owner Curt Wallach.
Wallach and his partner, Suzanne Magnuson, moved to Trinidad and have been running that dream bar since 2020, when the couple — whose dive bar bonafides extend to Denver and New Mexico — bought it, cleaned it and threw open the doors to musicians from all over the country. Whether you’re looking out for a punk show, a drag night, karaoke or a comedy set, the ‘Dad Lounge delivers. Oh, and they serve cold, cheap beer seven nights a week.
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Gold Dirt Distillery
Stepping back in time is still possible in a few places in Colorado — and the dusty, eclectic corner that comprises Rollinsville’s entire downtown district at Colorado 119 and the Rollins Pass Road is one of those places. The highlight? The coolest little bar this side of the Continental Divide. On a hot summer day go for Gold Dirt Distillery’s Lavender Gin, infused with an “irresponsible amount” of lavender, the owners say. With the additions of lemon juice, hibiscus syrup and cherry bitters, it’s like drinking a cool breeze blowing over a mountain stream in a shady hollow when life was still sweet.
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Stranahan’s Whiskey
A true Colorado story, a barn fire outside of Aspen is the foundation of Colorado’s first legal whiskey distillery since Prohibition. The late George Stranahan lived in Woody Creek, and in 1998 one of his barns caught fire. Jess Graber came to help, and they quickly struck up a relationship to create Stranahan’s Whiskey six years later. It’s part of Stranahan’s legacy, which includes founding the Aspen Center for Physics, the Aspen Community and Carbondale Community schools, the Woody Creek Tavern, the Third Street Center in Carbondale, and several Roaring Fork Valley nonprofits. The distillery is south of downtown Denver and open daily for tours and tasting. (They have a lounge in Aspen as well.)
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