How The Grinch Stole Christmas

      I hope everyone out in TLBL land had a great holiday. Mine was pretty good except for one day right before Xmas. Maybe you have heard about this beer fest I was planning to do at Turtle Creek. I might have told you or maybe you saw it on Facebook. Well, let me take you back to a couple months earlier and go from there. Back around turkey day, the word from the legal team was "99.5%" certain that the only problems would be a matter of where on the property the fest could be held. So, I announced the day of the fest on Black Friday and a week or so later went out on the grounds with Mr. JW taking measurements in 20 degree weather and 30 mph wind gusts, trying to put together the best possible scenario for the event.  They (The lawyers) should be calling in a few days or so and we will know for sure what is what. Unfortunately the call didn't come till right before Xmas, (Thanks Verizon) and that pesky .5% had reared it's ugly head and has growned into a monster. Now, I may not be a legal expert, but I sure did understand the reasoning of the legal team on this one. It had nothing to do with the fest or even the where on the property/lcb issues. It was more of a private matter, which needless to say, I cannot discuss at this time. It certainly wasn't the fault of the fine folks at Turtle Creek, who were more than receptive about this and was a joy to work with, even for the short amount of time that we had. So, we are now back to bat in the bottom of the ninth with two outs and two strikes and a 100 mph fastballer on the mound. I guess I am going to have to go back in the dugout and get my corked bat and maybe get some of that BALCO juice and give it one last swing. I just hope I have better luck then the mighty Casey.

Rumor And Sigh

   So, have you heard any rumors about a beer fest being held in Limerick lately? Been waiting for details and who might show up? Well, you're going to have to keep waiting a little bit longer. We are in now, what is known as the ligation stage. You know, the real fun stuff, LCB, lawyers and insurance. It is a land use issue as where does a licence end and begin kind of thing. Hell, if it was just beer and food, it be done by now. Or to put it in street terms, it is called covering your ass. So please forgive me for my silence, it is a necessary evil. Or a blessing.

In other semi important news, a meeting was held for the staff of TLBL at the corporate offices of Kepler Mountain Resort and Casino . On the docket was why great travel stories of the last two plus years were never completed. It was brought up by a staff member, that looking back causes severe pain and memory loss. A few chuckles were heard in the background. It is highly possible that some staff members may be let go or just outright fired. One can only hope.

Fresh Start

View from our room

Wake up everybody no more sleeping in bed, we got to get some food at Snooze, so we can go out drinking again. Okay, it's not quite the same remake as the Roots version, but it works for me. So, after a good night of sleep, we awoke to one hell of a view from our lovely place at the Brooks Tower Condos.What a great visual to start your morning with. While everybody was getting ready, it was now time for me to prepare for the day by checking out some new beer places in the Westworld magazine.That reading thing does come in handy at times.

 We then strolled downtown to one of my favorite breakfast places ever, Snooze. They opened up right before I last came to Denver, a little over 4 years ago and I was blown away. Now it was time to see if it would do same for my traveling companions. As you can plainly see, it was some good eats. Who else has fresh poblanos as a side for your breakfast tacos?
 Oh, and those pancakes may have put a weaker man in a sugar coma, but the esteemed Mr. Kulp took it down. But there was one small problem. We were stuffed. To the gills. Like, I can't move anymore. So after several minutes of trying to get our shit together. We finally, with the help of a crane, got up and ventured out upon the streets of Denver.




 

Juan's breakfast tacos

We decided to stroll down Blake Street and what to our wondering eyes did we find, Breckenridge Brewery. It's 11:30 am and besides, it's always Thursday somewhere. I think in hindsight that this was more of a ploy to sit our fat butts down and continue digesting our giant breakfast than it was to drink beer. But beer was ordered, albeit a small one and a once over was given to this huge place. So after paying our tab, we started our stroll down Blake and saw the Falling Rock sign, and I uttered these famous words "I wonder if they still have Publication and Saboteur on?" Their answer was yes, and our answer was, where do you want to sit? So we grabbed a table outside and enjoyed a couple of beers and some beautiful warm weather. After a couple of hours of beer bliss, we forcibly remove ourselves and continued our walk down Blake to a brand new place called Freshcraft. They have been open for about three weeks, and in the next several days we were to become some of their best customers. The reason we came at this time was a session happy hour, a sandwich, fries and a 5% beer for $8.50 and a house made pickle to boot, which is oh, so good. After making ourselves very happy and full, we then met up with the RJ team for a trip to the Vine Street Pub for a beer or two and a snack, then we were off to the Cheeky Monk for some dinner and a special tapping of Three Cheeks To The Wind, a super small batch of beer brewed by Avery for their 3rd anniversary. It is all about timing folks. As we got seated outside, our waitress asked us for our beer order and we all ordered that. It wasn't on tap yet, but should be in two or three minutes. Sure enough about 10 minutes later we all had a glass and she proceeded to tell us that there were people at the bar that didn't get any as it was only a sixtel and it kicked in three minutes. Well, dinner was great, and the beer was damn good and the company wasn't too shabby either. So we all took a bus back into town and I headed off to sleep land after another tough 12 hour day, but the RJ team talked my companions into a so called nightcap at Rock Bottom. (remember the RJ line from the last story about wolves?) Which lasted well over two plus hours. Another lesson learned, the hard way of course. There would be plenty of more lesson to learn along the way. But it sure beats working.

Baby Steps

  Lets face it, a day without breakfast is like a day on vacation without beer. So after dropping off the bags, we hopped on the 16th Street shuttle and shuttled our way into Dixon's for some much needed food. Half way thru breakfast, the RJ team stopped by to see what we were up to the rest of the day. For those who do not know, RJ stands for Rick and Jeannie. Damn good folks. ( Who later on in these stories might turn up more like friendly wolves in sheep's clothing. You will find out the reason why soon enough.)  We had plenty of time to kill as our room wouldn't be ready until three, so after breakfast, we strolled  up 16th street to stretch our legs and get a lay of the land near the capitol area. We were quickly reminded of the term "city block"once we arrived there. We kept walking uphill in the blazing sunshine and it seemed liked we were getting nowhere fast. Until my faux daughter spotted a beer sign in a window up ahead.

  Uptown Brothers was the name and in we went hoping for the best. Our hopes were met quite nicely. Another fairly new place in the slowly up and coming Colfax Avenue area. Good beer selection and better yet was some of their mac and cheese. Now I wasn't all that hungry, but when the bartender says it is made with the three kinds of cheese, including smoked Gouda, well, I had to do what I had to do. App size please. The results, it was wrong, oh so very, very wrong. So wrong in fact, that when I came back a two days later, I had it again just to be sure.
 
So we left there and did our running around and got back to our room with just enough time to put stuff away and head down to the epicenter for the week of beer events, Falling Rock. The RJ team


Where evil lurks at every tap

was already at the bar chatting up the bartenders. Their kickoff of events started at 5, so it wasn't crazy crowded just yet. The chalkboard said it all for me, Russian River Publication. Never heard of that. It reminds me a bit like Dreamweaver unfiltered and gently caressed with funk. How can that be a bad thing? What was a bad thing however was something we would end having on a daily basis there. Odell's

Saboteur. We had the chance to try this back in June at Capones when they came in for a rare visit. And now it would be on tap for a solid week here.



Doing what they did best, drinking Odell's



 Darkness has slowly started to fall and so was our eyelids from lack of sleep. The RJ team suggested one more stop, Rock Bottom. But, as we made our way up the street, the road crews were working nearby , so I said let's check out the Mellow Mushroom. Rick than orders a pitcher of Twisted Pine IPA. (See what I am talking about) We somehow finish that, cry uncle repeatedly and stagger back to our rooms for some much, much needed sleep. It was to be an early night. Like I keep saying,  it's a marathon not a sprint.





TNSC Meets GABF

OMG, ILMAO, WTF, IDTM, SFS, FSF. Guess em all and when a prize. On Monday the 13th, three crazed people meet at the ungodly hour of 5:30 am and drove like bats out of hell to catch a 7:50 U.S. Air flight to a warm and sunny Denver. It was hard to believe that we actually left early and arrived early. Speaking of early, another group had left a few days earlier to do some "hiking". If by hiking you mean elbow pads, pint glasses, tulip sniffers, bottle openers and seat cushions. A couple of days later, another batch of fresh TNSC troops arrived. And on Thursday, Pookie De Miel came out to torture, I mean play with us, damn keyboard.

This is not their story, hell, it is barely mine. No kids, this will be the story of TNSC meets GABF. In technicolor and 4D where available.

This photo does not lie. It was a dry heat......