Day 10

June 27th--
OK--today was simply a day to get from SLC Utah (pain in the a** construction) to western CO--no specific beer plans. But--Priscilla maintains this trip is "all about the beer". I don't understand--we have seen a LOT of cool scenery...on our way to a stop for the nights..that usually just seemed to make sense that we would look for a brewpub. I told her tonight--"just think of all the time we saved discussing where to eat every night."

As I said, tonight I had no plan. We stopped at the visitor center for the Colorado Nat'l Monument (worth the ~2 hour drive off I-70 which we enjoyed) and asked about a brewpub in Grand Junction. Lo and behold--they have one with another either here or on the way soon! So--after checking in to our motel, we drove right down to the Rockslide Brewery and Pub on Main Street--been in operation since 1992! That's according to Jennifer who is at least 18 since she served us but under 21 because she had not tried the beers. This revelation forced us to go to the sampling routine to cover several of their 8 "regular" beers plus two seasonals.

Let me preface these remarks with the fact that the temp hit 95 in the high desert. Serious thirst needed to be quenched! Priscilla went immediately to the Raspberry wheat which she termed VERY refreshing. I tried a sample of the Cold Shivers Pale Ale--copper colored, very good flavor with a slight hoppy flavor on the back end--a good choice.

Our second choices--Priscilla sampled the regular Big Bear Stout and the seasonal Holiday Porter. She chose the Stout--the usual (to me) smooth roasted flavor--which she termed "another good stout". Due to the blast furnace temps, I passed on the Rabbit Ears Amber Ale and sampled the Windowmaker Wheat (with lemon) and the Hefeweizen (with an orange slice). A real tough call but I chose the Hefe. It was a damn fine beer!

Tomorrow--we drive to Ft. Collins for the 3 p.m. New Belgium tour which we have been advised not to miss.