How I Learned How Many Colorado Breweries There Are

I have lived in Colorado my entire life, nearly three decades. Until recently I had no idea that the state of Colorado had so many breweries. Colorado’s breweries are spread across the state, along the Front Range, in the Rocky Mountains, and throughout the Denver metro area. In fact, it’s funny that I had no idea Colorado had so many breweries. I have always liked beer. I especially like drinking the craft beers that Colorado breweries make so much of. It’s actually kind of weird how I found out how many breweries there were in this state.

It was the end of summer, the month of August. Oh yes, the month of my birthday, how wonderful. My girlfriend decided to surprise me with a gift this year, and I’m not complaining, I love surprises, who doesn’t? Anyway, the day had come, I was instructed to make sure I wore tennis shoes and jeans or long pants like khakis. Why? What the hell were we going to be doing? She wasn’t going to tell me, it was a surprise that I had to wait. After hitting the freeway and driving north from Denver for about 20 minutes, I finally got my girlfriend to tell her all about it.

A tour of Colorado’s breweries! Well, actually just a tour of the brewery. The Anheuser-Busch Brewery in Fort Collins Colorado. She had signed us up for the brewmaster tour. She didn’t even know that Anheuser-Busch had a location in Colorado. She was under the impression that the only large-scale brewery in Colorado was Coors. But apparently Anheuser-Busch built a plant in the ’80s, if I remember correctly. My friend told me that we would taste the beer from each stage of the brewing process. Well, I’m in.

The Colorado brewery tour was pretty good. Here’s a fun fact: Bud Light brewed by Anheuser-Busch is the number one selling beer in the world. Yes, you read that right, I said WORLD! I remember hearing something about Bud Light being the number one selling beer in America, but in the world? I never would have guessed. During the tour, in fact, I tasted a beer at each stage of the brewing process. The first stage was the worst tasting, but it wasn’t bad. Nothing you wouldn’t be able to handle. No one was throwing up or anything like that.

Once the tour was over, our last taste was obviously a freshly brewed beer. In addition, we keep the glasses. Our tour guide walked us back to the first building where each member of the tour was able to get five free beers from the bar. NICE! We discussed the grand tour, chatted with others on the tour, and then headed to the lobby where the gift shop was located. I already had a drink and I don’t really like souvenirs so I waited in the lobby. The lobby had all kinds of fun facts and informational brochures. While my girlfriend was browsing the gift shop, I started reading the brochures. One brochure was about Colorado breweries. It had a map of all the breweries in Colorado and had a directory section. I was blown away by the number of breweries in Colorado.

It’s not a Hollywood story, but it’s how I found out about the number of Colorado breweries that brew with fresh water from the Rocky Mountains.