United Nations of Beer

Rock Bottom, Denver

by Lucia Novara
(Beer Delegate, CO, USA)

Rock Bottom, Denver, CO, USA

For my March brew pub review I chose a place I'd been to once before; Rock Bottom Denver was a stop on my 4th of July Bar Crawl.

Having moved to Colorado from Michigan (aka "The Great Lakes and Fireworks State") that year, Craig and I were a little at a loss for what to do on the 4th of July, considering there wasn't a lake or legal firework within 300 miles. Facing a day sitting in the bathtub waving an American flag and crying into my Cracker Jack or going on a bar crawl, it was a pretty easy choice.

It was a successful bar crawl in that I was a little fuzzy on the details of the place, so I decided it deserved a second look at. Here's a short list of reasons why I was wrong about that:

It is owned by a restaurant corporation that also owns Old Chicago and Sing Sing, a chain of dueling piano bars. Yeah, that's right. Dueling Pianos. Billy Joel and micro brews go together like toothpaste and orange juice.

Despite being "Crazy about our Beer" and serving beer that is "Crafted with Passion", they don't actually list information about any of the beers on their website. Too much space is devoted to recruiting waitstaff who are willing to wear flair.

The clientele at Rock Bottom Denver consisted of middle-aged men engrossed in a replay of the 2003 World's Strongest Man competition on the TV. I have nothing against middle-aged men as a species, but I did spot a T-shirt on one that read, "First thing we'll do is kill all the Yankees."

But beyond all that, we're here to talk about the beer. Links to my reviews:

Lumpy Dog Lager

Buffalo Gold

16th Street Wheat

Falcon Pale Ale

Red Rocks Red

Molly's Titanic Brown Ale

Velvet Porter

I also tried a few other of the brews Rock Bottom Denver had to offer, including the Nitro Pale, ESB, Cask Porter and Cask Gold. The Nitro was great, but I love all nitrous beers. The ESB was bitter all right and that's all I have to say about that. The Casks are live ales and the Porter was respectable with subtle coffee and dark chocolate tones.

If you’re in for good cask ale though, forget Rock Bottom Denver: Pints Pub in Denver is the only joint in town to visit.

I learned a very interesting tidbit in relation to the Cask Gold: when I declared that it tasted like foot sweat, my science-minded friends Ben and Erika informed me that foot stink is caused by a compound called caproic acid. So, scientists, this one's for you: the Cask Gold tastes like caproic acid!

I case you can't tell, I was not enamored with Rock Bottom Denver. In fact, I would say the name is an accurate description of where it stands in my Best Breweries in Denver List. The 16th Street Wheat is the only one I would pay to drink again.