N is for Novel Strand Brewing Company

It has been awhile since we biked to M is for Mountain Toad Brewing.

I actually don't think the Beer Model had been on her bike at all since Mountain Toad.

But this past weekend, we decided to continue our exploration of A to Z Denver Breweries.

As I mentioned in M is for Mountain Toad Brewing, there was really only one logical choice for our "N" brewery.

I'd actually ridden my bike by this brewery a couple times on my various biking journeys.

It is a nice ride from our Home Brewery along bike paths to ...

N is for Novel Strand Brewing Company 

Novel Strand is a nice little "boutique" brewery in the Baker Neighborhood of Denver. It actually shares a space with a coffee shop, Queen City Coffee Collective, which is a good partnership.

The address is 305 W 1st Avenue Denver, Colorado 80223.

There isn't a whole lot of space in their tasting room. There is a few picnic tables outside, which is where we sat.

There was a food truck scheduled, but we decided to pack a lunch. We never actually saw the food truck, so I don't know if it just showed up later or not.

This place doesn't serve flight-sized pours, but they do serve 10oz beers, so we shared a selection of beers in the 10oz size.

Their online menu seems to be up-to-date and we used the typical QR code to open the menu on our phones.

The beers that we had were...

• Turtles All the Way Down ... a 5.9% ABV IPA featuring Amarillo on the back of Idaho 7 on the back of Riwaka on the back of Strata. It was extremely delicious. It is probably my favorite IPA that I've had in awhile.
• The Michigan Chronicles: Mackinac ... Apparently the first of a series of beers to explore Michigan ingredients. The first features Makinac hops. It was a nice IPA with nice citrus and tropical fruit.
• Hurry Up and Wait ... A great 4.3% ABV German Pilsner, made as a collaboration with Barrels and Bottles. It had the great firm bitterness of a German Pils with Rakau hops from New Zealand to make a nice unique hop flavor.
• Alt School Like That ... Another collaboration beer, this one with Bierstadt Lagerhaus. This is a great Düsseldorf style Altbier. This was the Beer Model's favorite.
• Colorado Strong ... A multi brewery collab led by the Colorado Brewers’ Guild, and the Lefthand Foundation. 20% of proceeds are donated to support workers in healthcare, hospitality, service industry and the gig economy. In their case it’s an unfiltered hoppy beer brewed with CO malt from Root Shoot Malt, yeast from local lab Inland Island, CO grown Cashmere hops from CO hop company, and a little bit of Nelson Sauvin from NZ for an added punch.

I was pleasantly surprised to see Colorado Strong, as I had not seen this at any other breweries since last year. I thought their version was probably one of the best I remember having.

I really liked this brewery and thought all these beers were great. I think I'll return and try more of their beers. I might even try some of the coffee on some of my morning bike rides.

If you're in the neighborhood, drop in and give them a try.

Monday Closed

Tuesday 3:00 pm - 10:00 pm

Wednesday 3:00 pm - 10:00 pm

Thursday 3:00 pm - 10:00 pm

Friday 3:00 pm - 11:00 pm

Saturday 12:00 pm - 11:00 pm

Sunday 12:00 pm - 9:00 pm

Next up, "O". 

We've actually already been to the "O" brewery. I just have to type up the blog post and publish it.

Stay tuned on Sheppy's Blog: A to Z and you'll find out what we picked.

If you want to guess ... it will probably be one of the breweries on the Colorado Brewery List.