Breckenridge Brewery: An Octoberfest Odyssey

Alright and welcome in here to one more episode , yet another one , seven . We are past the six pack mark . Got to make the beer reference there . With the six pack . We are in the episode seven now as the two guys in beer podcast rolls along , andy Bextrum along with Sean Field here and the best part of the entire program , there we go .

It's a little more hoppy .

Yeah , a little more thinner , a little bit better .

I would say it's not quite as smooth as Shell's Oktoberfest or the Bell's . It's got an interesting aftertaste . It's kind of maybe a bit of a malty .

Yeah , I was just going to say I think it's kind of a malty and it does say that on the front toasty malt character with a clean , dry finish .

So I mean , it's pretty good it's toasty .

Yeah , definitely some malty , though for sure .

Yeah , it does have some malt in it , for sure . Yeah , it's a little better .

It kind of lingers a little bit with that .

Yeah , I don't know what to think about it yet as I continue to drink as we talk . We'll see if it changes . It's all right so far . I've never had this one before Breckenridge Brewery in Southern Colorado .

Yeah it seems to be pretty good . I feel like I've had in the past , I think , when we were talking about what different beers to do going forward . I want to say that I think you would ask about Breckenridge and I think I've had Breckenridge , but I can't place off the top of my head which ones that I've had .

It's a good excuse . Exactly , yeah , we need something for the tinnyness . We've heard that a few times from some listeners . It sounds kind of tinny or echoey . We're not quite sure exactly what that is yet . We're still trying to work through that and figure that out here as we go forward .

But hopefully , yeah , it'd be a nice little room to be able to have , and now that we're kind of set up here and maybe be able to get some guests in and let them kind of be a part of the program , we can talk to old Brandon Phlipson and get him working on it .

Yeah , we say that every episode . Oh , we'll get Brandon on , an award-winning local home brewer , let's get him on . I wonder if he listens . I sure hope so .

I hope that he probably doesn't even know who we are .

That's his rocketing to stardom . Yeah , we got to get him on here .

Now that we got this set up , we can definitely easily add him to the fray , if you will .

Yeah , that'll be a good time . He can definitely tell us a lot of stuff about home brewing and what it takes and all that stuff .

I think we've talked before . I've done a little bit on my own , a couple of batches , but not anywhere on a professional level and nowhere . Let's just say I don't know that I've done a barrel in my . Do you call it a career In my hobby ? What's a hobby career ? Hobby rear .

Yeah , there you go , that works .

Hobby rear . It's like hobby year old , but less hot , I don't know yeah .

I don't know . One barrel would be 31 gallons . So the average barrel I just use that because that's the average barrel . Some are larger , some are smaller , but the majority of the average is 31 .

Which I think that maybe I have had close to a barrel but , I don't know . I've only done a hand full over , you know over time , but that first one was probably the best one where I drilled the hole . That was great stories and everything but that was probably the best tasting one that I had .

We should have did a YouTube video on that . Just drill a hole through your hood and your range hood , exactly . Put some rubber binders around a wireless drill to hold the trigger in , so it stirs the pot while it's going . Exactly , you set it and forget it .

Over the years , I've realized that you don't actually need to stir it constantly , just consistently Like oh so I didn't need to cut a hole in the . Okay , got it All right . Perfect , we'll have to add it at some point in time . When that memory comes around , I probably have it on my Facebook Very deep in there we can share that on our yeah .

we're going to have to upload that on the social media , Absolutely .

It was an ingenuity , engineering , engineering , ingenuity , and it's fine . I'm just trying to make up words at this point . I haven't had enough beers to make the ATIS sound good yet , so it's still kind of .

It needs to go to college . You're being an engineer when we just got a figure .

Really , that's what engineering is Save yourself some money . You're just solving problems is really what it amounts to be .

Save yourself some money and come talk to Andy and I and we'll teach you some engineering tricks ?

Exactly , yeah , it's going to be . We're going to have the podcast , we're going to have the School of Engineering , and don't forget about our app development .

Yeah , women app development Yep .

Exactly . Get on board quick , because supplies are running out and it's going to be right to the stardom .

If you want to donate to the startup , I can let you know our PayPal or Venom All-Count . You can send us some money , we'll give you some . Put your name in the credits .

Well , will you be a part of the thing . You know , let you kind of kiss the back of my hand or something or whatever . The thing is so Tangent . Tuesday on a Monday , there we go again . We're back Breckenridge Brewery out of , as Sean mentioned , colorado . We have the Oktoberfest . If you've grabbed any other Breckenridge again , feel free to drink along .

I guess , as we discuss the history , and this will be the last Oktoberfest that we do for the month of October . So let us know in any of the comments , social media , whatever you've got going on there , which one , if you've tried all three , which one's your favorite .

There , you go . I like that . Giving back to the people , that's a name of the game .

That's what we're all about here two guys and a beer . So anyways

That's a good problem to have you know , I guess Can't keep up to demand .

No like , especially in a brand new , right away , right off the bat . You know , all the other beers that we've done on the podcast here . It's taken them a couple of years to get going , basically this one right off the gate . They just couldn't keep up . Just right after so they had this gentleman named Mr Todd . I'm going to call him Mr Todd .

We need to get big words , you know .

So he began his apprenticeship back in 1991 for Breckenridge Brewery . Well , he set out because they were brewing so much beer they couldn't keep up for the locals and the visitors . He set out with his team and started looking for some new locations in Denver to build a second brew pub with space for a bigger brew house . Todd and his team .

I would assume that property and not even getting into the value , but just like availability , probably is not , there's , probably not . Oh yeah , there's all sorts of real estate available for , oh , you're an expanding brewery that's going to have Massa . I mean , colorado is kind of well known for some brewery as well .

You think space , yeah , especially in downtown Denver , and Denver is not a small city by any means , it's a big , bustling city . So they got some space in downtown Denver , opened it up in 1992 . A couple of years went by and the Denver location and they had some new neighbors move in .

That'll work .

So I'd presume , when you got the Rockies right next to you and all those crazy Rockies fans drinking beer , well , the brewery's right next to it , the brew pub , I'm sure it was packed all the time and again they all grew that location Weird couple years later . Yeah , imagine that .

With the Rockies fans right there , so it's a crazy baseball .

I'm actually a Rockies fan . I like the Rockies . I like the Rockies . The twins are , of course , I'm a Homer . I've always root for the Rockies .

I was kind of going back . You know a little , told Todd to help in days . Remember the old . I think them and the Diamondbacks had the where it was just like a fast style , like sleeveless style jerseys , you know , way back , when there's only a handful of teams that could really pull that off .

Yeah , and they could , and they have a good logo and I like their colors back . You know the purple and the black that they had back then and didn't they ? Did they get to the World Series or were they close ? Because I remember that .

I think they got to it once .

That postseason I remember I was rooting them on hardcore . I think so , man , I just can't remember . Sorry , anybody in Colorado I just can't remember my Colorado sports right now . But right , I was a fan of the Rockies . I'm still a fan , I just can't quite remember .

If you're from Colorado or a big fan of the Rockies , call us out on the social media . We'll send you a Chris Pfeiffer number .

Yeah , let us know so , because the Rockies moved next door and all their fans , and again they outgrew their downtown Denver location . So they did find another location a few miles away from where they were in downtown Denver . That's where they've been for the past 19 years .

That's a couple , three , four .

It's about six .

Oh , there we go , so it's a solid output .

So in actuality it's 1.8 million gallons of beer , Wow .

That's a lot of beer . That's a lot of beer . I was waiting for you to say . They moved a couple of miles to the west and then all of a sudden the avalanche moved in , because the Pepsi Center is kind of around that period too . At least I think it's the . I don't even know what it is now , I'm not sure . I think it might be the Pepsi Center .

Oh , you did .

Yeah , it was kind of a crazy tangent Tuesday , kind of going off the rails here . I worked over nights .

Oh , no , wow .

You want to talk about like one thing after another , like that was . But Pepsi Center was fun , denver was fantastic . They used to get around . They had a lot of like you know public transportation and it was pretty cool . Yeah , I've never been to .

Denver before . I've been to Colorado a few times , but just driving through , so I've never really stopped through there . How long ago was that ? When you were there for the Wildland Four years ago or something In the Wildland ? No

it was , either it was a one goal game , like three , two or two or something like that or whatever . And 30 seconds left , one goal game , goalie out , pucks in R and all of the things were going right .

So that was a little bit of a different experience , but yeah it was close .

It was fun . It was a pretty good game . I don't think the Wilds had a very great season that year , but it was fun . It was a blast . You know , I'd absolutely do something like that again randomly go to games .

Right , that doesn't ever happen , does it ? It's always a good time to go to away games , and go with their fans and have fun doing that . The question is were you drinking Breckenridge beer when you were at this ?

time I feel like I must have . I don't know if they for sure did , but I know that when I went to the bar beforehand , I specifically was like I want something local . And I looked at all the tabs and I'm like I feel like I've had almost all of them .

Well , I guess I count so that works .

Yeah , so I probably did have Breckenridge likely that night , but it was a few hours there and then a few hours at the game , then a few hours back there again afterwards . Maybe some spots that I'm not sure of the details . Well , five , things . Things didn't exactly flow right through my brain afterwards . I don't blame you for that , I'm sure I did .

Yep , so then Breckenridge could be responsible for the cloudiness , exactly . Yeah , we'll call Mr Todd and they hey , we got a problem here . Mr Todd might not be a problem , but just you know .

Yeah , exactly , you might want to put that on a warning label or something . It may cause foggyness , all right . Okay , somebody want to phone in and let us know where we were at before .

Yeah , we're need some more of this beer actually , I think . All right , so getting a little back on track , let's steer back on course or put the train back on the track here . So they were brewing 60,000 barrels of beer or 1.8 million gallons of beer if we want to convert that out of that location when they moved away from downtown Denver .

I don't know if there's like an old Walmart available or something like through the spirit Halloween thing , where you just move into an old building .

That would actually be a pretty good size , but I actually found a little better spot here , and a little bit . I'll tell you right now . Okay , I'll wait here . We won't even keep this , we won't even have any suspense , yeah .

We'll have that when we come back from the commercial break .

So around 2015, . So a few years later , of course , mr Todd and his team , they did end up finding a bigger spot . They found a 12 acre stretch of land in Littleton Colorado that once , at one time , was a carnation farm . So , huh , interesting place to move a brewery to and a tap house and tasting room and all that .

I feel like that's one of those things that like there's enough carnations that are out there that there must be a farm , but I feel like that's one of those things that you never really think of . Like I suppose they have to have a farm for carnations .

They didn't come from a featuring dish , it's true .

Well , nowadays it depends on the care they're supposed to what we're talking about . So they find this carnation farm . They find it it's no longer making carnations In .

Littleton Colorado . Littleton Colorado , that's where they're at . So with the 12 acres , you know it's a new location for them , but the new location's got the 12 acres . It's larger . It features a hundred barrel brew house , a barrel aging room . They read that all their packaging , all new packaging line dedicated to her staff . Then they added a farmhouse restaurant

I'm kind of there .

So when you're there you get something to eat while you're trying their beer .

Absolutely Probably not a bad plan , really . That probably limits some of the fogginess . Probably would .

That's ah , there we go . Especially if you're driving , don't drink and drive people .

Exactly , yep , don't do that .

That's a good start , I guess .

Drink and take public transportation . Yes , Uber , Lyft .

Block Run Plains , whatever gets you from here there , Exactly , Don't drive .

Call your buddy Kyle .

So after they got that going in 2015 , in 2016 , Breckenridge Brewery became a member of the Kraft Brewer's Collective and that's kind of a family owned Kraft Breweries type thing . I mean , it's actually a unit of Anheuser-Busch .

Breckenridge Brewery .

The bizarbon Kind of went from . Maybe its own thing . I wasn't quite so clear on it , but it does say Anheuser-Busch on their webpage and stuff . I'm not sure if Anheuser-Busch just helps distribute them .

I wonder if they don't do some of the bottling Just because they have the infrastructure to do so much more .

Right . So I think it's probably more of a distributor type deal for them , Because in 2016 , after they got that into their Kraft Breweries Collective in 2016 , there now they're sending their beer out to 48 different states .

So there we go .

They're pretty widely out there now Breckenridge beer , nice , and then today they've expanded their focus to make beers for any occasion for everyone to enjoy , with the laid back Colorado type vibe , especially small batches and barrel aged beers invoke more of a wild west imaginative ski bum and a salt that's like their quote .

I do feel like a ski bum .

I do too , because I don't ski .

Yep there we go .

I think I've crossed country , skied Well . I was forced to in junior high we had to cross country ski for gym class .

I used to do that a lot in high school . That was kind of my , because I was pretty bad at basketball in high school . I mean , I still am pretty bad at basketball , but I didn't .

Yeah , we ever done any of the downhill skiing ? I've never done any of that either I didn't Again when I was in high school .

Ironically , blake was like church , church Trips and stuff . Like we , you know , go to Wild Mountain or Quadna when that was still a ski resort and things like that or whatever . I think I went one time to like Powder Ridge with Kimball with . It was to make me and my friend Kurt just went the one time .

I'm getting sick of winter , I'm getting sick of snow . If I'm out in snow , I prefer something with a motor .

You know I'd be tumbling down the hill or anything .

I will on a snowmobile . I just don't want to work that hard at it . Right , getting old and lazy and I like , I like some beer Right , freaking rich beer .

That's what I need to . I need to get a snowmobile . I don't have anything like that or whatever . Never , never , done a lot of that , so you need to enjoy a little bit more of winter's fairs Stuff .

And it takes work and effort , though it's cold out , that's true .

I could stay inside and drink more beer for the podcast .

Drink more beer for the podcast Research , research , you know that's that's .

we'll stick to that Game plan for the next one I'll drink to that Cheers . I wonder if that'll actually work . It kind of came through the mic stand , is that ? Oh , there we go . That was a pretty weak little yeah . I didn't want to . You know , like no way .

Yeah , I don't know what . So overall , and on the Breckenridge October Fest , it's a pretty decent October Fest . I'd say of the three that we've done , I'd probably rank it number two . I still think shells is number one , but I'd rate this number two is a little more bitter .

I think I probably agree . I mean , I do like the , the bells , but in a way , like the bells and the shells were kind of similar , but kind of light , kind of easy drinking , but the shells still had a little more flavor to it , this has like a different flavor profile to it . It definitely it's still an October Fest . You still get that .

Yeah , it works for me .

It's good enough way to describe it yeah . I know what I'm saying . It is different you do expert . Not many other people would say that's fine . I still say it anyway Volume shooter , just throw it all out there . So , yeah , pretty good , though I'd be willing to take a random . I should look at tickets to see when the wild play Colorado and do that again .

Would you even go out there for again to begin with , just to watch the ?

game .

Oh , just to watch the game .

Yeah , I literally started is I have a friend that lives , it's like , north of town and they like not in Denver or whatever , but you're talking about that . She's like , oh , I'm gonna get tickets to you know , go into the thing . And I'm like , oh , that'd be really sweet . I should look at tickets and she's like , yeah , I absolutely do it .

Andy , you are one wild man . You know it's been done . You're so wild .

Amanda can contain you . She doesn't . She just rolls her eyes and allows me to do whatever .

I wonder if that friend of yours in Colorado knows we have a podcast .

I should . I'll have to let her know . Probably is she might even clicked on it some point time .

Listen to this episode for sure .

It's in your own town Exactly , or ?

in your neck of the woods . I don't know if it's her hometown .

I'll send her a couple of the like stickers or something like that , or some of the , even the poster , the business cards with the QR code . Put them up all over the place . Stick it on the wall at the brick and ridge or something that absolutely yeah yeah , it's pretty solid beer , pretty solid place . They'll be a lot of fun to be able to check it out .

So yeah , I agree . So go get yourself some brick and ridge October fest . If you haven't yet , while it's still out there , give it a try . Let us know what you think . Mm-hmm , you know , as of all October fest , they only make them for just a quick couple short months .

Yep , it's a yeah , it's definitely a short term , seasonal , I mean , because some seasonals , like you get like the honey , but not honey bites , that's more of a year-round thing , but it was like the lemon shanties or lemon beers , you know , or Summertime ish , but like the October fest is , it's a much shorter window for that for .

Google , we're on quite a few . So all the major ones , major podcast , social media platforms . So we're out there , yeah , like the old proverbial like share and subscribe .

You know , tell your friends , tell your neighbors . Nothing else like go log on to their Wi-Fi and download .

Share button . You're just clicking the like and type in a period in the comment . Just helps the algorithm move , moving around a little bit .

Yeah , we want to , we want to hear from you , though , you know definitely let us know kind of what you think . If there's something that you're got questions for us or Thoughts on a certain beer , or maybe there's something you don't like , you know we're definitely open to deleting cotton and listening to other comments too . You know we're .

Or just send us some beer . Yeah yeah , I'm all good with that .

Yeah , we're , we're happy to Hat and maybe even and a sticker , and we'll get you something . We'll get you some swag for sure , absolutely .

We're very open to beer , absolutely .

We don't discriminate , so we can , we can be bright , we can be bought , that's for sure . So so that's a that . Yeah , that's a pretty much episode seven there with Breckenridge Brewery , kind of recapping .

Yeah , I just went nuts right out of the gate . Yeah , check out their website . There's a lot of good information on there by some of their merchandise .

You know whatever , absolutely , and of course you know I go out and check it out . You know , find the October Fest , or find you know any of the Breckenridge beers and give them a whirl and kind of . You know , like I said , let us know on the comments what you think . So and Again , if you have any ideas for future episodes , let us know .

We do have a beer picked out for that one , and I don't have the exact name with me , but well , I'll just tell you it's from out of this world , we'll tell you that , and I'll leave a question with Andy , but I'm not gonna let him answer it . So I'm gonna let it marinate a little bit .

exist . We'll have to discuss that on the next episode . That's so that that'll be the ultimate teaser to be able to get you back . So for sure , we'll have to discuss that on the . The next opportunity , the next episode of two guys

Thanks a lot for this to everybody . Appreciate it . God bless and cheers and we'll talk to you soon .