Reader: Denver’s conservative beer culture is no match for Portland

Beer here! A recent transplant from Portland, Oregon, found Colorado Beer Man’s comparison of the Denver beer scene to that of Portland. And in this newcomer’s view, Denver’s not the winner.

Here’s the bad beer news from Smtidongaoryboo:

Just moved here from Portland, completely disagree with this article on the quality front. There are some world class breweries here: Great Divide, Avery, Left Hand, Oskar Blues and a hand full of small brewers do excellent brewing and are creative. But honestly Colorado doesn’t hold much of a candle compared to Portland. The level of creativity the brewers exercise in Portland is consistently much higher and the quality that is expected is also much higher. I have to seek a good brew pub here in Denver. In Portland 95% of the brewpubs are excellent, the culture there pushes the limits on quality and creativity. Denver is more conservative in general and it definitely effects the beer culture. We have some very good brewing here but it somehow seems more corporate and plastic and far less risky. Good beer can be found here but Portland has amazing beer cascading out of its pours…

Conservative? See more — lots more — of Denver’s beer culture in this slide show of Great Divide’s seventeenth birthday party on Saturday.

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