A friend of mine pointed out that I didn't give any information about this picture that I posted on Saturday night. I truly phoned it in, so to speak.
Anyway, my brother delivered to me our kegs of our once still-born Oktoberfest and we took the opportunity to visit a couple of local breweries. The picture above is from Black Shirt Brewing in the River North neighborhood of Denver.
Black Shirt is a one of those hard to find, easy to miss type places. Hard to find at first (the building is a windowless early 20th Century brick shop next to a little liquor store with the letters BSB stamped on the side of the building. It is easy to begin to miss, because the beers are so good.
Once inside, the place was packed with locals and regulars. I was told by some folks from the neighborhood that it is always this way.
Black Shirt is also notable as they only serve red beers. It seems sort of limiting, but at the same time inviting. If you are a long time craft drinker (like me), your gateway beers started somewhere between Leinenkugel's, Killian's, Fat Tire, 90 Shilling, or Avalanche. It was a time that dark meant Guinness Stout, and every national brewery was making Ice Beer. The choices weren't many, but you'd always be safe with a nice malty, red (amber ale) beer. Even still, whenever there is a very limited selection, you can usually find one of these "safe" type beers.
Black Shirt takes safe and turns it around. All of their beers are delicious, and red, but few follow the "safe" route. Sure their basic BSB Red and Pale Red are almost sessionable, my personal favorite was their sour mashed Red Saison...slightly tart and effervescent. Nothing is so overpowering or unusual that anyone can find their home beer here.
For the red (read safe) beer lover, you can find yourself in some interesting territory pretty quick, but not so unfamiliar that makes you uncomfortable. And if you feel like you have lost your way, the friendly servers are always quick to get you back on track.
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