Beer Run Blog

Riding the G Line of Beer

It's been two months now since the Regional Transportation District opened the G Line, extending from Wheat Ridge through Arvada and into Denver Union Station. Many people likely haven't experienced the ride yet. And that is a mistake — particularly from a beer perspective.

Urban dwellers may not realize it, but Arvada now has a brewing scene equal to any Denver-area town that is not Denver. One of the most underrated beer bars in the area sits just a five-minute walk from the first stop on the G Line. And the starting point of this excursion, Denver Union Station, sits in one of the most beer-friendly areas of downtown, even if you have only a short time to imbibe.

Here, then, is a beer-lovers' guide to the G Line — a trip I tried out myself during a birthday crawl of the new rail route that I organized last month.

Stop 1: Denver Union Station
There's too many options at the refurbished 19th-century train to list them all, but there are several key things to know. The Terminal Bar at the train station opens at 10 a.m. and has 30 taps that are dedicated solely to Colorado beers. Both the adjacent Hopdoddy Burger Bar and Thirsty Lion Gastropub are out-of-state chains but are replete with good beer and high-quality food starting at 11 a.m. And Wynkoop Brewing, just across the street from the station, has undergone a serious renaissance since John Sims took over as head brewer a few years ago and reintroduced serious experimentation to the 31-year-old brewpub.

Stop 2: 41st and Fox
The community surrounding this stop in north-central Denver remains in its nascent stages, but the Crafty Fox Taphouse & Pizzeria is literally a five-minute walk from the stop. The restaurant has a lengthy and excellent tap list (that's Weldwerks Juicy Bits in this photo from my birthday crawl) and is extremely family-friendly, with games and toys aplenty offered for kids. It's also got an impressive patio and is located next to a craft-heavy liquor store, Bogey's Beer and Wine, that will allow you the opportunity to take home a six-pack or bomber of many of the things you tasted next door.
(Note: I discovered after writing this post that Crafty Fox had closed less than two weeks beforehand. That's a loss not just for the G Line tour but for the Denver beer community. Let's hope another restaurant with good food and a good tap list can give it a shot at making this a great beer stop.)

Stop 3: Pecos Junction
Located near West 62nd and Pecos in unincorporated Adams County, the nearest businesses here are a truck- and tractor-part dealership, a self-storage facility and a garage. Bruz Beers (whose owners are pictured above) is a 20-minute walk up Pecos, though, and it's got an eclectic and improving selection of Belgian options, so if you really want to hit every stop on the line, have your Uber app ready and it will take you there. River North is a little further — 36 minutes by foot, though just five minutes by car, and its collection of hazy IPAs and liver-breaking 15% ABV Decennial series are worth spending the money on getting someone else to drive you around.

Stop 4: Clear Creek and Federal Station
While Adams County officials have some grand plans to make this an area to live, work and play — including possible features on the creek — you are currently out of luck at this stop around 60th and Federal, which is all industrial without a good beer in site. But give it time. And wave hello as you pass it by presently.

Stop 5: Arvada Gold Strike (60th and Sheridan)
Similar to Pecos Junction, this is an industrial zone. But Odyssey Beerwerks in Arvada is a 20-minute walk away, and new brewery operations director Chris Griffith - late of the closed Fate Brewing and its fantastic experiments in flavor — is ramping up the brewery's menu in exciting ways, including a chai version of its tasty Psycho Penguin Porter that took that beer to a new level. So why recommend this trip more vociferously than a similar one to Bruz on an RTD pub crawl? For this reason: Bruz, while it is a great brewery, is beyond the industrial zone surrounding its RTD stop in a residential community that is easily accessed by car. Odyssey, meanwhile, is almost buried in an industrial park that really speaks to where you are getting off here, and its inclusion in any pub crawl puts the neighborhoods of the new rail line in perspective.

Stop 6: Olde Town Arvada
You could take the G Line from Union Station to here and not leave, and you still have struck beer gold. Within a five-minute walk, you can stumble into New Image Brewing, whose collection of hazy IPAs and genre-pushing sours arguably puts it into the list of Colorado's 10-15 best breweries (and sports a great back patio, as seen in this photo). Denver Beer Co's suburban location, with its in-house burger trailer and range of Arvada-only beers, is a similar distance away. Do not, however, overlook, Homegrown Tap & Dough, an upscale pizza restaurant with a rewarding tap and bottle list that is literally a really strong stone's throw from the station (as opposed the 4-5 minutes you'll have to walk to get to the two breweries). And it's just an eight-minute walk down to Yak & Yeti, a Nepalese restaurant that also is home to Sun Temple Brewing and its daring beers, including its award-winning Chai Milk Stout.

Stop 7: Arvada Ridge
Adjacent to a shopping and dining area that features a lot of fast-casual chains, this stop just east of Kipling and Ridge Road in Arvada is probably more appropriate for a quick bite to calm your buzz if you are making this trip. But Li'l Nick's Pizza is just a six-minute walk from the station and has 14 beers on tap. And Discovery Tap House and its 28 beers are only an 11-minute walk, which, again, can be be rewarded with all kind of burgers, calzones or fast Chinese on the way back to the station.

Stop 8: Wheat Ridge - Ward Station
Like several of its brethren station on the G Line, this is not near beer oases just yet, though city leaders say they hope to build up a multi-use community around the stop that can feature restaurant and retail. But if you're willing to sit in a car for 10 minutes, you can get to either of the two Wheat Ridge breweries — Brewery Rickoli, which has taken the gluten-reduced taste profile in far-out directions, including a GABF-medal-winning barley wine and a lot of bold hoppy and sour flavors, and Colorado Plus, whose half-dozen in-house beers are supplemented by a tap list of 50-plus Colorado-only offerings, including some smaller breweries you won't find elsewhere. A trip to either place is well worth your time.

Labels: Arvada breweries, Brewery Rickoli, Bruz Beers, Colorado Plus Brew Pub, Crafty Fox, Denver Beer Co, Hopdoddy, New Image Brewing, Odyssey Beerwerks, Sun Temple Brewing, Thirsty Lion, Wynkoop Brewery