Friday Night Lites and Darks - Asher Brewing Company

So last Friday, our Happy Hour run started at Asher Brewing Company in Gunbarrel.  Asher claims to be the first all organic brewer in Colorado.  This isn't all that important to me, but is a nice touch.  What is even better is that I discovered the bus stop 10 feet from my front door puts me on a bus that drops me off about 20 feet from Asher's front door.  (and in the fall, about 1/4 mile from Avery).  This was the most significant find of the evening.

The run is actually quite nice.  (course map.) It runs around the Twin Lakes and picks up on a couple of other trails north of Gunbarrel.   It is one of my more favorite Friday runs from a brewery.  I hadn't done this run in awhile, and it showed as Andrew and I ended up missing a turn and running the loop clockwise instead of our normal counter-clockwise fashion.  It was a pleasant evening and a relaxed run.

Asher is located in a light industrial park.  That would suggest the ambience wouldn't be that great.  But that couldn't be further from the truth.   In the summer, it is a great place to sit outside and drink a few brews.  They have a number of chairs and tables out front and they will spill out into the parking lot.   But there are a couple of trees along the parking lot in front of the building, so it doesn't feel like your sitting in a parking lot.

Inside, even though it was originally built as office space, they have done a good job with the taproom. It isn't anything fancy, but it has the neighborhood, corner bar feel.  You just feel comfortable when you walk in the door.  Like this is home.  There is a back room with corn hole and pinball.  And they will have live music regularly.  While Asher has no food service, on the weekend there will be food trucks parked out front.  And they all are quite good.

Tonight I started with their stout.  Early in the day, I had kicked-off Stout Month at the Southern Sun with a couple of stouts for lunch.  My co-workers treated me for my birthday.  Stout Month will be a whole other blog entry.  But let me say the River North Belgian Stout was fantastic.  5 Tail wags for that one.  So coming off that, Asher had a big act to follow.  And maybe it was too much to ask, but the stout wasn't exciting.  3 Tail Wags.  No harm, though.  I sorta knew this wasn't a good idea.

Beer number 2, however, was great.  In partnership with the now opened Fate Brewing, they have brewed Cocoa Punk 'N Porter.   A good nutty flavor, with hints of cocoa.  4.25 Tail wags.  A really nice beer.  I wasn't planning it, but a birthday beer was bought, so I ended up with a Green Bullet I.P.A.  I haven't been drinking IPA's lately, but wanted something different.  Asher makes a good, hoppy IPA.  Solid 4 tail wags on this one.

Then it was back to Southern Sun to meet some out of town friends.  One more stout and this was turning into a late night.  A 5:30am alarm was beckoning.  A day at Vail on the slopes was on tap tomorrow for my birthday.  Gotta get up early to beat the traffic.  So I called it a night and headed home.

The morning wake up was rough, but it was worth it as Vail finally had some snow.  Lines were typical Vail size, but it didn't matter.  Bluebird day, soft snow, I'll deal with the longer waits.

Lines forming early at Lift #5, out of Sun Up Bowl.

Asher's ratings :
Food : N/A (But generally have good food trucks on weekends)
Beer : 4 Tail Wags (Their IPAs are solid.  The Porter was outstanding.  The stout fell a bit short)
Service : 3.5 Tail Wags (Just a couple of gals behind the bar.  Previously it seemed like they would be more interested in chatting with someone sitting at the bar, but lately been more attentive and serving you right away.
Ambience : 4 Tail Wags (while in a light industrial park, it really has a cozy, comfortable, neighborhood bar feel)

Overall Rating : 3.8 Tail Wags

Welcome. And Let's Go Snowshoeing.

You are privileged to be reading the first ever post on my new blog.  I have tried to do a little blogging before on the Fleet Feet Racing Team blog.  But I find talking about one's training and racing is a bit vain.  Especially if one isn't a top runner.  So I needed to expand upon just the running thing and add in some other topics.  What goes well with running?  Why, beer of course.  And it happens to be one of my other favorite passions.

So this blog will hopefully give you some insights into my running and the Colorado beer scene.  Just within Boulder city limits, there  currently are 11 breweries, with 2 more expected to open this year.  In Boulder County, there are over 20 breweries.  In Colorado, the total is over 120.  So there is plenty to drink and write about. Plus, I'll add in a few other opinions and insights as well (things I couldn't really do on the Fleet Feet blog).  I don't know how many people will read this.  Even if no one does, it is still a good exercise to keep the brain sharp.   I just need to write more.

My next blog update will recap a recent trip up to Fort Collins to stop by a few different taprooms, including Odell, which was tapping Lugene Chocolate Milk Stout.  This would be my recommendation of the month.  A very good brew.

But for this first post, we will stay with the running theme.  As it is winter time, snowshoe racing season is upon us.  After skiing over 30 000 vertical feet at Beaver Creek this past Friday the 18th, I wasn't sure how my legs would respond for a race on Saturday.  But waking up Sat morning, I felt remarkably good.  It was a relatively short drive from Avon thru Minturn up to Tennessee Pass and Ski Cooper's Nordic Center.  It was a beautiful morning.  Blue skies.  Upper 20's.  No wind.  Perfect day to race.

51 brave souls toed the starting line of the Colorado State Championships 5K/10K, put on by Pedal Power.  The start was on the groomed cross-country ski trails.  But the race course quickly left the groomers behind and instead became single track thru the woods.   Obviously the race director had hiked on the trail to set up the course, but other than maybe a few of others with him and the 2 guys ahead of me when we turned onto the single track, there hadn't been many who had trekked down this path.  It made the footing quite unstable.  When I didn't exactly land in the narrow single track, I sunk into the deeper powder.  And even if my foot did land in the middle of the path, since it hadn't seen a lot of traffic, it wasn't packed down hard, so occasionally my foot still sunk deeper than expected.  And then I tripped on my own snowshoes and bit it twice.

This makes it difficult to find a running rhythm and uses a lot of energy to stay upright.  2 guys quickly passed me by as I struggled a bit with the snow.  I'd almost rather break trail than run in a trail that only had a few pass thru.  Along with the uneven footing, the course meander thru the woods, over logs, under downed trees, and included brushing aside many low hanging tree limbs.  At 2 miles, it had long uphill climb.  Skiing the day before began to set in and my quads were burning.  I stopped and began hiking.  Another runner passed me by.  As I closed in on the 5k, my watch said 36:00.  I was tired and really began considering bailing on the 10k and just doing 5.  If the 2nd half of this race was anything like the first, I might end up crawling.  I, of course, never would do the easy thing and continued passed the cutoff leading to the 5k finish line.

Luckily the 2nd half of the race had a lot more hard packed snow to run on.  I found my rhythm and started to pick up the pace.  A long climb around 5 miles was much easier to do on the hard packed snow.  I passed a guy and thru the trees would occasionally see another guy ahead.  I thought I might be able to reel him in.  As the climb continued, I actually was happy.  It meant a lot of downhill to the finish.  And when that downhill came, I flew thru the winds.  But I never gained ground on the guy ahead of me.  In fact, I never saw him.  It was like he was a ghost and vanished.  A strong push to the finish earned me 6th place with a time of 1:13:53 (the time is quite irrelevant.  But for a perspective on the toughness of the course, Kevin Menard, who finished ahead of me in 1:12:11, went 1:05:49 a week earlier at the Swift Skeddadle 10K in Silverthorne a week earlier.)

I was happy with the effort.  Besides a dry, hacking cough that lasted the rest of the day, I came thru without any issues.  Then followed up on Sunday with another 22 000 vertical feet of skiing.  All in all a good weekend.  Now the mountains just need to get some snow.  I took a nasty core shot in one my skis on what wasn't just a rock, but based on what my ski now looks like, a boulder.  

Results of Colorado State Championships at the Tennessee Pass Nordic Center