Dry Dock Brewing (Aurora, CO)

The Brew Hut

07/06/12

Dry Dock Brewing from the back looking
towards the taps near the front door

First round with one of my favorite views

Gloria and I are in town for GALA, but we got a hotel in Aurora to have an evening at Dry Dock Brewing before the singing started.  Brewing TV did an episode on Dry Dock before Northern Brewer came out with their Dry Dock brew kits.  Between that and hearing about the start of the pub on Basic Brewing Radio, having a pint here was at the top of my drinking list for a trip to Denver.















Today, Dry Dock is the fully expanded version of a tap room of original business on site: The Brew Hut.  From the bar, it looks like a pretty cool brew shop, but closed at the moment.  Great idea to have the two side by side to support the making and drinking of very local craft beer.  Dry Dock is still very much a tap room with limited hours and free popcorn is your only sustenance.  Eat ahead of time, bring it along (saw a group with Chinese take-out) and come for the company and the beer.  My favorite feature of the pub was a self serve water station to stay hydrated without bothering the bartenders. JL Beers needs to take a lesson from Dry Dock.

I started with the Double IPA, which was very solid.  The Urca Vanilla Porter was a strong, extremely sweet porter full of vanilla, like a beer milkshake.  My favorite of the night was the U.S.S. Enterprise IPA that reminds me a bit of Masala Mama from my home pub Minneapolis Town Hall Brewery.  These and a couple of other drafts made for a mellow start to an exciting week in Denver.