A Celebration of Colorado Craft Beer

Following a fun 48 hours exploring Denver, I drove three hours west to Steamboat Springs for the 9th annual Steamboat OktoberWest beer festival.

Steamboat is famous for many reasons, including champagne powder snow, producing more Olympians than any other U.S. town, and a 100-year old Winter Carnival.

However, for one weekend every September before the snow begins to fall, the town celebrates Colorado craft beers.

Friday Night: Steamboat OktoberWest Bar Crawl

This year’s festival began Friday, September 15th with a beer crawl in town from 4-8pm.

The starting point was the historic Chief Theater. The cost to take part was just $20 in advance or $25 at the door, and as you’re about to see, this represents an incredible value.

For starters, there were four Steamboat-based breweries represented at the theater, each serving at least two beers. Plus, another 22 venues in town, all within about three to four blocks of each other.

One of the first beers I tasted was Buzzcock by