Colorado has around 100 craft breweries, more per capita than any other state in the nation. I don't think I'll ever be able to disassociate Coors and Colorado's "Rocky Mountain water", but handful of them stand out as excellent to me (Avery, Boulder, New Belgium, Odell, Oskar Blues, Great Divide, Breckenridge... to name a few). Another notable brewery, Left Hand, has established itself as yet another excellent Colorado brewery with several fabulous beers.
While their Sawtooth Ale and Milk Stout are probably the most common around KC, several bars and liquor stores around town carry many of their beers; The Foundry is one of them.
Last fall, the Foundry had KC's only keg of the delectable SmokeJumper, a smoked imperial American Porter that I highly recommend. They will be hosting "Left Hand Night" this Friday (7/24) from 5pm - 7pm, featuring Sawtooth Amber & St. Vrain Tripel on tap and Milk Stout in bottles. Buy either the Amber ($5 pint with $3 refills) or the Milk Stout ($5 bottles) and keep the glass. If you've never had a milk stout, this one's a good introduction to the style. They're made with lactose (hence "milk"), which is a non-fermentable sugar added to the wort prior to fermentation. The yeast can't consume the sugar, so it remains in the stout to add body and sweetness. Sounds tasty, doesn't it? Pour it in a large glass over a scoop or two of vanilla ice cream, and you have yourself one fine dessert.
Oh, and one more thing: they host an "Ales for Females" group at the brewery every month that is intended to introduce women to craft beer. Yep. I'm sensing a trend.
Left Hand is good and they also make a Hefeweizen using the proper yeast. My only problem with them is that their beer seems to be priced a dollar or two higher than other CO craft breweries. As a result, I don't buy their brews very often.
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