Occupying the old Victorian space of the former Augustine Grill, Wild Blue Yonder Brewing Co. takes its place as Castle Rock’s newest and possibly busiest brewery. Offering up huge indoor and outdoor spaces plus food, a full bar and a variety of beers, Wild Blue Yonder was packed when I visited just before Halloween on their second day of business.
BEER LINEUP: While limited at this early stage, the taplist of seven beers hits most popular styles and will likely let any beer lover find something appealing. The styles that our party tried all tasted great and true to style. Additionally, there are guest ciders and a limited bar.
ATMOSPHERE: On their second day of operation the atmosphere was buzzing with energy and even a little chaotic. The mostly adult, professional crowd packed the indoor taproom and spilled onto the large front patio and huge rear beer garden. The industrial taproom has a slight aviation theme in keeping with the brewery’s name and the owners’ Air Force roots, and opens nicely to show off the production area. While the beer garden is a bit roughly-finished at the moment the plan is to upgrade the landscaping and make it a multi-functional space. The kitchen offers a full food menu.
SERVICE: As one might imagine for a brand-new operation that was suddenly packed to capacity, service was a little confused but overall the friendly crew did a pretty good job of keeping the drink and food flowing.
LOCATION: Situated on a corner of busy Wilcox Street at the edge of downtown Castle Rock, Wild Blue Yonder makes a great stop while strolling around the main street shops and businesses, as part of a brewery-hopping tour, or as a destination its own right. There’s decent street parking and the Douglas County School District building across the street has plenty of spots in off hours.
STANDOUT BEER: Napoleon’s Conquest French Saison showcases virtually everything I love about saisons. The orange-amber, medium-bodied beer puts forward a medley of spice flavors balanced by a little bit of breadiness and the crispness that comes with Belgian yeast.
to enjoy their expansive patio/beer garden and some lunch. Cerberus serves up what I’d call “gourmet pub food”, which seems like overkill for a brewery, but was certainly tasty. They specialize in smoked brisket and our hunger was piqued when we smelled the smoker as we pulled into the parking lot. As far as the beer, my friend went light and I went dark and we both enjoyed all of the beers that we tried. They offer a varied selection for all tastes and exceptionally friendly and efficient servers. The overall atmosphere definitely encourages lingering, chilling, eating and drinking – especially on a warm sunny day.
schoolhouse converted to retail with businesses in the old classrooms and gym. The taproom offers up the standard craft-brewery experience; light-industrial design, garage doors opening to a patio, and a handful of beers that stay reasonably true to style and cover the full spectrum. The brewery offers up a pleasant experience but nothing about it would make me go out of my way to visit. In the context of this little tour, it’s a fine drop-in between Cerberus or Atrevida but you could easily substitute one of the other downtown breweries and not miss out on anything.
beers mostly focused on traditional styles with interesting additions such as the Fresas con Crema strawberry cream ale and Boriqua Belgian blonde with pineapple and citrus. Based on all the brews we sampled, Atrevida has that approach dialed-in. We greatly enjoyed the creative beers, the friendly server, and checking out the tiny production units that make these small-batch creations.
to wind down our day but it seems like the place has already become the go-to stop for Friday Happy Hour. The trendy-industrial taproom, front patio, and huge beer garden were packed and buzzing with energy. Although I didn’t try any of their food, the two beers I enjoyed while playing cornhole outdoors were absolutely fantastic. It often seems to take time for a brewery to settle into their recipes and equipment but Wild Blue Yonder appears to have hit the ground running. It’s definitely worth the short drive from Denver.
with the return of the Demons of Ale – The Beast Grand Cru, Samael’s Oak-Aged Ale, & Mephistopheles’ Stout – along with a costume contest on Friday the 26th. Naturally the best costume takes home a case full of demons!
7:30 p.m. costume contest at their Halloween Rumpus to score some sweet prizes, not to mention specially-printed t-shirts, beer releases and an 80’s DJ.
takes over Glendale’s Infinity Park in combination with Olympic-qualifying women’s rugby. Starting at 1:00 p.m. grab samples from over 30 breweries before checking out the action on the field. Note: This is a ticketed event.
Sunday 21: Pumpkin mayhem hits 
Saturday the 13th ushers in the Lucky 13 Anniversary Party at 
scheduled at short ride (approx. 5 miles) through The Highlands and Edgewater. The route primarily uses residential streets but takes a few trails, most notably through Sloan’s Lake Park with pretty views of the lake and mountains. The shorter ride lets you finish before dark on these shorter fall days but beware if it’s a Broncos Sunday, as the first part of the route runs reasonably-close to the stadium.
We started at 
the bike racks in front and at the municipal lot across the street and dived right in to the diverse taplist. In my experience Joyride can be a hit or miss in their selection but I’ve never been completely frustrated with their offerings. The taproom connects to the outdoors with garage doors opening to pleasant Sloan’s Lake views in front and a patio/biergarten out back. On our visit it appeared that they are building a rooftop patio to further leverage their location. Like Briar Common, this place is best experienced in warm weather. If the short ride calls for some sustenance, food trucks consistently park out front.
from both the front and rear patios, and the chill band. As for beers, Zuni Street covers the full spectrum from dark to light but on my visits it seems like IPAs and hoppier styles are their sweet spot. We found a place in the shade on the front patio where we had easy access to both the bar and food truck.
for Halfpenny, why not combine it with 
Saturday 6: For those more centrally-located, 
winter stouts. There are a number of sub-categories of saison like French or Farmhouse but I’ve tried to provide general expectations below for the more casual, non BJCP, beer-drinker.
significant variation in flavors. In many cases the yeast or other local ingredients produce fruit, sour or spice notes and some of the farmhouse styles contain flavors that many describe as “barnyard” or “earthy”. While most saisons brewed in America will come via a keg, the traditional method involves a secondary fermentation in the bottle and a relatively high level of carbonation.
Denver Beer Traveler 