Altitude Chophouse and Brewery, Laramie WY

I’ll start with the food – because of the long drive, I actually ate lunch and had too much of it, so I just had a small appetizer (fried wontons with bacon, cheddar, and cream cheese with a ranch dipping sauce) and a side salad here. Based on those two, I really wish I’d been hungry enough to enjoy perhaps the prime rib au jus sandwich. The food was excellent!

But enough of that – onto what you came here for, the beer 🙂

They have an interesting selection!

They also offer a flight of 6, so I selected (left-to-right in the photo just below) the Pedal House Pilsner, Abject Befuddlement, Ebb and Flow, Wheat Your Heart Out, 1 Lb. Sterling, and Case of the Mondays.

I didn’t particularly care for the Pilsner, probably because I just wasn’t quite in the mood for it today. The 1 Lb. Sterling was very good and would have made a good session beer, but it didn’t hold up well to the others after I’d tasted them all. I did really enjoy the Wheat Your Heart Out – it’s perhaps the best blood orange wheat I’ve ever had. The Case of the Mondays really surprised me – it was extremely flavorful and I followed up with a 12oz pour of it to finish my visit.  The final two were both very good, but not quite what my taste buds were looking for today; on another visit I’d probably love them.

I’d wanted to sample the High Plains Pale Ale as well, but it had kicked. Too bad.

Then I noticed another board I hadn’t seen at first even though it was just below the big one (it was a long day, OK? I was tired!):

Happy to find that the sampler (flight) sizes were also available for these, I asked for a My Sword and a Benefit Q Cumberpatch. Sadly, the dunkel had also kicked, but I did get the Imperial Cucumber Kölsch. Now this was something I’d never seen before … and the waitress said that it was actually very popular and got ordered a lot! The verdict? I liked it, but not enough to get a larger pour – the cucumber was perhaps too strong, overpowering the pleasant taste of the Kölsch. If they tone that back a bit, they may have a winner.

This puts me at 4 venues and 17 beers for the trip so far, a very decent start to this 4 week adventure 🙂