Gruner Brothers Brewing, Casper WY

Summer Trip 2022, Day 17

Gruner Brothers is located in a seemingly new building in a newly-built-up area. With their location on a hill, one of their two outdoor areas has an amazing vista across the valley. As it was above my temperature tolerance level outdoors, I sat inside (not much better than outdoors because it was open to the outdoors, but at least without the strong winds that have accompanied me the past two days).

They had 13 of 14 taps up and running, and much to my surprise, they have bucked the trend of seemingly everywhere else and only had one pale ale and one IPA on tap! Even the IPA was quite mild, but I’ll get to that one with the second flight below.

Flight #1:

From left to right:

Sundance Blonde – 5% – Wow, this was one of the most flavorful blonde ales I’ve ever had! I really, really enjoyed it and would have been tempted to just have a pint of it after this flight, but there were so many other beers I also wanted to try.

North Platte Pale Ale – 6% – Even though this is listed as 40 IBU, it doesn’t have the bitterness of many pale ales because of the heavy malt bill to balance the hops. It actually struck me as even milder than the blonde, but still tasty.

A OK Märzen – 5.5% – OK, forget the blonde, this became my hands-down favorite of this flight (and of the day)! I’ve learned to be a bit leery of Märzens because they can be too edgy for my taste, but this one is truly refined and an all-day drinker.

Garden Kriek – 6.2% – And they do a mean sour ale, too! I couldn’t find any fault with this one, and would absolutely get it again if I’m ever back here.

Meanwhile, my food showed up. Gruner Brothers has separate bar and food (“Petro Pub”) ordering but you can run a common tab between the two. I opted for their Beer Brat Sandwich with fries, and both were absolutely perfect both in taste and amount. If I’d been able to, I’d have happily done a second order. Those fries, like the similar ones I had at Bar Eighty Six in Richfield UT, were perfectly crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside.

And then came Flight #2:

From left to right:

Crimson Dawn – 4.5% – This is billed as a summer ale brewed with “epic amounts of raspberries,” but it didn’t quite work for me. It was good, but there was too much raspberry for me to ever want a pint of it. If you like fruity beers, though, I recommend it.

Hells Hef Acre – 5.5% – This Hefeweizen is named after a natural ground formation I passed somewhere west of here called “Hell’s Half Acre” and is one of my favorite Hefeweizens of all time.

Petro Club – 5.2% – This is a Czech Pilsner that is also very well done, but I love the Hefe and the Märzen even more.

Salt Creek Citra – 7.7% – And here is that IPA that doesn’t really taste like one! It just seemed too mild, too much like the rest of their (really excellent) beers, almost as if their hearts weren’t really into making an IPA but they wanted one on tap for those guests that expect it. Still, I don’t regret it.

All in all, Gruner Brothers does some fine brewing and the food from the Petro Pub is also top-notch. The space is even larger than what you can see in the first photo above and I can well imagine they’re able to fill it – even though Casper is only 60,000 people or so, this place is good enough to attract a real following.