Regular Joe's Guide

Latest visit: Jan 2023 First visit: Jan 2019 Dueces Wild is one of Colorado Springs most adventurous breweries. If you define adventure as historical or going back in time. And I do. Usually that word is saved for breweries who mix in all sorts of non traditional ingredients, and focus on sours, wilds, and freaky IPA's. That's not Dueces Wild. They focus on beers from antiquity. This is the only brewery - that I know of - that has an Old Burton ale for example. What? Yea, exactly. Apparently it's a beer that goes way back to the Belgian Abbey's and made popular in London in the 1600's. If you get a pilsner here, it will be "pre-prohibition" style. I love breweries that focus on traditional beers, and especially ones that dig up styles that time has forgotten. The location is in a somewhat isolated area in east Colorado Springs, not too far from Powers and Galley. It's a large space and you can sit with the brew tanks if so desired. They recently took d...

First visit: Jan 2023 (Denver - Rosedale) Well this wasn't the original plan. I had MLK day off and decided to go record digging in Denver. I originally had targeted a sandwich shop only to find out it's mainly a catering place. The website was very confusing on that front. OK fine - what's nearby? Some interesting place that makes all kinds of bacon. Walk in, start to grab a barstool, and I'm told "sir, there's a 45 minute wait". For an empty barstool? Who ever heard of such a thing? First come first serve, that's always the way for bar seating. There was no one waiting inside - probably sitting in their car and they'll ping you when it's time. Well that sucks. Oh but wait - I parked right next to a pizza joint that promises by the slice. They even had a sign on their door indicating they're open on MLK, even though it's a holiday. Came back - close inspection said they were opening an hour later. C'mon - this is a conspiracy! Than...

Closed: Dec 2024 Latest visit: Jan 2023 First visit: Feb 2019 Of the breweries entering into this year, FH Beerworks is the one I hadn't been to in the longest time. Trying to catch up plus there's 3 new breweries that showed up in the latter half of 2022. Part of the reason for that delay is that FH cans their beers for the local stores, so I don't necessarily need to go to their brewery to try them. However they always have different beers at the brewery than their "flagship" offerings. And that's what I had this time (and probably will every time). When we first moved back to the Springs, FH had 2 locations - one downtown and one off of Powers (east). We went to the former first. They have since sold that location to a brewery called Red Swing Brewhouse, who opened in 2021 (we've been once and after our next revisit, we'll report on it - sometime this year hopefully).  FH (which originally stood for FieldHouse) is a large space, with a warehouse lik...

Closed: Mar 2025 Latest visit: Jan 2023 First visit: Feb 2020 Coming into 2020, we had started the great habit of trying breweries in the Denver area. I had convinced Mrs. RJG that it would be fun to have one beer on the way home, after seeing family (which is why we're usually in Denver together). Halfpenny Brewing represents the last time we did that before the pandemic hit. So it was fitting to restart the tradition here again, almost 3 years to the date later. Oh believe me, I've been trying to kickstart this program since 2021, but she wasn't very interested. And I always state that I'm going to stop at one while digging for records in the area. But I get so busy that by the time I look up and get some air, I need to skedaddle back home. Halfpenny is definitely on the large side for a neighborhood brewery, and they feature a full biergarten in the back. On this day, the NFL playoffs were going, and it's nice to see places like this filling up again to watch spo...

Last visit: Jan 2023 First visit: Sep 2018 We had the FNABQ's over yesterday. Who are they, you ask? A family that used to live across the street from us here in Colorado Springs but now live in Albuquerque. Hence, Former Neighbor [now in] Albuquerque. It's highly likely we will see them down there this year as well. Like the Cowcatchers in NE Tarrant, it's apparent we will be keeping in touch, as our friendship has continued to grow. Their son is attending the Colorado School of Mines, and he didn't join us on this occasion. Mrs. RJG and I were hoping they'd arrive with a suggestion for lunch, and sure enough they did: La Casa Fiesta in Monument. This would have been the only way that Mrs. RJG and I would have returned. As you can see we went once not too long after moving here. We didn't enjoy the experience, and we had such high hopes going in that first time. La Casa Fiesta is one of those restaurants that looks great on paper. Especially Regular Joe's G...