Hometown Special: Steamboat Springs Edition
Round two of hometown brewery visits! This time, Stephanie went home to Steamboat Springs, Colorado to visit one of her favorites, Mountain Tap Brewery. Mountain Tap has the perfect location on Yampa Street, right across from the Yampa River and Howelsen Hill, which is home to Steamboat's ski jumps.The beers, food, and relaxed ambiance all go into why she loves it, but the one thing that pushes the brewery to the top of Stephanie's list is the logo. When it first open in 2016, her family walked by Mountain Tap and she asked "what's the new place with the upside down artichokes?" Now before you start laughing, this was before Stephanie's beer drinking days and didn't know what hops looked like. So now, she's obsessed with the logo and will forever call hops upside down artichokes, all thanks to Mountain Tap.
Stephanie decided to show her parents how the Babes do it down in Boulder. This of course came with a lot of suggestions from her Dad, but all was well once the taps started flowing. Stephanie's Mom is more of a chardonnay lover but all of Mountain Tap's beers are very drinkable so she was swayed a tad! After this visit, they definitely earned the Honorary Babe status.
"Those who come to the Yampa Valley to live will never be able to leave. If they do succeed in leaving the valley, they’ll be forced to return.” - 1881 Curse of the Yampa
Token Tuesday!
Steamboat Springs is a small community outside of the winter ski traffic. So it's awesome to see Mountain Tap giving back every month. Each Tuesday, you receive a token for every beer or flight you order. You then place your token in one of the four chosen community organization for the month. For every token, the brewery donates $1 and the organization with the most tokens at the end of the month is crowned "King of the Mountain Tap." During our visit, kids from Mountain Village Montessori Charter School definitely have a future in sales because they took their bucket and were going table to table to collect tokens. It was adorable and they cleaned out our token stash.
Pizza Pizza!
Other than beer, Mountain Tap Brewery is known for its amazing pizza that is cooked in the massive wood-fired oven, which burns around 700°F. Pizza isn't the only thing cooked in there. Everything the kitchen sends out has spent some time in the oven, giving all the menu items that extra Mountain Tap flare. We ordered a couple pizzas for the table to share, however the Pesca Pizza was the most notable of the night. Normally, peaches and pizza do not mix, however, these Palisade peaches made a world of difference. The whole concoction is so unique and delicious, definitely a must try at Mountain Tap!
Brew Babes Featured Beers
Fruit Brut: 4.6% ABV
This one was a must try because the description was the "champagne of beers" and it was right on the nose. The Fruit Brut tasted like very dry champagne! It is super light and easy to drink. Plus the bright pink color is so inviting and fun. If you are tired of toasting with champagne at parties, grab a growler of this instead, it's the perfect replacement.
Passionate Pedal: 5.0% ABV
The non-beer lover found her favorite! Stephanie's Mom absolutely loved this one, so much that she ordered a full glass after the flight was finished. Even though the beer is made with tropical passionfruit, you don't get the super tart and citrusy blast of flavor you would expect. If you normally don't go for fruity beers, definitely try this one because it is more of a wheat forward beer with a hint of passionate flavor.
Foggy Mountain Haze: 5.3% ABV
We have a winner for Stephanie's Dad's favorite of the night! We would consider this a very chill IPA. You get a whiff of hops but it's surprisingly smooth. While drinking, you would never know that nearly 20 pounds of hops were used in the brewing process! The best part is that the bitterness is pretty low for an IPA at 25 IBUs. Normally IPAs hit around 50 or above IBUs. This probably explains why this IPA is so smooth and why Stephanie actually enjoyed this one! Definitely would classify Foggy Mountain Haze as an IPA for beginners.
Batch 300 Triple IPA: 10.3% ABV
The Batch 300 scared Stephanie because it's a TRIPLE IPA... but in honor of Alisa, this was a must try. Plus it's Mountain Tap's 300th batch of beer! However, before ordering, just know after one full pint of this you might be feeling it because of the 10.3% ABV. They truly did not mess around with this batch. Our server Jimmy let us in on a little secret. If you mix the Batch 300 with Foggy Mountain Haze, the new brew isn't as strong and compliment each other perfectly (plus you feel cool by creating your own beer). With Batch 300 alone, you taste a bit of spice and leaves you with a hoppy after taste. Honestly, for a triple IPA, it's not as strong as you would think! Stephanie is just convinced Alisa brainwashed her to enjoy IPAs now 😏
MacaRUM: 6.0% ABV
It's island time baby! The combination of vanilla, rum, coconut, and chocolate flavors all mix together placed us right on a beach with an umbrella in our drink. Mountain Tap actually created this brew by taking their Mountain Macaroon and aging it on rum-soaked oak for several weeks. MacaRUM smells of chocolate but you get more of the blended vanilla rum. So if you are still stuck at home, order a growler of this and after a few you will definitely feel like you are on vacation.
Paddlers' Porter: 5.9% ABV
Chocolate and caramel? Sign us up! This porter is toasty and roasty giving off that rich chocolate malt flavor. Paddlers' isn't as heavy as other porters we have tried at other breweries, so not our normal dessert beer. However, this would be perfect after a winter day on the slopes.
Want to visit Mountain Tap Brewery?
Location: 910 Yampa Street Steamboat Springs, CO 80487
Website: https://www.mountaintapbrewery.com/