Colorado, in general, and Colorado Springs specifically is home to some pretty good beer. The Indy has a list of the area’s breweries.
I’m learning to like craft beers. It hasn’t always been this way. I used to resent what I called “college beers,” beers for pretentious college kids. I drank whatever beer came in a can and was inexpensive. I enjoyed Old Milwaukee Light for a long time. Then when I moved to Colorado I switched to Coors Light because, well, it’s Colorado. I tried some imported beer (because that’s not pretentious), and it was a mixed bag. When I was in Russia in 2000, I had some Baltika and fell in love with it. But Baltika wasn’t imported to the U.S. till years later. And for some reason, most of the smaller breweries don’t brew lagers. Why is that, I wonder. Are ales easier to make? Is the process of making a lager prohibitive for smaller breweries? Or are ales just a better, more sophisticated beer? I don’t know. But for a while, ales triggered migraines, so I just stuck to bourbon and Coors Light. (Side note: I’ve been talking a lot about health problems. I really am not an 80-year-old man, despite sounding like one.)
Lately, though, I’m really enjoying the local brews. My favorite daily drinker has been Beehive, from Bristol. I’m also a fan of their Laughing Lab flagship beer (I was sad when I learned that the inspiration Lab had died).
There’s more about beer here than I could possibly write, and there’s so many tasty ones I’ve had in the last few months that the only advice I can give you is to go ahead and get a second job so you can afford to try everything without going broke and eating out of dumpsters (Burger King has excellent “throwaway” items, by the way).