Every longtime reader in the Twelve Mile Circle audience already knew that this article was going to happen. Here comes the one about my latest brewery adventure. As always, I’ll try to put a bit of a geo-geek spin on it. I won’t talk about any actual beers because that wouldn’t meet the stated purpose of 12MC. Nonetheless, I’ll be understanding and sympathetic if you decide to skip this note and come back in a few days. That’s part of the deal I make when I write these travelogues. I always slip-in a brewery article and the audience has no obligation to pay any attention to it.
Can You Say Nano?
What an adorable little brewery we found in Eagle Nest, New Mexico. Just look at it, a single small cabin with a porch. I can recall only one smaller brewery I’ve ever visited, and I’ve been to more than four hundred now. This one didn’t seem to have enough size to even qualify a microbrewery; clearly it ranked as a nanobrewery. Welcome to Comanche Creek Brewing.
My relatives in nearby Angel Fire recommended it, assuming I could find its secret location. The brewery sat at the end of a long gravel road (map) terminating at the base of the Sangre de Cristo mountains. Handmade signs pointed the way. Actually the hardest part might have been finding the exit from Highway 38 heading north out of Eagle Nest. The signs made it pretty self-explanatory afterwards. I did have a “where the heck are we” moment though, as we pushed farther away from civilization.
The brewery took pride in staying open during its stated hours. Its website did counsel patrons to “call if it is a blizzard, we are probably still out here but check in just to make sure.” It rained heavily the day we visited so we assumed they’d be open regardless and that was the case. Everyone huddled under the small front porch to keep warm and dry.
Standing room only in the middle of nowhere. The brewer/publican/owner/etc. stood in the cabin doorway handing out beers as needed. My relatives said this was the first time they’d ever seen other visitors. I figured they must have been mountain bikers disappointing that rain canceled their runs at a nearby ski resort. I devised a formula. Mountain Bikers + Rain = Drinking. They filled every place in town.
Unplanned Geo-Oddity
New Mexico and Colorado both had smallest counties that differed dramatically from any other counties in their respective states. Los Alamos County, NM measured 109 square miles (282 square kilometres). Broomfield County, CO covered even less, only about 35 square miles (87 square kilometres).
As I noted in an earlier article during this series, Los Alamos existed solely because of the laboratory located there that developed the atomic bomb. I also talked about Broomfield awhile ago. This county used to be a town split between four separate counties. Broomfield got tired of dealing with all multiple jurisdictions so it formed its own tiny county in 2001.
I’d planned in advance to stop at a brewery in Los Alamos, the Bathtub Row Brewing Co-op (map). It fell along our direct path so it seemed logical. However, Broomfield, towards the end of the trip, came as a complete surprise. We stayed with friends outside of Denver who asked if we wanted to go to a brewery for dinner. Of course we did. Only after I returned, as I updated my brewery visit list, did I discover that Nighthawk Brewery (map) fell within the diminutive borders of Broomfield County. Surely a financial transaction conducted within a county “counted” more than simply crossing a border.
[UPDATE: Nighthawk Brewery closed in 2018].
I don’t know if I’ll keep a running tally of brewery visits to tiny counties. I will note for the record that I regularly frequent a brewpub in the smallest county equivalent in the United States (within the independent city of Falls Church, VA). So let’s add Los Alamos and Broomfield to the list for what that’s worth.
Beer Crawl in Durango
I’ll mention the close proximity of several breweries and brewpubs in Durango, Colorado because I don’t want my map to go to waste. This simple interactive guide kept me on track as we navigated through town. I felt pretty proud of my quick handiwork so I decided to inflict it upon the 12MC audience as well.
No, we didn’t hit all of the breweries in one epic crawl. My visits are about responsible drinking, involving samplers or flights, not pints. Of the five visited, we went to one for dinner our first evening, then out to the remote one (Ska) around lunchtime the next day, then another three right in town during the afternoon and evening. We didn’t make it the final one or to the distillery. Blame it on palette fatigue.
The Full List
Some readers may be curious so I decided to provide the full list of breweries and brewpubs we experienced during our journey, in order of our visit. Twelve sites in ten days seemed pretty respectable.
New Mexico:
- Creek Brewing Company; Eagle Nest
- Enchanted Circle Brewing; Angel Fire
- Bathtub Row Brewing Co-op; Los Alamos
- Second Street Brewery; Santa Fe
- Three Rivers Brewery; Farmington
Colorado:
- Steamworks Brewing Company; Durango
- Ska Brewery; Durango
- Animas Brewing Company; Durango
- Carver Brewing Company; Durango
- BREW Pub and Kitchen; Durango
- Nighthawk Brewery; Broomfield
- Platt Park Brewing Company; Denver
The lifetime total stood at 422 visits as the trip concluded. I’m moving right along.
Articles in the Four Corners Series
See Also: The Complete Photo Album on Flickr
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