Earlier this year I found myself in Golden, Colorado on a brief overnight trip. Golden is of course home to Coors Brewing Company, whose tour I would love to take at some point (apparently the physical brewery/plant is the largest in the world), but instead there was just time for a lunch visit to something smaller. On a recommendation I checked out New Terrain Brewing.

New Terrain is a young brewery, only two years old, and there’s a decent write-up of its background on the Westword site from 2016:

Golden’s beer scene will head in a new direction late this summer when two of the former owners at Mountain Toad Brewing open their own spot, New Terrain Brewing, at the base of Table Mountain.

The location, a vacant parcel next to a dog park and a bike trail, was originally going to be a production facility for Mountain Toad, but Mountain Toad co-founders Kaylee and Josh Robbins decided it made more sense to strike out on their own with a separate enterprise. So the pair have sold their stake in Mountain Toad to former partners Thad Briggs and Brian Vialpando.

New Terrain, at 16401 Table Mountain Parkway, will feature a 2,000-square-foot taproom, an outdoor beer garden and a large, 15,000-square-foot production facility with a thirty-barrel brewhouse (one that can also make smaller, ten-barrel batches). The Robbinses needed that extra space because they want to begin canning their beers next year.

The location is off the beaten path but features a large and handsome facility. In fact, driving up to it I couldn’t help but draw comparisons to the approach to Stone Brewing in Escondido—you’re driving out in what feels like a nowhere of industrial suburbia, and then coming around the corner you see the campus. New Terrain isn’t as big or elaborate as Stone, of course, but the building is fitted out with brick and natural wood and the backdrop of Table Mountain sure doesn’t hurt.

It’s impressive and inside is a large and airy taproom with a strong industrial design aesthetic: exposed concrete, open piping and ductwork, wood and burnished metal fixtures, and roll-up bay windows. Out back is a large patio space with ample seating and access to food trucks (there is no kitchen). The brewery itself is a 30-barrel brewery, with a 10-barrel pilot system and half-barrel nano pilot system.

This is definitely a destination brewery, family-friendly, and for that it is well worth the trip. On my visit it was hopping with people, but not overcrowded.

On to the beer… I visited in April so it’s possible (likely) the beer menu has changed. I ordered the beer sampler which features five beers on a funky staggered-level metal stand, and followed my usual strategy of trying for a varied selection of the house beers and maybe a seasonal or two.

The beers I ordered were Cruise Ride Cream Ale, Suntrip Belgian Wit, Lost (a “Colorado IPA”), Rambler Amber Ale, and Out & About Stout. I will note that Suntrip won a GABF silver medal in 2017, and the brewery had the medal hanging from the menu above the bar.

Unfortunately, the Suntrip I had on this visit didn’t hold up. Here are my notes:

• Cruise Ride Cream: Hazy yellow. Lightly sweet nose, grainy, low floral hops. Crisp, honey malt flavor, grainy and a little heavy for the style; otherwise a nice warm weather beer.
• Suntrip Wit: Has a nail polish/plastic band-aid note—heavily phenolic. Not getting too much other aroma, nothing wit-like. Flavor is similar—overspiced, or hot fermentation issues, perhaps?
• Lost – Colorado IPA: Orange color. Dank nose with some fruit notes, cactus, resin. Similar flavor as the aroma indicates; big resiny hops up front, sticky and bitter. Goes toward pineapple and savory (green onion) at the back.
• Rambler Amber Ale: Hazy brown-amber. Okay nose, but not a lot going on; maltiness and some herbal hops. Grassy hop flavor up front, a touch vegetal; murky, muddy. Malt is soft and fades into the background.
• Out & About Stout: Roasty and rich, coffee note, black malt, maybe a touch phenolic here as well? Lightly acrid note in flavor, a little too “over” on the roast perhaps. Bitter malts, no real hops here. Decent but could be shored up with some character malts.

So, not a glowing review of the beers, unfortunately. My favorite of the bunch was the Lost, and I’m always a bit intrigued by the local/regional variants of styles (in this case, the interpretation of a Colorado IPA). I don’t know what was going on with the Suntrip, but based on my experience that batch was not a medal-winning one. At some point I will revisit and try the Suntrip again to give it a chance to redeem itself.

And note also as I mentioned, this was back in April, so the beers have rotated and your experience will likely be different.

The food truck present on this visit was Tony Guacamole, and for lunch I had the Tatanka (Bison) Burrito, which was quite tasty. My only critical note here was, I had to wait by the truck for them to call my name, while my beers were inside; it would have been helpful if they were able to give me a number and send a runner inside to deliver my food. (This is what the food trucks at Wild Ride Brewing here in Central Oregon do.) No biggie.

All in all it was a good stop at a terrific facility and I’m interested in going back and trying those beers again, with a bit more time than I had (it was a quick lunch for the most part) to dig in further.