On a recent business trip to Denver, Colorado I was fortune enough to literally stumble upon a wonderful old pub called the ‘The Blake Street Vault’ and discover one of Colorado’s finest beers.
The Blake Street Vault Denver
The Blake Street Vault is an instantly appealing heritage pub/saloon with warehouse type brick walls, an amazingly intricate tin ceiling and a focal point of an impressive copper top bar. There is indeed a hidden vault in the basement and even the ghost of a saloon girl dating back to when it was originally built in the 1860’s.
Selection of Draft Beers
I was very curious what they had on draft and fortunately they had a beer I hadn’t heard of before called ‘90 Shilling’ ale from Odell Brewing Company based in Fort Collins, Co. It’s what the brewery describe as a ‘lightened up traditional Scottish ale’ and it’s their flagship beer which they introduced in 1989. I probably couldn’t have chosen a better beer as it’s a very smooth, medium-bodied amber ale that’s very easy to drink, even at 5.3% ABV.
90 Shilling Ale
If you’re wondering why the name 90 Shilling, it comes from the Scottish method of taxing beer. Only the highest quality beers were taxed 90 Shillings. A shilling was a British coin used from 1549 to 1982 and 20 of them made up one British Pound.
So if you find yourself in Denver make sure you don’t miss the opportunity to visit The Blake Street Vault on, you guessed it, Blake Street.
