Tommyknocker Brewery | Idaho Springs, CO
Beer Trip: Tommyknocker Brewery in Idaho Springs, Colorado
Spanning four separate buildings!
It’s tough to beat Colorado when it comes to craft breweries, with every town seeming to feature at least one. Even for a town of 1,700, Idaho Springs is no exception and has two to choose from! Our first stop in town was Tommyknocker Brewery, and it quickly became one of the highlights of our trip.
Brewing and bar side
The Brewery
The brewery is located right in the heart of downtown and actually spans four full-sized buildings! The area furthest to the west features tons of natural light, the actual brewery, and is more of a bar feel with high-top tables and live music playing most evenings. This area also features half of a 20-person bar that carries over into section #2.
This secondary area features the main entrance and gift shop (more on that later!) and starts to take on a more traditional restaurant feel as it branches out into the remaining buildings. The entire place has a gold mining theme to it, featuring old pictures and equipment throughout and prospector wallpaper lining the walls. They also have their logo, a Tommyknocker, which is a fictitious elf who could either help or hinder your pursuit of gold or scatter it about the entire place.
One of multiple bar areas
The Beer
The beer menu at Tommyknocker consists of roughly 15 options to choose from. Of those, they keep a whopping 10 drafts on tap as flagships. With IPAs seemingly being the king of beer, it was refreshing to see only two of them on their board. They do a great job of offering various styles such as a blonde, brown, sour, pumpkin, and stout - just to name a few. They even have their own N/A beer on tap that Tim, the manager, took the time to tell us all about. Fun fact - during COVID, they utilized the alcohol byproduct from producing the N/A beer to make hand sanitizer (which we heard was quite the commodity at the time)!
With so many brews, we could only partake in a limited sampling, but one that really stood out to us was the Blood Orange IPA (which happens to be their best seller). This is also the same brew available in N/A! If you like citrus, then this is your drink, as it is packed full and gives you a prevalent orange flavor. Our favorite drink we tried, though, was their Maple Nut Brown Ale. This one was super light for a brown ale, to the point where you could actually see through it. It is sweet without being overpowering, and gives just a hint of maple at the end - yum!
Food, Merch, & More
While the beer is what led us to Tommyknocker, plenty of people visit just for the food. Their menu consists mostly of soups, salads, sandwiches, and burgers. We stayed for dinner and ordered the loaded potato and the burnt end sandwich. Both were pretty good, and the wait time was next to nothing! They also have a full bar menu with an entire sheet of signature drinks available to choose from.
Burnt end sandwich
Burnt end loaded baked potato and tomato artichoke soup
Kicked things off with a large soft pretzel
Though many breweries claim to be dog-friendly, there aren’t many as dog-friendly as Tommyknocker! You can bring your pup with you on your visit, and they literally have a full page food menu just for dogs. You can order items ranging from chicken or beer patties to cheese and pita chips, or even a dessert consisting of a dog biscuit covered in peanut butter and whipped cream. They are big advocates of animals and proudly support the local shelter, Friends of Charlie’s Place. You can even donate to the shelter yourself via QR code stationed throughout the brewery.
Their merchandise area really catches the eye as you walk through the front door, with items spanning both sides of the room and displays in the middle. You can pick up anything from t-shirts, flannels, nice button-ups, hats, glassware, tap handles, and even dog collars. Lucky for us (and everyone really!), you can pick up most of their beer to-go in 6-packs. It was crazy the amount of goods that were flying off the shelves during our visit.
Plentiful to-go beer area
Tons of merch!
Chris on his Tommyknocker throne LOL
