Salt Lake City Brewing Company
Squatters
147 West Broadway
Fuggles
367 West 200 South

Note: Apparently one of these two locations has closed since I last visited, but I'm not sure which one.

I had the good fortune of travelling to Salt Lake City several times in 1995 to acquaint myself with Squatters, Fuggles, and several other brew pubs in the area. Squatters and Fuggles provide a varying selection of cask conditioned ales. These are hand drawn and chilled very slightly below room temperature to about 60°F. Their cask conditioned ales are truly wonderful and delivered to your table with the creamy head still forming in the glass.

The cask conditioned Captain Bastard's Oatmeal Stout was my first taste of a cask conditioned ale and it inspired Dale and I to brew our own Oatmeal Stout this winter. Squatters Oatmeal Stout is black as coffee with a creamy head that clings to the side of the glass until you reach the bottom. While it is definitely a stout, the oatmeal gives it a smooth enough finish to convert many who prefer a lighter brew.

On a later trip they offered a cask conditioned Nut Brown Ale. The Nut Brown Ale was good enough to bring a tear to my eye. It was truly brewed with divine inspiration. The Nut Brown Ale was smooth with a creamy head and a slight aroma of hops. This is what I imagine a common English beer would taste like.

Another favorite at Squatters is the Hop Head Red. This is great on the normal tap and even better when offered cask conditioned. The hop characteristic is like that of a pale ale with the typical body of a red ale. The flavor of the hops soars when served at the warmer temperature. They also blend the Hop Head Red with Captain Bastard's Oatmeal Stout to create a Red Bastard.

Red Rock
254 S 200 West

Another brew pub in downtown Salt Lake City is Red Rock Brewing Company. Red Rock would be right at home on the main drag of Broadripple. The front of the pub is full length windows that open to the sidewalk in the summer. The beers at Red Rock are good, but do not compare well to Squatters. In the summer they had at least ten beers on tap including four wheat varieties (Wiezenbeer, Bavarian Wheat, Honey Wheat, and Raspberry Wheat). The food is good at Red Rock including stone baked pizza, steaks, halibut, and their signature garlic mashed potatoes.

Wasatch
250 Main St

Park City, home of the Sundance Film Festival, is about 30 minutes east of Salt Lake City. In Park City we found Wasatch Beers brewed by the Schirf Brewing Company. I stopped in here for a beer one afternoon and tried their Irish Stout and Brown Ale. Both of these were very good beers, but nothing exceptional. What is exceptional at Wasatch is the view. We had our beers on their second story balcony at sunset and watched the sun creep across the Wasatch Mountains.

Dead Goat Saloon
165 S. West Temple

An honorable mention has to be made about the Dead Goat Saloon in downtown Salt Lake City. While walking around SLC during the day we saw a small metal sign mounted on the side of a building labeled Dead Goat Saloon complete with a goat's skull and an arrow pointing down an alley.

We picked up a coworker late that night at the airport and he wanted a bite to eat. Even though it was nearly midnight we decided to join him for a nightcap at the Dead Goat Saloon. We walked a couple of blocks from our hotel to where we had seen the sign earlier and headed down the alley. There was not much sign of life anywhere. In the middle of block there was another small sign with an arrow pointing down. After a momentŐs hesitation we figured we had to go up half a flight of stairs on the fire escape to get to the stairs leading down.

Once at the bottom of the stairs we found ourselves in a pit about ten feet deep and perhaps 15x15 facing a large black wooden door with no signs. We glanced at on another somewhat nervously, but no one was going to suggest turning back now. Inside we found a striking western style saloon. There were at least a dozen goat skulls mounted on the walls. A sign indicated the bar had been established over 30 years ago. There was a good live band called Sweet Loretta playing in their back room.

I sampled an Amber Ale from the Uinta Brewing Company. This was a good full bodied amber. If you find yourself someday at the Dead Goat Saloon, and I hope you will, imagine yourself facing the big black door around midnight not knowing what's on the other side.

Utah Liquor Laws

After all the discussion about the Salt Lake City brew pubs I thought I would attempt a side-bar describing their liquor laws - as I understand them. They're much more uptight about their alcohol than Indiana.

Liquor stores are state run and there are separate stores for beer and wine vs. hard liquor. Hard liquor and mixed drinks can only be sold at private clubs. Most of the hotels include a temporary membership in an affiliated private club. There are many private clubs throughout SLC and they offer a trial membership for a week or two. This amounts to a cover charge from my perspective and does not apply to the brew pubs or beer bars. A waiter is not allowed to offer you an alcoholic drink unless you request it and alcohol cannot be served without food in restaurants.

The brew pubs and home brewers are limited to an alcohol content of 3.2 percent. It is obviously impractical to enforce the law for homebrew, but all of the beer I described was 3.2 percent alcohol - even the incredible Captain Bastard's Oatmeal Stout. I believe the Uinta Amber Ale was full strength since the Dead Goat Saloon is a full service bar. We found it hard to believe that we were loving this 3.2 beer, so we confirmed it with the bartender at Fuggles one evening.