Colorado is the second-largest beer-producing state in the Union. Colorado may be home to Coors, but connoisseurs of inspired microbrews also know that with 92 small breweries - second to California's 224 and ahead of Washington's 80 - it's a fine place to hop off the slope and hit the tasting rooms.

In September the industry held the 25th anniversary of the Great American Beer Festival in Denver, the trade's equivalent of the Oscars, and attendance jumped from 29,000 in 2005 to a record 41,000.