ALL OVER THE STATE OF COLORADO (KMGH) — With his long red beard, fedora and tattoos, Paul Myhill knows he has that beer/brewery loving "look." But over the last year and a half, he’s taken that love far beyond any stereotype, visiting every craft brewery and taproom in the entire state of Colorado.
“I ended up doing 467 stops in Colorado,” Myhill said, adding two that opened within the last few weeks for a total of 469.
His quest began as many great ideas do, over a few beer with a friend.
“We hit 5 breweries (in a day) and we said, ‘What if we do 30 in 30 days?’ Ended up doing that in a week. So the goal got upped to 100 in 100 days, did that in a month. So 365 in 365 days?” Myhill recounted. “Then I said, ‘OK, I’m gonna do them all.’”
He used his ability to work from home to discover, and then rediscover, the state, zigzagging from Pueblo to Grand Junction, up to Fort Collins and throughout Denver, grabbing a flight of beer tastings at each location he stopped at.
“I probably did 3,000 beers. That’s crazy if you think about it,” Myhill laughed. “I have got one heck of a liver, let’s say that.”
He snapped hundreds of photos along the way, but the stories are what stay with the man known as the "Colorado Beer Guy."
“For me the story was connecting with individual communities as I drank their beer with them,” he said.
As for what’s next for Myhill, he wants to stay up-to-date as new breweries open, check off every cider and meadery, and possibly open his own brewery.