Upslope head brewer Alex Violette, who has been making beer for the Boulder brewery since early 2009, is leaving his post there to start his own place in Vietnam. It’s an unusual career choice to leave the center of this nation’s brewing universe for a country where craft beer is…

Powder Keg Brewing has opened in Niwot, where it’s the town’s second craft-beer maker; the location has a brewpub license (since it plans to serve food), which means it can also pour beers from other local breweries, including its neighbor, Bootstrap Brewing. Powder Keg plans to be open seven days…

“You talk to any brewery, old or new, and they will tell you a story about how another brewery helped them out,” says Chris Bell. “Everyone helps each other along. We want to celebrate that and celebrate what makes this industry great.” That’s the idea behind a collaborative brewing effort…

California’s Sierra Nevada Brewing, the nation’s second-largest craft beer maker, is nearing completion on a second production facility, this one near Asheville, North Carolina. And to celebrate, company founder Ken Grossman wanted to turn the spotlight on the craft brewing industry as a whole, rather than on Sierra Nevada by…

Ryan Skeels and Kevin Greer want to serve you a beer, and although the majority of their brewing equipment has been delayed, they’re tired of waiting. Which is why they decided to open Baere Brewing for business on Saturdays for the time being. “We didn’t want to start this small,…

Roughly 1,000 years ago in the highlands of Guatemala, a member of the Maya civilization lifted a clay vessel — adorned with an intricate jaguar figure — to his lips and took a slug of something. Beer? Corn liquor? Something else? Last May, two scientists from the Denver Museum of…

Beer can pack on calories, especially for the owners and employees of Colorado’s breweries, who have to drink their brews for a living (tough life). Fortunately, they know how to work them off as well. On Monday, July 21, owners and reps from six breweries (Avery, Ska, Boulder Beer, Left…

After more than four years of serving food along with its hand-crafted beers, Golden City Brewery has decided to shutter its kitchen and rely on food trucks instead. “We were already really small, and the health department changed their requirements for what we had to do to have a kitchen,”…

Barrels & Bottles released three flagship beers this week, all of them created by new head brewer Kim Collins. The beers are Piney the First, a 5 percent ABV all Chinook-hopped pale ale; Lil’ IPA, a 5.2 percent ABV session IPA; and Hot Lips, a 3.7 percent ABV sour mash…

Carrie Knose, living in California, and Jason Bell, running a liquor store in Chicago, both dreamed of opening a brewery. But it wasn’t until they met — through mutual friends — after moving independently to Colorado that the dream became reality. “We started talking beer and decided to make it…

Colorado’s craft beer scene is getting crowded as a new brewery opens roughly once a week somewhere in the state. But the liquor store shelves can be a bit of a tangle as well, especially as older breweries introduce new or changing products to keep up with the latest thing…

Left Hand Brewing co-founder and president Eric Wallace was recognized last week as an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year in the consumer products and services category, beating out two dozen other candidates. The award recognizes “extraordinary performance in leading successful innovative businesses, strong financial performance, and an endearing…

“Once you’ve had a few beers, it’s hard to leave a German beer garden without making some friends,” says Patrick Crawford, who opened Denver Beer Co. with Charlie Berger in August 2011. In advance of that opening, Crawford and Berger had gone to Germany — and came back with the…

Craft beer trends have evolved quickly over the past five years, and just because a brewery has been around for a while doesn’t mean that its beers will keep selling forever. To keep up, and to stay relevant, some older breweries have cut poorly performing products from their lineups and…

One of Colorado’s most specialized, and most highly anticipated, new breweries will give the public a sneak peek this weekend when it opens for two days to sell its first bottled release, a saison that was fermented entirely in oak barrels with Brettanomyces. Casey Brewing & Blending, at 3421 Grand…

A whopping 1,360 breweries from all fifty states and the District of Columbia will enter beers into the competition at the Great American Beer Festival this October. That’s about 81 percent higher than last year, when 750 breweries tried to register for the fest, according to preliminary numbers provided by…

Like many beer fests, the Colorado Brewers Festival was a victim of its own success. Inspired by the Oregon Brewers Festival, it was founded in 1990, at a time when there were only nine breweries in Colorado and even fewer beer gatherings. Over the years, the event — one of…

Boulder Beer Company, which celebrated its 35th anniversary this year, said this week that it will begin canning two of its flagship beers, Buffalo Gold Golden Ale and Mojo IPA, for the first time. Both cans will feature redesigned artwork. Boulder Beer has canned two of its other beers, Hazed…

Calvin Beasley likes whiskey and wine, rum and rye, bourbon and brandy and tequila. But not necessarily to drink. He likes them for the flavors they impart into beer. This weekend Beasley, his fiance, Beth, and head brewer Eric Nichols will open Beryl’s Beer Company at 3120 Blake Street, a…