No matter how much fun you have at a bar in Denver, there’s always the melancholy time when the lights go up and everyone has to pay the tab and head home. If you’re unlucky, the bouncer will shove you out. If you’re especially unfortunate, the DJ will play Semisonic’s…
Colorado’s breweries are growing fast — expanding, adding employees and ordering new equipment. Some of that equipment is on display at the industry-only Craft Brewers Conference, a trade show in Denver for the first time this week. For some of the breweries, like Durango’s Ska Brewing and Denver Beer Co,…
The Craft Brewers Conference begins in earnest today with speakers, seminars and a trade show for the 8,000 or so craft-beer industry professional who are in town for the annual event — which takes place in Denver this year for the first time. But just because the event is closed…
The first award was thrilling — and a big relief. The second was a welcome surprise. The third and fourth, well, those were just icing on the cake. Two years ago, the crew from the Bull & Bush went to San Diego and came back with four medals from the…
You’ve probably heard of Bud Light Lime. And Miller Chill. Now get ready for Dry Dock Cool — a tongue-in-cheek takeoff on mass-produced lime-infused beers. Aurora’s Dry Dock Brewing is making the beer — a 5.2 percent ABV Mexican-style lager — specially for Old Chicago’s 25 Colorado locations as part…
Oskar Blues, which pioneered putting craft beers in cans in the United States, is taking an old favorite from the U.K. and making it better. Call it an AmeriCAN revolution. This week the Longmont beer-maker will become the first stateside brewery to can a beer that has been carbonated with…
Be careful about making assumptions next time you meet a woman at a beer festival. Warns Ashleigh Carter: “You might be looking at the brewer — not the secretary.” Or the girlfriend, or any number of other stereotypical labels that people may hang on women working for breweries. And that’s…
April is a high-pollen month, particularly in the northwestern part of Colorado Springs, where the winds blow hard around Trinity Brewing. It’s the kind of month when you can find all kinds of things floating in the air, things that make people sneeze, swell their eyes shut — and maybe,…
Baseball fans are in for a few new treats when they return to Coors Field this weekend — although if they’re not careful, those treats will get the fans too drunk to remember what they were. Team owner Dick Monfort led several dozen media members on a walking tour of…
Sergio Romero, John Broening, Anika Zappe, Andrew Parr — all big, bold industry heavyweights who have shared in the success of restaurateur Robert Thompson, owner of Le Grand Bistro & Oyster Bar and Punch Bowl – Social Food & Drink , which originated in Denver and now has a second…
The Brewers Association released its annual accounting this week of the top fifty craft brewers in the nation as base on sales, as well as the top fifty brewers altogether. In Colorado, New Belgium, Oskar Blues, Odell, Left Hand, Boulder Beer and Craftworks — which owns the Rock Bottom and…
Regrets? We’ve had a few. And over the past 35 years, so, too, has Boulder Beer, the state’s oldest craft brewery. But a mistake made by a brewer in 2011 isn’t one of them, and the company will use that fortuitous mishap next month to celebrate its birthday. Boulder Beer…
April brings new hope every year to the Colorado Rockies — and new beers to the Blue Moon Brewing Company at the Sandlot, the in-stadium brewery owned by Coors. This year, the Sandlot has two new beers lined up for Opening Day at Coors Field, which is Friday, April 4,…
Craft breweries and related companies love April Fool’s Day and each year, they skewer their fans, their competitors, big breweries and themselves with jokes. But these breweries are also innovators, and a couple of years ago, one of these jokes actually became reality when Wynkoop Brewing produced Rocky Mountain Oyster…
Colorado’s small craft breweries are well-known for helping one another out with advice, equipment and other kinds of support. But the big guys like to do that, too. On Monday, Avery Brewing announced that it had signed an agreement with New Belgium Brewing that will allow Avery to make its…
Renegade Brewing, which helped invigorate the Santa Fe arts district three years ago, will sink its roots even deeper this summer when it opens a large production facility — and eventually a second tap room — just eight blocks south of its current location. The brewery has just signed a…
Steamworks Brewing in Durango was one of the first Colorado mountain breweries to can its beers and establish a presence in Denver, but financial problems in 2010 forced the brewery to close its canning plant. As a result, Steamworks went to its neighbor, Ska Brewing, which began brewing and canning…
Golden City Brewery, which was Golden’s only craft brewer for nearly two decades, is feeling a bit of pinch now that it has been joined by three other craft-beer makers in the town. But it is possible to teach an old dog new tricks, and beginning this May or June,…
When Colorado booze manages to infiltrate the secretive San Francisco market, it’s time to take notice. A recent trip to the Other Queen City found bottles of Leopold Bros. Highland Amaro Fernet being downed. This, in a place where Fernet Branca, the leading manufacturer of the bitter-tasting stuff, draws 40…
Prost Brewing will begin packaging its three core beers in twelve-ounce bottles next month as part of a renewed effort at distribution. The German-style brewery, which opened in August 2012, had previously only packaged its beers in 64-ounce growlers, which it sealed and sold to liquor stores. But the growlers…
When Trinity Brewing founder Jason Yester created the recipe for Red Swingline, a hoppy IPA that is also cheek-puckeringly sour, his goal was to make something “signature American.” But in doing so, he may have helped to pioneer a style that beer drinkers in the rest of the country will…
Colorado Craft Beer Week kicked off last Friday at the Governor’s Mansion, where our brewer-in-chief, John Hickenlooper, toasted the brewing industry in the state and unveiled three draft handles that will now serve the historic home. But the events at breweries, restaurants and bars around the state will continue through…
