With Mardi Gras coming next week, people of all kinds and creeds are searching for a way to celebrate without slipping into bejeweled, beaded hell. Fat chance. You’re one of those souls whose skin takes on a ghostly pallor when you’re dressed in purple, gold and green? You habitually cower…
Odell Brewing takes pride moving slow, and in expanding at a reasonable, measured pace — which is why the Fort Collins beer makers was so deliberate last week in announcing that it would enter the Texas market — the company’s first new state in two years. To help out, Odell…
Former Future Brewing, which just opened on February 1, has run out of beer. Yep. The brewery, which has a four-barrel system, simply hasn’t been able to keep up with the demand for its suds — a testament, perhaps, to Denver’s love of craft brews. “Well, we thought this might…
Six months ago, in September, Lance Hanson was mingling with crowds and enjoying a cocktail made with CapRock organic gin — his gin — at the Source; it was the first night that CapRock Farm Bar was pouring cocktails, and Hanson, the founder of Peak Spirits, the Hotchkiss-based distillery under…
From the beginning, brothers Branden and Chad Miller and Chad’s wife, Carissa, wanted to pair their beers at Black Shirt Brewing with food. A server for four years at Duo, Branden made sure to include plans for a kitchen inside the final design of the brewery they opened at 3719…
Two22 Brew wasn’t supposed to open on 2/22: “It was kind of funny. When we started building, people were telling us that we could open on February 22, and I said, ‘No way! We’ll be open way before that, probably in early January,” says Paige Schuster, who owns the new…
Get ready for more Rumpkin, more Uncle Jacob’s and, yes, Tweak. Beginning this year, Avery Brewing will dramatically increase the size and scope of its acclaimed barrel-aging program so that it can share its rarest beers with more people — not just in Colorado, but in some of the 27…
Kannah Creek Brewing in Grand Junction has just released a new beer in bottles called Crossed Irons Irish Ale that it will use to help raise money for the Colorado chapter of the Terry Farrell Firefighter Fund, which helps injured or sick firefighters or the families to those were killed…
When 300 Suns Brewing opens in Longmont this Saturday, it will become the first new brewery to open in town since Oskar Blues — now Colorado’s second largest beer maker — moved there from Lyons in 2009 and only the fourth brewery overall. So, there’s a little bit of pressure…
Is Denver over-saturated with craft breweries? Not yet, but that doesn’t mean a group of breweries on the city’s west side aren’t thinking about the future. The breweries have watched as River North, on the other side of downtown, has evolved into one of Denver’s primary craft-beer neighborhoods over the…
Pliny the Younger, which Beer Advocate ranks as the second-best beer in the world and which Rate Beer ranks as the third, will return to a select few Colorado bars and restaurants this month, where it will be quickly tapped amid much excitement and disappear even faster. Made by California’s…
For the first time ever, Denver will host the annual Craft Brewers Conference, the industry’s biggest trade show. The conference, a four-day-long series of seminars, networking events and parties, will bring 7,000 beer-minded people to town April 8 through April 11. To show off the Centennial State, the Colorado Brewers…
The name Los Chingones — “The Badasses,” more or less — suggests that Troy Guard’s new restaurant is populated with tequila-slamming roughnecks. Yet its paloma, a tequila drink made with pink grapefruit and soda, is not exactly chingón, shall we say. The gentle yet addictive paloma has single-handedly caused my…
Three of Colorado’s fastest-growing craft breweries — Dry Dock Brewing in Aurora, Upslope Brewing in Boulder, and Crazy Mountain Brewing in Edwards — have all recently released year-end numbers as well as projections for 2014 that should see each of them reaching an annual production of 15,000 barrels or more…
Renegade Brewing announced last week that it will begin bottling some of its beers for the first time; the initial offering will be released next month. The brewery’s Conviction Series will include 22-ounce bombers of four limited-release beers: Sunday Morning, a coffee-infused American strong ale; Alpha Maiden, an India wheat…
Tincup American Whiskey screams Colorado. The bottle makes multiple references to the state, as does the leaflet that comes attached to the neck. Its website is plastered with whiskey bottles positioned picturesquely in Colorado mountain backdrops, and the company boasts of its connection to Stranahan’s Colorado Whiskey co-founder Jess Graber,…
Former Future Brewing, which officially opened on February 1, celebrated its grand opening last weekend, complete with food trucks and board games — in addition to five beers on tap, all embracing the idea of modern spins on older styles. In fact, that’s the theme of the entire brewery. Westword…
Philip Phifer and Scott O’Hearn are a couple of pros, and they’re bringing their serious professionalism to Lowdown Brewery + Kitchen — along with some serious fun. The new brewpub opens on Tuesday, February 11 — although it will host a series of soft opening events over the weekend –…
As Westword’s Ask the Bartender columnist, I’ve talked with many bartenders for Cafe Society’s “Behind the Bar” series, posing numerous questions to Denver’s top bartenders…and often receiving the same answers: “I love chartreuse,” or “I’m really into smoked cocktails/barrel aging/bottled cocktails.” See also: A bartender by any other name…is still…
Uncle Jacob’s Stout is one of best beers made in Colorado — if not the best. That’s not an opinion. It’s a fact, or as close to a fact as you can get when it comes to beer. Made once a year by Boulder’s Avery Brewing, Uncle Jacob’s has garnered…
Our Mutual Friend Malt & Brew is planning to create a series of barrel-aged wild and sour ales later this year exclusively for The Populist, its neighbor in River North. And although the first beer won’t be available for at least six months — and the Populist needs to decide…
Upslope Brewing got its start five years by focusing on traditionally-styled beers that it packaged in cans. Since then, the Boulder brewery has grown both in size — it now has two locations — and in scope, making some huge, Colorado-style beers. Crooked Stave started four years ago with a…
