I’ve lived in Denver for four years and in that time we’ve never had a traditional autumn. By traditional I mean a crisp, cool, bright falling-leaves, East Coast-style fall. So I took full advantage of this nostalgic (to me) weather, and went to The Big Wonderful at Sustainability Park last…
It’s Monday, October 13, and I’m sitting in a red Toyota 4Runner with Jake Norris, head distiller at Laws Whiskey House. The Toyota is idling outside the whiskey house, a new distillery in a warehouse district just off South Broadway. He’s very excited because, at last, he’s able to do…
Brown. It’s not a sexy word or a sexy color, and to most craft-beer drinkers, brown ales typically signify a boring beverage. But brown turned into gold, silver and bronze earlier this month when Colorado breweries swept the American-style Brown category at the Great American Beer Festival. In other words,…
Even If you’ve been annoyed by mediocre happy hours, stingy specials, and bad drinks, take a moment and appreciate your freedom to order that $5 Moscow mule. Restrictive happy-hour laws are on the books in 26 other states, banning such beloved Colorado traditions as drink discounts and two-for-ones. Take that,…
The Manhattan cocktail has stood the test of time, due in part to its simplicity: two parts bourbon to one part vermouth, a few dashes of bitters and a cherry garnish. Six Denver bartenders offered up variations of that classic last night at The Manhattan Experiment cocktail competition at Ste…
Tickets go on sale tomorrow for the third annual Denver Bacon and Beer Festival, which will run from 2:30 to 5 p.m. November 16 at the Curtis Hotel. This year’s event will feature eighteen breweries and more than 25 restaurants; one beer-bacon team will be crowned Best in Show win…
Beer, tequila and pulque have been a part of Mexican culture for centuries. A new exhibit titled El Brindis Remixed, debuting tomorrow tonight at the Museo de Las Americas , features photography from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries celebrating el brindis — the toast. The exhibit, which the Museo calls…
Teargarden at Session Kitchen 1518 South Pearl Street 720-763-3387 When Session Kitchen reformatted its cocktail program last month, lead bartender Haylee Ortiz was charged with the task of creating a specific cocktail. Her guidelines: it must be a sipping cocktail that suggested flowers, and it must contain mezcal. Ortiz, who…
It’s been a big year for Williams & Graham — and we’re not talking about the LoHi watering hole’s win for Best Contemporary Cocktail Bar in the Best of Denver 2014. Four months later, Williams & Graham was one of four finalists for the best bar in the country at…
The Great American Beer Festival is over, but it left us with lots of memories, as well as beer guts, stacks of stickers and favorite new brews. We sent videographer Andrew Bateman to capture the scene this past weekend. Watch his video to see what you missed — or simply…
The “24” at the end of the name of Tom’s Urban has been severed from the Larimer Square eatery’s sign and its identity, shortening the hours and rearranging the furniture for a different crowd. The restaurant now closes before the real creatures of the night come out to play, but…
Golden’s State 38 Distilling hates to see fermentable sugars go to waste. Fortunately, owner and head distiller Sean Smiley has an way to fix that: He’s taking donations from your fruit trees through the end of October so that he can make an all-Colorado, community-sourced fruit brandy, which he thinks…
A man walks into a bar and orders a drink. Sounds like a joke, but that was the concept behind last night’s cocktail competition at BSide presented by Breckenridge Distillery. The goal of the contest was to create a drink called Vengeance, which is also the name of a 2014…
The Great American Beer Festival is over, but the beer news keeps pouring out. Renegade Brewing Company and Elevation Beer Company just announced they’ve settled all litigation pertaining to Renegade’s use of the mark Elevation Triple IPA. In exchange for certain financial terms that will not be disclosed, Renegade will…
What do you get when you combine 710 breweries, more than 3,500 beers, 3,200 volunteers and 49,000 beer-loving drinkers over three days? You get the mayhem that is the Great American Beer Festival. Westword photographer Danielle Lirette was there to capture all of the beer-soaked fun. Take a look at…
For the past couple of years, industry veterans have expressed concerns about the quality of the beer being made by new craft breweries, especially as the number of new breweries — they are now opening at a rate of 1.5 per day across the country — increases exponentially. But the…
A firkin, in case you were wondering, is a small cask that holds about eleven gallons of liquid — beer, if you’re lucky. Epic Brewing had fifty of the little casks, each with a unique beer made by Epic, on hand last night to celebrate the first anniversary of the…
As an example of the economic boost the Great American Beer Festival gives to downtown Denver every year, Euclid Hall — one of the top beer destinations within walking distance of the Colorado Convention Center — did 1,195 covers yesterday. To put that in perspective, a standard Thursday in September…
The Great American Beer Festival returned to Denver on Thursday night and continues today and tomorrow. Thousands of lucky ticket-holders invaded the Colorado Convention Center for the first night, sampling more than 3,500 beers from over 750 breweries. We were there and took these photos…
The most popular food at the Great American Beer Festival is beer, obviously. The second is the pretzel necklace. Made by innovative drinkers, these necklaces provide a handy palate-cleanser, as well as a way to soak up some of the evening’s alcohol. But after a while, pretzels get so, so…
Palisade Peach Punch at the Golden Moon Speakeasy 1111 Miner’s Alley, Golden 720-638-1155 Fall is erupting in blazes of orange and yellow in the high country right now, and it’s bubbling in your glass at the Golden Moon Speakeasy. This craft cocktail lounge, located in downtown Golden, opened in January…
One of the benefits of having the Great American Beer Festival in Denver is that innovative brewers and craft-beer royalty make their way to town at least once a year, where they interact with Colorado’s movers and shakers. The result are friendships, collaborations and other connections that usually end up…
