Last week I threw down a challenge: taste an old-world wine next to its new-world counterpart and judge for yourself whether old world wines truly deserve their reputation as best in class. Even though I screwed up and included tasting notes from a Rhône wine instead of the Burgundy I…
Friday is opening day at Coors Field, and that means the return of Colorado’s most unusual brewery, the Blue Moon Brewing Company @ the Sandlot. Open only during Colorado Rockies home games and only during baseball season, the Sandlot is celebrating its sixteenth year of serving baseball-themed beers like Right…
The headlines screamed across the beer-drinking world on Monday that AB InBev was buying Chicago-based Goose Island brewing for a delicious $38.8 million. Double-secret sources in St. Louis have leaked very rough drafts of a new Goose Island logo and marketing strategy that blends the best of the party-friendly 1980s…
Steeped in tradition, Jack Daniel’s doesn’t debut new liquors often, but the famous Tennessee distillery is rolling out a new whiskey in April: Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Honey. We were sent two bottles and quickly went through one. How does it taste? Well, really, actually pretty good. Dangerously good, in fact…
Happy Place: The Lobby, 2191 Arapahoe Street, 303-997-9911 The Hours: Monday through Saturday from 4 to 6:30 p.m. The Deals: $3 Colorado microbrews, Miller Lite, and well cocktails; $5 house wine; $6 specialty cocktails; $4-8 food specials. Were we happy? Flip the page to find out…
Friends, neighbors and bartenders: Since early last year, I’ve made it my mission to discover a cocktail that is truly representative of our great state, much like the Manhattan is of New York City and the Sazerac of New Orleans. Along the way, I’ve been joined on this mission by…
Sean Kenyon is back from one of his many trips as this state’s premier alcohol ambassador, pulling together the final details of the Colorado Cocktail Contest and offering some advice about making margaritas — just in time for the warmer weather. Who makes a great margarita in Denver? Here’s Mantanot’s…
Sean Kenyon knows how to pour out both drinks and advice. A third-generation bar man with almost 25 years behind the bar, he is a student of cocktail history, a United States Bartenders Guild-certified Spirits Professional and a BAR Ready graduate of the prestigious Beverage Alcohol Resource Program. You can…
Seattle has a beer week. So do Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles. San Francisco’s and Philadelphia’s are famous world wide. Hell, even Eugene, Oregon; Louisville, Kentucky; and the entire state of Alabama have beer weeks. Denver has the Great American Beer Festival and the surrounding Denver Beer Fest events, but…
You won’t find many of Colorado’s brewers around Colorado this week as most of them have taken off for the annual Craft Brewers Conference, taking place in San Francisco. But that doesn’t mean you can’t toast them — and the industry as a whole — which reported retail sales growth…
There’s been a lot of debate in the wine world of late, the gist of which revolves around whether popular, top-selling new world wines deserve their acclaim. It’s an interesting debate, for sure. Are Napa Valley cabs every bit as good as their Bordeaux-based brethren? For that matter, should fruit-forward,…
Caffeinated malt beverages may have been pushed off the shelves by lawmakers worried that young, ignorant drinkers would be unable to resist the marketing tactics, but that didn’t put an end to unpalatable alcohol masked by artificial flavoring: fruit-flavored booze-packed caffeine-free replacements are quickly filling the post-Four Loko void. In…
Happy Place: Washington Park Grille, 1096 South Gaylord Street, 303-777-0707 The Hours: Daily from 3 to 7 p.m. The Deals: $3 select house wine, draft beer, and well drinks; $1 off imported draft beers; half price appetizers. Were we happy? Flip the page to find out…
Just a few weeks after they joined forces, the Breckenridge and Wynkoop breweries have taken on an unexpected challenge: slapping together a new concept to fill the former Rocky Mountain Diner space at 800 18th Street, which closed last month after a twenty-year run. The two companies, which are run…
It’s not often that you’ll find Republican representative Larry Liston and his liberal colleague, Democrat Crisanta Duran, on the same side of an issue. Nor is it common to see the United Food and Commercial Workers and the supermarket chains fighting together for a cause. But all of those strange…
The Southern Sun pub in Boulder will tap a firkin of its FYIPA today, the first of what brewer Brian Hutchinson hopes will lead to many more in the near future. In fact, the Southern Sun and Denver’s Vine Street Pub, which are both owned by the Mountain Sun Pub…
Guinness, Jameson, car bombs, bag pipes, corned beef, Harp and an awful hangover: Those are just some of the things that come to mind when the average person thinks of St. Patrick’s Day. And the list is the same for bartenders at Irish pubs — with the notable additions of…
Green beer, St. Paddy’s Day, blah, blah, blah. Why not try something besides Guinness or Coors Light dyed green this year? FreshCraft will be pouring $4 Irish Divides (a name it made up), which are similar to black and tans and consist of Great Divide Hoss and O’Hara’s Irish Stout…
Dry Dock Brewing in Aurora will change the name of its acclaimed Seven Seas Double IPA sometime in the next few weeks after getting a “nasty” letter from a lawyer representing 7 Seas Brewing Company in Gig Harbor, Washington. “I was disappointed I didn’t get a phone call,” says Dry…
When Coloradans elected former beer man John Hickenlooper to the state’s top post last November, they had no idea they’d be letting the entire craft-brewing industry into the Governors’ Mansion as well. But that’s what happened last night when the residence played host to Pints & Bites, a gourmet food-and-beer…
Happy Place: Seven 30 South, 730 South University Boulevard, 303-744-1888 The Hours: Monday through Saturday from 4 to 6 p.m. The Deals: $2.50 draft beers, house wine, and well cocktails; $3 you-call-its; $4 premium wine and cocktails; $4-5 food specials. Were we happy? Flip the page to find out…
The Breckenridge and Wynkoop breweries officially sealed the deal on their joint venture and celebrated their future on Tuesday by tapping kegs of each other’s beers at their respective breweries. And later this month — possibly as early as March 28 — Breck will open its newest location, Ale House…
