A year after moving away from its longtime home in Vail, the Big Beers, Belgians & Barleywines Festival is still adapting to new digs in Breckenridge. But the second iteration of the renewed festival, taking place January 4-6, at the Beaver Run Resort, should reflect some of what the festival’s…
No one every reads the introductions to lists like this. So, I could write just about anything here and no one will read it. And that’s okay — I don’t generally read the intros either. But just in case: here is how I came up with my list of thirty…
Earlier this month, the owner of Twenty Brew Taphouse in Westminster posted a plaintive note on Facebook stating the business was no longer sustainable and could close in early 2018. Part of the reason: a break-in last fall that resulted in the theft of rare beer, new furniture, a pool table…
Generally presented as a decadent dessert or a sugary treat with coffee, the éclair goes savory, sweet and multi-textured with Le Méridien’s LM Éclair program. Executive chef Tobias Burkhalter, who oversees all on-site kitchen operations at the new downtown hotel at 1475 California Street, in addition to the hotel’s full-service restaurant,…
I’ve always enjoyed Three Lions —- officially named Three Lions, A World Football Pub —- even before it was Three Lions. Back in my early days in Denver, I was a fan of the Bank, which was the previous bar housed in the space at 2239 East Colfax Avenue. The Bank had an…
Since Tivoli Brewing was founded in 2012, the brewery has reincarnated nearly a dozen beers and brands from Denver’s brewing history — mostly German-style lagers sold between the 1860s and 1960. Resurrected brews include Sigi’s Buck Beer, Bohemia Girl, Jet Malt Liquor and, of course, the Tivoli name and beers themselves…
For the past several years, Mike Huggins and Lenka Juchelkova have been building niches around the metro area to show off their penchant for adult beverages in various settings. From the classic Arvada Tavern with its hidden upstairs room (accessible through a phone booth) to the pre-Prohibition Union Lodge No…
Three years have elapsed since Williams & Graham and Occidental owner Sean Kenyon and Matchbox proprietors Justin Anthony and Lisa Vedovelli first announced they were working together on a RiNo bar called American Bonded, but last month, the group revealed that they’re in the final phase of construction and are expecting…
Denver’s professional booze purveyors share tips on how to make the most of your New Year’s Eve.
As I mentioned before, I’m starting to venture farther into the Denver suburbs in search of new drinking spots to know and love. The latest journey took me right to the border of Golden and Lakewood, to a bar on the Golden side of Youngfield Street. As a fairly lazy…
Well, this is awkward. The massive Republican-created, Trump-endorsed tax bill that will pass today — slashing taxes for corporations and the rich — will also supposedly benefit craft brewers. After years and years of fighting, the Boulder-based Brewers Association finally got its Craft Beverage Modernization and Tax Reform Act passed as…
The Kentucky Inn, one of the oldest bars in the Washington Park West neighborhood, closed in July for a remodel and the installation of a new kitchen. As with every other construction project in the city, this one stretched on, but the wait is finally over. The bar, which originally…
The last twelve months have been oddly slow when it comes to brewery openings inside Denver’s city limits. Only four — Zuni Street Brewing, Intrepid Sojourner Beer Project, Woods Boss Brewing and Alternation Brewing — began pouring beer. A fifth, Oasis Brewing at 3257 Lowell Boulevard, is rushing to get itself…
Bar culture is about far more than booze. Bars should be welcoming destinations where you can relax and forget the outside world. And Denver got ten great new bars in 2017.
Humans have been trying to get drunk for a long time. The earliest evidence of people drinking fermented wheat or barley-based beverages dates all the way back to ancient Mesopotamia (where Iraq is now) about 7,000 years ago, while the earliest beer recipe was discovered in a 4,000-year-old poem. But on…
Before my first taste of a new vermouth from one of Denver’s few urban wineries, the sweetish herbal concoction was just another ingredient in my favorite vodka martini. At the Infinite Monkey Theorem Urban Winery at 3200 Larimer Street, I discovered the unique, stand-alone virtues of a glass of vermouth. In…
As the days get colder, you can count on Colfax Avenue to stay burning bright at all hours, full of places to take refuge from the wind. One place that has become a quietly reliable Colfax fixture over the years, as well as a great place to warm yourself and…
It’s not every day you can find American spirits created in a traditional Scottish Forsyths still, but at Vapor Distillery in Boulder the whiskey passes through a copper pot from the respected manufacturer before being aged and bottled. The man behind the machine is Alastair Brogan, also a Scottish import,…
Fireman Capital Partners, the Boston-based private equity firm that owns Longmont’s Oskar Blues Brewery, Perrin Brewing in Michigan, Florida’s Cigar City and the Squatters and Wasatch breweries in Utah, is changing the name of the holding company that operates these breweries from Oskar Blues Holdings to CANarchy. CANarchy “provides a…
Gird your loins and steel your livers; the most wonderful time of the year is upon us, bringing with it the attendant consumerism, family drama and, of course, drinking. No doubt you’ll be making a few runs to your local liquor store for supplies, but this festive season is also…
At least a dozen breweries closed their taprooms in Colorado in 2017. That’s the bad news. But eight of the twelve were replaced by other existing breweries or breweries-in-planning, so the vacated spaces are at least being recycled, the brewing equipment reused and thirsty beer drinkers are being served. One…
Westword’s most-read drink stories of 2017.
