Belly Up With the Bard

Every poet has a secret life: Denver Poet Laureate Chris Ransick's is stored in a keg. Aside from fostering his deep love of verse, Ransick has also nursed a twenty-year obsession for home-brewing that's left him an experienced aficionado with a palate for poetic suds. One of his favorites, a classic English ale called Sneck Lifter (which he encountered in the United Kingdom while tramping in the footsteps of William Wordsworth in the Lake District), is the inspiration for Liquid Poetry, a malty ale created in collaboration with Tom Larsen of the Wynkoop Brewing Company to toast National Poetry Month.

That's what Ransick and every other beer-loving poet in town will be doing at tonight's Liquid Poetry celebration at the Wynkoop, 1634 18th Street, which will not only showcase the brew, but will also serve as a forum for beer-specific poetry-contest winners and others. "It's not going to be typical poetry reading. It's going to be a poetry party," Ransick says. Poetry Month will reach out to the common man.

Casks will be decanted, music and poetry will be made and general fun will be had beginning at 7 p.m. Admission is free, but the beer isn't: For $5 (which partially benefits Re-cording for the Blind & Dyslexic), you can get your draft in a commemorative glass emblazoned with artwork by Bill McConnell and a bit of doggerel by Ransick, tonight and throughout April. Go to www.denvergov.org/poetry or call 303-297-2700.
Fri., April 11, 7 p.m., 2008