The Dark Side of the Holidays

The Christmas season is a time for lights – just look at your neighbor’s sun-like display – but for beer drinkers, it’s also a time for darks: dark beers. Today, the Wynkoop Brewing Company will give more than a dozen breweries from Colorado and elsewhere a chance to show off their darker side with a beer-tasting festival and fundraiser that will benefit Metro CareRing, a downtown Denver food pantry.

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• Marty Jones
• Christmas
• Breckenridge
• Food and Cooking
• Beverages

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The second annual Parade of Darks will feature nearly seventy brews – many of them darker, seasonal warmers -- from the likes of Avery, Stone, Breckenridge, Maui, Great Divide, Pizzza Port, Boulevard, Odell, Bull & Bush, Grimm Bros, Ska and Strange.

“Last year, we did it in the first week in January, which is a great lull time to do it, but it’s a fundraiser and people are more apt to hand out funds before Christmas as opposed to after,” says Wynkoop spokesman Marty Jones. The brewers are donating the beer to help raise money, and the Wynkoop is giving 100 percent of the ticket sales to the Metro CareRing food pantry.

The benefit is cheekily named after the traditional Parade of Lights that takes place downtown every year; Jones says people can enjoy the beer and then head a few blocks over to partake in the festivities, which begin at 6 p.m. tonight.

The Parade of Darks goes from 1 to 4:30 p.m. at the Wynkoop, 1634 18th Street. Tickets are $25 in advance and $30 the day of; there will also be a silent auction. Visit www.wynkoop.com for tickets and information.
Sat., Dec. 4, 1-4:30 p.m., 2010