Beer Calendar: Bierstadt Lagerhaus Says Hello; Black Project Solves a Mystery

Colorado's biggest mega-brewery may own the naming rights to one of the state's largest sporting venues — Coors Field — but our largest craft brewer is getting in on the action, too. Fort Collins-based New Belgium Brewing said late last week that it would donate $4.3 million to Colorado State University in return for naming rights to the "north end zone hospitality area" at the school's stadium. 

New Belgium, which has already given the school more than $1 million for its fermentation and brewing science and technology program, has more than seventy CSU grads working at its brewery. The New Belgium Porch, as the area will be called, should be completed in time for the 2017 football season.

Here are this week's craft beer events.

Wednesday, August 10
It's Chili Cask Month at Copper Kettle Brewing, which will tap a different firkin of chili beer each Wednesday in August. Today's is Spiced Sobremesa with Hatch Chilies, a 7.6 percent ABV, spiced-up twist on Copper Kettle's tequila barrel favorite, Sobremesa. Pavy's Food Truck will be out front.

Dry Dock Brewing is Aurora will release Imperial Pumpkin Ale in 22-ounce bombers and on draft today in its North Dock Canoe Room tasting room today at 2 p.m. The 9 percent ABV beer is spiced with Vietnamese and Indonesian cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, allspice, mace and cloves. It will also be available in liquor stores and on draft at various bars and restaurants around town.

Thursday, August 11
Peachopotamus is back at 4 Noses Brewing in Broomfield. Every year, the brewery uses 1,000 pounds of Palisade Peaches to make this refreshing peach wheat. 4 Noses will open at 2 p.m. today and will have live bluegrass music from 6 to 9 p.m. and pizza from Basic Kneads.

Friday, August 12
Wit's End has been rocking its Banana Hammock hefeweizen all summer, and now it's time to try it on with a Laws Whiskey House barrel, the brewery says. "We took our summer seasonal and let it gently age in a whiskey barrel. It picked up some of the whiskey notes along with slight vanilla flavors from the oak. Truly a beer version of bananas foster and not to be missed."

The new Tivoli Brewing will celebrate its one-year anniversary of being located inside the original Tivoli building on the Auraria campus. Join them today, starting at 5 p.m. 

Alpine Dog Brewing will tap a firkin of its double IPA that has been aged with mangos. The beer, called Electric Mango Superhaze, will be tapped at 5 p.m. 2 Street Chefs will be on site with food.

Something's brewing at Black Project Spontaneous & Wild Ales, which operates out of Former Future Brewing. Want to find out what the mystery is all about? Head over there at 2 p.m. for wild times.

Locavore Beerworks in Littleton will tap Heisenberg green chile pale ale today at 11 a.m.

Dry Dock Brewing is Aurora will release Imperial Pumpkin Ale in 22-ounce bombers and on draft today in its original South Dock tasting room today at noon. The 9 percent ABV beer is spiced with Vietnamese and Indonesian cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, allspice, mace and cloves. It will also be available in liquor stores and on draft at various bars and restaurants around town.

"Colorado’s water: it’s some of the best in the nation, and it makes some of the best beers in the world. And it’s limited." That's the theme behind Save the Ales at the Exdo Event Center. Try beers from more than forty breweries and learn about how the state's waterways support the industry. General admission, $35, is at 7 p.m., or you can get in an hour early for $60. Get tickets at conservationco.org/savetheales.

Saturday, August 13
Years in the making, the lagers of Bierstadt Lagerhaus are finally ready to pour. The brewery opens today at 11 a.m. in the Bindery on Blake building, which also houses Rackhouse Pub and C Squared Ciders. The brewery is centered around an 84-year-old brew house that Bierstadt co-owners Bill Eye and Ashleigh Carter brought back from a trip to Germany. There will be live music, food, bar games, door prizes and brewery tours. Prizes include full kegs, custom glassware, gift cards, growlers and swag. There will likely be at pilsner, dunkel and helles on tap. Buy tickets online at nightout.com or at the Rackhouse for $5, which includes a beer and entry into a drawing for lots of awesome prizes.

Hops & Pie brings back its monthly Littlest Big Beer Fest today at noon featuring some of the best hop bombs around. Beers on tap include: Melvin Brewing Hops & Rye (a collab with Hops & Pie), along with 2x4, Hubert and IPA; Odd 13 Brewing's Codename Superfan, Hopperella; Russian River Pliny the Elder; Comrade Brewing Superpower, Nuggzilla, Amarillo Smash, and Beardog Imperial Red IPA; Station 26 Brewing's Juicy Banger; Crooked Stave Sourless IPA; Alaska Brewing Galaxy IPA and Mosaic Saison.

It's back, and this time, it's in bottles. Fermaentra Brewing will release Machination today at noon. This 10 percent ABV dry-hopped American strong ale "was designed to show off the beauty and complexity of American hop varietals. At over 1.25 pounds of hops per barrel — just in the dry hop — this bi-annual specialty strong ale employs a wide variety of fragrant hops to augment its robust grain bill, giving it a bold aroma as well as a heavy, yet not overwhelming body," the brewery says. "The nose brings grapefruits, papayas, juniper berries, maple sugar, and a hint of spice."

The Bull & Bush Brewery continues a four-concert series today in honor of its 45th anniversary (as a restaurant and bar). Each Saturday this month, the brewery will feature a different band in concert. In addition to the concerts, the Bull & Bush will release tribute beers for each band. Each limited-edition bottle will include a special music sampler download. Today's concert is from A. Tom Collins. The tribute beer is A. Botanical Kolsch, a German-style kolsch.

Tuesday, August 16
North Carolina's highly acclaimed Wicked Weed Brewing will make its Colorado debut today at 5 p.m. at the Falling Rock Taphouse with twenty different beers on tap. After that, the brewery will host several other major tapping around town and will distribute to some liquor stores as well. Beers on tap at Falling Rock are: Silencio, Genesis, Permeo, Resonare, Fille de Ferme, Bombadile, Garcon de Ferme, Amorous, Parking Lot, Brettaberry, Dark Age, Old Fashioned, Pernicious, Freak, Coolcumber, Lunatic, Calimost Gose, Marina, La Bonte Pear and Recurrant.

Do you like hops? History? Hikes? Then you'll want to join author, beer blogger and Denver Business Journal reporter Ed Sealover today at the Tattered Cover Colfax for a reading and signing of his new book, Colorado Excursions with History, Hikes and Hops. It starts at 7 p.m. 

Wednesday, August 17
Crooked Stave Artisan Beer Project will release Batch #200 today at 5 p.m. at the taproom in The Source. "This beer builds upon the breweries past Batch Series releases by blending two of the breweries favorite ingredients, fruit and hops," Crooked Stave says. "Batch #200 aged for months on whole raspberries and was then dry hopped with aromatic hops to match and contrast the raspberry forward nose. The result is a deep red sour beer with a pink-ish, red head and deep raspberry aromas, which instantly lift the heavy citrus and resinous, hop aromatics.

Thursday, August 18
Under the Sun Pizzeria, the Mountain Sun-owned restaurant in Boulder, will turn over eights of its taps to Denver's Renegade Brewing today at 4 p.m. There will be a live band, and some of the proceeds from the evening will benfit Renegade’s Tap4Tap program where each gallon of Renegade beer purchased provides one gallon of fresh drinking water to someone in need.

Wicked Weed Brewing, from North Carolina, continues its Colorado rollout at 5 p.m. at Backcountry Pizza & Taphouse in Boulder. Beers include: Pernicious IPA, Freak Double IPA, Coolcucumber Golden Ale, Lunatic Belgian Blonde Ale, Myrtille BA Sour w/ Blueberries, Grand Pere BA Sour w/ Marionberries
Medora BA Sour w/ Blackberries & Raspberries, Marina BA Sour w/ Peaches & Apricots and more.

Friday, August 19
Resolute Brewery, a new brewery in Centennial, at 7286 South Yosemite Street, plans to host its grand opening today, beginning at 11 a.m. There will be food trucks, beer releases, and shenanigans throughout the day, the brewery says. Resolute will serve a variety of styles made by Zac Rissmiller, formerly of Elk Mountain Brewing in Aurora. I GotZ BratZ will be there today, while Donatellas Pizzatruck rolls in on Saturday and Ol' Skool Que on Sunday. "The taproom features a rounded bar, floor-to-ceiling views into the brewery, a pet and family friendly atmosphere, along with a garage door opening out to a patio beer garden," the brewery says. "Denver’s best food trucks will set up daily offering a wide-array of cuisines. Thirty-two ounce Crowler Cans will be available for purchase, and walk-in growler fills are welcomed."

North Carolina's Wicked Weed Brewing will continue its Colorado rollout at 5:30 p.m. at Freshcraft. Here's what they will have on draft: Pernicious IPA, Freak Double IPA, Coolcumber Golden Ale with Cucumbers, Basil & Juniper, Lunatic Belgian Blonde, Calimost Gose with Grapefruit & Honey, Barrel Aged Lunatic, Marina Barrel Aged Sour with Peaches and Apricots, Grand Pere Barrel Aged Sour with Marionberries.

Saturday, August 20
The Crafty Fox will host its own 2016 IPA Olympics in honor of the real Olympic games. Starting at 11 a.m., the Crafty Fox will tap rare and sought-after IPAs from Ursula Brewery, WeldWerks Brewing Company, Cerebral Brewing, Melvin Brewing, Mockery Brewing, Renegade Brewing Company, Diebolt Brewing Company, Odd 13 Brewing, and Black Shirt Brewing. "The first brewery's keg to kick will win gold and a permanent handle for a year," the bar says. There will be happy-hour pricing all day.

Dry Dock Brewing in Aurora will host its first-ever sour beer festival — the A-Town Funk Fest — at its original South Dock location on Hampden Avenue starting at 11 a.m. You can try some Dry Dock favorites along with a lineup of new selections from their barrel program, like Brett Stock Ale, Mary Rose Sour Red, Saison Brett and Black Currant Saison Brett, Vintage Ambassador, Sour Blonde, Sour Apricot and Swabby Sour Quad. There will also be live funk music, and a '70s costume contest (the best outfits win Dry Dock gift cards), antacids and $12 flights.

Black Shirt Brewing will celebrate the annual release of its beloved Imperial Red Rye IPA, Red Evelyn, today, starting at 11 a.m. The beer, named for the grandmother of brewery co-founders Chad and Branden Miller, is "elegant, layered, complex, full of floral, citrus, caramel, and pine notes," Black Shirt says. It will be available on draft and in very limited (there are only fifty) 32-ounce Crowlers to go. In addition, the Colorado Raw Fresh Oyster Bar opens at 1 p.m. on-site with 1,500 oysters. Tyler Imbrey & The Ghost Review play a free show on the brewery's backyard Pallet Stage starting at 7 p.m.

North Carolina's Wicked Weed Brewing continues its Colorado rollout at noon at Hops & Pie by tapping Pernicious IPA, Freak Double IPA, Coolcumber Golden Ale, Lunatic Belgian Blonde, Calimost Gose, Old Fashioned Barrel Aged Brown with cherries and orange, Marina Barrel Aged Sour with Peaches and Apricots, Medora barrel-aged sour with blackberries, and much more.

Head to Call to Arms Brewing from noon to 9 p.m. today for Peace & Assist No. 3, the third in a series of beers meant to honor collaboration and good will between breweries rather than bickering and legal battles. This version is a collaboration between Call to Arms, Cannonball Creek in Golden and Amalgam Brewing, which is getting started in Niwot. In addition to the beer on draft a very small of number of bottles will be for sale. There will also be other special tappings throughout the day; live music from The Whiskey Treats from 5 to 8 p.m.; and food from from: Butcher's Bistro, MAS KAOS Pizzeria and Taqueria, and ChurnandBurn BBQ and Ice Cream. A portion of the proceeds will benefit local charities.

The Bull & Bush Brewery continues a four-concert series today in honor of its 45th anniversary (as a restaurant and bar). Each Saturday this month, the brewery will feature a different band in concert. In addition to the concerts, the Bull & Bush will release tribute beers for each band. Each limited-edition bottle will include a special music sampler download. Today's concert is from The Sadies, a band from Toronto. The tribute beer is Another Year Again, a Canadian-style maple stout.