Lakewood Beers and Anniversary Parties: The Best Events on Denver's Beer Calendar

This week promises a thirst-quenching batch of beery events to help beat the heat, from Black Project's latest super-fruited brew to a six-year-anniversary block party to a brand-new Lakewood brewery. Here are the best craft-beer events and tappings through June 28.

Wednesday, June 21
Westfax brewing releases its latest small-batch offering: Pineapple Orange IPA. Come by the brewery at  6733 West Colfax Avenue starting at 3 p.m.

At 4 p.m., Black Project, at 1290 South Broadway, will release the latest variant in its Shadow Factory super-fruited sour-beer series made with with 100 percent wild-caught microbes. "We start with a special all-wheat base designed for high levels of fruiting," Black Project explains. "The beer is then fermented in a solera using a mix of coolship-caught microbes and house-foraged wild strains. After the beer finishes fermentation, we add pounds of boysenberry and blood orange into our stainless-steel tank to re-ferment." All of the Shadow Factory beers are made with more than three pounds of fruit per gallon of beer, which adds tartness as well as additional alcohol.

Platte Park Brewing releases the latest in its 11th Tap project: Tequila-Barrel Aged Tropical Snow Dance IPA. "This is our single-hop Mosaic IPA, aged in tequila barrels. Aging Tropical in barrels laces tequila-like flavors of oak into this citrus IPA. Think margarita chiller meets delicious IPA," the brewery says. Get a taste at the taproom at 1875 South Pearl Street.

Friday, June 23
TRVE Brewing will throw its annual Bacchanal at the hi-dive today and tomorrow. The brewery will take over the taps and has flown in bands from around the country to help celebrate the occasion. Today's band lineup includes Eternal Champion, Spirit Adrift, In the Company of Serpents, 908 and Rottstrotter. Tomorrow you can expect to see Ash Borer, Vastum, Of Feather and Bone, and Glacial Tomb.

Join Our Mutual Friend Brewing for its first bottle release of the year, a collaboration with Greeley's Wiley Roots Brewing called New Boot Goofing. A bottle-conditioned golden sour brewed, aged and rested on local Montmorency cherries, the beer has "a wonderful, light-rosy hue and flavor complexity that makes it our current go-to sour that we considered just hoarding and drinking ourselves," the brewery says. Ultimately, OMF decided to share it and will begin sales at 2 p.m. The beer will also be available on draft.

Saturday, June 24
Much has changed since Renegade Brewing opened its doors on June 26, 2011. The west Denver brewery has grown from its initial taproom and a staff of three to having a separate production facility, a full lineup of canned beers that are distributed in five states, and a staff of twenty. To celebrate, Renegade will hold its Six-Year Anniversary Block Party from 1 to 5 p.m. at its production facility, in a business park at 918 West First Avenue (the brewery has held its previous anniversary parties at its taproom on Ninth Avenue). This time around, the evening will be ticketed, and there are several levels, ranging from $40 to $70, but all of them get you unlimited beer tastings, a $5 voucher for any of the food trucks that will be on the premises, and some type of drinkware. There will also be live music from Hangman's Hymnal. For tickets and more information, go to renegadeanniversary.com.

LandLocked Ales in Lakewood will host its long-awaited grand opening starting at noon at 3225 South Wadsworth Boulevard. There will be several beers on tap, and Woodhill Small Batch BBQ will be on hand with food.

Big Choice Brewing is moving from its Broomfield home of five years to a larger, new location in Brighton, but the owners want to say goodbye to the old spot in style, so they're hosting a party at 7270 West 118th Place, "from noon until whenever." There will be lots of beer and plenty of stories from staff and regulars. More details TBA.

Great Divide Brewing will release the third of its Local Knowledge series, Raspberry Sour. At 5.6 percent ABV, "the approachable Raspberry Sour is a kettle sour brewed with over 200 pounds of raspberry purée," the brewery says. The limited beer will be available only on draft and in six-packs at the Great Divide Tap Room and Barrel Bar beginning at noon Saturday, June 24. "This beer will go fast!" adds Great Divide. "Local Knowledge is Great Divide’s hyper-limited, hyper-local pilot series. These single-batch pilot brews are designed to give you something new to take home each time you visit."

Comrade Brewing will tap its new Powder Session IPA at noon. This is "an American session IPA loaded with Citra, Mosaic, Simcoe and Amarillo hops for a crisp and refreshing citrus finish," according to the brewery. "It pours a beautiful light-straw color at 4.9 percent ABV."

Monday, June 26
When Avery Brewing says it's going to make a peanut butter beer as part of its acclaimed Barrel-Aged Series, you known the roof of your mouth is going to be sticky. After all, Avery makes the most of its ingredients, oak barrels and fermentable sugars, often turning in high-ABV wonders. For the latest installment in the series, Nuttiest Professor, Avery has again made an imperial stout, this one with peanut flour. Then the beer was aged in bourbon barrels and conditioned on peanuts. And, yeah, it's coming in hot, at 15 percent ABV. The beer will be released on tap at the brewery (4510 Nautilus Court in Boulder) on June 26 and will be available at a limited number of liquor stores throughout July (until bottles sell out). This is the 45th release in Avery's Barrel-Aged Series.

Wednesday, June 28
Stir Cooking School is hosting a Cooking With Beer workshop at 6:30 p.m. "Students will learn how to incorporate beer's delicious flavor into dishes that can be made at home, from appetizers to dessert and everything in between," says the cooking school. The menu includes Great Divide beer cheese soup; beer-battered onion rings with homemade tartar sauce; beer-marinated baby back ribs with beer BBQ sauce; German-style fried potatoes and dark-chocolate stout cupcakes with buttercream frosting. The class is $75 per person and can be paid for online at Stir's website. And because the cooking school serves liquor, you'll be able to enjoy beers while you cook.