Beer Calendar: Parties at Goldspot, TRVE and Copper Kettle Breweries

Oskar Blues Brewery announced this week that it has begun distributing beer in North Dakota, South Dakota and Oklahoma, which means there is only one state remaining before the Longmont-based brewer has a lock on all fifty states. That unlucky state: Montana. But never fear, Oskar Blues plans to launch in Big Sky Country soon, which means the brewery will achieve its national footprint by mid-year. 

Wednesday, February 17
Copper Kettle continues its Decadent Chocolate Cask Month by tapping a firkin of Chocolate Rosemary Rose Stout, "a smooth stout with aromas of rose and the spicy finish of rosemary," the brewery says. In addition, Pavlo's Taste of Ukraine will be serving food.

Black Shirt Brewing continues its series of One-Keg Wednesdays today at 11 a.m. when it taps "a new expression of our Milk Chocolate Oatmeal Red Porter on Nitro - this one incorporates ancho and arbol chiles as well as Madagascar vanilla beans. It's smoky, slightly spicy, rich, and creamy — our favorite way of paying tribute to the arid landscape of Southern Colorado," the brewery says.

Thursday, February 18
TRVE Brewing will release the first in a series of eight IPAs today. For this beer, called Hymn 1: Of Wolf and Fear, TRVE "used a basic recipe comprised mostly of 2 Row malt and a small amount of Crystal Malt. Our procedural change for this hymn has been the use of a large number of additions throughout the boil, as well as a large whirlpool charge," according to the brewery's website. "Dry-hopping was per our usual method, though with Centennial, Vic’s Secret, Waimea, and Mosaic." The eight IPAs will be released on a monthly basis, with the last one occurring on All Hallow's Eve. Here is TRVE's explanation of the series: "In a continued effort to increase our knowledge of the art of brewing, we are excited to announce the beginning of our Aatte Hymne til Humle program. In honor of Nattens Madrigal, the black metal masterpiece by seminal band Ulver, we will be brewing eight distinct hymnal IPAs. Through each hymn, we will modify ingredients and techniques to further educate ourselves on how to improve how we brew this style of beer."

Freshcraft will hook up a randle — a beer pouring device made famous by Dogfish Head — tonight at 7 p.m. for the first time. Dogfish Head reps will be hand to pour Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA with Sour Patch Kids into the randle. They will also pass out gear and and raffle tickets. Other beers on tap include: 
Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA 2015, Dogfish Head Raison D'Extra 2014 and Dogfish Head Namaste.

Friday, February 19
Goldspot Brewing kicks off its two-day first anniversary celebration today by tapping whisky-barrel-aged Black River Imperial Stout, a 9.8 percent ABV brew aged in Colorado whiskey barrels. There will be food from Matt's Snack Shack.

Copper Kettle will tap its Milk Stout today. "This dark and delicious beer was brewed with real lactose for a creamy body," the brewery says. 5280 Sliders will be on hand as well.

Hogshead Brewery brings back its annual Hogshead Days celebration today through Sunday with a variety of special tappings, releases and firkins. They will also have food trucks. To see the schedule of releases and more information, go to their Facebook page, where it is spread out over a couple of posts.

Crazy Mountain Brewery will officially open its Crazy Mountain Taproom + BBQ

Saturday, February 20
Call to Arms Brewing Company is hosting its Mardi Gras-themed Rumpus today from noon to 11 p.m., featuring New Orleans-style cuisine from Jessie's Smokin' NOLA food truck, tacos and tortas from the Mas Kaos food truck, and beignets from Il Porcellino, also located on Tennyson Street. The World's Tiniest and Greatest Mardi Gras parade will kick off at 4 p.m. with floats with krewes from local breweries and restaurants; the short list includes Station 26, Cannonball Creek, Mountain Sun, Beryl's, Hops & Pie and Call to Arms. The Otone Brass Band will be provide music from 4 to 6 pm. And finally, the brewery will tap exclusive Mardi Gras-inspired beers. Guests who come in a mask or costume get $1 off their first beer.

Goldspot Brewing continues its one-year anniversary celebration today by tapping Apricot La Cienega and Cherry Cutter IPA; Bakin' Bakery will provide food. In addition, there will be live music with Regis's own Souled. as well as random giveaways and prizes during the day.

Falling Rock Taphouse will tap the famous Russian River triple IPA, Pliny the Younger, at 1 p.m. today. For details on this tapping and all of the other PTY tappings in Colorado, see our PTY post.

Our Mutual Friend will release bottles of Thanatoid, "a huge, viscous, motor oil-like Russian Imperial Stout aged in freshly emptied charred oak Leopold Bros. bourbon barrels for over seven months," today at 2 p.m. The 500-ml bottles cost $16 each and there is a limit of four per person. 

Hogshead Brewery brings back its annual Hogshead Days celebration today through Sunday with a variety of special tappings, releases and firkins. They will also have food trucks. To see the schedule of releases and more information, go to their Facebook page, where it is spread out over a couple of posts.

The Winter Craft Beer Festival takes place today from 2 to 6 p.m. at the Coors Events Center at the University of Colorado at Boulder, featuring more than forty breweries. There will also be games and music. General admission tickets are $40; find more info on the fest's web site.

Sunday, February 21
Falling Rock Taphouse will tap the famous Russian River triple IPA, Pliny the Younger, today at 1 p.m. For details on the tapping and all of the other PTY tappings in Colorado, see our PTY post.

The fifth batch of Avery Brewing's acclaimed Uncle Jacob's Stout will make its debut today at 11 a.m. at the Boulder brewery. Batch No. 5 weighs in at 17.1 percent ABV. The beer is an imperial stout aged in bourbon barrels for six months.  Bottle sales begin at 11 a.m. and there is a limit of one case per person.

Hogshead Brewery concludes its annual Hogshead Days celebration today with a variety of special tappings, releases and firkins. They will also have food trucks. To see the schedule of releases and more information, go to their Facebook page, where it is spread out over a couple of posts.

Black Project Spontaneous and Wild Ales, a part of Former Future Brewing, will host a dual bottle release today from noon to 2 p.m. featuring Dreamland Sour Golden Ale (Blend 2) in 750-ml cork-and-cage bottles ($18) and Supercruise Tempranillo (barrel one of three) in 750-ml bottles ($22). "I'm super-excited to debut the second blend of Dreamland. Due to solera aging, the majority of this blend has more age on it than the first one — more funk, more complexity, but overall pretty close. Seeing as blend 1 is now close to a year in the bottle, it is a fun comparison side by side if you still have a blend 1 bottle around. The beers were pretty similar going into the bottle but now you can see what happens to beers that are allowed to develop in the bottle with the presence of real, environmental wild microbes," says Black Project's James Howat in a Facebook post. "Supercruise is our traditional fruit level line of beers (compared to Mach-Limit, where we add as much as we legally can). It debuts with the Tempranillo variant done in collaboration with Red Fox Cellars. I have 3 barrels of this beer, all with slightly different base beer blends, barrels, and also slightly different parts of the pressed Tempranillo grapes (some were from earlier in the pressing vs later and it makes a noticeable difference). This month we will sell Barrel 1, which was done in a second use AD Laws Rye barrel."

The weather may be turning warmer, but they're still snowed in at Copper Kettle, where the brewery is planning its second annual Snowed In Brunch, with times at 8:30 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. today. The brunch will feature Copper Kettle's barrel-aged Snowed In — an imperial oatmeal stout made with local Pablo's Coffee, raw cacao nib and aged in Kentucky bourbon barrels — along with a three-course food pairing from Drew Watson of Hops & Pie. There will also be two beer cocktails. First course is cranberry/orange quick and house-cured/hickory-smoked pork belly, 63 degree egg, second course is buttermilk and crispy fried chicken, savory waffle, molasses butter, pralines. Third course: scratch apple/sage pork sausage, buttermilk cheddar biscuit, maple/bourbon gravy. Tickets are $50 per person and can be purchased on eventgrid.com.

Wednesday, February 24
The Cheeky Monk will tap Russian River's triple IPA, Pliny the Younger, today at 5 p.m. For all of the other PTY tappings in Colorado this year, see our PTY post.

Halfpenny Brewing, at 5150 East Arapahoe Road in Centennial, will celebrate its grand opening today. Focused on German, American and English beer styles, the brewery includes a 2,000-square-foot taproom with room for 100 people. Halfpenny is owned by Chris Reigrut and Chris Garner, friends since high school in Maryland, who have been home-brewing together in Colorado since 1996.

Saturday, February 27
Station 26 Brewing aged its once-a-year Dark Star Imperial Stout in Heaven Hill bourbon barrels for thirteen months, then bottled some of it. The brewery will sell those bottles today, starting at 1 p.m.; it's $20 for a 22-ounce bottle. The beer will also be on tap. 

The Cheeky Monk will tap Russian River's triple IPA, Pliny the Younger, today at 3 p.m. For all of the other PTY tappings in Colorado this year, see our PTY post.

Oskar Blues Brewery has teamed up with Stoney's Bar and Grill for a new event called the Southern Hemisphere Hop Festival, which runs from 7 to 10 p.m. (VIP tickets get you early entrance at 6 p.m.) Inspired by OB's newest beer, IPA, which features an all-Australian hop lineup, the fest will focus exclusively on beers and food from "the other side of the world," including Australia, South Africa and New Zealand. At least twenty breweries will be on hand to showcase two beers each, all made with Southern Hemisphere hops. Attendees can vote for their favorite, and the winning beer will be placed on tap at Stoney's for a full month. Since these hop varieties are hard to find, OB helped source many of them for the breweries. GA tickets are $35; for more information, go to the Facebook page.

Sunday, February 28
Falling Rock Taphouse will tap the famous Russian River triple IPA, Pliny the Younger, today at 1 p.m. For details on this tapping and all of the other PTY tappings in Colorado, see our PTY post.

Monday, February 29
Freshcraft will tap its keg of Pliny the Younger today at 8 p.m. — and donating $1 from every PTY purchase to Sense of Security. Here are the details, from Freshcraft: "All PtY purchases will be cash only and only available at the bar. We will not be starting tabs for the purchase of Younger. We will be forming a line at 5:30pm, Tapping at 6pm. It is recommended that you arrive early. You also must have a Valid ID. There will be a limited number of tickets - once you receive one you can relax, you will get a pour of the beer. After initial tickets are passed out we will then have a few remaining "second chance" tickets which will be numbered. These "second chance" tickets do not secure you a pour, but allow you the chance to get one of the last few remaining pours until the keg kicks."

Saturday, March 5
The Parry's Pizza location in Highlands Ranch will tap Pliney the Younger at 11 a.m. today. "Oh, yeah...it's first come, first served and if you're not an Ale Yeah member, don't expect a glass," Parry's says — whatever that means. PTY is a triple IPA from Russian River Brewing.

Caution Brewing, which sold its original east Denver location to the Brewability Lab earlier this year, will host a final party, to say goodbye and to welcome the new brewery. There will be live music from 4 to 8 p.m. and the Green Tree Stir Fry food truck. There will also be beer specials and giveaways every time a keg is kicked. The more you drink, the less Caution has to move.

Thursday, March 10
In advance of Collaboration Fest, which takes place March 19 at Sports Authority Field, breweries all over Colorado are working on collaborative beers. One of those is Free To Be Renegade and FCB, which came about as a result of a friendship between Fort Collins Brewery national sales manager Katie Nierling and Laura Decker, vice president of operations at Denver's Renegade Brewing. The beer, a wheat lager brewed with five different varieties of wheat malt and hopped with mostly Cascade hops, is named in honor of the Free to Be You and Me, the 1972 record by Marlo Thomas and Friends. Try the beer tonight at Historians Ale House in Denver, from 7 to 9 p.m.