Alcoholic Beverage Manufacturing

Here's to American Craft Beer Week, and something wet in every cup

Here's to American Craft Beer Week (which began Monday), the annual salute to small independent brewers that the Boulder-based Brewers Association (with help from Congress!) created seven years ago to increase awareness of craft beer. Of course, in Colorado, as some people say, every week is craft b ... More >>

Beer calendar: Renegades, superheroes and American Craft Beer Week

Did you know that Italy has a thriving craft-beer scene? Neither did I. But Brian Jansing and Paul Vismara, two longtime suds slingers at the Falling Rock Taphouse, did, and they've traveled all over Italy, researching the movement as it grew from fewer than twenty craft breweries in 1996 to nearly ... More >>

Colorado breweries stay steady on the list of the nation's biggest craft brewers

Colorado craft breweries have remained steady on the Boulder-based Brewers Association's annual list of the top fifty craft-beer makers in the country. New Belgium Brewing in Fort Collins is still the third-largest craft brewer in the nation, while Longmont's Oskar Blues rose from 29th on the list ... More >>

The Craft Brewers Conference wraps up with an award for New Belgium

It's been quiet out there in the craft beer world this week -- primarily because most of the movers and shakers from around the country are in Washington, D.C. for the annual Craft Brewers Conference, and industry-only event hosted by the Brewers Association. This year's version -- the thirtieth on ... More >>

The brewers at Prost and the Sandlot will team up on a new German-style lager

Two breweries -- one locally owned and the other managed by a big corporation -- will test the definition of "craft beer" next week when they collaborate on a new brew. Tom Hail, who has worked at Blue Moon Brewing Company @ the Sandlot since it opened in 1995, and Bill Eye, who left Dry Dock in 20 ... More >>

Third Shift lager, a new MillerCoors beer, got its medal-winning start at Denver's Sandlot

Tom Hail loves beer. He loves lagers especially, which is why he stays very late on a lot of nights to work on his passion projects. One of these is a traditional German-style marzen -- a recipe that he's been tinkering with on and off for eighteen years. It's a tasty beer -- so tasty that Hail, on ... More >>

Eight craft beer trends to look for in Colorado in 2013

One of the best parts about Colorado's craft beer scene is that it changes constantly. From one week to the next, beer geeks can hit a new taproom, try an innovative new brew, head to a packed festival and generally make friends in other states jealous. The last year saw a lot of big news -- some ba ... More >>

A new bill would put craft beers in grocery stores

Ten biggest Colorado craft beer stories in 2012

Colorado craft breweries and their many fans enjoyed a spectacular year in 2012, as the options for consuming locally made beer continued to grow and fill our tastebuds with joy. If the state's 160-plus breweries weren't expanding, then they were adding new beers or welcoming friendly competitors. A ... More >>

Coors, Miller, Bud will keep sponsoring GABF, despite craft vs. crafty controversy

When the Brewers Association blasted the nation's two largest beer makers last week for not labeling some of their smaller brands with the names "MillerCoors" or "Anheuser-Busch," the Boulder organization risked losing a lot of money. After all, the two companies kick in at least $20,000 annually to ... More >>

Is Colorado the center of the "crafty" beer universe?

Colorado -- home to the Great American Beer Festival, the Brewers Association and 161 breweries -- is the center of the universe when it comes to craft beer. But is it also the center of the "crafty" beer universe? On Thursday, the Brewers Association, which represents small brewers nationwide, fi ... More >>

Strange Brewing faces a trademark threat from a Massachusetts homebrew shop

Something strange is going on. In September, as Denver's Strange Brewing was gearing up for a small expansion as well as the Great American Beer Festival, owners John Fletcher and Tim Myers got a letter from a lawyer demanding that they change their name. See also: - De Steeg Brewing will open on ... More >>

Moving to Canada to protest the election results? Three things to know about Canadian wine

No matter who you were pulling for in last night's Presidential contest, if you were on the losing side, you undoubtedly heard more than a few of your disgruntled peeps threaten to move to Canada in protest. Well, before you start packing your bags, we thought it only proper to give you the lowdown ... More >>

Updated: The Great American Beer Festival 2012 calendar of awesome events

Updated with new events: Tourists may go to Rome to see the Coliseum, but it's the side streets, the adventures and the hidden cafes that typically fill their cameras and their post-trip stories. The same is true of the week surrounding the Great American Beer Festival. The event is the centerpiece, ... More >>

Chicago's Goose Island will brew some of its signature 312 beer in Colorado's 970

Goose Island, a Chicago craft brewer that was bought last year by Anheuser-Busch InBev, will brew some of its signature 312 Urban Wheat Ale at the AB InBev plant in Fort Collins, according to a federal filing. 312 takes its name from the Windy City's area code and is described on Goose Island's webs ... More >>

Breckenridge Brewery hopes to expand the law and its business

Three Colorado winemakers worthy of Drink Local Wine week love

A little more than nine months ago, we ruffled a lot more than a few feathers by voicing our opinion on the local wine industry. Everyone from the Front Range Winery Association to hobbyist vintners juiced over where we got the balls to speak our minds on such an -- unbeknownst to us -- unbelievabl ... More >>

$714 million a year and other fun facts about Colorado's craft beer industry

The Colorado Brewers Guild provided proof today of what most Colorado residents have known for a while: beer is good for us, economically at least. On Tuesday, the Guild, which represents craft breweries in the state legislature, said Colorado's 139 licensed craft breweries pump $714 million a year ... More >>

Left Hand named a top fifty U.S. brewer; Oskar Blues is second in Colorado

Longmont won big today when the Brewers Association, based just down the road in Boulder, released its annual list of the top fifty biggest craft brewers in the United States. Left Hand Brewing, which was founded in Longmont in 1993, cracked the list for the first time, logging in at number 49. The ... More >>

Three reasons why Colorado wines still suck (and three Colorado winemakers who are getting it right)

​Last month we attended the first annual Colorado Winefest - Denver, and for the first time tasted a number of truly delicious, locally produced wines we could recommend to you without pause. So you can certainly understand how we were legitimately fired up about an already scheduled wine-tast ... More >>

Five Colorado wines (finally!) worth drinking by the case

​Have you ever gotten the impression that Colorado wines kinda suck? If you're really, really honest with yourself, you probably answered yes - and you're not the only person who feels that way. A glance at the wine list of many of Denver's top-rated dining destinations routinely reveals fewer ... More >>

Comment of the day: Why did the People's Fair choose Miller?

​While most folks go to festivals like the Capitol Hill People's Fair mostly for the bouncy-castle and the shirtless ambiance, Bree Davies is partial to the finer points of festival vending, like hats for dogs and paintings of sheep in trench-coats; in her recap of the fair yesterday, she brou ... More >>

New Belgium, maker of Fat Tire, plans a second brewery on the East Coast

FacebookNew Belgium headquarters in Fort Collins.​Two of the nation's biggest craft brewers, both based in California, have revealed the details of some major expansion plans in the past couple of days, and Colorado's New Belgium Brewing, the country's third largest craft brewer, could be clos ... More >>

A Toast to Women

Taste of Vail

How liquor stores support Colorado craft breweries

Pinot Posse wines spark Old World vs. New World debate

​Last week's post featuring the wines of the Pinot Posse sparked much debate over the respective merits and flaws of modern, new world-style pinot noir. At one end of the table, we had the new world wine lovers, who revel in bottles bursting with ripe, mouthwateringly juicy fruit, and (though ... More >>

Hickenlooper's Inaugurale will be delivered via horse and carriage

​Not only is the Wynkoop Brewing Company making a special beer to commemorate brewery co-founder John Hickenlooper's gubernatorial inauguration party on Tuesday, it will deliver that beer, Hickelooper's Inaugurale, via horse and carriage. The party, which is being held at the Fillmore auditor ... More >>

If Coors won big at the Great American Beer Festival, who lost out?

​Four of Colorado's biggest and best-known craft brewers, Avery, Breckenridge, Odell and Oskar Blues, were shut out of last month's Great American Beer Festival awards ceremony, while several other major brewers in the state barely made the cut. In fact, of the 41 medals awarded to Colorado b ... More >>

Get ready, Southern California: Great Divide beers are on their way

Great Divide BrewingGreat Divide has added a lot of capacity.​Great Divide Brewing will challenge some of the big boys of bold brewing this week as it takes its Yeti Imperial Stout, Titan IPA, Hercules Double IPA, Smoked Baltic Porter and other beers to Southern California bars and stores for ... More >>

Great American Beer Festival brew is ready and waiting to be judged -- in a Bud warehouse

This is what we imagine the warehouse looks like.​A refrigerated Budweiser warehouse isn't normally the kind of thing that would make a hop-headed craft beer geek salivate, but for the next couple of weeks, the facility at 62nd Avenue and Franklin Street in Denver is every beer geeks dream. I ... More >>

ColoradoWino.com gives voice to Colorado's growing wine industry

​Local food has crept onto just about every menu on the Front Range. And if Jacob Harkins has his way, local wine will follow. Last fall, Harkins started an online magazine called ColoradoWino.com that focuses on the Colorado wine industry, aiming to expose consumers and chefs to Colorado win ... More >>

Five Oregon wineries to make you rethink your Napa habit

​For whatever reasons, Napa Valley is still viewed as the Holy Grail of wine destinations for a majority of American wine lovers. Don't get me wrong: I've been to Napa many times and there's no denying that some of the most fantastic juice in the world is produced there. But given the state ... More >>

Strange Brewing tapped its first kegs last night

Tim Meyers poured everything into Strange Brewing.​Strange Brewing Company, Denver's newest craft beer maker, opened for business Wednesday, pouring its Paint It Black Stout and Strange Pale Ale for friends, family and beer lovers who showed up to toast the place. Located in a business park a ... More >>

A Reason for Cheer

Craft breweries are on a roll

​With the Great American Beer Festival (September 24-26) and the first ever Denver Beer Fest (September 18-27) both around the corner, the craft beer industry's major trade group has released some mid-year statistics on what's been brewing nationwide. The Brewers Association reports that craf ... More >>

A Crush on Cans: Ball Packaging

It's American Craft Beer Week - seven days that even the United States Congress felt should be set aside for drinking micro brews. But Colorado's beer culture is worth a deeper look, since 100 craft breweries operated here in 2008, producing 75,000 barrels of delicious beer. Of particular interest ... More >>

Colorado beer drinkers have a crush on cans

It's American Craft Beer Week - seven days that even the United States Congress felt should be set aside for one purpose and one purpose only: drinking micro brews. (To find out about tappings, food pairings and other events, click here or here.) But Colorado's beer culture is worth a deeper look s ... More >>

An American Revolution

Craft Beer Week celebrates beer independence.

Beer today, gone tomorrow

At 6 p.m. tonight, April 16, "Beer Wars Live," a live simulcast, will present the founders of Dogfish Head Craft Brewery, New Century Brewing Company and Stone Brewing Company, as well as Charlie Papazian, the president of the Boulder-based Brewers Association, in a discussion led by Ben Stein; the ... More >>

Beer and Cheer: 2 Below Ale

2 Below New Belgium Brewery Fort Collins Argh, no matter how hard I try, I just can't get into the beers from New Belgium Brewery. Fat Tire, Mothership Wit, 1554, 2 Below Ale: I've tried them -- repeatedly -- in an effort to figure out what I'm missing, and what everyone else is buying. After all, ... More >>

Miller, Coors, Bud are Aleing

All-American Budweiser Joins Coors in Europe

License to Swill

License to Swill

Wining and Dining

Boulder's food and wine takes center stage.

Mouthing Off

COLORADO'S WHINE INDUSTRY

THAT BOUQUET EMANATING FROM DISGRUNTLED LOCAL VINTNERS? SOUR GRAPES.

MOUTHING OFF

MOUTHING OFF