Beer Calendar: July 4, a Dog-Focused Brewery and Brewery Anniversaries

Just a couple of weeks after announcing that Jameson Whiskey would sponsor a barrel-aged beer garden at the Great American Beer Festival, which takes place September 20-22, festival organizers revealed a second major sponsor. Buffalo Wild Wings, which the Brewers Association says is "the largest pourer of draught beer in the country," will create a sports bar and "fan experience" at the fest. The sponsorship kicks off "a national program highlighting small and independent craft brewers," the BA adds, which is nice, since BDubs has never really been known for its craft-beer selection. In fact, it has always been pretty dismal.

The 3,600-square-foot Buffalo Wild Wings Sports Bar "will serve a variety of craft beers from small and independent brewers," the BA says. "Beer lovers can also enjoy all of the great games lined up that weekend with lots of TVs in the space. Buffalo Wild Wings will also celebrate the festival and competition by featuring GABF award-winning beers on tap at their restaurants nationwide. Additionally, wings and craft beer pairings and recipes will be shared on CraftBeer.com — the Brewers Association’s website for beer lovers."

Tickets to the festival go on sale July 31 to members of the Brewers Association and the American Homebrewers Association, and on August 1 to the general public.

Wednesday, July 4
Strange Craft Beer Company will tap its fifth annual batch of Watermelon Hefe at noon during the brewery's July 4 celebration (BYO barbecue to grill and have a picnic). Watermelon Hefe will be served in pints at the bar and in Crowlers to go while supplies last, but won't be sold in bomber bottles this year. "This bright and crisp German-style wheat beer is one of the brewery’s most sought-after creations, a refreshing summer delicacy adored for its 5.5 percent ABV drinkability and healthy but not overpowering dose of real watermelon — more than 660 pounds of organic, hand-cut fruit per ten-barrel batch," the brewery says. Strange only made enough to get through July. The beer garden will be open late this evening for fireworks viewing.

Okay, so beer slushies are a thing. Several breweries in Colorado have introduced some new summer treats in the form of beer, frozen and mixed with other flavors, and now Fiction Beer is joining the club. "We’re ready to fire up the machine that magically transforms beer into a beer slushy," the brewery says. Starting at 1 p.m., Fiction will serve them all day: "The base beer for our ‘Hush-Hush Slush’ is a Sour Blonde Ale. To make a great slushie, you need lots of sugar. For our slushie, we are using fresh fruit purées of various varieties: pineapple, mango, papaya, passion fruit, soursop, lulu and guava." Fiction Beer will be pouring in 8.5-ounce limited-edition stemless champagne flutes complete with umbrellas and straws. Muzo on Fire will have food.

Platt Park Brewing will tap two nitro versions of its fantastic Madagascar Dream Vanilla Cream Ale. The first is Madagascar Dream with fresh organic strawberries. "A sneaky 7 percent, this summer seasonal will smash your expectations of nitro beers," the brewery says. The second is Madagascar Dream with Blood Orange.

Little Machine Beer hosts its third annual Fourth of July Parking Lot Party starting at noon. "Kick back and enjoy the holiday with beer, yard games, an excellent view of the stadium's fireworks display, and food from True West Tacos and Burgerchief," the brewery says. Little Machine will tap a new beer called Tangerine Creamsicle.

Comrade Brewing taps Thunder Donkey IIPA at 11 a.m. The beer was brewed with Galaxy, Citra and Simcoe at six pounds of hops per barrel. Plus, it weighs in at 9.1 percent ABV.

Declaration Brewing will debut a new permanent food truck, Kings County Kitchen, during its Fourth of July party starting at 11 a.m. Helmed by Chef Brendon Doyle and Bob Reiter of American Elm, a new restaurant on West 38th Avenue, the truck will be permanently situated inside Declaration’s terrific beer garden. For the party, Doyle will host a Kalua-style whole pig roast featuring pork, Japanese rice, massaged kale salad and coconut-syrup-glazed, coal-roasted sweet potatoes. It costs $15 a plate, or $20 with a pint. There will also be a pie- eating contest at 4 p.m. followed by live music from 5 to 7 p.m. by the Royal Aces Surf Rock Band. The Rocky Mountain Rollergirls will add to the ambience with leis.

Friday, July 6
Join Jagged Mountain Craft Brewery for the second installment of IPA Wars, a friendly competition among its employees. "Using our Rocky Mountain Chowda Hazy Session IPA and our Sawatch American IPA as a base, employees blend and infuse all sorts of cool ingredients in to make these one-off concoctions," Jagged Mountain says. The beers tap promptly at 5 p.m., and there are only five gallons of each one. You'll find Carrot Cake Milkshake Session IPA, Guava Coconut Hazy Session IPA, Orange Creamsicle American IPA and at least three others. The first 100 people get a limited-edition glass. First keg to kick wins.

Dogs. Love ’em, hate ’em, there's no denying that they are an integral part of Colorado living. People are so enamored of their four-legged friends, in fact, that they inundate breweries, sometimes making them look like doggy daycares. Well, now there's a dedicated brewery for those people. After more than a year and a half of work and delays and more work, Coal Mine Avenue Brewing, 9719 West Coal Mine Avenue in Littleton, opens with an off-leash area for pups and a focus on canine-kind. Beers on tap for the opening include Colliery Porter, Pixie Slap Pale Ale, Punflex Cream Ale, A-Dobie Cilantro-Lime Saison and possibly one more.

Saturday, July 7
Join Our Mutual Friend Brewing for the bottle release of Future Imperfect, a mixed-culture sour collaboration with Inland Island Yeast Labs and Good Bugs. "Future Imperfect is a blend of finished beer from our foeders, wine casks, and stainless-steel tanks (a portion is spontaneously fermented wort). It has balanced acidity, minerality, and tropical character," the brewery says. It will also be on draft.

Since it debuted last year, Great Divide Brewing's Hazy IPA has been a big seller around Denver — but only on draft. Next week, the Denver stalwart will begin selling limited amounts of Hazy IPA in cans around the Denver metro area. As part of that release, Great Divide says it "will work closely with retail partners to ensure that the beer is never sold past its 30-day shelf life. This will be Great Divide’s freshest beer available in cans." Before the distribution begins, however, the brewery will have some cans of this juicy New England-style IPA available for sale today starting at noon at its original taproom and in its Barrel Bar.

Baere Brewing celebrates its fourth anniversary in style starting at noon, with a new bottle release and the tapping of some fun new beers. There will also be free Sweet Action Ice Cream made with the brewery's beer, sour beer slushies (hottest trend of the summer), food from the Vegan Van, and Jorts of July. The first fifty people in the door will get free glassware.

The Rackhouse Pub and Bierstadt Lagerhaus will open the beer hall today for a special Smoke Session featuring all things smoked. Among them are the GypsyQ BBQ Food Truck, which will be slinging Texas barbecue with an Asian flair, and $8 liters of Rauchbock (smoked lager). The Jessica Jones Project will be playing smokin' tunes, and the game room will be open.

You can't drink all day if you don't start early, and Bruz Beers will be starting at 7 a.m., with beers and brunch from the Basted Egg Food Truck. There will be coffee from the brewery's neighbors at Backstage and a car show in the north parking lot until 10 a.m. Starting at 11 a.m., you can shop local at the Midtown Market. There will also be yard games, giveaways, and five food trucks serving local eats and desserts, including a food truck for dogs. From 4 to 10 p.m., there will be live music from Ravin' Wolf, David Henning and Manza Boyz. And finally, Bruz will tap some special new releases throughout the day, along with some beers from its reserves.

WestFax Brewing in Lakewood hosts its first-ever limited Crowler release — and for a brand-new beer. Just Brut It is a Brut IPA, a new trending beer style originating out of California. "This beer is crisp, light, dry and has tropical fruit notes including ripe apple and white grape," WestFax says. Crowlers are $14 each or $20 for two, and feature label artwork by Noelle Phares Art.

New Image Brewing has renewed its Patio Society parties this year, and the latest one, from 3 to 10 p.m., includes beers from Our Mutual Friend Brewery, TRVE Brewing, Funkwerks, Ratio Beerworks and Peach Street Distillers. Entry is free for everyone, but the brewery will be selling tickets on the patio for beverages.

12 Degree Brewing is throwing a party starting at noon to celebrate its fifth anniversary. The Louisville brewery will have special beer releases and giveaways (T-shirts, hats, growlers) every hour throughout the day. Some of the beers include a Cabernet Franc-barrel-aged farmhouse ale, a Malbec-barrel-aged Brett/Lacto golden ale, a cactus-flower sour, a pink peppercorn raspberry farmhouse ale, and a golden sour on tart cherries. At 7:30 p.m., By the Lee, featuring members of the Railsplitters, will take the stage.

In honor of National Chocolate Day, Oskar Blues Brewery will release a very limited amount of Bourbon Barrel-Aged Mocha Ten FIDY Imperial Stout at its locations in Longmont and Boulder. "Doused" with unsweetened pure liquid cacao from Cholaca, then "dosed" with Hotbox Roasters’ cold brew from Mexican coffee beans, the beer will be sold in 19.2-ounce cans. As with other Oskar Blues releases, numbered wristbands will be handed out at 9:30 a.m., but a line could begin to form much earlier. Each person may purchase up to five cases of BA Mocha Ten FIDY. For details and instructions, go to the Oskar Blues Facebook page.

Sunday, July 8
Station 26 Brewing brings back its monthly Bluegrass Brunch starting at 11 a.m. The Hilltop Harvest Band will be playing at noon, and there will be a special menu from the Order 26 Food Truck.

Monday, July 9
Woods Boss Brewing is releasing its experimental keg of Jew England IPA, brewed with Passover macaroons and matzoh. It won't last the night, though, so get there early.