In a presentation before a group of journalists in town for the Great American Beer Festival last Friday, Tony Simmons, the owner of Pagosa Springs Brewing Company, pointed out that brewpubs often get short shrift. Since most don’t package their beers in bottles and cans, beer writers — and sometimes…
The announcements highlighting Colorado’s big wins at the Great American Beer Festival have been coming fast and furious from local breweries since the three-day event ended on Saturday. But nothing was as entertaining as the correction/clarification issued by Oskar Blues concerning its three-medal performance. Here is the correction, sent by…
Stranahan’s Colorado Whiskey has asked the Colorado brewers who buy its sought-after barrels for the purposes of aging certain beers to stop using its name on their labels, and the distillery, which was bought out by New Jersey’s Proximo Spirits late last year, will no longer sell any of its…
It’s finally October, and our crisp, cooler weather serves as a harbinger of harvest season. This time of year also has our mouths watering for fall’s more luxurious, soul-satisfying menus. And you know what that means, right? Richer food calls for wines that can step up to the challenge. If…
Master Sommelier Brett Zimmerman, who took over at the Boulder Wine Merchant just over a year ago, was recently consulting on a customer’s cellar when a conundrum led to a new activity. “The client said, ‘I want to reload with a bunch of Burgundy, but I don’t get a chance…
Colorado breweries won fewer awards at this year’s Great American Beer Festival (39) than they did last year (41), but the bling was spread out more evenly between corporately owned companies, big-name independents and small or new breweries. But the biggest winner was Longmont-based Oskar Blues, which won three awards:…
I just returned from a week in Manhattan (New York, not Kansas), where I worked at the BAR 5-day program. The BAR 5-day is a masters’-level spirits and mixology course taught by six men — F. Paul Pacult, Steve Olson, Andy Seymour, David Wondrich, Doug Frost and Dale Degroff –…
As GABF parties hit full stride downtown, a small crowd gathered at Falling Rock Tap House on Friday afternoon last week, and everyone was buzzing with excitement for the main event: the reemergence of a once-iconic beer that hasn’t been made since the early 1990s. That beer was the Courage…
There are the cute (“Smokey the Beer,” Blind Tiger Brewing in Topeka, Kansas), the mysterious (“Hoodoo Voodoo IPA,” Three Creeks Brewing in Sisters, Oregon), the sexy (“Sexual Chocolate,” Foothills Brewing in Winston-Salem, North Carolina) and everything in between when it comes to beer names spotted and drank at this past…
Happy Place: Wyman’s No. 5, 2033 East Thirteenth Avenue, 303-996-0842. The Hours: Daily from 3 to 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. to midnight. The Deals: Half-priced well drinks, wines by the glass, and draft beers; half-priced select appetizers. Were we happy? Flip the page to find out…
At an extra $55 on top of the $60 you spend to get into the Great American Beer Festival, the additional cost for the ticket to the Farm-to-Table pavilion is a little hard to swallow. But each year we attend, we’re more convinced that it’s worth it: It’s a meal…
Left Hand Brewing will make a big splash tonight by becoming the first craft brewer in the United States to release a nitro beer in a bottle. Milk Stout Nitro pours like a draft beer, complete with a thick, billowy head and bubbles that cascade up from the bottom, similar…
The pretzel necklace is a common sight at the Great American Beer Festival, and many GABF regulars spend considerable time creating just the perfect accessory for the event. And while sure, pretzels go great with beer, sometimes you need a change of pace — and carbs. How about pepperoni? Crackers?…
Thousands of beers will be pouring this weekend at the Great American Beer Festival, but the event is a little short on food. Inside the Colorado Convention Center, you’re limited to concessions and pretzel necklaces, and while food trucks are a welcome addition to this year’s festivities, they’ll only be…
One of the best things about the Great American Beer Festival is all of the beer-centric dinners at local restaurants created to prep folks for the big weekend ahead. Last night, the all-vegetarian eatery WaterCourse Foods held just such a dinner; the amuse (pictured above) comprised a spicy local winter…
Is this your first rodeo? If so, then you won’t be alone. The Boulder-based Brewers Association sold 55,000 tickets to this year’s Great American Beer Festival — and you’ll feel like every one of those people is in line with you. Maybe it’s not your first time, in which case…
If you didn’t spring for tickets to the farm-to-table pavilion, your food options at GABF are sparse: You’re either eating a pretzel necklace, or you’re choosing from a handful of mediocre options in the convention center. Or, if you’re smart, you’re showing up early and eating from food trucks…
With the Great American Beer Festival in town and everyone talking about beer, describing a brew as “good” or just saying “I like it” no longer feels like enough. That’s why an oversold crowd of sixty or so swillers packed the Rackhouse Pub for yesterday’s Beer Judge School. For those…
Water, water everywhere, and not a drop to drink. Well, not when there’s this much beer around. Welcome to Great American Beer Festival week in Denver — which is, for some, the most wonderful time of the year. And the presents have already started arriving. But whether you have tickets…
Colorado. You’re gonna need a bigger coozie. Oskar Blues, the Colorado company that kicked off the craft-beer-in-a-can revolution in 2002, will celebrate a decade of unconventional packaging next year by pouring its flagship brew, Dales’s Pale Ale, into sixteen-ounce tallboys for the first time…
Our cup is really overflowing with beery events this week, as local brewpubs and restaurants tap interesting kegs, hold meet-and-greets with brewers, and pair beers with food — jumping on the sudsy coattails of Denver Beer Fest and the Great American Beer Festival. But craft beer is popular in this…
Most places that want in on this week’s beer-y festivities have lined up unusual kegs and interesting events with brewers at their restaurants. Three years ago, Sweet Action Ice Cream, which has no draft lines in its shop, came up with another cool way to get in on the fun:…
