The old 404 Club on Broadway in Denver’s Baker neighborhood is being reinvented yet again, this time as Rory’s Tavern, an Irish bar. The owners of the last iteration of the bar, Brendan’s Pub, have gutted and redone half of the bar, which they opened on New Years’ Eve. The…
A pair of Colorado breweries will put some new cans on the shelves this week, one with a new beer and the other with a new look. Both will be around all summer for your warm-weather drinking pleasure. The first can is Oskar Blues’s new summer seasonal, Fugli Yuzu & Ugli…
Pug Ryan’s Brewery, which has been a mainstay in the town of Dillon for decades, was sold by its longtime owners Travis and Annie Holton this week to another couple, John and Judy Jordan. John Jordan had been a brewer at Breckenridge Brewery for seventeen years. Originally a steakhouse, Pug’s…
May is a busy month for Colorado — and especially for Colorado breweries. Not only is it the beginning of festival season — several examples of which you can see below — but you have Cinco de Mayo, May the Fourth, Memorial Day and American Craft Beer Week, a national…
Five years might not seem like a long time, but it’s definitely a milestone for any new business in this town, where the food and drink scene competition gets fiercer every day. The Dive Inn has enjoyed staying power over the past half-decade as a neighborhood fixture catering to the…
Here’s a bit of local knowledge: When Great Divide Brewing opened in 1994, owner Brian Dunn was taking a huge risk. Although it seems strange to think about now, there weren’t any breweries in Denver back then that didn’t also serve food. There were no brewery taphouses or craft-beer bars…
If you don’t pay attention, you might miss the Bannock Street Garage, or just think it’s an actual garage. The building was a car repair shop for years prior to becoming a bar, and the large garage doors and smallish sign could easily fool a person as to what goes…
Elevation Beer Company is revamping its packaging again. This time, the Poncha Springs brewery will phase out twelve-ounce glass bottles in favor of cans for its core lineup, which includes 8 Second Kolsch, Wave Wheel Wit, First Cast IPA and Little Mo Porter. The brewery will also add a fifth canned…
Denver, get ready for garlic beer. Next month, Andrew Moore and Ben Gettinger plan to open the Intrepid Sojourner Beer Project, a brewery that will specialize in “internationally inspired twists on traditional beer styles.” That means the Belgian-style tripel will be made with lavender, the stout will be brewed with…
We’ve long lauded the Adelitas house margarita; it was our best margarita in the Best of Denver issue for three years running, and this year, after a winter tweak that introduced a new tequila to its blend, it was one of our ten best house margaritas in Denver. But now…
When Kelissa Hieber and Bess Dougherty first began talking about Makin Noise: A Pussy Riot Beer, it was as a way to help support women and GLTBQ causes and to stand up for all of the people who are underrepresented or belittled and who are in danger because of the…
It’s April 20, but Mason Hembree isn’t celebrating. Instead, the owner of Dad & Dudes Breweria will be fighting the federal government over a beer brewed with non-psychoactive CBD. Last September, Dad & Dudes was the talk of the town when it became the first brewery in the country to…
Last weekend, I went from doing perhaps the most hipster thing to the least hipster thing a person could do metro Denver in one night. The most hipster thing was attending opening night of Divisions, the collaboration between Denver hip-hop act the Flobots and local ballet company Wonderbound. Wonderbound is…
Forty ounces to freedom. Yes, the famous 40-ounce bottle of rosé wine that the country is suddenly thirsting for can be purchased in Denver.
Elite Brands of Colorado, which has specialized is distributing craft beer in Colorado for nearly fifteen years, won the Craft Beer Wholesaler of the Year award from the Brewers Association at the annual Craft Brewers Conference trade show, which took place last week in Washington, D.C. “The national award recognizes…
We’ve all been faced with the “Where should we go?” question. Sometimes the answer is obvious, but other times we need help. Whether it’s finding the perfect place to celebrate the right occasion, determining what kitchen can accommodate an unusual dietary restriction, or maybe just discovering a new place to…
Chad and Branden Miller’s father always told his sons to do one thing and do it better than anyone else. It was advice that stuck with them, so when they opened Black Shirt Brewing in 2011, that one thing was to make amazing ales, all of them in shades of…
Brewing beer can be fun for the people who love it. But it can also be dangerous. Last week, Charlie Gottenkieny, head brewer and part owner of Bruz Beers in north Denver, was severely burned when a batch of beer he was making boiled over the top of the mashtun and…
Colorado’s robust distilling industry means there’s no shortage of interesting spirits out there with which to stock your bar, but recently, a couple of rather novel flavors have made their way into the market, and they’re worth working into your lineup, if only to see what they add to your…
On another venture into the suburbs of metro Denver, I checked out Sideways Sports Lounge in Arvada with a friend who lives pretty close to the bar, which is at 9134 West 88th Avenue in a nondescript strip mall next to a liquor store and “Dog Spa” (so next time my dog needs…
Things are little quiet on the beer scene this week. That’s because hundreds of Colorado brewery owners and representatives are in Washington, D.C. for the annual Craft Brewers Conference, which takes place in a different city each year. Because of its location this time around, the trade show and conference,…
The makers of Budweiser and Coors have been coming after independent craft breweries for years, turning out beers that compete in the “craft” category without saying who brews them. Head to just about any Major League ballpark, for instance, and you’ll find Shock Top Belgian White or Blue Moon lurking…
