Plonk! I went into Ace Eat Serve hoping for a nice casual meal, but soon feared that one of the hundreds of ping pong balls around would sail right into my drink. That didn’t happen, thanks to some deft wrist work, but Ace is definitely the place to expect the…
When a crew of social beer drinkers all flew into Denver from Portland earlier this summer just to taste one specific beer at Black Shirt Brewing – a beer that no longer happened to be on tap – there was only thing that co-owner and brewer Chad Miller could do:…
Denver new-brewery scene continues at a quick boil, and there are several breweries-in-planning ramping up construction for 2015 openings. One of those is Cerebral Brewing, which took possession of its beer-making equipment last week and is building out the taproom now. To get the word out, Cerebral has kicked off…
Peak 9 at the Crimson Room Many bartenders, upon dialing in a new cocktail recipe, name their drinks after things they love, with music and movies being the most common inspirations. Like many Colorado bartenders, A.J. Snowhite makes cocktails on busy weekend nights while slipping away to the mountains for mid-week…
It might seem strange that Oskar Blues, which is known mostly for its big, hoppy beers, has never offered a mainstream IPA as part of its canned lineup – and that’s not changing. Because although the Longmont-based brewery will roll out a brand-new beer, called simply Oskar Blues IPA, nationwide…
The Rio Grande margarita is a liquid Colorado landmark, along with Pike’s Peak and the Barrel Man. Frozen or on the rocks, it’s the drink that always comes up first in any discussion of the Colorado chain — including this one. Founded in 1986 as a party paradise in boozy…
Craft Beer. It’s just a fad. Or maybe not. Earlier this week, the Boulder-based Brewers Association reported that American craft breweries sold 12.2 million barrels of beer during the first half of 2015, up from 10.6 million barrels during the same period last year. In addition, as of June 30,…
A few years ago, craft canned beers were more of a novelty: Any time a brewery decided to can a new one or can one of its existing offerings, it was worthy of a news story. These days, canned craft beers are the norm, especially in summer, and new ones…
When mild-mannered Bruce Banner was exposed to lethal gamma rays, he transformed into the Incredible Hulk, an uncontrollable mass of anger with an appetite for destruction. When Mary Nguyen was exposed to the changing tides on 17th Street and European bistro culture, she transformed Parallel 17 into P17, a neighborhood hangout…
Odell Brewing, which has been a staunch holdout when it comes to canning beer, plans to begin doing just that come November. “It wasn’t so long ago that I totally dismissed the can idea,” says Wynne Odell, who founded Odell Brewing in 1989 with her husband, Doug, and Doug’s sister…
AC Golden Brewing and its fan club, the Colorado Native Brew Crew, have adopted a 23-mile stretch of the Continental Divide Trail, which runs from the border of Canada to the border of Mexico. The company — a Golden-based subsidiary of MillerCoors — is the first corporate entity to sponsor…
Wynne, Doug and Corkie Odell had three goals when they began thinking about the future ownership of the brewery they’d founded in 1989: upholding its financial stability, keeping independent control, and maintaining their cultural fabric. On Monday, Fort Collins-based Odell Brewing – the third largest craft-beer maker in Colorado –…
No longer do lovers of Colorado Cider Company have to drink their beverages delicately from a glass or commit to downing a whole 22-ounce bottle. Now you can purchase the cider in packs of four 12-ounce bottles to share with your friends, stock your fridge or just slowly sip all day…
New Belgium may be opening a massive new brewery in North Carolina, but the company is also planning to open a third operation a little closer to home. Colorado’s biggest craft-beer will open a ten-barrel pilot brewery along with a rooftop barrel-aging lounge and swimming pool at the future Source Hotel,…
“From the beginning, this has always been about challenging ourselves,” says Chris Bell, co-owner of Call to Arms Brewing, which opened late last week in the back half of a refurbished building at 4526 Tennyson Street, in the hot Berkeley neighborhood. And challenged themselves is exactly what Bell, Jesse Brookstein…
As July reaches its mid-point, Colorado beer-festival season is at its height. But that also means we are a little closer to the true pinnacle of Colorado craft-beer culture: the week surrounding the Great American Festival, which runs from September 24 through September 26 this year. Tickets to the three-day event…
The Rocky Flats Lounge, one of our Ten Best Dive Bars in Metro Denver, has long given a whole new meaning to getting lit — at one point, it was the payroll office for the Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Plant, the federal facility just across the highway that started producing plutonium triggers…
Leaf Vegetarian Restaurant is so Boulder it hurts just a little. It’s fancy without calling attention to itself, well-decorated but not quite hip — and 100-percent vegetarian, natch. As a proud son of Boulder County, I don’t think this is at all a bad thing — I would never reject…
Two beer-related Colorado crowdfunding campaigns have recently launched. The first is for Lady Justice Brewing Company, which describes itself as “the world’s first solely women-run, community-focused philanthropic brewery.” The three women behind the concept — which would be organized as a low-profit limited liability company — are looking to raise $15,000…
Forget about your prejudices. Put aside your previous bad experiences. In the ever-escalating happy hour arms race raging all over the state, what was once an excuse for cheap drinking has become fertile ground for culinary experimentation. And while nearly every restaurant of note offers a late-afternoon happy hour, not…
In January, a Denver holding company called Gold Buckle Brewing, which also owns Henderson, Nevada-based Joseph James Brewing, bought a majority interest in Durango Brewing, the third-oldest brewpub in Colorado, behind the Wynkoop and Carver Brewing, also in Durango. Gold Buckle is run by the same investment group that owns…
The Great American Beer Festival has developed some significant stretch marks over the past few years as the craft-beer industry has exploded nationwide. To accommodate that growth, the Boulder-based Brewers Association, which organizes the fest, has tweaked a few things from time to time, while essentially keeping most things the…
