The craft-beer industry has begun feeling the effects of a long-awaited competitive shakeout — layoffs, mergers, declining numbers — but the Boulder-based Brewers Association, which represents the nation’s small and independent craft breweries, was still able to report mildly encouraging numbers for 2016. Also encouraging: the events in our beer calendar.
Beer gets the majority of boozy attention over wine here in Denver, possibly because there’s very little wine made in Colorado — and Coloradans love their locally made products. But some local business owners have wine on their minds and are trying to showcase boutique wines from around the world…
Big beer fests aren’t easy to pull off. They require enormous logistical coordination, adherence to strict alcohol regulations, management of a huge number of people and deep understanding of a niche audience. Over the years, the granddaddy of these events, the Great American Beer Festival, fought with these issues as…
Nick Rellas and Justin Robinson founded Drizly in Boston in 2012 with the goal of making booze shopping easier by partnering with liquor stores to have beer, wine and spirits delivered straight to the homes of Drizly app users. Denver, apparently, has embraced the concept with gusto; numbers over St…
I’ve spent a fair bit of time at the Horseshoe Lounge. My old roommate is a regular who invites me there for a drink frequently, and I’ve been there on dates. I also once found myself there for a Meetup group that my friend was a part of — I…
In previous years, the Colorado Brewers Guild had asked the breweries participating in Collaboration Fest to hold off on tapping their beers until after the festival — in order to keep the surprise. But in its fourth iteration, the nonprofit, which represents more than two hundred Colorado craft breweries, decided…
Seven months after longtime Colorado Brewers Guild director John Carlson stepped down in the midst of a dispute among its brewery members, the nonprofit organization has hired a new leader. Washington, D.C. attorney Andres Gil Zaldana will take over as executive director of the Guild, which advocates for and represents…
With an amazing depth and breadth of breweries, Fort Collins is one of the oldest and best craft beer towns, not just in Colorado, but anywhere in the United States. There are roughly twenty breweries in operation there, including New Belgium and Odell, which are among the top fifty largest…
Liz Thomas lives on the trail. An extreme athlete, she is one of the most accomplished long-distance hikers in the United States, traveling fast and traveling light. Over the past ten years, she’s backpacked more than 15,000 miles and completed the the 2,650-mile Pacific Crest Trail, and the 3,100-mile Continental…
I have to confess, St. Patrick’s Day snuck up on me this year. I figured the main festivities for one of America’s favorite drinking holidays associated with another country would be happening over the weekend. After all, this year, St. Patrick’s Day itself falls on a Friday, but I thought…
For the first time in its history, Boulder’s Avery Brewing is listed among the fifty largest craft breweries in the nation, according to the Brewers Association. There are five Colorado breweries in the top fifty. The list has changed significantly over the past few years as several large craft brewers…
Colorado Craft Beer Week, an annual celebration of Colorado’s single greatest industry, kicks off Saturday, March 18, with a variety of events continuing through the week until Collaboration Fest, which takes place March 25 at the National Western Complex. The beery week is organized by the Colorado Brewers Guild and…
With 112 beers on the menu, it’s going to be extremely difficult for the giddy attendees of the fourth annual Collaboration Fest to know where to begin. This year’s version of the event, which takes place March 25, from 4 to 7 p.m., at the National Western Complex, is the…
The IPA is still king in the craft beer world. Although some beer writers and brewers continue to bemoan the style’s popularity, the truth is that it represents more than 25 percent of all craft beer sales. No other style even comes close. And rather than declining, IPA’s power is…
Please excuse the dust at Black Shirt Brewing: The nearly five-year-old River North Brewery has finally converted its manufacturing license into a brewpub license — a process that took more than a year — and is working on its long-anticipated kitchen, one that will focus on artisan pizza, salads and…
As I have previously mentioned, I will eventually run out of bars to profile if I don’t get out to the ‘burbs every so often. A friend of mine who lives in Westminster invited me to one of her local spots, the Bar & Grill, at 9975 Wadsworth Parkway in…
Four years ago, when I was researching a story profiling ten women brewers in Colorado, it was hard to find at least ten. While there were plenty of women in other facets of the industry — from marketing and management to finance and front-of-the-house — there just weren’t that many…
The new owners of Durango Brewing and Joseph James Brewing (of Las Vegas) are getting ready to open Dean & Co., a new brewery in the small town of La Junta that will serve as a production facility for a major brand push and eventually as a taproom for the eastern…
Arvada’s first craft brewery, the Arvada Beer Company, closed just over a year ago, becoming one of the only Denver metro area breweries to shut down in the past decade. Since then, however, the beer scene in this northwestern suburb has flourished rather than faltered: There are now four thriving…
After a long, hot hike in the mountains, most people just want a shady tree and a comfortable rock where they can sit (a sit’n rock) — oh, and a cold beer. That’s idea behind Zuni Street Brewing, which is testing out its systems this week before hosting a grand…
No, those beer drinkers aren’t letting swine sip their suds. These pot-bellied pigs were hanging out at Resolute Brewing in Centennial on March 1 for National Pig Day. While humans enjoyed beers on the brewery’s patio, rescued pigs from Hog Haven Farm in eastern Colorado paraded their pot bellies and…
When I was in school at the University of Denver, Hanson’s Tavern & Grill was one of the main spots around for patio drinking and eating appetizers, playing pool, or going to graduation parties. I’ve always found it to be more comfortable, at least to me, than other establishments on…
