Beer Calendar: Parties at Cerebral, Cedar Creek, 105 West, Epic and Alpine Dog

Denver's Chain Reaction Brewing has been quietly growing by leaps and bounds over the past year. The brewery signed a distributor and is planning to expand distribution. To help do that, Chain Reaction got a some shiny new equipment last week, including two twenty-barrel fermentation tanks, one twenty-barrel brite tank and 300 new kegs. That should double the brewery's capacity, which was founded in 2014 by cousins Chad and Zack Christofferson. Look for more of the company's beer outside the taproom soon.

Wednesday, November 9
Renegade Brewing will tap a new beer today at p.m. called 1916 Colorado Lager. "Why have a pint when you can have a twenty-ounce mug of this delicious authentic brew?" the brewery asks. The first 25 people to order a twenty-ounce mug of the beer get to the keep the glass.

Hops & Pie will tap a fifty-liter keg of the delightful Dorothy, brewed by The Hill Farmstead Brewery out of Greensboro Bend, Vermont, today at 11:30 a.m. Dorothy is a hoppy farmhouse-style saison.

Black Shirt Brewing continues its One Keg Wednesday series today at 11 a.m. when it taps the very last keg of At Dawn, a milk-chocolate oatmeal red porter, treated with Japanese five-spice. "It's definitely got a little heat, but more importantly, some smoke character along with a deep, complex, and intriguing slew of flavors not often tasted in a beer," the brewery says.

November is Candy Cask Month at Copper Kettle Brewing, and each cask beer will come with a sweet side of candy. "This week's Peanut Butter Chocolate Stout is a strong, dark beer with roasted characters and hints of peanut butter and chocolate," the brewery says.

105 West Brewing in Castle Rock continues its anniversary celebration today by tapping Crowfoot Coffee Porter, made with Crowfoot Valley Coffee. It's also mug night if you have a 105 West Mug. And there will be food from Cheffin's Cheesesteaks and Cubanos.

Thursday, November 10
105 West Brewing continues its anniversary celebration today by tapping Pumpkin Saison. There will be food from Lante Bräu-Casa, and the fire pit will be warming up the patio.

Odyssey Beerwerks in Arvada will release its latest canned seasonal beer today: Oh Snap! Spiced Winter Ale. It features "a pleasant rich malt base with biscuit accents, complemented by classic winter cookie spicing and sweet orange peel to provide a suitable sipper for winter’s cold bite," the brewery says.

Cedar Creek Pub in Aurora will celebrate its fifth anniversary in style today by tapping some goodies that are rarely available in Colorado. The tap list includes 2015 Goose Island Bourbon County Stout, Nebraska Apricot Au Poivre Saison, Ninkasi Critical Hit, Jack's Abby Hoponius Union IPL, Wicked Weed Lunatic Blonde, Boneyard Notorious TIPA, Lawsons Sip of Sunshine IPA, Russian River Supplication, Hoppin Frog Coffee Porter, Bells Two Hearted Ale, Weldwerks Juicy Bits IPA, 21st Amendment/Cigar City Golden Sunshine, New Belgium Whiskey Aged Fat Back, Lagunitas Willet Bourbon Barrel Aged Imperial Stout. There will also be live music from John T. Woodall from 4 to 7 p.m. and food specials.

Friday, November 11
Epic Brewing will release two new versions of its acclaimed Big Bad Baptist Imperial Stout today at 5 p.m. in its Denver taproom. The first is Big Bad Baptista, which was "inspired by traditional Mexican coffee, café de olla, which is served with cinnamon and piloncillo, an unrefined sugar," the brewery says. "The cinnamon adds another layer of complexity and accentuates the earthy character of Mexican coffee." The second version is Double Barrel Big Bad Baptist, which uses coffee that has been aged in whiskey barrels, giving it "notes of toffee, vanilla, oak, and campfire alongside the beans' natural fruity and roasted flavors."

Cerebral Brewing will celebrate its first anniversary with a weekend-long party full of tappings, food and the brewery's first bottle release. Today, you will find double dry-hopped Rare Trait, live music from the Eric Dorn Quartet from 6 to 9 p.m., and Burgerchief outside dishing up burgers and fries.

The Crafty Fox beer bar attended Sierra Nevada Brewing's popular Beer Camp earlier this year in Chico, California, and brewed a beer there, I.B.U.Zing Kiwis, a dry hopped lager with kiwis. Today at 5 p.m., the Craft Fox will tap this beer, along with several of Sierra Nevada's rare barrel-aged brews.

Today is the entry deadline for home brewers for Días Oscuros, ‘Dark Days,' the Fermentologists' annual Day of the Dead-themed home-brewing competition using 2015 BJCP style guidelines for dark beers. "All entries for the competition must be registered and dropped off at designated locations before close of business on November 11.... There is no limit for entries; however, brewers may not submit more than one entry per subcategory. There are 54 categories this year, counting subcategories," the club says. The competition and award ceremony will be held at Copper Kettle Brewing Company on November 19.

Saturday, November 12
Hops & Pie needs to clean out its beer cellar from GABF, so it's having a cellar party today starting at noon. The pizzeria will be tapping beers from Cigar City, Pipeworks and 21st Amendment, among others.

On the second Saturday of each month, starting today, Bierstadt Lagerhaus will be filling its Fässer (a wooden barrel, similar to a firkin) with one of its Keller lagers directly from the lager tank; these are Bierstadt's regular beers that have been naturally carbonated. The unfiltered lager will change each time depending on what brewers Bill and Ashleigh think is tasting particularly good. It's on until it's gone.

River North Brewery will host a dual bottle release today, starting at noon. The first beer is Funk the Man #4, a barrel-aged sour with white tea and rosehips. Aged for 32 months in barrels, this is the brewery's lengthiest project to date. Only fifty cases are available. The second beer is Mr. Sandman, the 13.5 percent ABV non-caffeinated sibling to Nightmare Fuel. There will be food all day from Mexican Street Grill.

Join Cerebral Brewing, which is celebrating its first anniversary all weekend long, for a special bottle release of Chardonnay Barrel-Aged Dreamy Thing. "Originally brewed for Collaboration Fest with Our Mutual Friend Brewery, Dreamy Thing is a 100 percent brettanomyces-fermented farmhouse pale ale that recently took home a silver medal in the Brett beer category at the Great American Beer Festival," the brewery says. For today's rendition, Cerebral took a portion of the base beer and aged it in Chardonnay barrels for six months before dry-hopping it with a blend of Citra, Centennial and Sterling. There will be 500-ml bottles ($14 each with a limit of four per person) for sale starting at noon. A small amount will also be on tap. There will be live music from 3:30 to 6 p.m., and King of Wings will be outside from 2 to 10 p.m.

Further west on Colfax, Alpine Dog Brewery will also celebrate an anniversary — its second — by tapping a new Brettanomyces Bourbon Barrel Aged Imperial Stout, along with a blackberry version of the beer. In addition, Alpine Dog will tap a Cherrywood Smoked Porter and a firkin of Smoked Porter aged on raspberries. There will be limited-edition anniversary glassware, free until it runs out. Judah's Island Shack food truck will be on hand serving tilapia tacos and other island-inspired food.

Join Breckenridge Brewery as its celebrates the first tapping of this year’s Christmas Ale and Holidale, which the brewery has been making since 1993, today from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. The event will include a local photographer who will be taking free holiday family photos in the Farmhouse’s natural backdrop; gift bottles of both beers that you can buy as presents; live music by singer-songwriter Sarah Christine; vintage tractor hayrides; hot cocoa and cider; an ice-carving demonstration; and a commemorative Christmas Ale glass giveaway. Christmas Ale hits shelves November 1.

Locavore Beer Works is celebrating its two-year anniversary today from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. and plans to tap Fireside Winter Spiced Ale, Santa’s Secret Sauce, an orange-spiced milk stout on nitro, and Sassy Fireside, which is the winter ale aged in a sassafras barrel. The Dollhouse Thieves and the Fabulous Boogienauts will perform back-to-back live music sets from 2 to 9 p.m. Brad's Pit BBQ will also be on hand.

Quietly making some of the best barrel-aged beers in the state, Loveland's Verboten Brewing got some love this year at the Great American Beer Festival, where it won a bronze medal for its Little Nonsense Bourbon Barrel Aged Imperial Oatmeal Stout. Today the brewery will host a bottle release for the 11 percent ABV beer, which will be sold in 22-ounce bottles. They have bottled 35 cases of it.

Also in Loveland, Grimm Brothers Brewhouse will release Midnight Strikes Black Lager today at 1 p.m.

Left Hand Brewing's Nitro Fest — the only festival featuring exclusively nitrogenated beer — returns to Longmont's Roosevelt Park today from 6 to 10 p.m. for its third incarnation. Featuring more than forty breweries from across the country pouring rare nitro styles, Nitro Fest also boasts a circus-like atmosphere. It is "a swanky, steampunk escape pairing super-smooth ales with Beats Antique, a genre-warping, electro-acoustic odyssey setting the sonic storyline," Left Hand says. "With general-admission and VIP tickets available, guests are invited to don their best threads and join a collection of the best breweries in the nation for a transcendent evening of unlimited tasting alongside live performance art." There will be fire dancers, stilt walkers and aerial artists, along with food from Samples World Bistro, La Momo Maes, G-Spot Food Truck, Flavor of India and Hefe’s Tacos. Breweries include BrewDog, Melvin, Founders, Dogfish Head, Grand Teton, Firestone Walker and more. For tickets, $30 to $85, and more information, go to pourhard.com.

Sunday, November 13
Cerebral Brewing will conclude its weekend-long first anniversary party today by releasing Thornless, a blackberry cobbler sour. There will also be a science fair, featuring fun experiments in the taproom and an egg-drop competition (open to the public); prizes will be awarded. Mmm Comfort Foods will be on hand.

Station 26 Brewing will host its monthly Bluegrass Brunch today starting at 11 a.m. There will be beer, live music from Turkeyfoot, doughnuts from Glazed and Confuzed, and barbecue from Turn-In BBQ.

Banded Oak Brewing will celebrate the sixth anniversary of Denver band Atomga today by tapping a new version of an imperial stout that was made years ago in the band's honor. The beer was first brewed by Banded Oak head brewer Chris Kirk in Brazil in collaboration with Bodebrown Brewery in Curitiba, Brazil. It was named Atomga, after the band. Now, Bodebrown has given Kirk permission to re-create the beer at Banded Oak. The brewery will also grill out, have some DJs, and collect canned-food donations for Food Bank of the Rockies. There will also be prizes.

Wednesday, November 16
November is Candy Cask Month at Copper Kettle Brewing, and each cask beer will come with a side of candy. "This week's Gingerbread ESB is an English-style pale ale with a perfect hop bitterness and malt balance, and has a more bitter taste than traditional pale ales," the brewery says.

Thursday, November 17
The fifth annual Chef & Brew Festival, offering dozens of on-point pairings between twenty local chefs and twenty local breweries, returns this year to the Exdo Event Center from 7 to 10 p.m. (VIP ticket holders get in at 6 p.m.) Some of the pairings include chefs Jensen Cummings and Brandon Muncy of Brewed Food and Spangalang Brewery; Mizuna chef Ty Leon and Strange Craft; Euclid Hall chef Jorel Pierce and Ratio Beer Works; Blueprint Bar chef Ryan DiFranco and Wit’s End Brewery; Squeaky Bean chef Darren Pusateri and Elevation Beer Company; and Cho77 chef Ryan Gorby and Caution Brewing. Guests can taste samples of all of the dishes and all the beer and vote for their favorites. Judges will select three awards for Best Dish, Best Beer and Best Pairing, while the Grand Prize – Best in Show – will be selected by festival attendees. Organized by cChef Michael Long and Excelsior Events, the event raises money for Project Angel Heart. Tickets, $49 for general admission and $69 for VIP, are available at chefandbrew.com.

At 3 p.m., Call to Arms Brewing will release Amigos Con Beneficios, the sixth bottled beer in its Carriage House series of rare barrel-aged ales and lager. The beer, an imperial Vienna lager aged in Deerhammer Distilling whiskey barrels, "offers complex notes of hazelnut, brown sugar, apricot, dark cherry and vanilla — with a touch of oak weaving its way throughout," the brewery says. Call to Arms also teamed up with Il Porcellino Salumi to create Amigos Con Beneficios Cerveza Salami, which was made with the beer. Both Deerhammer and Il Porcellino will be on hand today for the tapping. Il Porcellino will be selling the salami to-go and sliced up alongside a four-ounce taster of Amigos. There will only be 100 375mL bottles of the beer available, with a limit of two per customer, and a small amount on tap.

Jake's Brew Bar in Littleton will tap Three Floyds Brewing's Dreadnaught Imperial IPA today at 2 p.m. The tapping is unusual because Three Floyds doesn't typically distribute in Colorado.

Saturday, November 19
Wynkoop Brewing has revamped its dark-beer event and will host Day of Darks today from noon to 4 p.m. More than 25 breweries will be in attendance. Tickets are $30 and include a commemorative glass, chocolates and chocolate desserts. Proceeds go toward the Movember Foundation and local men’s health organizations, Colorado Cancer Research Foundation and CU Cancer Center.

Peak to Peak Taproom in Aurora will celebrate its second anniversary today with a whole new lineup of twenty craft brews it has never served before. There will also be special tastings and firkin tappings throughout the day; American Craft Beer Radio Broadcast noon to 1 p.m.; DJ Music from 1:30 5 p.m.; live music from Scarecrow Revival at 7 p.m.; food from Pile High Burgers, Q’s Cuisine, and Pride of Philly; a caricature artist; and games like cornhole, washers, and hammerschlagen. Over the past two years, Peak to Peak has served more than 500 Colorado craft beers from more than 100 breweries.

Today, at its original Lyons brewpub, Oskar Blues will celebrate the fourteenth anniversary of when it kicked off the canned craft beer revolution in the United States. There will be live music from Interstate Stash Express and In the Whale, a silent disco, Cajun-inspired food, and the tapping of Interstate S.M.A.S.H. (which also stands for "Single Malt And Single Hop), which the the brewery made in collaboration with the band. Tickets are $10.

Sunday, November 20
Avery Brewing will host a brewery-only release of No. 41 in its Barrel-Aged Series – Dui Cochi. "This festive holiday porter has been aged in bourbon barrels with coconut, spices and pumpkin added," the Boulder brewery says. "After crossing the Pacific Ocean in 1521, Magellan landed in the Philippines and was given the gift of two coconuts (dui cochi) by the natives as a symbol of their hospitality. Magellan was eventually hit by a poison arrow and left to die, but Dui Cochi is our gift to you." The beer will go on sale at 1 p.m. There is a limit of one case per customer ($12 per bottle). It is likely to sell out.

Friday, November 25
Copper Kettle Brewing is tapping into its cellar and pulling out some barrel-aged bombers that have been gently aging for years and years. "Don't be afraid of a little dust on the bottle," the brewery says. For the full list, go to the brewery's Facebook page, but bottles include: Snowed In from 2014, 2015 and 2016; Well Bred from multiple years; Law's Whiskey Charlie's Golden Strong; and Le Chapeau.

Westfax Brewing, next to Casa Bonita in Lakewood, is dedicating the day to dark beer. Instead of dealing with mall crowds, try one or all of six small-batch beers at noon, with additional tappings throughout the day. Beer Lineup: Black Lager, Imperial Stout, Coffee Imperial Stout, Black IPA, Mango Chili Stout, Nitro Milk Stout and others. The Yummy to Eat! Brazilian food truck will be there.

The brand-new New Terrain Brewing in Golden will release Black Planet today in honor of Black Friday. The seasonal Imperial Belgian Porter was brewed with vanilla beans and tangerine peel and then aged on oak. "Yes, that's what we said, an Imperial Oaked Belgian Vanilla Tangerine Porter," the brewery says.

Black Planet. Black Friday. See you then!

Green Mountain Beer Company in Lakewood will celebrate its grand opening starting today, running through the weekend, 2 to 10 p.m. each day.

Wednesday, November 30
November is Candy Cask Month at Copper Kettle Brewing, and each cask beer this month comes with a sweet side of candy. "This week's Coconut Chocolate Porter is a dark, malty beer with chocolate and coconut characters," the brewery says.