“They’re buying good coffees from good roasters, and they’re really paying attention to how it’s brewed, using scales to control how much water you’re putting into the coffee to make sure it’s not over- or under-brewed,” he says. “It’s a whole new skill set; it’s a whole new course of study.” To help Denverites check out the array of quality cafes — and get a healthy buzz on — McNeilly has organized the Denver Coffee Crawl, which kicks off today at Purple Door Coffee, 2962 Welton Street, at 8 a.m. and continues on a 21-mile bike ride to Boxcar, Black Black Coffee (where two-time Brewers Cup champion Andy Sprenger will be a guest barista), Steam Espresso Bar, Little Owl and Novo. The crawl will wrap up at around noon.
“We always feel like we’re not really competing against each other,” says McNeilly of the Denver coffee community. “We’re more just trying to serve great coffee in our neighborhood. The more people know about what great coffee can taste like, the better it is for all of us.”
For more information, visit the Denver Coffee Crawl Facebook page.
Sat., July 13, 8 a.m.-noon, 2013