Dry Dock Brewing is releasing a new year-round beer called Hazy IPA, joining many of Colorado's other largest breweries in dabbling in the controversial style. This one has a bit of a twist, though, in that it was brewed with a kveik yeast strain, which is typically used for Norwegian farmhouse beers.
“Some might say we're a little late to this game, but we wanted to be sure we had a unique, drinkable and quality product," says Dry Dock head brewer Alan Simons about hazy IPAs. "The kveik yeast, along with some stellar fruity hops, has allowed us to achieve all those things and a beer all our staff is proud to produce."
The beer was released at Dry Dock's two Aurora taprooms last weekend and should hit liquor-store shelves next week. At 6.3 percent ABV, Hazy IPA has "aromas of big passion fruit, pineapple and fresh squeezed OJ," Dry Docks says. "It was brewed with special hopping techniques to keep bitterness extremely low, and fermented with kveik to help contribute to and complement the tropical aromas and flavors of the hops."
Keep reading to see all of this week's craft-beer events.
Wednesday, April 10
Finn's Manor is throwing down with CBC by tapping an insane list of rare beers from Casey Brewing and Blending, Suarez Family Brewery, Monkish Brewing, Mikerphone Brewing, Superstition Meadery, Threes Brewing, Outer Range Brewing, TRVE Brewing and WeldWerks.
Hops & Pie will tap special beers from Trillium Brewing, the famed destination brewery in Massachusetts. Guests can try Galaxy Fort Point, Double Dry Hopped Congress Street, Vicinity Double IPA, Peanut Butter PM Dawn American Stout, Apricot Soak Sour Wheat Ale, Sprang, The Streets, Citra Cutting Tiles and more.
Twenty barrel-aged beers will hit the wall at Falling Rock Tap House at 6:30 p.m. Breweries include The Lost Abbey, Fremont Brewing, Jack's Abby Craft Lagers, Scratch Brewing, Ecliptic Brewing, The Bruery, Avery Brewing, Boulevard, Full Sail Brewing, Deschutes Brewery, Garden Path Fermentation and more. In addition, author, journalist and beer writer Josh Noel will be in the house to read from, sell and sign his book Barrel-Aged Stout and Selling Out, followed by a discussion and Q&A with Falling Rock owner Chris Black.
Some of Colorado’s most notorious breweries will be tapping their favorite session beers alongside their rare or heavy-hitting ones at Freshcraft starting at 4 p.m. The tap list includes: 4 Noses Zwicky P Zwickel Pilsner and Inherited Oak Series #2 Oak Aged Golden Sour with Blueberry and Maple; Cerebral Brewing International Waters Foeder Fermented Unfiltered Pilsner and Under the Stars S’Mores-Inspired Imperial Milk Stout; Outer Range Brewing Canvas Dry-Hopped Saison and Spatial Awareness Imperial/Double IPA with Sapphire and Wakatu; and WeldWerks Brewing Hefeweizen and Triple Dry-Hopped Juicy Bits. Then at 7 p.m., Freshcraft toasts El Dorado hops with a tap takeover of beers made with that hops variety. Breweries include Commonwealth, TRVE Brewing, Comrade Brewing, Epic Brewing, Great Divide Brewing and Stone Brewing. Meet the hops growers, rub some hops and get some swag.
First Draft Kitchen & Taproom will showcase beers from the portfolio of Crooked Stave Artisans. These include: Societe Harlot; Creature Comforts Athena Paradiso; Crooked Stave Blackberry Bianca WWB; Fremont BA B-Bomb; Half Acre Daisy Cutter; Jacks Abby House Lager; Jack's Abby Super Mole: Framinghammer; Lawson's Sip o Sunshine; Old Nation Boss Tweed; Pfriem Pilsner; Rare Barrel Forces Unseen; and Jester King Saison Americaine.
Viva Cerveza, a tap takeover of Mexican craft breweries presented by the Mexican Craft Brewers Association, takes place from 6 p.m. to midnight at Ironton Distillery and Crafthouse.
Brewery Finance and Marty Jones hosted one of the best events of the Craft Brewers Conference last year in Nashville, Tennessee, and they're hoping to repeat the fun this time around with the second annual Honkytonk Bash starting at 7 p.m. at Lannie's Clocktower Cabaret. There will be music from the Cowboy Dave Band, Leslie Tom, Larry Nix and Marty Jones himself, plus beer from Bierstadt Lagerhaus, Comrade Brewing, Bent Barley Brewing, Tivoli, Crooked Stave and Dry Dock. P.S.: You'll need a CBC badge for admission.
Black Shirt Brewing will host a special tapping of its newest beer, Okul Wheat IPA. There will also be vinyl sets from DJ Details, a retro liquid light show, and small bites starting at 7 p.m.
Tooey's will tap beers from TRVE, Brewery Bhavana, Cerebral and Burial at 9 p.m.
Improper City hosts an Outer Range tap takeover in collaboration with Collective Arts Brewing at 6 p.m. They'll be pouring Sluff DDH Double IPA. Local artist Max Coleman designed the can and will be on site with a pop-up shop; Coleman will also be painting the can design live as a giant mural. There will be food trucks on site.
Factotum Brewhouse has roots in the state of Indiana, so the brewery's owners are excited to bring one of that state's premier beer makers to its tap lines at 4 p.m. Sun King Brewing will be pouring Osiris Pale Ale, Velvet Fog Belgian-Style Quad, and Lyrical Poet Barrel-Aged Imperial Stout.
Join Cannonball Creek Brewing in Golden at 5 p.m. to drink some of the best West Coast-style hoppy beers from award-winning breweries in California and Colorado. They include Pizza Port, Knee Deep, Beachwood, Riip, Comrade, Call to Arms, Westbound and Down, and River North. The Rolling Dough pizza truck will be in the house all night, and there will be live music by Weatherbee and the Gnarlbillys. Oh, and this: Free shuttle service to and from the Colorado Convention Center to Cannonball Creek.
Chicago's Forbidden Root Brewery is getting together with Citizen Rail Restaurant in LoDo for an event called Flavor Science & the Art of Pairing, a beer dinner with craft-beer guru Randy Mosher. Guests will enjoy a four-course dinner with dishes from Citizen Rail chef Christian Graves. Mosher will lead a discussion surrounding the depths of food and beer pairing and the trends in both industries. The dinner is from 6:30 to 9 p.m. Tickets are $125 per person (gratuity included) and are available at brownpapertickets.com.
Falling Rock
Falling Rock Tap House celebrates everything hops starting at 6:30 p.m. when it taps a wide variety of hoppy brews, "from West Coast to East Coast, and many states in between," says Falling Rock. Breweries include Dogfish Head, Stone Brewing, Lawson's Finest Liquids, Old Nation Brewing, Crooked Stave Artisan Beer Project, Beachwood Brewing, Brouwerij West, Societe Brewing, Brouwerij De Ranke and more.
Hops & Pie will tap beers from Jester King and Lawson’s Finest Liquids. Jester King is a favorite in Texas and a favorite among most craft- beer enthusiasts. Beers on tap include SPON, SPON 3 Year Blend, Montmorency Vs Balaton, Omniscience & Proselytism, Biére de Blanc du Bois, Grim Harvest and Black Metal Imperial Stout. Lawson’s Finest Liquids from Vermont will have Double Sunshine IPA, Fayston Maple Imperial Stout, The Space in Between, Chinoorker’d IPA, Scrag Mountain Pils and Sip of Sunshine IPA.
Finn's Manor closes out CBC week with an all-lager throwdown featuring beers from Bierstadt Lagerhaus, Bagby Beer, Suarez Family Brewery, pFriem Family Brewers, Russian River, Jack's Abby Craft Lagers, Fremont Brewing, La Cumbre Brewing, Almanac Beer, Our Mutual Friend and Cerebral. DJs will be spinning all night.
Freshcraft brings in an ice cream social at 4 p.m. with four different ice cream flavors "using your favorite beers from Station 26 Brewing and Surly Brewing — made right in front of your eyes with liquid nitrogen by Eskimo Bros. Nitro Ice Cream." Then, at 7 p.m., Freshcraft will match some special tequilas with beers from Boulevard, Ommegang, Duvel and Telluride Brewing.
Join Goed Zuur, which taps several sought-after beers from Jester King Brewery in Texas at 5 pm. Food pairings will be available. Beers include: Spon Blueberry Pitaya, Aurelian Lure, Birra de Sangiovese, Saison Americaine, Black Metal, Montmorency Vs Balaton, and some Spon variations in bottles.
It's Greeley night at First Draft Taproom & Kitchen, which will tap Wiley Roots Key Lime County Fair Cobbler, Vibrant Primary Colors, Pyromonstah and Geometry, along with WeldWerks TDH Juicy Bits, Nelson Extra Extra Juicy Bits, and Hefeweizen.
The Crafty Fox taps the best of the best from Two Roads Brewing Company, Beachwood Brewing, Lawson's Finest Liquids, Jack's Abby Craft Lagers, Half Acre Beer Company and La Cumbre Brewing.
Crooked Stave Artisan Beer Project will release the next installment in its barrel-aged stout series. Private Reserve Bourbon Barrel Aged Imperial Oatmeal Stout #175 was aged more than thirty months in a single Woodford Reserve Bourbon Barrel. "This luscious delight comes in at a delightful 11.6 percent ABV," the brewery says. It will be available to go in single sixteen-ounce cans.
Join Cart-Driver for Little Beers, a Celebration of Saisons and Session Beers, starting at 5 p.m. There will be beer from TRVE; Roadhouse Brewing from Wyoming; and Brewery Bhavana and Trophy Brewing, both out of North Carolina.
Our Mutual Friend Brewing hosts its longtime friends Fort George Brewery, in Astoria, Oregon, for an event called “The Market Demands It!” Fort George will occupy four of the taps starting at 4 p.m., and there will be a can release of three beers from the Oregon brewery. On tap will be Double Hockey Sticks, an Oregon Helles; Matryoshka Barrel-Aged Imperial Stout with vanilla, blueberry, coconut, and almond; Beta IPA; and Cathedral Tree, a mixed-culture hefeweizen. Available in cans to go will be Fields of Green: Jasper, The Optimist, and From Astoria With Love.
The Grateful Gnome Sandwich Shoppe and Brewery will host a four-day-long anniversary party to celebrate one year in business. There will be beer specials and music on various days through Saturday.
Friday, April 12
Spangalang Brewery kicks off three days of fun to celebrate its fourth anniversary, starting with Nightwalker Night, dedicated to the brewery's beloved Imperial Stout. "Expect multiple variants of this luscious malt bomb, but don't worry, there will be lots of other stuff if Nightwalker is a little too burly for you," the brewery says.
Are you even ready for this? New Image Brewing linked up with its buddies at Black Project Spontaneous & Wild Ales to produce a special IPA called Fly Like Paper, Get High Like Planes. New Image says the brewers added "a Black Project spontaneous fermented beer into our kettle before hop additions to drop the pH to soften and round out the hop characters," New Image says. The resulting beer was canned and will go up for sale at 11 a.m.
Pour Tap House in Commerce City hosts Shelton Brothers importers and distributors, which is setting up shop in Denver soon and responsible for bringing America some of the world's best saisons, Belgians, lambics, lagers, sours and everything else. Tap list at 6 p.m. is TBA.
Ale House, formerly known as Ale House at Amato's, welcomes in Outer Range Brewing and some of its friends in the beer industry. Meet the brewers and try beer from RAR Brewing, Southern Grist, TRVE Brewing, Resident Culture, Dancing Gnome Beer, Deciduous Brewing Company and Interboro.
Saturday, April 13
Hail to the can! Improper City hosts its first Can Fest from 1 to 5 p.m. featuring canned beer from 23 breweries, and live art from six artists who will be painting and drawing their best interpretation of beer cans (some proceeds will be donated to the Gathering Place). There will also be live music, food trucks and patio games. Tickets, $30 to $45, are available at eventbrite.com. Participating breweries include: 4 Noses, Avery, Bell's, Boulevard, Crooked Stave, C Squared Ciders, Denver Beer Co., Cervecería Colorado, Dogfish Head, Epic, Firestone Walker, Great Divide, La Cumbre, New Image, Odell, Renegade, River North, Stem Ciders, Stone, Two Roads, Upslope and Wibby.
River North Brewery releases bottles of Mayan Chocolate Mr. Sandman at noon. "We take our award-winning American imperial stout and infuse it with cacao nibs, vanilla bean, cinnamon and habanero chiles," the brewery says. The beer only comes around once a year and will also be on draft.
Spangalang Brewery continues its fourth anniversary party by releasing its 4th Anniversary Sour Saison along with a number of other special releases. Live music from the Root Down Organ Trio starts at 8 p.m.
Sunday, April 14
Spangalang Brewery wraps up its fourth-anniversary weekend by tapping Birth of Cool Cucumber Gose. Get there early and get a Pickle and Beer Society glass with your pint of Birth of Cool. A few lucky customers will also receive a Pickle and Beer Society membership.
