And since March, when the effects of COVID-19 began changing consumer habits (and everything else), Arryved has also been providing these businesses with on-site touch-free ordering abilities that include the QR codes that most customers find on tables these days instead of paper menus.
In fact, over the past five months, Arryved (pronounced like "arrived") has grown its customer base by 25 percent, and those breweries and distilleries, etc., are getting 20 percent of their revenue through the company's online platform and app systems. More than 60,000 craft-beverage patrons alone are using the app.
So keep supporting those small businesses: It has a ripple effect in Colorado.
Keep reading to find craft-beer tapping and events into late August.
Wednesday, August 19
Denver Beer Co. kicks off a four-day celebration of its ninth anniversary today by releasing Anniversary IX: Queen Yum Yum Red Wine Barrel Aged Raspberry Kolsch. This beer is a slightly stronger version of the brewery's Princess Yum Yum fermented with red raspberries and aged for five months in mixed red-wine barrels for "a delightful combination of fresh raspberry, oak and fruit flavors." Queen Yum Yum is available in limited-edition bombers and on draft; there will also be anniversary tumblers for sale.
Comrade Brewing's 2019 GABF gold-medal-winning IPA, More Dodge Less Ram, returns to the taproom at 2 p.m. The 7.8 percent ABV beer is "a stronger brew of our flagship Superpower IPA, given an extra round of dry-hopping," Comrade says. It is "named for the first celebratory brew after a Dodge Ram plowed into the brewery in October 2016," destroying part of the brewhouse and taking operations offline for some time.
Cerebral Brewing releases cans of a new beer, Embodied Energy, a 6.5 percent ABV IPA made with Mosaic, Idaho 7 and Vic Secret hops, for notes of cantaloupe, tangerine and papaya. The brewery will also have a fresh batch of its flagship IPA, Rare Trait, in cans to go. Both beers are also available on tap.
Avanti Food & Beverage is transforming its beer garden into a more upscale dining experience from 6 to 10 p.m., when it will serve up five courses of elevated Southern cuisine, starring fried chicken from Lea Jane's Hot Chicken, "thoughtfully paired" with five beers from Melvin Brewing in Wyoming. Tickets are $55 each and are available via EventBrite.
Thursday, August 20
Denver Beer Co. continues its ninth-anniversary celebration by tapping Peanut Butter Graham Cracker Porter in a very limited quantity.
Berkeley Donuts, which is part of Hops & Pie, brings doughnuts and beer together in a special way in honor of National Bacon Lover’s Day. The doughnut shop will be offering its new maple bacon doughnut, filled with maple cream cheese custard and topped with maple bacon glaze and applewood smoked bacon. There will also be a vanilla-porter coffee cake doughnut, made with Hops & Pie’s eight-year-old sourdough starter with a coffee crumble and glaze made with Dry Dock Brewing Vanilla Porter. You can get the maple bacon doughnut and any stout on tap for $7.
Liquid Mechanics Brewing can't celebrate its six-year anniversary the way it wants to, so the Lafayette brewery will hold an "interim" celebration over a four-day period, re-releasing four barrel-aged beers (one each day). They are Beasts of Bourbon, Candy Bar Anarchy Project, Rally Round the Family and Pocket Full of Shells. In addition, Liquid Mechanics will introduce a new hazy IPA in canned four-packs. Juice is a 7.4 percent beer featuring Lotus, Citra, Sabro and El Dorado hops.
Ska Street Brewstillery in Boulder hosts a socially distant pairing dinner from 5 to 9 p.m. The four-course dinner includes beers and cocktails expertly paired with dishes. General seating is $45 per person, or VIP seating with brewery owners Dave Thibodeau and Bill Graham is $55. Call 720-510-9921 for reservations.
Friday, August 21
Cheluna Brewing at Stanley Marketplace releases its version of Black is Beautiful Imperial Stout at 6 p.m. The beer is a project started by a Texas brewery to raise money and awareness for causes benefiting racial inequity and social justice. The brewery will also host a socially distanced Latin dance class, zumba style, which will be held on the patio behind the Hangar at Stanley.
Denver Beer Co. continues its ninth-anniversary celebration by re-releasing its GABF gold-medal-winning beer, Drama Queen Saison. "This barrel-aged beauty sports some serious swagger, with a wide range of fruity flavors and aromas. Notes of plum, raspberry, pear and peach are derived from five months of aging in a mix of French cabernet, merlot and malbec oak barrels," the brewery says. "The base saison was made with wheat and malted barley and fermented with a blend of Belgian and French yeasts as well as sake yeast to achieve complexity and a dryness to balance the sweet fruit flavors and oaky undertones."
4 Noses Brewing in Broomfield brings back Peachopotamus. "This year was a difficult peach year for Colorado. Nonetheless we persisted," the brewery says. "We sourced and hand-processed thousands of pounds of Colorado peaches, just for this grand tradition." The beer will be sold in cans and on draft.
Resolute Brewing in Centennial celebrates its fourth birthday with the release of four beers. First up is its 2020 Anniversary Ale, a 100 percent Brettanomyces-fermented sour ale aged for six months in red wine barrels with 600 pounds of both dark and tart cherries; the 9 percent ABV beer is available on draft and in sixteen-ounce cans to go. Then there will be two small-batch versions of the brewery's Salt Lime Crusher, a lager aged on tequila-soaked oak spirals and infused with jalapeño, caribe, Fresno, Anaheim and habanero peppers. And finally, Resolute will tap Saison du Soirée, a dry, crisp French-style saison brewed with Huell Melon hops.
River North Brewery
River North Brewery brings back Vanilla Bourbon Barrel Mr. Sandman. This 13 percent ABV beer is the brewery's acclaimed Mr. Sandman imperial stout, aged in bourbon barrels with vanilla beans. It will be available in bottles and on tap at both of River North's taprooms.
Denver Beer Co. will have Birthday Cake Blonde on tap and in limited-edition Crowlers in honor of its ninth anniversary. "To make it extra-festive, we’ll be frosting the rim of each glass with sprinkles," the brewery says. "We’ll have a few other fun surprises up our sleeves for the big day, so stop by and say HBD to DBC."
Westfax Brewing in Lakewood introduces the next in its series of smoothie sours, Cherry Fruit Shake; in addition to cherries, it has notes of woody spice, rose and lemony tartness, the brewery says. Westfax will also tap a small batch Watermelon Blonde.
Holidaily Brewing, Golden's gluten-free beer maker, releases Patchy Waters Pumpkin Ale on tap and in four-packs to go. The brewery will block off the parking lot from 2 to 6 p.m. for outdoor seating. Dedicated Bistro & Bakery will be serving food.
Sunday, August 23
Great Divide Brewing brings back Zoo Week at both of its taprooms in an effort to support the Denver Zoo, which is going through a particularly tough time as a result of the coronavirus lockdowns and social distancing requirements. As such, the brewery is re-releasing Zooski Lager in new, redesigned sixteen-ounce cans. Zoo Week runs August 23 to 29 and features Zooski on tap, limited-edition Zoo glassware and four-packs of Zooski to go. Some proceeds go to the zoo, which is also serving the beer.
Casey Brewing and Blending is celebrating the one-year anniversary of its taproom in downtown Glenwood Springs with a week-long series of special tappings and bottle releases. Beers will be announced over the next few days, but they include Colorado Cuttie, FBP Raspberry + Peach, and Dry Hopped Oak Theory.
Friday, August 28
Like a lot of small breweries that never really intended to package their beers, Mockery Brewing has discovered that it needs to do just that to help survive a lack of customers during the coronavirus pandemic. As a result, the brewery will release its first-ever cans at noon today. Rock the F*ck on Forever is a double-dry-hopped West Coast-style IPA with "a buttload of Citra, Amarillo and Rakau hops," the brewery says.
Woods Boss Brewing brings back its stellar 5.5 percent ABV Hisolda Irish Coffee Cream Stout — a little early this year, because the brewery says it will be submitted as an entry in the Great American Beer Festival. "Elegant, smooth, creamy, delicious," the brewery says.
One of Colorado's best pumpkin beers returns to Odyssey Beerwerks in Arvada, which hosts a release of Fluffy Pumpkin Toasted Marshmallow Porter. The beer's "deep flavors of spiced pumpkin and toasted marshmallow dance with notes of chocolate and graham cracker," the brewery says.
Saturday, August 29
Strange Craft Beer Company turned ten years old in May, and the brewery that kicked off Denver's taproom revolution wants to celebrate — in a safe way. As such, it's throwing a distanced event. Each table includes two sixteen-ounce beers per person, lunch or dinner from the Barrett & Pratt food truck, and cupcakes from Valhalla Cakes paired with a birthday shot of Dr. Strangelove Barleywine. While tables for two are already sold out, tickets for four-tops are still available on Eventbrite for $120.
