Read on to see of this week's craft beer events.
Wednesday, July 9July is saison month at the Copper Kettle, which will tap its saison fermented with Brettanomyces yeast today at 3 p.m. The Ckrepes food truck will be on hand.
Rock Bottom will tap its Summer Honey Ale at 6 p.m. at ts downtown Denver location. The beer will be paired with a special menu and is available through August 24.
Thursday, July 10
Station 26 Brewing will tap a firkin of its IPA No. 1 with fennel and agave nectar today as part of its weekly series of cask beers.
Friday, July 11
Odell Brewing will tap its latest Cellar Series Beer beer, Fifty Niner, a Golden Ale aged on oak staves and bottle-conditioned with Brettanomyces, today in the Fort Collins taproom. The brewery will celebrate the beer all weekend. Named for the "wild" days of the Colorado gold rush in 1859, the 10 percent ABV beer has notes of "lemon zest and pear accentuated by a rich vanilla and almond oak character and a subtle earthy spiced pineapple Brett finish."
Saturday, July 12
Living the Dream Brewing will open its doors for the first time today at 2 p.m. at 12305 Dumont Way in Highlands Ranch. There will be five beers on tap: New Zealand hopped wit; dry-hopped pale, Belgian dubbel, Creamy Molasses Brown, and Helluva Caucasian Stout.
Breckenridge Brewery celebrates its birthday today at the 24th Anniversary Hootenanny at 471 Kalamath Street, an all-inclusive street party that benefits local non-profit Conscious Alliance. In addition to the annual pig roast, there will be two outdoor stages of live music (Deadphish Orchestra, The Magic Beans, Kitchen Dwellers, Trout Steak Revival, The Colorado Goat Ropers Guild, and Marty Jones & The Great Unknowns), free brewery tours, and tastings of unique beers from Breckenridge Brewery's pilot brewery and rare beer cellar. The party, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., will be the last bash held outside the Kalamath Street brewery, since Breck is building a massive new brewing campus in Littleton, which is slated to open in the spring of 2015 -- when the brewery will hold its 25th anniversary Hootenany. Tickets, $30, are available at BreckBrew.com/Hootenanny.
The 18th Annual Colorado Brewers Rendezvous takes place today from 1 to 5 p.m. in Salida's Riverside Park. There will be 75 Colorado brewers pouring over 200 different beers, along with food, live music and dancing. No dogs, but bring your umbrella. The event will raise funds for the Salida Chamber of Commerce and the Colorado Brewers Guild. Tickets, $35-$40, are available at imbibedenver.com. VIP Tickets are $65.
Freshcraft's latest Rare Beer Saturday, starting at 1 p.m., features Alaskan Brewing's 25th Anniversary Stout Perseverance, which the restaurant has been cellaring for a few years. Freshcraft will also tap a keg of Alaskan's 2008 Barley Wine. A brewery rep will be on hand to answer questions and give away shwag.
Sunday, July 13
POSTPONED Avery Brewing will release No. 21 in its acclaimed Barrel-Aged Series today in the tap room. The 16 percent ABV beer, called Black Eye, is a an imperial stout aged in rum barrels. Although bottle sales don't begin until 1 p.m., a line will likely form much earlier, and people will be able to order other rare Avery beers on tap. Each twelve-ounce bottle of Black Eye is $12, and there a limit of twelve per person. Cash only. POSTPONED
Keep reading for more events later in July and August. Wednesday, July 16
The Pairsine Chefs Fine Food and Beer Pairing, hosted by Wine Country Network, Inc., takes place today from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Omni Interlocken Resort in Broomfield. This year's edition pairs gold medal award-wining beers from the Denver International Beer Competition with culinary creations prepared by ten Colorado chefs. A professional panel of judges will choose the "Best Chef" and "Most Creative Chef." Attendees will select a "People's Choice Chef." Guests will be able to sample twenty different gourmet food and beer pairings. Tickets are $50 and available at eventbrite.com.
Thursday, July 17
Our Mutual Friend Malt & Brew will release a beer today on which it collaborated with Jax Fish House & Oyster Bar -- part of the Big Red F restaurant group. Big Red OMF is a red ale made with hibiscus and tangerine. It will be served along with "all the Jax food you can put away," between 6:30 and 8:30 p.m. at the brewery. Entrance is $60.
It's Christmas in July! at World of Beer in Belmar, which will count down the Twelve Beers of Christmas (in July) with Left Hand Brewing and Epic Brewing. The event, starting at 6 p.m., was created by WOB's Neill Boyd, Left Hand Brewing's Nick Cassaro and John Turk of Epic Brewing (and host of the Colorado Craft Beer Show) and will include a toy drive for the Mount St. Vincent Home, pictures with Santa (Cassaro) and his Elf (Turk), and Christmas cookies. The beers on hand are supposed to meet the red-and-green theme. They include Left Hand's Sawtooth, Chainsaw, Safety Round # 3, 400 Pound Monkey, Stranger Pale and a Mint Milk Stout Firkin, and Epic's Sour Apple Saison, Brainless Raspberries, Imperial IPA, Imperial Red, Utah Sage Saison and an Escape to Colorado IPA Firkin with Kiwi.
Boulder's Upslope Brewing is launching a new series of limited-release canned beers that will only be available at its original Lee Hill location. The quarterly Lee Hill Series will begin with Barrel Aged Brown Ale, which will go on sale today in 19.2-ounce cans during a party from 5 to 9 p.m. (Cans are $10, limit of four.) The Bumper Crop food truck will be serving food, Aaron Russell will perform live music. Upslope opened a large production facility in 2013 on Flatiron Court, and has turned its Lee Hill spot into a small-batch brewery focused on experimentation and creativity. The 7.6 percent ABV Barrel Aged Brown Ale was aged in Leopold Bros. Maryland Rye Whiskey barrels for four months. It will , will be available for purchase in 19.2-ounce cans at Upslope's original Lee Hill tap room in North Boulder beginning July 17.
Saturday, July 19
Wynkoop Brewing Company will hold its annual United Tastes of Belgium event today from 12:30 to 4 p.m. featuring Belgian and Belgian-inspired beers from more than thirty breweries. There will be everything from higher-gravity one-offs to barrel-aged wild and sour ales to traditional dubbels, tripels and quads. And because the event celebrates all things Belgian, there will also be Belgian chocolate and cheese. Tickets, $30 in advance, and the full beer list are available at wynkoop.com/event/Belgium or www.imbibedenver.com/belgium. Breweries include: Duvel, Achel, Kwak, Brasserie Blaugies, Hof ten Dormaal:Great Divide, Grand Teton, Kannah Creek, Elevation, TRVE, Crazy Mountain, Oskar Blues, Perennial, Crooked Stave, Odyssey, Stillwater, Yak & Yeti, Tommyknocker, Trinity, Wynkoop, Stone, Epic, Upslope, Strange, Verboten, Avery, New Belgium, Caution, OMF, Left Hand, Wasatch, Squatters, Denver Beer Co, and Wynkoop.
Firestone Walker will celebrate three years of distribution in Colorado today at Hops & Pie by bringing out co-founder David Walker, who will be hanging out and pouring some of the California's best stuff, including 2013 Bravo XVII Anniversary, Stickee Monkey, Sucaba, Velvet Merkin, Agrestic Wild Ale, Lil Opal, Union Jack, Pivo Pils and more. The party runs from noon to close. No tickets are needed.
Sunday, July 20
Copper Kettle Brewing will bring its third annual A Night to Remember fundraiser to the Four Mile Historic Park today from 4 to 8 p.m. The event was created to commemorate Alex Teves, and the other eleven people who were killed in the Aurora theater shootings in July 2012. Teves, then 24, was one of the first members of the Copper Kettle's Brew Club. There will be beer from twenty Colorado breweries, along with food from Biker Jims, El Toro the Tot, Crazy Good Food and Basic Kneads. There will also be live music from Dusty Rider of The Railsplitters and Brad Murphy from Slipstream. Teves's family, as well as his fiance and friends, will be on hand, along with the families of some of the other victims. There will be a silent auction and prize giveaways throughout the night. Tickets are $25 and available at eventgrid.com. All of the proceeds will be donated to the Alexander C. Teves Foundation, which is part of the Humanex Academy, helping students who have learning disabilities and emotional and behavior disorders (Alex was a counselor who helped with the Humanex Academy).
Friday, July 25
California's Sierra Nevada Brewing will take its show on the road this summer for Beer Camp Across America, an unprecedented series of festivals in several cities that will go along with a twelve-pack of twelve different collaboration beers. The nation's second largest craft brewery has invited every other craft brewery in the country (all 2,800 of them) to attend and pour their beer at one of seven stops on the tour: Chico, California (where Sierra Nevada is based)' San Diego; Denver; Chicago; Portland, Maine; Philadelphia; and Mills River, North Carolina. The Rocky Mountain/Denver edition takes place today from 5 to 10 p.m. at Civic Center Park and will include food trucks, live music and beer from more than 200 Colorado and regional breweries, as well as the twelve who are involved in the collaborations. Tickets, $65, are available at SierraNevada.com/BeerCamp (only 5,000 per venue). As for the collaboration beers, the Beer Camp Across America variety twelve-pack features collaborations with a dozen of the darlings of craft beer: Allagash, Ballast Point, Bell's, Cigar City, Firestone Walker, New Glarus, Ninkasi, Oskar Blues, Russian River, 3 Floyds and Victory, plus a beer from the Asheville Brewers Alliance. It's the first ever to contain both bottles and cans.
Saturday, July 26
Sanitas Brewing will host its own music festival beginning at 2 p.m., featuring performances by Mountain Standard Time, West Water Outlaws, the Drunken Hearts and DJ Mikey Thunder. Taking place in the brewery's backyard, there will be booths from area vendors, five food trucks and plenty of Sanitas beer. Tickets to the family-friendly Sanitas Fest, $8 in advance, are available at sanitasbrewing.com and include one free beer. VIP packages, including access to Sanitas' deck, exclusive beers, a free taco bar, will be available for $55 at the door or $45 presale.
Grimm Brothers Brewhouse will celebrate its fourth anniversary beginning at 11 a.m. today with a BBQ Competition (open to anyone; go to lovelandbeerbq.com for more information about categories and registration) and a beer garden. Grimm will tap several specialty beers to celebrate the event. A limited edition anniversary stein will be available to purchase (last year's sold out minutes after the event started).
Tuesday, July 29
Members of the Brewers Association and American Homebrewers Association may buy tickets to the Great American Beer Festival, which takes place October 2-4, beginning today at 10 a.m. They sold out last year. They are $75 each.
Wednesday, July 30
Great American Beer Festival tickets go on sale today at 10 a.m. to the general public. They cost $80 this year and are available at Ticketmaster.com. They sold out within minutes the past two years. GABF takes place October 2-4.
Saturday, August 2
The Colorado Brewers Guild and Imbibe Denver will present the second event in their "Lovibond series" of festivals today when they host Sesh Fest from 3 to 7 p.m at Sculpture Park in downtown Denver. The event highlights "session beers," which are typically 5 percent ABV or less. The concept of session beers was created by the British, who don't like to get hammered when they're taking a lunch break. Tickets start at $20 and are available for purchase at seshfest.com. Participants include: Black Bottle Brewery, Breckenridge Brewery, CAUTION: Brewing, Crooked Stave, Dad & Dude's Breweria, Denver Beer Co, Epic Brewing, FATE Brewing, Former Future Brewing, Great Divide, Kannah Creek Brewing, Kokopelli Beer, Left Hand, New Belgium, Odell, Pateros Creek, Ska Brewing, Station 26 Brewing, The Old Mine Cidery & Brewpub, TRiNiTY Brewing, TRVE Brewing, Upslope, Vine Street Pub & Brewery, Wonderland Brewing, and the Yak & Yeti. The Lovibond Series includes three separate events: Collaboration Fest (which took place March 22), Sesh Fest and the Fresh Hop Festival (which will take place on September 27). Each Lovibond festival focuses on a specific aspect of the brewing process and industry, according to the CBG.
Sunday, August 3
Avery Brewing will celebrate its 21st birthday -- and it's last at the brewery's original location on Arapahoe Avenue -- today from noon to 5 p.m., when it will be serving up rare and vintage beers -- including strong ales and sour/wild ales -- along with all of its flagships. There will also be live music and a commemorative glass. Tickets, $40, are available at eventbrite.com. "Our alley has served us well for 21 years. We've gone from making 800 barrels of beer a year to 50,000, from three annual beer styles to 22 and counting, from three employees to 93 and counting, and from a six-car-garage brewhouse to a series of six-car-garages," the brewery says. "We will love our alley forever, but we need to keep following our dreams." Avery will move to its massive new brewing campus in north Boulder in the summer of 2015.
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