Photos: Mayor Hancock becomes an honorary brewer at Denver Beer Co

The first beer that Mayor Michael Hancock tried today at Denver Beer Co was a Sunnyside Hefeweizen. But it won't be his last.

Hancock got a crash course on the brewing process and beer ingredients when he dropped by the brewery today to help create a pumpkin beer that will be tapped on October 5 for Denver Beer Fest, an annual nine-day celebration that has taken place for the past three years around the Great American Beer Festival.

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While he was there, Hancock rode a custom-rigged stationary bike that the brewery uses to mill grain, broke open hops cones and dropped them into the kettle, shoveled spent grain into buckets and sampled some beers.

"Take that, Boston," he said as he took his first sip, referring to Boston mayor Sam Menino's assertion earlier this year that Boston beer was better than Denver's.

Denver Beer Co owners Patrick Crawford and Charlie Berger teamed up with Visit Denver and the Colorado Brewers Guild to pitch the idea of having the mayor help brew beer, Crawford says.

The beer itself will be made using pumpkins provided by Denver Urban Gardens and will be named with help from Visit Denver's Facebook friends. The Mayor will announce the official name for the brew when he kicks off the Fest on October 5.

• Beer Man
• Word of Mouth