“For the most part, Colorado knows an awful lot about beer,” said Todd Leopold, head distiller at Leopold Bros. distillery. “They can tell you about different styles, and what breweries they like and why, but when it comes to spirits, people are just starting to dip their toe in the…
Barrels & Bottles released three flagship beers this week, all of them created by new head brewer Kim Collins. The beers are Piney the First, a 5 percent ABV all Chinook-hopped pale ale; Lil’ IPA, a 5.2 percent ABV session IPA; and Hot Lips, a 3.7 percent ABV sour mash…
Carrie Knose, living in California, and Jason Bell, running a liquor store in Chicago, both dreamed of opening a brewery. But it wasn’t until they met — through mutual friends — after moving independently to Colorado that the dream became reality. “We started talking beer and decided to make it…
After a five-mile run around Sloan’s Lake, all I wanted was a beer, so my friend and I explored the Berkeley neighborhood, an area that we, as Whittier and Five Points residents, respectively, don’t get to very often. Searching for beer, we found something much more: my current favorite patio…
Colorado’s craft beer scene is getting crowded as a new brewery opens roughly once a week somewhere in the state. But the liquor store shelves can be a bit of a tangle as well, especially as older breweries introduce new or changing products to keep up with the latest thing…
“We bartended together, as one, and it was amazing,” says Chad Michael George, who shared the win at Deuces!, a synchronized bartending competition held Tuesday at Star Bar, with Nick Touch. Paired bartenders were tasked with making the same drink — simultaneously. Four teams fought it out behind the bar,…
Left Hand Brewing co-founder and president Eric Wallace was recognized last week as an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year in the consumer products and services category, beating out two dozen other candidates. The award recognizes “extraordinary performance in leading successful innovative businesses, strong financial performance, and an endearing…
“Once you’ve had a few beers, it’s hard to leave a German beer garden without making some friends,” says Patrick Crawford, who opened Denver Beer Co. with Charlie Berger in August 2011. In advance of that opening, Crawford and Berger had gone to Germany — and came back with the…
In his first-ever bartending competition, Nick Snyder of the Corner Office punched out a win at Cochon 555’s annual Punch Kings competition on June 28 at the Curtis Hotel. Originally a carnival of all things pork, Cochon 555 has expanded to include bartenders in the food-and-drink competition. See also: The…
Craft beer trends have evolved quickly over the past five years, and just because a brewery has been around for a while doesn’t mean that its beers will keep selling forever. To keep up, and to stay relevant, some older breweries have cut poorly performing products from their lineups and…
Denver bartenders Jason Patz and Allison Widdecombe, both of Williams & Graham, traveled to New York City last month for World Class U.S., a nationwide bartending competition. Considered the biggest and most celebrated mixology competition in America, World Class U.S. matched Patz and Widdecombe against thirteen other bartenders from across…
One of Colorado’s most specialized, and most highly anticipated, new breweries will give the public a sneak peek this weekend when it opens for two days to sell its first bottled release, a saison that was fermented entirely in oak barrels with Brettanomyces. Casey Brewing & Blending, at 3421 Grand…
Oh, how time flies when you’re brewing fun. Three years ago, Renegade Brewing Company began brewing beer at 925 West Ninth Avenue, in the Arts District on Santa Fe. Renegade celebrated its third anniversary on Saturday, June 28, with an outdoor block party with live music, food trucks and plenty…
“We’re the biggest tequila bar in the city — we should be winning margarita contests,” saysLa Biblioteca bartender Ben Carrington of his double-win in the margarita category at Top Taco. The taco and margarita competition, which took place Thursday, June 26 at Sculpture Park, pitted area restaurants against each other…
UPDATE: We have three winners of our Wings & Whiskey contest, in which we asked Cafe Society readers to answer this question: How many tiger wings did Ace serve between Sunday, June 15 and Sunday, June 22? Congratulations to BigAl, who came the closest with a guess of 1475. Congratulations,…
A whopping 1,360 breweries from all fifty states and the District of Columbia will enter beers into the competition at the Great American Beer Festival this October. That’s about 81 percent higher than last year, when 750 breweries tried to register for the fest, according to preliminary numbers provided by…
Whiskey is part of our Western heritage; it captures the flavors of the grains grown across Midwestern landscapes, the pioneer spirit of early settlers, and a touch of outlaw pride that kept distilling alive during a sad, sad part of American history, a time called Prohibition. Stranahan’s Colorado Whiskey, which…
Like many beer fests, the Colorado Brewers Festival was a victim of its own success. Inspired by the Oregon Brewers Festival, it was founded in 1990, at a time when there were only nine breweries in Colorado and even fewer beer gatherings. Over the years, the event — one of…
Cold coffee is suddenly hot. Not sat-in-the-pot-all-day cold coffee, but purposefully cold-brewed coffee. And now Denver’s Corvus Coffee is taking it up a notch — bringing beer lovers and coffee lovers together by adding hops to its cold brew. See also: First Look: Corvus Coffee opening in new space today…
Boulder Beer Company, which celebrated its 35th anniversary this year, said this week that it will begin canning two of its flagship beers, Buffalo Gold Golden Ale and Mojo IPA, for the first time. Both cans will feature redesigned artwork. Boulder Beer has canned two of its other beers, Hazed…
Calvin Beasley likes whiskey and wine, rum and rye, bourbon and brandy and tequila. But not necessarily to drink. He likes them for the flavors they impart into beer. This weekend Beasley, his fiance, Beth, and head brewer Eric Nichols will open Beryl’s Beer Company at 3120 Blake Street, a…
U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman visited the Denver home of Epic Brewing on Monday to endorse the Obama administration’s push for international exports and the jobs they provide, especially at small and medium sized businesses. The stop at Epic was one of many on a tour highlighting the fact that…
