CAUTION: Brewing Co. Opens Lakewood Location
- December 17, 2013 -
The craft beer renaissance continues in Colorado as CAUTION: Brewing Company in East Denver opens a second brewery and taphouse to the West, in Lakewood! The taphouse will offer sixteen taps, a covered patio, and room to accommodate 70 beer aficionados. Certainly, the foothill dwellers in Lakewood have already begun to celebrate.

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The Press Release -

CAUTION: Brewing Company’s latest expansion will be unleashed to the public during the week of Dec 16th, with exact date and time to be announced on social media. Lakewood’s first production microbrewery and taproom finally opens for business after months of planning and construction. With a taproom and covered patio seating for that can accommodate over 70 people, CAUTION: Brewing Company will bring their own brand of speciality beers to the Lakewood area.

Award winners such as Lao Wang Lager, Card Your Mom Saison, and Honey Matrimony Brown Ale will all be a part of a 16-tap draft system designed with experimental and unique recipes in mind. In addition to a regular list of flagship beers, CAUTION: Brewing Company will fill the remaining taps with new creations brewed on a new 3BBL system sourced from Minnetonka Brewing & Equipment Company.


For the full Press Release refer to the CAUTION: website.
Roaring Fork Beer Company Opening Spring 2014
- November 13, 2013 -
The lush, wooded, Roaring Fork Valley will soon be home to another brewery. In early 2014, Chase Engel, the former head brewer at Aspen Brewing Company, will open Roaring Fork Beer Company in Carbondale, CO. The brewery and taphouse will specialize in seasonal brews, specialties, and one-off batches - along with one or two flagships.

From the Press Release -

The Roaring Fork Beer Company is proud to announce the opening of its production brewery and tasting room, located less than one mile southeast of downtown Carbondale at 1831 Dolores Way, near Carbondale’s Park and Ride and Fold Community Kitchen. “Carbondale just felt like the perfect place to open this brewery. There’s sort of a vibrancy and funkiness to this town that really charges me up creatively and gets reflected in the type of unique beers that I like to brew. People here support and are excited about the local business scene, they are adventurous and outgoing, and it helps that they like to drink good beer.”

The new “brewer driven brewery” is the manifestation of head brewer and owner Chase Engel’s long time dream to open his own brewery and brew aggressive yet simple beers. “I decided to only focus on one or two flagship beers because I want to leave plenty of room for seasonal releases, specialty lines, and one-off batches. I’ve felt a bit creatively hampered in my previous brewing jobs because we HAD to have the same 5 or 6 beers out ALL the time. I have fun making new recipes, teaching people about different beer styles, and expanding their beer palette. I don’t like drinking the same beers all the time and I figure you probably don’t either. We want to brew outside of the box and without any sort of self-imposed limitations.”

The 3,000 square foot brewing facility will feature a 15 BBL Brewing System, hand crafted in Colorado by Bennet Forgeworks, and will start with a 2,000 BBL Annual Fermentation Capacity. RFBC will also include a 900 square foot tasting room next door at 1941 Dolores Way. The tasting room will include a front bar and seating area, as well as a barrel room in back to feature music and special events on certain nights.


For more info, check out their Facebook page.
Denver Beer Co. Set to Expand
- October 23, 2013 -
From the Press Release

Denver Beer Co. today announced a plans to open a production brewing facility in addition to the current Denver Beer Co. brewery located in downtown Denver at 1695 Platte Street. The Denver Beer Co. production facility will be located at 4455 Jason Street in Denver and will focus primarily on canning and bottling beer for distribution. Denver Beer Co. is under contract to own the 48,000 square foot warehouse which sits on three acres of land. The production facility will begin by occupying one quarter, or 11,000 square feet, of the building and the existing tenants will continue to occupy the remaining portion.

The new Denver Beer Co production facility will house a new thirty barrel brew house and four sixty barrel fermenters created by DME (Diversified Metal Engineering) out of Prince Edward Island, Canada. Further, the warehouse space will feature a canning line from Wild Goose Canning of Boulder, Colo. The new system will have an initial brewing capacity of 5,000 barrels per year, with room for future expansion in the remaining 37,000 square feet of the Jason Street property. The brew house is scheduled to arrive in April after the Craft Brewers Conference and brewing will commence immediately.

The Denver Beer Co production brew house will use existing Denver Beer Co. recipes and will continue the brewery’s tradition of brewing a variety of beers throughout the changing seasons. Offerings will include six-pack cans, seasonal mixed packs, and 22 oz. bombers of specialty batches. Unleaded Group, a local Denver design firm, will create the packaging and label designs.

“Our 6-pack cans will feature many of the existing Denver Beer Co. favorites such as Graham Cracker Porter, Kaffir Lime Wheat, and Hey! Pumpkin,” stated Charlie Berger, Co-founder of Denver Beer Co. “The 22 oz. bombers will give us the opportunity to showcase special seasonal favorites and limited releases.”

The canned and bottled offerings from Denver Beer Co. will be available in Denver area liquor stores starting in early summer, 2014. Distribution will begin with Denver metro locations and will expand to stores throughout the Front Range and mountain towns. Denver Beer Co. is currently interviewing distributors to support wholesale circulation.

“Ever since we opened our doors in August, 2011, Denver Beer Co. fans have been asking for cans and bottles,” stated Co-founder Patrick Crawford. “We are excited to start canning beers for all those hikers, bikers, rafters, skiers, Denverites, and beer lovers who like to drink good beer while they are out on adventures or enjoying a good meal.”

The new production facility will begin brewing in late April and Denver Beer Co anticipates the canning line to be running at full speed by May, 2014. The new facility will also house a tasting room and will be open for tours starting in early June, 2014.
Kannah Creek Expands Their Range
- August 21, 2013 -
Kannah Creek Brewing Company has contracted with Republic National Distributing Company (RNDC) to distribute their beer throughout the state of Colorado. Their two flagship beers,Lands End Amber, and Standing Wave Pale Ale, will now be available outside of their home base of Grand Junction.

Kannah Creek Brewing Company opened in October 2005, and with the growing demand for their craft beer opened a second brewery and bottling facility, Edgewater Brewery, in South downtown Grand Junction this past May. The new facility houses a 30 barrel brewhouse, four 60 barrel fermentation tanks, and one of only three bottling lines of its kind in the entire United States.
So Many Breweries...
- May 30, 2013 -
I admit, it can be a tough job to be a craft beer enthusiast in Colorado. Most of us only have a limited amount of time to pursue one of our favorite pastimes, visiting new breweries around the state. It's a daunting task to track all the new places popping up.

Well, we're here to help. Last weekend, new brewery openings included Mountain Toad Brewing in Golden, and Odyssey Beerwerks in Arvada. Mountain Toad is a small craft brewery started by four locals, engineers from the Colorado School of Mines, who chose to leave their jobs in pursuit of brewing. Odyssey Beerwerks was started by two long-time homebrewing friends who decided to take it live to the people.

This weekend, if you are in the Denver area, there is the opening of Beer By Design Brewery in Northglenn, the first craft brewery in this community. They open June 1st, a production craft brewery with a taproom housing 30 taps, supplied by a twenty-barrel brewing system, with four forty-barrel fermenters. If you happen to be in or near the southern San Juans, there is a new place to check out in Pagosa Springs. Riff Raff Brewing opened its doors this week in an old victorian building in the downtown district. Riff Raff Brewing becomes the 2nd brewery in Pagosa Springs, joining the long-time locals favorite Pagosa Brewing Co..

Further to the NW, up in Montrose, Tom & Sandy Hennessey of Colorado Boy in Ridgeway, opened Colorado Boy Pizzeria in Montrose. Serving fresh artisan pizzas made in minutes, along with craft beer supplied by Colorado Boy and the two Montrose craft breweries, Horsefly Brewing Co. and Two Rascals Brewing Co., this is sure to become a favorite locals hangout.

And Colorado Springs' Bristol Brewing Co. finally opened their new taproom in their new digs, a stones throw from the old brewery in the newly renovated Ivywild School on South Cascade.

Lots of choices, craft beer drinkers. Get out there and do your part. All of these new breweries mean that we need to drink more beer!
Paradox Beer Co. Opens In Woodland Park
- March 21, 2013 -
The Brewers at Paradox Beer Co. are doing things a little bit differently. Portability, flexibility, and no two batches of beer being quite the same is their mantra. Brewers Brian Horton and Jeff Aragon, are excited about this new venture.

Barrel aged, bottle conditioned beers are their forte, and according to Jeff, they couldn't be happier about it. “We've been wanting to do this for a long time”, said Jeff recently. “These are the kind of beers that we like to brew, and the beers that we love to drink”.

One thing that sets Paradox Beer Co. apart is that they aren't starting out with their own Brewhouse. Chris Wright of Pike Peak Brewing is helping out on that end. “Chris has a 10 barrel system at Pikes Peak that he brews on a few times a week. When it's idle, we can load up our tanks on our truck, head to Pikes Peak Brewing and brew our wort there. We transfer it by hose to our tanks, bring it back to our location, where fermentation, conditioning, bottling all takes place.”

These portable tanks are another example of thinking things through differently at Paradox Beer. Their fermentation tanks are large and square, traditionally used in Belgium to brew Belgian beers. Often used as an open top tank, they allow for more ester development during fermentation, an important element in Belgian beers. They are also flat-bottomed, and can be loaded by forklift onto their truck.

Each beer that Paradox brews is called a “project”, and is separated into different tanks and fermented differently. “For instance for our IPA recipe, the wort was brewed at Pikes Peak Brewing. We brought it back here, and in one tank we might add some Belgian yeast, in another tank a different treatment, and so on. One gets different hops, some goes right into the barrels. There will be several different beers under that IPA “project”, so we end up with a series of different IPA's. All the beer will be barrel aged, and bottle conditioned. Some will be pulled aside for firkins.”

Paradox now has more than 100 oak barrels to age their beer in. Some held Syrah wine, Bordeaux, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Chardonnay. Some held whiskey and rum. All of those original wines and liquors leave their essence in the barrel, and impart something special to the beer that comes next. Barrel aging is an exciting new wave in craft beer production, and Paradox has come up with some amazing, delicious beers. No two are the same. Or as Paradox describes it, “In our case, we took Wayward Beers, unruly at best, and Bound them in the confines of Experienced Oak in the hopes that the sum would be greater than the parts...A lofty goal!

You can check out the results yourself! Paradox Beer Company opens tonight, March 21st, in Woodland Park at 4pm.
Riff Raff Brewing In Pagosa Springs
- March 20, 2013 -
In honor of Colorado Craft Beer Week, and just because we want you to know, we will keep profiling the new Colorado breweries that are preparing to open their doors. There are so many. It's an exciting time for craft beer in Colorado!

Pagosa Springs will soon have a new place to sip on a Colorado craft beer. Riff Raff Brewing Company, a new brewpub located in historic downtown Pagosa Springs at 274 Pagosa St., hopes to be open by the end of May. Two couples are the force behind this new venture, Eleanor and Randy Schnose, and Shelly and Jason Cox. They are all homebrewers, and both Randy and Jason have been assistant brewers at Pagosa Brewing Company, working for Tony Simmons there. Pagosa Brewing has been the craft beer choice in Pagosa Springs for many years. At Riff Raff, Eleanor will be the brewmaster, and Shelly is the General Manager. Another woman brewmaster in Colorado. Cool!

Riff Raff Brewing has been in the planning stages for a long time. The site for the brewery is an old victorian-style building built in 1896, that has previously housed other restaurants. Jason says that they are planning an eclectic menu. “Not just a great burger, but a lamb and a goat burger. We’ll also have lots of vegetarian items, tempeh, and the like.” They'll be open 7 days a week, 11am to 10pm, serving lunch and dinner, along with their creative brews. So far on the list is an American Kolsch, a Porter, an American Red Ale, and an English Pale Ale.

So a brewpub it is. The 3bbl system, with some 7bbl fermenters, is being built in Oregon. As Jason said “With all the breweries planning to open in the near future, the market for used equipment is tight. It wasn't that much of a stretch to purchase new equipment rather than used, and it will enable us to have a really automated system. We will be able to dial in our temperatures, for example, to a half a degree.”

The target date for opening is May 24th, if the everything goes as planned. Let's hope so, because Riff Raff Brewing sounds like another great place to dine and quaff a quality craft Colorado beer! We'll keep you posted.
Ute Pass Brewing To Open In Woodland Park
- March 06, 2013 -
As US Highway 24 heads west out of Colorado Springs, it curves and climbs around Pikes Peak through small mountain towns on it's way to the Continental Divide and the Rocky Mountains.

Driving on this winding route, up on the backside of Pikes Peak, you will find yourself in the small town of Woodland Park, where there will soon be, not one, not two, but three breweries.

First there was BierWerks a german style brewery, then last year Paradox Beer Company, which produces barrel-aged, bottle conditioned beers. And by the end of the month they will be joined by Ute Pass Brewing Co, opening in the recently vacated location of Maximillian's Cafe at 209 E. Midland Ave., just across the road from BierWerks.

Owners Scott Jones and Todd DeRemus have been planning for this for quite a while. Graduates of Tom Hennessey’s Brewery Immersion Course at Colorado Boy Pub and Brewery, both are looking forward to being a part of the Colorado craft brewing community.

Ute Pass Brewing will operate as a brewpub, offering a simple menu, hot sandwiches, paninis, appetizers, and will start out serving guest beers until they have their brewing system up and running.
Their boil kettle and mash tun came from Ouray Brewing Co.s’ old 7 bbl system, and they also procured a tank from Horsefly Brewing in Montrose. Said Scott "The amount of help and cooperation we have received already is amazing. We took Tom Hennessey's course at Colorado Boy and can call him any time with a question. Nigel at Horsefly provided us with a wealth of information, not to mention Brian and Jeff just down the street at Paradox. It's been great". When asked about the proximity of Paradox down the road and BierWerks just across the street, Scott's reply was simple. "Our goal is to help make Woodland Park a destination for great craft beer. The more the merrier". And the merrier you will be, too, when you visit Woodland Park with more choices than ever to quench your craft beer thirst. Look for their opening about the 3rd week in March.
Renegade "Redacts" Ryeteous IPA
- February 21, 2013 -
Renegade Brewing Company's flagship, award-winning rye IPA, up until today named Ryeteous, is the latest example of a brewery receiving a Cease and Desist order from another brewery that has a beer by the same name. An attorney representing Sixpoint Brewery out of Brooklyn, New York sent the Cease and Desist Order to Renegade Brewing because Sixpoint produces a beer called Righteous and the company felt that although they don't distribute in Colorado, or anywhere near Colorado, that they should stake their claim on the name Righteous and all sound-alike versions of the name.

A collaboration brew named Righteous Ryeteous was suggested by Renegade Brewing's founder and president, Brian O'Connell. He felt that this would be an example of brotherhood in the industry and follow the example set by Avery Brewing and Russian River Brewing, when both breweries brewed a beer called Salvation. Rather than sue each other over the name, they collaborated an a beer called Collaboration Not Litigation. Sixpoint made it clear that they were not open to such an idea.

From Brian O'Connell: We at Renegade are saddened to see the rising number of disputes in the brewing industry. Renegade is proud to be a member of an industry that has a strong collaborative component and we will do our part when possible to preserve it.

Of course a company has a right to protect its trademarks, but we believe that a cease and desist letter should only be used in the case of honest trademark infringement that causes legitimate confusion for the consumer in the market place. When Renegade set out to change the name of Ryeteous, we wanted to make a statement about our perspective on cease and desist letters. Renegade stands for doing things differently, plain and simple, and the craft brewing industry does things differently. When Avery Brewing and Russian River discovered that they both had a beer named Salvation, rather than sue each other for the naming rights, they decided to blend their beers into a new beer called Collaboration Not Litigation. That is the industry that Renegade joined and that is the industry we wish to preserve. Can you imagine Chevy and Ford reaching an agreement like that? Or Anheuser Busch and Coors? No, it wouldn't happen between any other companies other than craft beer companies.

Therefore, the new name we chose for our beer is Redacted. It represents that there was something there before that no longer is, that our original name was silenced by a legal move. Although the name will change, the beer inside the cans will not. No recipe changes will take place. We look forward to continuing to bring our popular Rye IPA to the people of Colorado and to working in the greatest industry in existence.

Redacted is expected to start hitting shelves in April 2013. Until then the beer will continue to be distributed under the current Ryeteous label.
Echo Brewing Hosts Barley Belles Tonight
- January 16, 2013 -
Tonight Echo Brewing Co. will host the Barley Belles, a women's beer tasting group, at 7pm, Wed., Jan 16th. Whitney from City Star Brewing will be bringing their Raspberry Bandit brown ale. There will be three beer and food pairings and a discussion about the use of malt in the brewing process. Of course the Tap Room is still open to the public tonight for those not attending the Barley Belles session.
Cost is $10 at the door.


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Drinker's Guide to Colorado