Category Archives: Fun Stuff

AC Golden Brewing Company Introduces Olathe Lager

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The makers of Colorado Native Lager are at it again. Their latest creation is called Olathe Lager, and is a great example of a craft beer brewed with Colorado ingredients. Just in time for the Colorado harvest, AC Golden Brewing Company introduces a first-of-its-kind beer, Olathe lager, a German-style lager brewed with Olathe hops, corn and barley.Olathe Lager

“The corn, barley and hops were all grown within one mile of each other in Olathe,” said Glenn Knippenberg, president of AC Golden Brewing Company. “We brewed this lager to celebrate the harvest season and all the men and women who work so hard in agriculture in the state.”

The beer’s ingredients include Charles two-row winter barley malt, world-renowned Olathe sweet corn, and Crystal and Nugget hops from Misty Mountain Hops Farm. The result is a German-style lager with a very balanced taste. “We want folks to know that when they enjoy this beer, they are celebrating and helping to support the hop farmers and barley growers of Colorado,” said Knippenberg.

The beer’s label resembles burlap and prominently features the name. The label reads: “Whether its fruits, vegetables, grains or hops, the fertile ground from Fruita to Palisade, and down to Montrose and from Paonia to Delta produces world class agriculture. “Home grown” is important to us.  We’re the brewers that brew Colorado Native Lager from ingredients grown only in Colorado. To celebrate the harvest season, and the area’s rich agriculture heritage, we brewed this golden lager as a tip of the hat to those who work the ground to feed us all.”

Olathe beer is available in draft and in 750 ml bottles (25.4 fluid ounces). Only 1,440 bottles were produced. It’s available in Cedaredge, Delta, Grand Junction, Hotchkiss, Montrose, Olathe, Palisade and Paonia while supplies last.

AC Golden Brewing Company, located in Golden, Colo., is a small brewery that handcrafts beers for discerning drinkers.  The company also brews Colorado Native, the only lager brewed with 100 percent Colorado ingredients, including barley grown in the San Luis Valley, hops grown 100 percent in Colorado, Rocky Mountain water and the oldest variety of brewing yeast in the state.

Denver Makes It Rain – Fundraiser for Colorado families affected by fires

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Denver Makes It Rain
 
Denver Makes It Rain is a fundraiser to raise money for the many families that were affected by the devastating wildfires this summer. The non profit organizations that will receive the donations are the Pikes Peak Community Foundation and the Black Forest Foundation. The Denver Makes It Rain Fundraiser will be held this Sunday, August 4th from 2-8 pm. Tickets are on sale now for $10 and day of show is $15. If you love Colorado craft beer, and want to help out families in need, this is a must attend event!  The event will be held at Prost Brewing, which is west of I-25 accross from Coors Field at 2540 19th St. Denver, CO 80211.
 
All ticket sales include one free beer ticket and one free raffle ticket. Once inside you can buy beer tickets: $4/1 beer ticket or $20/6 beer tickets. There will be 16 craft breweries from Colorado donating 3-4 kegs each. Including: Odell, Stone, Prost, Alaskan, Elevation, Lagunitas, Great Divide, Firestone Walker, Oskar Blues, Breckenridge, Rock Bottom, Left Hand, Boulder Beer, Boulevard, Crazymountain, Hall Brewing. Raffles include over $2,000 worth of restaurants, chiropractors, bars, museums, bowling alleys. $4/ raffle ticket. Food trucks, live art, family friendly and live music including Building a Desert, Lead by Design, Digg, G.R.V., and headlining Joey Porter’s Vital Organ!
 
Buy tickets online at www.cervantesmasterpiece.com or visit our website at www.facebook.com/DenverMakesItRain 
 
100% of ticket sales, beer sales and raffle sales and 20% of food and merchandise sales go to the non profits! 

Factotum Brewhouse: A homebrewer’s dream come true

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Factotum Brewhouse Logo

Factotum Brewhouse will be the first brewery to cater to homebrewers when it opens this fall in Denver, Colorado. Guest brewers will have the opportunity to brew their recipe on Factotum’s seven barrel system and the beer will then be served to thirsty taproom patrons. With help from headbrewer Christopher Bruns, homebrewers will learn the steps of commercial brewing from recipe creation to the brewing process to the taproom release of the beer. This concept was originally designed for serious homebrewers who wish to receive honest, unbiased feedback from the public but recreational brewers, new brewers, and small groups are also welcome to use Factotum’s services. Christopher will act as quality control and to ensure the tap lineup isn’t dominated by any one style: “If six people come in wanting to brew an IPA, they can either wait in line or decide to brew something else,” says Christopher. Six of Factotum’s eventual eight taps will pour homebrewer beers while the remaining two will pour beers made by Christopher.

Brother-and-sister team Christopher and Laura Bruns conceived of the Factotum model over dinner with their other two siblings and have since graduated from Denver’s Small Business Development Center’s business start-up class, as well as Tom Hennessy’s renowned Brewery Immersion Course at the Colorado Boy Pub & Brewery in Ridgway, Colorado. Christopher and Laura’s Midwestern, German-American upbringing has instilled in them a passion for beer and they’re mutual background in education compels them to make Factotum a school as much as it is a brewery; Factotum isn’t just a place to drink great beer but also a place to learn about beer. Located at 4735 Lipan Street in the Sunnyside neighborhood, Factotum is moving into an already established craft beer community with Stomp Them Grapes homebrew supply store two doors down, Crooked Stave Artisan Beer Project ½ mile away, and the upcoming Diebolt Brewing Company one mile away.

Christopher and Laura Bruns hope local beer lovers will use the close proximity to ride their bicycles and safely visit all these fine establishments. Factotum’s setting, like so many in the Denver area, is an industrial one and the taproom ambiance will complement that setting with a rustic, factory, wood-and-metal atmosphere. However, this location means Factotum is lacking somewhat in natural light. Please visit Factotum’s Kickstarter.com page so that Christopher and Laura may make improvements to the taproom including the purchase of a glass-paneled garage door to bring sunshine into the brewery.

Factotum Brewhouse
4735 Lipan Street
Denver, CO. 80211
303-303-3003
www.factotumbrewhouse.com 

(Factotum Brewhouse is still working on their website. To find them online, visit their facebook or twitter pages)

Facebook: www.facebook.com/FactotumBrewhouse

Twitter: www.twitter.com/FactotumBrew

 

Beer Mapping: The rise of Craft Beer

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The New Yorker recently ran a story about the rise of craft beer in the United States. There are currently 2,360 American craft breweries, and the number is steadily rising each year. The flavors, styles and unique characteristics of craft beer play a major part in the rise in craft beer. Another major reason for the popularity of craft beer is that Americans continue to gravitate towards locally grown and sourced food and beverages. Craft beer is a great example of this. There is something special about getting a freshly brewed beer from a tap, or from a bottle that was filled earlier that day. Chances are the beer was not only brewed locally, but included ingredients that were sourced locally as well.

Black & Tan from Brewery Rickoli in Wheat Ridge, CO

A few interesting facts:

  • Costco’s beer sales now make up 30% of all beer sales.
  • All but 2 states brewed more craft beer in 2012 than in 2011.
  • 27 of the top 50 craft breweries are located in California, New England, Oregon, or the Mid-Atlantic coast. Meaning most of the larger craft breweries are on either the East Cost or West Coast.
  • Colorado has 6 breweries that are listed in the top 50 craft breweries in the country.
  • Craft breweries are least dense in the South.

The story by The New Yorker includes a really cool map that can be sorted by many different criteria. You can sort the map to find out more about breweries in an individual state, how many breweries there are per 500,000 people, which breweries are growing the fastest, or many other other categories. Below are some facts that pertain to Colorado breweries, or to the craft beer industry in Colorado.

Colorado Beer Facts:

  • Two of the top 50 fastest growing craft breweries are Oskar Blues (#36) and Upslope Brewing Company (#41)
  • Breckenridge Brewery, Left Hand, New Belgium, Odell Brewing, Oskar Blues and rank in the top 50 largest craft breweries.
  • In 2012 Colorado had 151 craft breweries, ranking #3 of all states.
  • Total Colorado craft beer production was 1,291,711 barrels, ranking #3 of all states.
  • Total Colorado craft beer production went up 8.98%, ranking #41 of all states.
  • Colorado has 15 craft breweries for every 500,000 people, ranking #5 of all states.

Check out some of the great information available from the beer map on newyorker.com.
For even more information about the craft beer industry, check out the Brewer’s Association’s website

‘Beer Geeks’ TV Show to film breweries in Colorado

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Beer Geeks TV Logo

Beer Geeks is a nationally syndicated television show that will air a 22 episode season, starting in September 2013. The creators of the show partnered with the creators and producers of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives and host Michael Ferguson, Director of Brewing Operations for BJ’s restaurants. Beer Geeks will bring viewers inside breweries from all around the country.

There are a handful of Colorado breweries that will be featured on Beer Geeks. The Beer Geek crew is in Colorado profiling craft brewers in Denver, Boulder and Fort Collins for shows that will air this year. They will be profiling Avery Brewing Company, Denver Beer Company, Great Divide Brewing Company, New Belgium Brewing Company and Odell Brewing Company.

“Colorado is one of the nirvana areas for Geek Beerdom,” Ferguson said. “You can’t stumble and not run into a brewery here.”

In each weekly episode host Michael Ferguson, a pioneer and veteran of the craft beer world, (Director of brewing operations and beer training for BJ’s restaurants) will bring viewers along on a voyeuristic, inclusive and immersive road trip into the heart of the craft beer universe. Each episode will feature the inside story of the making some of the world’s most unique, interesting, even outrageous and bizarre brews.

“We’ll see what they’re doing, what ingredients and techniques they’re using, and then we’ll take their brews from tap to table, cooking with beer, and pairing meals with beer. But wait, this series doesn’t live just in the brewery. We’ll find ourselves at hop farms, berry brambles, pumpkin patches, caves, maple syrup sugaring houses, archaeological sites, monasteries and much more – a smorgasbord of locations that all lead back to the craft beers we’re making.” – BeerGeeks.TV

The premise of Beer Geeks sounds like a solid idea and the show should develop a good following among real-life beer geeks. It will be fun for beer enthusiasts around the country to find out about great beers from Colorado. It is a little suprising that only five Colorado breweries will be featured (there are well over 100 in the state). I guess that opens up the door for other great breweries to be featured in later seasons.