Twisted Pine Brewing Facebook page

Cucumber beers appear to be in style this spring, as at least five breweries around Colorado have mentioned the shiny green vegetable when talking about new beers. The only bottled one so far, however, is from Boulder's Twisted Pine Brewing, which released Cucumber Cream Ale last week. The second offering from its "Farm to Foam" series, the beer was made with more than 300 pounds of fresh English cucumbers from 2 R's Farms in Platteville, along with malted barley and wheat from Colorado Malting Company in Alamosa, and Crystal hops from Misty Mountain Hop Farm in Olathe.

For this week's craft beer events, turn the page.

More »

Mountain Toad Facebook page

Mountain Toad's patio.

Mountain Toad Brewing will hold a grand opening in Golden on Saturday, adding a third craft brewery to a town that has been synonymous with Coors for decades.

Located downtown, at 900 Washington Avenue, the brewery and taproom features a large outdoor biergarten with seven picnic tables and room for food trucks, along with a lineup of traditionally-styled beers named for some of Golden's landmarks.

See also:
- Cannonball Creek opens in Golden, kicking off a craft brew revolution in Coors country
- Golden City's Sarah Henderson may be the only female head brewer in Colorado
- A dozen new breweries on tap for the Denver Metro area by spring 2013

More »

A scene from the new ad campaign.

New Belgium Brewing is running its first TV ad campaign in eight years, buying airtime in twelve markets across the country in order to help beer drinkers associate the name Fat Tire with the brewery itself, which wants to push the rest of its lineup.

But the commercial, a thirty-second spot created by Denver's Cultivator Advertising, won't be seen in Colorado -- where New Belgium is based.

See also:
- Breckenridge Brewing spoofs megabrewers in new TV ads...again
- New Belgium will build a second brewery in Asheville, North Carolina by 2015
- Novo Coffee teams up with New Belgium for a Colorado nod to coffee cherries

More »

Caution Brewing Facebook page

After just two years in business on Denver's northeast side, Caution Brewing announced Saturday that it will open a second brewery in Lakewood, at 1057 South Wadsworth Boulevard; Cautions' existing brewery will stay open as well.

The new location will have a smaller brewhouse -- three barrels as opposed to five at the existing brewery -- but a larger taproom. It will also be situated in a high-traffic shopping center on Wadsworth, rather than an industrial business park.

See also:
- Caution Brewing signs lease on a second brewery and taphouse
- Caution Brewing Company will add a tap room this summer
- Danny Wang wants to pair beer with Asian cuisine

More »

Crooked Stave

Crooked Stave Artisan Beer Project will celebrate Roy G. Biv on Sunday with a bottle sale, a party and a couple of rare beer tappings at the Barrel Cellar.

Roy G. Biv isn't a person, though (if it was, he'd be very sour). Rather, it's an acronym for the seven beers that Crooked Stave has brewed over the past two years as part of its color-themed Wild Wild Brett series. The final beer, Violet, will be released on Sunday.

See also:
- Crooked Stave extends tap room hours, releases newest beer, Origins
- Crooked Stave will triple in size in 2013, sell sour beers out of state
- Crooked Stave adds funk to Denver's beer culture with a barrel cellar and brewery

More »

The crew behind Strange Brewing are in their war room today, preparing to launch an all-out offensive on Denver tomorrow -- but their weapons of choice are bombers rather than bombs, even if the beer they've made is named Dr. Strangelove, like the movie.

Strange will release 1,000 bottles of Dr. Strangelove, a 11.5 percent ABV barleywine-style ale that won a bronze medal last year at the Great American Beer Festival, in its taproom on Friday. It is the first beer that Strange has packaged in bottles.

See also:
- Strange Brewing will bottle its GABF medal-winning Dr. Strangelove Barleywine
- Strange Brewing takes action against homebrew shop that threatened lawsuit
- Strange Brewing takes action against homebrew shop that threatened lawsuit

More »

Cultivate won't be so chilly this year since the date has been moved to August. (Visit our Cultivate slide show).

Local breweries have been teaming up for years with Colorado restaurants on custom-made beers, but other kinds of businesses and organizations have been raising a pint to the collaborative spirit as well, from Denver Comic Con, which joined forces with Breckenridge Brewery, to Oskar Blues, which worked with Icelantic Skis, to the Fort Collins Coloradoan, which celebrated its 140th anniversary with an Odell beer.

That trend continued on Wednesday as Great Divide Brewing and Colorado-based Chipotle announced that the brewery would make a special Farmhouse-style saison for the the fast-casual chain's second annual Cultivate Festival, which will take place in Denver this August. And the Wynkoop Brewing Company also revealed that it will once again brew three custom beers for Elitch Gardens Theme & Water Park.

See also:
- Steve Ells first brought Chipotle to Denver, now the Cultivate Festival
- Elitch Gardens wants to thrill patrons with two specialty Wynkoop beers
- Breckenridge Brewery and Denver Comic Con will team up on a superpowered beer

More »

American Craft Beer Week

Here's to American Craft Beer Week (which began Monday), the annual salute to small independent brewers that the Boulder-based Brewers Association (with help from Congress!) created seven years ago to increase awareness of craft beer. Of course, in Colorado, as some people say, every week is craft beer week, but that hasn't stopped dozens and dozens of breweries, restaurants and bars from hosting tap takeovers, beer dinners, special tappings and others events feting our favorite sudsy beverage.

For many of these events, along with other beery happenings on the next page.

More »

Factotum Brewhouse Facebook page

Laura and Chris Bruns

Denver's craft-beer scene has exploded over the past three years as the number of breweries tripled inside city limits, but most of those brewery owners started off as home brewers, roasting grains in their ovens and tweaking recipes in their garages.

Chris and Laura Bruns, a sister-and-brother team, want to pay their respects to those home brewers by opening a new brewery in the Sunnyside neighborhood that uses their recipes and gives them a chance to make their beers on a much larger scale.

See also:
- A handful of breweries? CNN's beer-city list misses the mark on Denver
- Diebolt Brewing will join Denver's Sunnyside neighborhood this year
- Stomp Them Grapes is moving north

More »

Odyssey Beerwerks Facebook page

Arvada will get a new brewery later this month when Odyssey Beerwerks opens up at 5535 West 56th Avenue, Suite 107, just north of the Denver border.

The 1,700-square-foot taproom, which will include a fifteen-barrel brewing system and room for at least eighty people, was founded by friends Chris Hill, who is originally from Fort Collins, and Josh Van Riper, who grew up on the Western Slope.

See also:
- Photos: Utah's Epic Brewing is preparing new Denver facility, three Colorado beers
- Colorado Plus opens Monday with 56 local beers on tap -- and a brewery next month
- Arvada Beer Company expands, will begin canning soon

More »