Saying NO to Lighter Beers???
- November 29, 2010 -
Just when you thought it was okay to order up a light beer in a bar (go ahead, we won't tell), the Beer Wars between convenience stores, liquor stores, grocers and bar owners comes along and serves up another strange twist.
As Jessica Fender reports here in the Denver Post, Colorado liquor enforcement is due to bring the hammer down on bar owners who serve up beer that does not measure up to at least 4% ABV, beginning in 2011. She reports that first to be targeted will be beer producers, who must ensure that all beer they sell to liquor stores and bars must remain above 4% ABV.
Let's see - you can drink all the Utopia you can get your hands around, but Guinness? It might be unavailable at you favorite watering hole.
And should you choose to drink lighter-alcohol beers in a bar - for a variety of great reasons - you will be denied the choice. How 'bout a FourLoko instead, or maybe a blast of 30-proof whipped cream in a can...?
Crazy, huh? This is basically another tactic on the part of the convenience story lobbyists to make life more "convenient" for themselves. here in the Denver Post, and thinks this story is as wild as we do: As is often the case, following the money does lead us to the answer. It's about business, of course. I love this quote from Jason Hopfer, a C-store lobbyist. "Either stop selling the product we sell, or let's stop having this false delineation on beer. Let's let beer be beer."
We'll dig further into this for a future report, but we guess that nothing is for sure and certain about this yet. The legislature begins anew on January 12.
DRAFT Mag's Best Beer Bars
- October 28, 2010 -
Lists about beer and food are often deceiving. They can masquerade as thinly veiled advertising ("The Ten Best Restaurants That Advertise In Our Newspaper"), be factually suspect ("Readers Vote Camembert as Favorite Cheese"), or they can be an easy way to fill up space and exude airs of importance ("Ten Things To Know About Squid").
This one, though, is worthwhile. If you do any traveling at all, you'll want to scope out DRAFT Magazines' list of the 150 Best Beer Bars in the US. Only two in Colorado made the list: Falling Rock in Denver, and Lady Falconburgh's in Durango. We can think of dozens more - we put our own updated list on the 4th edition map.
But from Alaska to Florida, DC to SanFran, this list offers spot-on advice for finding the best selections and service your beer bucks will buy. Most of these beer bars have dozens of taps dispensing fantastic beers from around the world, and often serve hundreds more by bottle. They pour the best of local brews, and always have something new and delicious to try. Keep this list handy when you go venturing about the US, and you'll never go home thirsty.
Pikes Peak Brewing Finds Home in Monument
- October 15, 2010 -
Pikes Peak Brewing Company has signed a lease! Their new home will be 1756 Lake Woodmoor Rd, Monument, CO in the Woodmoor Village Shopping Center.
We will follow their progress, and as always, will keep you posted. Also check out their website for updates.
More... Colorado Breweries Opening???
- October 02, 2010 -
Yes friends, it just keeps getting better. We have more brewery openings to report, with soon-to-be's nipping at their heels. So here we go.
Black Shirt Brewing Co. After having Black Shirt Brewing on the map for the last 2 editions, we can finally say that they are open...almost. October 13th, the last day of GABF, brothers Branden and Chad Miller, and Chad's wife Carissa will be opening up the red door for real, and offering their incredible red ales to the public in the RiNo art district in Denver.
Paradox Beer Co. in Woodland Park has begun releasing their beer to the public. Brian Horton and Jeff Aragon, previously the brewers at BierWerks in Woodland Park and Trinidad Brewing before that, have a new project. "Fermentation Projects" is how they identify their different beers, brewed and then treated differently in fermentation, all aged in oak barrels and bottle conditioned. "Wayward beers, Barrel bound" is how they describe it. Watch for these beers in your favorite liquor store or watering hole.
West Flanders Brewing Co. has opened in the old BJ's Restaurant & Brewery location at 1125 Pearl St. in Boulder. The owners are restaurant veterans Mark and Chris Heinritz who have owned The Sink in Boulder since 1992, and were founders of the Redfish New Orleans Brewhouse. Mark and Chris are joined by longtime restaurateur Barry Wolfman as the operating partner, and award-winning brewmaster Brian Lutz, previous brewmaster at Left Hand Brewing Company, Redfish and Oskar Blues.
Wild Woods Brewery is a nano-brewery recently opened in Boulder. Their focus is on creating handcrafted beers inspired by the outdoors. The beers begin with recognizable styles and are brewed to highlight elements of the wilderness. Jake and Erin Evans are brewery owners, who have hiked and camped their whole lives, and have been perfecting their recipes on an all-grain professional brewing system in their basement. They are joined by Charlie and Kristen Rilling who are family and part owners of the business, share similar passions, and have helped bring this concept to life.
And the breweries not far behind?
Hall Brewing in Parker, Very Nice Brewing in Nederland, Copper Club Brewing in Fruita, Our Mutual Friend Malt & Brew in Denver, Rickoli's Brewery in Wheat Ridge, Verboten Brewing in Loveland, J. Wells Brewery in Boulder, and this isn't even all of them folks! Keep your ear to the ground.
Can-Do: 200-year Anniversary of the Can
- August 26, 2010 -
Yep, the ubiquitous food can has been with us for 200 years now, and the beverage can is celebrating its 75th year of supplying liquid refreshment as well. The Can Manufacturers Institute has put together a refreshing take at their newest website that's worth looking over. According to them, Americans use over 130 billion cans a year, and store everything from baby peas to blood plasma to toxic disinfectants safe and sound inside the modern-day can. Some notable events in Can History include:
1795 - Napoleon Bonaparte offers 12,000 francs for a method of preserving food for his army and navy.
1809 - Nicolas Appert, "Father of Canning," receives the 12,000 franc prize from the French government for preserving food by sterilization.
1810 - The can is born when Englishman Peter Durand receives a patent from King George III for a tin-plated iron can to be used as a food container.
1935 - On January 24, Kreuger Brewing becomes the first company to sell beer in cans. Krueger's Cream Ale is marketed in flat top steel cans in Richmond, Virginia.
1942-1946 - Beer cans are used primarily by military forces and are produced in a drab olive color so as not to reflect light.
1954 - The first 16 ounce beer can is sold.
1959 - On January 22, the first all-aluminum two-piece beverage can, a seven ounce Original Coors, is sold.
1968 - Reynolds pioneers consumer recycling of aluminum.
1969 - Canned Carnation Spreadables go to the moon on Apollo II. The St. Louis Globe-Democrat runs a story on beer can collector Denver Wright,
and other collectors in Missouri begin to meet and trade beer cans.
1970 - On April 15, Beer Can Collectors of America (BCCA) is founded in St. Louis.
1971 - In November, Coors fills its last steel can.
1984 - The last three-piece steel beer can is produced.
2002 - Oskar Blues becomes the first U.S. microbrewery to invest in a canning line.
2009 - Molson Coors introduces a cold activated can whose label color indicates when the beer is cold enough to drink. More than forty microbreweries and brew pubs distribute beer and lager in aluminum cans.
Learn everything you can website.
Fourth Estate Raises a Toast to BDG2C
- August 24, 2010 -
Since we've published our newest 4th Edition Beer Drinker's Guide to Colorado, we've been getting some nice write-ups by our brothers and sisters of the fourth estate. We really appreciate the good reviews and are honored that others think well of what we've been doing at BDG2C.
Check out some of these links to learn what others are saying about our map. Remember - they wouldn't print it if it wasn't true.
"Space Helps Coloradans Find Free Beer" (gotta love that headline!).
"Space Helps Coloradans Find Free Beer" in the Colorado Springs Gazette comes with a great photo of the BDG2C crew.
