14er Brewing Announces Closure of its Denver Taproom and Brewery

Craft beer’s course correction has continued to take a difficult turn for an industry that was booming just four-five years earlier. And what was once the country’s hottest brewery neighborhood, … Read More

2024 Election Night Drinking Game

Oh dear God it’s almost over! After what has felt like an eternity we’ve almost reached the conclusion of this maddening hellscape otherwise known as the 2024 Presidential Election cycle. On the bright side, within less than 24 hours we’ll finally have respite from the barrage of political ads, outlandish celebrity endorsements, and texts from our “friend” Kamala. And while we’ll have to deal with a few more days of anxiety as the results are tallied we thought we’d help make Election Day itself a little more entertaining with a 2024 Election Night Drinking Game.

Read More

Firestone Walker’s 805 Brand Launches 8ZERO5 as its First N/A Beer

The inability to embrace change typically results in extinction, and the craft beverage community’s recent embrace of nonalcoholic options signals the industry’s maturation and ability to evolve amid rapidly changing taste preferences.

Among those diving head first into the N/A movement is Firestone Walker Brewing Company’s 805 brand, which recently launched 8ZERO5, the brand’s first nonalcoholic Blonde Ale. As one of the industry’s most dominant lifestyle beer brands, it felt only natural to embrace recent shifts toward low- and nonalcoholic options. 

Read More

American Craft Beer Hall of Fame Announces Inaugural Class of Nominees

Ruth, DiMaggio, Aaron, Jordan, Jabbar, Johnson, Bird, Rice, Brown, Payton… these names have all been enshrined in history not just among their respective sports, but in the public zeitgeist, and soon names like Papazian, Maytag, Grossman, Jordan, and Calagione may join them.

Earlier this year long-time beer writer, beer judge, and beer educator, Marty Nachel sought to recognize and memorialize the people who made the American craft beer industry what it is today by launching the American Craft Beer Hall of Fame.

Read More

2024 GABF Awards Results | Full Breakdown of GABF Winners

The 2024 Great American Beer Festival stormed back in a big way from an attendee standpoint, as we noted earlier in our day one recap, in large part due to its experiential tweaks for festival-goers and the competition yielded impressive results as well.

Read More

Colorado Breweries Who Won Big at the 2024 GABF Competition

Colorado breweries boasted another impressive showing at the 2024 Great American Beer Festival. This year, Colorado breweries took home 38 medals with 34 different brewery locations celebrating awards, nearly matching the impressive outing of 40 medals coming from the Centennial State. An additional three medals were awarded to a pair of Colorado cideries, in Haykin Family Cider (Aurora, CO) and Snow Capped Cider (Austin, CO), the first time cideries were awarded medals at the competition with support from the American Cider Association.

Read More

2024 Great American Beer Fest Night One Recap | Standouts & Hidden Gems

What a difference a year can make.

By 9 p.m. of last year’s Thursday night opening session, I had navigated most of the festival floor and left feeling underwhelmed, confused, and a bit dejected. After covering the biggest and best beer festival in the country for 11 years, the 2023 Great American Beer Festival, to put it politely, felt a bit stale.

Read More

2024 GABF Guided Routes | Fruit-Forward, N/A Beers & Ciders to Try at GABF

The Great American Beer Festival is finally back! With the insane multitude of beers being served on the festival floor, it can sometimes feel a bit overwhelming. So PorchDrinking is once again here to help you navigate that lineup and help with planning your route at the fest. As part of that research, we’ve sifted through every beer pouring at this year’s fest to curate a series of themed routes to help you plan for your GABF based on various styles and flavors.
Read More

2024 GABF Guided Routes | Best Barrel-Aged & High ABV Beers to Try at GABF

The Great American Beer Festival is finally back! With the insane multitude of beers being served on the festival floor, it can sometimes feel a bit overwhelming. So PorchDrinking is once again here to help you navigate that lineup and help with planning your route at the fest. As part of that research, we’ve sifted through every beer pouring at this year’s fest to curate a series of themed routes to help you plan for your GABF based on various styles and flavors.

Earlier this week we featured the best Non-Alcoholic beers at the fest, and this morning we featured lower ABV Lagers, but now we turn up the octane to Barrel-Aged & high ABV beers. This year’s most prolific barrel-aged producers at the festival include 3 Floyds, Firestone Walker, Fremont, Maplewood, More Brewing, Modern Times, Pure Project, Revolution, River North Brewery, and WeldWerks to name a few.
Read More

2024 GABF Guided Routes | Spontaneous / Wild / Sour Beers to Try at GABF

The Great American Beer Festival is finally back! With the insane multitude of beers being served on the festival floor, it can sometimes feel a bit overwhelming. So PorchDrinking is once again here to help you navigate that lineup and help with planning your route at the fest. As part of that research, we’ve sifted through every beer pouring at this year’s fest to curate a series of themed routes to help you plan for your GABF based on various styles and flavors.

Read More

2024 GABF Guided Routes | Hoppy Beers to Try at GABF

The Great American Beer Festival is finally back! With the insane multitude of beers being served on the festival floor, it can sometimes feel a bit overwhelming. So PorchDrinking is once again here to help you navigate that lineup and help with planning your route at the fest. As part of that research, we’ve sifted through every beer pouring at this year’s fest to curate a series of themed routes to help you plan for your GABF based on various styles and flavors.

Read More

BREAKING | 2025 WeldWerks Invitational Festival Returns in February

After taking a two-year hiatus, the WeldWerks Invitational, one of the country’s premiere showcases of rare and specialty beers is primed to return on February 8, 2025. Next year’s festival … Read More

2024 GABF Guided Routes | Best Lagers to Try at GABF

The Great American Beer Festival is finally back! With the insane multitude of beers being served on the festival floor, it can sometimes feel a bit overwhelming. So PorchDrinking is once again here to help you navigate that lineup and help with planning your route at the fest. As part of that research, we’ve sifted through every beer pouring at this year’s fest to curate a series of themed routes to help you plan for your GABF based on various styles and flavors.

Read More

2024 Denver Rare Beer Tasting Pour List Still Brings the Heat

GABF week is finally upon us, and with it returns one of the industry’s best festivals focused on showcasing rare and specialty beers. While the Great American Beer Festival itself does a great job of bringing together the largest collection of beers from around the country into one three-day event, Rare Beer has historically showcased quality and this year is no different.

And while this year’s event does include some slight updates including a move to Thursday, October 10 from 12 p.m. – 4 p.m. instead of its usual Friday slot, and a new location in Bierstadt Lagerhaus, both changes bode for the better.

Read More

The Complete PorchDrinking 2024 GABF Week Events Guide

Start prepping your livers accordingly because the Great American Beer Festival (GABF), the largest beer festival in the country, is set to return October 10-12, 2024. And while the festival itself serves as the ultimate showcase of craft beer across three jam-packed sessions, what happens outside of the Convention Center has evolved into a spectacle in and of itself. Throughout the years a multitude of external beer events have popped up at breweries, beer bars, restaurants and more offering beer fans a unique opportunity to explore rare and exciting new beers from breweries not typically available in the state of Colorado but also serve to showcase some of the best that the state of Colorado can offer.
Read More

2024 GABF Out-of-State Beer Drops Available in Denver

When the Great American Beer Festival returns to Denver each year, beer fans benefit not just from the festival itself, but also from the myriad of tap takeovers, mini-festivals, beer dinners, and also specialty beer drops from out-of-state breweries.

Read More

2024 Presidential Debate Drinking Game

The 2024 election cycle has already been one for the record books. From President Biden’s decision to exit the race, to Donald Trump’s assassination attempt, Kamala Harris entering the race, JD Vance’s announcement as Trump’s running mate, followed by unsubstantiated claims of Vance having sex with couches, and finally Tim Walz’s announcement as Harris’ running mate, it’s been absolute DRAMA and it’s only September.

With election season heating up we felt it was only appropriate for us to bring back our quarterly 2024 Presidential Debate Drinking Game to help add a little levity in the midst of all of the divisiveness and political strife.

Read More

The PorchCast Ep. 112 | Eric Wallace – Left Hand Brewing

In episode 112 of The PorchCast, Tristan was joined by Eric Wallace, founder and president of Colorado’s Left Hand Brewing to talk about their recently launched WeFunder campaign, which aims to give beer fans an opportunity to own a share of the pioneer brewery.

Read More

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

2024 Bourbon & Beyond Festival Pairs Elite Musical Lineup with World-Class Distilleries

Over the past decade, we’ve had the opportunity to attend some of the country’s best music, culinary, and craft beverage festivals. However, while most festivals specialize in one discipline over another, it’s rare to find an event that checks multiple boxes, and even rarer for one to check all three. But as massive festivals continue to evolve to remain relevant toward festival-goers who have seen and tasted it all, offering an elevated experience for everyone is a surefire way to make some noise.

Read More

Former Uhl’s Brewing Owner Revives Denver’s Renegade Brewing

Aaron Uhl is no stranger to taking the road less traveled. The former founder of Boulder’s now-shuttered Uhl’s Brewing took an unconventional path toward realizing his dream of owning his own brewery. And while Uhl’s ultimately shuttered its doors almost exactly a year ago, Uhl himself has announced his return to the Colorado brewing scene by teaming up with new business partner, Dan Colbourne, to revive the Renegade Brewing brand, which announced its own closure just three months prior. And while it’ll be a few months before the revamped Renegade re-opens, they’ll be making a splash by pouring some special beers at this weekend’s Wibby’s Hooplagers Festival on Saturday, July 19.

Read More