Brewery Showcase | Wiley Roots Brewing Co.

For the past five years, Kyle and Miranda Carbaugh have been operating Wiley Roots Brewing Company on a quiet dead-end street in Greeley, Colorado. They’ve run their small space with a friendly and humble mindset, believing that if the beer is good, then the rest will fall into place. The Carbaughs have even come to affectionately refer to themselves and their brewery as “the weird kid in class”.
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Brewery Showcase | Carton Brewing Company

For nearly seven years, Carton Brewing Company has exemplified life in New Jersey and the team has kept its focus on local, for-the-moment beers. The brewery opened on August 11, 2011 in Atlantic Highlands and it became the state’s 13th brewery. Owned by Augie Carton (who was previously an underwear salesman, among other professions) and his cousin Chris, the brewery is located where the owners were born and raised.

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Brewery Showcase | Drake’s Brewing Co.

Drake’s Brewing Co. was founded back in 1989 by Roger Lind in what was half of an old Chrysler Dodge factory powerhouse in San Leandro, CA. Back then, the brewery was named after Lind, Lind Brewing Company, and he brewed English-style ales. Lind built the original gravity-fed brewing system himself (10 barrels) but he left the brewery in 1998. Drake’s was owned by JBR Coffee Company from 1998-2008 and then John Martin, who Lind used to previously work for at Triple Rock Brewery, purchased Drake’s in 2008.

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Brewery Showcase | Burning Barrel Brewing

Burning Barrel Brewing is the vision of a father/son duo; Jack and Duncan Alexander. Jack, a longtime homebrewer, and Duncan are leading the way on the build-out of the brewery located within the Barrel District of Rancho Cordova, a city just east of downtown Sacramento. Rancho Cordova has embraced the “Maker Spirit” by creating its Barrel District, streamlining the process of opening a brewery — and more. The Barrel District currently includes six breweries, two distilleries, and one meadery.

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First Look | Novel Strand Brewing Opens Today in Denver’s Baker Neighborhood

Tamir Danon isn’t concerned about your Instagram photos, he isn’t interested in your Untappd reviews, and you won’t be sampling a flight at his brewery any time soon. He just wants you to relax, step aside from all of the distractions and just enjoy the beer. Danon, along with his wife Chantel Columna, and college friend Ayana Coker are the co-founders of Denver’s newest brewery, Novel Strand Brewing. Opening today at 1st and Cherokee in Denver’s Baker District at 3 pm, Novel Strand will focus predominantly on lower ABV hoppy, sour and funky/wild beers, but will also open with a 4.3% oatmeal stout as well.

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Summer Brew & Starting Anew | Rockyard Brewing’s Dramatic Makeover

I’ve always been a bit cynical. I’m not a rare breed in that sense; the beer world has many stubborn, cranky cynics. We’re the ones shouting at you to get off our lawns with your sour, hazy, glittery slush stouts as we rock cantankerously back and forth on the porch with our pint glasses full of clear, reliable IPA. But even the most hardened beer traditionalist among us can look forward to summer. In summer, we can rise from the ashes of our self-loathing like a magnificent, tipsy phoenix. Even if for just a season, we can crack a smile and enjoy the sun on our face while the bubbles of an unfamiliar brew caress our puckered lips.

In that spirit, Colorado’s Rockyard Brewing Company is showing us how it’s done. Shedding its skin and undergoing a major renewal of its own, the brewery has done away with ALL of its award-winning original lineup.

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More than a Name | How Service Brewing Lives its Mission

The goal of any brewery should be to produce great beer and positively impact their community. Many breweries have this similar mission, but few are as mission-driven as Savannah-based Service Brewing Co. Read More

Westbound & Down Brewing Plans Growth Around Experimental Program

Like many Coloradans who have traversed the winding I70 highway toward Summit County, you’ve probably at some point noticed the word BREWERY painted in big bold letters along the side of a building in the thoroughfare town of Idaho Springs. For those who keep up with the ever-evolving Colorado craft beer landscape, this mountain town spot has become a familiar requisite stop for those who appreciate well-crafted traditional styles paired with great eats. But what most don’t realize is that Westbound & Down Brewing has been quietly preparing to join Colorado’s storied lineup of esteemed sour producers.
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First Look: Odell Brewing Opens Small Batch Brewery & Taproom in Denver RiNo

Denver’s River North Art District is beginning to look completely different than it did even six months ago. Just along the once rough and tumble, sleepy main drag of Larimer Street alone, the transformation is none more apparent than the recent additions of American Bonded, the next chapter in Sean Kenyon’s (founder of Williams and Graham) burgeoning cocktail bar catalog, and Call, a trendy coffee shop, sandwich concept, along with it’s upcoming neighboring sister bar Beckon. The landscape has also been forever changed by the recent influx of satellite locations from several already well-established national brands. This recent flood of familiar faces includes one of the country’s hottest bar concepts in Death and Co, inside of The Ramble Hotel, the fast food behemoth that is Shake Shack, and chain wine bar concept Barcelona. And beginning Monday, Odell Brewing will extend their reach outside of their Fort Collins roots to Denver’s hottest neighborhood, when they open their second outpost in the heart of Denver’s River North Art District.

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Crow Hop’s New Tap Room is a Big Leap Forward

Downtown Loveland is currently home to three breweries (soon to be four) which are well-established in the community and gaining notoriety among the always crowded Colorado craft scene. Loveland Aleworks has been in their current residence, for a long while, and Verboten had a recent change when they moved to their current location on 5^th Street. Crow Hop Brewing, the third of the trifecta, called 3^rd Street their home since their opening in 2015. That all changed last week, when the team closed shop on 3^rd and moved one block north to the east side of 4^th Street in Downtown Loveland. Prior to their grand reopening in early June, Crow Hop has put on a few soft open events for their loyal patrons, and Thursday was the first soft open for folks outside of Crow Hops staff and immediate family, and the event did not disappoint. Read More

Veteran-Owned Breweries You May Not Know About

Full disclosure, I’m a 20-year Navy veteran. In studying breweries, and meeting with their owners, it became clear that a huge number of those brewery owners had also served time in the armed forces, in fact, a much larger number than you would expect statistically.

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Monkish Brewing Company | Surprise Party

I just moved to the UAE this past month for work. It’s an exciting and extravagant place to be — with the current and future tallest buildings in the world, white sand beaches, indoor ski resorts and camel’s milk ice cream dipped in gold. I thoroughly realized that I would be moving to the desert when I decamped from Los Angeles, and I don’t mean Jakku. I mean a craft beer desert almost as expansive as the Empty Quarter itself. 
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Hayes’ Public House | Where Irish Hospitality Meets Minnesota Nice

Located in the heart of Central Minnesota — a state known for its fierce Scandinavian pride — is a small Irish pub that almost seems out of place.

Hayes’ Public House provides the most authentic Irish experience some Minnesotans may ever have. And that’s the point. Owner and Head Brewer Pugs Hayes and his wife spent two months touring Ireland, absorbing as much of its culture as they could. With the help of friends and family, they recreated what they saw, heard, felt and tasted in a small brewery that has become the hub of Buffalo, MN.

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Flix Brewhouse | America’s Cinema Brewery is Expanding

Flix Brewhouse opened in Round Rock, Texas in 2011 with the unique concept of combining a state-of-the-art movie theater with a microbrewery. Today they operate four locations around the country with plans to more than double that over the next year. I caught up with Greg Johnson, Director of Sales and Marketing for Flix, to learn more about this ambitious expansion. Read More

Colorado’s Primitive Beer to Serve Méthode Traditionnelle Beer in a Box

Built upon the wings of innovation, Colorado’s craft beer scene has already gained a reputation as trail blazers and pace setters for the rest of the industry. But when Longmont, CO’s Primitive Beer opens this Saturday, it’ll distinguish itself with a number of different milestones from day one.

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The Grateful Gnome Sandwich Shoppe & Brewery is Finally Open

One of Denver’s most anticipated brewery openings in 2018 has also had to endure the indelible distinction of having undergone one of Denver’s most maligned opening processes to date. Despite multiple failed general contractors, innumerable licensing delays and a scaffolding that tore through its ceiling, The Grateful Gnome Sandwich Shoppe and Brewery is finally open.

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With More Space, Off Color Brewing Expands on its Uniqueness

So, there I was, standing outside on a cold March night in Chicago watching Off Color’s social media manager Ben Ustick and co-founder Dave Bleitner (lovingly called “The Other Guy”) methodically put together the fence that would block off their soon-to-be-open patio space. There was a palpable excitement shared between Ben and Dave as they hammered each 2×4 into place. The patio meant something more than just providing extra seating on a swanky summer day. It was validation that Off Color’s grand experiment had paid off.

The new taproom space, dubbed the Mousetrap, has been a smashing success as it has provided Dave and the other Co-Founder Jon Laffler (the one you usually see in the papers) with more room to share their craft beer genius with hordes of willing Chicagoans. While 2017 was an exciting year for Off Color Brewing, with more momentum and new experiments in the hopper, 2018 is shaping up to be even better. Read More

Amalgam Brewing Finds Permanent Home in Denver After Powder Keg Closure

Philip Joyce and Eric Schmidt, co-founders of Amalgam Brewing, have never been ones to follow convention. In its first year of existence, Amalgam immediately established itself as a formidable contender in Colorado’s bountiful landscape of elite level barrel-aged blended sour producers, all without a physical taproom, its own production facility, or its own retail space, until now.

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Brewery Showcase | McClellan’s Brewing Company

Fort Collins is what some would consider the genesis of craft beer. Names like Odell, New Belgium, 90 Schilling and Fat Tire are synonymous with the craft beer movement and the renaissance of delicious drinks that have flooded the United States in recent years. The volume of newcomers to the brewing scene increases while the available real estate decreases, meaning it can be hard to set your new entry into the game apart from the rest. Rookies and veterans alike are trying to poke their heads out of a large crowd, which leads to the question: what separates a brewery from all the rest? That is a question McClellan’s Brewing Company has begun to answer.
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Brewery Showcase | 7Sisters Brewing (San Luis Obispo)

I’ve seen some environmental friendly breweries before, but nothing quite compares to the level of commitment to sustainability that 7Sisters Brewing has. The moment you walk through doorway you see a tasting room filled with repurposed materials. My favorite piece is their bar. It was built from school lockers and topped with zinc-wrapped wood from the shipping crate the lockers arrived in. Throughout the tasting room you will see lighting made from Cal Poly lab lamps and tables that used to be shop benches from LA technical college. Heading out to their patio you can see the patio railings that were repurposed from the wood forms used when pouring the concrete.

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