Collaboration Fest Invites You to Join in Largest Collaborative Brew Project

Perhaps the beer industry’s greatest triumph is its ability to bring people together. No other event better epitomizes that ethos than Denver’s Collaboration Fest. Now in its fifth year, one of the country’s greatest celebrations of craft beer’s collaborative spirit is looking to extend that sense of communal brewing to an even wider audience.

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Wynkoop Brewed a Climbing Chalk Beer & Built a Secret Rock Climbing Wall

Similar to writers, who most often draw inspiration from their own surroundings, it’s not surprising to find that brewers often draw inspiration from their own passions as well. However, when those passions center around rock climbing, one would assume that any crossover might only extend to post-workout beers. That said, Wynkoop Brewing has never shied away from brewing with unorthodox ingredients, gaining acclaim for successfully brewing a beer with Rocky Mountain Oysters. So it shouldn’t be too surprising that Wynkoop would be the ones to brew a beer with rock climbing chalk.

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Couples of Craft | Rose Ann & Charles Finkel of The Pike Brewing Co.

Just like in any other city, Seattle has its fair share of beer celebrities. The electricity that craft pulses through this town, not to mention the quality of the drinks themselves, make it near impossible not to point and whisper when some of our favorite owners or brewers make cameos in their respective taprooms. So, when I sat down with Rose Ann and Charles Finkel, owners and founders of The Pike Brewing Company, and some of the original craft pioneers in Seattle, I couldn’t help but be just a bit starstruck.

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Wynkoop Brewing Moringa Pale Lager Honors Haiti with Special Ingredient

One of the greatest byproducts of the booming craft beer industry is the ability for breweries to utilize their resources as a conduit for positive change in the community. Wynkoop Brewing, Denver’s oldest active running brewery, is one many that have embraced the practice of charitable giving, recently launching a Charity Tap of the Month program. Read More

2018 Guide to Finding Pliny the Younger in Colorado

In an age when names like Assassin, CBS, Duck Duck Gooze, Hunahpu and Medianoche are uttered with extreme reverence among craft beer fanatics, Russian River Brewing‘s Pliny the Younger still manages to carry the same clout and cult following well over a decade after its debut.

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Beer Debate | The Great Groundhog Day Results Showdown

When Punxsutawney Phil emerges from his slumber, the fate of the winter is in his furry little paws. Will spring come early, or will winter be sticking around for six extra weeks? This change in season doesn’t only affect the weather but also the beers that we’ll be drinking. Northeast Region Editor Dan Bortz and writer Constance Del Rio are about to engage in a verbal Battle Royale about whether or not they’d like the groundhog to see his shadow. This is the Great Groundhog Day Showdown!

Who’s right? Who’s wrong? Let us know in the comments! Read More

2018 Super Bowl Bingo Boards for Sunday’s Big Game

It’s time once again for PorchDrinking’s 2018 Super Bowl Bingo Cards for Super Bowl 52. In addition to the entertainment of seeing who can inhale the most combinations of cheese dips in one sitting, we’ve created bingo boards for your party-goers’ enjoyment. Each square should be crossed off as they occur. And sure since this is PorchDrinking, take a drink each time you cross off a square.

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As Craft Beer Goes Mainstream, Lagunitas Stays Weird

Tony Magee started his brewery dream back in 1993 in Lagunitas, California. The goal was to create bombastic beers that teemed with the plentiful hops found on the West Coast, and to have a lot of fun doing it. Originally an Illinois native, Tony has grown into somewhat of a national celebrity when it comes to craft beer due to his unique brewing practices that led to creations like Undercover Shut Down Ale, his outspoken personality, and the great beers his brewery(s) have produced since his early days.

Now, Lagunitas Brewing Company is an international power, its IPA is the current #1 best seller in packaged formats and they produced around one million barrels of beer last year. In many ways, Magee’s creation is the perfect example of craft beer’s explosive growth over the past two decades. But then again, Lagunitas is an outlier in the current craft beer environment. They’re not like your standard brewpub or trendy hazy IPA factory. If you’ve visited their massive 300,000 sq. foot Chicago brewery facility, decorated with secondhand furniture and mind-melting dog murals, you’d recognize that. As craft beer infiltrates every last avenue of American consumerism, Lagunitas has found a way to stay weird. I asked Karen Hamilton, Lagunitas’ Communications Director and Tony’s sister, how they’ve been able to stay true to their brand for 25 years.

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Yards & Harpoon Place a Wager on the Super Bowl

Super Bowl LII is barreling toward Minneapolis. The Philadelphia Eagles and New England Patriots are going to clash in a David and Goliath showdown, which will hopefully be a game for the ages. As a lifelong Eagles fan, I hope the Birds give the Patriots the thrashing of their lives. As if the game wasn’t going to be fun enough already, breweries in the teams’ hometowns are placing a little bet on the big game. Just as you would expect, it all started on Twitter.
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Staff Picks: Colorado’s Best Stouts

Much to the dismay of Colorado’s powder hounds, its taken a little longer than expected for the Centennial State to feel full effects of winter this season. However, as we’ve inched toward February (Colorado’s official Stout Month thanks to the Mountain Sun Breweries), temperatures have dropped, and it’s finally time to embrace the bounty of prolific dark and roasty stouts this state has to offer. As we look back on all of the tremendous beers consumed in 2017, our staff took some time to share their picks for Colorado’s best stouts from the past year.

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The PorchCast | Ep 47 Matt Brynildson of Firestone Walker & Neil Fisher of WeldWerks

Episode 47 of the PorchCast had Tristan, Hunter and Sam recording from the Big Beers Belgians & Barleywines Festival at the Beaver Run Resort in Breckenridge, CO. In town for the special occasion was Matt Brynildson, brewmaster for Firestone Walker and Neil Fisher, co-founder and brewmaster for WeldWerks Brewing in Greeley, CO.

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Makin’ Noise: A Pussy Riot Beer Project Celebrates Anniversary After Raising $25K

Just over a year ago, five Colorado female brewers joined together for a series of collaboration beers made to raise money for charity and support a protest. Today, the Makin’ Noise: A Pussy Riot Beer series is starting its second year and releasing Version 5 on Saturday. To date, the movement has garnered 20 brewers to participate, and generated over $25,000 for various charities across Colorado!

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Previewing The Brewtography Project’s Discovering Colorado Breweries Book Release

If you’ve attended any Colorado beer festival over the past four years, chances are, you’ve at some point encountered photojournalist Dustin Hall, who shoots under the moniker, The Brewtography Project. Sporting his traditional short trimmed beard, signature Brewtography Project Dickies work shirt, flat-brimmed brewery cap turned backward, with his trusty Canon 5D Mark IV draped around his neck, Hall is both iconic and unassuming at the same time.

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Breaking Down the 30 New Colorado Breweries that Opened in 2017

Last year, Colorado added 30 new breweries to its already impressive arsenal. That means all new recipes, taprooms and beers to explore throughout the Centennial state. How many of the new breweries did you visit last year? How many of these have you heard of? Either way, it’s time to welcome Colorado’s new class of brewers.

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Colorado’s Best Beers & Breweries from 2017

Colorado craft beer has come a long way. While the old guard of New Belgium, Odell, Wynkoop, Great Divide, Left Hand, Avery, and Ska initially thrust the state onto the national scene the early 90’s, it’s been Colorado’s current brewing renaissance that has propelled its meteoric rise to even greater heights of recognition and acclaim. Just in the past 5 years since PorchDrinking’s existence, we’ve seen alleyway breweries grow to become national powers, startups in rural towns grow to become coveted brands, and a countless number of homebrewers who have their desk jobs to become household names among beer circles.

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Why I’m Done Cellaring Beer—An Update

About a year ago I wrote how in 2017 I was going to stop cellaring beers and enjoy them fresh. The article got way more exposure than I would have ever thought and it brought out some pretty strong emotions in people—both for and against cellaring.

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16 St. Louis Beers That I Loved in 2017

2017 was a banner year for St. Louis beer, and I say this based on how much of it I drank. Between festivals and brewery visits, my Untappd account topped 200 different beers in 2017. Is that a lot of beer? It is for me, but who is really counting?

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Beery New Year’s Around the World

Confession: New Year’s is my favorite holiday of all the holidays. I have long been drawn to the celebration of turning the page, leaving the previous year behind and the anticipation of new beginnings. (I would be lying if I denied that my love of the holiday has nothing to do with the excess.)

Several years ago, a good friend of ours in Wisconsin invited us to an epic New Year’s Eve party. Starting at 8:00 in the morning, every hour featured a traditional food or drink from a country within that time zone.

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Home for the Holidays Drinking Game

This week, many of us will pack our bags and head home to visit family, friends and loved ones alike. But the holidays can be stressful and many occasions can … Read More

First Look: Oskar Blues LoDo Marries Music & Beer in Downtown Denver

I am not a fan of Market Street.

Chalk it up to too many nights downtown where one of my friends convinced me to go to the latest trendy club and by the end of the night, I have spent too much money on drinks, got mean mugged by a ton of bros, and had multiple women literally look through me on the dance floor. Short, glasses, and a beer belly doesn’t attract women as well as every romantic movie I have ever seen where the awkward guy can steal five minutes of intelligent conversation with the woman to eventually convince her that he is funny, sexy, and charming. Nope. I’m the guy that hangs out at breweries off Broadway or tap houses off Blake and avoids downtown.

Until tonight.

I arrived around 6:30pm and parked in the lot down the street for $10, then walked a few blocks to preview the upcoming Oskar Blues LoDo (downtown) location. This is Oskar Blues’ second foray into downtown Denver, since first planting their CHUBurger flag in RiNo last year. Located in what formerly housed Crocs, an Ohio State alumni sports bar, the bar bookends a set of narrow brick buildings that include Two Fisted Mario’s Pizza and Double Daughters. This isn’t the part of town I typically frequent, but neither was RiNo three years ago. Read More