GABF Denver Beer Bars Guide

Coming to town for the Great American Beer Festival is about more than just the festival itself.  It involves local breweries, restaurants, the city of Denver, and beer bars.  We decided to break down some of the local Denver beer bars that you may want to check out just in case you couldn’t already find enough beer.

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Southeast Great American Beer Festival Regional Breakdown

Southeast (AL, AR, FL, GA, KY, LA, MS, NC, SC, TN)

Don’t count out the southeast region just because it doesn’t boast a tremendous beer history.  This region is an up and comer.  With Cigar City anchoring the field and two solid showings out of Lexington, KY, the southeast has the opportunity to make major in roads in the brewing community in the near future.

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Renegade Brewery – Denver, CO

Renegade Brewery could be one of the best breweries in the city of Denver that non-residents may have never heard of. Brian O’Connell’s brew laboratory specializes in taking traditional styles and adding one twist to completely differentiate their beers from the rest. Even their flagship Ryetous refuses to conform to the base line IPA category with it being a rye IPA. “There is no theme to our style other than being creative without going completely off the wall,” said O’Connell.

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PorchDrinking.com Redesign: Letter from Chris Knost

PorchDrinking.com Redesign

When Tristan asked me to redesign the site, I knew I’d have my hands full. How could I transform an already great content driven site and redesign the aesthetics to reflect the culture, community and enthusiasts that both read and write it’s content?

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Upslope Brewing Company- Boulder, CO

What’s in a name? Orographic Lift Brewing Company doesn’t have the same ring. Upslope winds occur when air is elevated up the sides of large land masses (our Colorado mountains) via wind and then cools adiabatically and condenses, causing precipitation. Unless you’re an absolute meteorology nerd, you probably just read blah, blah, blah, but deep down everyone loves nerds and everyone loves precipitation. No matter how you slice it or dice it precipitation is the main ingredient in our coveted barley pops. Upslope Brewing adds the malts, hops and yeast, while their namesake winds provide the water. Read More

PorchDrinking.com Getting a Makeover

So we never really do things in the most orthodox manner.  So when Chris, our web designer asked if we could shut down the site for the next three days to completely revamp our look and feel… well I just said go right on ahead.

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Southwest Great American Beer Festival Regional Breakdown

The Southwest – land of Mexican food, cactus, and hot weather. There is nothing more perfect than beer to cool the heat. With a growing craft beer scene, the southwest has been cranking out award winning beer. Here our a few breweries and what they will be pouring  at the Great American Beer Festival.
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River North Brewery- Denver, CO

River North Brewery opened a little over six months ago, specializing in Belgian style ales. I happen to specialize in drinking Belgian style ales, so RiNo quickly became a favorite local brewery. Scratch that, a favorite anywhere brewery. Read More

Ultimate 6er – Boardwalk Empire

I originally wanted to do an ultimate 6er based around the show The Newsroom, but considering the first season ended awhile ago, I decided to go with the next best thing: Boardwalk Empire. I warn you, this 6er is not for the lightweight. Believe me, I know. I have apparently reverted back to freshman year of college when, according to my good friend Stew, I got sloshed on acorn shots. I had to split this 6er between two nights, and I was barely able to take notes at the end of both, so enjoy!
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The Official PorchDrinking.com Presidential Debate Drinking Game

Tonight, the two men running for President will go head-to-head in Denver for a televised debate on domestic policy issues. According to the latest popular vote polling, it’s a dead heat (although according to the electoral vote, it’s already a landslide). While this campaign is not as exciting as the “Hope-And-Change,” “I-Can-See-Russia-From-My-House” quotes of 2008, the presidential debate tonight promises us a unique opportunity to see democracy in action and discern the ideological rifts between our candidates and our nation.
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Pacific Northwest GABF Regional Breakdown

Pacific Northwest (AK, OR, WA)

The Pacific Northwest – land of salmon, mass-consumer coffee, towering evergreens, and rocky, rainy coast lines. And, not surprisingly, a rich craft beer community. From the rugged mountains of Alaska, to the coastline communities of the Puget Sound to fixie riding hipsters of West Burnside, the Pacific Northwest offers up some of the Nation’s most recognized craft beer names with new breweries continuing to pop up in small towns and large cities alike. Here are our favorites that we’ll be attending at the Great American Beer Festival.
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Odell Brewing Company- Fort Collins, CO

One overcast September day, Odell Brewing harkened me to the Mecca of craft brewing, Fort Collins, for a few cozy tasters in their amazing taproom. As Lee Holliday and the Time Off crooned scintillating blues for the live music night, I admired the walls, embellished with huge rich oil paintings of their highly recognized and highly revered microbrews: Cut Throat Porter, Easy Street Wheat, Levity Amber, IPA, and of coarse 90 Shilling.
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Great Lakes Regional GABF Breakdown

Starting today we’ll be bringing you a regional break down of breweries you should definitely stop by during the festival.  In some cases we were also able to find out what specific beers they’ll be bringing.  Today we kick off our coverage on the Great Lakes region.  This includes breweries from Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin.
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Strange Brewery – Denver, CO

I recently discovered that I’m kinda a weird dude. My friend Paula recently called me out for being an “Asian, hipster, frat boy from Kentucky who also listens to bluegrass/country music.” I guess she has a point. Perhaps that’s why I find Strange Brewery in Denver, CO so endearing.
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PorchDrinking GABF Coverage

Today marks the beginning of our two week long Great American Beer Festival coverage.  As such we’ll be mixing up our normal rotation a bit.  Each morning our writers will be previewing a local brewery for any local visitors who may be travelling to the area.  Moving into the late morning we’ll also be breaking down each of the regions with blurbs and in some cases beers to check out from those breweries.  We’ll still have our normal features in the afternoons such as the Ultimate 6ers, Week-in-Reviews, PorchDrinking Playlist, Fantasy Football and Storytime With Hank, as well as occasional festival related guides and features as well.
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Wynkoop Brewing Company- Denver, CO

This is where it all started, folks. Colorado’s esteemed governor, John Hickenlooper, helped plant the seed for what would eventually turn Denver into one of the top beer towns in the world at Wynkoop Brewing Company. Not only is Wynkoop celebrated as Denver’s first microbrewery/brewpub, it was also the first to utilize the long dormant factories peppering the city’s current downtown area. Before Coors Field and before LoDo turned into the weekend destination for locals, there was Wynkoop.
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Peach Porch Lounger – New Belgium Brewery

ABV: 9.4%
IBU: 0

It’s that time of year again, when Colorado (especially Palisade) peaches are ripe and ready to be turned into everything phenomenally peachy. And that’s exactly what New Belgium Brewery has done with its masterpiece of a beer Peach Porch Lounger.
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Tripel Horse Belgian-Style Tripel Ale

ABV – 10%
A Confession: As your faithful Northeast correspondent, my beer selection has been decidedly New York-centric.
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Ultimate 6er | Greatest Action Movie of All Time

One of my favorite conversations, and I think one of the most contested arguments throughout history, is that of the best action movie of all time. I have watched friendships end and new ones begin during the heated exchanges of Running Man versus Commando; Predator or Die Hard; Lion King or Aladdin?

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News: Great American Beer Fest Floor Plan Released!

The floor plan for this year’s Great American Beer Fest was released earlier this morning. Most notably this means that hardcore festival goers can begin plotting out their ultimate beer routes.  I’ve seen many approaches for GABF in the past. Here are a few to help you decide which route you might want to take first. We’ll be breaking down a few more routes in more detail in the coming weeks for our complete GABF Coverage:

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