Have Beer Festivals Jumped the Shark?

I used to relish summers. As a child, we lived for those three fleeting months of freedom from homework, exams and responsibility. Summer was the stuff of legend, building towering forts in the woods, cannonballs, s’mores, catching fireflies, shagging fly balls and bolting recklessly into streets at the flat echoes of an ice cream truck jingle. Sure, things have changed a bit as an adult, but I haven’t entirely allowed myself to lose summer’s sense wonderment, instead trading t-ball for 14er hikes, neighborhood flashlight tag for booze-y sessions of jazz in the park and weekends getting burnt crisp at the pool for weekends getting burnt crisp a beer festivals.

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Festival Recap | 2015 Inaugural Fort Love Brewers Jamboree

Well, if you weren’t there, you missed it. There were no lines for beer, there were celebrity and aspiring brewers pouring their own wares, and there were many-a-food-tent setup with tasty nosh for pairing. Rhymes With Paste’s Inaugural Fort Love Brewers Jamboree boasted lots of brewer cameos. I had the father of sour beer in America, Peter Boukeart of New Belgium lore, pour me a NBB Love. Then we joked around while we tasted his life’s study, his hard work. He poured his livelihood into a glass for me to imbibe and then talked about how it was made. The goal of the this festival was to bring attention to the craft brewing industry as a whole. This festival did that and so much more.

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Event Recap | South Denver Beer Festival 2015

If GABF is the main course, then the South Denver Beer Festival was the perfect appetizer. With over 80 breweries, distilleries, cideries and meaderies in attendance, everyone’s appetite was surely met.

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Festival Recap | BrüFrou 2015

Average Reading Time: 7 minutes

Special thanks to Dustin Hall of The Brewtography Project for providing photos for this event. To see more from his shoot of this event and breweries around the state visit The Brewtography Project.

BrüFrou [broo-froo] is the craft beer and food pairing event for foodies who appreciate the nuances of tastes, scents and textures…but there’s more to BrüFrou than meets the eye…and the tastebuds.

WE all know that beer pairs with food better than wine. So do the folks that ushered in this culinary pairing and craft beer event. The inspiration for BrüFrou is Colorado’s vibrant local roster of community beer and food events, revealing an inflection point on the scene. Craft beer has moved main-stage, no longer a sidelined curiosity. Building upon the localized celebrations, on April 25th, from 11 AM to 8 PM, BrüFrou did just that: elevated the scene to a new level and brought out many a craft beer gourmand.

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Event Recap | 2015 Boulder Strong Ale Fest

If Maryland does crab cakes, then Avery does strong ales, so it only makes sense that the Boulder Strong Ale Fest remains as one of my favorite mid-sized specialty-themed beer festivals. It … Read More

Roundtable Discussion | Our Adorable Pets

Somedays the only thing that can lift you up is wasting copious amounts of time looking at cute animals. Here are some of our adorable pets to ease you toward the weekend.

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Event Recap | Hops + Handrails

Last weekend, Left Hand Brewing Company brought back one of their main events of the spring season, Hops + Handrails. While it was only in its third year in … Read More

Event Recap | Fuss Off

When hearing about a beer event, my first questions are usually “who’s pouring?” and “where is it?” With an unannounced list of breweries and a secret location that wouldn’t be disclosed until the morning of the event, Fuss Off offered precious few details, but the association with the Colorado Brewers Guild brought the promise of something interesting. Did I really want to spend an evening with people dressed in insufferable “hipster” costumes?  Read More