13 Must-Visit Denver Breweries You Won’t Find at GABF

The Great American Beer Festival is an amazing experience. With almost 800 breweries pouring 3,500 beers, the buzz and hype is understandable and justified. However, in all the excitement surrounding the fest, it’s easy to forget the breweries who aren’t attending, even ones a few miles from the convention center. Whether you’re a local or a visitor, you won’t get the whole GABF week experience without seeing what the rest of the Denver beer scene has to offer.

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2017 GABF Pour List Preview

As the 2017 Great American Beer Festival approaches, I bet you’re wondering what kind of delights you can expect to sample on the festival. A hazy IPA from that Vermont brewery that doesn’t distribute in your state? A rare whale stout aged in the most fantastic of barrels? A wild, enamel-stripping sour ale full of hand-picked snozberries? PorchDrinking has you covered!

GABF Routes: Big Beers | Funk, Sours & Wilds | Hoppy Beers

(More: 38 Can’t-Miss Colorado Events During GABF)

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Event Preview | 2017 Big Beers Belgians & Barleywines

January marks the return of one of our favorite Colorado beer events, the (formerly Vail) Big Beers, Belgians, and Barleywines festival. With activities ranging from brewing seminars and sensory panels to the drool-worthy commercial tasting session featuring an epic beer list from more than 150 breweries from around the world, this fest offers a unique experience attendees are unlikely to forget. Besides dropping Vail from the name, what changes will 2017 bring?

(More: Pour List for 2017 Big Beers Belgians & Barleywines)

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2017 Big Beers, Belgians, and Barleywines Pour List Preview

As the 2017 Big Beers, Belgians, and Barleywines festival approaches, I always have one question: what will be poured at the commercial tasting session?

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Denver Preview of 2016 Bourbon County Variants

Early November is a confusing time of year. The weather is unpredictable leaving you perpetually under/overdressed. Thanks to daylight savings, it’s probably dark when you leave the office. Then there are elections to worry about. When somebody offers a clear win like drinking 13%+ ABV beers on a Thursday night, you just say yes.

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12 Must-Visit Denver Breweries You Won’t Find at GABF

The Great American Beer Festival is huge. With almost 800 breweries on the roster, it feels like you have the whole craft beer world at your fingertips when you step on that tasting floor. However, it’s easy to forget that some Colorado breweries aren’t participating, even ones a few minutes away from the convention center. While we love GABF, it would be a shame to visit Denver without checking out a few of these fantastic local breweries. Read More

2016 GABF Pour List Preview

With 775+ breweries in attendance and 3,500+ beers available for sampling, the dazzling array of choices at the 2016 Great American Beer Festival could overwhelm even the most seasoned beer enthusiasts. Are you looking for all the sours? IPAs? Barleywines? Look no more!

Continuing one of our favorite GABF traditions, we reached out to every brewery attending the festival this year to get a preview of what they will be pouring. We hope our exclusive pour list preview will give you a head start on planning the best route possible through the maze of GABF breweries in order to gain the best beer for your buck. Read More

Weekly Growler Fill | National Beer News Roundup

Sierra Nevada adds a new beer to their lineup, South Korea embraces craft beer, basketball players discuss homebrew, and one of the biggest and baddest beers (no, I’m not talking about Bourbon County Stout) returns to the market. Read all this and more in the Weekly Growler Fill! Read More

GABF 2015 | Our Favorite Beer Names

The word cloud above contains the most common words in the names of ~3,800 beers poured at the 2015 Great American Beer Festival. A review of these names with fellow PorchDrinker Brady Akers reminded us that the creativity of craft brewers isn’t limited to their recipes. Some stick to safe, identifiable words and phrases that clearly explain what you can expect from their beer. Others look to pop culture references, inside jokes or even their family for inspiration. After great deliberation and many pun-induced groans, we’d like to share our 15 favorite beer names from GABF 2015. Read More

GABF Tour | Denver Breweries You Won’t Find on the Floor

With all the focus on GABF this week, it’s easy to overlook the fact that more than a dozen Denver breweries won’t be pouring at the festival, including some of our favorites. When you have some downtime in between sessions, consider visiting one of these local breweries, especially if you’re an out-of-towner. Many are hosting special tappings and other events to celebrate the fest. Check our event calendar for more details. Read More

2015 GABF Pour List Preview

Updated September 23rd

Every year, beginning in July, we kick off a massive outreach to every brewery attending the Great American Beer Festival in an attempt to get a … Read More

Hops & Pie Tease GABF Week Rare Beer Events

Veterans of the Great American Beer Festival know the festivities that week aren’t limited to three days at the Colorado Convention Center. Exotic beers seem to magically appear in every nook and cranny of Denver and surrounding areas. After receiving a sneak peek at some of what Berkeley’s Hops & Pie has planned, we suggest making time in your schedule for a field trip.

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Illegal Pete’s Illegally Blonde Anniversary Collab w/ Odell

Beginning today, Colorado institution Illegal Pete’s will host a series of tappings of Illegally Blonde, an exclusive collaboration beer brewed in Fort Collins with Odell Brewing Company. Over the next week, it will be released at all seven Illegal Pete restaurants in Boulder, Fort Collins, and Denver. And word on the street is that this will also be available at Red Rocks for Illegal Pete’s 20th Anniversary Party featuring Lucero, Built to Spill and Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats!

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Five Tips To Score 2015 GABF Tickets

The upcoming 2015 Great American Beer Festival promises to be bigger than ever. A predicted 60,000 craft beer fans will swarm to Denver this September to sample 3,500+ beers from 800+ breweries. Will you be one of them? GABF is more than two months away, but the notoriously narrow window of ticket availability is rapidly approaching. We want to see you there, so please follow our guide to increase your chances of scoring tickets to the country’s biggest and baddest beer fest.

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TRVE Acid Temple Opening Celebrated With Bottle Release

This Friday, July 3rd, Denver’s TRVE Brewing Company will release bottles of Life’s Trade, a complex saison fermented with multiple yeast strains in puncheons and blended before bottling. Named after a Samothrace album, this beer is the first brewed in their new brewery and barrelhouse, the Acid Temple.

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Deschutes Brewery | Foray Belgian Style IPA

ABV: 6.4%
IBU: 60

In a time when one out of every five craft beers sold in America is an IPA, it can be difficult to muster enthusiasm for yet another bottle containing something hoppy and golden. No? You’re still interested? Busted…me too. As much as I love other styles, when facing a beer menu, my eyes always wander towards the IPAs first. Perhaps it’s the promise of drinking an old favorite or maybe it’s the chance of seeing something new and intriguing. While still thriving, single and double IPAs find themselves sharing shelf space with triple IPAs, white IPAs, black IPAs, sour IPAs, and even Belgian-style IPAs. Read More

Bitch Beer Blog-a-Thon

Dear readers, sorry for briefly interrupting whatever fun activities you have planned this weekend to let you know about an opportunity to help a wonderful group of ladies who are just as passionate about beer as we are.

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Weekly Growler Fill | National Beer News Roundup

Dear PorchDrinkers, I regret to inform you that Chelsea Mitchell accidentally braised her computer. I will do my best to fill her shoes this week while she gingerly removes mirepoix from the inside of her laptop. Now on to the beer news! Read More

Event Recap | Saison & Farmhouse Invitational 2015

I don’t know about you, but after a winter full of stout months, big beer fests, and holiday ales, my palate is usually begging for a break. I’m craving something a little drier, more effervescent, and better suited to a warm spring day. In other words, it’s saison time! Read More

Event Preview | Saison & Farmhouse Invitational 2015

Are you a fan of saisons? If so, I suggest clearing your calendar this Saturday, April 11th. Why? That’s when TRiNiTY Brewing will host their 7th annual Saisons & Farmhouse Invitational, AKA Saison Fest!  Read More