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Posts ByJaclyn Menendez, Author at PorchDrinking.com

New Belgium Celebrates La Folie with Lost in the Woods Slumber Party

February 20, 2024 |

Once upon a time, nestled in the heart of the Rockies, a brewery famed for its playful spirit and delectable sour ales invited dreamers and night revelers to an enchanted gathering unlike any other.

It was no ordinary fête but the heralded Lost in the Woods of 2024, where New Belgium Brewing opened its legendary Foeder Forest for a Storybook Slumber Party that promised an evening of dance, delight and the finest sours in all the land.

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Odell Small Batch Festival 2023 | 16 Years In and Still Shining

June 5, 2023 |

The Odell Small Batch Festival, hosted by Odell Brewing Company, wisely stamped “RAIN OR SHINE” on all invitations and tickets for their June 3rd event this past weekend. A testament to their many years in Fort Collins, Colorado, they knew they were taking a gamble on hosting an outdoor beer festival during the unpredictable early summer weather of the mountains. But that gamble paid off: this year’s Small Batch Festival was arguably the best that Odell has ever hosted. And yes, it rained.

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WeldWerks Brewing Celebrates Life As An Eight Year Old

March 8, 2023 |

This past weekend I went to an 8-year-old’s birthday party. It was awesome: I gorged myself on candy bars, played a ton of cool video games, and ate stacks of french toast until it was time to take a nap. Of course, the birthday party was for WeldWerks Brewing Co., so things were a little unique.

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New Belgium Brewing’s Lost in the Woods Celebrates La Folie in (NYC) Style

February 17, 2023 |

Where in the world can you find beautiful people in cutting-edge fashion, bodegas overflowing with your favorite junk food, and giant sentient rats eating pizza? Usually I’d say only in New York, but this past weekend, that answer got updated to include New Belgium Brewing in Fort Collins, Colorado. New Belgium’s annual Lost in the Woods party brought the Big Apple to the snowy mountains this year, and the result was a bustling bash that channeled all the best parts of Manhattan without that tangy subway smell.

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New Belgium Brewing | Holiday Ale

December 6, 2022 |

I don’t know when exactly it started, but at some point in my voracious drinking career, I realized that I mentally connect certain breweries with certain seasons. During June and July, I almost exclusively drink from Outer Range Brewing—whatever they’re making automatically becomes my summer go-to. Then when the leaves change and the nights get cooler, all I want is Odell Brewing: their amber ale, their tropical sour; I don’t care about the style, I just want whatever they’re brewing. And, for as long as I can remember, my winter palate has belonged to New Belgium Brewing.

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Recapping the Best of the Best from 2022 WeldWerks Invitational

June 30, 2022 |

There are few things better than an unseasonably cool day in the middle of Colorado’s scorching summer. In fact, only one thing better comes to mind: the divine providence of a barrel-aged-centric beer festival like the 2022 WeldWerks Invitational falling that day.

After two years of COVID postponements, a crowd of excited festival-goers stretched around the block eagerly awaiting the opportunity to hit their favorites early. The WeldWerks team was once able to quickly usher folks in within minutes welcoming craft-beer enthusiasts from across the country flocking to Greeley, CO to enjoy a much-needed return to normalcy. It felt more like a family reunion than a line for a beer festival as drinking buddies met up with their out-of-state friends, some for the first time in years.

Once the doors opened, though, it definitely felt like a beer festival.

This article included input from Jaclyn Menendez, Britt Antley, Brian Phipps, Tristan Chan, and photography from Karen Mills.

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2022 WeldWerks Invitational Announces Pour List, And It Is Bonkers

June 9, 2022 |

After two years of postponements and rescheduling, WeldWerks Brewing Company’s highly anticipated Invitational beer festival is finally around the corner. And in case the hype wasn’t real enough already, they just released the pour list for the event–and it is downright gratuitous in its glory.

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SweetWater Brewing Celebrates Grand Opening in Fort Collins, Colorado

December 17, 2021 |

For a while, the trout was their only clue.

Driving past the former Red Truck Beer Company taproom and distribution center in Fort Collins, Colorado, it was clear that whatever … Read More

You Owe Your Brewers Guild A Drink | Hard Work Behind the Craft Scenes

November 1, 2021 |

Chances are, unless you work in a brewery, you’re not particularly aware of your local Brewers Guild. And that’s kind of the point: they’re designed to run in the background, presenting a united voice on behalf of your region or state for all things craft beer. They have conversations with state and federal government on your behalf, so that you can continue buying and selling beer with fair taxes, licensure requirements, and other things you don’t want to have to worry about. There’s one of these nonprofit organizations in all 50 states, with most states having multiple regional guilds too. And every single guild has had its fair share of headaches during the pandemic.

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2021 WeldWerks Invitational to be Postponed Until 2022

August 25, 2021 |

Hey, remember a couple of months ago when I confidently, naively announced that the WeldWerks Invitational was definitely happening this October? Well, much like that new Jeopardy host, I wish I could scrub the internet of my past mistakes. But alas, they live on, and I’m sad to tell you that due to rapidly rising COVID cases, the WeldWerks Invitational 2021 has been postponed until 2022.

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New Belgium Brewing | Dominga Mimosa Sour

August 24, 2021 |

Sundays were made for mimosas. The effervescent sips that soothe your hangover and help you deal with loud brunch crowds will forever be an end-of-weekend necessity. For those of you who can’t handle an hour-long wait at your local restaurant, though, or prefer to skip the bubbly and go right back to beer, New Belgium Brewing has a new year-round sour wheat ale that checks all your Sunday Brunch boxes: Dominga Mimosa Sour.

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WeldWerks Brewing Announces On-Site Restaurant & Colorado Springs Update

August 16, 2021 |

A one-two punch of good news came from Weldwerks Brewing Company today. Their Greeley, Colorado-based taproom is known for a lot of things: the funky artwork, surprise Medianoche tappings, delicious … Read More

Knotted Root Brewing Celebrates Second Anniversary On Top Of The World

July 13, 2021 |

Nestled in the foothills of Boulder, CO, the tiny town of Nederland is more than 8,000 feet above sea level. The winding road into town is about 16 miles of pure straight up, twisting through the mountains, running parallel to a roaring creek, making you feel closer to the sky than the ground. It’s fitting, then, that Knotted Root Brewing Company has made its home here. At its second-year anniversary party (which occurred this past Fourth of July weekend), it was tough to imagine any other brewery feeling more on top of the world.

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2021 WeldWerks Invitational Announces Brewery Line-Up & Ticket Sale Dates

June 28, 2021 |

Nearly two months after announcing the return of the WeldWerks Invitational, WeldWerks Brewing Company has the details we really need: which breweries are going, and when do tickets go on sale?

While national protocols are still far from established, WeldWerks took the past couple months to iron out some of the finer details related to the pandemic in addition to developing a code of conduct for attendees. The latter came in response to Brienne Allan’s recent movement to expose sexism, misogyny, and harassment within the industry, and WeldWerks, which was not named, decided to take the proactive approach to ensure a safe festival-going experience.

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Odell Brewing Co. Celebrates Grand Opening of OBC Wine Project

May 5, 2021 |

“Less snobby, more sippy.”

This is the mantra of OBC Wine Project, Odell Brewing Co.’s latest adventure of craft and creativity. Though cans of their wine have already hit distribution across Colorado and several other states, May 5 marked the official opening of their tasting room and patio located directly across from the well-known brewpub in Fort Collins, Colorado. And when we say directly, we mean directly: it takes about a dozen steps from Odell Brewing Co.’s famous patio stage to the front door of the OBC Wine Project. But despite this proximity, upon entering it is immediately clear that a great deal of thoughtful effort went into carving this space its own personality.
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New Belgium’s Torched Earth Ale for Earth Day Is, Literally, Hot Garbage

April 22, 2021 |

I’m not sure it’s appropriate to say “Happy Earth Day” anymore. In the face of our rapidly warming planet, the destruction of our natural resources, and the extinction of countless species, it seems more fitting to simply say, “Remember How Much We Blew It?” and reflect fondly on how the Indian cheetah used to exist. In fact, because of this grim state of the world, Earth Day is best celebrated in two ways – taking action, and drinking a beer.

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2021 WeldWerks Invitational Announces Return for In-Person Festival

April 19, 2021 |

It’s time to dust off your favorite esoteric brewery t-shirt and find a pair of jeans that still fit: you officially have a beer festival to attend this year.

Since … Read More

WeldWerks Brewing Celebrates Six Years The Willy Wonka Way

March 23, 2021 |

If you are like me–obsessed with pop culture and generationally saddled somewhere between an X’er and a Millennial–then you likely grew up mesmerized by Willy Wonka and his chocolate factory. The dazzling candy forest, the mind-blowing snozzberry wallpaper, the questionable lifestyle of Grandpa Joe: it’s all forever cemented in my memory as a true bastion of childhood wonder. This Friday, March 26, 2021, WeldWerks Brewing Co. is bottling some of that magic for us–or should I say, canning it.

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Strong BA Series | Epic Brewing Sextuple Barrel Big Bad Baptist Imperial Stout

December 18, 2020 |

Some people call this magical time of year the holiday season. People who read this website probably know it more as Stout Season. But at Epic Brewing, it’s Baptist Season. And this year, they went big.

Epic Brewing, originating in Utah, is famous for being the state’s first brewery since prohibition to solely brew beer with a “high” alcohol content. Now, in Utah, that means something different than you’re probably thinking: Back in 2009 when Epic was founded, the Beehive State considered any beer above 4.0% ABV to be a “strong brew” and restricted those sales to state-run liquor stores (they’ve now increased that maximum up to 5.0%, those daredevils). But Epic Brewing didn’t just make strong beer by Utah standards; like most kids with strict parents, they rebelled and started making strong beer. Thus, in 2011, their Big Bad Baptist series was born: A Barrel-Aged Imperial Stout with coffee that was such a hit, the brewery turned it into an annual tradition and introduces new variants each year during Baptist Season.

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Faces in Beer | Purpose Brewing & Cellars

December 3, 2020 |

Welcome back to Faces in Beer! In our new series, we take film photographs of brewers and develop the film in the beer they brewed.

In our first round, we featured Weldwerks Brewing Company, where we developed the brew team’s portraits in a variety of beer–including their famous Medianoche Stout. The results were beautiful, though we did hear from a few of you decrying our use of Medianoche for any purpose other than consumption. (We hear you–it hurt us too, but art is pain.) You can check those photos out here.

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