Maine Beer Company | Dinner & Second Dinner

When discussing pioneers of the craft beer industry, one name that rightfully comes up every time is Maine Beer Company. Founded in 2009 by brothers Dave and Daniel Kleban, Maine was built on the idea of creating beers that ignored market research and instead ran on a well-brewed product that was done right. It was the hope that people would enjoy their beers enough to keep coming back. The rest is history. Read More

Event Preview | Denver Rare Beer Tasting Announces Full Pour List

This year on the Friday of GABF week, Denver Rare Beer Tasting will celebrate its 13th anniversary with 60 breweries pouring some of their rarest and most sought-after beers. The event taking place, Friday, October 7 from 12-4pm once again benefits Pints for Prostates, a grassroots organization with the aim to raise awareness among men about prostate cancer and the importance of early detection in fighting the disease. This event “gives us the opportunity to reach men through the universal language of beer with an important health message,” said Rick Lyke, founder of Pints for Prostates. As always free men’s health screenings will be offered at the event, and all proceeds will be used to provide screenings for thousands of men, giving them important health data and early warnings about potential prostate cancer, heart disease, diabetes and other common male health issues. 

Read More

Side Project Brewing | M.J.K. Barleywine

It is so difficult to address the true outcome of a beer so heavily shrouded by hype. It’s no secret to the craft beer community that Side Project Brewing boasts one of, if not the best, barrel programs in the world. Even the likes of M.J.K., a beer representing the culmination of their barleywine production, finds itself constantly under scrutiny, for the most part by those who will never actually have a chance to try it themselves. Again provided with an incredibly rare opportunity to open yet another La Coterie exclusive bottle, M.J.K. was one in particular that needed a showcase.

Read More

Humble Sea Brewing Company | Rare Beer Auction for Santa Cruz Wildfire Victims

Wildfires have devastated much of California this year and Humble Sea Brewing Company has responded by calling on brewery friends to help Santa Cruz wildfire victims. The impressive group of breweries has donated bottles to a wildfire relief auction benefiting the Community Foundation Santa Cruz County Fire Relief Fund. The Rare Beer Auction for Santa Cruz went live on Friday and ends at noon on Monday, October 5.

Read More

Event Recap | The Side Project Invitational

An Inaugural to Remember

It’s been almost two weeks since the Side Project Invitational, and attendees’ heads are still spinning over the experience. Subtitled as “A Festival of Barrel-Aged Stouts & Barleywines,” it was immediately advertised as not for the faint of heart. Strategically placed on Super Bowl Sunday, February 2nd, as the kickoff to Side Project’s annual Stout Week, it brought people from all over the United States to Maplewood, Missouri to see what all the hype was about.

Read More

New Belgium’s Lost in the Woods: A Psychedelic Celebration of Sours

As someone based in Denver who makes a hobby out of beer writing, I have what can only be described as an embarrassing confession: I had never tasted New Belgium’s La Folie—or any other of its critically acclaimed sours—before last week.

The gravity of this oversight may be lost on the casual enthusiast, so allow me to explain. For 20 years, the Fort Collins-based brewery has been cranking out some of the country’s most complex wood-aged beers, starting with the first iteration of La Folie, its flagship Flanders-style Sour Brown Ale aged in massive oak barrels called foeders. New Belgium’s is now the largest wood cellar program in the U.S., with 64 French oak foeders and one American white oak foeder all imparting funky flavors to base beers as they mature.

Read More

10 Creative Ways Craft Beer Is Giving Back

The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge last year raised over $220 million globally. The viral awareness campaign also reached the brewing industry where it inspired several breweries to go out … Read More