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The 21 Best Breweries in Denver, Colorado
The best beer in the Mile High city.
Cohesion Brewing Co-founder Eric Larkin | Photography courtesy of John Robson
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Updated on November 12, 2024
Every year, the Great American Beer Festival (GABF) descends in Denver, CO. We just went a couple of weeks ago, attending the GABF Awards Ceremony, which awarded 326 Medals to 273 breweries and cideries with the top beers and ciders of the year in 102 categories.
We also had a chance to get around to some of our favorite breweries and a few we’d never had a chance to visit.
Overall, craft beer fanatics and industry professionals take over the city for what feels like a massive, multi-day party. While many great breweries visit the Mile High City, Denver already plays year-round host to some of the best breweries in the country. In our picks for the twenty-one best breweries in Denver, CO, you’ll find everything from juicy IPAs to funky farmhouse ales to longtime lager standouts.
Whether you’re in town for GABF or planning your own beercation, we’ve got a handy guide to the best breweries around Denver.
Psst: Don’t forget to check out these four epic days we spent in Denver when we went to GABF in 2022.
The Best Breweries in Denver, Colorado
Cerebral Brewing
Congress Park: 1477 Monroe St, Denver, CO 80206 | (303) 865-7341
Aurora Arts: 9990 E Colfax Ave, Aurora, CO 80010 | (720) 508-1984
Photography courtesy of Cerebral Brewing
We’ve always known the award-winning Cerebral in Denver’s Congress Park neighborhood for its methodical scientific approach to brewing. Started by co-founders Sean Buchan and Dan McGuire in 2015, Cerebral focuses on imaginative IPAs, foeder-fermented lagers, and barrel-aged beer, among other styles.
The brewery’s pin-point-precision approach garnered them awards across the board. Most recently, they picked up a 2023 World Beer Cup Silver in the “Juicy or Hazy Pale Ale” category for Muscle Memory.
But while awards give Cerebral fantastic public recognition, behind the scenes, the brewery has worked hard over the last few years to become one of the most inclusive breweries in Colorado (alongside their neighbors such as Lady Justice and Goldspot).
Driven by Cerebral Brewing Director of Operations Anne Abrahamson, who identifies as Queer, Cerebral has started living a mantra and, coincidentally, the name of the brewery’s 2023 Pride beer: All Hops No Hate.
She started programs like Queer Beers Night, a monthly event designed for everyone. Yes, this is an event created by and for the Queer community, but the idea is to make Cerebral “an intentional space to gather,” she says. “Obviously, you’re always welcome in this space, but this is the night we want to celebrate the Queer community.”
Whether you visit Cerebral during a Queer Beers Night or just a regular Sunday, you’ll most likely find articulately designed IPAs and pale ales and precisely crafted lagers. But if there’s a saison on the menu, don’t sleep on it.
This past June, Cerebral opened its second taproom in Aurora, so you now have two incredible spaces to drink their beers.
Most recently, we spent the last afternoon of GABF in Cerebral’s OG Congress Park beer garden, drinking one Group Project: Landbier, one of the top beers we had in all of October.
Go for the vibes, stay for the beer. Or go for the beer and stay for the vibes.
Honestly, at Cerebral, you really don’t have to think about it too much: This is a safe space for all to drink incredible beer. We’d love more Cerebrals in our life.
Bierstadt Lagerhaus
2875 Blake St, Denver, CO 80205 | (720) 821-1571
Photography courtesy of Ashley Knotek | Bierstadt Lagerhaus
Located in the RiNo neighborhood, Bierstadt Lagerhaus is perhaps one of the most distinguished breweries in the area (if not the entire country). One that will also have one of the smallest draft lists.
Bierstadt Lagerhaus has made a name for itself by making lagers…and pretty much only German lagers.
Co-owners Ashleigh Carter and Bill Eye love lagers—love making them, love drinking them. And they stuck to their guns when they opened Bierstadt in 2016.
“Since day one, Ashleigh has always been like, I want to make German lager, and I want to make the best German lager in America,” explains Bierstadt brewer Phil Joyce. “That’s all she wants to do, and she has never ventured from it once.”
Now the brewery is world renowned for inventing beers like the Slow Pour Pils, a beer that takes seven minutes to pour (trust us, it’s worth it).
When we went during this past GABF, they had a few other beers on draft, including a helles, a dunkel (so good that our social media manager had five of ‘em!), and that Slow Pour Pils.
Whatever you order, just know it will be made laboriously with love, and it will probably be one of the best beers you’ve ever had.
Because not only do Carter and Eye care about the beers they make, but they also care about the people who make them.
“I refer to [Ashleigh] as your favorite brewer’s favorite brewer,” laughs Joyce, who also moonlights as the co-founder of Amalgam Brewing, which uses a single tank in Bierstadt’s production space to craft its four- to six-week one-off releases. “There’s no ego, no pretension.”
You can taste that dedication, that inspiration, and that love in everything flowing through Bierstadt. In many ways, the brewery feels like a beating heart, pumping out great beer, great times, and great vibes to anyone, be it a brewer or drinker who steps through its doors.
“[Bierstadt] is the Holy Grail that we’re all trying to achieve,” says Joyce.
And I mean, who doesn’t want to drink from the Holy Grail, right?
Cohesion Brewing Company
3851 Steele St Unit 1388, Denver, CO 80205 | (303) 997-7016
Photography courtesy of Jess Blackwell Photography
The last time I visited Denver during an epic four-day adventure for GABF in 2022, I came home with one brewery name ringing in my ears—Cohesion.
Every brewer I talked to and every person I met in the industry asked if I’d tried co-founder Eric Larkin’s Czech beers.
I didn’t have a chance to stop there in 2022. So when I knew I’d be in Denver this year, Cohesion topped my list.
I initially met Larkin in Atlanta of all places; we both presented at the Georgie Brewers Guild annual symposium in 2022.
I learned quickly that Larkin respects Czech beer and culture in a way unlike anyone else (and I mean anyone else) in the States. Our paths crossed again and again. Mostly around me interviewing him for any article we wrote about Czech beer, Czech styles of pouring, or Czech culture.
Yet, for two years, I didn’t have the chance to go to his brewery.
Until this past October!
At Cohesion, you’ll find Larkin respecting Czech beer to the nth degree. Something you learn quickly when he breaks down his seven principles to you (preferably while sipping a mug of Cohesion 12°).
🍻Water: “It’s a big one,” says Larkin, who uses a reverse osmosis water filter to match the water profile used by Pilsner Urquell.
🍻Malt: Larkin made a custom malt base with Troubadour Maltings to represent a “slightly under-modified, more flavorful, higher-color [malt].”
🍻Decoction: “Nonstarter,” says Larkin. “You have to decoct,” especially if you genuinely want to brew beer like the Czechs.
🍻Open Fermentation: While not a modern take, openly fermenting the beer was probably something you would have seen at Czech breweries in the past.
🍻Horizontal Lagering: Larkin says not everyone in the Czech Republic follows this step today, but “it’s a throwback to how they would have done it at a certain period.”
🍻Spunding (Natural Carbonation): Most breweries in the Czech Republic capture natural carbonation, but Larkin believes it also impacts the flavor and mouthfeel.
🍻Service: Drinking beer is part of Czech culture. So Larkin doesn’t just brew beer like the Czechs; he serves it as they do, too. (Read more aboutthe Proper Czech Pour.)
Larkin has told me the pinnacle is when a Czech person comes into the brewery, tries some of his beer, and perhaps with just a nod or a word or two, tells him it tastes just like home. “That’s the biggest praise we can get,” he shares.
If you’re ever in Denver, don’t make the same mistake I did in 2022. Get yourself to Cohesion now.
Honestly, we’re not sure there is another brewery like Cohesion in the country.
Novel Strand Brewing Company
305 W 1st Ave, Denver, CO 80223 | (720) 949-0246
Photography courtesy of TruBlu Images
Two years ago, I walked into Novel Strand Brewing during an epic four days in Denver without any clue what to expect.
But when Novel Strand Co-Founder Tamir Danon greeted me with his debatably tri-colored dark blonde, altbier red (a hue we made up and decided fits best), and white beard, I knew almost right away that this place was going to be different.
An Israeli native with a degree in biochemistry and biophysics and a graduate degree in microbiology, Danon’s views on life are as deep and complex as the genetic code of the beers he’s making.
You could probably spend days talking to him about both. And he encourages that.
It’s how he and his co-founder and wife, Chantel Columna, and third business partner, Ayana Coker, started Novel Strand. By meeting up at a bar in Troy, NY, while studying at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute to drink beers, talk about beers, and dream of opening a place all about beer.
Good thing, too. Because on that autumn night, I walked out of Novel Strand two beers and over two hours later with my palate wowed, my mind blown, and my heart set on unraveling the mysterious threads that make up the DNA of Novel Strand.
You can read all of the science behind Novel Strand here (trust me, it’s worth it), but I’ll condense it for you as best I can.
The first rule of Novel Strand: The letters I-P-A are not in their DNA. Since 2018, the brewery has been doing its “own little thing”: brewing beers with an unapologetic focus on lagers and hoppy ales.
Danon talks about hops like Yo-Yo Ma playing Bach’s Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major, Prélude—expertly with precise rhythm and timing.
When you drink one of Danon’s beers, you’re following a musical score.
For lagers, he wants short and snappy. Perhaps staccato is the right musical term. You should take a sip and, BOOM, almost immediately have your palate cleansed and want another.
“Snappy, crisp, quick, and easy on the palate because that will make you want more of the flavor,” he once told me. “We don’t want a gentle roll. … We want to give you [a] poof of flavor, go away, and make you want to revisit that right now.”
For hoppy ales, on the other hand, well, honestly, it depends on many different things, but generally, he wants a soft, rolling crescendo before hitting you with the drop.
Danon is the first to admit he’s obsessed with humulus lupulus. Although he’s still unclear if that’s a good thing.
For Danon, hops are the “final frontier,” an ever-expanding exploration. “I don’t think anyone gets hops, myself included,” says Danon. “There is always … a reason to wake up at night and say, ‘Oh shit, what if I do this?’ Hops are all about capturing fleeting moments of magic.”
At Novel Strand, Danon constantly explores. For instance, Danon thinks Novel Strand was probably the first brewery in the state (if not the country) to use Nectaron, a killer cultivar from New Zealand that Dr. Ron Beatson from Plant & Food Research first developed a couple of years ago (the name comes from a combination of “Nectar of the Gods” and Dr. Beatson’s first name, Ron). “It’s a really strong pineapple flavor,” says Danon. “It’s a great hop.”
Most recently, Danon brewed a new strong hoppy ale called KIWI.
A love letter to New Zealand hops, KIWI. includes Motueka, Nectaron, Nelson Sauvin, and Riwaka from fifth-generation New Zealand hop farm Mac Hops Ltd, NZ Hops Ltd, and Yakima Chief Hops.
With Novel Strand, Danon has made it his life’s mission to be the Wizard of Oz behind the curtain, figuring out how to unlock “a minimum of tens of hundreds of compounds that are capable of affecting your tongue in different ways,” he says.
Danon does this through Novel Strand’s self-proclaimed “Hoppy” part of the menu, where you’ll usually find two or three of the fruits of Danon’s very technical research at any given time.
But don’t sleep on his lagers, either.
For instance, when I got into Denver last month, Danon texted me that they had fresh Altbier on along with a black lager called Ninja Shit, I knew I had to make time in my schedule to drop by.
And you should, too.
New Image Brewing
Table by New Image: 5622 Yukon St, Arvada, CO 80002 | (720) 900-5620
Wheat Ridge: 9505 W 44th Ave, Wheat Ridge, CO 80033 | (720) 900-5622
Photography courtesy of Stephanie Kelly Photography
By now, you may have noticed a theme in Denver. Breweries have a point of view, and they aren’t afraid to stick to their guns and do whatever they want.
Add New Image Brewing to that list of breweries saying IDGAF. They’re just brewing the way they want to brew!
Here, New Image Founder Brandon Capps pushes the beer envelope in every direction possible. An intellectual, a savant, and an encyclopedic fount of beer knowledge, Capps approaches beer with a mind we just really haven’t seen anywhere else.
For example, finding the perfect way to add Phantasm, a freeze-dried sauvignon blanc grape powder that makes hazy IPAs even juicier, into beers.
“We’re experimental, but we’re not reckless about it,” says Ryan Pachemeyer, who runs the brewery’s marketing, PR, and events. He references the brewery’s Levels series, which are variations of IPAs that Capps changes slightly every single time a new batch comes out. “We’re not making ten changes with every beer because that might be to the detriment of the beer or the drinker,” but instead making minute tweaks. “We’re trying to innovate, but in a way where the consumer doesn’t get burned,” says Pachemeyer.
All in the pursuit of creating this “new image.” Which means New Image has pumped out, on average, 125 beers a year for the last four years. (A few of which made some of our top lists, like “The Best Beers We Drank in 2022.” )
It’s all an experimental expedition.
For example, when Pachmayer invited us to New Image’s revamped restaurant in Arvada, we couldn’t say no. With New Image currently (as much as possible) featuring all-local ingredients in its beers, Capps wanted the food to reflect the same ethos. So, he revamped the brewery’s OG concept.
Table by New Image is where “farm to glass” meets “farm to table,” featuring a dedicated community of growers and makers through its pints and plates.
That’s New Image, a brewery constantly redefining, reshaping, and reimagining beer in ways we never thought possible.
My wife and I once had a conversation (over beers, of course) prompted by this question: What could possibly be the new beer style? Does one exist? Have we reached the limits of invention yet?
It’s breweries like New Image that show me, no, we haven’t. That tells me that if there is a new style, technique, innovation, and stroke of genius out there to find, New Image is in search of it. And when they find it, they’re not just going to brew it once and be done with it. They will perfect it and then work on it until this new image emerges bold and beautiful, begging you to drink it.
Primitive Beer
No taproom currently. Look for their releases at New Image’s Wheat Ridge taproom
Photography courtesy of John A. Paradiso | Hop Culture
When it comes to sour beer, Colorado seems to be America’s expert. Breweries like Casey, Crooked Stave, and Wild Provisions have long set the national standard for stellar sour ales.
Just like those breweries, Primitive makes beer using a method called spontaneous fermentation, which results in a unique, nuanced, and complex product. They also blend products to get just the right flavors.
Founded in 2017 by husband-and-wife team Brandon and Lisa Boldt, Primitive Beer is Colorado’s first exclusively spontaneous, barrel-fermented beer blendery.
Put more simply, Brandon and Lisa make delicious sour beer, with offerings inspired by Belgian lambic tradition.
Each Primitive beer originates from the same recipe of turbid mashed malted barley (60%) and raw wheat (40%), grown in the eastern plains of Colorado.
However, although Primitive beers share similar ingredients, the final product is incredibly variable in color, aroma, and taste. These beers are enigmatic and evolving, with qualities that develop over time.
Over the years, Primitive’s elegant creations have landed on many of our lists:
🍻“The 20 Best Beers We Drank in 2020”
🍻“The 20 Best Beers to Drink in Summer 2021”
🍻“The 20 Best Beers to Drink in Fall 2021”
🍻“Hop Culture’s Annual Best Beers to Drink for the Holidays 2022”
🍻“The 10 Best Beers for New Years”
While Primitive officially closed its six-year-old Longmont Barrel House last year, the Boldts moved operations to an annex in New Image’s Wheat Ridge location with its own coolship on site.
“We were really proud of what we created there,” says Brandon, who ran the barrel house exclusively with Lisa, who had another full-time job during the day (oh, wait, she still does 😂). “But to make that business model work in that space, I was running a tasting room three days a week while also having a kiddo and trying to brew, blend, package, and market!”
Brandon says that although it’s one of the most challenging decisions they had to make for Primitive, it also made the most sense.
A strategic decision following the pandemic, Primitive’s move has given Lisa and Brandon the freedom to simply focus on the beer (and their family!) without worrying about managing a retail space.
“Typically, an object in motion stays in motion, and an object in rest stays at rest,” he says, noting that it’s so much easier just to keep doing the same thing over and over again. “I think that’s the law of inertia; we needed to change it up.”
Have no fear; you can currently find new Primitive bottles once a month at the brewery’s “Howl At The Moon” bottle releases, hosted at New Image in Wheat Ridge.
Brandon says they’ve intentionally connected their releases to coincide with a new or full moon to honor Primitive’s ties to nature, agriculture, and spontaneity.
The lunar cycle doesn’t care whether it’s a random Tuesday or Saturday. So, neither does Primitive. “It adds an element of chaos,” Brandon grins, “which is something we feel is spontaneous fermentation to begin with.”
The Boldts love the connectivity their new releases bring.
“It’s easy to get lost and forget what’s going on around you,” Brandon says, but at their releases, “take a breath, look up, and realize what’s going on. … It seemed natural to us.”
The most recent included Harvest Glitter – Multihead, a three-year blend of Primitive Beer rested on Multihead Wet Hops from Billy Goat Hop Farm. Also, Cursed Heirloom – Tawny Port, a four-year blend finished in freshly emptied Tawny Port casks.
With their current set-up as the five-year plan, Brandon says the future after that is up in the air.
“We’ve always just gone with the flow, so I think it will become apparent at some point,” he says. “If I can do this for the rest of my life, that’s the goal, but it’s what makes the most sense.”
Keep your eyes peeled for Primitive’s lunar-cycle releases; just like seeing a full moon with your own eyes, you don’t want to miss any of these.
Amalgam Brewing
No taproom currently, but you can find their beers all around town | Check their Instagram (@amalgambrewing) for new releases!
Photography courtesy of Amalgam Brewing
Another brewery that doesn’t have its own taproom space but whose beer you need to be drinking, Amalgam started as a pet project between now Bierstadt Lagerhaus brewer Phil Joyce and Westbound & Down Creative Director Eric Schmidt.
Untappd’s second highest-rated brewery in Colorado first burst onto the Denver scene in 2017 with pretty much just straight-up mixed-culture beers.
Incredible, elegant, nuanced mixed-culture beers.
But recently, the duo have flexed their IPA biceps.
“I missed making hoppy beers,” Joyce told me as we shared a can of the brewery’s newest release—Coastal Bias.
Now, in a small tank tucked into Bierstadt Lagerhaus’ production space, Joyce and Schmidt drop here-now-gone-after-it-sells-out hoppy ales and lagers every four to six weeks.
“It has been the perfect merger of something ephemeral with something intentional,” says Schmidt. “It gives us a chance to breathe, to connect with the ingredients, the people, and the relationships.”
He adds, “That feels really good to me.”
Right now, that means Coastal Bias. “This beer is all focused on the hops,” says Joyce. Not just the hops but the people who picked them. For instance, this West Coast IPA includes the new hop Krush, picked in tandem with Cannonball Creek Co-Founder Brian Hutchinson, who Joyce says has an excellent nose for hops.
And the Mosaic? For that lot, Amalgam tapped Highland Park R&D Brewer Tyler, a groom at Joyce’s wedding. “Their Timbo Pils is the nicest expression of Mosaic you can ever find,” says Joyce. “They do a very good job selecting this complex yet tropical Mosaic character.”
For the Simcoe, Joyce and Schmidt tapped Westbound & Down. “We think it’s the coolest hop they selected,” says Joyce.
Lastly, the Nelson Sauvin comes from fifth-generation New Zealand hop farm Mac Hops Ltd. Joyce says he trusted Mac Hops owner Brent McGlashen to choose their lot blindly. “I wanted some Nelson hops without the plasticky, sometimes diesel character and just straight passion fruit, peachy, and big tropical,” says Joyce. And McGlashen delivered.
The result is a beer we’d call the new frontier of West Coast IPAs—less about brash headiness and more about balanced fruitiness. At 7.2%, the beer flirts with a higher ABV, but you’d never know it.
My first beer that night, I probably drank way more than I wanted to or should have, but I just couldn’t help myself.
Amalgam calls Coastal Bias’ big pineapple, lychee, and passionfruit notes “dangerously drinkable.”
I’d second that and go a little further. Amalgam is dangerously intoxicating right now—I want everything they’re making.
Again, you can’t actually sit down in an Amalgam taproom, but plenty of bars and breweries around town carry Amalgam, so if you see a can (or a bottle), grab it.
Goldspot Brewing Company
4970 Lowell Blvd, Denver, CO 80221 | (303) 949-3563
Photography courtesy of Magic Muncie | Hop Culture
One of our “Best Breweries of 2023,” Goldspot Brewing goes beyond the liquid.
A one hundred percent Queer- and woman-owned brewery, Goldspot made our list of “The 11 Best Breweries to Watch in 2023,” so we sure love it when we’re right (self-assuring pat on the back here).
Last year, VinePair named Owner and Brewer Kelissa Hieber its Next Wave Awards Brewer of the Year for her dedication to breaking boundaries in the industry.
Goldspot has become a refuge for the Queer and BIPOC community in Colorado.
Walk into the taproom any given day, and you’ll find an array of people as colorful as the New Progress Pride flag. In other words, Goldspot has gained recognition as a welcoming, safe taproom for all in the community. People of all ages, races, identities, genders, and more come into Goldspot because they know they’re going to get a damn good beer and they’re going to feel safe drinking it.
At Goldspot, you’ll feel seen, cared for, and golden.
Something Hieber has laid the foundation for, brick by brick, since the very beginning.
Goldspot is “an inclusive space that people can just hang out in … a place to actually have a real community,” she told me.
At Goldspot, you share common respect and a common love over one thing: beer.
“I have no idea what their political beliefs are … but at least in our space, it’s pretty gay, obviously, but beer can just be that bridge point,” says Hieber.
Beer speaks as the universal language at Goldspot. Those like Gender Fluid, an Italian pilsner that initially started as a beer to raise money for one of the Goldspot bartender’s gender-affirming surgery. Matching the amount raised from $1 per pint poured, Hieber morphed that beer into a series, donating to a different organization every time, such as Denver Community Fridges or the Transformative Freedom Fund.
Or This Beer F*cks, a collaboration with the food truck The Easy Vegan. For the session IPA with passion fruit, they donated ten percent of all proceeds to LGBTQIA+ organizations fighting for Queer rights in Texas, Tennessee, and Florida.
And weekly events engender community and bring in tens of thousands for local organizations.
Hieber laughs, “My dad always jokes that you’re not an NGO. ”
But that doesn’t matter. And Hieber will never stop developing new ideas to support intersectional rights.
Last year, Hieber teamed up with Everywhere Is Queer Founder Charlie Sprinkman to start the Out Loud Beer Project, a collaborative beer recipe open to anyone to brew as long as they donate twenty-five percent of all profits to Everywhere Is Queer and a Queer non-profit of the collaborating brewery’s choice.
Proudly Queer- and woman-owned, Goldspot does not tolerate racism, bigotry, homophobia, xenophobia, or any hate in general.
We could seriously use thousands more Goldspots in the industry.
Lady Justice Brewing Company
3242 S Acoma St, Englewood, CO 80110 | (303) 578-8226
Photography courtesy of @ladyjusticebrewing
Another brewery setting the gold standard in the industry, Lady Justice Brewing Co.
The Queer- and woman-owned and Latina-founded brewery set out with the goal to make beer for a better world across all genders, nationalities, races, and sexualities. Founded in 2014 (and launching a brick-and-mortar in 2020) by Betsy Lay, Kate Power, and Jen Cuesta, Lady Justice holds the distinction as the world’s first fully female-owned and philanthropic brewery when it opened.
“I think craft beer has been philanthropic for a long time, but there weren’t breweries that existed solely to give their money away,” says Lay.
By the end of 2023, the brewery had raised over $50,000 for over ninety organizations across the country.
Beyond raising money, Lady Justice transformed their taproom into a welcoming, safe space for all drinkers.
“How would our physical space connect us to our community?” Lay says the co-founders asked themselves when the taproom first opened. “How do we make sure that we’re living into our mission both in the brick-and-mortar and in the money we give away?”
The answer meant hosting events and fundraisers and opening their space to non-profit organizations for meetings.
“I think we’re a mix between a neighborhood brewery and destination,” says Lay. “We have people who take vacations just to come to see Lady J, which blows my mind!”
Seriously.
“They’d be like, I heard you had an ESB,” laughs Lay. “I’m like, where the f**k did you come from? Who told you this? And they liked it, so that made me feel good.”
Lay calls all the folks visiting Lady J “different unicorns.”
In early 2024, Lady J moved from its Colfax taproom, which it had outgrown, to the old Sunroom Brewing space in Englewood.
Now, they have more space to welcome more people and continue creating change.
Or, as Lay puts it, “Lady J does have the power to shift culture.”
Bruz Beers
Bruz Off Fax: 1495 York St #101, Denver, CO 80206 | (303) 997-5144
Bruz Beers: 1675 W 67th Ave #100, Denver, CO 80221 | (303) 650-2337
Photography courtesy of TruBlu Images
If I told you that you could visit Belgium and all of its complex beer styles without ever leaving the city limits of Denver, would you believe me?
Walk into Bruz Beers, and it’s like stumbling through the back of the wardrobe. Only instead of ending up in Narnia, you hop across the pond to Belgium.
While backpacking in Europe in college, Bruz Beers Co-Founder Ryan Evans fell in love with Belgian beers. On his way to Amsterdam, Evans had a two-hour layover in Brussels. So he did what all good college students do: He found a pub.
“I walked in and said I’ll have a beer,” says Evans. “The bartender brought over a book, dropped it on the table, and walked away.” Perusing through all the beers, Evans couldn’t find one he recognized. “The styles—dubbel, tripel, quad—I didn’t know any of it,” says Evans, so he asked the bartender what to drink. “He said Tripel Karameliet,” Evans reminisces. “I didn’t even know if he called me a bad word, but he brought this glass…and I’ll never forget it. I took that first sip…what is this? I never had anything like that in my life.” Evans stayed for four or five more beers, walking crooked back to barely make his train.
That trip, he’d return time after time to Belgium, bringing more and more friends. “I just fell in love with it,” says Evans.
Opened in 2016, Bruz Beers is all of Evans’ life-changing, Belgian-beer-drinking experiences wrapped up into two gorgeous taprooms, gifting Americans with Belgium’s deep, complex, historic beer styles.
On the menu, you’ll find different sections: Sessionable Belgians, Sour Belgians, Fruited Summer Berries, and Bigger Belgians.
And all are meticulously crafted and brewed. These beers are literal labors of love.
Like Evans’ favorite, Tripel.
A pale 9.5% Abbey-style with flavors of peaches, pears, and light spice, “It’s drinkable, it’s approachable, but a little dangerous,” laughs Evans. “If I’m stuck on an island, the tripel would be my choice. I just love it.”
Bruz Beers just does things differently. Belgian beers take time, money, and dedication to make. Whereas many breweries want to turn their tanks as quickly as possible, Bruz Beers has to keep liquid in tanks for as long as the beer takes. “Breweries are used to turning tanks in two weeks,” says Evan. “Their heads would explode if they came and watched our process.”
While many breweries use somewhere between one to five yeast strains, Bruz Beers can use anywhere from fifty to sixty different ones in a year.
“Yeast is everything in a Belgian beer,” says Evans. “It’s insane. We have some propped up and grown for us, some we brought over from Belgium that they keep on file for us, and we do blends…but if we used one yeast, our beers would be different colors, but they would all taste the same.”
Overall, Evans says, “Our upfront cost was more, but our caring cost on the beers is also more.”
Bruz Beers answers to no one but themselves and their own dreams. And although it costs more and takes more time, they’re devoted to it.
And you can hear it so plainly as soon as Evans starts talking. He’s just so giddy and humbled to be doing what he loves, what changed his life, and to share that with so many people.
“Everyone told me we couldn’t do it because it’s too restricting or too limiting or people won’t like it,” says Evans. But six years later, Bruz Beers has one of the most devoted followings of any brewery in Denver. “People drive two hours to come here,” says Evans. “They might be passing fifty other breweries on their way here, so that blows my mind.”
He adds, “We’re spoiled. We are absolutely spoiled.”
Truly, we were the ones spoiled. When we visited in 2022, Evans dropped ten different beers in front of us, and all just crushed our little craniums with their flavor, crispness, and smoothness. Even beers at 9.5% ABV and upwards were drinking like 4 or 5% ABV.
That’s the magic you’ll find in the back of the wardrobe at Bruz Beers.
Burns Family Artisan Ales
1236 S Broadway, Denver, CO 80210 | (720) 379-7763
Photography courtesy of Burns Family Artisan Ales
We haven’t actually had a chance to visit Burns Family Artisan Ales yet, but it’s tops on our list for our next trip to Denver. For good reason, because it’s also tops on Untappd’s list—ranked as the third highest-rated brewery in all of Colorado with an average 4.21 rating out of over 14k ratings!
Started by Wayne Burns (known as the “Big-Beer King”) and Laura Worley, this family-owned brewery nails the spectrum—high- to low-end-ABV beers.
Throughout Wayne’s storied career, he’s picked up gold medals at both the World Beer Cup and Great American Beer Festival, and his beers have reached the heights of BeerAdvocate’s number-one beer in the world.
At Burns Family Artisan Ales, the brewery describes its beers as belonging to everything from the “family picnic to the fine dining table.”
Time is an ingredient here. Whether expressed in a 15.5% ABV barrel-aged black barleywine or a 4.5% ABV Czech-style dark lager.
Come for the big beers, stay for the sessionable ones.
Westbound & Down
Free Market: 1801 Blake St, Denver, CO 80202
Photography courtesy of Westbound & Down
Although Westbound & Down started in Idaho Springs, CO, the brewery opened a popup in Denver that they turned into a permanent hangout a couple of years ago.
Lucky for us and all of you!
Because there, you’ll find some of the best beers in Colorado.
Dubbed one of our most under-the-radar breweries in Colorado, Westbound & Down produces creative and refreshing beers.
The brewery’s Inherited Wisdom made our list of the ”27 Best Beers We Drank in 2022” for its perfect execution of a simple, humble style.
And its cream ale called The Coloradan picked up a bronze at last year’s GABF.
Or try everyone’s favorite, Spirt of the West, a West Coast IPA dry-hopped with hand-selected Mosaic and Strata.
Our Mutual Friend Brewing
2810 Larimer St, Denver, CO 80205 | (303) 296-3441
Our Mutual Friend Head Brewer Jan Chadowski | Photography courtesy of Our Mutual Friend Brewing Company
Started by friends Bryan Leavelle, Andrew Strasburg, and Brandon Proff in 2012, Our Mutual Friend, lovingly known as OMF, is the place where you drink beer with friends you’ve known for twenty years. Or you make friends with someone you’ve never met before. It’s the place where the friends of your friends introduce you to one another, and you become friends.
Do you get what we mean? Probably not. Because to truly understand OMF, you have to go there.
It would be hard to miss on Larimer Street. It’s the building with the crazy fuschia, red, blue, teal, and yellow blobs painted outside, inviting you to stop, stare, and come on in.
Known for their saisons and sours, OMF is a tiny operation with big brass brewing balls.
And we’re not the only ones who think so. At the GABF 2022, OMF racked up a gold in the Brett Beer category for Saison Trystero , a 6.6% ABV Brett Saison, and a silver in the Mixed-Culture Brett Beer category for Biere Ovale. And that’s a smidgen of the medals they’ve won.
We could wax poetic about OMF for another twenty paragraphs, but instead, we’ll just leave you with this: This brewery is bold, colorful, and full of characters making beer with character.
Come inside, and we guarantee you you’ll drink incredible beer and probably leave having made a friend or two.
Ratio Beerworks
2920 Larimer St, Denver, CO 80205 | (303) 997-8288
Overland: 2030 S Cherokee St, Denver, CO 80223 | (720) 242-6921
Ratio Beerworks patio | Photography courtesy of Ratio Beerworks
If you have a big group, hit up Ratio Beerworks RiNo taproom for the patio and the party. But if you’re looking for a chiller vibe, as of 2022, Ratio brought good feelings to the Overland neighborhood, attracting more locals and families.
At the RiNo taproom, you’ll find a raucous good time. The enormous indoor and outdoor area and tap list have something for everyone.
Get Domestica, a standard American golden ale that you can crush all afternoon long.
Of course, there’s Antidote, the brewery’s West Coast IPA, but don’t pass up King of Carrot Flowers, a carrot elderflower saison that won a gold medal at GABF in 2023.
If you’re in a big group, this is the place you want to be. Even if you’re not with a ton of folks, this is the brewery that’s constantly bumping. Everyone comes to hang out here, so skipping out on Ratio would probably be a…miscalculation.
Hogshead Brewery
4460 W 29th Ave, Denver, CO 80212 | (303) 396-4240
Photography courtesy of Hogshead Brewery
While on a trip to Washington and Yakima for hop harvest, we visited the seventeen-time award-winning brewery Formula Brewing.
After learning that we’d be going to Denver in a couple of weeks, Formula Head Brewer Jesse Brown suggested some of the best places to stop.
At the top of the list? Hogshead Brewery, a cask-ale-focused brewery.
Having worked at a cask brewery himself, Brown’s suggestion carried some weight with us.
But when Primitive Beer Co-Founders Lisa and Brandon Boldt magically texted us asking if we wanted to grab beers at Hogshead, we knew it was fate.
Photography courtesy of Magic Muncie | Hop Culture
Which is how we found ourselves on a sun-drenched patio, chilling with the Boldts and Hogshead Owner and Head Brewer Robert Bell with a couple of pints of hand-pulled ESBs in hand.
Now, we’re no experts in cask ale. But we did drink our fair share of cask ale through Manchester, London, and Edinburgh last April.
One of three flagships, Chin Wag is an ESB with a toothsome maltiness curbed by Fuggle and Golding hops. Hogshead calls this one “dangerously quaffable” at 38 IBUs and a “beer to savor over a good conversation.”
Which, honestly, is exactly what we did. And, we venture, you’ll do too if you ever visit this neighborhood gem.
Raíces Brewing Company
2060 W Colfax Ave, Denver, CO 80204 | (720) 300-9725
Esmeralda Irish Red Ale (left) and Raíz Mexican Lager/Bohemian – Style Pilsner (right) at Raíces Brewing Company
From Jamaica to Puerto Rico and Costa Rica, Raíces is a five-year-old addition to Denver that celebrates founder Tamil Maldonado Vega and her husband Jose Betata’s love of Latine culture through beer.
“Our pillars here are community, culture, and cerveza,” said Maldonado Vega on our recent visit.
Before you even walk into Raíces, you’ll probably notice a brilliant mural from Puerto Rican artist Luis Fernando (aka Guillo) covering the wall outside. Venture inside, and you’ll most likely be hit with vibrant music from a local Tejana band. And that’s all before you even get to the beer.
In the beer, you’ll find nods to Latine culture and ingredients everywhere. For instance, Cafecito (meaning small coffee in Spanish), a specialty coffee blonde ale featuring coffee from indigenous women-owned fair-trade coffee farms in Huehuetenango, Guatemala.
Raíces Head Brewer Martin Vargas chose a blonde style for this beer because, “as a brewer and a drinker, I like playing with the appearance and experience,” says Vargas. “Using something so clear that when you go close, you go, ‘whoa, this thing is really coffee,’ that is entertaining!”
Vargas also suggested we try Raíz, meaning root in English, the brewery’s take on a Bohemian-style pilsner that they actually call a Mexican lager.
But ultimately, for the Raíces team, it’s about much more than the beer. “[We’re] a community center, a cultural place, a place where people will get an experience that is not the norm often in the craft beer industry.”
However you spend your time at Raíces, and whatever you choose to drink, we guarantee you’ll have a good time and probably try something new.
Comrade Brewing Co.
7667 E Iliff Ave, Denver, CO 80231 | (720) 748-0700
Collection of medals at Comrade Brewing Co.
The manifesto at Comrade Brewing Co. starts with three letters: IPA. And not just any IPA, but one that’s won a gold medal in the American-Style Strong Pale Ale – American IPA category at GABF in 2019 and a silver in 2020.
Ask almost any brewer in Denver for their favorite IPA, and probably nine times out of ten, they’ll name Comrade’s Superpower IPA.
Comrade’s flagship beer comes loaded with Pacific Northwest hops like Citra, Simcoe, and Mosaic. “It’s really balanced,” says Comrade Brewing Company Chairman and Founder David Lin. “It doesn’t have that punishing bitterness; it’s just an easy-drinking IPA. You can drink a pint and want another afterward without getting fatigued.”
Besides Superpower, Comrade knows how to nail IPAs, winning gold in the most competitive category at 2022 GABF—American Style India Pale Ale—for its More Dodge Less RAM.
It’s the brewery’s seventh medal at GABF, including a Brewery of the Year award in 2019.
Obviously, Lin and Co. are doing something right. “Your fruit, vegetable, herb, spice, barrel-aged, sours, we don’t do those,” says Lin. “We just want to brew beers we want to drink…and we happen to be really IPA-focused because we just like drinking a lot of IPAs.”
That pretty much says it all. Go to Comrade for award-winning IPAs. Leave a little happier.
Call to Arms Brewing Company
4526 Tennyson St, Denver, CO 80212 | (720) 328-8258
Quality. Community. Camaraderie. Those are the three calling cards at Call to Arms, a brewery founded by three guys who cut their teeth at Avery Brewing.
The over twenty years of combined experience of co-founders Chris Bell, Jesse Brookstein, and Jon Cross means you’ll find world-class, award-winning, highly ranking beers at the brewery’s Tennyson Street taproom.
“We take our beers seriously, but we don’t take ourselves too seriously,” writes the brewery on its website.
For the former, you’ll find beers like The Ballroom Beer, which ranked twentieth in Paste Magazine’s blind tasting of 102 craft lagers.
For the latter, the taproom in the Northwest Denver neighborhood of Berkeley has become a part of the city’s fabric. Post up on one of the long picnic tables in the beer garden or cozy up to the warm, wood-paneled bar.
Either way, consider this your call to arms to Call to Arms, if you know what we mean.
TRVE Brewing Company
227 Broadway #101, Denver, CO 80203 | (303) 351-1021
Photography courtesy of John A. Paradiso and TRVE Brewing
TRVE Brewing makes hardcore beer. Because what’s more metal than killer farmhouse ales and grisettes? Nothing, that’s what.
Although, we’d argue that lagers are pretty hardcore these days, too.
And TRVE’s Xtra Good ranks as one of Untappd’s top ten all-time top-rated American light lagers.
With a name like Xtra Good, this American light lager better be good. Collabing with the lagerheads themselves, Live Oak gives this beer a leg up. Add in craft malt like Troubadour Peve and Texas grits, and you have a recipe for top-ten success.
Hopped with Mittelfrüh, Xtra Good gives us cracker, biscuity, gritty goodness with crispy, Earth-shattering extra greatness.
If you like metal or are just looking for a wild night, TRVE should be one of your top destinations on your trip to Denver.
Baere Brewing Co.
320 Broadway Unit E, Denver, CO 80203 | (303) 830-0028
Photography courtesy of @baerebrewing
We decided to let you in on a little secret. Baere is one of the hidden gems of Denver’s beer scene. It’s a teenie, tiny brewery, but Baere, located in Baker District, is brimming with exquisite and thoughtful beers.
Baere describes itself as a “craft brewery located in a shake shingle-covered strip mall.”
There, you’ll find sixteen taps pouring head brewer Matt Schenck’s beers, from a festbier with Troubadour malts to an XPA with Motueka and Nectaron to a rye imperial stout with fennel and caraway seeds and everything in between (like DDH Stuck Between Stations, a West Coast IPA with Columbus, Simcoe, Cryo Amarillo, and Nectaron).
Oh, there’s also virtual golf—if that’s your thing.
Check them out, but don’t go telling everyone!
Monolith Brewing
1290 S Broadway, Denver, CO 80210 | (303) 381-1222
Photography courtesy of Monolith Brewing
Ranked as the seventh-highest-rated brewery in Denver, Monolith Brewing does things just a little differently.
Brewing with a focus on sustainability, Monolith brews with only one hundred percent locally grown and malted barley and wheat.
Currently, you’ll find beers running the gamut from a peanut butter banana stout and peach and lychee sour to a coffee blond and German pilsner.
Beyond the beer, Monolith donates one percent of all its revenue to the Brew Like a Girl Scholarship Fund, which supports women in brewing science.
And, in their taproom, you’ll even find something called feather bowling.
Play a new sport, drink sustainable beer, and feel good about your day.
About The Author
Grace Lee-Weitz
Currently Drinking:
Fort Point Beer Co. KSA
Grace is the Senior Content Editor for Hop Culture and Untappd. She also organizes and produces the largest weeklong women, femme-identifying, and non-binary folx in craft beer festival in the country, Beers With(out) Beards, and the first-ever festival celebrating the colorful, vibrant voices in the queer community in craft beer, Queer Beer. An avid craft beer nerd Grace always found a way to work with beer. After graduating with a journalism degree from Northwestern University, she attended culinary school before working in restaurant management. She moonlighted as a brand ambassador at 3 Sheeps Brewing Co. on the weekends before moving into the beer industry full-time as an account coordinator at 5 Rabbit Cerveceria. Grace holds her Masters degree in the Food Studies program at NYU.
