Saving People With Prostates One Pint at a Time

The line wrapped around the entire building, stretching into the parking lot and curling around on itself like a puppy chasing its tail.

In the unseasonably warm Denver air, people had shown up in droves at 11 a.m., shelling out over $200 a ticket.

Those like Joel Miller, an award-winning homebrewer from Richmond, VA, who told me he’d just gotten off the plane. “I checked into the hotel and walked six miles here,” he says. “I passed other breweries on the way, but [I knew I’d be] drinking as much world-class beer here as I want.”

When the doors to the fifteenth Denver Rare Beer Tasting opened, Melanie Janis and her partner, who had flown in early from Texas just to attend, made a beeline for the Boston Beer booth for the uber-rare Utopias.

“We just wanted to make sure we got a taste of it,” she told me.

Photography courtesy of Magic Muncie | Hop Culture

At first blush, Denver Rare Beer may seem what it says: a festival that has taken place tangentially to the Great American Beer Festival (GABF), offering some of the rarest beer in the country.

But you need to look a little closer. You need to notice the tent outside the entrance, where people roll up their sleeves to get their blood drawn.

You need to start speaking to the brewers, who have all donated their beer.

And you need to meet Rick Lyke. He’s the man running around from table to table, shaking people’s hands, smiling, talking, and laughing.

Lyke is also a cancer survivor. And his one goal in life is to save as many others as possible: one Pint for Prostate at a time.

Whatever You Say When You’re Drunk, Do When You’re Sober

Pints for Prostates Founder Rick Lyke (first from the right) celebrating his fifteenth Denver Rare Beer Tasting | Photography courtesy of Magic Muncie | Hop Culture

At forty-seven years old, Pints for Prostates Founder Rick Lyke was diagnosed with prostate cancer.

He caught it early.

Thanks to his friend Michael Cunningham, who had stage four prostate cancer and started “encouraging every guy he knew to get screened,” says Lyke. “My doctor didn’t even want me to do the PSA blood test because he said my insurance wouldn’t cover it.”

But spurred by his friend, Lyke insisted, telling his doctor, “We’re doing the test.”

Diagnosed in late 2007, Lyke traveled to Chicago for surgery in 2008, thinking about how he could do what his friend did for him. How could he pay it forward?

A week after the surgery, Lyke’s wife asked him: Hey, are you serious about this Pints for Prostates?

Lyke looked at her dumbfounded, “I don’t even know what you’re talking about.”

Turns out that while medicated, Lyke had shared an idea: Pints for Prostates, an organization that, through beer, would raise money and awareness around prostate cancer.

“I’m one of those believers,” he told me. “Whatever you say when you’re drunk, you should do when you’re sober.”

For his first Pints for Prostates event, Lyke called up the GM of the Flying Saucer, a craft beer bar in Charlotte. “I literally thought I was going to do one and be done,” says Lyke.

But the word spread.

Soon, Lyke started getting calls from brewers saying they’d love to host one of his events if he were ever in town.

Those like Rogue Ales Co-Founder Jack Joyce, who called up Lyke out of the blue. “A week later, I got a check for $5,000,” says Lyke.

Lyke’s dream of paying it forward was quickly becoming a reality.

A Gentleman With a Prostate’s Bet

Photography courtesy of Magic Muncie | Hop Culture

As Pints for Prostates grew, so did their events.

In 2009, Lyke made a “gentleman’s bet” with All About Beer Magazine Publisher Daniel Bradford. He propositioned that he could create a boutique event during the Great American Beer Festival to successfully attract and raise money for Pints for Prostates.

Bradford was skeptical. Why would anyone going to the Great American Beer Festival want to go to some other beer event held at the same time?

Well, by promising rare beers, things you can’t get anywhere else.

Tickets to the first-ever Denver Rare Beer Tasting sold out within days.

“We outlandishly priced them,” says Lyke, noting they were the exact cost—$55—as a GABF ticket at the time.

But the people came. And kept coming. And coming.

That first year, hosted in the upstairs pool hall at Wynkoop, Denver Rare Beer welcomed twenty-four breweries (well, technically, twenty-five. More on that in a minute). Each brought their best.

“Honestly, probably close to twenty of those beers would fit right in with [this year’s festival],” says Lyke. “They were that unique and interesting.”

For instance, that twenty-fifth brewery, which “snuck in uninvited.” Towards the start of the third hour, a volunteer came up to Lyke to tell him a homebrewer was hooking up his keg at the completely kicked Brooklyn Brewery station.

“I go chugging over there,” recalls Lyke, who found Adam Avery from Avery Brewing. “If Adam brought something, we’ll let him pour it!”

To this day, Avery is one of only four breweries that have been at all Denver Rare Beer fests. “I still joke with him that he’s the homebrewer who snuck in,” laughs Lyke.

At this most recent event, Avery poured Thirty, a 15% ABV thirtieth anniversary strong ale aged in Stranahan’s Colorado whiskey barrels with a hearty dose of hops.

These are the kinds of beers you find here.

Putting the ‘Rare’ in Rare Beer

Photography courtesy of Magic Muncie | Hop Culture

Recently celebrating its fifteenth anniversary, Denver Rare Beer has become a cornerstone around GABF.

But when you put ‘rare’ into the name, you set the bar high.

And over the years, breweries at Denver Rare Beer have delivered.

Lyke says he often sees variants made just for the festival. “They’ll call me and say, ‘Hey, I found a barrel in the back of the brewhouse that will make really incredible beer,” says Lyke, “They might have only a couple of kegs for their taproom, and they’ll bring another one to us.”

For example, Boston Beer brought its 2021 Samuel Adams Utopias aged on Balaton Cherries. The 29% ABV strong ale ages in Sauternes French oak wine casks on Balaton and Michigan-grown cherries.

“To me, this week every year is like coming home,” says Boston Beer Director of Partnerships and Collaborations Jennifer Glanville, who mentions Denver Rare Beer is one of her favorite festivals of all time. “I see all these rare beers. … And it’s a really high vibe.”

Or Sierra Nevada, who poured Trip Thru the Woods, a 13.8% ABV barrel-aged Narwhal that spent eighteen months in wet bourbon barrels, fourteen months in rum barrels, and four years in Tawny Port barrels. The beer made its debut at Denver Rare Beer this year.

While standing at The Lost Abbey booth for a taste of double-oaked Red Poppy Grand Cru, I ran into Odyssey Beerwerks Co-Founder Deana Hill. The six-time Denver Rare Beer attendee brought Nala’s Zinfandel Barrel Aged Honey Tripel. Named after Hill and her husband and co-owner’s eponymous dog, Nala’s Zinfandel is an 11.3% ABV barrel-aged tripel with a dose of local Colorado honey.

“Last year, we brewed a honey tripel in honor of our dog that turned fifteen,” she explained. “That was one of my favorites, so we put it in red Zinfandel barrels and aged it for almost a year.”

Odyssey Beerwerks has chosen to come back time and again because the fest is “very near and dear to our hearts,” says Hill, whose father-in-law and three of her family’s close friends have been diagnosed with prostate cancer. “It’s just become a really important fest for us.”

Rare beers are everywhere you look.

What’s also rare? Breweries donate one hundred percent of all beer, meaning one hundred percent of all ticket sales can go straight to Pints for Prostates, with a portion of those dollars going to the Prostate Conditions Education Council, which organizes free men’s health screening clinics across the country.

Last year, Pints for Prostates raised $74,723, increasing its total to $2,177,055* all-time.

It’s rare to find an event that brewers care about this much. But it’s because Lyke cares.

“It’s something he’s so proud of and so intimately connected with himself,” says Eric Schmidt, co-founder of Amalgam Brewing and Creative Director at Westbound & Down, which has attended the festival for five years. “He wants people to be here, legitimately. He wants everyone to have a really great experience.”

To honor those who have participated for at least half a decade, Lyke presents an award.

“It’s really nice when you walk into one of those places, and you see the crystal award we give them on their back bar or in their trophy case,” says Lyke. “It’s sitting there along with their GABF medals!”

*Pints for Prostates currently supports the efforts of the Prostate Conditions Education Council (www.prostateconditions.org), which organizes free men’s health screening clinics across the country. The organization is a registered 501(c)3 charity.

Pouring One Out for Prostates

Photography courtesy of Magic Muncie | Hop Culture

If you’ve been to a Denver Rare Beer, chances are you’ve seen Lyke, especially if you’ve waited in line. He’s the guy with a huge smile, cruising out front, stopping to ask anyone with a prostate if they’ve gotten a free screening.

“Prostate cancer is virtually one hundred percent survivable when detected early,” says Lyke, noting that 35,000 people with a prostate will die from prostate cancer this year. “That’s really frustrating … [because] those are our dads, our brothers, our colleagues, our friends.”

Early detection is critical. But going to the doctor isn’t much fun.

Going to a beer festival, however? Well, we all know that sounds much more enjoyable.

Photography courtesy of Pints for Prostates

By the fifth festival, Lyke says they had started partnering with the Prostate Conditions Education Council, providing free screening for anybody born with a prostate. “We’ve literally screened thousands of [people with a prostate] over the years,” says Lyke. “We’re all about helping reach people through the universal language of beer.”

All you need to do is sit down for five minutes while someone draws your blood.

The test screens for PSA, a marker for prostate cancer, along with glucose for diabetes, cholesterol for heart disease, and testosterone for several health issues.

Lyke shares that, typically, fifteen to eighteen percent of those who go through the screening at one of their events report an elevated PSA. He’s quick to point out that doesn’t mean these folks have prostate cancer but that they should get further testing done.

He also says that many people who get screened at a Pints for Prostates event tell him they haven’t been to a doctor in three to five years. And even if they have, the lab tests to check your PSA can be expensive (upwards of $700) or not covered by insurance, “so guys sometimes skip those.”

But at a Pints for Prostates event, you just walk over and roll up your sleeves. “It takes five minutes,” says Lyke. “And it’s free.”

Plus, afterward, you get to drink some of the rarest beer in the world.

So, yes, Denver Rare Beer is about…rare beer, but it’s also about way more than beer.

Not Your Grandfather’s Prostate Cancer

Photography courtesy of Magic Muncie | Hop Culture

With Pints for Prostates, Lyke has done something rare. He’s taken something uncomfortable, unspoken about, and brought it front and center to young people.

“It struck me when I was forty-seven years old,” says Lyke. “It’s not an old man’s disease.”

According to Lyke, one in eight people born with a prostate will develop prostate cancer in their lifetime.

That’s anyone with a prostate, whether you’re male, nonbinary, or trans.

“I wish I had a dollar for every time somebody said to me that you don’t die from prostate cancer,” says Lyke. “[Anyone with a prostate] can die with prostate cancer.”

Lyke urges that “it’s not like when your grandfather had prostate cancer.”

The survivability rate is way up, the surgeries have vastly improved, and the side effects people used to worry about can be avoided, especially with early detection.

But there’s no way around it: getting yourself checked as soon as possible is the key.

Lyke could not stress this enough. At the end of the day, Pints for Prostates and Denver Rare Beer have one goal: to prevent unnecessary deaths from prostate cancer.

So, if you see that guy with a vast grin walking up and down the line, encouraging you to step over for just five minutes, don’t think twice about it.

“Hey, you’ve got a prostate,” says Lyke. “Get screened and take care of your health.”

And then go drink some of the rarest beer you’ll ever find.

Seems like a win-win.