Although the temperatures are dropping here in Denver, there is no short supply of your favorite beer festivals. The Denver Beer Festivus celebrated eight years this past Saturday afternoon. We have always maintained this one of our favorites, nothing changed as a slew of local breweries were on hand to sample some of their favorite brews. Beer drinkers were decked out in their favorite ugly sweaters and holiday attire making for some amazing outfits (we even saw multiple Cousin Eddie’s from Christmas Vacation). This years edition spread out over several rooms making it easy to navigate from brewery to brewery with little to no lines. Food was a plenty as a food court had everything from warm pretzels to pizza for you to enjoy. A silent disco was on site providing for some amazing tunes by some of Denvers best DJ’s. It’s hard to name favorites with a festival like this as all the breweries showcase their best, but if we had to…..some of ours included brews from Denver Beer Co, Black Project Spontaneous, Great Divide, Zuni Street, and Ratio Beerworks. If you have never been to one of these we highly suggest you put it on your radar for next year.

-Words and Images-Robert Castro

Saturday night we got to go behind the scenes of the Breckenridge Brewery facilities at their Farmhouse in Littleton, CO and were treated to a special private beer dinner in their Barrel Room! Since being acquired by Anheuser-Busch InBev December of 2015, the facilities and beer production has greatly expanded and contributed to their cool new Farmhouse "campus" as they call it.

We got a great tour from Katie who literally walked us through each step in the brewing, aging and bottling process. Yes, some of their beers are aged, including their newest Brewery Lane Series release, the Imperial Vanilla Porter. This limited series beer is aged in Rum barrels, which we later dined among, and brewed with Madagascar vanilla beans.

At the end of the tour we each got a full pour of the Irish Stout and headed down to the Barrel Room where they had set up tables for us lucky 30 to sit and dine. The first course was a Roasted Beet Flatbread paired with an amazing Barrel Aged Imperial Cherry Stout. Next we had an Agave Wheat Shrimp Ceviche served on an avocado with an Oak Aged Saison which was light but flavorful, just like the Ceviche.

The entree was a big bowl of Duck Confit atop Risotto and Brussels Sprouts with a dry hopped orange glaze. This dish was so delicious and had a wonderful caramelized taste with an orange undertone from the glaze. It was paired with their seasonal holiday beer, the Holidale wich paired the holiday flavors of cinnamon and spice perfectly with the warming dish tinged with orange flavors. The beer itself is more of an Amber Ale with savory spices reminiscent of winter.

For the fourth course we finished with an Imperial Vanilla Porter Orange Ganache Tart with a vanilla whip. This was a dense chocolate tart with a strong orange zest flavor and delicate whip and nitrogen shattered blood oranges sprinkled on top! They did the shattering in front of us which was fun to watch and added a unique taste and dining experience. This was paired with the Imperial Vanilla Porter of course which was dark and thicker like the Irish Stout.

We were so impressed with this special Barrel Aged Beer Dinner by Executive Chef Nate Gravina and GM Joe Porter, and encourage you to look out for the next time the brewery hosts one of these. And after such an excellent dinner you should definitely make it a point to get some food with your beer the next time you're there. Cheers~

Full photo gallery below. https://www.breckbrew.com/beers

Words by Tiffany Candelaria Photos by Josh Stephens