The modern version of the brewery, which has occupied a high-profile space in the Auraria campus’ student union for a decade, and the organization that runs the facilities shared by three onsite colleges weren’t able to come to a lease agreement after months of negotiations, according to Devra Ashby, Auraria’s marketing and communications director.

“Since 2015, [Tivoli] has been an integral part of the Auraria Campus, contributing to the campus community and collaborating on educational initiatives until 2021,” Ashby said in a statement. “While brewing operations on campus ceased in fall 2023, the Tivoli Tap House served as a gathering space for students, faculty, staff, and the broader Denver community. We appreciate Tivoli’s contributions over the years and extend our best wishes for their future endeavors.”

Auraria is currently “in discussions” with a potential replacement, she added.

Although the taproom is closed, the brewery will continue to operate a production facility in the southeastern Colorado town of La Junta, where it primarily makes a lager called Outlaw Light. The Tivoli name is also still attached to the taproom at Denver International Airport, but the company is no longer connected to the space, which is run by an airport concessionaire called SSP America.

The original Tivoli brewery was founded in 1900 in the same building as the new one, at 1900 Auraria Parkway. The company and its owners had brewing roots on that site dating back to 1859, however, a year after Denver’s founding. Tivoli was one of just a handful of Colorado breweries to survive prohibition and later became one of the largest beer makers in the West. It went out of business, though, in 1969, for several reasons, including a strike and a flood.

In 2012, Corey Marshall, a former Coors executive who had been a bouncer at a bar that was located in the student union building in the 1990s, began researching and collecting old Denver beer trademarks and brands from the 1800s and early 1900s. His goal — as the craft beer industry began to boom — was to update some of the beers and sell them to thirsty Denver residents.

In 2015, Marshall struck a deal with AHEC to reopen in the Tivoli building, adding modern brewing equipment, but keeping some of the historic kettles that remained as decoration. But by 2018, Marshall had left and been replaced by a new ownership group. During the COVID-19 pandemic, conditions got even worse as the campus was shut down.

In recent years, CEO Ari Opsahl has steered the company away from its historic beers and toward Outlaw Light, which has been selling well, according to the company.

Last year, Opsahl told The Denver Post that he hoped to find “a mutually amicable path forward.

“The taphouse is a cornerstone for the campus,” Opsahl said then, pointing out that the brewery and the building share a name. “We love it, but operating there is a challenge, as it is pretty dead all summer (when classes aren’t in session). We can’t even break even.

“We want to be there,” he added. “But have to find a way to make it work for both parties.”

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Beer is supposed to be fun. Yes, brewing is full of history and tradition and skill, but the reason for its existence in modern society is as a social lubricant, a communal endeavor. And fun.

And you won’t find a more pure expression of that notion than at Collaboration Fest, an annual beer gathering that brings together 180 breweries, primarily from Colorado, and 140 beers — all made specifically for this event.

The brewers can make anything they want, as long as they do it with someone else: another brewery, several other breweries, another business or organization. The beers they make can be serious attempts at experimentation, one-off larks, ironic statements or simply an excuse for people to spend a day or two together during a work week.

This year’s fest, which takes place Saturday, April 19, from 2 to 6 p.m. at The Westin Westminster, 10600 Westminster Blvd., is no different. If you go (tickets are $20-$95 and available at collaborationfest.com), you’ll find something to shock, soothe or satisfy any palate.

Here are some of the most interesting, unusual and fun beer collabs on the taplist.

• Woods Boss Brewing and Oregon’s Silver Moon Brewing reconvened to make Stihl Crazy (After All These Years), a beer they last made six years ago. To do it, the brewers ran hot wort from the kettle down the channel of a split 12-foot section of a pine tree. The goal is to impart the character of the tree into the resulting beer, a Norwegian farmhouse-style saison.
• You wouldn’t blink an eye at a Southeast Asian restaurant if the menu listed a spicy peanut sauce made with sriracha sauce. In a beer, though? No matter. Verboten Brewing in Loveland and Gravity Brewing in Louisville will be serving Peanut Butter Sriracha Imperial Porter. The goal, according to the breweries, is to “make something weird but not too weird.”
• The brewers at Mountain Toad Brewing in Golden and Evergreen Brewery decided to make a beer with fonio, an ancient West African grain that is drought-resistant and sustainably grown, according to the collaboration notes. It’s also relatively new to the brewing world. “Brewing with fonio and pilsner malt created a unique beer with aromas and flavors of white wine, lychee, and citrus with a soft, rounded finish.” The beer is called Friend of Fonio.
• Pouring beer is an art form in the Czech Republic, so much so that even foam gets a style designation all its own, called mliko. In fact, in some bars, you can drink just the foam, which, when meted out with specially screened, side-pouring faucet taps, has a rich and creamy feel that is fun to drink (and to make a foam mustache out of). A handful of local breweries offer mliko pours, including Wild Provisions Beer Project in Boulder, which has partnered with Denver’s Great Divide Brewing on TmavYeti, a Czech-style dark lager, tmave, that was aged in whiskey barrels and will be blended with more lager and poured as mliko.
• For its unusual collaboration, Aurora’s Cheluna Brewing teamed up with Oaxaca Brewing in Mexico to make Red Tepache Sour. Made with fermented pineapple rinds and colored with cochineal, a traditional natural dye, the beer harkens back to pre-Columbian times, when tepache originated. This version also includes cinnamon and clove.

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Colorado distillers are raising a toast to this new standard of identity for domestic whiskey, one that formally defines what ingredients can be used and how American single malt should be made. Instituted in December by the federal alcohol regulators, the designation joins vaunted labels like bourbon, rye and Irish Whiskey. This is the first time since 1968 that the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau has added a new one.

While U.S. distilleries have been making single malt spirits for a long time, local whiskey producers believe the designation will allow them to better compete with powerhouses like Scotland and Japan. They are also confident that Colorado can take the lead in popularizing American single malt, thanks to the state’s strong beer heritage, which has cultivated a generation of distillers familiar with using its base ingredient, one that is frequently grown here as well.

“Colorado was and is at the forefront of craft beer in the country. We have a lot of people like me, who were brewers, who understand malt and who started distilling and making malt whiskey,” said Craig Engelhorn, co-founder and master distiller at Spirit Hound Distillers in Lyons. “Just like we were pioneers in the ’90s with craft beer, we’re pioneers now with malt whiskey.”

Creating a category

The TTB defines American single malt whiskey as a beverage made from 100% malted barley that is mashed, distilled and matured in the U.S.

It must be aged in oak barrels that are a maximum of 700 liters (185 gallons) and bottled at least 40% alcohol by volume. While the spirit is required to be distilled entirely at one distillery, the definition leaves room for companies to either make it in-house or source it from another producer.

The parameters were largely informed by whiskey producers, who spent the nine years lobbying regulators. The movement started in 2016, when Steve Hawley, then working at Seattle’s Westland Distillery, convened with eight other spirit makers at a Binny’s Beverage Depot in Chicago. The group’s objective: To find consensus about what makes American single malt whiskeys distinct.

The meeting took roughly one hour and catalyzed the American Single Malt Whiskey Commission, which took the lead advocating for the code update on behalf of U.S. producers. (The spelling of “whiskey” differs across organizations. (The TTB uses “whisky” in its American single malt definition, but for clarity, The Denver Post will spell the word as “whiskey” in this story.)

Hawley, who serves as president of the commission, submitted a formal petition to regulators shortly after that initial meeting. As the rulemaking process inched forward over the years, the organization worked to “spread the gospel” of American single malt whiskey, rallying distillers, maltsters and liquor stores around its cause. Today, it boasts 113 members.

What galvanized so many producers, Hawley said, was an opportunity to level the playing field between American-made spirits and the world’s most coveted Scotch and Japanese single malts.

“America has been known for bourbon for such a long time, but it’s not the only kind of whiskey that’s being made here,” Hawley said. American single malt “stands toe to toe with Scotch whiskey, Japanese whiskey and whiskey being made all over the world.

“I think what you’ll find with American single malt whiskey is, in a broad sense, a very intentional approach to be distinct — to have our own voice in the world of single malt,” he added, “not just be a copy of Scotch or to replicate what other people are doing.”

Colorado’s role

Malted barley is the primary ingredient used to make beer and the majority of whiskeys, and many local distillers transitioned to the spirits industry after cutting their chops at breweries.

That means local drinkers have access to some of the best single malt whiskeys in the country, said Spirit Hound’s Englehorn, who helped develop the original recipe for Dale’s Pale Ale in the early 2000s while he was a brewer at Oskar Blues.

Spirit Hound sells six different single malts, including one called Colorado Honey, which is finished in barrels used to store local honey. It was awarded the title of American Single Malt Whiskey of the Year at the 2024 London Spirits Competition.

It’s not only the technique that sets Colorado single malt whiskey apart, however. Many craft distillers use locally grown barley, which gives their spirits a sense of place and showcases the Rocky Mountain terroir, said Justin Aden, head blender at Stranahan’s in Denver.

Stranahan’s has been making exclusively single malt whiskey since it was founded in 2004. Every spirit starts with the same base recipe: A 100% malted two-row barley mash that’s fermented off the grain husks, distilled and then aged for at least four years in new American white oak barrels. After that, Aden gets to have some fun concocting various flavors by finishing the spirits in different casks – like those previously used for sherry or rum – and by blending different ages together for complexity.

But what makes Stranhan’s whiskey distinct is the Colorado grains, most of which are grown on the Front Range, Aden said. He expects distilleries in other states to use their own barley in single malt whiskeys as well, in order to highlight local agricultural communities. (That’s why the growth of American single malt whiskey is a potential boon for farmers, Engelhorn said.)

“There’s a whole bunch of varietals of barley that grow in different regions of the country better than others,” Aden said. “That’s a really fun thing for whiskey geeks to discover.”

To commemorate the new federal designation, Stranahan’s will soon debut a new blend called Founder’s Release. The 12-year-old whiskey is one of its oldest and highest-proof expressions, clocking in at 60% alcohol by volume. It’s expected to be available for sale in late spring for $199.99.

Flavor and creativity

What most excites Ironton head distiller Laura Walters is the opportunity for creativity and innovation. The single malt definition mandates that distillers use 100% malted barley, but it doesn’t specify what kind or how it is roasted, which creates room for experimentation.

For example, her flagship American Straight Malt Whiskey features 60% specialty malts roasted to various levels, drawing out different sugars and flavors. But a recipe Walters developed for Colorado State University athletics featured a different ratio of base malts and specialty malts, which created an entirely new flavor profile.

The freedom to design a mash bill like this, plus the ability to leverage barrels and even elevation, means there’s an almost endless well of flavor combinations to play with. “Everybody talks about terroir in wine, but it’s definitely a thing with whiskey, too,” she said. “Even in our state alone, a barrel that is aged at Denver’s level is going to be totally different than a barrel in Aspen.”

Or even in the Boulder County town of Louisville, where Ironton Distillery is moving its production at some point in the next few years.

So, how will American single malt sell? Hawley said he hopes to see new sections at liquor stores denoting the style to help customers more easily identify it. But one of the best ways to try the local tipples remains bellying up where they’re made.

“Go out there, try new single malts, support local distilleries,” Walters said. “It’s an exciting time.”

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Senate Bill 33, which passed the legislature with sizable bipartisan support, blocks the state from issuing any more liquor licenses to drugstores, which typically means grocery stores that also have pharmacies. Supporters had argued that the law would help support independent liquor stores as grocery stores — which can now sell wine and beer — move increasingly into alcohol sales.

The new law, signed by Polis on Thursday, means more grocery stores can’t expand into selling hard liquor.

“Independent liquor stores are important small businesses in communities across the state, especially in small towns, and they are the lifeline for Colorado’s craft breweries and distilleries,” Sen. Dylan Roberts, a Frisco Democrat who co-sponsored the bill, said in a statement Friday. “Without this law, we’d see more local job layoffs and more closures of these stories across the state because they’d be turfed out by big box stores.”

The bill was also backed by Sen. Judy Amabile and Reps. Naquetta Ricks and Ron Weinberg.

Colorado has 36 active drugstore liquor licenses, according to a nonpartisan legislative analysis. The law is expected to prevent about two dozen more licenses from being issued in the next two years.

The law does not impact grocery or drugstores that already have those licenses; they’ll still be able to renew them. Lawmakers had pursued similar limitations in previous years, and Roberts said SB-33 was a compromise compared to those attempts, which would’ve removed existing licenses.

In signing the bill, Polis bucked retail and grocery store industry groups that had asked him to veto it. In a signing statement, Polis wrote that he was concerned the bill would move the state’s “liquor laws backward, not forward.”

But the legislative support for the bill was so overwhelming, he continued, that it forced his hand away from the veto pen. Eighty-four of the legislature’s 100 lawmakers voted in support of the bill.

Opponents criticized the bills’ passage into law and floated the possibility of a ballot measure to reverse the new policy, which goes into effect immediately.

“On behalf of hundreds of businesses and thousands of employees in Colorado, we are disappointed that the governor has signed this protectionist measure into law when the current system balances consumer choice, business sustainability, and safety,” Ray Rivera, the executive director of Coloradans for Consumer Choice, said in a statement. “Senate Bill 33 disrupts this balance, contradicts the will of voters, and does nothing to improve public safety.”

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The studies included in the report, which will help shape the 2025 edition of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, defined moderate alcohol consumption as no more than one drink per day for women and two per day for men. (A standard drink is 12 ounces of beer containing 5% alcohol, 5 ounces of wine, or 1½ ounces of hard liquor.)

All the studies in the report come with some uncertainty: Scientists can’t randomize one group to drink alcohol and another to abstain for years or decades, and people don’t always keep track of how much they drink, said Dr. Ned Calonge, chair of the committee that compiled it and the associate dean for public health practice at the Colorado School of Public Health.

While the research did show lower death rates among moderate drinkers, the committee couldn’t rule out that they were healthier for some other reason, Calonge said.

“I do think that it would be wrong to recommend that someone start drinking for health reasons,” he said. “If a person chooses to drink, they should drink moderately.”

Here are five takeaways from the report:

Heavy drinking is unhealthy

Men who have more than two drinks per day and women who have more than one have a higher risk of heart attacks, strokes and “all-cause mortality” — essentially, all causes lumped together and adjusted for age. (While everyone will die of something, excessive drinking increases the odds it will happen prematurely.)

“Any potential decreased health risks (from moderate drinking) are wiped out if a person drinks heavily,” Calonge said.

Moderate drinking might have some benefits…

Both men and women who drank moderately had a lower risk of all-cause mortality than those who never drank. They also had a lower risk of dying from cardiovascular disease.

Moderate drinking raises “good” cholesterol, which could explain why people who have one or two drinks a day might be less likely to develop heart disease, Calonge said.

…but not when it comes to cancer

Women who drank moderately had a higher risk of breast cancer than those who didn’t drink at all, and the risk was higher for those who averaged one drink a day than those who drank less frequently.

Alcohol breaks down into substances that can damage DNA when the body metabolizes it, which could explain an increased risk of cancer, Calonge said. The committee couldn’t determine if moderate drinking changes the odds of developing other cancers, he said.

Evidence is still lacking in some areas

One of the committee’s assignments was to determine whether someone’s decision to drink had any effect on their weight and body composition. It couldn’t reach any conclusions, because the underlying studies didn’t account for other differences between people who drink and those who don’t. (For example, maybe the drinkers were more likely to smoke, or a significant number of nondrinkers had a soda habit.)

Controversy isn’t over

A different report, compiled in 2020, came to the opposite conclusion on cardiovascular disease, finding no advantage to moderate drinking. It suggested that men also limit themselves to one drink per day, to minimize their risk of cancer.

Critics of the current report told The New York Times they believed the committee cherry-picked studies that would support benefits from moderate drinking.

The number of studies was small because the committee’s task was to look at evidence since 2010 that compared moderate drinkers to lifelong abstainers, Calonge said. (Comparing current drinkers to people who gave it up for health reasons can make the drinking group look better.)

They used those criteria to exclude studies without knowing which way their results would point, he said.

Ultimately, the field needs more and higher-quality research on moderate drinking, Calonge said.

“I totally reject that (cherry-picking) criticism,” he said. “What I can say is it’s a small snapshot.”

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Los Dos Potrillos will debut its first location in Mile High City limits on April 15, according to an announcement Wednesday. The restaurant started as a single location in Centennial in 2002 and has since grown to five eateries and a craft brewery along the Front Range. It serves a wide array of Mexican dishes, but is perhaps best loved for its tacos and green chile. The company’s house-brewed beer has won accolades, too.

Despite its popularity and proliferation, its sixth location is the first one in Denver, and the family owners behind the Ramirez Hospitality Group are going big to celebrate.

Located at 4100 E Mexico Ave., Ste G, the Denver spot inhabits 8,000 square feet of real estate near the intersection of I-25 and Colorado Boulevard. It will employ 100 people, the announcement says.

“We’ve always wanted to bring Los Dos Potrillos to Denver, and we couldn’t be more excited to share our food and family traditions while building an incredible new community at Colorado Boulevard,” said Daniel Ramirez, CEO of Los Dos Potrillos. “Everything we serve comes from the heart, and we can’t wait to welcome our Denver neighbors into the family.”

The opening comes on the heels of one closure within the company’s network. In February, Los Dos Portillos Cocina y Cantina in Northglenn closed after about a year in operation. That location was distinct because of its fast-casual format, which required guests to order at a counter before sitting down and being served. The restaurant converted to full-service at the behest of diners, but ultimately shuttered.

Earlier this year, Ramirez told The Denver Post the location was smaller than Los Dos Potrillos’ usual “happy spot.”

“When we are at 200-plus seats, we can do our best work at giving great service and providing exceptional value to all of our customers,” he said in a February email.

That is about how many seats Los Dos Potrillos anticipates having in Denver. Locals who want to get a taste can stop by April 15 after 11 a.m., when there will be a ribbon cutting ceremony held for the new building.

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Left Hand Brewing, which was founded in Longmont in 1993, will absorb Aurora’s Dry Dock Brewing in a move that was funded in part by Left Hand’s recent share offerings through both a Wefunder campaign and a Regulation D sale. It has so far raised more than $2 million.

Related: 31-year-old Great Divide Brewing has sold to a new — and local — owner

As a result, Dry Dock, known for beers like Apricot Blonde and Hopricot IPA, will move all of its production from Denver, where it had been making beer at Great Divide Brewing, to Longmont. The Dry Dock Aurora taproom, at 15120 E. Hampden Ave., will remain open.

“They’re taking our baby and helping us grow,” said Kevin DeLange, who started Dry Dock with Michelle Reding in 2005, in an interview with The Denver Post. “We are excited to have a brewery like Left Hand to entrust our brand to. It feels like the best fit for us.”

DeLange and Reding will acquire equity in Left Hand’s parent company, Indian Peaks Brewing, which is now the parent company of Dry Dock as well. They will also continue to oversee the Aurora taproom, and DeLange will remain in sales and as an ambassador for the combined entity, which will be able to offer beers from both brands in 45 states.

Left Hand was the third-largest independent brewery in Colorado at the start of 2024 (the last time numbers were available), while Dry Dock was ninth, according to the Boulder-based Brewers Association.

Like other small breweries across the country, both have faced inflation, competition from other alcoholic beverages, and a challenging market overall. Sales and volume for breweries were down 2% between mid-2023 and mid-2024, the Brewers Association reported, adding: “In addition to a crowded marketplace, brewers continue to navigate a changing economy.”

“Things are changing. The whole culture around beer has shifted, and things need to shake out and settle,” Left Hand co-founder and CEO Eric Wallace told The Denver Post. “We’re telling people with this that we do see a future in joining together with other breweries. … Those of us who band together have a much likelier chance of survival than those who don’t.”

The eventual goal, he continued, is to bring more independent craft breweries together under Left Hand’s platform. “This partnership with Dry Dock is the first real step in bringing that to life.”

The move comes just a day after Great Divide Brewing, another of Colorado’s legacy companies, was acquired by the newly formed Lafayette-based parent company of both Denver Beer Co., Funkwerks, Howdy Beer, Cerveceria Colorado and Stem Ciders. Stem had merged with Denver Beer Co. and Funkwerks in February to create Wilding Brands, which now controls more than a dozen taprooms and restaurants across the Front Range. Great Divide founder Brian Dunn told The Denver Post on Tuesday that economies of scale have become much more important for breweries these days.

Other Colorado craft breweries have been teaming up with one another as well, including Denver’s TRVE Brewing, which moved its production to New Image Brewing in Wheat Ridge, while Tilray, a cannabis company, has rolled up several breweries, including Breckenridge.

Before the merger with Left Hand, Dry Dock itself announced in 2023 that it would shutter its 30,000-square-foot production brewery on Tower Road in Aurora and move the majority of its beermaking and packaging to Great Divide.

Founded in 2005 as an offshoot of DeLange’s and Reding’s homebrewing store, Dry Dock was the first brewery in Colorado to operate strictly as a taproom, meaning it didn’t package its beer or sell food — the model that every other brewery was using. It grew quickly in the following years, with some of its beers achieving cult-like status, and many more winning medals.

In 2013, Dry Dock expanded into a production warehouse with a taproom, a move helped along by the in-state success of its flagship beer, Apricot Blonde. It expanded quickly after that, becoming known more and more for its fruit-forward beers.

Left Hand was born — along “the banks of the mighty St. Vrain,” as the company used to boast — at the beginning of Colorado’s first craft-beer boom in the early 1990s. It grew from a tiny operation, selling growlers and bottles of English-style ales and German lagers, into one of the 50 largest craft breweries in the country, adding a taproom in Denver in 2022.

Along the way, it pioneered an innovative way to package its dark stouts with nitrogen gas so that they would pour as if they were on draft in a bar. Eventually, Left Hand became known primarily for its stouts, remaining independent even as several of Colorado’s other large craft breweries — like New Belgium, Oskar Blues, Avery and Breckenridge — were purchased by much larger, multinational corporations. It became employee-owned in 2015.

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On Tuesday, Wilding Brands announced it had acquired Great Divide Brewing Co., which opened in 1994 and has since become one of Colorado’s most well-known and well-loved brands. The acquisition includes Great Divide’s wholesale business and any future brick-and-mortar locations. Production of beers like Yeti imperial stout and Titan IPA will move to Wilding’s facility in Denver’s Sunnyside neighborhood, the announcement states.

Wilding Brands is a new company that formed in late 2024 through the merger of local beverage makers Stem Ciders, Denver Beer Co. and Funkwerks brewery. Its portfolio includes the founding companies plus Howdy Beer, Easy Living sparkling hop water, Cerveceria Colorado and Formation Brewing, a new concept in Phoenix. The Sunnyside production facility formerly belonged to DBC as well.

Wilding Brands plans to honor Great Divide’s legacy as one of the leaders of Colorado’s craft beer movement while also “bringing new energy and resources to help the brand grow,” Charlie Berger, Denver Beer Co.’s co-founder, said in a statement.

Wilding Brands pledged no changes to Great Divide’s two taprooms in Denver or its three branded restaurants in Castle Rock, Lone Tree, and Lakewood. The bar at Denver International Airport is also expected to remain open.

Brian Dunn, Great Divide’s founder and president, will still be involved with the business, helping oversee the transition and operating the brewery’s two Denver locations at 2201 Arapahoe St., near Coors Field, and 1812 35th St. in River North. He will also be the point of contact for the managers of its three suburban restaurants, which license Great Divide’s brand.

In an interview, Dunn said he has entertained conversations about selling his brewery over the years, but Wilding Brands felt like the first good fit that would allow him to make the leap. (Dunn declined to disclose the sale price.)

“It’s been my only job for the past 31 years and it’s been great. I think we’ve accomplished a lot, we have an amazing team, but I also don’t want to do it when I’m 80. So, at some point, you need to consider transitioning it to someone else,” Dunn said.

Wilding Brands understands Colorado’s craft beer culture, Dunn added, and he feels confident their team will continue to brew Great Divide beer at the level of quality it’s known for. Tapping into Wilding’s resources and leveraging efficiencies will not only benefit the beer, but also drinkers by getting Great Divide into more retail stores — and potentially new taproom locations — across the state.

“Something that we’ve always struggled with being midsized is we cannot afford to have 10 salespeople in Colorado,” Dunn said. “Currently, we have no salesperson who’s located in the mountains. We’re at a certain volume where we can’t afford that, but Wilding will have those economies of scale.”

The deal puts two of Colorado’s biggest craft beer makers under the same umbrella. In 2023, Denver Beer Co. was the state’s fourth-largest beer producer by volume, making 21,849 barrels, per data from the Brewers Association. Great Divide ranked seventh-largest that year with an annual production of 18,407 barrels.

The acquisition also comes at a challenging time for the beer industry. In 2024, beer sales in Colorado dropped 3.2%, according to the state’s Liquor Enforcement Division. In 2023 and 2024, a collective 76 Colorado breweries closed, the division reported.

However, these trying times have spurred innovative approaches to collaboration in Colorado and beyond. TRVE Brewing in Denver, for instance, closed its manufacturing plant and moved beer production to New Image Brewing in Wheat Ridge. Tilray, a global cannabis company, has been on an acquisition blitz, buying several well-known craft brands in recent years, including Breckenridge Brewery. Tilray is now the sixth-largest craft beer company in the U.S., according to the Brewers Association.

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The Centennial beer maker, which opened in 2016, is set to serve its final pints this Saturday at 5150 E. Arapahoe Road.

“Our lease is up shortly and we have made the difficult decision to close the taproom so that we can focus on selling the equipment and getting everything wrapped up,” owners Chris Reigrut and Chris Garner wrote in a Tuesday Facebook post.

Reigrut was raised in Germany, according to Halfpenny’s website. And Garner’s great-grandfather was a Pennsylvania brewer and distiller who had to shutter his operation during Prohibition.

The two, who have been best friends since high school, started homebrewing nearly two decades before they opened the Centennial spot. Both are engineers, according to their LinkedIn profiles, with Reigrut working for Amazon and Garner for Qwest.

“When we started, our goal was to share our passion for beer, and bring some of the community and togetherness from German gasthauses and English pubs to Centennial,” they wrote in the post. “And we feel like we’ve been successful in that respect.”

The taproom serves six “flagship” brews along with a rotating cast of seasonal specials, per Halfpenny’s website. It offered a handful of food options, along with rotating food trucks.

Patrons could enjoy their beer in one of the space’s three areas: a German-style beer hall with long, communal tables, an American open seating section and a more intimate setting called “The Snug,” its website shows.

Westword reported the taproom was 2,000 square feet at the time Halfpenny opened. The brewery’s total footprint, including production space, is 5,250 square feet, according to the shopping center’s property manager.

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Thursday. It’s the end of the line and the end of the rhyme for the Mercury Cafe, which is closing after 50 years of leading Denver’s creative scene-making, from comedy to music to poetry to food. The venue, founded by Marilyn Megenity, will become The Pearl, a bar catering to LGBT women and nonbinary individuals — but open to everyone. The owners have said they plan to keep some of the Merc’s programming. The Mercury Cafe Farewell Party & Ballroom Open Mic starts at 7 p.m. on March 27, at 2199 California St. There will be cheap drinks and guest performances.

Bierock ‘n’ Roll

Saturday. Barquentine Brewing, located inside the Edgewater Public Market, 5505 W. 20th Ave., celebrates its fifth anniversary Saturday with a big party, live music, bouncy castles and a surprise announcement: the brewery has added food, wine and cocktails.

The food menu will be anchored by bierstock, savory potato-based pocket sandwiches from Eastern Europe, the brewery said. The recipe comes from brewery co-owner Ed Knudson’s family; Knudson has been making them himself for 35 years. Classic bierock is made with seasoned ground beef, fresh sauerkraut and mozzarella. Other varieties will include an Italian bierock, a Cuban bierock, a pesto chicken bierock and a vegetarian bierock.

Need more beer? Of course you do. One-year-old Wanderment Brewing, 800 E. 64th Ave. in Denver, hosts its first Kölsch release on Saturday. Inspired by co-owner John Flaherty’s trip to Cologne, Germany, the beer was brewed using traditional methods, Wanderment said. It will be served poured either directly from the tank “for a naturally carbonated, unfiltered experience” or filtered from the taps. Flaherty will be on hand to chat and lead tours of the brewhouse.

Sniffing success

Monday. An excellent and furious rock band, Amyl & The Sniffers blew the lid off The Underground Music Showcase in Denver in 2024, resulting in one of the most talked-about sets at the annual festival on Broadway. Now the Australian band — formed in Melbourne in 2016 — returns to play the much larger Mission Ballroom, a testament to their popularity locally.

Led by lead singer Amy Taylor, the pub rock/punk foursome performs a different high-energy set list every night on its North American Tour, including older favorites and new material from “Cartoon Darkness,” an album released in 2024. Tickets for the 7 p.m. show start at $59. Mission Ballroom is located at 4242 Wynkoop St. Get more information at axs.com.

Roll into NOLA

Tuesday. After leaving his job as executive chef at Bistro Vendome last fall, Jeremy Wolgamott has been working to open a new restaurant that reflects his upbringing in both Denver and Louisiana (where he spent 13 years cooking): Colorado ingredients to create family-style Southern meals, as he calls it. Since Restaurant Argot doesn’t have an address yet, though, he’s hosting a pop-up dinner on April 1 at Create Kitchen and Bar inside the Stanley Marketplace.

Tickets are $60 each and will likely include dishes like hushpuppies with butter and smoked trout roe, white barbecue chicken, field pea salad, pimento mac and cheese, cornbread and lemon icebox pie. Drinker purchases are separate. The three-course family-style dinner runs from 6 to 8:30 p.m. at Stanley, 2501 Dallas St. in Aurora. Get tickets and information at restaurantargot.com.

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