The Cannonball Creek crew (provided by the brewery).
Cannonball Creek Brewing in Golden, which opened nearly two years ago with experienced brewers cranking out excellent beers in a bustling tap room, earned Colorado Brewery of the Year honors in First Drafts’ annual year-end industry survey.
The 2014 Beer in Review featured 28 Colorado brewers, brewery reps and beer bar owners weighing in on the best of 2014, reflecting on notable news and trends in craft brewing and predicting what lies ahead.
No other category was as wide open as Colorado Brewery of the Year. At least 26 breweries received mentions (several respondents listed more than one brewery). Cannonball Creek received a half-dozen votes to finish on top.
Co-owners Brian Hutchinson and Jason Stengle, Mountain Sun alums, have found success in a simple formula that is not easy to execute – brew a broad spectrum of inspired beer with a focus on serving their community. While others rush to put their beers in cans and bottles, Cannonball Creek is taking it slow and is being rewarded by beer drinkers and judges alike.
The medal haul this year was highlighted a Great American Beer Festival gold for a Black IPA and a World Beer Cup bronze for Featherweight Pale, a hop-forward reinvention of what had become a tired style.
Cannonball Creek edged Hogshead Brewery in Denver, which specializes in cask-conditioned “real” ale and almost always has a visiting brewer on an off day sitting at the bar.
Other breweries that earned multiple mentions: Elevation Beer Co., making boutique and bottle-aged beers in Poncha Springs; Denver heavy metal brewery TRVE Brewing, which is expanding its own barrel-aging and sour program with the opening of its Acid Temple in 2015; and the saison specialists Funkwerks in Fort Collins, a former GABF small brewery of the year.
The runaway choice for new Colorado Brewery of 2014 was Comrade Brewing in Denver, which, like Cannonball Creek, opened with a battle-tested brewer manning the kettles. Marks Lanham moved from Barley Brown’s Brewpub in eastern Oregon. His Superpower IPA is winning raves as a game-changer and the best IPA state. Eight respondents picked Comrade as the top newcomer.
Former AC Golden brewer Troy Casey’s new project, Casey Brewing and Blending, earned five votes – and you have to think it would have earned more if it were not far off in Glenwood Springs. The science nerd boundary-pushers at Former Future Brewing in Denver and industry veterans at LowDown Brewery + Kitchen – a welcome brewpub addition – also earned multiple mentions.
Our “Colorado brewery to watch” question applied to both new and existing breweries. Among established breweries, Avery Brewing received several mentions — and what it might mean for the brewery’s already impressive lineup of beers.
The most-cited breweries in planning were Call to Arms, which Avery Brewing vets will open in northwest Denver’s Berkeley neighborhood, and Bierstadt Lagerhaus, Bill Eye and Ashleigh Carter’s German lager brewery in the works for the River North neighborhood.
: “Look for a June opening, and if all goes well, it shouldn’t suck.”
The consensus pick for the craft beer news event or trend of 2014: session beers. After years of talk, session beers finally arrived in force with session IPAs leading the way. Durango-based Ska introduced Rudie over the summer to coincide with the Colorado Brewers Guild’s Sesh Fest, and Oskar Blues and New Belgium Brewing have followed suit. We predicted it for 2014!
Looking ahead to 2015, a couple of themes emerged. One, more sour and barrel-aged beers (we liked ). The second … upheaval. More than a few respondents predicted more mergers and acquisitions in the industry and – in the words of New Belgium’s Lauren Salazar – “blurrier craft lines.” Others predicted brewery closures. TRVE’s Nick Nunns’ one-word prediction for 2015:
