A snowboard launches off a jump at Left Hand Brewing’s Hops and Handrails beer festival in 2015. (Photo by Eddie Clark, courtesy of Left Hand)
Left Hand Brewing is hosting a beer festival Saturday that combines the best of Colorado: craft beer, snow and bluegrass.
It s called Hops and Handrails. The Longmont event will feature 150 beers from 60 breweries. A snowboard rail jam competition. And this year, Left Hand is upping the ante with music headliner and mandolin extraordinaire Sam Bush. The ticketed event is a benefit for a handful of charities.
Event Manager Josh Goldberg puts it succinctly: Craft beer and snowboarding is a match made in Colorado heaven! It s a stellar event and brings together two outstanding Colorado industries.
The 2016 Hops and Handrails opens its doors at 11 a.m. and the event starts at noon. (Ticket details.) Here s a breakdown:
THE BEER: First thing’s first. The brewery lineup features many familiar names and more than a dozen out-of-state breweries.
A few highlights from the beer list: Left Hand Wicked Juju imperial ginger ale; Crazy Mountain Emotional Rescue Double IPA; Bootstrap Pineapple Gold blonde ale; Dry Dock 10th Anniversary Quad; Epic new Tart n Juicy sour IPA; Trinity One Ear saison; Wild Woods Chipotle Campfire Red Ale; and Wild Roots Carousel Blood Orange Gose.
The out-of-towners include Dark Horse (bringing the much-coveted BBA Plead the Fifth); Bear Republic; Dogfish Head; Deschutes; Firestone Walker; Green Flash; Melvin; Ninkasi and Stone.
The festival offers unlimited samples from noon to 4 p.m.
THE SNOW: A 40-foot ramp with rails and a keg jump will draw plenty of snowboarders. The rail jam contest starts with juniors at 1 p.m. with the finals at 3:45 p.m.
And yes, it will be warm this weekend — but the organizers are still promising snow for the event (trucked in a day earlier).
THE MUSIC: Headliner Sam Bush takes the stage at 4:30 p.m. and his openers are also well-known Colorado names: Rapid Grass, the winner of the 2015 RockyGrass Band Competition, and Jeff Austin and Friends, a band led by the mandolin player and Yonder Mountain String Band founder.
To up the ante: The American Homebrewers Association is hosting a rally for its members from noon to 3 p.m. Saturday at Left Hand, featuring a special tour and samples for members. Details here.
