Colorado'’s first brewpub, Wynkoop Brewing Company was founded in 1988 by a group of young entrepreneurs and urban pioneers led by former Denver mayor and current Governor of Colorado, John Hickenlooper.

Our brewpub’s hallmarks -- highly acclaimed small-batch beers, high quality food & service, the city’s best pool hall and our glorious 1888 building -- helped make us a major catalyst for the revival of Lower Downtown Denver.

Today Wynkoop Brewing Company is a beer-blessed Denver institution, a must-visit Colorado landmark and one of the nation’s most revered craft breweries.

We’re also one of the city’s best places for private and corporate events. We’ve hosted everything from Democratic National Convention parties to beer festivals, weddings and company conferences. (All with great beer and food.)

Today we'’re expanding our brewing efforts to better carry on our pioneering place in Denver and Colorado's microbrewing history. In 2010 we began hand-canning our craft beers (on a wiz-bang, table-top machine) so that we could deliver more of our ambitious, artisan-style craft beer to Denver area beer lovers.  Look for our Rail Yard Ale, B3K Black Lager and Silverback Pale Ale in local stores and the area’s top bars and restaurants.

In late 2011 we expanded our brewery for the first time in nearly 15 years, by adding two 20-barrel fermenters to our brewhouse and creating a special new room for our famed open fermenters. In July of 2012 we'll add two more of these fermenters. With this new capacity we are creating a flood of rule-breaking new beers -- from barrel-aged treats to sour beers and new styles - that help us honor the work of our original brewer, the late and very great Russell Schehrer. (The Brewers Association's annual Innovation Award is named after our beloved Russell.)

Our pioneering brewpub is housed in the glorious J. S. Brown Mercantile Building, built in 1899. The Mercantile Company was a cornerstone of the young Denver economy and one of the city’s most impressive early buildings. Its hardwood floors, thick timber pillars and pressed-tin ceilings are still in place today. Miners, ranchers and city folks walked this building looking for goods to furnish their Western adventures and frontier homes.

In 1899 our main floor served as the Mercantile’s original showroom. Today it’s home to our main bar, restaurant, brewery and kitchen. On the south side of our main floor is our Mercantile Room, now a renovated banquet room replete with high ceilings and expansive arched windows. The giant metal door you see by the main bar? It was once the door to the building’s main vault. Today it holds a different sort of valuables: our brewers and their office. The second floor is the home of Wynkoop Billiards, arguably the city's most elegant pool hall. We have 22 pool tables, two private pool rooms, dart lanes and a bar serving most of the same acclaimed beers you find downstairs.

This floor also houses some of our most popular banquet rooms, and the entire floor and pool hall are available for private functions. The backbar on this floor was rescued from the original tasting room of the old Tivoli Brewery, a famed Denver brewery located at what is now the Auraria college campus. In our basement you’ll find the serving tanks for all of our beers, and we now hand can our beers down there, too. The Impulse Theater is also on our basement level and welcomes grinning crowds to its hugely popular improv-comedy shows.

It's true: we're now rolling out cases of our third small-batch, hand-canned beer, the mighty B3K Black Lager.

A luxurious German-style schwarzbier, it's a two-time medalist at the Great American Beer Festival. ln 2008 it won a gold medal in the German-Style Schwarzbier bracket, and at last year's GABF it earned a 2011 bronze medal in the Kellerbier/Zwickelbier category.

Since June of 2011, we've been at full brewing capacity and unable to pursue new accounts for our small-batch draft and hand-canned beers. Yes, a good "problem" to have in these tough times. And we're not complaining.

But despite that scenario, our pioneering brewpub (founded by Colorado governor John Hickenlooper) boosted its annual sales for our self-distributed liquid art by 33% over 2010. We also produced 3870 barrels of beer in 2011, up from 3500 barrels in 2010.

Our panel of US and CO beer experts has picked the three finalists for our 2012 Beerdrinker of the Year award. Warren Monteiro, Greg Nowatzki and J. Wilson will compete in the Beerdrinker of the Year finals on February 25, at 2 PM, at Wynkoop Brewing Company. The event is open to the public and admission is free.

(Denver, Colorado) – Since June of 2011, Wynkoop Brewing Company (Colorado’s first brewpub) has been at full brewing capacity and unable to pursue new accounts for its small-batch draft and hand-canned beers.

Despite that scenario, the pioneering brewpub (founded by Colorado governor John Hickenlooper) boosted its annual sales for distributed beer by 33% over 2010.

The brewery also produced 3870 barrels of beer in 2011, up from 3500 barrels in 2010.

To help increase the supply of Rail Yard Ale, Silverback Pale Ale and its other beers, Wynkoop has just completed its first brewery expansion in 13 years.

The company’s four classic “open” fermenters have been moved from the main-floor brewhouse to a newly built space downstairs in the Wynkoop beer cellar.

In place of those fermenters, Wynkoop has installed two 20-barrel unitanks in the main floor brewhouse. Later this year the brewhouse will receive two more 20-barrel tanks.

The two new tanks increase Wynkoop’s brewing capacity by 20% and allow for more aging time of the company’s lagers and specialty beers.

“We’re making the best beer of our 23-year history,” says head brewer Andy Brown, whose brewing team landed a pair of medals at last year’s Great American Beer Festival. “The expansion helps us continue that improvement and gives us a better chance to meet demand for our liquid art.”

With this additional capacity Wynkoop will also be able to produce a new line of extra-limited-release canned and kegged beers the brewery had hoped to begin producing last year.

Those beers were postponed due to high demand for its canned microbrews.

Wynkoop beers are currently hand-canned one can at a time on a tabletop machine from Canada’s Cask Systems.

Wynkoop Brewing Company was founded in 1988 by former Denver mayor and current Colorado governor John Hickenlooper and a group of urban pioneers that included Ron Robinson, Wynkoop’s current GM.

Members of the media seeking more information, photos, samples and interviews can contact Wynkoop’s Conductor/Idea Man, Marty Jones at martysjones@att.net">martysjones@att.net or marty@wynkoop.com">marty@wynkoop.com.

Beer nuts from New York, Iowa and Nevada will compete for 16^th Beerdrinker of the Year title on February 25 at Wynkoop

(Denver, Colorado)  – Wynkoop Brewing Company’s judging panel has picked its three finalists for the brewpub’s 2012 Beerdrinker of the Year award.

The annual search seeks out and celebrates America’s most passionate beer lovers. Entrants must have a deep understanding of how beer is made, its many styles and its importance in advancing civilization. They must also have a vast array of beer tasting experiences and be good ambassadors for the culture of fine beer.

The 2012 finalists will compete in the Beerdrinker of the Year finals on February 25, at 2 PM, at Wynkoop Brewing Company. The event is open to the public and admission is free.

The top three entrants in this year’s resume pool are:

Warren Monteiro, a New York City beer traveler, homebrewer and BeerSensei contributor for Alestreet News. Monteiro has sampled beers in Europe, Central American, India, Sri Lanka, numerous other nations and throughout the United States. In 2011 he visited breweries and beer festivals in England, Belgium, the Netherlands and the US. He samples an average of 350 beers each year.

His philosophy of beer drinking: “It’s not a habit, it’s a lifestyle. This is why I constantly travel – to get a taste of a new brew or one I’ve been missing, and to find a way to share it whenever possible. I consider creative beer drinking to be an essential part of the tapestry of art and fellowship contributing to a full life. The beauty of beer hunting now as opposed to the early ‘80’s is that I’ll never catch up!

His home beer bar: Blind Tiger Ale House, New York City.

Greg Nowatzki, a Las Vegas, Nevada accountant, home brewer and beer judge. Nowatzki has tasted over 13,600 beers from 84 different countries and all 50 states in the US. He has visited over 500 breweries in 32 different states and the District of Columbia, and attended over 150 beer festivals in 8 states. In 2011 he visited 16 beer festivals (including an 11^th consecutive Great American Beer Festival) and visited over 100 different breweries in 7 states.

His beer philosophy: “Everyone likes beer. Some just haven’t tasted enough to find the ones they like yet.”

His home beer bar: Big Dog’s Draft House, Las Vegas, Nevada

J. Wilson, a Prescott, Iowa writer, homebrewer, beer judge and beer blogger. He has a 3-tap, 8-foot home bar supplied by a 10-gallon brewing system in his basement. An advocate for beer for 15 years, he organized numerous beer events in his hometown in 2011. The past year was highlighted by a research project in which he fasted for 46 days on water and a dopplebock he brewed with a local brewery. It became a book, Diary of a Part-Time Monk.

His philosophy about beer: Living life in search of brewvana (an ideal condition of harmony, beer and joy), I seek to educate and advocate on behalf of craft beer, folding good beer into a good life.

His home beer bar: El Bait Shop, Des Moines, Iowa

On February 25 at 2 PM at Wynkoop Brewing these finalists will be grilled by a panel of previous Beerdrinker of the Year winners and national beer experts. The judges (in traditional jurist wigs and robes) will challenge the finalists with difficult beer questions, and then choose the 2012 Beerdrinker of the Year.

The winner wins free beer for life at the Wynkoop Brewing Company, $250 worth of beer at their local brewpub or beer bar, and clothing proclaiming them the 2012 Beerdrinker of the Year.

They have their name engraved on Wynkoop’s Beerdrinker of the Year trophy, and earn the mighty acclaim that comes from being recognized as America’s greatest beer lover.

While in Denver (at Wynkoop’s expense) they will stay at Denver’s famed Brown Palace Hotel.

Phil Farrell of Cumming, GA is the reigning Beerdrinker of the Year and will be a judge at this year’s Finals. Wynkoop is now serving Beerdrinker Imperial Stout, a whiskey-barrel-aged, extra-strength stout Farrell brewed last fall with Wynkoop head brewer Andy Brown.

For interviews with this year’s Beerdrinker of the Year finalists, copies of their beer resumes and more information contact Marty Jones at martysjones@att.net">martysjones@att.net or marty@wynkoop.com">marty@wynkoop.com.

Wynkoop Brewing Company offers some of the finest and uniquely Colorado event and banquet facilities in our state. Our glorious, fully restored, circa 1890 building delivers a vintage Colorado setting like no other in Denver.

Our banquet rooms accommodate groups as small as a handful to as large as 1200 people. Looking for a fun and unforgettable setting for your next gathering? One with some of the best beer and brewpub cuisine in Colorado? Fill out the request form here or give Christine or Tanya a call at 303-297-9999.