So ColoradoBeerBlogs.com or ColoradoBeerNews.com (we have a bit of an identity problem) turned 1-year-old today.

Pretty exciting, huh? We celebraed by adding some new navigation links to the upper right column of the page. Apparently people using Internet Explorer 7 were having trouble seeing the dropdown links - oops.

Anyway, I'm going to go drink a Hercules Double IPA to celebrate.

Great Divide opened its new Tap room today (March 5). All this week (March 5-10) beers will be half off and some lucky soul will win free beer for a year!

I stumbled upon this article in the Colorado Springs Gazette. It's about Pueblo's year-and-a-half-old Shamrock Brewing Company and its brewer Alan Stiles:

Stiles said he was warned by many people that a blue-collar, Budweiser-drinking town like Pueblo wasn’t ready for Belgian ales and Irish porters. But he not only pitched these beers to his patrons, he’s upped the ante with a Belgian trippel and a barleywine — and he’s found that people who used to ask for the bland and canned are now widening their beer horizons.

ok. so here's my contribution to Beer Blogging Friday or whatever it's going to be called.

I've been holding onto a Breckenridge Brewery Oatmeal Stout and some Ft. Collins Brewery Chocolate Stout for just this occasion. 

The Breck Oatmeai Stout pours a nice black with a small dense mollasses-colored head. It's got that odd initial taste that I've experienced with Samuel Smith's Double Chocolate Stout. After the initial taste, it's all roasted barley goodnes.   

This video is pretty cool. These guys from Ft. Collins lugged everything they needed to brew a batch of beer up to the top of Mt. Bierstadt!

I can't believe they carried all that water up there...

 

 

From the Denver Post :

Beerlady

Diane Catanzaro was crowned "Beerdrinker of the Year 2007" Saturday at the Wynkoop Brewing Co.

She's the second woman to win the title in the 11 years of the contest. The Norfolk, Va., home brewer is a

college professor - and was a finalist last year, too.

"This is a dream come true for me," Catanzaro said in a release to the international beer press. "I can use the title to carry the flag for Beer Nation. ... It gives me an opportunity to promote a better understanding of beer to women in America. ... Beer is not just some fizzy yellow drink. ... It's part of a healthy lifestyle. And it's not just for the boys."

This article from the North Denver News says that Colorado is the 2nd largest beer producing state in America. I updated the Colorado Beer wikipedia page with that little tidbit:

Colorado Beer Country Regains Status as Second Largest Brewer in USA

This comes courtesy of the March/April issue of Zymurgy .

There's a law in Texas that states that microbreweries can't sell directly to the consumer, but instead have to sell to a middleman (that's LAME). Not surprisingly 14 of 19 microbreweries in the state have failed.

But a group called Friends of Texas Microbreweries started a campaign to fight the laws. 

According to an article from BeerAdvocate.com our favorite brewery in Lyons had another good year.

"Oskar Blues Brewery enjoyed its fourth straight year of significant growth, increasing its revenues 121% and its beer production by 64%."

The article also states that the brewery is going to double it's breweing capacity.

Here's in interesting tease about New Belgium's first organic beer from the Denver Post:

New Belgium Brewing of Fort Collins announced that its first organic beer, Mothership Wit, along with Fat Tire Amber Ale, will be served or given as gifts at two pre-Oscar parties this week.

Come on, man, I want details!

And Springboard Ale showed up recently on NewBelgium.com: