The Great American Ale Trail - Christian DeBenedetti [63]
Papazian, for all the hype going on in and around what he’s helped create, has a quiet, humble, and considerate air. As he speaks about the Colorado scene, he’s struck with what seems like genuine wonderment, a wide smile always on his face. He wouldn’t look out of place in a cassock, but he’s wearing a simple cotton dress shirt. “When I first came here in 1972, there was no beer scene other than the Coors brewery,” he recalls. “Now we have 100 breweries in the state, and I hear there are 20 more on the way. We could have 140 before long. But it all started back in 1978 with the Boulder Beer Company. They were one of the first ten microbreweries in the United States, the first in Colorado.”
It didn’t exactly take off like wildfire. “Things were slow to start,” says Papazian. “But then a guy named John Hickenlooper, then mayor of Denver, changed a law to permit brewpubs in Colorado. After that law changed, [Hickenlooper] started the Wynkoop brewery down here in Denver, and the success of that place really opened up peoples’ eyes to what beer could be, what beer culture could be, and what the beer community could be. At the time the whole concept of beer other than light lager was a long conversation with every beer drinker. And not every beer drinker was willing to try something new.”
Today Denver’s beer scene is indeed enviable. “The community is tight, they help each other out,” says Papazian. “And I would guess that half of the 3,400 volunteers at the GABF are avid home brewers. It’s that homebrew community. We started back in the 1970s, one batch at a time, making friends. That’s what got things going. And we’re still on a roll. And if you’re involved, the next friend you make here could be a brewer, too, and the start of another community. There could be double the number of breweries here than we have already.”
Looking back on all the good he’s done for Colorado beer, Papazian remains humble—and deeply honored. “A lot of people come up to me at the festival and say they wouldn’t be here if they hadn’t read my book five years ago, or twenty years ago, and it’s cool to meet people that are so satisfied with their jobs. It makes me feel like I’ve made a difference in peoples’ lives. I’ve been blessed with many things, and that’s one of them. They’re thankful for something I shared with them, and they’re trying to share it back with handshakes and a smile—and a beer!”
Denver
BRECKENRIDGE
BREWERY &
BAR-B-QUE
471 Kalamath St. • Denver, CO 80204
(303) 573-0431 • breckbrew.com • Established: 1996
SCENE & STORY
Ski bum Richard Squire started Breckenridge Brewery in the ski area of the same name in 1990, and his timing couldn’t have been better. Coloradoans were going gaga for craft ales, and by 1992 business was booming enough to expand into Denver, where he added a second and then a third outlet for his Avalanche Amber and other brews. (There’s another pub in Grand Junction as well, which opened in 2004.)
The Denver Brew and BBQ outpost is located a short drive from the downtown center in an arty, civic-minded area known as the Golden Triangle, which gentrified during the first Colorado craft beer boom years from 1994 to 1996, when growth rates topped 50 percent. It’s home to the production facility for Breckenridge Brewery’s bottles and kegs. The airy taproom adjoining the production side serves up a soul food menu with items like hickory smoked pork ribs and pulled pork that earn good, sometimes even rave reviews.
PHILOSOPHY
Breckenridge beers, like many in Colorado, tend to be malt-forward and down the middle in terms of hop bitterness. But that’s why they work well with this kind of food. What’s more, the hickory used on the meats is presoaked in the brewery’s oatmeal stout, a nice touch.
KEY BEER
Avalanche Amber, at 5.41% ABV, is on the mild side for Colorado craft beers these days, what with all the imperial IPAs and other strong beers afoot. Still, made with a blend of