"wynkoopbrewery" news and stories

One dark night, nearly a decade ago, a friend took me on a beer-driven Denver bar crawl. It was a blast. I think. Memories of the saloons we hit are lost in a haze of alcohol and time, save for one: the Wynkoop.

As Denver's oldest brewpub (co-founded by current Denver mayor John Hickenlooper in 1988), the Wynkoop was something special. It was a multi-floored pleasure palace, packed with pool tables, dartboards, shuffleboard and brilliant beer, including the flagship Rail Yard Ale.

"Can I bring some some back to New York?" I asked my friend. "Draft only," he said, two words that broke my beer-loving heart.

More after the jump...

• Seven soup recipes from seven new cookbooks help Denver residents stay warm this season.
• Seared scallops, salad and rib-eye are the way to go at the newly revamped Simms Steakhouse.
• The Colorado Beer Festival descends on Colorado Springs this Saturday, and offers more than 70 beers to sample, as well as a designated-driver program.
• The Wynkoop Brewery will hold its own Beers of the Year mini-festival on Saturday, also.
• Dublin-made cream liqueur Coole Swan, which gets its name from Yeats' poem "The Wild Swans of Coole," is finally for sale in Colorado, and one food writer -- who claims it's the finest cream liqueur he's ever tasted -- couldn't be happier.
• A "gastropub" opens in Cherry Creek, inspiring food critic Tucker Shaw to explore the etymology of the word.
• A knife-wielding blogger discovers the bounty of the duck.