Denver Beer Company

The idea behind Denver Beer Co. is simple: good beer is best enjoyed with friends, fresh air and an adventurous spirit. The brewery crafts and serves premium artisan ales and lagers that utilize fresh ingredients and embrace both innovative and Old World styles of beer.

Denver's storied beer history has given rise to a population of beer aficionados. Two of the most innovate are college buddies Charlie Berger and Patrick Crawford, who started crafting homebrew in their garages and went on to launch Denver Beer Co.

The idea behind Denver Beer Co. is simple: good beer is best enjoyed with friends, fresh air and an adventurous spirit. The brewery crafts and serves premium artisan ales and lagers that utilize fresh ingredients and embrace both innovative and Old World styles of beer. Sometimes, fresh means getting a little help from the neighbors. Even before opening its first location on Platte Street in 2011, Denver Beer Co. has provided hop rhizomes to anyone who wants to donate a little time and garden space. Last year, 17 local hop growers helped make Our Neighborhood Hop Swap Pale Ale possible.

Located in a former car dealership, Denver Beer Co.’s big taproom doors are always open on warm days, and the patio with German-style beer garden tables is one of the city’s largest. Graham Cracker Porter and Incredible Pedal IPA and a few other favorites are always on tap, but beer aficionados also relish the rotating list of unique brews and food trucks available.

The company’s taproom and brewery formula has been so successful that Berger and Crawford renovated a Chevy dealership in Olde Town Arvada and opened its huge doors in June 2017. This second location has a 1,500-square-foot outdoor patio with long communal tables, seven-barrel brew house and 10 taps that rotate with the season and include Water Tower Wit, an exclusive brew in honor of the Arvada community. This time, the food truck is inside in the form of The Mighty Burger, an artisan burger and fry concept housed in a vintage Airstream trailer. Beer and burgers are a match made in heaven, especially when the burgers are made from grass-fed, free-range Colorado beef and served with a seasonal menu of delicious toppings.

Not only do groups love the taprooms and patios, the Platte Street location has an adjacent Barrel Room with seating for 55 indoors and 35 outdoors on a private patio. A brewery tour can be incorporated along with food options ranging from a food truck to a five-course dinner with special beer pairings.

Born and raised in Denver and a fifth generation Coloradan, Berger has worked in the craft beer industry since 2004 and attended the Siebel Institute of Technology and Doemans Brewing Academy in Munich, earning an international diploma in brewing technology. In his past life, Crawford was a physicist and engineer for Lockheed Martin and an award-winning home brewer, brewing his first beer in the bathtub of a 400-square-foot apartment in Colorado Springs.

Denver Beer Co. does its part to support community causes and minimize impact by utilizing a hot water recycling system to conserve energy, sourcing ingredients locally as much as possible and donating spent grains to area farmers. Each year, the company selects a partner nonprofit that impacts locals and supports Berger’s and Crawford’s love for Colorado. This year, Denver Mountain Parks Foundation was tapped and is receiving proceeds from two festivals (Collaboration Celebration and Summer Shindig), free event space, a custom label on a limited-release 22-ounce bomber, and beer for fundraisers, events and volunteers.

And what about the beer quality? Drama Queen earned Denver Beer Co. a gold medal in the Wood and Barrel Aged Beer category at the 2016 Great American Beer Festival®, the nation’s largest beer competition, which is presented by the Brewers Association each fall in Denver. The Denver craft brewery also has won GABF bronze medals for Graham Cracker Porter in 2011 and bronze for King Ink in 2015. The success at the Olympics of brewing speaks for itself!