Colorado

Boulder, Colorado-based Upslope Brewing is the latest brand to join fast-growing brewery platform Wilding Brands, the companies announced today.

Lauren Woods Limbach joined New Belgium in 196 and the rest is “an incredible fairy tale, wild ride, with some of the hardest work and the best people on Earth,” she said in an Instagram video last week announcing her upcoming retirement.

As thousands of beers – and eventually, people to drink them – make their way to Denver for the Great American Beer Festival (GABF), it feels apt to check in with the craft scene on the ground. In a year where once-thriving brewpub chains and decades-old craft stalwarts have or are preparing to go under, what’s the state of things in one of craft’s most important cities on the eve of one of its most important weeks?

Wilding Brands, the Colorado-based craft beverage and hospitality platform, has expanded again with the acquisition of Denver’s Station 26 Brewery, the companies announced last week. Station 26 founder Justin Baccary will remain in his role leading the brewery as it joins the collective.

Nearly two months after the sale of its distribution business and future taproom rights, Great Divide Brewing is shuttering its Denver locations.

Westbound & Down Brewing Company is aiming to quadruple its production and achieve $3 million in profits by 2028. The Colorado craft brewery, with five taprooms across the state (Denver, Idaho Springs, Lafayette, Basalt and Aspen), is in the midst of a $1.2 million crowdfunding (CF) raise.

Another day, another Colorado craft beer deal. Longmont-based Left Hand Brewing and Aurora-based Dry Dock Brewing announced they have merged under the craft-centric, crowd-funded platform Left Hand revealed plans to build last year.

The Colorado-based Wilding Brands platform has grown again. Denver-based Great Divide Brewing has been acquired by the parent company of Stem Ciders, Denver Beer Co. and several other brands.

Allagash Brewing is returning to Colorado for the first time in almost 20 years. The Portland, Maine-headquartered, Belgian-inspired brewery will have statewide distribution through Elite Brands.

Left Hand Brewing co-founder Eric Wallace has assessed today’s challenging landscape for craft brewers and believes his Longmont, Colorado-based company may have a solution.

A pair of alcohol-adjacent bills have been introduced in the Colorado Legislature. One (SB24-181) seeks to create a tax on beverage-alcohol products distributed in the state to fund “alcohol and related substance use disorder prevention, early intervention, treatment, harm reduction and recovery services” across Colorado.

In the latest installment of Brewbound’s A Round With – a weekly Insider-exclusive Q&A series with industry leaders – Karen Hertz dishes on running a brewery that’s defying the trends. Hertz is the founder and chief brewista of Golden, Colorado-based Holidaily Brewing, the country’s only certified gluten-free, woman-owned craft brewery.

Lafayette, Colorado-headquartered Westbound & Down (W&D) has acquired Aspen Brewing and Capitol Creek Brewery from High Country Brewing LLC. The deal, which closed December 1, includes Aspen’s 7,000-barrel capacity production facility and both breweries’ brewpubs.

Odell Brewing continues to expand its beyond beer offerings with Allkind Hard Kombucha, which will launch this fall. Last year, the Fort Collins, Colorado-headquartered craft brewery rolled out the OBC Wine Project, a collection of canned wines.