E-Malt.com News article: USA, CO: Wynkoop Brewing Co. brews more seasonal beers

Among experienced local beer drinkers, Wynkoop Brewing Co. is known for Hickenlooper, history and middle-of-the-road craft beer. The brewpub opened in 1988 in a then-barren warehouse district in lower downtown Denver, founded by a group of entrepreneurs that included a recently laid-off geologist named John Hickenlooper, The Denver Post reported on September, 27.

The Wynkoop's biggest seller, Rail Yard Ale, is an amber ale — a gateway style for newcomers to craft beer.

One of head brewer Andy Brown's latest creations, the Chancellor ale, is altogether different — an ale aged 16 months in whiskey barrels packing an alcoholic punch almost three times stronger than Rail Yard.

"We have a pretty enviable position of being the founding Colorado brewpub," Brown said. "But our industry is changing fast. We know we can't be an old dog learning new tricks. We need to be authentically committed to being adventurous and changing."

After being hired at Wynkoop in 2008, Brown introduced an India pale ale that is now the brewpub's second-biggest seller.

Wynkoop added equipment and tanks and reconfigured its draft system to allow for more beer to be poured and rotated.

That opened the door to more seasonal beers — special, limited-time offerings that account for almost 17 percent of the craft market.

"We know that is what a lot of the demand in our market is for now — to make more seasonals," Brown said. "In the craft-beer world, so much is going on, and people expect newer, bigger and better."


04 October, 2012