Colorado Startup Brews Event

There's no shortage of brew festivals in the Denver area but the Colorado Startup Brews event is a uniquely special event that's about so much more than beer.  It's about community, which we can really appreciate. 

Custom Keg Cap Tap handles awarded as trophies to top brewers at the event.

This year was the 3rd annual Colorado Startup Brews event.  This is not your typical brew fest.  There are a couple of commercial brews, but the event is really about bringing the Colorado tech startup community together to showcase their brewing talents for a good cause.  This year, the good cause was the Dear Jack Foundation, which supports kids and young adults battling cancer. Supporting this event and cause by donating customized Keg Cap Tap handles as trophies was even more important being there with a good friend and Keg Cap Tap contributor who is a cancer survivor.

It was a big fun crowd at the Colorado Startup Brews event this year!

We loved connecting with brewers from companies like Ping Identity, GoSpotCheck, BowTie and FullContact.  In addition to learning about their companies and beers they made for this year's event, it was really cool to hear from folks at companies like Ping about how they're using the Keg Cap Tap handles awarded as trophies at last year's event.  

It was also cool to hear that several companies used Co-Brew facilities and expertise to help make their brews for the event.  What a great resource for those in the Denver area and what a great team builder!

Winners have been posted, but my noteworthy brews were from Ping Identity (strawberry and Pineapple kolsch, blackberry and raspberry kolsch an imperial IPA with clementines) and GoSpotCheck (Series B.londe).  

Great label and great beer!

Thanks to Thad and Brenda from Ombud for organizing the event and including us as sponsors. Thanks to Kevin at Unique Embroidery & Engraving for the great, detailed work on the trophies. We hope to be back next year!

Custom tap handles make great brewing event trophies!

Backside of trophy handles giving credit to sponsors!

Bootstrapped Brews

How well do Colorado based tech startup companies and beer go together?  Well, just about as well as anything in Colorado and beer!

We attended the Bootstrapped Brews event last night in Denver.  This was a community of communities event in that it brought together tons of great tech startup companies and the brewing community.  Teams from companies like Ombud, Sphero, ReadyTalk and Ping Identity and many others came out to share their best in-house brews with each other and the community.  

There was good food, music and representation from the brewing community with presence from Crazy Mountain, Left Hand Brewing, and CO-Brew which offers great homebrew supplies and in-store, guided brewing options.

Let's admit it, not all homebrews turn out great, but I was very impressed with the quality of brews coming from the startups.  The trophies, which are great examples of customized Keg Cap Tap handles, were awarded to winners.  These were well deserved as I would buy the winning beers if available a the liquor store!

Great people, great products, great brews and great networking.  It doesn't get better!

We worked with Bootstrapped Brews to create customized Keg Cap Tap handles that were given as trophies to the winners at the their brewing competition.