Like most agricultural products, beer is seasonal, and historically, people have liked to drink dark stouts and porters during the cold winter months. Rich and malty, these beers are warming and comforting when there is a chill — or snow — in the air. That’s why Boulder’s Mountain Sun Pub started Stout Month some 30 years ago and brings it back each February.
That tradition continues at Mountain Sun’s Boulder and Longmont pubs, but not in Denver, where the company’s Vine Street Pub closed in 2020 and has yet to reopen. But Stout Month has also become a much-loved occasion for other breweries and beer bars in Denver. Here are six events or tappings to look forward to in February — several of which take place or begin this weekend.
Bull & Bush Brewery
The “pub you’ve been practicing for” — as its tagline goes — will be pouring an extensive list of both house-made stouts and guest beers, starting on Feb. 1 and lasting through the month. The Bull & Bush’s beers include Stonehenge Stout, Chocolate Makes Me Curvey Milk Stout, Thin Mint Stout, and several vintages of The Legend of the Liquid Brain Imperial Stout.
Guest beers include Cannonball Creek Brewing Machairodus Imperial Stout, Comrade Brewing Koffee Kream Extra Stout and Quit Stalin Russian Imperial Stout. Bull & Bush will also tap small kegs of numerous vintage stouts (they may kick quickly), including Avery Brewing The Czar 2011, Sierra Nevada Brewing Narwhal 2014 and 2015 and Firestone Walker Brewing Velvet Merkin 2018. And finally, pair your beer with a Coffee Blueberry Stout Burger — made with coffee-rubbed beef, blueberry cheddar cheese, Stonehenge Stout syrup, onion strings and blueberry aioli.
4700 Cherry Creek Drive South, Glendale
Cerebral Brewing
Cerebral Brewing, which has locations in Denver and Aurora (weekends only in Aurora), will be one of the darkest places to enjoy stouts in February. The brewery kicks things off tonight with a ticketed guide (Aurora Arts Taproom at 6 p.m.) to flavor profiles, the brewing process and more. But the real fun takes place Saturday, Feb. 3 during VantaBrews, which is Cerebral’s annual celebration of the darkest of the dark stouts. The tap list includes collaborations with breweries like Finback, Southern Grist, Resident Culture and Mikerphone. Cerebral will also have several other stout releases and events, including a breakfast stout party, throughout the month.
Diebolt Brewing
Diebolt Brewing makes one of the best imperial stouts in the state, and on Saturday, Feb. 10, at 1 p.m., it will host a release party for the beer, Vladislav, and several variations, like ones aged in port, rum and maple barrels, and a Mexican chocolate version aged in a whiskey barrel with chiles, cinnamon and chocolate. Brewery owner Jack Diebolt “will be serving all four variants in the brewhouse, talking all things beer, and even popping a few variants from the cellar,” according to the brewery. Cans and bottles of the beers will be available to go.
1477 Monroe St., Denver
Hops & Pie Artisan Pizzeria
“No time is Vine Street Pub & Brewery’s absence more felt than in February,” said Hops & Pie, which wants to help carry the torch for the beer geek community. Throughout the month, the north Denver favorite will have a stellar list of stouts on tap from around the country, including: La Cumbre’s Malpais, Prairie Artisan Ales Bourbon Weekend, Telluride Brewing’s Ski-in-Ski-Stout, Amalgam’s Another Realm, Westbound & Down’s Tennessee Special, and Casey Brewing and Blending’s Vanilla Bean Stout. And on Feb. 16, Lost Abbey Brewing founder Tomme Arthur will be at Hops & Pie for a tap takeover that includes Serpent Stout (aged in rum barrels) and more.
3920 Tennyson St., Denver
Ratio Beerworks at the Mercury Cafe
Ratio Beerworks knows how to throw a party — and it will do so on Friday, Feb. 2 with the return of Genius Wizard Barrel Aged Stout. This year, the release event ($75 per ticket) takes place at the Mercury Cafe, and includes not just Ratio’s beer, and two flavored variants, but samplings of Laws Whiskey House bourbon and rye varietals (Genius Wizard is aged in Laws barrels). DJs Noveli and Ginger Perry will spin tunes, while Uptown & Humboldt will have food.
2199 California St., Denver (Mercury Cafe)
Wynkoop Brewing
Denver’s oldest brewery brings back its annual Day of Darks Beer Fest on Saturday, Feb. 3, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wynkoop will release three of its own dark beers, while its sister brewery in Colorado Springs, Phantom Canyon, will be pouring an an Imperial Chocolate Peppermint Stout. But there will also be 10 other breweries on hand with their own dark beers (not all of them stouts), including Seedstock Brewery, Burns Family Artisan Ales, Old 121 Brewhouse, Locavore Beerworks, Left Hand and River North Brewery. Tickets are $45.
1634 18th St., Denver
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