From our start in 1988, we’ve worked to be good environmental stewards in our community. We began recycling glass and cardboard almost from the start, today those measures are joined by extensive composting, recycling, and water and energy conservation efforts.
Our biodegradable waste is composted, our spent brewing grains feed local livestock, and our used cooking oils are recycled into biodiesel. We use a range of biodegradable paper and carry-out supplies, and continue to seek new ways to operate as an environmentally friendly enterprise.
Our menu features a wealth of Colorado-produced meats and vegetables, Redbird Farms chicken, and wild salmon certified by the Marine Stewardship Counsel as a renewable resource. We use premium malts and hops in our beer and trans fat-free oil in our fryers, and we source a large number of staples and condiments from local producers.
Our goal with these collective measures? To reduce our environmental impact and increase our support of local entrepreneurs. While giving you the best food and beer your dollars can buy. If you have suggestions for other steps we can take toward that goal, please let us know about them.
When Edward W. Wynkoop came to this area in 1858, it was called Arapahoe County, Kansas Territory. The governor of the territory, James Denver, named Wynkoop to be its first sheriff. When the city was organized here Wynkoop proposed that it be named for the Kansas governor.
In 1860, a local newspaper published these nice words about Ned Wynkoop (as he was called): "Ned is considered by his personal friends a warm and genial companion, true as steel." Ned Wynkoop was also an actor. In 1861, the Rocky Mountain News reviewed his performance at the Apollo: "His rendition of the Drunkard was given with most thrilling effect and in the scenes of delirium... he exhibited more than an ordinary histrionic ability." Let this be a lesson to us all.
Wynkoop spent five years as an officer in the army, rising to the rank of colonel. (In 1864, he was an unwilling party to an act of betrayal and treachery, Colorado’s Sand Creek massacre. The event haunted him for the rest of his life).
Colorado's first brewpub, Wynkoop Brewing Company was founded in 1988 by a group of young entrepreneurs and urban pioneers led by former Denver mayor and current Governor of Colorado, John Hickenlooper.
Our brewpub’s hallmarks -- highly acclaimed small-batch beers, high quality food & service, the city’s best pool hall and our glorious 1888 building -- helped make us a major catalyst for the revival of Lower Downtown Denver.
Today Wynkoop Brewing Company is a beer-blessed Denver institution, a must-visit Colorado landmark and one of the nation’s most revered craft breweries.
We’re also one of the city’s best places for private and corporate events. We’ve hosted everything from Democratic National Convention parties to beer festivals, weddings and company conferences. (All with great beer and food.)
Today we're expanding our brewing efforts to better carry on our pioneering place in Denver and Colorado's microbrewing history. In 2010 we began hand-canning our craft beers (on a wiz-bang, table-top machine) so that we could deliver more of our ambitious, artisan-style craft beer to Denver area beer lovers. Look for our Rail Yard Ale, B3K Black Lager and Silverback Pale Ale in local stores and the areas top bars and restaurants.
In late 2011 we expanded our brewery for the first time in nearly 15 years, by adding two 20-barrel fermenters to our brewhouse and creating a special new room for our famed open fermenters. In July of 2012 we'll add two more of these fermenters. With this new capacity we are creating a flood of rule-breaking new beers -- from barrel-aged treats to sour beers and new styles - that help us honor the work of our original brewer, the late and very great Russell Schehrer. (The Brewers Association's annual Innovation Award is named after our beloved Russell.)
Our pioneering brewpub is housed in the glorious J. S. Brown Mercantile Building, built in 1899. The Mercantile Company was a cornerstone of the young Denver economy and one of the city’s most impressive early buildings. Its hardwood floors, thick timber pillars and pressed-tin ceilings are still in place today. Miners, ranchers and city folks walked this building looking for goods to furnish their Western adventures and frontier homes.
In 1899 our main floor served as the Mercantile’s original showroom. Today it’s home to our main bar, restaurant, brewery and kitchen. On the south side of our main floor is our Mercantile Room, now a renovated banquet room replete with high ceilings and expansive arched windows. The giant metal door you see by the main bar? It was once the door to the building’s main vault. Today it holds a different sort of valuables: our brewers and their office. The second floor is the home of Wynkoop Billiards, arguably the city's most elegant pool hall. We have 22 pool tables, two private pool rooms, dart lanes and a bar serving most of the same acclaimed beers you find downstairs.
This floor also houses some of our most popular banquet rooms, and the entire floor and pool hall are available for private functions. The backbar on this floor was rescued from the original tasting room of the old Tivoli Brewery, a famed Denver brewery located at what is now the Auraria college campus. In our basement you’ll find the serving tanks for all of our beers, and we now hand can our beers down there, too. The Impulse Theater is also on our basement level and welcomes grinning crowds to its hugely popular improv-comedy shows.
