Assistant Brewer

Our latest brewery staffer is one beer-loving bearcat. A Denver native, Bess was destined from a young age to be involved in craft beer. After many years of homebrewing she took the plunge and enrolled in the Siebel Institute's online course in brewing technology. During her studies, the stars aligned and Bess put in some intern time here at Wynkoop, shadowing our brewers for several batches. Her passion and burgeoning brewing skills caught our eye and we've now added Bess to our zymurgical team.

Beer Trafficker

A New Jersey native (Morris Plains, to be exact), Dan is our new ace on the Wynkoop Brewing Sales/Ambassador team. Dan grew up in his family's restaurant business in Jersey, and he's also done time working with a macro beer distributor in his home state. His keen understanding of the hospitality and beer trades -- and his grade-A people skills and dynamite moustache-- made him a top draft choice for our team.

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Founding Brewer

Russell Schehrer was the original brewer for Wynkoop, he helped launched our brewpub in 1988. At the time the craft beer landscape in the US was largely uncharted, and Russell was a true pioneer in the trade.

He was one of the first US craft brewers to produce mead, doppel bock, alt beer, cream stout and chili beer, and his efforts blazed significant trails for brewers to come.

He was also a big promoter of cask-conditioned beer. Russell placed beer engines and live ale in Wynkoop long before beer consumers had ever heard of them.

Canner/Cellar Man

A retired Denver Public Schools employee, Bill now does part time but fully important work on our canning line. Bill makes sure our liquid art makes it safely into a can, a sixpack ring and then onto your local shelf. When he's not canducting at Wynkoop, Bill enjoys riding bicycles and spending quality time with his wife, sons, dogs and grand kids.

Head Brewer

Brewmaster C. Andrew Brown (Andy to his friends) got into brewing the way many professional craft brewers become interested in beer, homebrewing at the young age of 20. The natural question followed: "How can I make this hobby into a career?" Brewing school came next as well as stints at breweries across the front range of Colorado and his home state of Maine. Andy has been professionally brewing award-winning beers for over ten years and guides the Wynkoop into a promising and beery future.

What is Cask Conditioned Beer?

Serving beer "on cask" is a traditional method of dispensing beer that recalls the days before modern draft beer systems and carbonated bottled beer existed. Cask beer’s trademarks are a slightly warmer temperature and a gentler carbonation than its modern counterparts.

The term “cask” refers to the container that holds the beer for serving. These containers were usually wooden barrels until about the 1950's when stainless steel casks became the norm. This type of beer is also referred to as "real ale" because it is unfiltered, unpasteurized and still contains live yeast.

Cask beer is not held in a pressurized keg, but pulled up from the beer cellar using a special device called a hand pump or beer engine. On the way through the hand pump the beer passes through a special diffuser (called a sparkler) that blends ambient air with the beer.

The process brings out the fine aromas of the beer, creates a soft, billowy head, and causes the glorious cascade of fine bubbles that slowly diminish in the glass. Our cellar temperature for our cask beer (48-50 degrees) also brings out the delicious aromatics of these real ales.

Since our inception in 1988, Wynkoop Brewing Company has been committed to serving cask conditioned beer and preserving its heritage. The stronghold for this type of beer has traditionally been Britain, so we keep at least three styles of English ale on cask at all times. Try one for yourself and enjoy this connection to the rich history of beer and brewing that American craft breweries like the Wynkoop help maintain.

Our year-round cask beers are:

• St. Charles ESB
  Our British-style session beer is cask conditioned and dry hopped. Tea colored with a toasted malt flavor, it’s a robust amber ale with a light mouthfeel and understated hop nose. Its British ESB acronym stands for extra special bitter, a misleading term since this style of beer features a gentle hop bite on its finish.
  5.6% ABV, 35 IBU
• London Calling IPA
  The India pale ale style hails from Britain and the 1800s, when British soldiers stationed in India were sent extra hoppy beer that held up to a long sea journey. London is a classic English pale ale that’s cask conditioned and dry hopped with UK hops, it features biscuity malt notes and an elegant hop profile.
  ABV 6.4% ABV, 52 IBU

Our seasonal cask beers include:

• Churchyard Ale
  A stronger version of a Scottish ale, Churchyard is malty, full bodied and cola colored. It features a hearty amount of caramel and roasted malt characteristics, and its higher alcohol flavor balances the beer’s malt sweetness.
  ABV 7.4%, 25 IBU

Why Cans?

Now hand packaged one can at a time in 12-ounce aluminum cans, Rail Yard Ale is returning to local shelves after an 8-year hiatus from its earlier bottled days.

Why cans? Aluminum cans are the best package for beer. They keep beer fresher longer by providing complete protection from light and oxygen, a fresh beer’s worst enemy.

Cans are also immensely portable, free from weight and glass-breakage issues, and welcome in places where bottles are not.

Cans are also the “greenest” beer package. They are less fuel-consuming to ship, infinitely recyclable, and the most frequently recycled beverage package in the world.

A recycled can requires about 95% less energy and creates 95% less pollution than a can made from scratch.

Today cans are being embraced by a growing number of craft beer makers and consumers for all of these reasons.

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 area’s 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.