Crystal Springs Brewing Co., Great Divide Brewing Co., and Lone Tree Brewing Co. Collaborate on Colorado Sweep Wheat Ale

Photo courtesy Nikki A Rae Photography

DENVER, CO— Last year three prized Colorado craft breweries made headlines when they swept the competitive American Fruit Beer category at the 2021 Great American Beer Festival®. Their collaboration brew Colorado Sweep, an American Wheat Ale, is now available at each brewery’s tasting room. 

The hardware that the Crystal Springs Blood Orange Kölsch (gold), Great Divide Wild Raspberry Ale (silver), and Lone Tree Peach Pale Ale (bronze) took home last year was the perfect impetus for these Front Range breweries to join forces for a collaboration beer to celebrate and serve at the annual Colorado Brewers Guild Collaboration Fest. 

“This idea came about immediately after the GABF awards were announced in September 2021,” says Matt Sandy, Great Divide’s Marketing Manager. The winners were Crystal Springs Blood Orange Kölsch (gold), Great Divide Wild Raspberry Ale (silver), and Lone Tree Peach Pale Ale (bronze). “Because Colorado swept the American Fruited Ale category, we thought it would be fun to collaborate with the other breweries and keyed in on Collaboration Fest as being the perfect arena to celebrate this group effort. Not only has the fest become one of the country’s premier showcases for unique collaborations, it also fell around the same time we were planning on releasing our winning beer, Wild Raspberry Ale, in 6-packs.” 

Crystal Springs, Great Divide, and Lone Tree gathered last month to craft an American Wheat Ale with both white and flaked Wheat, and Hallertau Magnum, Saaz, Cascade, and Lemondrop hops to create complexity of body, and refreshing, citrus and fruit-forward flavors. The breweries then added blood orange, raspberry, and peach to represent the fruits in all three of the award winners. 

“The combination of fruits contributed by each brewery should create a fun and refreshing beer that we are all excited to share with the public at Collaboration Fest,” says Lone Tree Sales & Marketing Director Dennis Stack.  

Festival-goers at Collaboration Fest should be on the lookout for this inspired fruit beer before it’s gone. Catch Colorado Sweep on tap at each brewery’s respective locations while supplies last. 

Contact Emily Hutto at hutto@radcraftbeer.com with media inquiries about Colorado Sweep. 

ABOUT CRYSTAL SPRINGS BREWING CO.

Crystal Springs Brewing Company is dedicated to brewing craft beer that utilizes the potential of hops, malt, yeast, and adjuncts to make the world a happier and better place. The brewery was started in the owners garage in 2010 and opened in Louisville, CO in 2013 where we have expanded our production to serve the Front Range of Colorado. Visit Crystal Springs online at crystalspringsbrewing.com.

ABOUT GREAT DIVIDE BREWING CO. 

Founded in 1994, Great Divide Brewing Company is Denver’s oldest and largest packaging brewery and one of the most decorated breweries in America, recognized for brewing some of the globe’s most balanced yet assertive and flavorful beers. These beers have landed an impressive amount of acclaim, earning 18 Great American Beer Festival® medals, five World Beer Cup® awards and 14 spots on Beer Advocate's "Top Rated Beers: Colorado.” Here at Great Divide, Bold Character isn’t just a catchphrase. It’s the philosophy behind what we brew, how we think and what we believe. For more information visit greatdivide.com.      

ABOUT LONE TREE BREWING CO. 

Lone Tree Brewing Company was the first brewery to open in Lone Tree, Colorado in Denver’s South Metro area in 2011, and has remained a local staple for a decade. Lone Tree creates community around a stylistically diverse lineup of flagship, seasonal, and limited release beers that are sold in cans and on draft across Colorado, and in select locations in Kansas. Find the brewery online at lonetreebrewingco.com.

Beer Connects Communities and So Too Will BEER! A Love Story Feature Documentary

LYONS, COLORADO—  HerzMuses Enterprises presents the global digital premiere of BEER! A Love Story, a Blue + Green Communication and Storyhouse production. This independently funded, 4K full-length feature documentary debuts today through an exclusive partnership with Untappd through February 28.

BEER! A Love Story was produced by Director Friedrich Moser and Maarten Schmidt. Moser, who directed the Oliver Stone-backed A Good American among many other documentary films, now brings his filmmaking prowess to featuring craft beer. This film weaves together the stories of 30 international protagonists across multiple countries who speak the universal language of beer, the world’s most consumed fermented beverage.

“We wanted this film to bridge the gap between Europe and America, and to show the panorama of beer styles now replicated across the globe,” Moser says. “For any foodie, movie buff, and beer or beverage fan this is a must-watch film.”

In BEER! A Love Story, Moser profiles a cast of U.S.-based craft beer personalities including Peter Bouckaert, Steve Hindy, Julia Herz, Greg Engert, European namesakes such as Rodenbach, Orval and Stiegl, and small, breakout brewers like Bierol in Austria and Cloudwater in Manchester, UK. 

From January 21 through February 28, Untappd users can exclusively rent and download the film. “We are thrilled to play a part in bringing this film to our global community of beer lovers”, said Trace Smith, CEO of Next Glass, parent company of Untappd. “Untappd has always been about beer bringing people together, and that theme is at the heart of this film.” 

Watch the movie trailer and find everything about BEER! A Love Story, including future screening events in February and beyond at beermovie.org. 

BEER! A Love Story Media Inquiries: Emily Hutto at coop@radcraftbeer.com

Hashtag: #BeerMovie

Press Assets: available for download here

ABOUT THE FILM PARTNERS

• Blue + Green Communication is a film production company based in Vienna, Austria.

• Based in Brussels, Belgium, film production company Storyhouse is run by producer Maarten Schmidt. 

• Julia Herz of HerzMuses Enterprises is featured in the film and is managing the 2021 global digital premiere.

ABOUT EXCLUSIVE FILM PARTNER UNTAPPD 

Founded in 2010, Untappd is the world’s largest social beer app, with over 8 million users globally. Individuals can check-in and rate beers at bars, restaurants, breweries and a host of other venues as well as view friends’ profiles to toast and comment on their beer choices. Additionally, the company provides menu publishing software to over 18,000 businesses worldwide. www.untappd.com

Untappd Media Inquiries: Kenny Gould, Creative Director, kenny@untappd.com; tel:7049758612

Craft Industry COVID-19 Update - May 19, 2020

Andrew Barrack is going live on the RadCraft Industry Relief Zoom chat this week!

I’m excited that I get this opportunity to work with Andrew, not just because he’s a great musician but also because he’s such a critical thinker. Behind-the-scenes, I’ve had the pleasure of picking his brain over a series of calls and Zoom chats in preparation for this presentation.

Andrew is committed to getting it right—sure he’s going to nail his songs, but more importantly he’s got a message for us that gives a voice to an often forgotten part of the community: musicians.

In the craft barley space, musicians often reside in the fringe as entertainers at events or occasional collaborators. They’re often forgotten in the bigger picture too, Andrew reminds me. Live music is a luxury; Venues are an amusement. Pandemic or not, these are easy components of our lives to give up on a budget— wants, not needs.

Musicians and owners of independent venues have needs too, though, and Andrew tells me he’d like to shed light on these artists that we often take for granted in the corner of the beer festival.

NIVA, a new coalition of independent venues, reported to Rolling Stone on earlier this month that 90 percent of its 1,300 member venues report they do not have cash on hand to last more than six months without federal intervention, and just over half of them say they do not have enough to last more than three months. Pretty wild when you consider this is just a sampling of the venues in the United States, and even wilder when you compare these stats to the 30 percent of brewing company that reported to the Brewers Association in April that they would shutter if forced to shut down for more than three months. As breweries are granted permission to re-open slowly, independent venues have no re-opening plan in sight.

“Can you imagine a world where the only venues were big box?” Barrack asked me in one of our conversations. We’re discussing how independent music related to craft beer, but sometimes he’s so passionate that he makes me feel like we’re solving worldwide dilemmas. “I would rather pay a little bit more to see one of my favorite bands in an intimate venue than a huge stadium with a half dome. We’re losing iconic venues to Coronavirus.”

If your brewery or distillery was focused on music before pandemic, Andrew can’t stress enough the importance of staying committed to relationships with bands. “You’ll have to get creative,” he says, “but if you had live music rock the livestream, or find another way to keep moving.”

Listen to Andrew Barrack’s tunes, and get his industry relief insight this Thursday, May 21 at 3pm MTN on the RadCraft Industry Relief Zoom chat.

(Zoom Meeting; Password:  223518)

Check out Andrew Barrack’s new CD In Seasons, available on Spotify, Amazon, YouTube, Apple Music, and Soundcloud. Cheers to indie music and beer!

— Emily Hutto, RadCraft Founder & CEO