Rays of piercing sunlight emerge from behind thick clouds and illuminate the misty glow of afternoon rainfall on the streets of the Mile High City, hiding the morning’s urban smog and accentuating a smell of anxious freshness as the evening settles in. From my vantage point, standing in an unpaved parking lot behind a rock club on the corner of Broadway and Iowa, I am forced to squint as I look westward toward the snow-capped mountains. No trace remains of the late-season snow that still held its ground in shaded grassy areas and dark alleys just a few weeks ago.
Ah, summertime in Colorado, our bipolar state where the famed ‘300 days of sunshine’ legend scores a good 100 consecutive points because the daily thunderstorm apparently doesn’t count as rain if it only lasts for seven minutes. Just long enough to sizzle on the blacktop and inject a quick load of regret into the hordes of tourists who didn’t think to put the tops up on their rented convertibles.
In my left hand is a plastic rocks glass half full of melting ice and diluted Maker’s Mark, as good as a cocktail as I was able to muster from behind the bar at Herman’s Hideaway, the dive-y old rock club where I spend my weekday afternoons booking concerts and extinguishing rock-star sized tantrums. It’s 5:30 and I’ve got ten minutes to kill before jumping the train downtown to the Ogden Theatre to catch the latest in a never-ending stream of young indie-rockers trying to capture the attention (and open the wallets) of the growing horde of millennial hipsters that have moved in and promptly overrun, by my calculations, a good 65% of the city. 40 minutes if I decide to veer up the street for a quick drink at Bear Creek Distillery, which given the fact that I’ll be swilling the equivalent of rat piss at the show tonight seems like a fine idea.
One of the first things I learned in college is that you should always get your buzz going on the good stuff before moving to the crap. Which of course assumed that you actually had something good - certainly not always the case - which makes me, for a fraction of a moment at least, take some joy in having a few years under my belt. In moments like this, recalling the fear of turning 30 seems worse than having actually hit the mark.
I walk into a quiet scene, a good place to pass some time before the rushed, sardined experience of a rock show. As I see it, the best part about this place is the presentation - they clearly spent some time on the tasting room during the development phase. Two 16 foot glass garage doors provide me with a view of the still where the silver rum I am sipping was created.
Distiller Jeff Dickinson and his partnership crew at the Bear are a small group of long-time buddies that grew up together and who share a love of drinking and a desire to put handcrafted spirits, produced grain-to-bottle at their Denver facility, into the mouths of thirsty microshiners. I’ve been meaning to check them out for a while.
“We all went to junior high and high school,” says Jay Johnson, one of the four partners and PR aficionado at the distillery. “We four, as friends, started our drinking careers in high school together.”
While Bear Creek itself sits a bit west of town, the team was happy to settle into their south Denver location.
“We wanted to be in Denver proper with our distillery, and as close to a main street as we could be,” says Johnson. They ended up at 1879 S. Acoma, a stone’s throw from Broadway and right in the heart of the Old South Pearl district, one of Denver’s most unique neighborhoods.
The distillery is fast approaching its fifth birthday, fueled by relentless passion and a growing craft scene in Denver.
“Jeff and I quit our jobs and threw ourselves headlong into this,” says Johnson. Researching everything from distilling to marketing and visiting tasting rooms across the country, they took what they learned and are now doing their part to push the craft scene forward in Denver. “I really feel like we’ve managed to create a unique experience where we are.”
Right now Bear Creek Distillery has a silver rum available and two types of vodka - a 100% rye and a 100% wheat. By 2017, they will have bourbon and whiskey selections as well as a spiced rum to offer both in the tap room and off-site.
“We’re going to be one of the few places in the state manufacturing a spiced rum,” says Johnson. These new products, he says, should help the company continue to up their placement count, which currently sits at 50 different establishments. “The hardships that I’m having approaching accounts is that, a lot of times they will really enjoy our product and realize that it may in some cases be a superior product, but companies that came before us (already) have their products in there. As the landscape in distilling changes, I really feel like we will have a leg up on that.”
The landscape here in Colorado is changing, and Johnson notes that one of the biggest challenges he faces when meeting with an establishment to sell them on his product is that other micro-distilleries have already filled any vacant spots behind the bar. “Limited shelf space is something that we deal with,” Johnson says. A good sign in many ways, as craft hunters like myself no longer have to head to high-end bars and drop $25 on a cocktail just to try something new. There are handfuls of restaurants and bars in Denver’s growing neighborhoods stocking craft spirits. Perhaps one day the music world will catch up.
At the Ogden, for example, I find myself in a dilemma of tastes. The beer selection is, considering the high-volume and quick-service setting, honestly not terrible - any respectable place selling drinks in Colorado will be quickly shunned if they don’t show love to the bulging craft beer scene. Spirits, however, are another story. In all of the nights I have spent at shows, not only here at home but around the country, it is rare to find a selection of, if any, small batch spirits in bars and clubs dedicated to live rock music.
Perhaps with some clever marketing by Johnson and his craft counterparts, that can change. One can only hope. With that in mind, I jump into the bar line at the back of the club, half of my previous drink still in hand to keep me company as I wait to order another.
Check out the release of Bear Creek Distillery’s cast-strength rum over the 4th of July weekend. Learn more at bearcreekdistillery.com
Ah, summertime in Colorado, our bipolar state where the famed ‘300 days of sunshine’ legend scores a good 100 consecutive points because the daily thunderstorm apparently doesn’t count as rain if it only lasts for seven minutes. Just long enough to sizzle on the blacktop and inject a quick load of regret into the hordes of tourists who didn’t think to put the tops up on their rented convertibles.
In my left hand is a plastic rocks glass half full of melting ice and diluted Maker’s Mark, as good as a cocktail as I was able to muster from behind the bar at Herman’s Hideaway, the dive-y old rock club where I spend my weekday afternoons booking concerts and extinguishing rock-star sized tantrums. It’s 5:30 and I’ve got ten minutes to kill before jumping the train downtown to the Ogden Theatre to catch the latest in a never-ending stream of young indie-rockers trying to capture the attention (and open the wallets) of the growing horde of millennial hipsters that have moved in and promptly overrun, by my calculations, a good 65% of the city. 40 minutes if I decide to veer up the street for a quick drink at Bear Creek Distillery, which given the fact that I’ll be swilling the equivalent of rat piss at the show tonight seems like a fine idea.
One of the first things I learned in college is that you should always get your buzz going on the good stuff before moving to the crap. Which of course assumed that you actually had something good - certainly not always the case - which makes me, for a fraction of a moment at least, take some joy in having a few years under my belt. In moments like this, recalling the fear of turning 30 seems worse than having actually hit the mark.
I walk into a quiet scene, a good place to pass some time before the rushed, sardined experience of a rock show. As I see it, the best part about this place is the presentation - they clearly spent some time on the tasting room during the development phase. Two 16 foot glass garage doors provide me with a view of the still where the silver rum I am sipping was created.
Distiller Jeff Dickinson and his partnership crew at the Bear are a small group of long-time buddies that grew up together and who share a love of drinking and a desire to put handcrafted spirits, produced grain-to-bottle at their Denver facility, into the mouths of thirsty microshiners. I’ve been meaning to check them out for a while.
“We all went to junior high and high school,” says Jay Johnson, one of the four partners and PR aficionado at the distillery. “We four, as friends, started our drinking careers in high school together.”
While Bear Creek itself sits a bit west of town, the team was happy to settle into their south Denver location.
“We wanted to be in Denver proper with our distillery, and as close to a main street as we could be,” says Johnson. They ended up at 1879 S. Acoma, a stone’s throw from Broadway and right in the heart of the Old South Pearl district, one of Denver’s most unique neighborhoods.
The distillery is fast approaching its fifth birthday, fueled by relentless passion and a growing craft scene in Denver.
“Jeff and I quit our jobs and threw ourselves headlong into this,” says Johnson. Researching everything from distilling to marketing and visiting tasting rooms across the country, they took what they learned and are now doing their part to push the craft scene forward in Denver. “I really feel like we’ve managed to create a unique experience where we are.”
Right now Bear Creek Distillery has a silver rum available and two types of vodka - a 100% rye and a 100% wheat. By 2017, they will have bourbon and whiskey selections as well as a spiced rum to offer both in the tap room and off-site.
“We’re going to be one of the few places in the state manufacturing a spiced rum,” says Johnson. These new products, he says, should help the company continue to up their placement count, which currently sits at 50 different establishments. “The hardships that I’m having approaching accounts is that, a lot of times they will really enjoy our product and realize that it may in some cases be a superior product, but companies that came before us (already) have their products in there. As the landscape in distilling changes, I really feel like we will have a leg up on that.”
The landscape here in Colorado is changing, and Johnson notes that one of the biggest challenges he faces when meeting with an establishment to sell them on his product is that other micro-distilleries have already filled any vacant spots behind the bar. “Limited shelf space is something that we deal with,” Johnson says. A good sign in many ways, as craft hunters like myself no longer have to head to high-end bars and drop $25 on a cocktail just to try something new. There are handfuls of restaurants and bars in Denver’s growing neighborhoods stocking craft spirits. Perhaps one day the music world will catch up.
At the Ogden, for example, I find myself in a dilemma of tastes. The beer selection is, considering the high-volume and quick-service setting, honestly not terrible - any respectable place selling drinks in Colorado will be quickly shunned if they don’t show love to the bulging craft beer scene. Spirits, however, are another story. In all of the nights I have spent at shows, not only here at home but around the country, it is rare to find a selection of, if any, small batch spirits in bars and clubs dedicated to live rock music.
Perhaps with some clever marketing by Johnson and his craft counterparts, that can change. One can only hope. With that in mind, I jump into the bar line at the back of the club, half of my previous drink still in hand to keep me company as I wait to order another.
Check out the release of Bear Creek Distillery’s cast-strength rum over the 4th of July weekend. Learn more at bearcreekdistillery.com
Tim Wenger is a Denver-based microshiner, journalist, musician, and avid snowboarder. Catch more of his work in Colorado Music Buzz, Snowboard Colorado, and his weekly talk show on worldviral.tv
