Taps installed in Governor’s Mansion to support Colo. beer industry

[Oceander]

Taps installed in Governor’s Mansion to support Colo. beer industry

Posted on: 8:56 pm, March 20, 2014, by Eli Stokols,
updated on: 05:18pm, March 21, 2014

DENVER — With Colorado’s craft beer industry exploding, you can find IPAs, pilsners, saisons and stouts on almost every corner.

And starting Thursday, you can find it on the the corner of E. 8th Avenue and Pennsylvania St. right inside the Colorado Governor’s Mansion, now the first official governor’s residence in the country with its own draft beer system.  “It just seemed appropriate,” said Gov. John Hickenlooper, a former brewer who founded the Wynkoop Brewing Company in LoDo back when downtown was a ghost town and craft beer wasn’t anything close to the $800 million a year industry it’s become with 232 federally licensed breweries and brewpubs in Colorado.

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The taps will be ready in time for a party at the mansion Friday night to kick off Colorado Craft Beer Week, a celebration of an industry that now employs around 5,000 Coloradans.

"With more than 200 different breweries in Colorado, we’re probably brewing several thousand beers in a year," said Steve Kurowski with the Colorado Brewers Guild.  “These are some of the freshest, some of the most world-class beers being brewed around; to have these on showcase at the mansion is very exciting for our industry.

“They will create a conversation; it’ll be very unique every time there’s an event here and these beers are being poured.”

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[truth_seeker]

And why, praytell, do they need a federal license to brew beer in Colorado?

Coming soon: Samples of other legal products of Colorado's newest industry.

[mountaineer]

BHO brews beer at the White House. I'm sure he has all the necessary licenses and permits.  :nometalk:  Given his fondness for Colorado's "newest industry," as you put it, perhaps that's what's going into Mooch's garden this spring.