United Nations of Beer

Wynkoop Brewery

by Lucia Novara
(Beer Delegate, CO, USA)

Wynkoop Brewing
Denver, CO, USA

For my very first assignment as the United Nations of Beer Colorado Delegate, I chose to visit the Wynkoop Brewing Company. Why? Because it’s historic, a Denver local favourite, and because I finally had a good excuse to get loaded on a Tuesday.

It's located in downtown Denver in the J.S. Brown Mercantile Building, which was built in 1899 and the bar was the original showroom for the store.

It's named for Denver’s first sheriff, Edward W. Wynkoop, who was known as 'Ned' to his friends and 'Hot Pants' to his enemies.

The beer

Links to my Wynkoop Brewing beer reviews. Be sure to rate the beers if you've tried them yourself:

Light Rail Ale

RailYard Ale

Monkey Fist IPA

Captain Hickenloopers Flying Artillery Ale

Sleggehameren Barley Wine

Wynkoop Brewing is Denver history brought to life, a fixture of the city downtown. Its exposed brick, wooden pillars and pressed tin ceiling exude a very authentic Old West atmosphere, but without any of that nasty "Let's-kill-some-Injuns" tone you sometimes get at cowboy boot stores.

I tried six options at Wynkoop and wasn’t disappointed by any. Despite the fact that my notebook made the bartender think I was The Man, and he didn't recognize the significance of having a UNOB Delegate bellied up to his bar, he served me very well and knew a lot about the beers.

All in all, my trip to Wynkoop Brewing in Denver was a very satisfactory venture into the underworld of the city's microbrews.