The Denver Craft Beer Trail: 7 Taprooms That Define Colorado's Capital

By The Taproom Team

Denver's craft beer story begins in a warehouse. In 1988, John Hickenlooper opened Wynkoop Brewing Company in a derelict LoDo building nobody wanted — and the neighborhood, and the city, and eventually Colorado's entire craft beer identity started to take shape around that decision.

The transformation is genuine and ongoing. Drive through River North, LoHi, or the Ballpark District today and you'll encounter world-class taprooms that rival anything in Portland, Asheville, or San Diego. Colorado craft beer is no longer a regional curiosity — it's a national benchmark.

Here are the seven Denver-area taprooms every beer traveler must visit.

**1. Wynkoop Brewing Company (LoDo)** — Start at the beginning. Wynkoop's massive billiards hall and cavernous taproom feel like a monument to craft beer's power to transform communities. The beer is solid and the history is irreplaceable. This is where it all started.

**2. Great Divide Brewing Company (RiNo)** — The Yeti Imperial Stout has been one of America's great big beers for decades. Great Divide's RiNo taproom — newer, sleeker, and with a barrel room that rewards the curious — shows a brewery that has never stopped evolving. The original Curtis Street location has its own charms.

**3. Epic Brewing Company (Ballpark)** — If you believe more is more, Epic is your brewery. Big Bad Baptist Imperial Stout, brewed with coffee and cacao nibs, is one of the most intense, complex beers made anywhere in the mountain West. The Ballpark taproom energy matches the beer.

**4. Breckenridge Brewery (Platte Street)** — The Avalanche Amber and the brewery's farmhouse complex in Littleton get all the attention, but the Platte Street Denver location is a great daily pint destination — approachable, fun, and consistently excellent.

**5. Spangalang Brewery (Five Points)** — One of Denver's most interesting newer taprooms, bringing a jazz-inspired philosophy to beer: improvisation, collaboration, and community. Their pale ales and session beers are exceptionally food-friendly.

**6. Black Sky Brewery (Santa Fe Arts District)** — Metal music, dark beers, and a taproom that doesn't apologize for knowing exactly what it is. Black Sky's imperial stouts and porters are some of the most deeply flavored beers in the city.

**7. Our Mutual Friend Brewing (RiNo)** — Small-batch, neighborhood-focused, and perpetually surprising. OMF's rotating lineup of farmhouse ales, IPAs, and experimental beers keeps even the most seasoned Denver beer traveler coming back to see what's new.

Plan three days. Start in LoDo, move through the Ballpark District and RiNo, finish in Santa Fe and Five Points. Denver's brewery districts are walkable, the light rail covers the gaps, and the altitude — at 5,280 feet — means every pint hits just a little more meaningfully.