Casey is a big fan of Crooked Stave and Prost (Cyrus McCrimmon, The Denver Post)

Editor’s note: As 2012 draws to a close, we’re asking leading figures in Colorado brewing to reflect on the past year and look ahead to 2013. Our next installment is from AC Golden brewer Troy Casey, the subject of a feature in The Denver Post last spring and, more recently, a combatant in the Craft vs. Crafty debate.

Favorite craft beer of the year: Wild Wild Brett Indigo from Crooked Stave. It has a great level of acidity and huge blueberry notes. I really wish I had more of this in my cellar, I think it’s going to keep aging great.

Colorado brewery of the year: Crooked Stave. Chad and the boys are killing it. They’re finally getting settled in their new facility in Denver and are cranking out some great beers. Tasty beers aside, they’ve got top notch label artwork, a really relaxed and approachable tap room and refreshing kombucha.

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Joe-Michael Wright is betting on buy-local and craft’s ascendancy (Eric Gorski, The Denver Post)

Hugo’s Colorado Beer and Spirits doesn’t feel like a liquor store. The walls are exposed brick, the shelving is made of gas pipe and scaffolding, and the brand-new wood floor is finished to look like it’s been there forever.

The vibe is raw, handmade, unpolished – kind of like the small craft breweries popping up all over Colorado.

That is no accident. Owner Joe-Michael Wright, a Texan transplanted to Colorado, is dedicating his shelves to craft beer and Colorado-made spirits, betting that the buy-local movement and the ascendancy of craft beer will provide a comfortable niche.

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Eric Gorski, The Denver Post

The name and label Crazy Mountain settled on for Boohai Red Ale

Crazy Mountain Brewing in the Vail Valley dropped plans to use a Maori term for its new red ale brewed with New Zealand hops in hopes of avoiding the kind of controversy that haunted another Colorado brewery.

The Edwards brewery originally named the ale “Kura Koa,” which translates to “red euphoria” in Maori, the language of indigenous Polynesian people of New Zealand, said brewery co-owner Kevin Selvy.

But after learning about the intense criticism that caused Fort Collins-based Funkwerks to change the name of its Maori King imperial saison last year, Crazy Mountain scrapped the name even though the label already had been approved and was about to be printed on cans that very week, Selvy said.

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Dave Chichura likes Telluride Brewing in 2012 and is watching a new brewery in Golden in 2013 (photo provided by Oskar Blues).

Editor’s note: As 2012 draws to a close, we’re asking leading figures in Colorado brewing to reflect on the past year and look ahead to 2013. Our next installment is from Oskar Blues head brewer Dave Chichura. The Longmont-based craft can leader is having a big year itself, having just opened a new East Coast plant in Brevard, N.C.

Favorite craft beer of the year: Burning Bush IPA from Golden Road Brewing Co. in Los Angeles. First smoked IPA I’d ever encountered and it was so good it inspired one of our own (oSKAr the G’Rauch Smoked IPA — collaboration beer we recently made with Ska Brewing).

Colorado brewery of the year: Telluride Brewing. I couldn’t be more proud of Chris Fish and his crew down there. They hit the ground running and apparently that American brown ale of theirs defines the style. They had the great sense to put their beer in cans (Bridal Veil Rye Pale Ale).

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Casey creates sour beers in a corner of the MillerCoors empire (Cyrus McCrimmon, The Denver Post).

Troy Casey just finished a series of barrel-aged sour beers made with Colorado-grown blackberries and apricots. He is scheduled to speak next spring at a craft brewers conference about advanced techniques in sour and wild beer production. Rarely does a week go by when he does not answer a question from a Front Range brewer about lagers.

But in the eyes of the trade association for the craft beer industry, Casey’s employer peddles “faux craft.” Casey is a brewer at AC Golden, a tiny corner of the empire that is SAB Miller, the world’s second largest brewer.

The Boulder-based Brewers Association took the unusually bold step last week of accusing multinational brewing companies of “deliberately attempting to blur the lines” between their own brands that evoke craft beer and craft beers created by small and independent brewers that are steadily taking a bigger bite out of the U.S. beer market.

The BA statement – which insiders say had been long discussed and much debated before it was released – raises the stakes in a high-stakes turf battle not just about truth in labeling but shelf space and tap handles from the corner bar to sports stadiums.

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Andy Brown in his element (Denver Post file photo)

Editor’s note: As 2012 draws to a close, we’re asking leading figures in Colorado brewing to reflect on the past year and look ahead to 2013. Our second installment is from Andy Brown of the Wynkoop, the landmark brewpub whose experimental side was the focus of this post earlier this year.

Favorite craft beer of the year: I have to hand it to Funkwerks Saison for consistently tasting like a real Belgian Saison.

Colorado brewery of the year: New Belgium. It is the last year we can claim them as our own. They have great culture and quality, keep pumping out new and interesting beers, and are massively popular.

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Andy Parker in the famous Avery barrel room (photo courtesy Joe Osborne at Avery)

Editor’s note: As 2012 draws to a close, we’re asking leading figures in Colorado brewing to reflect on the past year and look ahead to 2013. Our only request was that folks not cite their own breweries, although we figured it was fine to make an exception if their own work happened to fit into the trend questions. First up is Andy Parker, senior brewery at Avery Brewing in Boulder, who reports that he replied with an Avery New World Porter in hand (that isn’t cheating, is it? Nah …)

Favorite craft beer of the year: I had a lot of great beers from around the country this year, but the first one that came to mind is one that I believe first came out near the end of 2011 and I first saw on shelves here in Colorado this year … Rayon Vert by Green Flash. It’s kind of an homage to Orval, one of the undisputed classics of Belgian brewing. But you can get it fresh and in 4-packs. Green Flash nailed this beer.

Colorado brewery of the year: Funkwerks. I just had a Tropic King last night. Funkwerks is concentrating on saisons way up there in Fort Fun, and they’re obviously having a great time doing it. They even pulled in Small Brewing Company of the Year at the Great American Beer Festival, which is no easy feat in such a massive competition.

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Blue Moon has been around. This file art dates from 1999 (Denver Post)

UPDATED: 3:55 p.m. MT with comments from MillerCoors and the Beer Institute on behalf of Anheuser-Busch.

The Boulder-based Brewers Association today stuck a careful toe into an increasingly contentious debate in the U.S. brewing industry, issuing a statement suggesting multi-national brewers “are deliberately attempting to blur the lines” between their own craft beer-inspired brands and craft beer created by small and independent brewers.

The clever headline on the press statement: Craft vs. Crafty (the full text is below).

But the BA stopped short of calling for government intervention or even asking big brewers to change their marketing and labeling. The focus, rather, is on trying to better educate the consumer, BA director Paul Gatza said in an interview.

The statement singles out a couple of beers – Blue Moon, the Belgian wheat that began as a Coors product before the mega-merger/joint venture that led to the creation of MillerCoors, and the Anheuser-Busch InBev product Shock Top. But those are just the most recognized brands that the BA places in the “crafty” category – and only a part of what’s happening in the beer world.

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Remember Breckenridge Brewery’s “Truth in Beervertising” campaign, which mocked the marketing of large-label swill that dominates the television airwaves during NFL games?

Well, the Colorado craft brewery is back today with another installment of the series – again with head Brewer Bob Harrington in a starring role.

In the first go-around last spring, Harrington was featured as the “Least Interesting Man in the World” – a dig at the ubiquitous Dos Equis campaign. That video has nearly 25,000 views on YouTube.

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A happy customer in San Francisco (Getty Images)

Beer aficionados in Colorado and across the United States raced to liquor stores Wednesday in hopes of shelling out $85 for six-packs.

That’s right, 85 bucks for six bottles of beer – and, as a bonus, two special tasting glasses.

The brew in question — Westvleteren XII — is regarded by many as the best beer in the world. Brewed since 1838 at the abbey of Saint Sixtus in Belgium, it has never before been available for sale in the U.S.

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