Barrels & Bottles Brewery Opens Today, Serving Guest Beers and Wine On Tap

Today, Golden gets a new business that's more of an emporium of fine foods than it is a brewery. Barrels & Bottles on 600 12th Street will celebrate its grand opening at 5 p.m., giving customers their first tastes of the brewery's small-batch beers, 17 guest taps, and 24 wines on tap.

This weekend, head brewer Shaun Salyards has two of his beers on tap: a malt-forward, spicy rye ale and a blond ale that was brewed with Mystery X hops from Voss Farms in Arvada. "This beer is designed to be an easy drinking pint for showing the great tropical fruit flavors of Voss' farms Mystery Hop X, a surprise and unidentified addition to their hop fields," says Salyards, who helped pick the hops. "What resulted from that design was indeed surprising, showing lots of pineapple and grapefruit flavors with traces of mangos."

Also on tap this weekend are mexican chocolate stout from Copper Kettle Brewing Company, apricot blond ale from Dry Dock Brewing Co., J. Marie saison from River North Brewing, and Nomad pilsner from Great Divide. "We're creating a tap list that reflects who we feel are under-represented in this area," says Salyards. Barrels & Bottles is Equinox Brewing's first non-Fort Collins account and Crooked Stave Artisan Beer Project's first account in Golden.

In addition to a well-curated beer list and wines from California and Colorado, Barrels & Bottles boasts one of Colorado's only beer fusion towers, which infuses beer with fresh hops, coffees, and other botanicals to enhance aromas. There are plans to serve fresh hop-infused beers and there is talk about adding weird ingredients into the tower— like infusing a porter or a stout with graham crackers and dried marshmallows.

Barrels & Bottles will also serve wine slushies, and a small plates menu that will be handcrafted from scratch by co-owner Abigail Schuh George. The simple menu will sport sandwiches with fresh baked bread, a hummus platter, a cheese plate, and seasonal salads.

On top of it all, Barrels & Bottles also offers a variety of bulk olive oils and vinegars for sale. Much like a growler fill, you can return with your empty bottle for eco-friendly refills.

Barrels & Bottles is owned and operated by husband and wife duo Abigail and Zachary George. They moved to Colorado in 2012 with Barrels & Bottles in mind, and spent their first few months in the state touring countless Colorado breweries and attending festivals like Odell's Small Batch Fest where they met Salyards.

The brewery will open at 5 p.m. on Friday, September 20, and 3 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday this weekend. For their regular hours (TBD) and more information, visit barrelsbottles.com.

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