{"id":112083,"date":"2015-05-29T03:28:40","date_gmt":"2015-05-29T09:28:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/beer-battle-brewing-in-colorado\/"},"modified":"2015-05-29T03:28:40","modified_gmt":"2015-05-29T09:28:40","slug":"beer-battle-brewing-in-colorado","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/beer-battle-brewing-in-colorado\/","title":{"rendered":"Beer battle brewing in Colorado"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Tim
Tim Evon, head brewer at Dry Dock Brewing Co. in Aurora, toasts a new beer he brewed that aims at uniting Coloradans against the idea of allowing the sale of beer and wine at grocery stores.<\/span>Courtesy of Keep Colorado Local<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

DENVER \u2013 Colorado brewers continued their push against allowing the sale of beer and wine in grocery stores, tapping a special beer brewed in an effort to unite Coloradans against the idea.<\/p>\n

The Keep Colorado LocALE was tapped Wednesday at an alehouse in Denver, where brewers and liquor store owners gathered to express concerns with a possible ballot initiative led by larger retailers.<\/p>\n

The \u201cbeer battle\u201d is nothing new, as talks to allow sales in supermarkets and convenience stores fizzled in the Legislature over the years. With a lack of progress on the legislative level, the Colorado Retail Council \u2013 which represents retailers \u2013 is seriously considering taking the issue to voters in 2016, though the group has not yet filed paperwork.<\/p>\n

Brewers are concerned that the effort would hurt business by limiting choice. They point out that liquor stores often carry a wide selection, whereas supermarkets might choose to stock only larger producers. If liquor stores start to go out of business, then there would be fewer places to distribute Colorado\u2019s wide variety of craft beer, they say.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really just to have a talking piece, a catalyst for conversation \u2026 \u201d said Tim Evon, head brewer at Dry Dock Brewing Co. in Aurora, who brewed the Keep Colorado LocALE. \u201cThis beer is essentially that avenue to that kind of conversation and education. I\u2019m hoping that people realize that if this ballot initiative were to pass, we would lose a big part of this amazing craft culture.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pale ale was brewed simply, so that other breweries across the state can brew it themselves, perhaps adding their own distinguishing ingredients. In addition to Dry Dock, nine other breweries will serve the beer, including Steamworks Brewing Co. in Durango.<\/p>\n

Dave Thibodeau, co-owner of Durango-based Ska Brewing Co., said he supports the campaign, pointing out that Colorado voters should be educated on the potential ballot initiative.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea behind the LocALE is to get out in front of it and inform the public that these locally owned, independent, small businesses in our state have always supported the craft brewers,\u201d Thibodeau said of liquor stores. \u201cThe public, they don\u2019t think of it at that deep of a level. They just think it will be convenient \u2026 so the approach is to get the information out to the public.\u201d<\/p>\n

Staying true to the \u201ckeep Colorado local\u201d theme, the beer uses Colorado malts and hops.<\/p>\n

Supporters of the ballot idea \u2013 including Colorado Consumers for Choice \u2013 said they are trying to offer convenience.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you visit a grocery store in one of the 40-some-odd states that sell real beer and wine, guess what you\u2019ll find? A massive selection of the world\u2019s most popular craft brews, including a long list that are brewed right here in Colorado,\u201d said Rich Coolidge, spokesman for Colorado Consumers for Choice.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe liquor stores, of course, love the Prohibition-era laws that give them a monopoly, and there\u2019s no amount of silly spin and gimmickry they won\u2019t use to protect it at the expense of Colorado consumers,\u201d he said. \u201cSo we congratulate the liquor store monopolies on the launch of their new beer. Wouldn\u2019t it be great if you could pick it up while you\u2019re shopping for dinner?\u201d<\/p>\n

Denise Baron, an organizer for Keep Colorado Local, responded. \u201cIf you were trying to define the exact opposite of a monopoly, you\u2019d only have to look at Colorado\u2019s current liquor system with nearly 1,600 independent businesses competing against each other. We have a level playing field that allows each person to own one liquor store. That means anyone from the mom-and-pop store around the corner to Wal-mart have the same opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

pmarcus@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

stores, craft brewers boil as grocery stores seek to expand offerings<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":112084,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[791,94,582],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-112083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-ballot-initiatives","tag-colorado-state-government","tag-craft-beer"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112083"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112083\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112083"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=112083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}