The Great American Beer Festival really is one of Colorado’s marquee events. Thousands of beer fans jam the Colorado Conventions Center to sample the best beer this country has to offer. Earlier I previewed the GABF and I attended the Thursday night session and I (again) found myself amazed by this truly singular event.

If you have a ticket to the Great American Beer Festival , it’s good to be you.  

For the uninitiated, the Great American Beer Festival is a yearly gathering of brewers from around the country put on by the Boulder-based Brewers Association. You could say it’s the king of beer festivals. This year, 432 breweries will have more than 1,900 beers on tap, and thousands will filter through the Colorado Convention Center sipping one-ounce samples of some of best beer America has to offer.  

But if all that sounds daunting, don’t worry. As a seasoned veteran of the festival, I have a few tips for you that will keep your trip tasting great and more fulfilling.

We’ve all heard that Denver is the birthplace of the cheeseburger and we’ve all attempted to treat our out-of-town guests to Rocky Mountain Oysters, but for being a city with such a history so enmeshed with beef and cattle, it may be slightly surprising that Denver doesn’t have a trademark barbecue dish.

Americans, it’s no secret, have long set aside a warm place in their hearts and stomachs for comfort food—meatloaf, mac and cheese, mashed potatoes with gravy.

Denver diners now have a new option to satiate their appetites when they’re craving what their Mamas used to make: Second Home Kitchen and Bar in Cherry Creek

For you ex-Boulderites who’ve left Shangri-La for careers, strippers and Rockies games down here in Cowtownthere’s now a glowing orb of a place that spews great beer and food like a solar flare.

Veering wildly off the marketing path by opting for an “un-Sun” name, the folks at Mountain Sun opened the Vine Street Pub (corner of 17th Ave. and Vine Street) on April 14th right here in Denver.