Sharing bottles at breweries in Denver?

Off-site only. It's illegal in CO.

 

Technically. Yes. Does it happen every day, in almost every brewery in town? Yes.

 

I remember they used to have some Legendary Bottle Shares at the Old Avery Location, On Arapahoe.

 

Most of these scenarios involve people who know/are friendly with the staff though, not random folks coming in to pop bottles.

 

A little of both in my experience. Brewery employees do it all the time; if you're getting free beer, and you're somehow involved in the process, there's nothing wrong with sharing.
I've done it with beer tenders I know, and those I don't. If you show up with great beer that is not distributed where you're visiting it seems to go over well for the most part (but you also need to not be an idiot and realize it's not legal). I did a road trip back east a few years ago, and traded beers everywhere from New Glarus to Tired Hands.

 

Uh. I've made easily over a hundred brewery visits in Colorado and I've seen this happen maybe once or twice.

 

Maybe it's just the breweries you frequent? I could name one or two where I see it on at least a weekly basis and I had it happen a handful of times when I was working behind the bar. There are a few homebrew clubs that meet at breweries and bottle share homebrew too... just saying.

I think it'd be pretty awesome if there were some brewery hosted bottle shares. We should get a corkage law passed in CO.

 

That- I'd agree on. Good luck though once you meet the entrenched interests.
I think the 2 breweries I visit the most are Weldwerks and Black Project.

 

And at both of those breweries I have attended bottle shares at as well as opened beers with the beer tenders.

 

Whoa. Over a 100?!

 

It's called a frame of reference. Meaning that I've been to breweries many times and almost never seen it happen. The frequency at which I've seen this activity happening is very low. I know you are trying to be sarcastic but it's not funny or useful to the conversation - it contributes nothing.

 

It happens all the time, but that doesn't make it legal in most instances. I doubt there are agents patrolling around and making sure that every beer in a brewery came from them. Not sure they even could if they wanted. Then again, it seems to also clearly be okay or at least totally unenforced at some places, too.

Zwanze day used to be held 50 yards from a police station and the police were more concerned with the toilets and cooking going on that any booze being consumed. If they wanted to lower the boom or contact the liquor enforcement teams they certainly could have.

 

Honestly, man, I assume pretty much every one on this site knows their shit when it comes to beer, breweries, etc. I see you post a decent amount, so I assume you know what you're talking about when it comes to your own opinions and experiences. Much like your point above about sarcasm contributing nothing, saying you've made over a 100 brewery visits means nothing to me (because despite your visits, I've seen something different entirely, but I don't feel the need to qualify my opinion via the number of brewery visits I've made). The OP asked if it's okay to bring offsite bottles to breweries — we're all going to have a different frame of reference as you mention, but gross claims on a website about beer that no one can quantify or validate...well, they contribute (like you say): nothing. Maybe we just agree to disagree. And, that's just like your opinion, man.

 

Brewery owner here. Technically not ok, but it happens all the time.

If you are discrete about sharing with bartenders, many will open the can/bottle and pour tasters. They aren't technically supposed to, but most will. The Liquor Enforcement Division has basically said that they will only enforce things that they get complaints about. They have very little staff and can't afford to be out trying to sting bottle shares when they barely have the staff to sting for underage drinking. 5+ years in business and we've only had that kind of visit once (thankfully we passed).

 

Yeah that’s illegal, but no one cares.

Its like giving a bartender a nugget... not legal, but no one cares and its a nice gesture to hook them up with something they haven’t had or wouldn’t normally buy.

Think about how much New Belgium a guy from New Belgium drinks? I’m sure the novelty of free beer wears off when you drink the same free beers all the time.

 

I could happily drink Abbey and nothing else if it was free and readily available.

 

You say that now!

This reminds me (obviously there's no place for this): had a Brut Tripel at NB last week that was surprisingly delightful... had some boozy heat after I let it warm up too much, but overall an interesting and well-excecuted concept!

 

Another brewery owner chiming in here. This is pretty rare in my establishment. And when it does happen, it's just one or two people who bring in a bottle of their homebrew, or something they came across in their travels, to share with us owners and bartenders, not really for anyone else sitting at the bar. We either pour samples kind of under the bar or just take it in back and pour it, so no one else really sees it, because it is illegal, and we have had a visit from the Liquor Enforcement Division (LED). Maybe if it's a regular and they're sitting next to another regular that they've come to know through simultaneous visits, they'll say sure, give him a taste of it too. But it's not like we're popping tons of bottles and trading tasting notes throughout the bar.

We used to have bottles of some special stuff in our cold room, but during our LED visit, they slapped our wrists for having someone else's alcohol on site, even though we insisted it wasn't for sharing with patrons, let alone selling it, didn't matter. So now we just don't. Too much other shit to worry about than getting a stupid fine for something that's easy to prevent. For other breweries, I've heard it's not so easy to manage because people bring in so much stuff, so they just bite the bullet and pay the fine.

I would say if you're a regular, ask the bartender or whomever you want to share with, when they're working next and if you can bring something in. Or maybe at least keep it in your car and clear it with them first. Things can just get out of hand too easily. But maybe that's the paranoia of a business owner talking.