This time last year, a certain subset of Front Range beer fans was fondly rehashing, and perhaps still recovering from, a Saturday of fun at Bristol Brewing Co.’s sold-out Firkin Rendezvous, the annual showcase of specialty cask-conditioned one-offs — a "brew fest for brewers" — and fundraiser for the Colorado Brewers Guild.
Little did revelers know it would likely be their final festival firkin, or festival of any kind, for at least the foreseeable future.
Having a beer with friends — much less with friends and hundreds of strangers — was about to get a lot more complicated, a story of caution, calculated risk and, for some, unexpected longing.