Colorado's best breweries and beers of 2024
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Illustration: Maura Losch/Axios
Colorado breweries survived a difficult year, but they kept making great beer.
Zoom in: To find the best Colorado breweries and beers in 2024, Axios Denver conducted its annual survey of more than 200 beer industry pro and craft beer fans.
- Here are the results.
Best brewery
The best brewery in Colorado is — for the second consecutive year — Westbound & Down.
State of play: The brewery emerged as the clear winner in the annual survey thanks to its recent high-profile awards, its tap list variety and its top-notch food.
- The brewery — with locations in Idaho Springs, Denver and Lafayette — also landed the top two beers.
Why it matters: The ingredients that make Westbound & Down special offer a path forward for all breweries in tough economic times: high-quality beer and food with something for every taste.
Between the lines: Other vote-getters were 2023 winner Cerebral, Cohesion and Novel Strand brewing, all in Denver, as well as Verboten in Loveland.
What they're saying: Westbound boasts an "incredible lineup of all varieties of beer and excellent food at multiple locations," beer writer Britt Antley says. "They're killing it on all fronts."
- "Every beer is high quality, no misses," beer fan Emily Walbart added.
Best new brewery
Two Denver breweries landed as the best up-and-comers in the survey: Wanderment and Monolith.
- Both were cited for their dedicated owners, quality beers from Day 1 and "good vibes."
Dig in: Located just off North Washington Street, Wanderment opened in June 2024 after founder and head brewer John Flaherty launched a Kickstarter campaign the year prior.
- Monolith — on South Broadway — is owned by Stephen Monahan, a beer industry veteran who donates 1% of revenues to a woman brewer scholarship fund.
Best beer
Westbound & Down also earned accolades in this category, making the top two beers in this year's survey: Westbound Select IPA and Infinity Pils.
Stunning stat: Both beers have been gold medal winners at the Great American Beer Festival the past two years.
- Select IPA is the epitome of the trend back to West Coast IPAs that burst with flavor and less bitterness than their predecessors.
- Infinity Pils is a West Coast pilsner that melds all the great hops aromas and flavors of an IPA with a lighter, easier-to-drink lager.
Between the lines: The runners-up in the category included Cerebral's Rare Trait IPA series, Comrade's Superpower IPA and Bierstadt Lagerhaus' Slow Pour Pils.
Top beer trend in 2024
So much happened in the beer world in 2024. Major brewery closings and a diminishing consumer base merged with notable openings and the reemergence of traditional beer styles.
The latest: The top trend in 2024 at most breweries was the return of lagers and pilsners as prominent beers, the survey found.
- The bottom-fermented beer is more difficult to make and takes longer to do so, but the rewards are plenty, with a lighter, highly drinkable body and a variety of styles for different palates.
- Meanwhile, the West Coast pilsner — the merger of an IPA and lager — showed how a traditional style can be reinvented with modern techniques and hops.
Between the lines: The return and remake of West Coast IPAs was another key trend, the survey noted. Also, the explosion in the number of nonalcoholic beers appealed to a more health-conscious consumer.
What they're saying: This year showed it's "back to basics with more demand for lagers," said beer fan Ray Oberbroeckling. "I think the more experienced beer drinker is getting slightly tired of the same hazy [IPA] with a different name."