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Wynkoop Brewing Company
Wynkoop Brewing Company opened in 1988 in what was then a fairly rough, underdeveloped stretch of LoDo, founded by John Hickenlooper along with Russell Schehrer, Mark Schiffler, and Jerry Williams. Hickenlooper would go on to become Denver's mayor and later Colorado's governor, giving Wynkoop a genuinely unusual claim among American brewpubs: its founder ended up running the entire state. The brewpub was one of the first of its kind in Denver, combining a full restaurant with an in-house brewing operation at a time when that combination was still a novel format rather than the standard template it's since become across the country. A large billiards hall on the top floor added a social, hangout dimension beyond just food and beer, reinforcing the brewpub as a genuine gathering spot rather than a purely food-and-drink stop. Wynkoop has also built a specific piece of beer-world tradition around itself: the brewery sponsors the annual "Beerdrinker of the Year" competition, a genuinely odd and specific event that's become a small institution of its own within craft beer culture, run out of the same LoDo building the brewery has occupied since 1988. For a Denver breweries list, Wynkoop is the essential "the original brewpub, run by a future governor" entry — proof that Denver's now-massive craft beer identity has real roots in a single LoDo building that predates most of the neighborhood's current development.
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Denver Beer Co.
Denver Beer Co. started, by its own account, in home garages — a handful of batches of homebrew made by founders with a specific fondness for Bavarian beer garden traditions, long before the company existed as an actual business. That garage-to-taproom arc is a common enough craft beer origin story, but Denver Beer Co. leaned into the beer garden concept more literally than most, building its identity around large, social, outdoor-facing taproom spaces rather than a more conventional indoor bar format. That beer garden approach has become the brewery's clearest signature — communal picnic tables, a dog-friendly patio culture, and food trucks parked outside rather than an in-house kitchen, a format built explicitly for lingering in a group rather than a quick pint alone. It's a specific vision of what a Denver taproom should feel like, closer to a backyard party than a traditional bar. The Platte Street taproom, close to the Lower Highlands (LoHi) neighborhood just across the river from downtown, has stayed the brand's most recognizable location as the company expanded to additional taprooms across the metro area, each one built around the same beer garden format rather than a unique concept per location. For a Denver breweries list, Denver Beer Co. is the essential "beer garden, not bar" entry — a homebrew-garage origin story turned into a genuinely distinct taproom format built around long tables, dogs, and food trucks rather than a conventional indoor pour.
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