John Hickenlooper has been known to drink a beer over the course of his multi-faceted careers. He's also been known to drink a nice refreshing glass of fracking fluid. But now his two favorite beverages are on a collision course.

That's because Dave Query, head of the Big Red F Group, which owns the Post Brewing in Lafayette and several other locations (as well as a handful of other restaurants), recently trademarked the word Hickenlooper (for beer sales) and then named a beer after the just-out-of-office governor: Hickenlooper American Ale.

It was a salute to the fellow (if former) restaurateur and current presidential candidate, and sales were to benefit Take Note Colorado, the charity that Hickenlooper and Isaac Slade of the Fray helped form in 2017; Take Note provides access to musical instruments and instruction to K-12 students in Colorado.

The beer, at just 5 percent ABV, was designed to be light, but the concept did not go down easy.

The Post Brewing

No sooner had Hickenlooper American Ale — and its spiffy new label — debuted at the Post than Lafayette-based East Boulder County United started calling for a boycott of not just the brew, but the Post itself, citing "Hickenlooper’s long-time alliance with Colorado’s oil and gas industry, a collaboration resulting in massive backyard drilling operations and parents testing their children’s blood for benzene."

The group's call for action continued: "Both Lafayette and Longmont, Colorado, where The Post has two restaurants, have been at the center of the fight against oil and gas drilling for years, a fight in which Hickenlooper consistently supported the oil and gas industry over his own constituents. Both cities were sued by the Colorado Oil and Gas Association (COGA) when community members adopted local charter amendments banning fracking within city limits. Then-governor John Hickenlooper widely supported and encouraged these industry lawsuits and even piled on by having the state of Colorado itself sue the city of Longmont over Longmont’s fracking law."

Surrender came quickly. On April 2, Query sent out this announcement: