A pair of new winter seasonals are set to hit liquor store shelves this week.

Upslope Brewing's Christmas Ale, a Spiced Belgian-Style Dubbel, is based on a homebrew recipe that brewery owner Matt Cutter used to make and bring to parties. Christmas Ale, which is ruby red in color, is the fourth installment in its Limited Release Series and will be the brewery's second sixteen-ounce four-pack.

The other is Left Hand Brewing's Fade to Black, the fourth incarnation of a winter seasonal that changes style every year even though it keeps the same name. The 2012 version is an an India black ale "showcasing the duality of dry roasted malts and hop bitterness." The previous styles were a chile porter, a foreign export stout and a smoked Baltic porter.

Find all of this week's craft beer happenings on the next page.

Wednesday, October 31

Lone Tree Brewing Company will tap its Harvest Pumpkin Ale for Halloween.

The Rackhouse Pub is the only place in Denver where you can try DAM Gogh, a bier de garde brewed by Dillon Dam Brewery in conjunction with the Denver Art Museum to honor the museum's blockbuster exhibition, Becoming Van Gogh. Facebook fans of the museum and brewery chose the name; Dillon Dam Brewery brewmaster Cory Forster chose the style as an homage to Van Gogh's time in France. Similar to a saison, it is a light beer with a slightly sweet background. The beer will also be available in Dillon at the brewery starting on November 2.

Friday, November 2

Hops & Pie kicks off First Friday on Tennyson Street as it always does with First Firkin Friday. This month, it features Warrior, the fresh-hopped IPA made by Left Hand Brewing in Longmont, with whole Cascade thrown into the kettle just hours after they were picked in Paonia. The firkin is tapped at 6 p.m.

Saturday, November 3

The Wynkoop Brewing Company will roll out saved kegs of every single beer it brewed in 2012 -- including cask and special reserve beers -- as part of the annual Beers of the Year event from 1 to 4 p.m. There will also be guest beers and gourmet cheese. Tickets are $25.

Copper Kettle taps is dark Dunkel Lager today at noon. In addition, Joe's Food Truck will be in the house starting at 5 p.m.

Upslope Brewing celebrates its fourth birthday from noon to 6 p.m. with an amazing twenty different beers on tap throughout the day served at four different beer stations. There will also be two food trucks (Cheese Louise and Heirloom), live music (The Longest Day of the Year and The Wolftones). Colorado Craft Beer Radio will be onsite from noon to 2 p.m.

Twisted Pine Brewing in Boulder, which just won two medals at the Great American Beer Festival, releases the latest beer in its Artisan Ale Project today in the taproom. Modern Day Pine-eer is an "Indian Pumpkin Ale," brewed with 500 pounds of pumpkin, a mixture of fresh-milled spices, and Pilgrim and Columbus hops. The noon to 9 p.m. release party -- as have the others for Artisan Ale beers -- will double as an art exhibit for Colorado Springs-based photographer Shannon Ripley who designed the label and will be on hand to sign wax-dipped 750 ml bottles for collectors. Her artwork will also adorn the walls of Twisted Pine's Ale House for the remainder of the month.

The All Colorado Beer Festival returns to the Freedom Financial Expo Center in Colorado Springs today with two sessions, one from 1 to 4:30 p.m. and the other from 6:30 to 10 p.m. There will be from forty Colorado breweries on hand. The festival, which includes live music, was created six years ago as a way to raise money for local charities, and organizers donate 100 percent of their proceeds to those groups. This year's recipients are Theatreworks, the Empty Stocking Fund and Homefront Cares. There will also be a competition this year, with sixty beers entered into six categories.

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