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Colorado Startup Brews Event

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There's no shortage of brew festivals in the Denver area but the Colorado Startup Brews event is a uniquely special event that's about so much more than beer.  It's about community, which we can really appreciate. 

Custom Keg Cap Tap handles awarded as trophies to top brewers at the event.

Custom Keg Cap Tap handles awarded as trophies to top brewers at the event.

This year was the 3rd annual Colorado Startup Brews event.  This is not your typical brew fest.  There are a couple of commercial brews, but the event is really about bringing the Colorado tech startup community together to showcase their brewing talents for a good cause.  This year, the good cause was the Dear Jack Foundation, which supports kids and young adults battling cancer. Supporting this event and cause by donating customized Keg Cap Tap handles as trophies was even more important being there with a good friend and Keg Cap Tap contributor who is a cancer survivor.

It was a big fun crowd at the Colorado Startup Brews event this year!

It was a big fun crowd at the Colorado Startup Brews event this year!

We loved connecting with brewers from companies like Ping Identity, GoSpotCheck, BowTie and FullContact.  In addition to learning about their companies and beers they made for this year's event, it was really cool to hear from folks at companies like Ping about how they're using the Keg Cap Tap handles awarded as trophies at last year's event.  

It was also cool to hear that several companies used Co-Brew facilities and expertise to help make their brews for the event.  What a great resource for those in the Denver area and what a great team builder!

Winners have been posted, but my noteworthy brews were from Ping Identity (strawberry and Pineapple kolsch, blackberry and raspberry kolsch an imperial IPA with clementines) and GoSpotCheck (Series B.londe).  

Great label and great beer!

Great label and great beer!

Thanks to Thad and Brenda from Ombud for organizing the event and including us as sponsors. Thanks to Kevin at Unique Embroidery & Engraving for the great, detailed work on the trophies. We hope to be back next year!

Custom tap handles make great brewing event trophies!

Custom tap handles make great brewing event trophies!

Backside of trophy handles giving credit to sponsors!

Backside of trophy handles giving credit to sponsors!

Homebrew Academy - A review and amazing homebrewer resources

Eric Shepard, a homebrewer and contributor to the Homebrew Academy, recently reviewed our Keg Cap Tap handle. Whoa. It's a great review. He understands our product completely and how it works for homebrewers. Often when we pitch our products at beer fests, homebrewers can't picture how the tap handles would work for them and how it is a  simple solution to answering the questions of what's on tap. Now, I just want to send them the link to Eric's review. 

If you're a homebrewer and not already aware of the Homebrew Academy, you need to check it out. Beyond this detailed review of our handle, the site provides great resources and interesting content that homebrewers and craft beer lovers alike should love. I know I do.

The Homebrew Academy offers homebrewing instructional courses, a weekly email newsletter, and a great blog. The Homebrew Academy blog has great content ranging from recipes, brewing tips, news, book recommendations and occasionally a product review.  

We thank Billy Broas and Eric Shepard for their great site and for sharing their impression of our tap handle. You can also find Keg Cap Tap and Homebrew Academy on Facebook.

The set of items we provided Eric for his review, including a medium silver tap handle, some wood grain caps for use with homebrews and our "Empty" cap to limit disappointment when your awesome brew blows dry.

The set of items we provided Eric for his review, including a medium silver tap handle, some wood grain caps for use with homebrews and our "Empty" cap to limit disappointment when your awesome brew blows dry.


Kegerator's Make Fiscal Sense

Having a kegerator is not only fun and social, it actually makes good fiscal sense!

Kegerator.com did a nice write up that gives some great and specific metrics on economics of kegerator ownership.  While the choices of beer and prices will very quite a bit by user, the point is that you can save money and reduce waste by using a kegerator.  The other good point they don't touch on in their article is that kegerators make so much sense for homebrewers, where the savings is not only money but headaches by not having to buy or collect bottles and wash them.  Moving your homebrew straight from your secondary fermentation to a Cornelius keg means you have only one vessel to sterilize and you'll also not be waiting for carbonation via priming sugar and bottle priming.  

Now go get a kegerator if you don't have one.  If you do, pour cold one and gloat about the time and money you're saving!  Regardless, make sure everyone knows what's on tap with a Keg Cap Tap handle!

Intercontinental

Keg Cap Tap is in the Euro zone.  We've sold in Canada, which is international but we just placed our first handles in Portugal, which means we're now intercontinental.  Thank you Luis in Portugal for finding us and choosing to make us part of your social beer experience.  We know we'll help let you and your guest always know what's on tap.  By the way, awesome kegerator!

Bootstrapped Brews

How well do Colorado based tech startup companies and beer go together?  Well, just about as well as anything in Colorado and beer!

We attended the Bootstrapped Brews event last night in Denver.  This was a community of communities event in that it brought together tons of great tech startup companies and the brewing community.  Teams from companies like Ombud, Sphero, ReadyTalk and Ping Identity and many others came out to share their best in-house brews with each other and the community.  

There was good food, music and representation from the brewing community with presence from Crazy Mountain, Left Hand Brewing, and CO-Brew which offers great homebrew supplies and in-store, guided brewing options.

Let's admit it, not all homebrews turn out great, but I was very impressed with the quality of brews coming from the startups.  The trophies, which are great examples of customized Keg Cap Tap handles, were awarded to winners.  These were well deserved as I would buy the winning beers if available a the liquor store!

Great people, great products, great brews and great networking.  It doesn't get better!

We worked with Bootstrapped Brews to create customized Keg Cap Tap handles that were given as trophies to the winners at the their brewing competition.  

We worked with Bootstrapped Brews to create customized Keg Cap Tap handles that were given as trophies to the winners at the their brewing competition.  


Perfect Summer Brews!

I don't know about you buy my taste in beer really flexes with the seasons.  Summer is one of my favorite beer seasons.  Below are a few of my favorites this summer; what are your go to summer brews this summer?

Avery Brewing has some epic brews in their lineup.  Their IPA is a standard and thier bigger beers are great winter brews for met but their new seasonal Lilikoi Kepolo might be my new favorite brew from them.  It's super tart and yet sweet.  Very sessionable and I've not found anyone that doesn't like it.  Get some!

The Mexican Logger  from Ska Brewing is another perfect brew for the dog days of summer. This is an understated and subtle; not too much of anything, which is perfect for cooling down with your feet in the river or at the campsite.

A new website for KCT!

If you're reading this, it will be on our new website.  We built our original site in 2009 with a shoestring budget to get the business off the ground.  It worked but it wasn't easy to update or maintain.  We're super excited about this new site and being able to keep products updated and content refreshed and interesting.  We hope you'll come back to check us out again soon to see what's new. 

Now go enjoy a good beer!

Boulder Brew & Music Festival Recap

The Boulder Brew & Music Fest was a huge success. Keg Cap Tap was an event sponsor and helped organize the brew session, which included over 25 top-class brewers and many excellent brews. It was a pleasure to work with so many great brewing companies and thanks to all the owners, brewers and reps that came out and made it a day! If you haven't heard of them yet, check out: Crazy Mountain Brewing Co., Coronado Brewing Co. and New Planet Beer. The festival got some good coverage from the local media too. Check out this nice video of the Fest.

Kegerator Kustoms selling Keg Cap Tap products

Keg Cap Tap products will now be available through Kegerator Kustoms. They will be offering our products directly through their site as well as offering them as additions to their super cool "kustom" kegerators. I hope to have one of these soon! Keep up the good work Shawn and Jay.

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