Facing Saturation, Local Breweries Compete to Continue
By David Josselyn
As of May 2017, Colorado is home to 348 breweries and this year has more than 37 beer festivals scheduled around the state. The Great Central City Beer Fest, held last Saturday, August 26, 2017, is in its 6th year and remains a strong, well-attended event for Gilpin County bringing a score of brewers to its street to show off their product. Many of them hold medals from the granddaddy of them all, the Great American Beer Fest (GABF), held in Denver. Most of the names are familiar to Central City and it is a wonder some of them are still in business. There are six micro-breweries in the city of Golden itself vying for dollars from a limited pool of thirsty malt beverage imbibers. Surprisingly, the Golden brewers don’t see themselves as competing, instead they treat each other as family; sometimes squabbling, but ready to help out in a heartbeat when another is struggling. This made me curious, if the brewers themselves are not competing with each other, how are they staying in business? That’s the question I asked as I talked to each vendor.
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