Cheers for Firestone Beer

In the midst of its excitement about getting its team to the World Series, Denver also managed, from October 11-13, to throw a supreme beer party, too. And I don’t mean a great tailgate. Nope, the town was host to the Great American Beer Festival, where Firestone Walker Brewing Company brought home a gaggle of medals and the title Mid-Sized Brewing Company of the Year (the category for breweries producing between 15,000 and two million barrels of suds annually). While we beer old-timers might find it discomfiting that the brewery can earn a gold for its Nectar Pale Ale (bye-bye Humboldt Brewing), we can also be cheered to know that Firestone Walker, often listening to its own drummer, will at last join the CA beer race-announcing an India Pale Ale, christened “Union Jack,” that will be added to the lineup in early 2008.