Freshcraft has been one of my (Jae here) favorite Denver spots for great food and great beer. Now that they’ve thrown Feisty into the mix, I don’t know how I will stay away.

The bar is large and highlights all the beer and spirits that Freshcraft has to offer. I love that there are two TVs with the up-to-date draft list high enough above the bar that you don’t need to crane your neck to see over people. With many bar seats, several multi-sized booths, and tables, you’ll be comfortable enjoying by yourself or with several friends. The friendly staff and the exposed brick only adds to the coziness.

And then there is the food. Oh my, where to begin.

They have a menu section for any appetite with Snacks, Small Plates, Medium Plates, and Large Plates. Not to mention their lunch menu were you can pick from a list of select menu items and basically get a free beer (also from a select menu).

The fried pickles are incredible. You will receive a medley of fried pickles and carrots with a smear of Cajun aioli that adds just the right kick to bump up your crispy snack. The sandwiches, big and small, are delicious and feature more than your deli board. The Burger—topped with apple-wood bacon, smoked provolone, peppery arugula, a brandy-apricot compote, and a Great Divide Yeti mustard—has a balance of sweet and savory that makes for the perfect meaty delight.

The short and sweet of it is if you aren’t on your way to Freshcraft, you should probably go now (and be sure to grab a Feisty Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal Fizz while you’re there).

Freshcraft
1530 Blake St
Denver, CO 80202
(303) 758-9608

Angelshare continues with it’s second session now thru February 25th with a fresh round of delightfully mixed cocktails.

Freshcraft hosts Feisty for the next two weeks of Angelshare for Flips, Fizzes and Nogs. When you go, order the Apple Oatmeal Cinnamon Fizz featuring our Saigon Cinnamon Oat Whiskey.

This thing is dangerously delicious. I say dangerous because this fizz drinks like an oatmeal cookie—before you know it, it’s gone. Using Freshcraft’s own Apple Pie Liqueur and egg white along with our Cinnamon Oat makes for a delightful concoction. With bold cinnamon flavor and a light, frothy texture, the Apple Oatmeal Cinnamon Fizz will definitely cure your sweet tooth while adding a kick of spice. I recommend soaking the apple garnish for an extra treat at the end of the drink.

All the Angelshare featured cocktails are only $5 with a dollar from each drink going towards Heroes Like Us, so make sure to check out all of them.

Coohills — Breckenridge Distillery — Brekn’ N Eggs
Jax — Downslope Distilling — Jax Fizz Downslope
Curtis Club — J&L Distillery — Sno Day
Lola — Deerhammer Distillery — Flippin’ Bambi
Star Bar — Dancing Pines Distillery — Love Land Doaoloma
Freshcraft — Feisty Spirits — Apple Oatmeal Cinnamon Fizz

Freshcraft
1530 Blake St
Denver, CO 80202
(303) 758-9608

New Release! Its the day before Valentine’s Day and I think I’m in love.

Once upon a time The Fort Collins Brewery (FCB) had left over malt flour from their milling process that they were unable to use. When we found out about this horrible situation we said, “Wait, don’t throw that away, we can make whiskey with that!”

We had decided to call it 2nd Chance when we found out that the FCB owners had a horse named 2nd Chance. Coincidence? We think not. And so was born 2nd Chance Malt Whiskey.

Each batch is made from an unknown combination of malts to create a whiskey that will be different from batch to batch, but always fun to experience.

The first batch drinks a bit like a scotch: incredibly malty upfront with a smooth, woody middle finishing dry with notes of vanilla bean.

Stop in today (Thursday Feb. 13, 2014) for the official release at our tasting room. With only 24 bottles in this first batch make sure you get in and try it before its gone.

Need another reason besides the Feisty 75 to get out to The Curtis Club? I have several.

Formerly Curtis Street Tavern, The Curtis Club reopened on November 1st with a new look and feel that I could only describe as rustic-chic. Reclaimed and antique seating with polished wood, wagon wheel accents, and the wallpaper—which appears to be an elegant, classic pattern at first glance—with intricately linked deer and antlers brings the mountain feel into city savvy. Oh, and did I mention their antique jukebox?

Their focus is on local ingredients and sustainability in their food menu and classic cocktails with a modern twist in their beverage selection. Its a perfect fit for the Colorado scene. We went for Happy Hour, which had it’s own limited small plate and appetizer menu, perfect for a mid-day snack (though slightly disappointed I didn’t get the chance to dig into their Bison Bolognese). I dug into an Edna’s Beef Slider, the Saffron Risotto Croquettes, and the Sweet Bread Corndogs. The slider was huge and juicy with the perfect amount of toppings, the croquettes were gooey and cheesy, and the corndogs—described to me as “nuggets of happiness—lived up perfectly to their description. These appetizers left me wanting to delve into everything on their menu.

Voted by Westword as one of Denver’s 10 best new bars of 2013 and 25 most promising new restaurants of 2013, The Curtis Club is a must try. Book a table on OpenTable or book a “Table of Never-Ending Happiness”—a handcrafted tasting for six or more people tailored to you.

The Curtis Club
720-420-9898
2100 Curtis St., Denver
Closed Monday
Tuesday-Saturday 11 a.m.- 2 a.m.
Sunday 10 a.m.-3 p.m.

Angelshare‘s kick off session has launched and the theme is Ancestrals: we’re talking drinks modeled after classic cocktails like the French 75, the Martinez, and the Cloister.

Feisty teamed up with The Curtis Club to create a twist on the French 75—a cocktail typically made with gin, lemon juice, champagne, and sugar—but this one features Feisty’s Peach Brandy.

Dubbed the Feisty 75, this concoction is fresh and bubbly. I found it very reminiscent of a Mimosa, but perhaps it was because I was sipping this delight before the clock struck noon.  A puckering yet refreshing lemon and rosemary presence is apparent up front and the beverage round out with a peachy sweetness from our delightful brandy.

Until February 11th Curtis Club will be serving up the Feisty 75 for $5 (a price so nice, you should drink it twice) with one dollar of each beverage purchase going to Heroes Like Us.

Try out the other Angelshare Ancestrals around town for only $5 this weekend:

Coohills—J&L Distillery—Envy of Sno White
Freshcraft—Downslope Distilling—Martinez Goes Downslope
JAX Denver—Deerhammer Distillery—Cloister
LOLA—Dancing Pines Distillery—Ricky Ricardo
Star Bar—Breckenridge Distillery—Brecking Bad

Nestled away in the Wash Park area, on the corner of Pennsylvania and Alameda, is a restaurant putting a twist on traditional American cuisine. And now they are putting a twist on traditional cocktails using Feisty’s Rye and Quinoa whiskeys.

CafeBar is a modern yet cozy café with a sophisticated variety of spirits and wines that complement a refined and savory menu of eats, including pumpkin potato perogies (seriously, get them).

Justin, the general manager, mixed up a Manhattan-esque cocktail using Feisty Rye and a version of an Aviation, dubbed the Peruvian Flight Attendant, using Feisty Quinoa.

The Manhattan with Rye had a perfect balance of sweetness and pepperiness with a tinge of orange to round it out. The addition of a sweet sherry gives an extra complexity not always found in the everyday Manhattan.

The “Peruvian Flight Attendant” tasted exactly like a blueberry rhubarb pie. With a lemongrass nose, this cocktail drinks sweet with that pie flavor in the body finishing with a grassy, earthy taste I have grown so fond of in our quinoa whiskey.

CafeBar
295 S Pennsylvania St
Denver, CO 80209
(303) 362-0227

In distilling the Angel’s share refers to the amount of alcohol and water that evaporates from a barrel during the aging process. Years ago people didn’t know what was happening. When barrels were opened and there was less liquid in there than there was at the start, it was attributed to the angels taking their share of the alcohol.

For the next three months starting today, Denver will be making those angels very jealous.

This is how it will work: one craft distiller matched with one cocktail hotspot with one theme for two weeks, then rotate six times. Breckenridge Distillery, Deerhammer Distilling Company, Downslope Distilling, J&L Distilling Company, Dancing Pines Distillery, and us at Feisty Spirits will be pairing up with Coohills, Freshcraft, Star Bar, Curtis Club, Jax Downtown, and Lola.

We will be featuring posts on Feisty cocktails and our hosts throughout the event. Be sure to check out all the locations each two weeks to enjoy all the delicious craft cocktails.

Here is a schedule of where we will be and the themes for each segment:

January 29 – February 11: Ancestrals at Curtis Club
February 12 – February 25: Flips, Fizzes & Nogs at Freshcraft
February 26 – March 11: Mardi Gras at Jax Downtown
March 12 – March 25: Distillers Choice at Lola
March 26 – April 8: Highballs & Collins at Star Bar
April 9 – April 22: Tropicals, Punches & Patio Cocktails at Coohills

Happy sipping.

Looking for a festive holiday drink? Stop in and pick up a bottle of our newly released Apple Brandy and try our Hot Cran-Apple Cider!

The Apple Brandy has a sweet apple note up front that lingers on the palate with a light, round mouthfeel then finishes warm and crisp. This brandy is perfect for sipping by the fire or for making our new favorite festive cocktail.

Feisty Spirits’ Apple Brandy ($30 / 375ml) is currently available at the Feisty Spirits tasting room and select liquor stores in Colorado.

Breweries and distilleries go together like peanut butter and jelly. It’s hard to go into a bar these days and not find a beer aged in whiskey barrels.

But Feisty Spirits and Black Bottle Brewery aren’t known for doing the same old thing. So when we teamed up with Black Bottle we switched up the usual order of things — and distilled a beer.

We used an un-hopped version of their Aviation Cocktail and made a whiskey we like to call the Collabskey. This malt whiskey is smooth and easy drinking up front with a creamy caramel and malt body finishing with a pleasantly contrasting rye bite.

And, to make this brewery-distillery connection even more awesome, the barrel used to age the Collabskey is going to be used to make an aged Aviation Cocktail.

Talk about coming full circle.

Both the BBB Feisty Collabskey and the Aviation Cocktail will be available for your tasting pleasure at the Black Bottle Brewery One Year Anniversary Party on Saturday December 14. The event will be going on all day featuring 40 Black Bottle beers on tap until they are gone, the Angry Elf release at 7 p.m., cupcakes, live music, and Colabskey’s official release at 8 p.m.

Have to miss the party? Don’t sweat. You can try out the Collabskey in the Feisty tasting room and at Black Bottle Brewery. If you love it, you can pick up a bottle at Feisty for $48. But don’t wait to long, we only made 56 bottles and only a handful will be available for sale.

The holiday season is here! Time to treat your guests this holiday season with some tasty cocktails that are sure to impress.

These cocktail kits were created at our Bourbon Balsamic event with Rock Mountain Olive Oil Company on November 17th and we wanted to share. Each cocktail crate will consist of two Feisty Whiskies and two Rocky Mountain Olive Oil Company flavored balsamic vinegars to create two concoctions: the Apple of my Rye and Feisty Sunset.

Apple of my Rye will feature our award winning Rye whiskey and RMOOC’s Red Apple Balsamic for a refreshingly tart-and-tangy drink. The Feisty Sunset, made with our Oat Cinnamon whiskey and RMOOC’s Cinnamon Pear Balsamic, has a whiskey sour quality with a warming cinnamon spice perfect for a chilly night.

Pick up a gift box at our tasting room, Hazel’s Liquor World (Boulder), Wilbur’s (Fort Collins), Davidson’s Liquors (Denver) and Total Beverage (Denver) for $50 each plus a few ingredients and become the life (and the mixologist) of the party.

Bonus: Try you own hand at mixology! Pick up bottles (60mL) of Cinnamon Pear, Red Apple, Cara-cara Vanilla Orange, and Dark Chocolate balsamic vinegars from Rocky Mountain Olive Oil Company for $6 in our tasting room and concoct a cocktail recipe all your own.