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And the Denver or Front Range Brewers’ Bracket champion is…

By Jonathan Ingraham April 3, 2023 | updated 2 years ago

Over the month of March, Denver Gazette readers voted for 16 breweries in the Denver or Front Range Brewers’ Bracket. Eight breweries from around metro-Denver faced off against eight breweries from Boulder to Fort Collins.

Although not every brewery from Littleton to Wellington could have been included — although a 64-brewery bracket would have been easily feasible — 16 were selected and boy were there a lot of votes.

And the champion, by a rather slim margin of only 101 votes, is Great Divide Brewing of Denver. Narrowly defeating New Terrain Brewing of Golden by a score of 1,104 to 1,003, Great Divide clinched the championship.

Over the course of the four-day championship round, 2,000-plus votes were cast via online and Instagram polls — Great Divide Brewing took the online poll (1,054-770), but New Terrain Brewing won the Instagram poll (233-50), however, came up just shy of the upset. 

Great Divide Barrel Bar in RiNo

Great Divide plans to sell it's Barrel Bar and production facility at 1812 35th St., Denver, in the RiNo area. It's been open since 2015.

Courtesy of Great Divide Brewery

Great Divide Barrel Bar in RiNo

Great Divide plans to sell it’s Barrel Bar and production facility at 1812 35th St., Denver, in the RiNo area. It’s been open since 2015. 



Courtesy of Great Divide Brewery


Both breweries faced heavy-hitting competition from the Sweet 16 through the final four. Great Divide overtook New Belgium — one of Colorado’s most recognizable craft breweries — in the Sweet 16 match. Great Divide moved on to the Elite 8 match, where it handed Left Hand Brewing the loss. In the final four match, Great Divide beat another Fort Collins brewery, Odell Brewing, to reach the championship.

New Terrain Brewing’s path to the championship was similar, taking on three well-established breweries around Denver and the Front Range. With a narrow victory over Oskar Blues of Lyons in the Sweet 16, New Terrain dominated Dry Dock Brewing of Aurora in the Elite 8. In the final four round, they drew Avery Brewing Co. of Boulder, and held their own for the victory.

Each brewery took to social media as they closed in on the final four and championship rounds.

In an email to the Denver Gazette on Monday morning from New Terrain Brewing Beer Wanderer Michael Roberts, he said of his brewery competing in the brewers’ bracket, “man, that website battle kept swinging back and forth around the 50/50 mark. I’m over here sweating waiting for the results.”

New Terrain brewers' bracket promo

New Terrain Brewing in Golden created a promo banner for the 2023 Denver Gazette Brewers' Bracket, as seen in the tap room Saturday, April 1, 2023.

Denver Gazette

New Terrain brewers' bracket promo

New Terrain Brewing in Golden created a promo banner for the 2023 Denver Gazette Brewers’ Bracket, as seen in the tap room Saturday, April 1, 2023.



Denver Gazette


The New Terrain folks even created a QR code for the championship round for beer drinkers to vote, which was posted in their taproom. 

Great Divide Brewing Company asked its beer drinkers to vote on its Facebook page Friday, March 24, as well.

“We are thrilled to win this year’s Brewers’ Bracket. The competition was stiff so we rallied everyone at Great Divide as well as our fans to help get us across the finish line. Sometime the blue bloods prevail,” Matt Sandy added.

Great Divide will be presented with a champion’s certification soon.

A grand total of 10,586 votes were cast between online and Instagram polls throughout the Brewers’ Bracket tournament. 

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Jonathan Ingraham

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