What The Funk? | Crooked Stave & Funk N’ Wild’s Invitational Festival Re-cap and Photos

Last friday night marked the inaugural What the Funk? Invitational Festival presented by Crooked Stave and Funk’N Wild. The event took place at the Sherman Street Event Center, just a stone throw’s away from GABF, and was created to showcase all things barrel-aged, sour, and funky. We at The Full Pint are major fans of all of the above and were fortunate enough to make it into this incredibly popular event.

A line around the block greeted us as we approached the events center, but ample volunteers made sure check-in and admission was expedient and painless. The $80 price-point was well-worth it after seeing a monstrous tap list of 133 beers from over 40 well-curated breweries. Guests received commemorative glassware and light bites from Jensen Cummings of Denver’s Slotted Spoon were also available between tastes.

We were very impressed by how well-run this event turned out. Beer stations and water were well-placed and brewers brought some amazing beers that were definitely some of the most memorable of our entire week in Denver. While the crowds became a little harder to manage as the night rolled on, lines moved quickly and there was enough quality beer to satisfy the masses. Brewers we saw at the Denver Rare Beer Tasting just hours prior had pulled double duty — practically pouring their brews for nearly 12 hours.

Standouts for the evening included a fantastic selection of lambics from Colorado’s own AC Golden, who brought seven varietals of their delicious Colorambic. Rare beer titans Firestone Walker, Cascade, and Jester King also brought their sour game but were balanced out by rich offerings like Cigar City’s Brandy Barrel-Aged Hunaphu’s and Kuhnhenn’s Bourbon Barrel 4th Dementia Old Ale. Sours with brettanomyces and fruit were the hot trends for the night, but the invitational was also a good vehicle for breweries to pour their rare, one-off experiments such as Bell’s Bourbon Barrel Brett Stout; a dry stout fermented with 100% Brett.

At the end of the night, TFP Team were in unanimous agreement that this was definitely one of the best craft beer events of the year. Be sure not to miss it the next time around by following Crooked Stave at www.crookedstave.com – @CrookedStave – Facebook