Nineteen years ago this month, on a cold December night, a naive young(ish) man showed up at the back gate of Kelly's Bar and Lounge with a half barrel of beer from his tiny little startup brewery. Outside of friends and family, nobody really knew anything about some guy making beer in an unmarked building in Homewood, let alone this “debut tasting” event. Given this, and the forecasted snowstorm, hopes of a big turnout for the debut were looking pretty bleak.

They were slightly snow-delayed, but eventually the crowd turned out… IN FORCE! They drained that first keg - as well as a second one that we scrambled back to the brewery to fetch.

Those were the very first kegs of BigHop to leave the nest, and amazingly, our GOOD FRIENDS at Kelly's Bar and Lounge have kept it on tap for 19 years since that first night!

This year, we actually brewed a beer to celebrate our 19th Anniversary, and we’re hosting a can release on Friday the 15th at both our Larimer Brewpub and our Mt. Lebanon Taproom spots.

But on December 12th, our TRUE Anniversary of that frosty night at Kelly’s, we’ll be back there, settled in at the bar with a pint, and maybe some Mac & Cheese to complete the reenactment. Maybe you’d like to join us?