We have to admit that here at Root Shoot, we…
We can sometimes be beer snobs.
We’re not stuck-up, we swear! It’s just hard to settle for less than the best when your job entails being around so much good beer from so many great breweries all the time. We get a little spoiled. We can be a little finicky. And when we’re feeling particularly hoity-toity, we’ll admit it…we’ve been known to demand the best beer in the world.
Luckily for us, that beer can be found just down the highway from the malthouse at Joyride Brewing, a stellar craft brewery overlooking Sloan Lake in Edgewater.
Joyride Brewing makes the best Kolsch in the world. We mean this quite literally: they took home the gold medal for their Ice Cutter Kölsch in the German-style Kolsch category of the World Beer Cup.
Think about that for a minute. The WORLD Beer Cup. Not the Colorado Beer Cup. Not the American Beer Cup. This wasn’t even the Great American Beer Festival. This was putting their Kolsch out there on the world stage and having it come home the winner.
Hot damn, Joyride! We’ll toast to that!
Winning a gold in the WBC is a heck of a way to celebrate eight years of beer, which is precisely what Joyride will be doing this month. July 15-17 marks their eighth anniversary bash, and they know how to throw an epic party. Every year for their anniversary, Joyride hosts a huge block party and this year is no exception. Streets will be closed, live music is lined up for the entire weekend. There will be food trucks, kids’ activities, and, of course, world-class beer.
All of this is quite impressive from a brewery that began as a Christmas gift re-gifted.
The Joyride seeds were planted when co-owner Dave Bergen bought his dad a Mr. Beer kit for Christmas. His dad didn’t really get into it, so he gave Dave the kit back. Dave started brewing with extract for a few years, got hooked, and dove deep into the all-grain world in 2009. He and his brewing buddies (now business partners) realized they were actually pretty good at it, and a business plan was born.
Today Joyride Brewing sits right across the street from Sloan Lake and the brewery itself is pretty spectacular. One of our favorite features? It has a rooftop patio. A rooftop patio serving the best beer in the world with a lakefront view.
Pinch us, please.
The Joyride people are just as great as their beer. They’re an enthusiastic bunch, always down for brewing collaboration beers, hosting events, or just serving you up a cold one. There is, however, one employee who stands out as being exceptionally stellar: Roger, the Joyride elephant. He’s by far the most dedicated Joyride employee and, since he takes payments in peanuts and beer, he’s also the most affordable.
In all seriousness, however, if you’re going to visit one brewery this month, make it Joyride. Check out their upcoming anniversary bash. Visit for a Friday post-work beer. Spend a Sunday staring at the lake from the rooftop patio. Order yourself a Kolsch. Or an IPA. Or anyone of the 16 beers currently on tap.
Then raise a toast to this killer Colorado craft beer scene that allows breweries like Joyride to thrive, and that lets us be the beer snobs that we are.
Here in Colorado, we only drink the best beer in the world.
