Left Hand Brewing Company is a

craft brewery Craft beer is beer manufactured by craft breweries, which typically produce smaller amounts of beer than larger "macro" breweries and are often independently owned. Such breweries are generally perceived and marketed as emphasising enthusiasm, ne ...

located in

Longmont, Colorado Longmont is a home rule municipality located in Boulder and Weld counties, Colorado, United States. Its population was 98,885 . Longmont is located northeast of the county seat of Boulder. It is named after Longs Peak, a prominent mountain th ...

History

Left Hand began in December 1990 with a

homebrewing Homebrewing is the brewing of beer or other alcoholic beverages on a small scale for personal, non-commercial purposes. Supplies, such as kits and fermentation tanks, can be purchased locally at specialty stores or online. Beer was brewed dom ...

kit that founder Dick Doore received from his brother. According to Doore, "it was all downhill from there." By 1993, Doore had teamed up with college buddy Eric Wallace and they resolved to start a

brewery A brewery or brewing company is a business that makes and sells beer. The place at which beer is commercially made is either called a brewery or a beerhouse, where distinct sets of brewing equipment are called plant. The commercial brewing of b ...

. On September 21, 1993, they incorporated as Indian Peaks Brewing Company, and purchased a former meat-packing plant next to the St. Vrain River outside downtown

. A few weeks after beginning production, it was discovered that the name Indian Peaks was already in use by another brewery, so the name was changed to Left Hand, in honor of Chief Niwot (the Arapahoe word for "left hand") whose tribe wintered in the local area. Left Hand's doors opened for business on January 22, 1994. Their first batch of beer was Sawtooth Ale In October of that year. Left Hand took home two medals at the

Great American Beer Festival The Great American Beer Festival (GABF) is an annual beer festival hosted by the Brewers Association, held in Denver, Colorado. Typically held in late September or early October, the event is currently held at Denver's Colorado Convention Cente ...

, a gold medal in the bitter category for Sawtooth Ale, and a bronze medal in the Robust Porter category for Black Jack Porter. In 1995, the brewery was able to start putting its logo on bottle caps. But when it came down to shrinking down the original logo to put on a crown, the design was illegible. Left Hand created a small hand to be the logo. It morphed into a sticker, and eventually into the company logo used today. In April 1998, Left Hand merged with Tabernash Brewing, and doubled the size of their brewery. In June, they began packaging 12 oz. bottles for 6 packs (up to that point they had been bottling 22 oz. bottles and kegs exclusively). In November, they started their own distribution business, Indian Peaks Distribution Company. Tabernash was phased out and Indian Peaks Distribution Company was sold, allowing Left Hand to focus and redirect their energy back to brewing. In recent years, the brewery has experience significant growth. With over 30% growth in 2010, Left Hand has steadily increased its production, making the Brewers Association's Top 50 Craft Brewers list in 2012. The brewery has added six 480 barrel fermenters, an additional 500 barrel bright tank, and a new KHS keg line. Left Hand has also expanded the brewery property, purchasing the warehouse across Boston Avenue to house offices as well as the site of a new 6,000 square foot cooler, bringing the total brewery acreage to 5.5 acres. In the fall of 2012, Left Hand opened a new bottling line that runs four times faster than their previous system and fills 200 bottles per minute. On the first night of the 2011 Great American Beer Festival, Left Hand introduced Milk Stout Nitro in a bottle, which has become their most popular beer, making it both the first American and the first craft brewery to bottle a nitrogenated beer without a widget. Two years later, Left Hand expanded the bottled Nitro series with Sawtooth Nitro and Wake Up Dead Nitro. Left Hand produced approximately 65,879 barrels in 2013.

Bottled Beers

Perennial Collection: * Sawtooth Ale * Travelin' Light * Milk Stout * Milk Stout Nitro * Extrovert IPA * Polestar Pilsner * Black Jack Porter * Introvert IPA * Wake Up Dead Nitro Seasonal Collection: * Good Juju * Oktoberfest * Fade to Black * Hard Wired Nitro Coffee Porter * Well Played Red IPA * Braveheart Nitro Big Mo Series (all 22 oz): * Oak Aged Wake Up Dead * Chainsaw Double ESB * Twin Sisters Double IPA * Smokejumper Imperial Smoked Porter * Warrior IPA * St. Vrain Tripel * Widdershins Oak Aged Barleywine * Wake Up Dead Imperial Stout Ambidextrous Ale Series (Draft Only): * Step One: Imperial Milk Stout * Step Two: Smoked Doppelbock * Step Three: Great Juju * Step Four: Maibock * Step Five: Sticke Alt
Safety Round Series (Draft Only): * Round One: Belgian Pale Ale * Round Two: Copper Ale
Collaborations (all 22 oz): * TerraRye'ZD (2008) * Depth Charge (2009) * Oxymoron (2010) * Peaotch (2011) Discontinued Beers: * Motherlode Golden Ale * Jackman's Pale Ale * Haystack Wheat * Deep Cover Brown Ale * Snowbound Winter Ale * XXXmas Ale * Fade to Black Vol. 1 (Foreign Export Stout) * Fade to Black Vol. 2 (Smoked Baltic Porter) * Fade to Black Vol. 3 (Pepper Porter) * Fade to Black Vol. 4 (Rocky Mountain Black Ale) * TNT Weizen Doppelbock * Rye Bock Lager * Smoked Goosinator Doppelbock Note: all active beers are available in 6 packs of 12 oz bottles unless otherwise noted.

Awards

References

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External links

Left Hand Official websiteLeft Hand 2009 GABF Winner'Friday Field Trip: Left Hand Brewing Company' video by Draft MagazineFade to Black feat. in Denver PostDaily Camera Article
Beer brewing companies based in Colorado Companies based in Colorado Longmont, Colorado

History

Bottled Beers

Awards

See also

References

External links