By Ed Otte

“The most common question I get is: What beer should I buy for my mother-in-law?” Natasha Gardner said.

The 5280 Magazine senior editor joined Denver Business Journal reporter Ed Sealover and Denver Post reporter Eric Gorski on July 9 at the Denver Press Club to discuss Colorado’s craft beer industry. The program was sponsored by the Colorado Pro Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.

Gardner’s answer reflects the current trend among craft brewers. “I tell them something with fruit in it. Whether it’s done well or not is another question. It’s better when it’s fresh out of the tap.”

According to Gorski, “Those beers have a lot of character with a lower alcohol content. Grapefruit IPA is big right now. It’s a desire for authenticity. Fruit that’s picked and brewed in a short time can be compared to jam.”

“The old brewers who used the German philosophy of just water, barley, yeast and hops would be turning over in their graves right now,” Sealover said. “By adding spices, chocolate and fruit – you’re widening the audience.”

Those consumers are growing in numbers and so too is news coverage of beer.

Sealover writes about government, health care, business and beer. “I cover the beer industry as a business story. I tell people why beer is interesting – not like 30 years ago – and why it’s important to Colorado’s economy. If I write a story about beer legislation, I get a lot of reaction, more than any other legislative story.”

5280 Magazine offers its readers a monthly mix of Denver news stories and lifestyle features including beer.

“Readers love our beer stories,” Gardner said. “Our coverage of the Great American Beer Festival is huge for us. The common reader response is that we’re not doing enough coverage. And there are a lot of fights on our staff for who gets to go the festival.”

Gorski, who covered religion at The Gazette and The Associated Press, admitted he wrote stories about “finding God at the festival because I wanted to get that three-day (festival) pass.”

This year’s Great American Beer Festival will be Sept. 24-26 at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver.

When Gorksi went to The Post, “(Editor) Greg Moore asked us to bring something in our lives to the paper’s coverage. I started a beer blog and we wanted to bring something new to the discussion – not just that another brewery has opened. There’s a big audience for this, a deep abiding passion. No one recognizes me for my education stories but they know me from the beer blog.”

Colorado’s craft beer industry is a national story because, Sealover said, “there are about 300 breweries in Colorado. Most of them opened since 2012. We always look for signs that the craft beer bubble will burst but people don’t sense that it will happen. Only about 120 of them are on the shelves. They could be competing for shelf space in stores but they sell in their taprooms instead and that’s hugely profitable for them.”

Craft beer prosperity requires more than taprooms and trendy flavors.

“Cult-y breweries is what Colorado is known for but they have to be business people as well as brewers. If they aren’t, they won’t succeed,” Gorski said. “You see more breweries opened by people who have experience in the business because they know what they’re doing. And they’re succeeding.”

Gardner agreed. “Dunng the first (craft beer) bubble it was really tough on the brewers. The ones who survived doubled down, producing what they do best.”

Another example? Cans. “What you used to get in cans was just swill,” Sealover said. “The craft industry was slow to realize it could use cans for quality beer. Now, you see it happening” primarily for marketing.

The three journalists cited a variety of breweries – mostly along the Front Range – as successful examples and they each mentioned the River North brewery district as a favorite location. In a Feb. 18 story in The Post, Gorski wrote:

“Once the domain of shady characters and drafty warehouses, the River North area just north of downtown Denver has been transformed into a hip destination with artists and architects, stylish workspaces and eateries, condo farms for the young and affluent – and one of the thickest concentrations of breweries in the West, if not the country.”

“Having that many close is a dream,” he said at the July 9 program.

“Pretty much anything from River North is good,” Gardner said.

Asked to name their favorite beer, they gave very different answers.

“Hoppenberg Uncertainty Principle from River North Brewery,” Sealover said. “It’s a double Belgian IPA that’s, well, really good.”

“The one that’s in my hand right now,” Gorski said without a bottle, glass or can of beer in his hand.

“One of the good things in Denver is that chefs are pairing craft beers with their dishes,” Gardner said. “But a lot depends on where you are. When I’m at Coors Field, I want a Coors Light.”