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Aside from Colorado’s popular Passport Programs, booze discounts are seldom creative; it’s usually a buy-one-get-one deal, or maybe you get a token that knocks a dollar off your brew. Brew Hunt, on the other hand, is encouraging craft breweries to mix up their discount offerings with a coupon deck of playing cards.
Laid out over 52 cards, these discounts to 15 Denver-metro breweries will make beer obsessives very happy. Participating breweries include Bruz Beers, Great Divide Barrel Bar, Kokopelli Beer Company, Factotum Brewhouse, and Brewery Rickoli.
Longtime friends Tony Milano and Nate King hatched the idea for Brew Hunt during a beer-fueled trip to Milwaukee last year. After visiting a few breweries, Milano says they began wondering how they could do something a little different and drive business to local breweries. The pair formed Hops & Friends, LLC, and Milano, a middle school teacher and seasoned home-brewer, brought the idea back with him to Colorado (King now lives in Milwaukee). The inaugural Brew Hunt deck adds up to about $300 worth of savings.
Highland’s Factotum Brewhouse claimed the deck’s black 9s. One card will get patrons a percentage of their age removed from their total bill. Another will get the cardholder and three friends a free beer when they each buy one. All four aces went to Bruz Beers, one of the first breweries to sign onto Brew Hunt. Each card has a different promotion: one half-priced Crowler, a free flight, first beer for free, bring five friends in and their first beers are free. Patrons of Great Divide Barrel Bar can present any one of the 4s for a BOGO deal.
The cards are informational, too, signifying which breweries have a food truck or an in-house kitchen, which boast dog-friendly patios or lounges, and if two or more non-alcoholic drinks are offered on the menu.
Milano and King want to eventually offer discount decks for distilleries as well. For now, though, they are busy getting ready for their second release, a fresh deck with new breweries scheduled to go on sale in January.
Five Colorado breweries are currently selling the Brew Hunt decks for $25: Kokopelli, Front Range Brewing, Intrepid Sojourner, Holidaily, and Factotum. The cards are not available for purchase online. “It’s all about driving business to breweries—that’s our main reason for doing this,” Milano says.