What to do in Denver this weekend: Hot Bierfest, Hanukkah latke battles, a comics takeover and free Christmas music

Family-friendly Hanukkah fun

Friday-Dec. 26. Denver’s Staenberg-Loup Jewish Community Center will transform into an epicenter of Colorado Hanukkah celebrations this weekend with treats and events tied to the Dec. 18-Dec. 26 Jewish holiday.

This year’s packed list includes the LGBTQIA+ Hanukkah Party: A Queer Hanukkah Disco Inferno (Saturday, Dec. 17); Latkes and Lights Hanukkah Celebration and Latke Competition (Sunday, Dec. 18), following a Dec. 15 cookie-making session.

The JCC Denver’s annual collaboration with High Point Creamery to sell Bob’s Babka ice cream returns for the fourth year in a row ($10 pre-ordered pints can be picked up through Dec. 23), while Olive & Finch is again selling Hanukkah Cookie Kits ($45 each). Cookie kits are available at both Olive & Finch locations in Cherry Creek and Uptown. Visit jccdenver.org for times, dates and prices on additional events. — John Wenzel

Hot beer here!

Saturday. One of Colorado’s newest and frothiest traditions returns to Primitive Beer Co., which hosts its now-annual Hot Bierfest and Holiday Marketplace 11 a.m.-8 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 17 in Longmont. What is hot beer? Good question. It can be a couple different things.

The first is beer heated by a hot poker from a fire and stirred so that the malt caramelizes and creates a sweet, frothy head. The second is gluhbier, a Belgian-style cherry-noted kriek that is heated and mixed with fruit and spices, similar to gluhwein. Both are actually old traditions in Europe.

At Primitive, you can enjoy your hot beer while gathered around some outdoor firepits. There is also a curated market of local craftspeople vendors. Primitive is located at 2025 Ionosphere St. in Longmont. No tickets are required. Learn more at primitive.beer. — Jonathan Shikes

TubaChristmas: Free sounds to lift your spirits

Sunday. There’s nothing quite like the sight, and especially the sounds, of dozens, even hundreds, of festively adorned tubas (and euphoniums!) and tuba players as they raise Denver’s spirits with their low notes at TubaChristmas.

This year’s free outdoor concert runs from 11 a.m.-noon in the galleria at the Denver Performing Arts Complex, near 14th and Curtis streets. This is the 48th year in a row that TubaChristmas has been held in Denver (minus one year for the pandemic). The musicians are all volunteers who only begin practicing two hours before the show and often don’t know the setlist until the last minute, which adds to the fun. tubachristmas.com — Jonathan Shikes

Comics Collective commandeers Mutiny

Sunday. Cartoonist Karl Christian Krumpholz may not be a Denver native, but like a lot of us, he’s come to treasure the culture of the Mile High City and reflect it in his work. As such he’s joined forces with publisher Eddie Raymond and comics seller Jeff Alford to form the brand new Colorado Comics Collective.

The indie-minded group is holding its first event at South Broadway’s beloved Mutiny Information Cafe on Sunday, Dec. 18, in the form of its Christmas Cavalcade. The gathering features the principals plus a half-dozen other local artists and publishers selling their wares, comic-convention-style, at one of the metro area’s most notable supporters of independent art and media.

The event is free and runs 11 a.m.-5 p.m. at 2 S. Broadway in Denver. 303-778-7579 or mutinyinfocafe.com — John Wenzel

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