by Mark Smiley | Jul 22, 2016 | Editorials
by Mark Smiley
The Bull & Bush opened its doors in 1971, and ever since they have been at the forefront of the microbrew business. August marks their 45th year in business and they are celebrating with a series of limited release beers inspired by local bands. Each limited edition bottle will include a special music sampler download for each band. Those bands will perform at the Bull & Bush Brewery Saturdays in August.
The Bull & Bush started brewing their own beer in January 1997. The first beer brewed was Extra Special Bitter (ESB) and it is still on tap today joining 39 other rotating flavors. The seven-barrel system allows the Bull & Bush to produce 30 kegs of beer at a time to keep up with demand.
The brewpub’s first 26 years in business featured beers that were difficult to obtain. Anchor Steam was offered at the Bull & Bush in 1974 to lukewarm reviews. “We were on the cutting edge
back then even before we were making beer,” said David Peterson, co-owner of the Bull & Bush Brewery. “He [Dale Peterson] convinced Fritz Maytag [owner of Anchor Steam] to send the distributor 50 kegs of Anchor Steam all at once.”
Customers were not accustomed to beers other than Miller, Coors, and Budweiser so they felt this brand was “too dark.” The same held true for Boulder Beer which had their own beer on tap in the 1970s as well.
Eventually, curiosity prevailed and customers flocked to the Bull & Bush. “Glendale was the hotspot in the ’70s and ’80s and there was nothing else around our pub,” said Peterson. “People’s curiosity lured them into the Bull & Bush.”
Wynkoop Brewery started the brewpub craze in 1988 and brewpubs popped up all across the metro area and the state. By 2005, most had disappeared. Now microbreweries, without kitchens that feature craft beer, have lower overhead and a better product.
The Bull & Bush has weathered all of these storms relying on their kitchen and tasty craft beer. They have also changed with the times by adding a patio, remodeling their kitchen, installing new carpeting, bottling their beer, and distributing their bottled beer throughout the state. All of these major developments took place in the last 10 years.
Bull & Bush enthusiasts can find the beer in close to 80 bars and restaurants across the state and in most major liquor stores. At first, the Bull & Bush distributed their bottled beer within a 10-15 mile radius. With demand so high, co-owners and brothers David and Erik Peterson hired a distributor to send the beer across the state.
Amidst all of the changes and improvements, David Peterson notes that one thing will never change at the Bull & Bush — the green chile it has been serving since 1971 will never be compromised. “We will never change the recipe,” said Peterson. “A lot of people would be upset if we did.”
Aside from modern televisions, new carpeting, and more taps for beer, the Bull & Bush looks very much the same as it did in 1971. That is just the way the Petersons and their guests want it. The Bull & Bush has been a Glendale tradition for close to half a century with no signs of stopping.
Tickets to the concerts in August are $19.71 each. Visit bullandbush.com/collec tions/45th-anniversary for more information and to purchase tickets.
by Mark Smiley | Jul 22, 2016 | Editorials, Feature Story Middle Left
by Bob Gardner
Coloradans: Would you like all your health care decisions for the next three years to be made by 15 unelected government bureaucrats? That’s what Amendment 69, which has qualified for this fall’s ballot, would mandate.
Before you answer, here’s a few additional facts to help you decide.
These 15 “trustees” — a fancier word for bureaucrats, by the way — would get to say which procedures and which drugs would be covered by insurance and which ones wouldn’t from 2017 until 2020. How would they get that power? Amendment 69 makes it illegal for any other health insurance company to do business in the state of Colorado. And when those companies are all gone, all decisions about any kind of payment to anyone in the health care system fall under the thumb of those unelected trustees.
They’d get to decide how long you should have to wait in the emergency room, how many months your elderly mother should have to wait for hip replacement surgery, and what treatments for your kids will and won’t be paid for.
If you don’t like the sound of that system, you should know there’ll be no opting out. If you’re wealthy, you could pay for health care from your pocket. Otherwise, your family’s care exists solely at the whim of the 15 bureaucrats.
Don’t like it? Move to Nebraska if it’s enacted. Because if we Coloradans go down this road, there’ll be no appeals, no flexibility and no choice in health care in our state.
It gets worse.
In 2020 at the latest, Amendment 69 says we’ll hold statewide elections to replace the 15 appointed bureaucrats with 21 elected bureaucrats.
That’s right — we’ll have giant campaigns across Colorado every other year to pick new health care czars. “A vote for me is a vote for liver transplants!” or “Two nose jobs in every house — vote for me!” An unending buzz of negative TV ads about how the trustee candidate’s evil opponent is trying to take away childbirth reimbursement or how their vote backed up back surgeries.
Sounds ridiculously unappealing, doesn’t it?
Obamacare’s been bad enough — its promised savings cruelly turning into a 13.4 percent average rate increase this year — but Amendment 69 will make things much worse. Its ironclad regime of single-payer health care for every resident of the state, without exception, would almost double Colorado’s state taxes overnight. It imposes an immediate 10 percent across-the-board payroll tax that would cost Coloradans a jaw-dropping $25 billion in additional taxes on top of the $27 billion the state already levies. And the whole system is specifically designed to exist outside of TABOR limits that control state and local government taxation in Colorado.
So who’s behind this nonsense?
Great question. Colorado State Sen. Irene Aguilar has been identified as one of the “leaders” of the campaign, but the funding sources are much more shadowy, with a Boulder psychologist, a Littleton physician, a Denver attorney, and a Fort Collins retiree being identified as collectively donating more than $140,000 to the cause.
Why those four people would have such a burning passion to control our health care isn’t clear to me.
What is clear is that we shouldn’t let them.
The net effect of this disastrous plan would be to drive state taxes through the roof, kill job creation (and likely most economic growth) in Colorado, and institute health care rationing for all Coloradans. All at the hands of a mysterious group of health care ideologues who’ll do their bidding through a shadow “health care Legislature” with literal power over life and death decisions.
Even Gov. John Hickenlooper was caught on tape saying he “can’t imagine there’s any chance (Amendment 69) will pass,” and noting that some large companies considering moving their headquarters to Colorado have put their plans on hold with Amendment 69 even on the ballot. It would make our state singularly economically uncompetitive and hurt the very people it claims it would help.
Just like Obamacare before it, Amendment 69 is an attempt to sell a bill of goods — sweet-sounding words about universal coverage, better benefits, and cost savings from efficiencies driven by an all-seeing, all-knowing government.
And it will turn out just as badly in the end. The difference is that Amendment 69 is a disaster we can all prevent from happening this fall at the ballot box.
Bob Gardner is a Colorado Springs attorney and former Colorado state representative.
This editorial was originally printed in the Colorado Springs Gazette.
