We started this month of cultural histories with the Mines Museum, which was founded in the 1870s. We moved on through the Buffalo Bill Museum (1920), the Golden History Museum (1930s), Jefferson Symphony (1953), Railroad Museum (1959), Foothills Art Center (1967), Golden Landmarks Association (1971), Dinosaur Ridge (1989), Miners Alley (1989), the Quilt Museum (1990), and the Environmental Film Festival (2006).
One of our most recent cultural "institutions" is a lecture series called Golden Beer Talks. Beer Talks evolved from a conversation in 2013 between two Golden women who were discussing the downtown business environment.
Downtown had been in a slump for a couple of decades. Shopping patterns had changed, and people were going to malls, not traditional downtowns. Once the movie theater closed in the mid-70s, there was no entertainment center. By the 1990s, there was seldom any live music.
With significant investment by the Golden Urban Renewal Authority and the Golden Civic Foundation, with tremendous work from the Golden Chamber of Commerce and an army of volunteers, downtown was finally coming back by 2013. The streetscape brought trees and flowers. There were two new hotels, new restaurants, and a kayak park. GURA had provided "facade" grants to encourage property owners to improve their buildings' appearance. There were special events most weekends.
The owner of The Windy Saddle had mentioned that she would like to try being open for dinner, but downtown was just too dead on weeknights to support another restaurant.
So this was the subject of conversation between the two women: what kind of event would locals enjoy? What would make them want to come downtown on a weeknight? The women were both TED Talk fans, and they thought Golden people might like a lecture series.
Three new craft breweries had opened in Golden that year, and the women thought they might appreciate support, so they decided to feature a different craft beer at every lecture. That's how the TED Talk-like lecture series came to be called Golden Beer Talks.
The two women recruited friends to help them organize, asked Windy Saddle if they wanted to host it, and the first Golden Beer Talk was held in October of 2013.
Since then, Beer Talks has had a dazzling array of topics, including art, science, technology, history, and nature. We've learned about drinking water, wastewater, training guide dogs for the blind, space exploration, the bubonic plague, cowboy music, Golden's mining legacy, the Army horse breeding program, artificial intelligence, wildfire mitigation, the intestinal microbiome, women in the Vietnam War, the 10th Mountain Division in World War II, science in the National Parks, laser technology and applications, soul food, pollinators, how to spot fake news, blood-sucking insects, the atomic clock, endangered fish, minds and memory, tree rings, bee-keeping, and how to find murder victims using geological exploration skills.
We've heard from artists, scientists, gardeners, engineers, historians, CEOs, a Pulitzer Prize winner, an Attorney General, and more PhDs that you can shake a stick at. (See the archive of past talks.)
The group eventually outgrew the capacity at Windy Saddle, so it moved across the street to the Buffalo Rose. During the Coronavirus shutdown, they tried moving the lectures online, but found that nobody needed one more Zoom call, so the organizers shut it down for the duration.
They brought it back in January of 2023 and celebrated the 100th Golden Beer Talk in 2025. They continue to meet on the third Tuesday of every month at the Buffalo Rose. They continue to feature a local craft brewery every month (though the Buffalo Rose offers soft drinks, wine, mixed drinks—and food!). Learn more at the Golden Beer Talks website.
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