Beer Behind Local Street Artist in Snow Sculpting Competition
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Berthoud, Colorado’s City Star Brewing is bringing artist Gamma Acosta (Gamma Gallery) back to town for this week’s Colorado Snow Sculpting Competition. Four years ago City Star commissioned Gamma to paint “All In at City Star” in the taproom’s beer garden. The mural was created completely free-hand, using only spray cans (no stencils, etching or projector) on the 700 square foot concrete canvas. Gamma’s work is a main feature at the decade old craft brewery, admired by regulars and newcomers alike.
In the Colorado Snow Sculpting Competition Gamma Acosta leads team Frio Trio along with Colorado based tattoo artist Thyris Rodney. Together they will carve one of 9 giant snow cylinders in Fickel Park. Gamma’s experience in carving snow most notably includes a snow sculpture he carved (and spray painted!) for his 95 year old grandmother to view outside her window. However, this competition will be his first of its nature. With less than 48 hours until teams begin carving Gamma hasn’t settled on a final concept for the team’s sculpture. He promises something intricate and thoughtful.
“Sponsoring Gamma’s participation in Berthoud Snowfest is a small token of gratitude from City Star for the piece of himself he has given to us. We are truly honored to feature his art. His creative contribution has left a lasting impression on our family, City Star, and our community. Gamma’s work comes from more than a creative space. His creativity is intertwined with passion, love, and a commitment to make our world a better place.” – City Star Co-Owner Whitney Way
The Colorado Snow Sculpting Championship is the main focus of Berthoud Snowfest, with team carving throughout the week. The event culminates with “tools down” and final judging at 10am this Saturday, January 15th. Winners will go on to compete in the US National Snow Sculpting Championship in Wisconsin. Competition organizer Steve Mercia has been making snow and packing snow cylinders in anticipation of the event. Carving begins this Wednesday, and spectators can follow Gamma and all the artists’ progress through the week at Fickel Park and online at facebook.com/CoSnowSculptingChampionship. Follow Team Frio Trio at @gammagallery and @thyristattoos on Instagram.
Gamma Acosta is a local street artist with a passion for public art. He creates works of art that are incredibly moving, meaningful and usually provocative. He gives color and illustration to community emotion. His large-scale projects are often completed without compensation. His decade of work features powerful pieces that evoke a range of emotion from all passerby: Skin Condition, Sandy Hook Elementary Tribute, Mural on 37th and Downing, Peyton Manning, and the largest mural in Denver dedicated to graffiti artists. Gamma’s work can be found in his hometown of Longmont, Colorado (Four Generations, throughout Denver, across the country and as far away as Belgium, as a North West Walls project artist.
City Star Brewing, a small town craft brewery, had a big year of beer! Their New Years Eve beer release marks their 50th specialty beer of the year. Aegir (pronounced eye-ear) is a hazy IPA brewed with Norwegian Kveik yeast and double dry hopped with Citra and Galaxy hops. The Berthoud, Colorado brewery released 50 specialty beers in the year 2021 in addition to their mainstay beers available year round. City Star packaged 570 barrels (17,670 gallons) of beers throughout the year, brewed 100 gallons at a time on a humble 3.5 barrel brew system.
“City Star’s Hootenanny” anniversary celebration will span all day Saturday starting at noon with two new beers on tap: Salud wheat with watermelon, sea salt and lime and Easy Does It session pale ale featuring Sabro hops. Nacho Mama’s Tacos and Sweaty Moose food trucks will be out front all day. Live music on the beer garden stage will feature Dave Frediani and Joe Kuckla & Irons in the Fire. The Hootenanny is also defined by the annual relaunch of the Deputy 
A celebration of the shortest day and the darkest beer. 
On Flapjack Day, Labor Day, Monday, September 7th, the taproom will be open 11am-5pm with flights of five breakfast beers and the waffle lab food truck serving out front. Vintage cars and 50’s dress encouraged all weekend long.
Alongside nearly 1,000 breweries worldwide City Star Brewing is participating in the Black is Beautiful collaboration. This initiative launched by 
Cans were not in the plans for City Star Brewing in 2020. Whenever asked over the past eight years when the Berthoud brewery’s beer would be available in cans the answer was always similar, “Quality canning is a big investment. It’s not part of our current model, and we’re waiting for the saturated craft beer scene to stabilize.” Then COVID-19 ushered in a demand for to-go beer with the mandatory taproom shutdown, and improved packaging became critical. Launching beer in 25oz aluminum crowlers the first week of the shutdown improved City Star’s ability to satisfy curbside customers. Amazing volunteers, affectionately dubbed “the crowler crew”, spent hours weekly pre-filling crowlers to offer the best quality beer in that particular package. It quickly became apparent pre-filling hundreds of crowlers weekly was inefficient and unsustainable in the long run. The search for the right canning line began.
As this rollercoaster of a year progresses and concerns of another wave of COVID-19 in Colorado hover, City Star is poised to keep it flowing. The independent small town brewery entered 2020 as a strong, healthy business with incredible community support. The pandemic closed the taproom doors and business declined, but City Star pivoted business models. “We doubled-down on what we love, making and sharing quality craft beer” – Whitney Way, City Star Co-Owner.
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