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A staple of Boulder’s craft brewery scene will close in December after 12 years in business, citing the economic challenges of the current beer market.

Sanitas Brewing Co. announced on Friday it would shutter operations due to “rising costs and lower sales of craft beer,” according to a statement. The closure impacts all three of its locations in Boulder, Englewood and Lafayette. The last day of business is tentatively scheduled for Dec. 20.

“The craft beer industry is currently facing significant challenges, and Sanitas, like many others, is feeling the impact. Closing was not the first choice for Sanitas, but it is the choice they have recently come to,” the statement said.

Sanitas opened its first location in 2013 in a charming industrial space along train tracks in Boulder. That spot, 3550 Frontier Ave., was renowned for its sprawling patio that provided a lively environment to bring your dog and drink beer. In 2023, the company opened a satellite taproom in Englewood and another in Lafayette in 2024.

The additional locations were something of a pivot for the brewery, which initially focused on packaged beer and retail distribution. Post-pandemic, Sanitas wanted to become more of a third space for suburban communities and brought food and coffee purveyors to the taprooms in hopes that patrons would enjoy the spaces throughout the day.

“We’re looking for places where we want to participate in that community and be able to grow our footprint,” CEO Michael Memsic told The Denver Post at the time of the Englewood expansion.

In Friday’s announcement, Memsic thanked Sanitas’ local followers. “You stood by our sides while we chased dreams and you buckled up for the adventure of a lifetime. This ride has not been easy, but we had a lot of fun, and did something together that matters,” he said.

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This Thanksgiving, you can brag that your wine was selected by the nation’s best restaurant.

The James Beard Foundation named Frasca Food and Wine in Boulder an “outstanding restaurant” in the country this year. Co-founder and sommelier Bobby Stuckey is also this year’s Julia Child Award recipient.

Colorado Matters asked Stuckey to recommend three out-of-the-ordinary wines for Thanksgiving under $30 — one to pair with turkey, another with ham, and a third with a vegetarian spread.

Like his restaurant, Stuckey’s selections reflect his passion for Friuli-Venezia Giulia, a wine-producing region of northeast Italy. If you are unable to find a given label, Stuckey recommends asking your wine seller to find something similar.

“I love bubbles during the holiday season — be it champagne, prosecco or cava. They're cleansing and refreshing for the table. This one is dry. Not to get too technical, but it's about four grams per liter of residual sugar (RS). Most proseccos or other sparkling wines are 13-plus. This is as crispy and crunchy as you can get. In Italy, we call this varietal pinot nero (pinot noir in France).”

“I've never met Mother Nature, but I think when she created this varietal, she closed her eyes and she thought of the citrus notes of great sauvignon blanc. But this herbaceous note that you would get of Grüner Veltliner or Alsatian pinot gris. It kind of builds those two aromatics. It's a varietal that's really great with vegetables because there's an herbiness to it. On the flip side, it's great with prosciutto di San Daniele, which is from Friuli. It’s what I would call a great food wine.”

I chose a Barbera. I would call this a medium red. I can’t believe I’m going to say this, but it’s like the gateway drug to Italian red wine drinking. It’s low-tannin, so it doesn’t grip your mouth like cabernet. But it has this incredible fruit acid. Think about Barbera as like a plum. It’s got that tartness to go with so many dishes.

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An era of change for the Colorado Buffaloes just hit another turnstile.

Athletic director Rick George announced he'll be stepping away from his position this July after nearly 13 years overlooking Colorado sports. He was a driving force behind one of the most eventful periods in the university's athletic history, dealing with everything from conference realignments to facility construction, but his successor will have even more unique challenges ahead.

George is a major reason coach Deion Sanders made the surprising move to Boulder in 2022, but whoever takes the former's job will likely hire his replacement. And in the name, image and likeness (NIL) age of college sports, where players dictate the landscape more than ever, Colorado's next AD must infuse the school with life.

Rick George's Successor Has Hard Decisions Ahead

Mar 8, 2025; Boulder, Colorado, USA; Colorado Buffaloes athletic director Rick George claps during the first half against the TCU Horned Frogs at the CU Events Center. / Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images

On his way out, George locked up "Coach Prime" with the football team for the foreseeable future with a lucrative contract extension. However, speculation that Sanders' patience and satisfaction at Colorado is running thin will always exist.

If the university hopes to continue the momentum Sanders has brought, President Todd Saliman and Chancellor Justin Schwartz must find an infectious, devoted personality. George had his failures, but in the end, he showed up and supported everything from football to volleyball.

He established crucial relationships with men's and women's basketball coaches Tad Boyle and JR Payne, both of whom are firmly under contract. Boyle, 62 and in his 16th season in charge, will likely coach the Buffs until he retires, while Payne is on the books until at least 2028.

Basketball must be a focus of the next athletic director, as both programs have sputtered in terms of resources despite recent success. Both men's and women's hoops have had to dip into international recruitment to make up for lackluster NIL opportunities, and even after the House v. NCAA settlement's establishment of revenue sharing, that didn't look likely to change.

Buffs With Football Focus

Dec 4, 2022; Boulder, CO, USA; Colorado Buffaloes head coach Deion Sanders and athletic director Rick George during a press conference at the Arrow Touchdown Club. / Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images

George's department has long prioritized the gridiron, and that hit a new level once Coach Prime came to town. Football accounted for 77 percent of Colorado's athletic revenue in the 2024 fiscal year, amid record-setting ticket sales.

As the dust continues to settle on college athletics' whirlwind of changes, the Buffs must hire an athletic director equipped to embrace them head-on. A new-school mentality that can balance the budget and work accordingly with the major sports' coaching situations could come with the hire, one that could rejuvenate Sanders' mindset with the football team.

Coach Prime and George had a remarkable friendship throughout the former's honeymoon phase under the Flatirons, so the new boss may be at his approval. Finding an AD who tackles the transfer portal, can navigate financial fluidity and not leave any sport behind in fan engagement is crucial.

Early Contenders For George's Vacancy

Fort Collins native Jeremy Bloom dashes toward the endzone as he finishes a 76-yard punt return for a touchdown against Colorado State Saturday August 31, 2002 in Denver. / Coloradoan library, Fort Collins Coloradoan via Imagn Content Services, LLC

That begs the question, who could follow in George's footsteps?

A significant portion of fans pointed to Jeremy Bloom, a Colorado football graduate who was an All-American in Boulder. He was also the youngest man to join the United States ski team at 15, going on to compete in the Olympics, continue football in the NFL and pursue business ventures.

In 2010, Bloom founded the software marketing company Integrate, which was acquired for a nine-figure sum by private equity in 2022. Two years later, his sport and entrepreneurial worlds collided when he was named CEO of the X Games, the world's most popular extreme athletic competition.

Bloom is a native of Fort Collins, Colorado, with a youthful passion for the Buffs, so he could be a perfect fit if duty calls. More football-adjacent minds, such as CU Athletics Hall of Fame linebacker Matt Russell, longtime former coach Gary Barnett and even Coach Prime himself in a double-duty role, have also been discussed.

After the aurora borealis lit up the Colorado sky in surreal swaths of color Tuesday night, there’s a chance stargazers in our state will see the northern lights again Wednesday night.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Space Weather Prediction Center’s aurora forecast, the viewline dips into the northeasternmost portion of Colorado again Wednesday. The NOAA in a social media bulletin Wednesday afternoon said it was forecasting a severe G4 level geomagnetic storm – the same level we hit late Tuesday into Wednesday – that could be visible “maybe as far south as Alabama or southern California.”

G4 Watch continues into 13 November. We have seen the final CME arrive and are now waiting to see just how much magnetic energy exists within. We know the potential for another G4 exists, but we'll have to wait for any related warnings. Stay aware at https://t.co/TV7Yw6Lq1Y pic.twitter.com/LO1eCEA39O

— NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center (@NWSSWPC) November 12, 2025

The colorful lights in the sky are a result of what's called a coronal mass ejection, where particles from the sun are literally ejected toward Earth. Jennifer Hoffman, a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Denver and the director of the Chamberlin Observatory, said it can be hard to pinpoint the exact time we'll be able to see them.

The NOAA has a slightly more scientific measure of geomagnetic activity called the Kp index, which measures geomagnetic activity on a 9-point scale, with an index of 8-9 indicating a major storm.

According to NOAA data, the Kp index reached 7.33 between 8 and 11 p.m. Mountain Time Tuesday. It reached 8.00 in the late morning hours Wednesday, and was forecast to be above 6 – at least a moderate storm – between 5 p.m. and 2 p.m.

Cloudy skies and light pollution could pose a problem for some Coloradans, as the NOAA is forecasting 64% cloud cover over Denver at 11 p.m. Wednesday with higher totals just to the west of town.

The northern lights will be most visible away from city lights with clearer skies. While photographers all over the state shared amazing shots of the auroras Tuesday – and the celestial show was visible as far south as Texas and Florida – some of the most spectacular colors were captured in the mountains. You can check a light pollution map to get a sense of where the clearest conditions might exist.

If it feels like the northern lights have been more common recently, Hoffman said you're on the right track.

"We're in a very active phase with the sun right now," she said.

The sun's magnetic field goes through a roughly 11-year cycle of activity, with each cycle's peak lasting roughly 1 to 2 years, Hoffman said.

"We're still in the peak of it, where there is a lot of activity, there's a lot of changes on the solar surface, and it is sending out many of these eruptions," she said.

NASA satellites that monitor the sun's activity can give us some warning here on Earth of when a strong geomagnetic storm may reach us – but conditions like weather, the time of day or night and the brightness of the moon all have to align for excellent visibility to occur, Hoffman said.

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The final round of a powerful solar storm will hit the Earth Wednesday night, potentially offering another chance to see the northern lights.

DENVER — After a dazzling night of color across Colorado skies, space weather experts say the northern lights could make another appearance Wednesday night, though nothing is guaranteed.

“It packed a bigger punch than we would have thought,” said Shawn Dahl, service coordinator at the Space Weather Prediction Center in Boulder. “That's why when the chance happens like last night, people need to take the opportunity because even though we could expect it again the next night, it just may not all come together.”

Dahl said forecasters were tracking three coronal mass ejections, or CMEs — massive bursts of solar material ejected from the sun. Two of them reached Earth on Tuesday, sparking the vibrant aurora borealis display seen along the Front Range. A third CME arrived in the solar wind early Wednesday, setting up the possibility for another round.

“We went ahead and extended that G4 watch into tomorrow because we know the potential is there,” Dahl said. “But we never really know what’s going to unfold with these things.”

According to Dahl, predicting auroras is complicated. Scientists can see solar eruptions leaving the sun, but they don’t know their full impact until the energy reaches satellites about a million miles from Earth. That’s when forecasters can measure the magnetic field orientation — a crucial factor in determining whether a CME will interact with Earth’s magnetosphere or simply pass by.

“Last night, the magnetic fields came together like two magnets connecting,” Dahl explained. “That’s why it really spun up hard and we all saw it even from our rooftop here in Boulder.”

As for tonight, he said it’s worth keeping an eye on the northern sky.“It’s one of those things where you just have to keep checking,” Dahl said. “We’re at that great time of year, it gets dark early, so people might want to look around 8 p.m. to midnight and just be patient.”

He recommends watching for updates at spaceweather.gov, where real-time data shows when conditions are favorable.

Even during the sun’s 11-year solar cycle, events like this remain rare.

“During the last cycle, we never had a G5. That’s the top end of our scale,” Dahl said. “This cycle we had one last May, and last night came pretty close. But all these things have to come together, the storm has to hit Earth, and the magnetic field has to line up just right.”

That alignment, and Colorado’s long, dark nights, helped make this week’s display unusually vivid.

“Everything came together really great,” Dahl said. “We were very connected early on through the CME passage, and wow, I’ve seen some great pictures even from light-polluted areas here in Boulder and Loveland. My wife saw it from our driveway in Berthoud — the first time she’s ever seen the aurora.”

Whether it happens again tonight depends on how that third CME behaves.

“The potential is there,” Dahl said. “But it might not all come together like it did last night.”

Tips for spotting the Aurora in Colorado tonight