Yes, you can do a brewery tour in Denver without drinking — and no, you won’t be stuck nursing a flat soda in the corner. Denver’s craft beer scene has been quietly building out non-alcoholic options for years, and an entire sober tour infrastructure has grown alongside it. The Mocktails and Murals Tour through RiNo is the clearest example, but it’s far from the only option for people who want to participate in Denver’s beer culture without alcohol.
This matters more than it sounds. Denver consistently ranks among the top cities for both craft brewery density and non-alcoholic beer consumption per capita. Saying the sober scene doesn’t exist here isn’t accurate — it’s just undersearched.
Is Denver’s craft beer scene accessible if you’re not drinking?
More than people realize. Denver has 72 brewery locations in the city alone — the most of any city in Colorado, according to Colorado Brewery List. The push toward non-alcoholic options has followed market demand, not altruism. According to IWSR, US non-alcoholic beer volumes surged 23% in 2024, and Colorado ranks in the top five states nationally for NA beer consumption per capita. Breweries paying attention to their sales data have noticed.
The shift isn’t just symbolic. More taprooms now carry house-made NA options, kombucha on tap, alcohol-free mocktails, and rotating non-alcoholic craft beers from brands like Athletic Brewing. And the organized tour side of the equation has caught up too.
That said, most of Denver’s brewery tour infrastructure is still built around tasting full-strength beer. Knowing which specific options exist for sober visitors — and which ones are actually worth your time — is where this guide comes in.
What is the Mocktails and Murals Tour and is it worth it?
The Mocktails and Murals Tour from Denver Microbrew Tour is currently the most directly relevant sober brewery experience in the city, and it’s genuinely well-constructed. It runs through Denver’s RiNo (River North Art District) neighborhood — the same corridor as the company’s full-beer tours — and stops at four locations including a high-end wine bar, a local brewery, a kombucha bar, and a cocktail lounge.
The tour is about 2.5 hours and covers roughly a mile on foot. Participants taste NA wines, craft beers, mocktails, and kombucha. The guide covers both the beverage program and RiNo’s street art scene, which means the cultural experience doesn’t take a back seat just because no alcohol is involved.
One thing worth knowing upfront: the tour visits locations that actively serve alcohol, so all participants must be 21+. Denver Microbrew Tour is clear on their site that this tour may not be ideal for people who need to avoid alcohol-serving environments entirely. That’s an honest caveat and worth factoring in. For most people in recovery who are stable in their sobriety and comfortable in mixed settings, this isn’t a deal-breaker. For someone in early recovery navigating triggers, it’s worth thinking through before booking.
In my experience working with behavioral health brands in Denver, the question of “can I participate in social activities that happen in alcohol-adjacent spaces” is one of the more personal lines in recovery. There’s no universal answer.
Which Denver breweries offer non-alcoholic options worth visiting?
The landscape has changed meaningfully since 2019. Several Denver-area breweries now carry NA options that are actual craft products, not an afterthought.
American Cultures Kombucha Taproom (RiNo)
American Cultures started as a mobile eatery and grew into a brick-and-mortar kombucha taproom in RiNo. The experience is genuinely modeled on a taproom visit — flights, cold brew, kombucha floats made with local ice cream. For someone who wants the brewery atmosphere without the beer, this is one of the more satisfying options in the city because the NA product is the point of the place, not a consolation offering.
First Draft Taproom & Kitchen (RiNo)
First Draft is a self-pour taproom with rotating taps of craft beer, wine, cider, and non-alcoholic drinks. The self-pour format is actually friendlier for sober visitors than a standard taproom — there’s less social pressure around what’s in your glass. You take what you want, you pay for what you pour. The RiNo location has a solid rotating NA selection.
Woods Boss Brewing (Lincoln Park)
Woods Boss is a well-regarded Denver craft brewery that keeps TruBucha on tap — a local kombucha from a family-owned operation in Lone Tree. It’s not a token gesture. The kombucha is genuinely good, and the brewery’s outdoor space and general vibe make it a comfortable spot for mixed groups where some are drinking and some aren’t.
Bar Helix (RiNo)
Bar Helix is not a brewery, but it belongs in any sober-friendly Denver drinking guide. The cocktail bar offers a seasonal rotation of booze-free cocktails that are designed with the same level of care as the alcoholic ones. If someone in your group wants a genuinely craft NA experience and you’re all heading to RiNo anyway, Bar Helix is one of the better stops.
A quick note on Dos Luces, which used to appear frequently in guides like this one for their Chicha Morada — a non-alcoholic purple corn drink that was both delicious and genuinely unique to Denver. Dos Luces has permanently closed as of 2025. The product was excellent and the closure is a loss for the local NA scene.
How does the sober-curious movement fit into Denver’s beer culture?
Denver is an unusual city in this respect. It ranks seventh in the country for per-capita alcohol consumption according to NIAAA data, and yet it’s simultaneously in the top four states nationally for per-capita NA beer consumption per IWSR’s 2025 analysis. Both things are real. Denver drinks a lot. Denver is also increasingly interested in drinking less, or differently.
The sober-curious movement — meaning people who haven’t necessarily committed to full sobriety but are intentionally reducing their drinking — has been a meaningful driver of the NA market’s growth. According to IWSR, 43% of adults who have purchased non-alcoholic beverages describe themselves as substituting rather than abstaining. They’re not quitting. They’re choosing when.
That framing matters for the recovery community because it’s created broader social permission to not drink. When the person next to you at the taproom is nursing a craft NA IPA because they’re doing Dry January, you’re slightly less conspicuous if you’re doing the same thing because you’re 18 months sober. Culture isn’t the only thing that matters in recovery, but it isn’t nothing.
A Denver liquor store co-owner quoted by FOX31 Denver put it plainly: “Overall, as a trend in the alcohol industry, we’ve seen people wanting to imbibe a little bit less.” The NA shelf has grown every year. That shelf now includes options worth actually seeking out.
What other sober social activities exist in Denver’s beer culture scene?
If the brewery-adjacent experience isn’t the right fit, Denver has a real sober social infrastructure that goes well beyond standard AA meetings.
Sober AF Entertainment (SAFE) is a nonprofit that organizes substance-free sections at Denver sporting events — Nuggets games, Rockies games, concerts at venues including Red Rocks — and hosts sober tailgates alongside those events. This is the closest Denver equivalent to the “going out with a group and not drinking” experience for people who want sober company rather than just a sober drink.
Sober Outdoors is a Denver-based nonprofit that runs substance-free outdoor events statewide — hikes, snowshoe treks, kayaking. The model is straightforward: build a sober community around activities, not around abstaining from activities. They’ve run events at Red Rocks, Rocky Mountain National Park, and Boulder Reservoir, among others. Free to join.
Unbuzzed takes a different angle — arcade nights, escape rooms, bowling, laser tag. It exists specifically because not everyone in recovery wants to hike. The events are all substance-free and explicitly designed around social connection, not sobriety programming.
The Phoenix operates in Denver, Colorado Springs, and Boulder, offering free sober active community events — CrossFit classes, climbing nights, group hikes — with the only requirement being 48 hours of sobriety.
None of these are brewery tours, technically. But they’re all part of what makes Denver a workable city for someone in recovery who wants a social life that isn’t organized around alcohol.
What should people in recovery know before joining a brewery tour in Denver?
A few practical things that don’t always show up in the marketing.
Know the format before you book
Some tours pour beer at each stop and that’s the entire structure. Others are walking tours of neighborhoods that happen to include brewery visits. The Mocktails and Murals Tour is designed for non-drinkers from the ground up. Most other Denver brewery tours are not. If you’re joining a standard tour and not drinking, call ahead — most guides are accommodating, but it helps to know what to expect.
NA options vary widely by brewery
Some taprooms have invested genuinely in their NA program. Others have a single warm can of Athletic Brewing stashed behind the bar. Calling ahead, or checking recent reviews, will tell you more than a taproom’s website typically will.
Kombucha contains trace alcohol
Worth knowing if your sobriety requires strict avoidance. Commercial kombucha typically contains less than 0.5% ABV — the same legal threshold as NA beer — but some home-brew or artisanal versions can be slightly higher. This is rarely a concern for people in general recovery, but it’s the kind of thing it’s useful to know rather than discover mid-flight.
You don’t have to explain yourself
One of the more exhausting parts of being sober in a drinking-heavy culture is the amount of social energy that gets spent on fielding questions about why you’re not drinking. Most brewery tour guides in Denver have been asked before and won’t make it a thing. The culture has shifted enough that “I’m not drinking tonight” doesn’t require elaboration the way it did five years ago.
Frequently asked questions
Can I do a brewery tour in Denver without drinking alcohol?
Yes. The Mocktails and Murals Tour from Denver Microbrew Tour is specifically designed for non-drinkers, covering RiNo’s NA beverage scene across four stops including a kombucha bar, a brewery with NA options, a wine bar, and a cocktail lounge — all with no alcohol served on the tour itself. Several individual taprooms like American Cultures and First Draft also offer genuine NA experiences worth visiting on your own.
Is Denver a good city for sober travelers?
It’s workable, and getting better. Colorado ranks in the top four states for NA beer consumption per capita according to IWSR, and Denver’s sober social infrastructure includes organized sober events (SAFE, Sober Outdoors, Unbuzzed, The Phoenix), a growing NA taproom scene, and a broader sober-curious culture that has normalized not drinking in previously alcohol-heavy spaces. Compared to five years ago, the options are meaningfully different.
Are NA beers truly alcohol-free?
Most commercial NA beers in the US contain less than 0.5% ABV, which is the legal definition of non-alcoholic under federal guidelines — the same threshold applied to products like some fruit juices and kombucha. Brands like Athletic Brewing and Heineken 0.0 are widely regarded as genuinely low-risk for people in recovery, though individual medical guidance should take precedence.
What Denver breweries are worth visiting if I’m sober?
American Cultures Kombucha Taproom in RiNo offers a full taproom experience built entirely around non-alcoholic beverages. First Draft Taproom & Kitchen has a self-pour format with NA rotating options. Woods Boss Brewing keeps TruBucha kombucha on tap. Bar Helix in RiNo serves craft-level alcohol-free cocktails. Call ahead at any location to confirm current NA offerings before making the trip.
Is the Mocktails and Murals Tour safe for someone in early recovery?
That depends on the individual. The tour visits locations that serve alcohol, which means you’ll be in mixed environments throughout. Denver Microbrew Tour notes on their own site that this tour may not be ideal for people who prefer to avoid alcohol-serving venues entirely. For someone with stable sobriety who is comfortable in those settings, it’s a well-run experience. For someone in early recovery for whom alcohol-present environments are a trigger, it warrants careful personal consideration — and potentially a conversation with a peer coach or counselor first.
How All The Way Well Supports Social Recovery in Denver
Part of what makes Denver’s sober scene genuinely navigable is that organizations like All The Way Well exist to help people build the practical infrastructure of a sober life, including the social side of it.
Our peer recovery coaches have navigated their own recovery journeys in this city. That means we know which activities work for someone in early sobriety, how to think about environments like brewery tours where alcohol is present but not required, and how to build a social life that doesn’t require avoiding every space that serves alcohol. That’s a nuanced skill. It’s harder than it sounds and it can’t be fully learned from a list.
All The Way Well’s Active Recovery Community builds connection through structured physical activity — a model similar in spirit to organizations like Sober Outdoors and The Phoenix, focused on living a full life in recovery rather than organizing life around avoiding relapse. Our Start Strong Workforce Program addresses the financial and employment stability that makes social participation actually possible — because if you’re worried about rent, the brewery tour isn’t really on the table.
We also offer Recovery Housing Scholarships for individuals who need a safe, sober living environment during the period when those practical foundations are still being built. Getting the housing right is what makes the rest of this possible.
If you’re in the Denver area and navigating recovery — whether you’re newly sober, a few years in, or supporting someone else through the process — All The Way Well’s peer coaches are worth connecting with.