WhiskeyFest 2026

A World of Whiskey – One Night in Golden

November 28, 2026 • 7:00 pm – 11:00 pm

DOORS 5:00pm  •  21+ Ages

WhiskeyFest 2026 comes to the Buffalo Rose, Golden’s historic gathering place since 1859, for a holiday weekend night built around great whiskey, food pairings, and Colorado country music. It’s both a social and educational event, whether you can tell a single malt from a single pot still or you’re just here for the music and a good night out.

The lineup brings together a world tour of whiskey: Irish pot-still character from Teeling, delicate Japanese whisky from Suntory, wheated Kentucky bourbon from Weller, mineral-cut New York bourbon from Widow Jane, old fashioned Texas bourbon from Still Austin, and a hometown exclusive as Coors Whiskey Co. takes over the State Room for the night. Knowledgeable brand ambassadors guide you through the tastings, and the Buffalo Rose kitchen matches them with a variety of food. Several non-alcoholic whiskey options are also available, so designated drivers and the sober-curious get just as good a tasting experience.

Music follows: Ryan Chrys opens with a warm acoustic set, and Denver’s own Sugar Britches closes out the night as headliner, with fiddle, upright bass, and sharp songwriting.

Showtimes

Ryan Chrys 7:00 pm

Before Ryan Chrys became the guitar-forward frontman of modern outlaw country band Ryan Chrys & the Rough Cuts, he spent years as what the Denver Post called “a guitarist’s guitarist” — the player in the background of other people’s bands, until the solo hit. That instinct for song and story runs just as deep as his lead lines, and it’s the side he brings to Buffalo Rose’s WhiskeyFest on November 28: Ryan Chrys performing solo, acoustic, and stripped down to the songs themselves.

Rooted in the outlaw country lineage of Waylon Jennings and Merle Haggard, Chrys writes country-rock songs built for a full band but honest enough to hold up on a single guitar. Under his own name, the arrangements fall away and the songwriting takes over — plainspoken, road-worn, and unmistakably Colorado. It’s the same voice that’s earned the Rough Cuts a Colorado Country Music Hall of Fame Band of the Year nod and stages alongside Dwight Yoakam, Shooter Jennings, and Old Crow Medicine Show, just brought down to its roots.

Sugar Britches 8:00 pm

Sugar Britches is a blend of mischievous high-brow honky-tonk with eclectic instrumental accompaniment and clever lyrics, written by Brian Johanson and performed by a collection of characters. Combining good ‘ol country heartache along with snarky folksy wit, Sugar Britches has been playing non-stop throughout Colorado and the Great West in bars, parking lots, weddings, bat mitzvahs, rodeos, amphitheaters, and regular-ass theaters since 2017.

Sugar Britches have received critical acclaim and plain old criticism from music lovers and mothers. They have won hearts and minds and driven audiences wild with their sex appeal, fanciful stylings, and wit. They have opened up for many national touring artists, including Reckless Kelly, Wynonna Judd & the Big Noise, Hannah Dasher, Jaime Wyatt, Big Richard, Midland, Billy Bob Thornton and the Boxmasters, Pokey LaFarge, Corb Lund, The Reverend Horton Heat, and Jason Eady.

The band released their first album, Don’t Make Her a Mixtape Yet You Idiot, in 2019, their second album, No One Cares That It’s Your Birthday, in  2022, and they released their third album, “Terrified…and Aroused!” in October 2025. The Band features Brian Johanson on lead vocals and guitar, Lance Ruby on lead electric guitar, AJ Knight on drums, Zee Crain on Fiddle, Cameron Collums and Ori Bitton on upright bass, and a rotating cast of amazing guest musicians. Keep your eyes peeled for all of our special guests and show iterations.