Great Divide Brewing Company was founded by Brian Dunn in 1994 in Denver, Colorado, USA. Three months after brewing its first batch of beer, it won the first of the brewery's twelve Great American Beer Festival and four World Beer Cup awards. By 2007, Great Divide was ranked by RateBeer.com as the 23rd best brewery in the world with three of the world's top 100 beers.[citation needed] In December 2008, Beer Advocate magazine ranked them as the seventh best brewery on the planet.

Great Divide's beers
Great Divide Brewing Company was founded with the notion of brewing strong beers, which are defined as having an alcohol content greater than 7%. Six of the thirteen beers made by Great Divide in 2006 exceeded this threshold, and one, Old Ruffian, has over 10.2% alcohol content, which is twice that of America's top selling beer Budweiser. “I also think that brewers like to sell the beer that they like to drink." Dunn said, "And as people who can and do drink beer all day long, it’s obviously more interesting for us to drink big beers that are long on flavor and complexity.”

When Invesco Field, the home of the Denver Broncos, opened in 2001, Great Divide's Denver Pale Ale (DPA) was one of only three craft beers selected to be sold at the stadium. Dunn indicated that Denver Pale Ale was selected because it had won more national and international awards than any other Colorado beer.[5] In 2000, Denver chef Bill Clifford made a Braised DPA Lamb Shank for the White House Tree Lighting Ceremony. In 1997, Great Divide beer was used in the NBC miniseries Asteroid.