E-Malt.com News article: USA, CO: Denver Beer Co opens new production facility

Just three years after opening in a former garage on Platte Street, Denver Beer Co has just tapped a huge new production facility in the Sunnyside neighborhood, making the brewery a perfect symbol for the rapid rise of craft brewing's third wave, Denver Westword reported on August 8.

Denver Beer Co's Canworks in located inside a cavernous 11,000-square-foot warehouse, at 4455 Jason Street, and includes a thirty-barrel brewing system - making it the fourth largest in Denver - and four sixty-barrel fermenters. It also boasts a large canning line from Boulder's Wild Goose Engineering, which the brewery will use to package six-packs of Graham Cracker Porter, Incredible Pedal IPA and other beers.

"This is what we've been waiting for," said co-owner Charlie Berger. "This is crunch time, but I guess it's always crunch time."

So far, Denver Beer Co has brewed six batches of beer, Graham Cracker and Incredible Pedal, on its new system, though it had to dump one because it didn't meet expectations, Berger says. "There's a learning curve to every piece of equipment in here."

In September, Denver Beer Co plans to can its Hey! Pumpkin, followed by a rye ale, tentatively named Snow Ride, in December, and Kaffir Lime Wheat in 2015.
The brewery, which will continue to operate its small brewery and popular taphouse on Platte Street, will also open a small taproom inside the new facility this fall.

Berger and Patrick Crawford, who had been beer-drinking classmates in college, opened Denver Beer Co in August 2011 as one of the first of what industry experts call the third wave of craft breweries nationwide. They joined breweries, like Strange Craft, Copper Kettle, Wit's End, Renegade and Caution among the third-wave pioneers.

Denver Beer Co now employs 23 people.


13 August, 2014