USA, CO: Crazy Mountain Brewery to celebrate its grand opening in Denver on June 23
In order to have the chance for a future, Crazy Mountain Brewery had to tear everything up and start from scratch, the Denver Westword reported.
From noon to 10 p.m. on Friday, June 23, the brewery will celebrate its grand opening at a new location, 1505 Ogden Street. The space is the former home of Alpine Dog Brewing Company, which reopened a half-mile away earlier this year.
At its peak, Crazy Mountain had over 35 employees on staff. Today there are only four, as well as a silent investor. Its beer used to be distributed in over thirty states and five countries. “It was insane,” recalls head brewer and COO AJ Chase, who joined the team seven and a half years ago. Before that, he worked at Ommegang Brewery in Cooperstown, New York.
Coming from a large and well-respected production brewery like Ommegang helped Chase improve production and logistics at Crazy Mountain, which moved down from Vail in 2015 and opened at 471 Kalamath Street, a building that had once been a Breckenridge Brewery location.
Since then, Crazy Mountain has been on a wild ride, with many court actions related to rental and leasing disputes, as well as plenty of ventures that didn’t pan out over the years. Now Chase is excited to get back to the basics and focus on beer. “We had to clean house,” he says. “The big shake-up needed to happen, and we’re just so damn excited to have a nice, clean spot and fresh beer.”
The CEO was replaced, and the head brewer, who was facing numerous allegations from former employees during the craft beer reckoning, is no longer with the company, either.
At the large space on Kalamath, which had fermenters with capacities that reached 200 barrels, Crazy Mountain was forced to contract-brew for other breweries to cover costs. The new spot on Ogden is a much better fit. “This is probably the move that should’ve been made when the company came down from Vail Valley," Chase admits.
With such a small brewing system — a one-barrel pilot brewery from well-known company SS Brewtech — keeping beer fresh shouldn't be a problem. Chase plans to focus on a wide variety of beers that can be enjoyed in a taproom setting, such as a refreshing Mexican lager and a juniper pale ale, two beers that will be available on day one. He’s also going to open up the recipe book, which he estimates is about 120 recipes deep, bringing back favorites like Lawyers, Guns and Money as well as Horseshoes and Hand Grenades. The June 23 opening tap list will also include a shandy, an extra-special bitter, a porter, an amber, a wheat and a pair of IPAs.
Chase is also looking forward to collaborating with others again, starting with Black Sky Brewing. The two breweries built a friendship when Crazy Mountain was a neighbor on Kalamath, and Black Sky will have three guest beers on tap for the grand opening.
While the small team is excited to open, the hard work isn’t over. The brewery has had to pay rent on the space for the last two years, adding financial pressure. Tap manager Jason Wagner is set to handle the grand opening with his limited crew, but plans to fills more front-of-house positions next week.
Chase also hopes to increase capacity from the current 91 to closer to 120, and there are plans to add a kitchen, as well.
Everything will start small, though, with draft-only beer, Crowlers and growlers, as well as very limited keg distribution in the metro area. Chase will brew some core beers on demand on a contract basis at nearby breweries, spending the day at the brewery on the brew deck rather than fully outsourcing its production.
Crazy Mountain will be open for pre-concert crowds that gather at the neighboring Ogden Theatre and the nearby Fillmore. But it plans to close around 10 p.m., avoiding some of the rough and rowdy late-night crowds on Colfax.
The team did a series of soft openings for the Nuggets championship run, and it was encouraging. Chase says that Crazy Mountain plans to have NFL games showing this season, as well as a dart league on Mondays, trivia on Tuesdays, and a few other events that aren’t yet scheduled.
"Seeing people happy all the time, that's really what we want," he concludes.
22 June, 2023
