In a town filled with glamorous dining rooms, rustic bars with modern twists, high-end spirits and expensive craft cocktails, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a better vibe, community atmosphere, and place to post up for a drink than the Aspen Brewing Co. in historic downtown Aspen. It’s a warm and inviting place filled with award-winning beer, free live music on Fridays and Saturdays, and so many nods to Aspen’s beautiful landscape and seasonal outdoor activities—like skiing—mostly just like skiing.
But in the small Colorado mountain town of under 7,000 people, Aspen Brewing Co. is hardly the town’s first introduction to locally-brewed beer. In the late 1800s, the first Aspen brewery opened up shop in town at the hands of Christian Sanders.
Originally located on Mill Street, Sanders Brewery operated in town until 1902, at which time it was purchased by the P.H. Zhang Company of Denver. An ad taken out by Sanders in the Aspen Times in 1896 promised free delivery of the brewery’s keg and bottled pilsner to any part of the city. Thirsty patrons simply needed to dial 111 for a sudsy shipment.
Nearly a century later, in 1990, George Stranahan would open the Flying Dog Brewpub in Aspen, revitalizing the area’s beer culture, until growth and demand would prompt the Aspenite and founder of the Aspen Center for Physics, to move the Flying Dog brewing operations to a larger facility in Denver and eventually to another facility in Frederick, Md.
The re-introduction of fresh-from-the-tank beer in the early 90s followed by the loss of the town’s only brewery shortly after, left a gaping void in the livers and the spirits of the residents of Aspen. It wasn’t until Duncan Clauss opened Aspen Brewing Co. in 2008 that craft beer really found a forever home in the Roaring Fork Valley of Colorado.
Today the brewery has a twenty-barrel brewhouse in town, as well as a separate taproom located in the heart of Aspen’s downtown drag. Fortuitously, the brewery’s first set up was inside a building that sat just a stone’s throw from Sanders original brewing location many decades before.
In recent year’s the small-town brewery has won big at world-renowned industry events like the Great American Beer Festival (a silver medal for their Belgian Farmhouse Saison in 2013), and a prestigious gold medal at the 2014 World Beer Cup (also for the Belgian Farmhouse Saison). These days, the Aspen Brewing Co. is putting out a popular mix of year-round, seasonal, and barrel-aged brews throughout the state of Colorado—but the push to cross state lines isn’t too far away.
“Right now we’re interviewing craft-focused beer distributors and searching for the right markets to expand into,” said Clauss, who’s list of goals and projects for the upcoming year are ambitious, to say the least.
Along with expanding into markets outside of Colorado, Clauss also have plans to double the brewery’s annual production of 5,000 barrels in 2016 and start a massive remodel of a second brewing location in town in the summer.
The Aspen Power Plant
The Aspen Power Plant project transcends beyond the Aspen Brewing Co. think tank, but it’s where it started. Housed in the town’s old power plant that dates back to Aspen’s booming mining days, the proposed Aspen Power Plant was initiated by Clauss and construction is set to begin in the summer of 2016. The project looks to establish a new community asset and collective gathering and event space for the brightest minds and innovators that reside in and visit Aspen.
The collaborative office space will also feature a multimedia studio as well as a full-service brewery, biergarten and restaurant at the hands of the Aspen Brewing Co. The new brewery will feature a seven to ten barrel brewing system which will produce beer to flow from the taps at the biergarten. Clauss’s vision for the restaurant is one that sources local, fresh and organic ingredients and serves them up in the form of affordable shared plates and menu items that compliment the brewery’s popular libations. According to Clauss, the Aspen Power Plant is scheduled to open in the spring of 2017.
The Aspen Brewing Co. brewing facility is located at 404 Airport Business Center, directly across the Highway 82 from the AspenAirport. Tours are available by advance reservation for $20 per person and include tastings from the tanks and barrels inside of the brewery. The Aspen Brewing Company tap room is located at 304 East Hopkins Ave. and is open to the public from noon to midnight.
Tyra Sutak is a freelance writer sharing stories about her favorite things: travel, food, music, craft beer and entertainment. Based out of Boulder, Colo., Tyra gathers inspiration by exploring the world by foot, bike, train, car, plane, greyhound bus, and any other form of travel that will lead to a new adventure. Whether it’s climbing 14er’s under a blue ColoRADo sky, sailing on a boat in Costa Rica, living out childhood dreams on Wrigley Field, or simply taking a moment to appreciate the everyday adventures that can be found at home, the open road calls—and Tyra’s bag is always packed.
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