A strip mall suite. A corner cafe. A converted warehouse.
The half-hidden brewery spots are each as unique as the beers their bartenders sling — and the neighborhoods they serve.
The people behind these neighborhood haunts aim to fill the gap between home and work, turn strangers into neighbors and friends, and give locals and connoisseurs alike plenty of options to wet their whistles.
“Usually we have our home and work,” said Chantel Columna, the proprietor and general manager of Novel Strand Brewing Company in Denver’s Baker neighborhood, “but then cafes and libraries and bars become this third space for creating community. A gathering spot without an agenda, necessarily, where we can just hang out.”
Novel Strand, Strange Craft Beer Company in the Lincoln Park neighborhood and Chain Reaction Brewing Company in Athmar Park are but three of dozens of neighborhood breweries that dot metro Denver and help cement Colorado’s reputation as a craft beer paradise.
They don’t go big on pretentious atmospheres or aim for national distribution, even as their beers and other options are lovingly crafted to expand on and subvert expectations. Instead, they and other neighborhood breweries put as much focus on creating a sense of place — both within their own walls and in their communities — as they do on creating the next batch of libations.
Strange Craft was at the forefront of the taproom brewery trend when it opened in 2010. It didn’t serve food like the brewpubs that had already popped up, and owner Tim Myers didn’t have an eye toward big distribution like some of the biggest names in Colorado craft brewing.
He just wanted to brew great beer and make some friends along the way.
The taproom straddles the Lincoln Park and Sun Valley neighborhoods. Myers and his original partner in the operation picked the spot as a happy medium between their homes — with an eye toward future development of the area. The brewery also happened to sit off Interstate 25 near the Colfax Avenue and Sixth Avenue interchanges, where the lure of hops easily beat out traffic-jam exhaust as commuters headed home from work.
Strange Craft also is a half-mile walk from Empower Field at Mile High, making it a pregame hangout for customers clad in orange and blue on autumn Sundays, as well as ahead of concerts there.
In the years since, plenty of folks have become regulars. Or “Strangers,” as a nod to the brewery’s moniker.
“This is their place,” Myers said, laughing. “I just make beer for them.”
At big watering holes and chains, bartenders are “just slinging pints as fast as they can,” Myers said. At Strange Craft, like the other neighborhood spots, brewers and customers have time and space to discuss what makes the beers special, new taps coming up and the overall rhythms of life.
“You’ve got to make that personal connection,” Myers said. “That’s what’s always been nice about us being small. We can make all those connections over the years that we still have, 15 years on. That’s awesome. That’s the part of it that I love. I get to make beer for friends and hang out.”
Some of the people Myers has befriended from behind the bar have gone on to start their own operations. That includes cousins Zack and Chad Christofferson, co-owners and brewers at Chain Reaction in Athmar Park.
Myers had invited them to brew a barrel of beer at Strange Craft, and it seemed to vanish as soon as it was tapped. Fast forward 11 years, “and we’re the old dudes on the block now,” Zack Christofferson said of Chain Reaction.
In that time, they’ve seen wedding proposals and hosted first birthdays, as well as people celebrating their best days or seeking reprieve from their worst.
The Christoffersons think of their brewery as a home base of sorts for the community — whether it’s for chili cook-offs and holiday cookie parties or for people needing to trudge out of the house during winter storms. They built that philosophy into the very bones of the establishment, with a custom U-shaped bar designed so that everyone with a seat could talk to anyone else.
“You have to go into the neighborhoods to find these little gems of the culture,” Zack Christofferson said. “… It’s where people are really sharing life experiences.”
But beer culture in the city is also changing, the proprietors of the three establishments agree. So all three businesses are expanding their own horizons to meet new customers, and those with changing tastes, where they are.
Since the pandemic, some people seem more likely to stay home than seek out a post-work pint. Younger generations are less beer-curious than the millennials who helped fuel the craft craze. Other customers still may not drink alcohol, or they have gluten sensitivities.
So the breweries adapt.
“If you had told us 11 years ago, ‘We’re gonna make a hard seltzer,’ I would have never believed it,” Chad Christofferson said.
They’ve also turned to local sodas, nonalcoholic beers and kombuchas to give people more options. The cousins see it as a push for inclusivity — they want everyone, beer drinker or not, to feel welcome.
Novel Strand, in Baker, operates as a cafe in the mornings to extend its hours as a hub and give options for folks looking for caffeinated brews. The brewery also recently obtained a liquor license to expand its alcoholic options.
Columna, the proprietor, created a low-key atmosphere designed for people to sit and mingle, whether for trivia or to play board games. There are no TVs, except for a projector that’s rolled out for major events, allowing people to focus on their conversations or their books.
Run clubs meet there, as does a book club. A jar of dog biscuits sits on the counter for furry friends, which Columna jokes has led to as many pups dragging their owners to the brewery on their walks as the other way around.
It’s part of what makes neighborhood breweries so special, she said: They end up reflecting their neighborhoods, just as they help shape the neighborhoods in turn.
“RiNo’s neighborhood bar might be a little bit different than this one, just because of whoever might be around or what the community is focusing on,” Columna said. “But at the end of the day, it just becomes that connection space.”
