-
Breanna DemontASEM: Thinking, Eating, and Writing: Food
HistoryProfessor Carol Helstosky
CRAFT BREWING & COMMUNITY:The Case of Wynkoop BreWing
Co.
8 WRIT LARGE: 2015
HISTORY OF BEER IN DENVERTom Noel, better known as Dr. Colorado,
once said that Colorado is a state whose territo-rial government
was conceived and born in a tav-ern. 1 Since Denvers founding in
1858, taverns, pubs, bars, and similar establishments were of
utmost social importance to groups of Germans, Italians and others,
2 bringing these diverse communities together in various ways. Not
only was alcohol likely safer than Denvers drinking water,3 but
until churches, schools, banks, the-aters, and other institutions
became well-estab-lished, saloons served as a multifunctional
in-stitution in the community.4
In 1916, however, four years shy of the en-actment of the
nationwide prohibition on al-cohol, Colorado voters chose to ban
bars. And [a]lthough Denver had voted 38,139 to 28,533 against the
dry crusade, as Noel remarks, the city was forced to go along with
the statewide decision. 5 As a result, breweries disappeared at an
alarming rate. Denver had over twenty-five
breweries before 1916, but Prohibition put all but four
breweries in the whole state out of business: Walters in Pueblo,
Schneiders in Trinidad, the Tivoli in Denver, and the Coors Brewery
(now MillerCoors) in Golden.6
This piece was taken from the final essay I wrote spring quarter
of my junior year for Carol
Helstoskys ASEM, Thinking, Eating, and Writing: Food History.
The original paper, entitled
Various Ways Denver Craft Brewers Distinguish Themselves From
Commercial, Macro-
brewing Giants in the Industry, was a case study of three Denver
craft breweriesWynkoop
Brewing Company, Great Divide Brewing Company, and Denver Beer
Companythat pro-
vided a series of historical snapshots of the first craft
brewpub in Denver to one of the most
recent.
In learning about the anecdotes behind many of these breweries
prized beers, as well as the
social and environmental efforts they consistently work to
uphold, I was able to shed light on
the ways Denver craft brewers distinguish themselves, both
intentionally and unintentionally,
from macro-brewing industry giants like MillerCoors and
Anheuser-Busch. The most signifi-
cant way they distinguish themselves is through their devotion
to connecting with the Denver
community on a personal level and contributing to its
development at large. I conducted sec-
ondary research with historical texts and articles found both
online and in newspapers like
the Denver Post; my primary research included participating in
brewery tours and conducting interviews with the head honchos of
these facilities. Through this research, I hoped to gain
better insight into the process of craft brewers as they produce
their beer and to get a feel for
all three establishments in person.
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9VOLUME 4
After several years, Colorado ended up shar-ing a national view
that Prohibition had become a failure. As Robert Athearn notes:
When a University of Denver graduate stu-dent interviewed local
authorities in 1932, most of them expressed the opinion that the
law had done more harm than good. The county jail warden thought
that the liquor law stimulated organized crime, gangs, and
corruption, while making petty criminals out of people who were not
criminally inclined.7
In 1933, the Eighteenth Amendment put an end to Prohibition.
However, according to Noel, the resurgence of saloon-going in
Denver can be more directly attributed to the demise of
tradi-tional values and institutions.8 As was the case in many
American cities, industrialization and immigration, rapid
population growth and sub-urbanization, and the rise of progressive
move-ments shaped a new culture in Denver, one in which alcohol
played a big part.9
This culture took root in Lower Downtown, otherwise known as
LoDo. Though the city of Denver features the largest collection of
urban historic buildings in the Rocky Mountain region, nearly 20
percent of LoDos buildings were de-molished in the 1980s in order
to provide park-ing space for office workers, which gave the
area its reputation as the citys skid row. But Federico Pea, who
was elected mayor in 1983, had great hope for the historic
warehouses of LoDo, believing that the area could be used to
jump-start the revitalization of the entire down-town. 10 The City
Council therefore passed the Lower Downtown Historic District
ordinance in
1988, which called for demolition controls and implemented
design guidelines for constructing new buildings and rehabilitating
old ones. This ordinance led to a rise in private sector
invest-ment and development; renovations of historic buildings gave
younger residents a place to live while also making room for
businesses to set up shop. Historic buildings are a scarce resource
in cities, and the certainty of their preservation created value in
LoDos real estate, especially for entrepreneurs and small
businesses. Edward Mc-Mahon explains:
Small businesses and investors were lured to the area by its
charm and unique char-acterand by the knowledge that those
at-tributes would not change. Historic district zoning gave
investors assurance that if they spent money rehabilitating a
turn-of-the-century building, their investment would not be
undermined by the property owner next door tearing down a building
to con-struct a parking lot, put up a billboard, or pursue other
insensitive development.11
The citys brewery revival occurred when one of these small
businesses, the Wynkoop Brewing Company, opened in LoDo in 1988,
sparking the opening of many other small businesses and paving the
way for a community to flourish.
WYNKOOP BREWING COMPANYFounded by John Hickenlooper, who later
would be elected state governor, the Wynkoop Brew-ing Company is
Colorados very first brewpub.12 Hickenlooper had been laid off from
his job as a geologist in 1986.10 But his life changed with
Breanna Demont
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10 WRIT LARGE: 2015
Hailing from Minneapolis, Minnesota,
Breanna is a senior journalism major
with an undying passion for the creative
arts. In addition to starting a freelance
photography company her freshman
year of college, she has also been fortu-
nate enough to gain experience working
for Snowboard Colorado magazine, and she currently holds the
titles of Produc-
tion Manager and Social Media Director
for the University of Denvers student-run
newspaper, The Clarion. When she is not snowboarding,
journaling, writing poetry,
or partaking in countless photography ad-
ventures around this breathtaking state,
Breanna might be singing, traveling, ex-
ploring nature, and attending concerts
with friends. She plans to pursue a ca-
reer in the photojournalistic sector of the
snowboarding industry after graduation.
a visit to one of Americas first brewpubs: the
Triple Rock Brewery in Berkeley, California. Dreaming of opening
a brewpub of his own, Hickenlooper banded together with five
other
partners and made this dream of the Wynkoop Brewing Company a
reality. (See image 1.)
The partners wanted to house their new busi-ness in a historic
building that highlighted the traditional role of pubs as a center
of the com-munity. After looking at thirty-four options, the
Wynkoop Brewing Company was born in the J.S. Brown Mercantile
Building, built in 1899. According to current Lead Brewer Greg
Moore,
Hickenlooper bought the building for one dollar per square
footan unbeatable price, compared to the roughly $450 per square
foot price Moore feels it could command today.13
Despite certain advantages, the partners also faced significant
obstacles: to commence opera-tions required that existing laws be
altered. For example, as Ed Sealover observes, [a]fter
Prohi-bition, state statutes allowed a business to man-ufacture,
distribute or sell beer but not to do all three. 14 However,
Hickenlooper and his part-ners successfully lobbied the state
legislature to change the rules to allow Wynkoop to make and sell
its beer in one location. 15 This legislative change set the
precedent for other craft brew-eries and brewpubs soon to come. A
domino effect ensued after the brewerys opening, with Rock Bottom
Brewery opening about a year af-ter Wynkoop.16 Though it took some
time, Wyn-koop is credited with helping LoDo shed its for-mer skid
row reputation. According to Moore, People saw that you could put
something in this space that was basically nothing and turn this
whole thing around. Once people start spending money in places,
other people want to open up nearby. 17 Since the brewerys opening,
hundreds of brewpubs have been opening across the state, with over
five hundred places licensed to sell al-cohol for consumption on
the premises. 18
According to Hickenlooper, brewpubs have a wide appeal because
they are a social equaliz-er, a place where suits and hardhats can
connect over a common denominatorthe beer in front of them. 19 With
this in mind, Wynkoop has un-dergone several changes over the
years. Within
(left) Breanna Demont / LP Picard
(right) image 1 / Breanna Demont
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11VOLUME 4
a few years of its opening, Hickenlooper and his partners built
an upscale billiards hall on the second floor and converted the
buildings upper
floors into residential loftsonly the second
such housing in downtown. 20 (See image 2.)These architectural
additions helped trans-
form Wynkoop from a place for patrons simply to gather and drink
beer to a more communi-ty-oriented space, in which people stay for
longer periods of time.
While large breweries like MillerCoors and Anheuser-Busch
produce over 6,000,000 barrels of beer per year, Wynkoop operates
on a sixty barrel system.21 According to current Front-of-the-House
Manager Jared Hofferber, the brew-ery only produces sixty barrels
of beer at one time for a total of 2,5003,000 barrels of beer per
year. Despite its deliberately small yield, Wynkoop brews over
forty different styles of beer in vintage, copper-clad barrel
brewing systems.22 These systems, combined with the brewerys use of
the finest ingredients [it] can
find in Colorado and beyond, enable Wynkoop
to produce anything from embraceable ales and lagers to
jaw-dropping seasonal and experimen-tal rule-breakers. 23 This type
of production differs greatly from macro-brewers like Miller-Coors
and Anheuser-Busch, who focus on the production of a few select
beers in mass-quantity to generate the exact same taste every
time.24 (See image 3.)
Wynkoop has been honored for setting the precedent in innovative
practices for other Col-orado brewers. In fact, the Brewers
Associa-tions annual award for innovation is named for
Wynkoops original brewer, Russell Schehrer. The company
continues to carry on Schehrers traditions, focusing on
small-batch, handmade, artisan beer crafted with patience, passion
and big ideas. 25 The brewers thirst for unusual beers has led them
to hand-craft porters, meads, cask-conditioned beer, and other
current craft beer fixtures that beer lovers ha[ve] never
tasted
before. 26 According to Moore, large breweries are starting to
notice the craft-brewing trend of beer diversification with which
Coloradans, and
especially Denverites, have fallen in love. As a result,
companies such as MillerCoors subsidi-ary AC Golden Brewing Company
are coming out with their own small batch styles of beer.27 Moore
considers this to be a good thing, as it shows companies like
Wynkoop that the com-mercial giants are feeling the pressure from
craft brewers such as themselves, which compa-nies like Wynkoop
want them to feel. Accord-
image 2 / Breanna Demont
image 3 / Breanna Demont
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12 WRIT LARGE: 2015
ing to Moore, in the last ten years, Wynkoop has taken over five
percent of business away from
these brewing giants, which has equated to bil-lions of dollars
in profit for the company.28
While Moore doesnt feel that the act of mak-ing beer is, in and
of itself, a community ser-vice, he does believe that Wynkoop is
doing its fair share to improve the Denver community at large.29
According to Moore, One of the first things that most major
cultures produce is some kind of alcoholic beverage, and if
[Wynkoop doesnt] make beer then someone else is going to. 30 One of
the biggest ways the brewery con-
tributes to the community of Denver is by mak-ing a significant
number of donations each year
to various festivals and events held in the city. Examples
include donating beer, donating mon-ey, or volunteering time at
charitable events such as the Guerrilla Run or Coalition for the
Blind.
I dont see companies like Coors at a lot of these things, said
Moore. Im sure they donate mon-ey to people and tons of stuff all
the time, and theyre probably great at itbut I think we do it
because we are a part of a community. 31
Wynkoop also tries to help other small busi-nesses around the
Denver community whenever it can, especially when it comes to
integrating new flavors into its beer. One example is the
brewerys Kurts Mile High Maltwhose rec-ipe is attributed to Kurt
Vonneguts father, a home-brewer back in his day. (See image 4.)
According to Moore, Vonnegut and Hicken-looper became friends
after the brewerys open-ing, and the two hit it off so well that
Vonne-gut gave Hickenlooper his fathers recipe. The uniqueness of
Kurts Mile High Malt also results from the fact that it is a Vienna
lager, which the brewery makes with coffee from local Novo Coffee
shop. Were always looking for partner-ships and anything we can do
to help the people around us, said Moore. Were a small company who
is in this community, and it only helps us if we help other people.
32
In addition to supporting local businesses around Denver,
Wynkoop reaches out to com-munity members on a personal basis as
much as it can. Aside from building rapport with regu-lars, Moore
says, Wynkoop is welcoming to any and all patrons that walk through
its doorsas long as people have an open mind about trying beer and
trying new styles:
We like to change peoples minds. We get tons of people who walk
in here and are like, Hey, can we have a Coors Light? and were
like, We dont have any Coors Light, but here, try this, and
this.Were not go-ing to be like, Oh, you want a Coors Light, get
the heck out of here. 33
This perspective is significant, as many people
believe that the craft beer culture only welcomes those beer
connoisseurs who know everything there is to know about the beer
they drink. While there are craft beer lovers that fit this
description,
craft breweries like Wynkoop understand that it is part of their
job as brewers to show passion for what they do. Having an
understanding, inviting presence that does not discriminate against
those new to the craft beer world is important in main-taining a
good reputation in the community.
image 4 / Breanna Demont
The Wynkoop Brewing Company is a perfect example of
a Denver craft brewery that upholds these standards of
community and innovation today. It maintains a sound
presence in and devotion towards community affairs, while
operating its facility in ways that create a unique,
intimate
environment.
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13VOLUME 4
Wynkoop tries to welcome community mem-bers to its brewery in
unique ways. One example is the communal participation it
encourages in the production process that goes into the making of
Wynkoops Belgorado beer. (See image 5.)
According to Moore, Wynkoop purchases its fresh hops during the
hop harvest season from local Colorado Voss Farms. As soon as the
fresh hops are delivered to Wynkoops doorstep, the brewery sets
everything up on its terrace and en-courages customers and
passers-by to help Wyn-koop employees pick the hops off the vines,
re-warding helpers with a free beer of their choice. This type of
behavior distinguishes Wynkoop from large brewers, as the fresh
batches of Bel-gorado made during hop harvest season taste entirely
different from the batches the brewery produces during other times
of the year; large brewers try to steer as far away as possible
from this level of inconsistency.34
To further its efforts to improve LoDo, Wyn-koop has made a
conscious effort to remain en-vironmentally friendly over the
years. The brew-ery began recycling glass and cardboard almost from
the start, and today those measures are joined by extensive
composting, recycling and water and energy conservation efforts. 35
Wyn-koop not only composts its biodegradable waste, but it also
feeds its spent brewing grains to local livestocka common practice
by craft brewers that also sets them apart from their
macro-brew-ing opponents.
In addition to caring for the environment, Wynkoop has made an
effort to adhere to the
highest standards of brewpub cuisine, its menus providing
updated brewpub classics to globally inspired dishes. 36 On its
Website, the company boasts that one will find the same
contempo-rary sensibilities of fresh, local ingredients pre-pared
in-house throughout both the restaurant and banquet menus.37 What
is more, Wynkoop aims to keep those who come to tour the brewery
entertained. While its staff-led tours take visitors through the
meticulous process of brewing the Wynkoops acclaimed beers, 38 the
companys creative tour makes add-ons available for pur-chase, such
as an all-natural lip balm made with some of the same malts and
hops found in the brewerys beer.
Finally, Wynkoops attitude toward compe-tition sets it apart.
According to Hofferber, a brewpubs culture is not so much about
com-petition as it is about supporting others in the industry.
The whole craft beer community is kind of a culture, Hofferber
remarks.39 Patrons do not go into one craft brewery or brewpub and
find em-ployees putting down another craft brewery or brewpub.
Everybody really supports each oth-er, Hofferber says. This
cooperative mindset is significant. According to Moore, while all
brew-ers essentially fight for shelf space, craft brewers
have banded together with a shared view that the big guys such
as MillerCoors have been do-ing what they do for a long time. It is
now craft brewers time to shine, and most of the craft brewers in
Denver want to support each other in the process.40
image 5 / Breanna Demont
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14 WRIT LARGE: 2015
CONCLUSIONWhile beer has been consumed across the globe for
centuries, its history in Colorado is unique, especially when it
comes to the craft brewing in-dustry. In a market dominated by
commercial, macro-brewing giants like MillerCoors and
Anheuser-Busch, whose focus is on producing mass quantities of a
limited variety of beer in an efficient, consistent manner, Denvers
craft
brewers show a unique sense of community and a passion for
innovation. Independent craft brew-ers like Wynkoop Brewing Company
have made a name for themselves by taking the process of brewing
and distributing beer to a new level. According to New Belgium
Brewing Company spokesman Bryan Simpson, one of the greatest assets
of a craft brewery is its story and its ability to connect with a
community in which its beers are made.41 Those assets are hard for
the big guys to compete with. The Wynkoop Brewing
Company is a perfect example of a Denver craft brewery that
upholds these standards of commu-nity and innovation today. It
maintains a sound presence in and devotion towards community
affairs, while operating its facility in ways that create a unique,
intimate environment.
In so doing, Wynkoop has paved the way for an increasing number
of craft breweries to emerge in Colorado, and the numbers arent
ex-pected to decrease. The Brewers Association estimates that, in
2013, 2,768 out of the 2,822 total breweries in the United States
were craft breweries.21 (See image 6.)
And according to an article recently published in the Denver
Post, Colorado craft breweries are opening at a rapid pace.
Colorado Brewers Guild spokesman Steve Kurowski notes that, while
over forty breweries opened just last year alone, there are now
seventy in the planning stages.42
image 6 / BrewersAssociation.org
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15VOLUME 4
ENDNOTES
1. Thomas J. Noel, Colorado: A Liquid History & Tavern Guide
to the Highest State (Golden, CO: Fulcrum,
1999), xv.
2. John Peel, History Can Be Fun, Especially in a Bar, The
Durango Herald, February 2, 2014,
http://www.durangoherald.com/.
3. Thomas J. Noel, The City and the Saloon: Denver, 18581916
(Boulder: University Press of Colora-
do, 1996), 15.
4. Ibid., 12.5. Ibid., 109.6. Noel, Colorado: A Liquid History,
xvii.7. Robert G. Athearn, The Coloradans (Albuquerque:
University of New Mexico Press, 1976).
8. Noel, The City and the Saloon, xii.9. Ibid., xii-xiii.10.
Edward T. McMahon, From Skid Row to LoDo:
Historic Preservations Role in Denvers Revi-
talization, UrbanLand, Urban Land Institute,
October 11, 2012, http://urbanland.uli.org/devel-
opment-business/from-skid-row-to-lodo-historic-
preservation-s-role-in-denver-s-revitalization/.
11. Ed Sealover, Mountain Brew: A Guide to Colorados Breweries
(Charleston: History Press, 2011), 4245.
12. According to the Brewers Association, a brewpub is a
restaurant-brewery that sells 25% or more of
its beer on site. See Craft Beer Industry Market
Segments, Brewers Association: A Passionate Voice
for Craft Brewers, Brewers Association, accessed
April 18, 2014, http://www.brewersassociation.
org/statistics/market-segments/.
13. Greg Moore, Interview with Wynkoop Brewing Company Lead
Brewer, Personal Interview, June
1, 2014.
14. Sealover, Mountain Brew, 43.15. Ibid.16. Noel, Colorado: A
Liquid History, 80.17. Moore, Interview.
18. Sealover, Mountain Brew, 44.19. Jared Hofferber, Interview
with Wynkoop
Brewing Company Front-Of-House Manager,
Telephone Interview, May 15, 2014.
20. Brewery, Wynkoop Brewing Company, accessed May 18, 2014,
http://www.wynkoop.com/brewery/.
21. Brewery Tour, Wynkoop Brewing Company, accessed May 18,
2014, http://www.wynkoop.com/brew-
ery/brewery-tour/.
22. Ibid.23. Ibid.24. David Young, What Qualifies as Craft
Beer?
USA Today, ( Jan.14, 2013), accessed April 27,
2014, http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/
business/2013/01/13/1566338/.
25. Brewery.26. Ibid.27. Alastair Bland, As Craft Beer Starts
Gushing, Its
Essence Gets Watered Down, The Salt: Whats
On Your Plate, NPR (May 9, 2014), accessed
June 1, 2014, http://www.npr.org/blogs/the-
salt/2014/05/09/310803011/.
28. Moore, Interview.29. Ibid.30. Ibid31. Ibid.32. Ibid.33.
Ibid.34. Ibid.35. Brewery.36. Ibid.37. Ibid.38. Ibid.39. Hofferber,
Interview.40. Ibid.41. Bland, As Craft Beer Starts Gushing.42. Jon
Murray and Josie Klemaier, Some Tap Danc-
ing, The Denver Post, April 24, 2014.