Clark is creating a nanobrewery in the garage at his house. Bru, as it is called, now consists of a half-barrel brewing system that will allow him to make about one keg, roughly fifteen gallons, at a time.
By comparison, homebrewers typically make five or ten gallons at a time, while some recent entries into the local taproom scene -- like Denver Beer Co, Renegade and Copper Kettle -- have seven- to fifteen-barrel systems."This is a huge passion for me," says Clark, who received the home-brewing kit from his father-in-law. "It's something I was doing anyway, something I love doing."
His first three beers will be an American-style IPA made with fresh lemon zest and juniper berries; a brown ale made with dates and caramelized sugar; and a Belgian-style golden strong ale. "I don't brew them to be paired with specific types of food," he explains, "but I use a lot of food ingredients in them, so my wife started calling them 'chef beers' because I was adding spices and fruits and things like that."
While Bru is Clark's project, he says the people at Centro and at the Big Red F Restaurant Group, which owns Centro, have been "incredibly supportive."
In fact, the IPA, which Clark brewed last weekend, is slated to go on tap at Centro -- and possibly at the Big Red F-owned West End Tavern -- in mid-April. That will be followed by the brown ale, which Clark plans to brew this coming weekend.
The restaurant group has a history of working with local brewers at its restaurants and even has a house beer, a Mexican-style lager called Top Rope, that is made exclusively for Big Red F by Boulder's Upslope Brewing Company. Clark was part of the tasting committee for that beer and learned a lot about the brewing process from Upslope.
Clark doesn't foresee hosting any tapping parties in his garage; it's his personal abode, after all. But he does plan to bottle some of his beers at home and sell them in limited quantities -- "a few cases here and there," he says -- at local liquor stores.
