Seedstock Brewery Brings Eastern Europe to West Colfax Avenue

The brothers behind Seedstock Brewing had been waiting, and waiting, and waiting — almost an entire year past when they’d originally planned to start pouring beer at 3610 West Colfax Avenue, suffering a variety of delays related to the building's gas and power lines. So when UPS delivered their “Open” sign on March 18 — two weeks before they’d finally scheduled their grand opening for April 1, “We said, ‘Screw it, let’s open,’” says co-founder Ron Abbott.

And open they did, very quietly. But as Ron says, “the soft opening was rather hard.” That’s because the people of Denver just can’t get enough beer. In fact, despite the fact that they haven’t even hosted that grand opening yet – it takes place today and tomorrow — Ron and Jason Abbott have already ordered more beer-fermentation tanks so that they can make and store more beer.

“We are really happy with the way the beers have been received,” Ron says. “People tend to like the IPA, which isn’t a big, hoppy pine bomb, but a little more pineapple and tropical.” The other five beers on tap right now are a kolsch, an amber, a milk stout, a trippel and a hefeweizen.

The Abbotts plan to debut their real specialties over the next few weeks and months, though: lagers in the style that their great-grandparents drank in Czechoslovakia before emigrating to the United States in the 1880s. Growing up on a farm in Nebraska, the brothers often heard stories about these beers and about their family's prowess at brewing them at home.

The first will be a Bohemian dunkel. “It’s a Czechoslovakian beer, though, so it’s not as sweet as its German counterpart,” Ron explains. Seedstock has a Vienna lager aging in the tanks as its next offering. That will be followed by a few historic styles, including a polotmavé and a broyhan, both of which were brewed in Eastern Europe in the 1500s but aren’t well known today.
Since lagering takes more time than making ales, however, those beers won’t be ready for a couple of weeks to several months – which is fine with Ron. “The risk for breweries is that you rush the product out. The danger is to put something out there that isn’t ready," he explains."There are so many good breweries in Denver that you can’t have substandard products and last.”

In the meantime, the Abbotts will do all they can to keep up with the demands of their West Colfax neighborhood using their seven-barrel brewing system. “This is a great neighborhood, and it is more than ready for a brewery and for a nice restaurant or two,” Ron says. 

Just a few blocks away, construction continues on several projects where the old St. Anthony’s Hospital used to be, and a couple of retail establishments have announced leases there, including Little Man Ice Cream, Highland Tap & Burger, Starbucks and Alamo Drafthouse. “Folks have doubled down on the excitement,” Ron adds.

Seedstock will be open from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. today and tomorrow, with food trucks, growler giveaways and live music tonight at its grand opening.