The restaurant, part of the Boulder-based Mountain Sun group, has had its equipment set up since last fall, but just received its city liquor license approval in mid-March. The brewery is located in a 3,500-square-foot space behind the dining room.
"From my experience with this project, I'm not holding my breath, but it all looks good for an April 1 start," says Mountain Sun managing partner Paul Nashak.
When the kettles do start to boil, Mountain Sun will brew its eight most popular beers (which make up 75 percent of its sales) at Vine Street, allowing the other two brewpubs, Mountain Sun and Southern Sun to work on more experimental batches and other new recipes. The company brews a staggering 55 to 65 different beers a year.
The new brewhouse can crank out 5,000 barrels of beer a year (at capacity), about 50 percent more than its sister locations combined. It will also allow Mountain Sun to offer kegs of its beers to outside accounts on regular basis for the first time.
"From our initial calculations, we will have some surplus beer for the first time in our history," Nashak explains. "So you will see some boutique, kind of vanity accounts pop up at nice places with some of our most special beer."
The Kitchen Denver was a first to get a taste of one of those beers, when it began pouring Mountain Sun's award-winning Hop Vivant earlier in March.
