Tyler Ruse and Nathaniel Miller, who both grew up in Boulder County, hope to fill the craft-beer gap along the Highway 36 corridor this April when they open a tap room called Big Choice Brewing, at 7270 West 118th Place in Broomfield.
"We looked around a lot," says Ruse, who currently works in the publishing industry in Minnesota. "There are lot of new breweries happening around Boulder and the mountain towns. But one of the things that is lacking along that 36 corridor is craft beer made by someone who is not part of a larger company or conglomerate."
When they open their 2,500-square-foot tap room, Ruse and Miller, who are both veteran home brewers, plan to have eight beers on tap at all times, four seasonals and four regulars, including an IPA, a red, a poblano porter and a saison.
To help them get ready for Big Choice, they both took a brewing immersion class from Tom Hennessy, owner of Colorado Boy Brewing in Ridgway. (The $2,500 class prepares would-be brewery owners for opening their own places, offering advice on everything from the brewing process to pub design and bookkeeping systems to licensing.)
The name for the brewery is taken from the California punk band Face to Face, which released an album in 1994 called Big Choice. Since Ruse and Miller both liked the band, they decided to use the name; they also plan to deck the place out with late-'80s/early-'90s music, movies and skateboarding paraphernalia.
The name also represents the choice that consumers have when it comes to beer, says Ruse: "You should have a choice. Local or commercial. Big or small-scale. It shouldn't be just about a single brewer or style or commercial distributor."
The target opening date is April 13 (a Friday), two days before tax day. Ruse hopes to be canning his beer -- possibly with the help of Mobile Canning LLC -- within six months.
