Utah's Epic Brewing will open new spot in Denver's RiNo neighborhood

Utah's Epic Brewing has signed a lease on a 20,000-square-foot building in the River North neighborhood, where it will open its second brewery. The facility is just four blocks from Our Mutual Friend, a nanobrewery that opened in October, and very close to Black Shirt Brewing, River North Brewing and...

By Jonathan Shikes

January 4, 2013

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Utah's Epic Brewing has signed a lease on a 20,000-square-foot building in the River North neighborhood, where it will open its second brewery. The facility is just four blocks from Our Mutual Friend, a nanobrewery that opened in October, and very close to Black Shirt Brewing, River North Brewing and the planned home of Crooked Stave.

The new facility, at 3001 Walnut Street, will include a twenty-barrel brewhouse, expected to begin production in March, and a taproom that should be open by the end of April, says brewery spokeswoman Mallika Filtz. It will also have at least 1,000 barrels on hand for the brewery's extensive barrel-aging program.

Epic's head brewer Kevin Crompton first announced that Epic was looking to open a new facility at a media luncheon during the Great American Beer Festival in October.

Brewery co-owner David Cole later said that Epic had been looking for eight months for the right spot. "Nothing is done and no ink is dry," he said then, adding that Epic had already ordered new brewery equipment but didn't yet know where to have it delivered.

Founded in Salt Lake City in 2008, Epic was the first brewery to open in Utah after the state changed its laws to allow breweries to make beer that was stronger than 4 percent ABV. And although it can sell bottled beer from its brewery, Epic can't sell beer on draft. One slight caveat allows breweries to serve samples of beer to patrons as long as they are also buying food. Epic calls it a tapless taproom.

But because of other laws that make it difficult to operate a brewery, he said that further investment in Utah was "unnecessary." Epic will continue to operate its Salt Lake City brewery, however.

Some of the brewery's most famous beers are Brainless on Peaches and Fermentation Without Representation. The company has signed an agreement with Elite Beverage of Colorado to distribute its beer in Denver and the majority of the state. The brewery already distributed some beer through American Eagle in Fort Collins and Loveland.

The new location, a former office showroom owned by Murray Motors, comprises two buildings.

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