Crazy Mountain Taphouse
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When George Clooney, Rande Gerber, and Mike Meldman launched a non-alcoholic lager called Crazy Mountain Brewery earlier this month, local hopheads were justifiably confused. Crazy Mountain is also the name of a local business that began as Crazy Mountain Brewery in Edwards in 2010. These days, it goes by Crazy Mountain Taproom and operates one location on East Colfax and Ogden, where it has been pouring full-strength craft beer since reopening in 2023. It’s been scraping by during the BRT construction on Colfax, and now, the business finds itself sharing a name with a celebrity beverage venture backed by the guy who sold Casamigos tequila for $1 billion.
But the overlap didn’t come as a surprise to the team at the Crazy Mountain Taproom. “They did reach out to assure us there would be no ‘infringement’ or conflict,'” writes Mark Douglas, president of Crazy Mountain Taproom, in an email to Westword. What followed, he explains, was a collegial back-and-forth between two very differently scaled operations. “Our teams worked together amicably regarding any naming/branding concerns, and we are enthusiastic about their success.”
Douglas is emphatic that there’s no beef or bad blood here. “The only story here,” he notes, “is to confirm that they are a first-class organization that showed absolute respect for our presence before officially launching to the public.”
No lawsuit, no drama — just Hollywood money doing the polite thing for once.
The celebrity-owned Crazy Mountain Brewery is a non-alcoholic lager brew that comes in Original and Lime and has 65 calories per 12-ounce can. Clooney, Gerber, and Meldman know their way around a beverage launch. The trio previously built Casamigos tequila into one of the fastest-growing spirits brands in the country before Diageo acquired it in 2017. Meldman, founder of the Discovery Land Company luxury resort empire, brings the same high-end-lifestyle instinct to the beer aisle. Crazy Mountain is set to roll out across select U.S. markets this year. “We love beer, we just don’t always want the effects that come with it,” Clooney says in a press release about the launch.
Denver’s Crazy Mountain Taproom, meanwhile, serves actual beer. The company has been around for sixteen years and has made some big pivots throughout its run. Since 2023, it’s been pouring on a stretch of Colfax construction that’s hammered traffic to local businesses.
The bottom line: the two brands will coexist. One will be available in select U.S. markets sometime this year. The other is already open, carries N/A beers if you need one, and could use your business as construction woes drag on.
Crazy Mountain Taphouse is located at 1505 North Ogden Street and is open from 2 to 10 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday, noon to 10 p.m. Thursday and Friday, and 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. For more information, visit crazymountaintaproomco.com.
