Another Denver Brewery Will Close Its Doors This Weekend

On the heels of the loss of Call to Arms and Dry Dock’s original Aurora location, another local brewery is shutting down on Sunday, February 1.

Kelissa Hieber, who took over Goldspot Brewing Company as owner in 2021, found out a week before Christmas that the building her business is in was being sold, and that she’d have to move out. “You can’t really get a hold of people at that time,” Hieber recalls. “I was like, what do I do?”

Goldspot, the neighborhood bar that’s been open since 2015 at 4970 Lowell Boulevard, will be sorely missed. It’s a place where you’re just as likely to see a group of LARPers hanging out post-game as you are to see a drag comedy show. It’s a place where folks can cozy up in an intimate seat in the corner, or come with a large group and sit at the long communal table. It’s a place where you’d find customers reading books alone at the bar, as well as industry folks meeting for after-work beers.

“I love this neighborhood, but it hasn’t grown,” says Hieber. “The only new business in a five-block radius here is my taco truck,” she says, referencing Perifery Kitchen, an elevated, local cuisine-focused food truck run by chef Jared Kendall. He’s not only closing up the food truck, but he’s also going to say farewell to his regular Thistle & Mint beer dinners with a final five-course extravaganza at River North Brewery on February 22 – coinciding with River North’s 14th anniversary. 

“And the landlord stuff is one thing, but Denver County is just making it impossible for breweries to survive in every single way,” Hieber says. “This is not the Denver that I moved into, as an individual and as a business.” Hieber cites several issues that have turned her off to the city and county. These include the lack of support for small businesses, the gap between front and back of house wages compared to other metropolitan cities and a lack of communication in general. “I know my next brewery won’t be in Denver County,” she says.

The closing is sad for many, but it may have been a godsend for Hieber, at least in some ways. Water pipe replacement along Lowell Boulevard will begin next month, and the street may be torn up for some time. Meanwhile, Goldspot hasn’t had the best last couple of years financially.  “We’ve done everything we could to make it sustainable,” she says. “We were profitable for several years, but seeing the decline over the last couple of years has been really demoralizing. I’m thinking, where do I go?”

Luckily, Tiffany Fixter from Brewability reached out to Hieber, and friend and former classmate, Laura Bruns, previously of Factotum Brewhouse, suggested the two partner up. “Laura said that Brewability has been closed on Sundays and Mondays, and that I should do a pop-up there,” Hieber says.

The partnership with Brewability, which employs adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities to brew and serve beer, was a natural decision. “What Brewability stands for has always been amazing, and there’s an opportunity for us to help each other. That’s what got me into craft beer in the first place,” Hieber notes.

The entire ordeal has given her renewed motivation. So has the support from local beer bars. “It’s not like any of them are flush this time of year, but people reaching out and telling me they can have a guaranteed [tap] line for me in February, it made me feel really good,” she says.

Hieber needs some time to regroup before deciding on what is next permanently. She still has dreams of opening a mountain brewery. “I have to refocus and see what opportunities are there,” she says.

In the meantime, Goldspot will be open through this weekend, with its last day on Sunday, February 1. Look for Goldspot pop-ups to start at Brewability on Sunday, February 8, and run Sundays from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Mondays from 3 to 9 p.m.

Goldspot won’t be the same at Brewability — that would be impossible. With any luck, however, it might be just as special.