"I like keeping it in Colorado," says Renegade co-founder Brian O'Connell, who has ordered a thirty-barrel fermenter and a thirty-barrel carbonating tank from Hellfire. "I like being able to see my tanks in process. It's not China. It's only forty minutes away."
Renegade is the second brewery to hire Hellfire. It's also custom building a kettle and mashtun -- perhaps the first stainless-steel brewing system made in Colorado -- for Hogshead Brewery, which plans to open this summer in Denver.
Hellfire co-owner Brian Melanson told Westword in an earlier interview that he'd love to build his business around breweries only -- and O'Connell says he could see that happening. "Every small brewery you talk to is talking about expanding and adding tanks," he says. "There are enough of us out there now that I would think they could do this full time."
The same is true for Mobile Canning, which was founded in 2011 specifically to provide small brewers with the opportunity to can and sell their beer by bringing its equipment to the brewery. So far, the company has done work for at least four breweries, including Crabtree Brewing in Greeley, Boulder Beer, Bonfire Brewing and Renegade. And the owners are working on signing up several more customers.
Renegade will can its Ryeteous Rye in sixteen-ounce tallboys beginning this June.
