Crazy Mountain Brewery Closes Unexpectedly in Edwards

Crazy Mountain Brewery, which opened its pioneering Vail Valley taproom in 2010, closed the Edwards taproom suddenly over the weekend, saying it has plans to open a new location nearby.

"Crazy Mountain's location in Edwards, Colorado is now permanently closed. We are relocating our brewing production and will be opening a new taproom in a new spot in Eagle County, and will be sharing information on the move, timing, etc. as quickly as possible," the brewery said Tuesday on its Facebook page.

Court records filed in Eagle County District Court, however, indicate that Crazy Mountain may have been forced out of its spot, at 439 Edwards Access Road, by its landord, a Florida entity called Jpmcc 2002 Cibc4 Access Road Retail LLC. That entity asked the court for an "Order of Possession," granting it access to the taproom. An Eagle County judge recently granted that request when Crazy Mountain failed to appear in court.

"We have been planning a new location for about eighteen months, and given the size and scope, it's a lengthy process," says Crazy Mountain founder Kevin Selvy. "Our intent was to keep the Edwards facility going until the new one was ready — to have a seamless transition — and we had been negotiating with the landlord to try and do that. But at the end of the day, that didn't work for the folks who own it. They wanted a long-term lease.... It came down to the eleventh hour, so it all happened pretty quickly."

Selvy wasn't ready to reveal the location of the new brewery, but he says it's still in the Vail Valley. "We're not moving our headquarters to Denver or anything like that," he says.

An attorney and a leasing agent representing the landlord didn't respond to requests for comment.

Crazy Mountain still operates its main production facility at 471 Kalamath Street in Denver, and lends its name to two satellite taprooms — both former World of Beer locations — in Lakewood and Glendale. In addition, Crazy Mountain is still moving forward with plans to open a new location in Winter Park later this year.

After opening in 2010 as one of the first Vail Valley breweries to package beer, Crazy Mountain expanded rapidly, bottling and canning many of its selections and distributing into other states. in 2015, the brewery took over the former Denver headquarters of Breckenridge Brewery, along with its equipment. Breckenridge moved to Littleton in 2014 before being acquired by Anheuser Busch InBev.

Since then, Crazy Mountain has struggled to find its niche in town, however. It briefly ran a restaurant inside the brewery, but closed it after a disagreement with the operator. And in addition to its own beers, the brewery has focused on contract-brewing beer for other beer makers that needed more capacity. Selvy told Westword in an interview last summer that, in total, the brewery would produce 43,000 barrels of beer in 2017.

Selvy says the new Vail Valley location will allow Crazy Mountain to grow the retail side of its operation and expand its brewing capacity as well.