The Intrepid Sojourner Beer Project officially changed its name to Next Stop Brew Co. this week as part of a major strategy shift, and the owners will throw a party Saturday to release its first canned beer.
The beer, Bangkok, was previously known as Lemongrass & Ginger Kolsch, and is the first of several upcoming six-pack releases that will all be named for cities around the world. Those include Rome (formerly Basil IPA), Istanbul (formerly Turkish Coffee Stout), and Amsterdam (formerly Chamomile Hefe-Wit).
Intrepid Sojourner regulars will notice other beers from the brewery's lineup now renamed at Next Stop, including Damascus (a winter gose with plums and spices), Paris (Pear Saison), Casablanca (Apricot-&-Date Hefeweizen), Glasgow (80 Shilling Scottish Ale), and Provence (Lavender Tripel); recent releases include Taos (Prickly Pear Pale Ale) and Paonia (Wet-Hop Double IPA). Bottles of Isle of Skye (formerly Strong Scotch Ale) were released on October 1.
The brewery, which opened two years ago at 925 West Eighth Avenue, announced in August that it would change its name and put its equipment and taproom lease up for sale to other interested breweries. Owners Ben Gettinger, Andrew Moore and Nick Fredman want to take the new brand and contract-brew them for canned distribution — not just in Colorado, but far and wide. "This was a project," Gettinger said then about Intrepid Sojourner. "We wanted to test out beers and see what people liked. But our business plan was always to have a packaging brewery and distribute to as many states as possible."
It's a strategy that flies in the face of conventional wisdom right now: Many small and medium-sized breweries are making up for declining sales of canned and bottled beer by opening second or third taprooms.
But Gettinger, Moore and Fredman believe there is still room to sell their canned products. Once they establish distribution in Colorado, they will add Indiana, the home state of all three owners.