As many of you know, about 18 months ago we started investigating the possibility of opening a craft beer brewery in Stapleton. We live here and we love the neighborhood, and we love craft beer, so it was a natural progression to see if we could open a brewery. It actually started as a bit of a joke, when visitors to the HGTV Green Home in Stapleton asked us what was going to happen to the old airport control tower (we suggested a brewery)…

…but I digress. It’s time to make a couple of announcements about our business plans!

A couple of weeks ago, I posted a picture of a sign on our Facebook and Twitter pages. It was a sign, with a sharp left turn that then turned again into an arrow pointing forward. I commented that sometimes you need to take a detour to get to your destination. That’s exactly what we’re doing. After all of our research, talking to brewers, looking for brewing equipment, and checking out commercial real estate, we’ve decided against building a brewery in Stapleton. Don’t worry, there’s exciting news coming below, and we’ll explain more about our decision over the next few days.

So, the exciting news is that we ARE opening a new craft beer business in Stapleton!

The Stapleton Tap House

As we looked at opening a brewery in Stapleton, a few things became clear. First, there are a lot of great brewers, micro-brewers, in and around Denver, producing some amazing beers. Second, there’s no good beer bar nearby dedicated to serving these micro-brews. Sure, you can drive around town visiting a couple of tap rooms at a time, but we really wanted to find one place where we could have it all. Don’t get me wrong – there are some really great craft beer bars in Denver, they just don’t focus on locally brewed micro’s. So we decided to take matters into our own hands and open our own place: The Stapleton Tap House.

In talking to lawyers, architects, and most of all brewers, we came up with the description of the Stapleton Tap House as a sort of Colorado micro brewery visitor center. It’s going to be a place where you can come and hang out and try some beers that aren’t available at other restaurants, bars, or liquor stores. We want you to come and explore the Colorado craft beer world, and maybe learn a bit more about the micro breweries popping up throughout the state. We plan on having regular events where you can come in and meet the brewers and learn more about their beers. We will have about 20 beers on tap, with no more than one or two beers per brewery. And while there are a lot of great craft brewers in Colorado, we’re going to focus on the smallest producers. If you can find a beer in your local liquor store, you probably won’t find it at the Stapleton Tap House.

So, where will be located and when will we open? As expected, we will be in Stapleton. We’re finalizing our lease negotiations right now so we can’t give details (yet), but we will post more information as soon as the lawyers are done. As for when we will open, our goal is sometime this June or July, as soon as we have an approved liquor license (which takes 3-4 months). As soon as the lease is done we will be applying for our license.

That’s it for our first announcement. Over the coming days, weeks, and months we will be posting more information about Stapleton Brewing and the Stapleton Tap House on this website, and the Stapleton Brewing Twitter and Facebook pages. We’ve also set up new Twitter and Facebook pages for the Stapleton Tap House, and we’re starting work on our new website. Please follow along!