Dry Dock Brewery couldn’t be more landlocked. But, perched on the edge of a sea of shopping-mall asphalt at South Chambers Road and East Hampden Avenue, the small microbrewer has had clear sailing so far.
From the outside, Dry Dock looks like any other suburban glass-and-steel small business. Inside, it’s a different story. A cozy bar with a few stools faces a chalkboard that lists and explains 10 beers made in-house. Behind a glass wall is the brewery’s small production facility. The company’s original business, The Brew Hut, a supply house for home brewers, occupies one end of the building. Local home brewers flock to the bar to taste new and frequently changing offerings.
Owner/head brewer Kevin DeLange founded Dry Dock in 2005 in an 850-square- foot space as a supplement to his supply store. “I was already working for myself, so I scrounged up equipment to start my own brewery. The two businesses mesh well together.”
Thanks to DeLange’s award-winning beers, Dry Dock has enjoyed success and, with it, growth. “It was crazy we were so busy,” Derange said of the brewery’s tiny beginnings. “We went from 450 barrels a year to our current 1,100 barrels, and we can increase to 1,700 barrels with our current equipment.” That’s small, even by microbrewery standards, but that doesn’t concern DeLange. “We’re the only brewer in Aurora. It’s a big town.” He’s got plans to begin bottling before long.
DeLange, 35, whose beers have won golds at the Colorado State Fair, a gold and a bronze medal at last year’s World Beer Cup and a silver at the 2008 Great American Beer Festival, emphasizes that Dry Dock is a brewery, not a brewpub, because if it were a pub he would have to serve food, as well as beers. Much of his beer goes out the door in “growlers,” gallon containers.
Meantime, he’s hired a new brewer, Bill Eye, formerly of CB & Potts, so he can devote more time to marketing his beers to area bars and restaurants. So far, they are available in Old Chicago outlets in Aurora and at Falling Rock Tap House in LoDo. He’d like to get 20 or more off-premise accounts.
Dry Dock Brewery, 15110 E. Hampden Ave., is open from 2 to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday, noon to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday and noon to 9 p.m. Sunday. The brewery moved into larger quarters June 21 and expanded its hours.
Back in town
Eric Warner, former president and CEO of Flying Dog Brewery in Denver, is back in the beer business as a pub owner.
Warner, who left Flying Dog when it moved its brewing operation to Frederick, Md., in 2008, opened the Barking Goat Tavern in Castle Pines in March, featuring 20 beers on tap and an upscale menu.
“It’s a good neighborhood pub,” Warner said. “(People) are glad there’s a place they can come to” in the area.
Flying Dog and Warner parted friends, he said, even though the consolidation with the Maryland facility cost him his job. “Everything’s cool. I was getting sick of all that traveling. I haven’t been on an airplane since January. It was a quality-of-life issue. Plus, on this side of the business, you can make a little money.”
Warner’s also working on a taproom project with Stranahan’s Colorado Whiskey, housed in the old Flying Dog brewery at 24th and Blake streets. “We may try to brew there,” he said, using equipment formerly owned by the defunct Heavenly Daze Brewery.
The Barking Goat is in Castle Pines Plaza, Exit 188 off Interstate 25.
Beer Notes
It may be a little early to write the history of the microbrew industry but David Alexander Bjorkman takes a crack at it in “Mircrobrewers 1981-1996: A Photo History.” Bjorkman toured Colorado in 1981 and captured on film many of the local brewing pioneers, including Al Nelson, Otto Zavatone and Charlie Papazian. Preview it at . . . . Michelob, the small-batch arm of brewing giant Anheuser-Busch, bagged four medals at the North American Beer Awards in June, including golds for its Original Lager and Dunkel Weisse. . . . Quotable: “I often sit back and think, ‘I wish I’d done that,’ and find out that I already had.” — Richard Harris.
Dick Kreck’s e-mail: rakreck@yahoo.com. Send mail to him c/o The Denver Post, 101 W. Colfax Ave., Suite 600, Denver, CO 80202.
