He couldn’t stay away. Like a suitor scorned, George Hanna is back.
Hanna walked away from the craft beer business 10 years ago when he shut down Oasis Brewery and Restaurant in Boulder. “I kept working,” he said, “but I missed having my own place. I missed having control to make what I knew.”
He’ll be back in the driver’s seat, probably before month’s end, with the opening of Los Oasis Latin Grill and Cerveceria in downtown Boulder. He’s hoping those who loved The Oasis — and many did — will make the connection between the old place and the new space.
He thinks he can succeed where others have failed. The 6,500-square-foot space at 2027 13th St., previously was home to Redfish Brewing and the Boulder Draft House. Hanna inherited the brewery’s 10-barrel system — a high-end model by Liquid Assets, “the Cadillac of brewing,” said Hanna. He also inherited Mike Kasin, who was the brewer for Boulder Draft House and has won several medals for his work.
The pub was still under reconstruction when I visited but Hanna already has his beer-competition awards on display, including four medals Oasis took home at the 1999 Great American Beer Festival.
He’s added a new twist to his love of brewing — the new Oasis will do mostly Mexican-style lagers, a concept popularized by Del Norte Brewing in Denver. He’s already got one in mind: Cabo Gold, which, he was quick to point, has nothing to do with anything medicinal. “We’ll do a beefed-up Corona and another based on Dos Equis and Modelo.” He’ll also be distilling his own tequila, which, thanks to Mexican law can be called “tequila” only if it’s produced in the state of Jalisco. Instead, he’s using the generic “blue agave,” the plant from which tequila is made. If you want to order “a tequila,” that’s OK with him.
On the food side, Hanna promised an “upscale” (a word he dislikes) menu featuring recipes from southern Mexico, “not,” he hastened to add, “burritos and tacos.”
For a time, the previous Oasis was enormously successful, the second largest brewpub in the country in 1995. But Hanna got in over his head — he was running the restaurant, opened a separate brewery to supply what he saw as a never-ending growth of the industry and spent too much of his time on the road, peddling his beers. That, combined with a downturn in the craft beer economy, led him to shut it down in 2001. “We were doing well, up to a point. It ran its course,” he said with a philosophical tone.
In the 10 years since he left the business, he said, the public’s tastes in beer have gotten more sophisticated. “Americans have really jumped on the bandwagon.”
He’ll get back into micros in another way too. He plans to enter at least one of his beers in the Great American Beer Festival this fall.
Beer notes.
Great Divide Brewing, 2201 Arapahoe St., celebrates its 17th year in the biz with a block party at the brewery from 2 to 6 p.m. on Saturday (June 11). There will be food carts, music from four bands (including beer evangelist Marty Jones) and, of course, beer. Looking back on 17 years, owner Brian Dunn said, “There’s more competition but there’s also a lot more awareness. People know what we’re talking about when we talk about different styles.” Tickets ($25) at the door. … New Belgium’s Tour de Fat expands to 13 cities this summer, with a stop at City Park in Denver on Sept. 10. As part of the fun, the Fort Collins brewer is offering a car-for-bike swap. One person who gives up their car for a year will get a free bicycle. Enter at the website . … Odell Brewing last Sunday debuted its Woodcut No. 5, a Belgian Quadruple, at the brewery in Fort Collins. … New and worth a try: Twilight Ale, a summer seasonal from Deschutes Brewery in Oregon. Lots of hops but still very drinkable. Available until September. … Quotable: “A bar is better than a newspaper for public discussion.” — Jim Parker.
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.
