A new brewery is sprouting in RiNo.
Jacob Sabo is opening the first brick-and mortar site of his own, called Flower Shop Beer Werks, at 3501 Delgany St. in Denver. He’ll fill the 900 square feet that used to belong to Mockery Brewing, which closed in 2023, and Shambles Tavern, which closed at the end of last year.
“Keeping true to the name, what we’re planning on doing is hanging gardens, having a lot of plants and focusing on approachable but unique and affordable,” Sabo said. “The goal is to keep beers in the $5 to $6 range per pint, and we’re looking at $3 to $4 shots and $5 wine pours.”
Sabo’s taps will serve his “flagships” like a Nordic ale, lavender cream ale and porter alongside more experimental brews. Those include a strawberry habanero hazy and a cedar wood-infused IPA. He’ll also have hop waters and seltzers along with ciders and nonalcoholic offerings.
Food on-site will be prepared by Heritage Flame Barbecue, which is run by the Hispanic Restaurant Association.
Sabo said Flower Shop will open in the coming months, and it will be just him and his wife, Ava Olmstead, running things to start.
He’ll be using Mockery’s old brewing equipment, which sat dormant under Shambles before being auctioned off after the latter filed for bankruptcy. He bought the tanks for $15,000, he said, and plans on brewing a minimum of 2,000 barrels a year. He expects half of that to be contract brewing, he said.
His biggest client to start will be the Hispanic Restaurant Association. He will make a Mexican and American lager for the group under the label Vertigo Beer USA. He expects clients to be upstarts rather than more established companies, keeping up the spirit of a commissary group he co-founded last year with Goldspot Brewing’s Kelissa Hieber and fellow beer maker Lex Laughman.
“Itap a double whammy win-win with a revolving door of new brands coming in,” he said. “My rentap covered and I hope that the only reason we wouldn’t be producing for someone is they outgrew us.”
About 75% of Flower Shop’s beer production will go out the doors through distribution, Sabo said. He doesn’t want to be at the whim of taproom sales, which have slumped over the past two years and caused over 100 breweries in the state to close during that time.
“I’m more than happy to get beer where drinkers are rather than them come to me,” Sabo said. “But at the same time, we’ll have the carpet rolled out for the people that come in the taproom.”
Sabo got his start in the brewing industry “as soon as I turned 21,” he said. He’s worked for Epic Brewing, Golden’s Holidaily, former Littleton outfit Jackass Hill and Denver contract brewer Sleeping Giant. He founded Flower Works last year as part of the Cheetah Coalition, a commissary formed at the since-closed Goldspot Brewing.
Sabo helped start the group to reduce barriers to entry in an increasingly competitive brewery scene. Sales exploded at first, he said, but it was tough to keep up with demand with a small setup at the Regis brewery. Once that closed in January, the coalition was on pause, he said. Hieber is still making Goldspot at Brewability and Pizzability in Englewood, but Laughman’s brand Neon Buzz is on hiatus.
Sabo said he hopes to keep that incubator spirit alive with his new RiNo location, though. He wants to make that more of a chill space for people to come in and relax than have consistent, louder events like trivia night. Having other bars like Number 38 in the area gives Sabo somewhere to “pass the baton” for the more raucous nightlife crowd.
“Itap just the greenhouse you can grab a beer in,” he said of Flower Shop. “This isn’t us trying to get rich and take over the world or become the next big brand. I’m just doing it for the love of the game.”
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