On Tuesday, the trade group unveiled the based on production volume, and Tivoli Brewing Co. cracked the list at No. 18. That means the company is now the second largest craft beer producer in Colorado, behind only Monster Brewing — parent to Oskar Blues and other out-of-state brands — which landed at No. 9. Fort Collins-based Odell Brewing Co. was the only other Colorado operation on the list at No. 32.

When accounting for all U.S. beer makers, including non-craft giants like Anheuser-Busch InBev and Molson Coors, Tivoli Brewing Co. ranked as the No. 28 producer by volume in the nation. CEO Ari Opsahl said the brewery’s growth has been fueled by its newest brand, , which seeks to be a craft alternative in the macro lager aisle.

Tivoli’s rise comes amid a challenging climate for craft beer. Production volume declined 5.1% across the country in 2025, the Brewers Association said, with only 39% of craft beer makers reporting annual growth. Craft beer’s retail dollar value also decreased 3.6% year-over-year to a total of $27.8 billion, and brewery closings (481) outpaced brewery openings (300), the report said.

One bright spot: “Breweries with strong brand identity and clear market positioning continued to outperform, with brands like Garage Beer and Outlaw (by Tivoli Brewing Company) among notable gainers,” the Brewers Association said. (Ohio-based Garage Beer is .)

Launched in 2022, Outlaw Light is a no-frills lager (4.2% ABV) that the brewery conceived to compete with macro brands like Bud Light and Coors Light. Opsahl tells The Denver Post that, in the first few years, retailers and distributors were skeptical of his intention to take market share from beer giants like AB InBev and Molson Coors. However, he saw domestic light lagers as the category ripe for the most growth amid a slump in craft beer sales post-COVID.

Tivoli’s strategy appears to have paid off. Outlaw Light now accounts for 95% of the brewery’s production volume and sales, Opsahl said. He estimates Tivoli produced between 90,000 and 100,000 barrels of beer in 2025, up from between 40,000 and 50,000 barrels a year prior. (The Brewers Association will publish the exact production output figures next month.) It’s now available at liquor and grocery stores in 49 states, as well as Walmart and Costco.

Opsahl, who formerly worked in sales and marketing roles at AB InBev, said the beer’s success shows that there’s still room for growth in the beer industry — just not where most producers are looking.

“There’s a new RTD drink every week, and there’s a new craft brewery seasonal release every week. When was the last time you heard of a new light beer, at scale?” he said. “It’s certainly disruption from a price perspective, and we’re also having the benefit of being something interesting in an extremely stale and stagnated space for the consumer.”

Tivoli has also strategically aimed to reach the domestic-drinking crowd by working with country musicians like Hardy and Koe Wetzel, who both invested in Outlaw Light, as well as brand ambassadors like NASCAR driver Jeffrey Earnhardt and podcaster Pat Spinosa.

As distribution has grown throughout the U.S., feedback has shaped the brand. The beer used to be called Outlaw Mile Hi Light Beer, but Tivoli dropped the “Mile Hi” around the beginning of 2025 because consumers outside of Colorado thought the beverage contained THC, the intoxicating cannabinoid in marijuana, Opsahl said.

“In Colorado, it����ap clear to the consumer. If you walk into a dispensary, you’re buying THC, and if you walk into a liquor store, you’re buying alcohol,” he said. “Go to Total Wine in Minneapolis, they sell Delta-9 (THC), they sell beer, they sell wine, they sell spirits, non-alc.”

Outlaw Light����ap explosion marks an interesting new chapter for the brewery, which is named for one of the state’s oldest and most storied beer makers. The original Tivoli was founded in 1900, though its roots on what is now Denver’s Auraria Campus dated back to 1859. The company went out of business in 1969, but was revived in 2015 at the Auraria college campus by a former Coors executive named Corey Marshall, whose goal was to honor Denver’s beer history while also tapping into the craft beer boom. (Marshall is no longer with the company.) The facility also served as a teaching facility for students at Metropolitan State University of Denver.

Opsahl took over the CEO role in 2021 following a series of leadership changes. In 2023, Tivoli moved operations to a production facility in the southeastern Colorado town of La Junta before closing the Tivoli Tap House in Denver last year. Its name is also still on a bar at Denver International Airport, although Tivoli is no longer associated with it.

Tivoli will continue making its portfolio of craft beers in Colorado, like Helles Lager and Bo Girl Pilsner,, which pay homage to the brewery’s rich heritage, Opsahl said. However, they are not a major focus for the business. Instead, Tivoli plans to invest in new products, like Outlaw Light Tea — yes, beer with iced tea in it — which is expected to hit store shelves in May.

Despite market headwinds, Opsahl expects to double production in the next year.

“When we launched Outlaw Light, I said, ‘Hey, I think this could be the next  No. 1 beer in America.’ That����ap where you get people looking at you like you’re a little crazy. But at the same time, I truly believe that it����ap possible,” he said.

More than 40 breweries closed statewide this year, according to the . That number is somewhat deceiving, however, since it accounts for some businesses that closed multiple locations as well as others that remain open, but discontinued brewing beer. Muddying the data further are brands that closed their brick-and-mortar taprooms but still have beer available at bars and retail stores.

In fact, many of the year’s most notable closures are companies that haven’t disappeared entirely, but transformed in ways that left the local beer community with a sense of mourning.

On the Front Range, that list of casualties includes Great Divide Brewing Co., which closed its two stalwart locations in the Mile High City; Denver’s TRVE Brewing Co., which is now a hot chicken restaurant; and Dry Dock Brewing Co. in Aurora, which will change hands in January after 20 years.

In all three cases, you can still find the companies’ beer for sale and yet somehow, it still feels like something was lost.

Shawnee Adelson, executive director of the Colorado Brewers Guild, doesn’t expect the industry to trend away from brick-and-mortar spaces, but acknowledged the cost of running a brewery has increased substantially since the dawn of the modern craft beer boom in the 2010s. That����ap why she expects that businesses will continue to evolve, whether through partnerships or by expanding their offerings to include wine, non-alcoholic drinks and food.

In short, Adelson attributed much of the activity this year to the maturation of the beer market – and turnover is to be expected as part of that.

In the future, she explained, “it����ap going to look a lot more like the restaurant industry… Everybody’s thinking the sky is falling, and I would say the sky just looks different right now. You know, we were in a heyday, and I think that it����ap slowing and maturing. We should keep in mind we still have more breweries than we did 10 years ago.”

Despite the closings and consolidations, local experts insist it����ap not all doom and gloom. Blogger Stephen Adams, known as the , counts two dozen new breweries that opened in 2025. Plus, the industry is still growing on the Western Slope. In Grand Junction, for example, there are now eight breweries, about double the number five years ago, Adelson said.

One potential silver lining on the economic side: Beer makers that shutter often leave behind already-built facilities for someone to potentially jump behind the brew kettle, Adelson added.

“Trenching floor drains is costly, and if the floor drains are already there, that makes it a lot easier. Glycol systems are expensive to install — and unique to breweries. So there are a lot of things that are unique that if it����ap already in place it does help a lot,” she said.

Still, this year’s changes are likely to reshape the local craft beer scene in a big way, as many of the recent closures include longtime breweries that spent a decade-plus serving drinkers and helping fuel the nationwide movement for better beer.

Here are some of the industry shakeups that defined 2025.

Great Divide Brewing Co. sells

Opened in 1994, Great Divide is one of the state’s pioneering craft breweries that recently underwent massive change. In April, craft conglomerate Wilding Brands acquired the brewery. Then this summer, founder Brian Dunn closed its two locations in Denver, notable because of how many people in the beer industry got their start there. Wilding eventually rebranded a taproom in the River North Art District with the Great Divide name, so Denverites can still belly up without traveling to the suburbs. Great Divide-branded beers are now brewed at Wilding’s Denver production facility.

Blue Moon shutters local brewpub

Given Molson Coors’ exit from the craft beer space in 2024, it is perhaps unsurprising that the beverage giant would forgo having a consumer-facing taproom that makes smaller batches of beer. In March, the company closed the Blue Moon Brewing Co. taproom in RiNo after nine years. The beer itself, which is brewed at Coors facilities around the country lives on, however — as does the Sandlot brewery inside of Coors Field, which is where Blue Moon was first produced.

TRVE Brewing Co. closes… or does it?

Heavy metal fans were left with heavy hearts when Denver’s TRVE Brewing Co. announced its closure in July after 13 years, taking a chunk out of Denver’s beer culture. The news came after the brewery had already shut down in-house beer production in 2024 and began contract brewing its beloved sour beers and lagers at New Image Brewing in Wheat Ridge. Its space on Broadway is now being run by Music City Hot Chicken, which opened a food counter inside the brewery in 2021. But TRVE isn’t entirely dead: New Image continues to brew some of its beers for distribution to Music City Hot Chicken and some other accounts.

Dry Dock Brewing Co. leaving Aurora

Dry Dock Brewing Co. is another one of Colorado’s legacy brewers to experience significant changes this year. In April, it merged with Left Hand Brewing Co. in hopes of growing the brand while sharing the cost of production. Part of that plan involves closing its taproom in Aurora, which has been open for 20 years. The spot, which is attached to a home brewing store, was another rite of passage of many in the local brewing community. It����ap expected to close Jan. 10 after a goodbye party on Jan. 3. A new brewery is slated to take its place.

Call to Arms Brewing Co. says farewell

Denver favorite Call to Arms Brewing Co. closed on Dec. 23 after a decade in business. Part of what makes this one so heartbreaking is that the owner said the brewery simply couldn’t survive in a post-COVID economy, despite a loyal following and great beer.

Sanitas Brewing Co. pours its final pints

After 12 years and multiple expansions, Sanitas Brewing Co. poured its final pints in December. Its announcement in November cited “rising costs and lower sales of craft beer” as reasons for closing the brewery’s three locations Boulder, Englewood and Lafayette.

Small breweries call it quits

Of course, it wasn’t just the biggest or oldest breweries that folded this year. Many small operations that were hubs of their neighborhoods also shuttered with significant impact. Pour one out for places like Banded Oak Brewing Co., Burns Family Artisan Ales and Raices Brewing Co. in Denver, Over Yonder Brewing Co. in Golden, Halfpenny Brewing Co. in Centennial, and Incantation Brewing, which had two locations in Aurora and Denver.

Goldspot Brewing announced that it will leave its longtime home near Denver’s Regis University on Feb. 1 because its building is being sold. The owner is hoping to find a new location.

And Trinity Brewing, a pioneer of the sour beer scene and a longtime fixture in Colorado Springs, also ended its 17-year run in 2025; it will be replaced by an existing brewery.

Fare collections stop at 7 p.m. Dec. 31 and resume at 7 a.m. Jan. 1 on all RTD routes, including Access-a-Ride and FlexRide services.

Trains and buses will operate on their usual Wednesday night hours on New Year’s Eve, meaning the final train will leave Union Station between 12:48 a.m. and 1:26 a.m., depending on the line. Final bus departure times range from 12:14 a.m. to 1:10 a.m.

The routes will run on a reduced schedule on New Year’s Day.

The 16th Street shuttle will operate, with pauses during fireworks shows at 9 p.m. and midnight. The special holiday train from Interstate 25 and Broadway to downtown will only go as far as the convention center because of the fireworks, according to RTD.

Molson Coors is sponsoring the free rides, as usual. It has offered about 10 million free rides since 1988, and is partnering with transit authorities in seven cities, including Denver, this year.

Fast-forward a decade, however, and the scene is much different. Gone are the days when people would line up in advance for a special beer release, and tickets to the Great American Beer Festival would sell out within hours. Gone are the days when selling $7 pints could cover a brewery’s overhead. And with than the generations that came before it, according to industry pros, a new cohort of would-be customers is now tougher to come by.

In 2024, – a first in nearly two decades. and in Colorado, where at least 31 breweries have shuttered in 2025 alone, according to the Colorado Brewers Guild.

But Berger, Foster, and Lincoln don’t see these challenges as insurmountable. Instead, they believe this new era calls for a new way of thinking and, importantly, a new business model.

In January 2025, the three longtime friends combined their respective operations under one entity, called Wilding Brands, with the ultimate goal of keeping the spirit of independent craft breweries alive. Joining forces felt like a natural step, they said, as each company sought to adapt in the current market. They have since purchased three other major Colorado breweries, the most recent of which, Boulder’s Upslope Brewing Co., was the largest.

“We’re looking forward at the industry and how we can best continue to innovate and continue to grow and continue to produce in a profitable manner going forward,” said Foster, who serves as Wilding’s CEO.

“We realized that we could do some stuff together that we probably could not do individually,” said Berger, the company’s chief development officer.

While most of the country’s 9,000-plus breweries operate independently, partnerships are becoming more common as businesses seek to share costs on materials and real estate, maximize their production capacity, and strengthen their distribution channels, said Matt Gacioch, staff economist at the Boulder-based Brewers Association.

“Especially now, a lot of breweries that started in the mid-2010s are at this point and, over the past five years, have been at the point of lease renewal. So they’re seeing their costs associated with the properties going up substantially,” he said. “On the materials side, a lot of that has been going up while the overall economy has seen significant inflation. Certainly, brewers haven’t been immune to that.”

Options for every kind of drinker

As one of the leaders in the craft beer movement, Colorado’s scene has seen perhaps more than its fair share of collaborations in recent years.

For example, 4 Noses Brewing Co. in Broomfield was contract-brewing for hazy IPA pioneer Odd13 before buying the company in 2021. In 2023, Westbound & Down Brewing Co., which started in Idaho Springs, expanded its footprint further into the mountains by purchasing two taprooms in Aspen and Basalt. And last April, legacy beer makers Left Hand Brewing Co. in Longmont and Dry Dock Brewing Co. in Aurora merged to become a single company and pool resources.

What makes unique, however, is the rate and scope of its growth strategy, which aims to reach consumers with a wide variety of products and places to drink. In its first year, the company merged its three founding brands, made several high-profile acquisitions, and built a new brewery in Arizona from the ground up.

The company started with Denver Beer Co.’s lineup of easy-drinking American beer styles, Funkwerks’ niche in Belgian-style beers and Stem’s ciders, which appeal to gluten-free and non-beer drinkers. Add in Howdy Beer, a pilsner that Stem Ciders purchased in 2022, and Wilding had a little something to offer everyone.

“The initial platform came together really quickly just because of synergies that exist kind of on the back end and production side, but also because the brands stand alone and differentiate themselves well,” Foster said.

As Wilding set out to expand, it looked for beverages and brands to further fill the gaps in its portfolio. The company shocked Denver beer drinkers when it purchased both craft stalwart Great Divide Brewing Co. in April and local staple Station 26 Brewing Co. in June. Then, in November, it scooped up Boulder-based Upslope Brewing Co., one of Colorado’s largest independent beer makers and most successful retail brands.

Beer production for all three breweries now takes place at Wilding’s so-called “Canworks” facility in the Sunnyside neighborhood, which started as a Denver Beer Co. brewery in 2014. That����ap also where the company brews Funkwerks’ recipes and packages brands Howdy Beer, ¡Venga! and Easy Living Hop Water. Two of Denver Beer Co.’s taprooms still make small batches and specialty recipes onsite, but Wilding didn’t purchase Great Divide’s two Denver taprooms (which are now closed), however, or Upslope’s two Boulder locations (which will remain open). So, those locations no longer brew beer. Station 26 no longer brews its own beer either.

But Wilding did keep Station 26’s taproom with plans to maintain the vibe that has drawn a passionate well of drinkers to the Park Hill watering hole for 12 years, said Corey Dickinson, vice president of marketing. “They have a fantastic, loyal following and so it gives us an ability to continue to engage with that part of town even at local level.”

Going forward, however, Wilding has signaled it won’t rely strictly on traditional brewery and tasting room models. In November, Funkwerks closed its taproom after 15 years in Fort Collins. And , a subsidiary of Denver Beer Co., has been reduced to a single packaged brand, ¡Venga! Mexican lager. Meanwhile, its taproom in Denver has been reimagined as a pop-up space called , which opens solely for special events.

As for Great Divide, it boasts four full-service restaurants in Denver’s River North Arts District, Lakewood, Castle Rock and Lone Tree where the bars serve staple beers like Yeti imperial stout, as well as Stem Ciders, Funkwerks beers, cocktails and wine. Those spots — which are owned and operated by a company called Vibe Concepts, which licenses the branding — serve as opportunities to showcase Wilding’s broader selection of beverages while simultaneously creating a different kind of hospitality experience, Foster said.

“We don’t really want to make every taproom a Wilding Brands taproom. That just doesn’t make sense with how these brands have served the community over the years,” he said. For example, it����ap unlikely that Denver Beer Co.’s five brick-and-mortar locations in the Mile High City, Littleton and Arvada would ever sell Great Divide beer.

“But we do look for opportunities where we can cross and where we can represent multiple brands in one location,” Foster added.

That����ap true at Wilding’s two restaurants in Lafayette, and . Acreage, which is also the cider production facility, opened in 2018 with a massive patio and mountain views that encourage guests to stay, dine and drink awhile. Ghost Box Pizza, a concept born out of the pandemic, specializes in Detroit-style pies and has a more modest footprint that includes a dining room and arcade. Both feature a robust selection of Wilding products to drink – a model the company expects to replicate going forward.

“Beer bars-slash-restaurants that focus on all of the portfolio – we like that,” Foster said.

Beyond Colorado, Wilding moved to grow its regional presence with an original concept in Phoenix called . The brewery, opened in September, brews beer onsite to pair with burgers, sandwiches and other pub fare. The bar menu also goes beyond house-made beers to include – you guessed it – Stem Ciders, Howdy Beer and Easy Living Hop Water.

“By really focusing and investing behind these brands, we can create something that hasn’t existed before in the craft bev marketplace,” Berger said. “It’s cool solutions for our accounts. It����ap opportunities for employees. And we think we can do a lot with what we have, right now.”

One such opportunity came by way of Planet Bluegrass, the Lyons-based production company that throws the Telluride Bluegrass Festival, RockyGrass Festival and Rocky Mountain Folks Festival, among other events. Vice President Zach Tucker said Planet Bluegrass previously worked with Stem as a beverage provider and enlisted Wilding to stock the bars with beer, cider, seltzer and more at its 2025 and 2026 events.

“They cover most of our drink offerings with beer/seltzer/cider/NA,” Tucker said by email. “Our festivarians were very receptive to all their offerings, including their non-alcoholic options this year. We are excited to work with them again as they are great teammates in putting the events together, our companies align in our sustainability efforts, we love that they are local to Colorado, and we both believe in the value of bringing people together around shared experiences.”

This kind of partnership would be difficult to pull off for just one brewery, Dickinson said. “But by coming together, we have access to not only more resources but we have a better opportunity to provide a better experience at an event like that – where we can say, ‘here’s a selection of amazing products coming from one place’ but (it) gives the consumer better choice.”

Unsurprisingly, the Wilding team plans to introduce new products to meet evolving consumer tastes. Stem recently released its first non-alcoholic cider in hopes of catching Dry January buzz.

Are craft conglomerates different?

With its recent flurry of deals, Wilding has brought mergers and acquisitions back into the beer industry spotlight. A decade ago, it was commonplace to hear about conglomerates like Anheuser Busch-InBev and Molson Coors purchasing craft breweries to tap into market share, but as consumer tastes have changed, some of those companies are reversing course.

Just last year, Molson Coors sold its craft portfolio and discontinued its experimental arm, AC Golden Brewing Co., effectively exiting the craft market to invest in more lucrative endeavors. AB InBev, meanwhile, unloaded Breckenridge Brewery and other formerly independent beer makers that it had purchased.

Foster maintains that Wilding Brands is inherently different from players in the previous era of M&A. “We really are a founder-led craft beer platform,” he said — one that has quietly become one of the Centennial State’s largest alcoholic beverage producers.

Lincoln said its current annual output exceeds 80,000 barrels, making Wilding now Colorado’s third-largest craft brewer, behind only Odell Brewing Co. and Monster Brewing Co., according to the Brewers Association — and that’s before you add in the 10,000 barrels of cider and 3,000 barrels of other beverages like hard tea and lemonade it is on track to make in 2025.

“As you look at what craft was versus what craft is today, it����ap a completely different environment with completely different scales of budgets and available capital to do some of these things,” Foster said. “So clearly as we come together and form a larger entity, we’re stronger in that regard. We have a better balance sheet, we have bigger budgets to do some of these things and better compete with the now-macro-back-to-craft companies out there.”

Gacioch at the Brewers Association, too, thinks these types of partnerships will bolster the industry because the craft ethos remains core to the business. The teams selling the beer understand the market and vernacular, for one, and aren’t also promoting the country’s most popular light lagers, he said.

“These are reasons to think this kind of consolidation we’re seeing recently is going to raise all boats, whereas the M&A that we saw maybe 10 years ago was more of ‘purchase this, see how it goes and stick with it or divest.’ It wasn’t central to the success of the acquiring business itself,” Gacioch said.

With all that transpired over the last year, Wilding Brands is taking time to integrate the companies and teams that it brought together, Berger said. The company employs more than 400 people who used to be competitors and now need to leverage their experience toward a common vision.

But one thing is for sure, Wilding isn’t done yet. “The phone is ringing,” Berger said.

Updated at 11:15 a.m. on Dec. 17, 2025 to include year-end total barrels of cider and other beverages. 

The company, which relocated its corporate headquarters from Denver to Chicago in 2019, continues to employ close to 1,500 workers at its Golden factory, which remains the nation’s largest single-site brewery. Its ties to the state started in 1872, when German immigrant Adolph Coors moved to Colorado from Illinois.

“Rahul has strong institutional knowledge given his time with the company and more importantly, he is eager to bring new thinking with a focus on future growth. The entire Board is confident that Rahul’s leadership will drive long-term results for Molson Coors,” Chairman David Coors said in a statement.

Goyal, who started at Coors Brewing 24 years ago and lists the Denver Broncos as his favorite football team, has worked as chief information officer for Molson Coors UK and chief financial officer for Molson Coors India. Recently, he has headed up efforts to boost the sales of non-alcoholic and non-beer beverages at the company.

He spearheaded the company’s “Beyond Beer” initiatives that included partnerships with Fever Tree, ZOA Energy, Naked Life Non-Alcoholic Canned Cocktails. He also led an initiative with The Coca-Cola Company to produce and distribute a seltzer line of Topo Chico.

Goyal will take over as CEO effective Oct. 1. Hattersley, who rose through the ranks of SAB and Miller Brewing, announced his plans to retire in April and will stay on as an advisor through the end of the year.

“I’m ready to take on both the opportunities and the challenges ahead of us, knowing that we have the brands, the people, and the passion to deliver on our ambitions,” Goyal said in the release. “I recognize that we have a lot of work to do, and in the coming months, I will share more on my vision for how we will drive growth and carry the legacy of this great company forward to reach new heights.”

Research analysts at Needham & Co., an asset manager and boutique investment bank, called Goyal a “safe hiring decision” who should provide a younger perspective and approach.

But they don’t expect the appointment to drive the company’s stock price higher until Goyal provides investors with more clarity on his “beyond beer” approach and a sense of how aggressively he would shift the company away from premium light beers.

A reported drinking alcohol, the lowest share since polling on that topic started in 1939. A majority of Americans now consider even moderate alcohol consumption bad for one’s health. Younger adults are more likely to state that they don’t drink.

Shares of Molson Coors, which trades under the ticker TAP, were around $47 when the company left Denver for Chicago. They closed at $45.09 on Monday. Although the company hasn’t seen its stock price appreciate, it has paid out a consistent dividend and offered a better return than many of its peers in a difficult environment.

What Lafayette-based Westbound & Down Brewing is doing with its crowdfunding campaign, though, is something different — and it will cost supporters a lot more.

In April, Westbound & Down began seeking investments through a type of public offering called “.” The brewery wants to raise up to $1.24 million to increase beer production fourfold, expand its distribution footprint, and eventually open new brewpubs, including one in Denver. For a minimum of $735.75, anyone can buy shares in the 10-year-old company — at $2.25 each — and support its future plans.

The public offering, , comes at a time when the craft beer industry is struggling. compared to the year prior, trade group the Brewers Association recently reported. Additionally, last year was the first time in two decades that the number of brewery closings outpaced openings nationwide.

The economic headwinds have inspired major ownership consolidations in the craft beer sector.  Molson Coors, for instance, offloaded its craft portfolio and shut down its in-house craft incubator, while AB InBev, the maker of Budweiser, sold large pieces of the breweries it had acquired over the past 10 years. In addition, independent beer makers have joined forces, including Left Hand Brewing in Longmont, which merged in April with Dry Dock Brewing; and Denver Beer Co. and Great Divide Brewing, which have been rolled up into a single entity.

However, Westbound & Down CEO Jake Gardner said his brewery is different — it’s on the upswing, so much so that production isn’t keeping up with locals’ thirst for its beer.

“Every time we’ve added more equipment, we’ve been sold out of beer,” said Gardner, who is also the co-founder and head brewer. “We’ve added a considerable amount of equipment recently and we’re still sold out of beer. Hopefully, at some point, (we can) keep the beer on the shelves.”

In December, Westbound & Down inked a distribution deal with to bring its products to more parts of the state and recently spent $750,000 on major upgrades, including six new fermentation tanks, which will help increase brewing capacity. In 2024, the brewery made 6,000 barrels of beer (equivalent to around 12,000 kegs), up from just 900 barrels in 2019.

Westbound plans to increase that to 19,000 barrels by 2028 (and to make $3 million in annual profits), according to the investment documents. But to take that step, Gardner knew he’d need access to more capital. Though Westbound has sought more traditional avenues of funding in the past, including bank and Small Business Administration loans, finding an inventive way to raise money and build a legion of fans who are literally invested in their success is a win-win, he said.

“We liked the ability to connect with our everyday customers,” he said about crowdfunding. The brewery has offered stock to friends and family. “But at some point, you run out of friends and family. If we’re taking on people we don’t know, I’d rather they be our fans.”

A deep dive into the numbers

With regulation crowdfunding, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission allows companies to use online platforms like Dealmaker and Wefunder to raise up to $5 million in a year without registering with the agency. But to do so, they must comply with SEC disclosure requirements, meaning they have to publicly lay out their accounting books, goals and other information.

In this case, those documents provide an extraordinary amount of transparency into the finances of a private company. For instance, the SEC filings show that, in 2024, Westbound had a net loss of $1.52 million on total revenues of $10.2 million. It has total assets of nearly $7 million and debts of nearly $7.5 million.

Though the business is currently operating at a loss, Gardner said breweries become profitable at scale as they increase buying power on raw materials, like malt and hops, and keep the cost of labor consistent while ramping up production. Westbound & Down has also been investing in growing its brand. In December 2023, it paid $1.8 million tobuy High Country Brewing, the holding company for Aspen Brewing and Capitol Creek Brewery in Basalt.

“We have had profitable years,” Gardner said. “Years where you double top in revenue and purchase Aspen Brewing Co. (are) not going to be that year.”

Still, Gardner said the company has valued itself at nearly $24 million because of its plans to scale up. In other words, the more beer and food it sells while keeping operating costs low, the more revenue it will bring in.

Westbound & Down’s most popular beers are the West Coast-style Westbound IPA and its hazy cousin, Juice Caboose. Despite being maxed out and winning the title of mid-sized brewpub of the year at 2019’s Great American Beer Festival, it is still a relatively small operation.

If production ramps as anticipated, by 2028 the brewery will still be smaller than Left Hand Brewing and Denver Beer Co., which brewed 28,313 barrels and 21,849 barrels of beer in 2023, respectively. By comparison, Colorado’s largest craft brewer, Odell Brewing, made more than 105,000 barrels the same year.

Enthusiasm so far has exceeded expectations. Gardner said 215 people have invested and another 600-plus have started the paperwork to do so. That gets Westbound & Down to the majority of its target goal and means fundraising could close as soon as May.

One thing investors should know: Since shares aren’t publicly traded, they can’t be easily sold. Westbound & Down plans to reinvest all profits into the business for the foreseeable future, so this should be considered a long-term investment, Gardner said. In fact, the only way to get a return is if Westbound is sold or goes public.

“These are both considered long-term exits, taking approximately 5-10 years (and often longer),” the brewery said in its prospectus. “Sometimes there will not be any return, as a result of business failure.”

A growing trend

Though somewhat novel, “regulation crowdfunding” efforts like Westbound & Down’s are becoming more popular in the beer and spirits industries. One reason is that platforms like DealMaker lower the cost for microinvestments, Gardner said. “Their technology, in a way, democratizes investing in privately owned companies.”

In January, Golden’s gluten-free beer maker closed a similar campaign and to fund a multi-state distribution plan. In mid-April, – which opened its 14,000-square-foot, flagship brew-stillery in Montrose in 2024 – to help grow its inventory, capital reserves and marketing efforts.

Similarly, Colorado beer stalwart Left Hand Brewing Co. closed a regulation crowdfunding campaign in February, which collected about $820,000 from 396 individual investors. That money helped the company buy Dry Dock Brewing Co. in Aurora, and will also be put to use expanding Left Hand’s sales and marketing personnel and acquiring additional real estate, said spokesperson Jill Preston.

This was Left Hand’s first crowdfunding effort in its 32-year history, and Preston said it was a success because drinkers are privy to the industry’s challenges.

“Staying independent requires collaboration, and we’re working to build a platform that not only helps us stay strong but also supports other like-minded beverage companies,” Preston said by email. “We believe our investors see the long-term value of that vision and want to be part of building something that supports future growth.”

A new champion

Growth has been the mantra for Westbound & Down, which started with a single location in Idaho Springs in 2015 and has since expanded to five, including a state-of-the-art brewhouse in Lafayette. Distribution sales, meanwhile, have ballooned 1,835% since 2019, the brewery states in its offering.

What makes this brewery, specifically, a good investment?

“Really, it comes back to quality,” Gardner said. A decade ago, when craft beer was booming, “people overinvested in growth and underinvested in quality with this assumption that everybody was on the rise.” Westbound, he added, is doing the opposite, starting with quality.

Its next steps would be to expand sales into other states, like Nebraska, Illinois, Texas, New York, California and Oregon. The company’s leaders also plan to open more brewpubs — beginning in Denver, and before crossing state lines.

Since 2022, Westbound has operated a small taproom near Denver Union Station, but it only serves beer. Gardner said the company thrives when it can offer a fuller hospitality experience. He hopes to identify a new Denver location by the end of this year.

Not to say the beer isn’t worth a stop alone. Westbound & Down is one of Colorado’s most awarded breweries, consistently earning accolades at prestigious competitions like the Great American Beer Festival and the World Beer Cup. As market forces trim out some existing breweries, Gardner believes his company can emerge as a leader.

“Colorado craft beer, which I’m very proud to have been part of for a long time, needs a new champion,” he said. “Every day, we’re confident we’re going to continue the pursuit of keeping that legacy of Colorado craft beer excellence alive, and we believe people in Colorado want that.”

While the Blue Moon Brewing Company owned by Molson Coors at 3750 Chestnut Place in RiNo, less than a mile southwest of the Denver Coliseum, is closing, nothing else is changing for the brand, according to company officials. The Sandlot Brewery at Coors Field will remain open.

The brewpub found a home in a 30,000-square-foot building in Denver’s RiNo district in July 2016. The brewery said it wanted to keep its roots in Denver and felt the “artfully crafted” brew was a natural fit for the city’s art district.

“We thank the dedicated team who has made our RiNo brewpub a welcoming stop in Denver and look forward to new opportunities to grow Blue Moon’s presence in Colorado and beyond,” Vice President of Blue Moon Courtney Benedict said in a statement.

Benedict said the company plans to continue growing in 2025, including a new national campaign, new products and “enhancing” the brand’s hometown Sandlot Brewery at Denver’s Coors Field, where Blue Moon was first created in 1995.

Blue Moon’s closure marks yet another major pivot away from the craft beer sector for Molson Coors.

Last August, the beverage giant closed AC Golden Brewing Co., its experimental beer arm that produces the longstanding Colorado Native line of beers made with local ingredients. At that time, the company also sold four brands to Canadian cannabis company Tilray, effectively dissolving its Tenth & Blake craft subsidiary. Those decisions were said to help Molson Coors focus on other segments where it saw the highest growth potential for business.

Molson Coors Beverage Company is again partnering with the Regional Transportation District to offer fare-free trips on buses and trains in the Denver area from 7 p.m. Tuesday to 7 a.m. Wednesday.

The brewer said in a news release that the number of people participating in the New Year’s Eve program has increased 36% over the past three years. Molson Coors is simultaneously sponsoring similar programs in Chicago, Dallas, Milwaukee, Phoenix and Washington.

“In collaboration with RTD, we are looking forward to fostering community and fellowship as we ring in the new year,” Molson Coors community affairs manager Alison Hanrahan said in the release.

Revelers can visit use or call RTD’s Customer Care Division at 303-299-6000 to learn when the last buses and trains will run Tuesday — many won’t operate after 11:59 p.m.

The agency wrote in that the D, H and L light rail lines will be inactive during downtown Denver’s two fireworks shows, launching over the 16th Street Mall at 9 p.m. and midnight.

Free MallRide buses also will stand still during the fireworks shows, and the last MallRide buses will leave Denver Union Station at 11:52 p.m. and Civic Center Station at 12:20 a.m.

Starting at 8 p.m., the L-Line will halt operations for the night, with the 43 bus offering an alternative transportation option for riders. The D- and H-Line trains will stop running north of Theatre District-Convention Center Station at the same time.

For people who prefer to take an Uber or Lyft, the Wilhite Law Firm is offering to reimburse riders with a credit for a one-way trip home. Interested members of the public can apply for the credit through

Mothers Against Drunk Driving Colorado and Uber are offering a $7 credit for riders statewide who use the code SAFECO24 in the Uber app through Wednesday.

At the same time, law enforcement agencies will be increasing patrols and implementing sobriety checkpoints across the state to catch impaired drivers.

Colorado’s Department of Transportation reports that the annual DUI enforcement effort involving the State Patrol and dozens of police departments and sheriff’s offices

So far this year, 190 people have died in crashes involving impaired drivers, representing 30% of all traffic fatalities in the state, according to CDOT.

“Before heading out to a bar or party this holiday, take a minute to make a plan,” Col. Matthew Packard, chief of State Patrol, said in a news release. “It could save your life. It could save a loved one’s life.”

Molson Coors is planning to shut down the experimental beer arm , known for its line of Colorado Native beers that feature locally grown ingredients.

AC Golden will cease operations by the end of September, Molson Coors spokesperson Adam Collins confirmed to The Denver Post. The details, first reported by , were explained in an email to wholesalers Tuesday sent from Michelle St. Jacques, Molson Coors’ chief commercial officer.

Founded in 2007, AC Golden was an effort from Molson Coors – then called MillerCoors – to compete with small-batch beer makers rising in popularity at that time. The company was nestled within the large production brewhouse in Golden with “the leeway to experiment with bold beers and, if necessary, fail without eating millions of dollars,” according to the Coors website.

The foundation of that effort was leaning into the company’s local heritage by creating beers made with Colorado-grown barley and hops. The Colorado Native amber lager debuted in 2010 and by 2014, AC Golden was earning accolades at the prestigious Great American Beer Festival competition. The Colorado Native brand has since grown to a year-round lineup of more than a dozen styles, and AC Golden produces other product lines such as Juicy IPAs and a German pilsner inspired by founder Adolph Coors’ homeland.

With Colorado Native, AC Golden single-handedly catalyzed an entire hop-growing industry in Colorado. About a decade later, however, many of the brewery’s farmers were out of business because it had amassed a backlog of the crop. Still, Molson Coors touted that in 2022 despite an overall downturn in the craft beer market accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The company said it will discontinue brewing Colorado Native.

But it’s clear Molson Coors is now divesting even more widely in the craft sector. On Tuesday, Canadian cannabis company Tilray announced plans to purchase four craft brands from Molson Coors, effectively dissolving its Tenth & Blake craft subsidiary.

In her note to wholesalers, St. Jacques said that the sale of the craft brands “frees up resources to focus our people, time and money behind the initiatives we believe will best help us meaningfully grow our U.S. above premium portfolio and build a scale business with beyond beer in the U.S.”

That includes Blue Moon, Blue Moon Light, non-alcoholic Blue Moon, and ZOA Energy drink, she added.

Canadian cannabis company, Tilray, is making more moves in the craft beer space and this time it����ap picking up brands from Molson Coors.

On Tuesday, Tilray announced it has inked a deal with the beverage giant to acquire four breweries: Hop Valley Brewing Co. in Eugene, Ore., Terrapin Beer Co. in Athens, Ga., Revolver Brewing in Granbury, Texas, and Atwater Brewery in Detroit. The purchase price was not disclosed.

The acquisition comes at a time when the beer industry overall is struggling, but that hasn’t deterred Tilray from betting big on the space. As of 2023, in the U.S. by production volume, according to the Brewers Association.

“Tilray Brands is proud to be driving the most compelling and unique growth story in the craft beer industry,” Irwin Simon, Tilray’s chairman and CEO, said in a statement. “We are confident in our ability to drive revenue, generate cost synergies, and expand national distribution reinforcing our leadership position in craft beer resulting in tremendous growth opportunities for our global beverage business.”

Molson Coors purchased three of the four aforementioned brands – , , and – in 2016 when the craft beer segment was experiencing record growth. Michelle St. Jacques, chief commercial officer, said the decision to sell will enable Molson Coors to focus on more lucrative products. Those plans include closing its experimental arm, AC Golden Brewing Co., known for its line of Colorado Native beers that feature locally grown ingredients.

“Last fall we set a clear portfolio premiumization ambition, and achieving it is going to require tighter focus on the segments we believe have the highest growth potential for our business,” St. Jacques said in a statement. “While we love these craft breweries and the people behind them, this move allows us to do exactly that – focus our time, energy and resources behind the initiatives we believe will best help us meaningfully grow our U.S. above premium portfolio in beer and beyond beer.”

The announcement comes one year after Tilray purchased a craft portfolio from Anheuser Busch InBev that included Colorado’s own Breckenridge Brewery. Tilray has deep roots in Colorado as the owner of Breckenridge Distillery and SweetWater Brewing Co., which operated a large production facility in Fort Collins until recently.

On Aug. 17, the facility will reopen as a new Breckenridge Brewery location complete with a restaurant and taproom serving a variety of Tilray beers.

Following the acquisition, Tilray will own and operate 14 breweries, including beloved stalwarts like Shock Top, Green Flash Brewing Co., Widmer Brothers Brewing, and 10 Barrel Brewing Co., as well as a distillery, cider company, and other non-alcoholic beverage brands. That’s in addition to its global cannabis businesses in Canada, Europe, Latin America and Australia.

“Tilray Brands plans to continue to invest in the future of these craft breweries, accelerating their growth and capturing a wide range of new market opportunities,” Simon added. “Tilray Brands is a beacon for craft brands, and we are committed to driving their growth and success within our portfolio.”