Last year Denver alone opened 56 breweries with 20 or more still to come. With so many breweries opening, Mike Keranen has found his niche by way of his website, www.DenverBrewPubs.com.
A website developer by trade, Mike’s owned Sixu for 14 years. While living in the Czech Republic in 2006, he developed a brew pub website in Prague, “I wanted to do that in Denver, but it just wasn’t viable then.”
But after the boon of breweries, things opened up...
“I looked for a good website for brewpubs in Colorado. There was one with 15 listed, another with 10, but not one had a good list. We thought a lot about how to make some money. But first we just wanted to get it up, get it out; let the search engines index it and let it build, which has proven to be a bit difficult because there are so many new pubs opening. It’s tremendous.” So they limited the site to Denver brewpubs and cities that touch Denver.
“Seeing the change in the industry here in Colorado has been great. When craft beer first got its footing there wasn’t a good variety. It was all super hoppy IPAs. The more hops the better, as far as brewers were concerned. I think Colorado has had time to mature with breweries forced to be more competitive, creative and come up with new stuff.”
Website Provides a Go-To-Guide for Brew Pubs
Each pub is described so that people can get a feel for it. Mike talks to the brewers, gives a unique description of the place. Six icons show whether they offer a full kitchen, because not all are just brew pubs with taprooms. Some are full restaurants like Yak and Yeti.
“Like Whit’s End Brewery off of Second and Federal, it has about 15 seats. It’s in a little commercial storage area, but then Dry Dock has a tasting room with 180 seats—two very different experiences. Rickoli Brewery on Wadsword brews out of a half-barrel keg. It’s unbelievable and amazing that he brews a consistent beer on this tiny system. But he does it and that’s a different experience as well.”
Icons indicate whether they have a patio, live music, offer free WIFI, their website, phone number, a brief list of their beers they have all year round and specialty beers offered for short runs. “I try to take some pictures of the inside and out and their logo so people can recognize them.”
The List Keeps Growing!
Mike continues to make as much of an exhaustive list as possible. There are still some 20 or so to be added to the 45 now listed, leaving out some of the big ones like Sandlot. “Sandlot’s a brewery and I want to put it on the website, but it’s low on the priority list because I would rather get these small ones that are popping up on the list.”
Brewers seem to be very excited about Denver Brew Pubs and they want to help. “I think more than anything that’s what I’ve liked about this.”
So if you’re thirsting for some of that Colorado gold and aren’t sure what’s closest or what you’re looking for, start with a quick search on www.DenverBrewPubs.com.
Like Us here on Facebook: